Taking the opportunity to review the “documents” and “research” on the Preserve Talbot History web site, it wasn’t very surprising to see that the misinformation and misinterpretation of those items is the historical equivalent of junk bonds.
The “Documents” that allegedly support the argument that Lincoln’s abuses of the Constitution caused the Talbot Boys to support the Confederacy belie the Confederate position. For example, the Maryland State Legislature was not forced to remain in the Union. It chose not to secede, believing it did not have the authority to call for secession. It becomes clear from reading the documents that a minority of wealthy, influential legislators, who happened to be secessionists, continued to work to undermine the large majority of Marylanders’ efforts to support the Union. In Talbot County, despite the heavy-handed removal of Judge Carmichael, only a trickle of men joined the Confederacy.
Yet the “Preserve Talbot History” web site claims a 450% increase in Confederate enlistments after Carmichael’s removal. When 450% equates to about 35-40 men, 450% is wonderfully deceptive. Of course, when compared to the 500+ white Talbot men who joined the Union Army and the 450 African-Americans who joined the US Colored Troops from Talbot County, it demonstrates the reality that the Talbot Boys Confederates were in a very small minority and that the claim of Lincoln’s suppression of the Constitutional rights of Marylanders was largely attributable to those secessionists who did not have the courage of their convictions to join the Confederate Army.
Beyond that were the white Talbot men who chose to pay for a substitute rather than join the Union Army. They very likely chose not to fight because there was much money to be made during the war growing and selling crops, fishing, manufacturing, shipbuilding and repair and thus, supporting the Union effort through government contracts. During the war, bank deposits of local residents quadrupled from the profits raked in by Unionists and secessionists alike.
Yet the secessionists cried all the way to the bank, even as their descendants still whine even today about the heavy hand of the Lincoln Administration. That part of Talbot history doesn’t appear on the Preserve Talbot History web site. It is almost mindless to ignore the massive economic and social contributions made by Maryland’s Unionists to the effort to save the Union. It’s also important to demonstrate how Maryland’s wealthy secessionists also profited financially from government contracts and feeding the City of Baltimore while it the city worked so arduously to support and defend the Union. Wealthy secessionists in Talbot County were not made destitute like many of their seceded peers in the Confederate states, who were crushed by inflation and baseless Confederate currency, had their farms desolated by Confederate Tax-in-kind raids by Confederate army units and had their state’s economies and infrastructure ruined by war.
The numbers belie the claims of “Preserve Talbot History” group. Further, there is no presentation of the evidence that purports to claim specific information on Talbot Boys enlistment dates, and certainly nothing presented on discharge dates. The graph isn’t evidence. It is a claim. There are no Confederate records extant that can confirm enlistments or discharges. There is even a question whether Tench Francis Tilghman ever actually joined the Confederate military and the Battle of Gettysburg was the only battle in the entire war in which the Talbot Boys actually participated. The question of Franklin Buchanan attempting to rescind his resignation from the US Navy and having his request for reinstatement denied is ignored. Unlike General Tilghman, Franklin Buchanan attempted to rescind his resignation from the US Navy when Maryland didn’t secede from the Union, clearly suggesting he understood the dishonor of that act.
Members of the “Preserve” group criticized Dickson Preston for not having published General Tilghman’s full order to his militia organization, yet they haven’t published the order on their web site. Perhaps that is because it so blatantly shows his treasonous motive in promoting military action against the United States, as if Talbot County was already Confederate territory. Preston’s “History of Talbot County” describes in detail the effort by secessionists to declare Talbot County for the Confederacy at nearly the same time General Tilghman was ordering his militia members to resist US Army personnel, as if he was a Confederate officer. The issue with the “Preserve Talbot History” campaign is that there is no serious historical narrative that even begins to support the treasonous behavior of the Talbot Boys.
Thus, they have thrown together anything resembling support and posted it on a web page to see what might stick while working to undermine the excellent work of Dickson A. Preston who wrote a fair and balanced narrative that addressed the war in Talbot County candidly and clearly with much indisputable information and fact. For example, the web page articles on the Gettysburg reunions describe the camaraderie of the 50th Reunion of that battle. Yet, the reality is that the local Talbot committee (from wealthy secessionist families) that acted on the statue made no effort to create one memorial that honored men on both sides as was done in Kent County.
