When I think about the most significant action in Talbot County in 2022, the removal of the Talbot Boys Monument on the courthouse grounds to the Cross Keys Battlefield in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia comes readily to mind. It represented public recognition, amid fierce controversy, of a 130-year-old stain on the reputation and soul of the county. It epitomized after far too many years—spurred by the murder of George Floyd—community empathy for the hostile optics experienced daily and mercilessly by Talbot’s African American citizens.
While I understand that the Lakeside controversy and the recent Talbot County Council election may rank as seminal events in 2022, the removal of the distasteful Confederate monument signified the county’s choice of goodness over malice. It was the right thing to do. Public activism is now an enduring part of Talbot’s social geography.
Thoughts about the Talbot Boys evolved from recent news coverage of the removal of the Confederate Lieutenant General A.P. Hill Monument in Richmond, VA, the former capital of Confederacy and, up to recent years, the site of many statues representing the Lost Cause. At the beginning of the 20th century, Southern sympathizers decided to rewrite history and glorify the Civil War. Slavery was incidental. The effort was shrewd, whitewashing the evil of slavery and portraying a part of the country in a romanticized way– disregarding that it symbolized oppression and economic opportunism.
It was revisionist history at its worst. Not so ironically, its proponents viewed their efforts at rewriting history as the truth. And still do.
The A.P. Hill statue was the last remaining city-owned Confederate relic to be removed. Others remain in Richmond. During my years in the Maryland National Guard, I often trained at a Virginia post near Bowling Green named after General Hill. I didn’t bother to grasp the incongruity, if not the cross-purpose of American troops sharpening their military skills on a post named for a traitor.
It is likely that the congressional renaming commission will replace the tribute to Hill with one honoring a Union doctor and the first female army surgeon, Mary Edwards Walker. She also was the only woman to earn the Medal of Honor.
Virginia differs greatly from Maryland. It was all-in during the Civil War. Maryland, a border state, had mixed allegiance. When I traveled Monument Avenue in Richmond as a young man, I was startled, overwhelmed and, yes, impressed by the majesty and mystique of the Confederate monuments.
I knew then in a superficial way that the South was foreign to me. Its culture was steeped in subjugation of its Black residents. The monuments drove that point home. African Americans in Virginia understood that they still were regarded as second-class citizens. In light of its bigoted past, evident throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, the removal of Confederate monuments in Richmond is worthy of applause and admiration.
Talbot County, spurred by White violence against Blacks in Charleston, S.C. and Minneapolis, Minn., discarded its yoke of subservience to a sordid past by removing the Talbot Boys Monument. The Frederick Douglass Monument, also in front of the courthouse, represents tolerance and sensibility. It pays homage to a native son who escaped slavery in Talbot County to become a prominent and persuasive figure in the abolition movement.
The year 2022 is a memorable one for a county that opted for its better angels. It sought self-improvement. Its public facade no longer is tarnished by the embrace of slavery.
Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. After 44 years in Easton, Howard and his wife, Liz, moved in November 2020 to Annapolis, where they live with Toby, a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel who has no regal bearing, just a mellow, enticing disposition.
Matt LaMotte says
Thank you, Howdie! You put these circumstances into very cogent words. To quote John Lydgate,
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” It’s well-past time we move on.
Suzanne Todd says
Thank you to Frank Divilio for finding the Talbot Boys statue a suitable home. It takes courage to change your mind about something that he knew would not be well received by his supporters. The statue would still be there if he hadn’t voted to remove it.
Harriette Lowery says
I agree.
tyler Willis says
Well, where does one start. At least we didn’t try and glorify The Maryland National Guard. The Talbot Boy’s statue honored the incredible sacrifice that few armies have equaled. No need really for a laundry list of Wokism.
Deirdre LaMotte says
What is wokism as applied to the Confederacy? Is it understanding when one
commits treason there is a cost? I would hope so.
Harriette Lowery says
Dear Howard, you are missed here in Talbot County, but I am so happy you are still contributing your voice, your words to important truth telling history continuing here in Talbot County. Eric would be so proud of his Black Knight Alumni. Bless you, thank you, Harriette
Mickey Terrone says
Howard, I absolutely agree with you that moving the Talbot Boys statue was the most significant event/action of 2022 in this county.
Yet, the depth of the Lost Cause Mythology ensures the festering anger of some here who still believe in the value of Confederate cause and false pride in the valor of independence-loving Confederate troops – to the extent they may well seek to replace the Talbot Boys with another Confederate flag, along with a “Union” flag. Somehow, these people reject what millions of residents in the former Confederates have long since acknowledged, that the Confederate flag is this country’s Number One symbol of racism and white supremacy as demonstrated by Dylan Roof and many others of his ilk.
Like Virginia, Maryland was a Border State that was conflicted as some states seceded and the war approached. Virginia was dominated by the Tidewater planters yet, the 33 counties of western Virginia seceded from that state even as did most counties that comprise the Shenandoah Valley voted against secession. Other Border states’ refusal or inability to secede weighed heavily against the Confederacy’s hopes and provided the Union armies with 300,000 troops from slave states.
I’ve stated previously that removing the Talbot Boys statue was just part of our responsibility in this county. We should adopt an unexpurgated history that truly acknowledges the good, the bad and the ugly of our past, and teaches our children and grandchildren about the local realities and not the sanitized Lost Cause version.
The significance of the Lost Cause myths and their manifestations such as the Talbot Boys statue are of ongoing relevance today. Our top challenge is to identify the fallacies of the myths and finally debunk them. We cannot allow vanity further to distort our collective historical memory. We owe it to ourselves and each other.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Agree. Jefferson Davis should have been prosecuted.
After the war he continued to spread the myth of the
“righteous confederacy”, planting the seed of the
push against Civil Rights and the racism we are seeing
now.
Paul Callahan says
The Confederate flag should not be displayed at our courthouse or on any public property for that matter. I stated this position years ago in a separate Spy article.
What is amazing is how Maryland and her history is “lumped” together with that of the Confederate States. Many just wrap Maryland history into the Confederate’s “lost cause” mythology and view the Civil War as a giant battle with slavery / abolition as the primary war objective. All who fought are sorted as either good or the bad. Marylanders who fought for the Confederacy – were bad – very neat and simple. Those most outspoken however and insisting upon this version of Maryland history, never had the opportunity of learning Maryland’s incredible story as passed down among generations of Marylanders. This is simply because they were raised in New York or somewhere else where Maryland history was never a thought as a subject of discussion at the kitchen table.
We have not changed much since 1861 Maryland. We handled the Talbot Boys problem not much different than the Republicans and Democrats did then – neither respected the other’s positions, refused to compromise, and made disparaging accusations against the other. I admit that I am making an overstatement since in 1861 Republicans literally were stripping Democrats of their constitutional rights and sending them off to prison without so much as a trial. It wasn’t just Democrats though, but members of Maryland’s State’s Rights Party, the Peace Party, and the “Constitutional” Unionists as well. Only the “Unconditional” Unionists, those that supported Mr. Lincoln’s policies against the South, were deemed “Loyal” – all others were categorized as “disloyal” and subjected to the denial of their basic rights at the whim of the Executive branch or the local Provost Marshals.
We missed an opportunity here in Talbot to work together to bring to light a history that has been deliberately repressed. Maryland Civil War history has been groomed and censored just the same as our brutal history against native Americans or that of Americans of African descent post-civil war. What is not “truth, justice and apple pie” does not get told or is re-caste in a more favorable light.
Maryland’s 1861 Legislature desperately promoted peace and an adherence to the Constitution. They generated a protest detailing the Constitutional violations of the Executive branch with 25,000 copies printed to be delivered not just to Congress, but to every Legislature, Governor and major newspaper in the Nation. For this they were arrested by the 3rd Wisconsin who were given the names of those who voted “yay” on that protest as their targets. The 3rd Wisconsin was ordered to find all copies and destroy the same. Why is this history not taught in our schools today?
Why is it not taught that our President instructed his military to bombard Maryland Cities if Maryland resisted, or that there was a four-pronged attack ordered against the city of Baltimore to be carried out by Generals Butler and Patterson?
Why do we not learn about how the Maryland elections in 1861 and 1863 were grossly manipulated to ensure outcomes favorable to the Executive branch? This included the holding off of the submission of “mail-in” ballots from the troops in the field to first determine how many were needed to carry the elections. Are these lessons not important to us today?