On the suggestion that moving the statue from the Courthouse grounds is an attempt to “erase” history, let’s remind everyone that there are no statues of Adolf Hitler in Germany and he practically has his own Network on Cable TV 76 years after his death. The claim of defending the Confederate flag solely as a symbol of Confederate soldiers’ bravery cannot be taken seriously. That train left the station nearly a century ago when that flag became the symbol of the Ku Klux Klan. Those who sought to honor their ancestors stood by and failed to protest that campaign. Whether or not some or many of the surviving Talbot Boys actively supported the KKK is moot at this point. The Confederate flag, the Confederate cause and the KKK are in the same white supremacist bag. If the “Preserve Talbot History” web site can demonstrate information to the contrary, that would be good.
Frankly, the “Preserve Talbot History” web page is shystering at its worst. They cannot and do not attempt to challenge any specifics of Preston’s book, largely because his references and presentation are above reproach. Either Ms. Mielke and/or Paul Callahan accused me of not being aware that “half of Talbot’s black citizens were already free blacks before the war began…” As usual, in lieu of the facts and the truth, these two falsely represented me, because they don’t know any better and must resort to prevarication. On the front page of the October 30-31, 2015 issue of the Star Democrat, the article reported on my forum presentation (with Harriette Lowery) that “In 1860 there were 8,000 whites in Talbot County, 3,700 slaves and 3,000 free blacks, Terrone said of the county’s 1860 Census”. I had also taught the statewide, county by county figures in my Civil War course at Anne Arundel Community College as well as repeating it numerous times in between.
But worse yet for these desperately uninformed people, they either don’t understand or are ignorant of the depravity of how slavery and white supremacy worked. “Free” blacks remained under the onerous daily threats of re-enslavement, arrest, and/or physical brutality at the slightest perceived “offense” by a white person. John Wennersten, in his book “Maryland’s Eastern Shore”, wrote “Free blacks constituted the largest single threat of free people to the highly autocratic and paternalistic politics of the Eastern Shore.” “Many state delegates favored the re-enslavement of free blacks.” “If free negroes ‘got out of their place’, they could be and were publicly whipped. Free blacks who were found guilty of minor crimes were banished from the Eastern Shore upon pain of enslavement.” Poor whites feared abolition because as white supremacists, they felt entitled to a higher place in society just because they were white. Free blacks were the very epitome of how the vile and abased theory of plantation slavery was wrong. Blacks allegedly could not live in society without the daily control of white masters. In Maryland, which contained more free blacks that any other slave state was this country’s greatest example of the Big Lie that was slavery. Maryland’s black families of that age, who endured unthinkable cruelties and suffering, deserve the greatest credit for maintaining their faith in the US Constitution, in the promise of America, in Divine Providence and in each other. Their story is nowhere to be found in the “Preserve Talbot History” web page. Their story must be told publicly to the children of Talbot County and their parents.
Unfortunately, even today, many white residents of Talbot County do not want to acknowledge these horrendous realities that their ancestors perpetrated. They still want to fly the Confederate flag in front of the County Courthouse as a tribute to the Confederate cause, which was created permanently to preserve slavery. Now another perversion of history is being announced as a “middle ground”. This latest attempt to keep the Confederate flag flying would add a Union soldier flying an American flag right next to the Talbot Boy flag bearer. At the very least, this is a tone-deaf suggestion seeking to cover part of the Confederate flag with the American flag. I recall seeing this sketch 5 years ago at the home of the late Pete Howell, discussing it with a few others. I can recall cringing at the idea that these people are more interested in maintaining their steadfast allegiance to the Confederate flag than the names of their ancestors on the monument. Do they not know or grasp that the Confederate flag entered our state in three major invasions during the civil war to wreck Maryland infrastructure, kill Unionist Marylanders and destroy the Baltimore infrastructure that was a vital cog in the Union war effort?