Why do we not know that after Talbot’s Democrats met in Easton in September of 1863 and nominated their candidates for local Talbot County positions open in the forthcoming election, the local Provost Marshal arrested every single democratic candidate nominated?
But the most important lesson from that time, is how easily we all can be manipulated to turn against one another, to divide us as Americans so other objectives can be obtained while we are fighting amongst ourselves. That truly is the lesson to be learned from Maryland Civil War history.
The crimes against Maryland by an executive branch that thought he could “set aside” the Constitution to “save America” in accordance with his personal vision, is a history from which we all can learn. It is not in competition with the injustices inflicted upon our Americans of African descent – rather it is in support of the same.
Mickey Terrone says
I’d suggest that many Marylanders “lump” our Civil War history with the Confederate States precisely because of the predominance of the Lost Cause Mythology as reflected, for example, by the century-long presence of the Talbot Boys statue itself here on our Courthouse grounds. That utter distortion of our true history indicated that Talbot County was represented in the Civil War by 82 (or so) men who chose to fight in the Confederate Army.
And, of course, it was no mistake that the more affluent slave holding Talbot County leaders, descendants of many of those “Old Line” Confederate families were the primary source of that act of disinformation in 1916. They wanted to glorify their ancestors with the monument and wanted to glorify the Confederate cause by adding the Confederate battle flag.
In a former slave state like Maryland, while this was the first slave state to abolish slavery (in 1864), racism and white supremacy still predominated, considering nearly 170,000 technically free blacks now lived in the state. During that time, Jim Crow Laws became well enshrined in Maryland’s state laws and the Talbot Boys statue symbolically proclaimed the triumph of white supremacy here as in the former Confederate states.
The Lost Cause myth also claims that it was only the evil machinations of Abraham Lincoln that held Maryland under his thumb for the duration of the war, even as he threw every true innocent Maryland patriot into prison without charges. The constant repetition of these falsehoods and exaggerations over a century and a half largely explain why so many Marylanders remain too blinded by the mirage of Confederate glory to think about the realities of those times. As I wrote, the depth of the Lost Cause Mythology ensures the festering anger of some here who still believe in the value of Confederate cause and false pride in the valor of allegedly idealistic, independence-loving Confederate troops.
Lost in the emotional defensiveness of Lost Cause apologists is the reality that nearly five to six times more men from Talbot County fought for the Union while many secessionist local farmers and businessmen profited from fulfilling contracts with the US Government for various products and services which supported the Union cause. Statewide, not only did Maryland provide the Union cause with three to four times as many soldiers and sailors as the Confederacy, the citizens of America’s third-largest city, Baltimore provided the Union cause with a huge volume of railroad locomotives, rail cars, tracks and bridge trestling via the B&O RR. The business and industry community of Baltimore provided massive amounts of canned food, baked goods, clothing, shipbuilding and repair, and every manner of products needed to support Union victory.
Certainly, most Marylanders sought to avoid involvement in 1860-61, in a possible civil war. Yet some adamantly insisted on secession. When the war came and the state was forced to decide it’s future, wiser heads prevailed. Faced with overwhelming Union power and might on the border between our Nation’s Capitol and the Middle Atlantic and Northeastern states, the state legislature refused to secede. The edifice of Baltimore, the nation’s third largest city faced ruin with secession and prosperity with Unionism. Maryland’s leadership understood the position they were placed by the deep south states and once options for neutrality became moot, the majority supported the Union and the US Constitution. Yet some secessionists refused to face reality and continued recklessly to support the Confederacy.
Secessionists were unwilling to acknowledge the danger to this state and the lives and property of the citizens. They put their own interests over the safety and prosperity of the state. Confederate soldiers fought against their loyal fellow Marylanders even as the Confederacy fought to overthrow the US Government and our sacred constitution because the Confederate constitution guaranteed the institution of slavery. Let no hypocritical protest against the Lincoln Administration and Maryland’s Unionist majority be respected.
General Lee’s oft-repeated claim that he could not, with honor, act against his state, needs to be repeated to Maryland’s secessionists and their latter-day supporters. It was Lincoln who struggled mightily to save the Union and our constitution against an armed revolution. Let’s recognize that apologists for Maryland’s secessionist minority still seek to make their ancestors the victims. That is why the Confederate flag should not be displayed at our courthouse or on any public property for that matter.