At the very least, that flag must come down and be moved or otherwise kept away from any position of honor in this county, in this state, or this country. Now is the time for acknowledgment that racism, both overt and systemic, as symbolized by the Talbot Boys statue, must go. We must join together in creating a candid and accurate narrative of our county’s experience in the US Civil War. That cannot happen with the Confederate flag in any way, shape or form on our county courthouse grounds.
This “Preserve Talbot History” campaign is a sham. The empty claims of outrage against the Lincoln Administration are purely false trash. Prior to the war, Talbot County held a referendum on February 4, 1861 to determine if Maryland should join the Confederacy. The vote was 847-666 against secession and joining the Confederacy. Yet 666 voted to join the Confederacy. So, if everyone was so upset because of Lincoln’s outrages against the Constitution, how come only a total of 80 or so actually did anything about it? The “Preserve Talbot History” assertions are overhyped hot air. Five times as many whites fought for the Union and more paid replacements. They didn’t join the Confederacy. And neither did any but a handful of Marylanders join Lee’s army when he crossed into Maryland in 1862 with the expectation of recruiting thousands of Marylanders. At the height of his prowess and power, in September, 1862 (not long after the Carmichael affair) Lee and his army couldn’t attract anything but flies in this state. The shystering about the 450% increase in recruits is deceitful, overstated balderdash, pure and simple. The “outrage” against Lincoln mattered primarily to frustrated secessionists and these days, to their descendants. The numbers tell an entirely different story. The Preserve Talbot History” “braintrust” needs to tell their story walking.
Dominic Terrone
Talbot County
Paul Callahan says
Mr. Terrone lives in the wrong time and place, his true calling would be as a political officer in any of the world’s communist regimes. The propaganda that Mr. Terrone espouses would make any communist leader proud. He is adept at spinning and presenting opinions as facts and distorting half-truths for his purpose. I would not be so hard on Mr. Terrone but he has run for a seat on our county council on the platform of “moving the monument” and anyone who is promoting themselves for an elected position is open to deeper criticism.
Years ago I served honorably as a Marine Officer, anyone who knows Marines will understand the value we place on personal integrity. Therefore, when I read the writings of Mr. Terrone it is like fingernails screeching on a chalk board. Mr. Terrone makes repeated public statements without a single basis of fact, yet he presents such as factual truths. Mr. Terrone taught a single civil war history class at a community college and knows little of Maryland Civil War history, yet he attempts to put himself as the authority on the subject. I must assume that he puts himself at the public forefront to ingratiate himself to the “move the monument” crowd to garner more votes in his next run for a seat on the county council.
Mr. Terrone’s public statements have been repeatedly discredited over the years. “Facts” he had presented have been proven false time and time again. Though he has been publicly discredited, here he is again attempting to discredit the research of honorable Talbot Countians while presenting exactly zero documentation to back up his claims.
Mr. Terrone claims the documents listed on the Preserve Talbot History website are a “sham” yet the historical documents presented were directly downloaded from Maryland’s and the National Archives. I guess Mr. Terrone now asserts that our National Archives and Maryland’s archives are full of false documents just to “distort” Maryland history – so says Mr. Terrone.
Mr. Terrone attempts to state that the research of the Talbot Boys enlistment dates is also a sham since he could not review a copy of each document that records each of our Boys enlistment date. Well Mr. Terrone we have specific documentation for each enlistment date that you see on the database and graph provided on the website. We just want you to dig yourself into a deeper hole by making more false assertions – assertions you are now making against honorable Talbot county citizens that have volunteered hundred’s of hours or research.
What is amazing here is that Mr. Terrone has been spewing his “facts” without any shred of documentation to back it up. Mr. Terrone loves to use the civil war chapters of Dickson Preston’s “Talbot County: A History” yet in those chapters Preston does not refer to historical sources for any of the statement he makes. Within the book Preston states that he only used “newspaper accounts” and that his book was solely meant for general readership and not scholarly review. Yet Mr. Terrone takes Preston’s undocumented opinions, spins them 10-fold, then presents them as “indisputable facts”. I guess since both Dickson Preston and Mr. Terrone are from New York, Mickey assumes Preston’s opinions are from the burning bush itself.
Lets look closer on the Mr. Terrone’s distortions. A few months ago, Mr. Terrone conducted a lecture for the Move the Monument coalition in which he claimed that almost all the Talbot Boys were members of the local militia and left Talbot immediately at the beginning of the war and thus were not subject to the Constitutional abuses inflicted by the Federal government. When challenged that there is evidence that many joined the Confederacy after the beating of Talbot’s Judge Carmichael Mr. Terrone provided this response in writing: “Talk about conjecture! That assertion is well beyond implausible and in defiance of what has been written in various histories available.”
Well Mr. Terrone the research of the Preserve Talbot History research committee has proven your statement FALSE and we do not believe you have any other “histories available” to show otherwise. Additionally, your assertions that our Talbot veterans mostly deserted their posts has also been proven completely false. Many of these men fought at Gettysburg and many were prisoners of War. Your assertions are both without basis and without reference – they solely come from your personal opinions and biases.
Other incorrect assertions Mr. Terrone presented in the past:
Star Democrat September 6, 2017 – Mr. Terrone States that it is “pure fallacy” that Maryland’s legislature was arrested by Mr. Lincoln. This is a false assertion by Mr. Terrone – On September 17, 1861 over 30 members of Maryland’s legislature were arrested, though they had already proclaimed publicly weeks prior that they had no authority to secede Maryland.
Star Democrat August 31, 2020, Mr. Terrone claims the suspension of Habeas Corpus was only restricted to within “20 miles of the Rail Road between Baltimore and Washington” and Mr. Terrone repeats this claim even today. Mr. Terrone fails to do basic research before making such claims. A few minutes of basic research will reveal that the suspension rapidly spread throughout the entire Union.
Mr. Terrone publicly stated that he didn’t believe Mr. Lincoln authorized the bombardment of Maryland’s civilians, yet there is the letter in Lincoln’s handwriting on the PTH website authorizing General Scott to do such – more incorrect assertions.
In other articles Mr. Terrone denies our US Congressman and Baltimore council was arrests but later retracts such but justifies the Constitutional abuses by stating these citizens were all “Southern Sympathizers,” as were all the other citizens of Maryland unlawfully imprisoned. What is profoundly disturbing here is that Mr. Terrone sees no problem with a government “labeling” a citizen and once that citizen is so labeled they are then denied all Constitutional protections and imprisoned at the whim of government. This is the behavior of a totalitarian regime – yet comrade Terrone supports this policy completely. Is this a man we want as our elected leader?
Mr. Terrone repeatedly makes unfounded accusations about Maj General Tench Tilghman. He calls the General an “ultra-secessionist” and somehow single handedly attempted to secede Talbot from the Union and pledged Talbot for the Confederacy. Really?? – his source is? This is more fictitious twist, distortions, and presenting opinion as fact by Mr. Terrone which have become more and more extreme over time. Mr. Terrone has no credible sources nor does he do any basic research before making such extremists accusations.
In my files I have General Tilghman’s complete order to his militia – a credible historical source document which Mr. Terrone states he does not have. In his order General Tilghman states that his intent was to support the civil authorities of Maryland and to protect Maryland citizens. The General’s order had nothing to do with supporting the Confederacy which Mr. Terrone falsely and negligently claim.
In addition, I have a letter to P.H Watson, Assistant Secretary of War, dated November 1863 to relieve General Tilghman of his parole. This letter documents that General Tilghman was “honorably acquitted of all charges brought against him.” If our government during the Civil War found that General Tilghman had committed no wrongdoing – on what basis does Mr. Terrone have to assert otherwise? He has no basis.
Mr. Terrone keeps digging his hole with false and unfounded assertions against our ancestors and history. While he publishes his unfounded propaganda to ingratiate himself to the monument movers in the hopes of gaining political support to put himself on the county council, there are honorable and hard-working Talbot citizens diligently doing actual historical research and forwarding the truth about our history. When Mr. Terrone loses his next run for county council at least he has established a robust resume which he can use to obtain a position with many regimes throughout the world.
Michael Davis says
Mr Dominic continuously and tirelessly debunks the false claims and specious arguments offered by the Preserve Talbot History (PTH) group. Good people in Talbot County owe him thanks for doing this essential work.
I think the members of the PTH feel that if they publish enough words then no one will notice it is all false. But accuracy is more important than word-count and that is where the PTH group totally fails. In Mr. Dominic words, their arguments are a complete sham.
The people who should read what Mr. Dominic wrote are the members of the Talbot County Council who honor the Talbot Boys. They seem wedded the old rich White society of Talbot County with restricted social clubs where racism was gentile. Gentile for White people, that is.
Paul Callahan says
Mr. Davis, Your evidence is? Please provide specifics.
Please go to the PTH website and tell all which document is false. Again specifics and not just generic allegations.
The website has been up for months and not a single historian has stated any of the historical documents presented are false or have been modified.
Or do you need no actual evidence or proof against the Talbot Boys since “everyone just knows” they are guilty?
Sounds like a mob mentality to me – let the mob administer justice no actual evidence required.
“Guilt by association” does not cut it. I have been listening to these arguments for years – there is none. The allegations have been proven false.
Again it has been shown that Mr. Terrone made totally inaccurate statements about the Boy’s enlistment dates. Instead of admitting his mistake he attacks the integrity of the citizens that have volunteered hundreds of hours doing the research.
That reveals personal character.
Terry M Klima says
In my view, Mr. Terrone selectively cherry-picks the so-called historical facts that suit his narrative, while completely ignoring equally compelling facts that counter his position.
As an example, his assertion that “the Maryland State Legislature was not forced to remain in the Union. It chose not to secede, believing it did not have the authority to call for secession”. While it is true that the Maryland Legislature initially deferred the decision to secede, it intended to reconvene and re-address the issue of secession at a subsequent session of the legislature to be held on September 17, 1861. At the start of the session, Federal troops arrived and arrested suspected pro-Confederate members of the General Assembly. Maryland did remain in the Union but at the point of a bayonet and not necessarily of its own free will.
In a similar fashion, in an apparent attempt to claim the moral high ground, Mr. Terrone asserts that the motivation for the Talbot Boys’ military service was the preservation of slavery. Furthermore, presumably referring to supporters of the existing monument, he states ” But worse yet for these desperately uninformed people, they either don’t understand or are ignorant of the depravity of how slavery and white supremacy worked”.
Ironically, it was Maryland’s Unionist Legislature……as all “suspected” Southern sympathizers had already been illegally imprisoned and thus denied a vote…. which ratified the highly controversial Corwin Amendment. The amendment stated, “No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.” Upon ratification, the Constitutional amendment would have allowed the practice of slavery to continue in perpetuity without federal interference. Maryland ratified this amendment on January 10, 1862, 10 months after the initiation of hostilities. Such obvious support of a measure to preserve slavery, in perpetuity, should cause a reasonable person to question the true motivations of the war. Was Maryland’s lauded Unionist legislature desperately uninformed or ignorant of how slavery and white supremacy worked or is a double standard being employed?
Paul Callahan says
For any reader interested please go to http://www.preservetalbothistory.org and go into the article titled “Talbot Boys Enlistment Data Correlated to Historical Events” At the bottom of that article you will find a link to a graph that shows the Boys enlistment dates correlated to historical events.
There also is a link to the database that lists each enlistment date that we found for each individual Talbot Boy. There is much more additional information provided. See which ones of our Boys fought and died at Gettysburg, at Hatcher’s Run, Cedar Mountain etc. See which Talbot Boys surrendered at Appomattox Court House and which ones were captured and were POWs. One of our Talbot Boys was wounded at Gettysburg, left on the field and after recovering as a POW he was part of a prisoner “exchange” between the Union and Confederates and where he later died in another battle. There is also information as to where some are now buried.
When you review the detail of this historical documentation of our Talbot ancestors please keep in mind that it was your fellow Talbot citizens that put in hundred’s of volunteer hours to uncover this information.
Paul Callahan says
Mr. Terrone, the number of Talbot Countians of African descent that fought for the Union is 673 and counting not “400” as you state. This is from the research being conducted by Dr. Clara Smalls.
Initial research leads us to also believe the number of white Talbot Citizens that joined the Union is far fewer than the 500+ you assert.