****************New location, New time*****************
Maryland Line C.S.A. meets on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm-8:45 pm
Edgewater Library 25 Stepney Lane Edgewater, MD 21037
410-222-1538
I would like to extend an invitation to anyone interested in learning about our organization or any current members to join us at our new meeting place.
Commander’s Report
Our January meeting had the following officers and members present: Commander Dale, Adjutant Eric O’Dell, Treasurer Matt Duvall, 1st Lt. Mike Hinton, 2nd Lt. Scott Talbott, and Color Sgt. Tom Dale Jr. Friends of the Camp, Rose Kenney and Robert Weir.
Our first meeting of the New Year was held at our new location, Edgewater Library, in the large meeting room. We were excited to have the bigger room and will be able to continue to use it for the rest of the year. We hope to have many new members and visitors to fill it up.
We have several members who had descendents that were imprisoned at Point Lookout. We voted to make a $100.00 donation to the Descendants of Point Lookout organization.
Matt Duvall and his re-enactment group received an award from the part service for their living history at Manassas Battlefield. He is very active in re-enactments and we hope some of our other members will join him this year. This involvement will help get the truth out about the reasons of the Civil War and may enlighten some who are interested in facts.
Sons of Confederate Veterans file Lawsuit
The Sons of Confederate Veterans are filing a lawsuit in reaction to the city councils adoption of a flag and banner ordinance. The Sons assert that the ordinance was adopted due to t he sole reason for the city’s disapproval of the Sons constitutional right to display historic Va. State and Confederate flag.
Color Guard Events-February
Feb.20th 2012- George Washington Birthday Parade Alexandria Va.
This is the first year this has been on the Color Guard schedule, as we join the R.E.Lee Camp. WE will car pool to the event. We will leave from the 195 Park and Ride off I95 in Catonsville at 10am. As we will need to park together, please let me know if you are going but not meeting at the park and ride so I can bring enough flags. Formation is at 12:00 in Alexandria at the intersection of Asaph and Wilkens Street.
Directions: parking is at 711 Williams Street ($10) where we meet, or you can park on the street.
Take Wilson Bridge across Potomac River, first exit is Rt. 1 north, turn right on Jefferson Street, Take right ton South Pitts
February 25th 2012- Flag Rally Richmond, VA 9:30am formation at DMV Headquarters 2300 W. Broad Street Heritage Parade and rally featuring a parade to the Lee Monument for a ceremony. We will meet at the 195 park and ride at 7am to assemble for the car pool to Richmond.
Point Lookout State Park History
Point Lookout is a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. It attracted attention from the outset of English colonization in America. Captain John Smith explored the Point in 1612. In 1632 it was included in King Charles I's grant to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Calvert's younger son, Leonard, Maryland's first governor, claimed the Point for his personal manor in 1634. During the American Revolution, and again in the War of 1812, it was the subject of British raids, and served as an American lookout point for a watchman to convey, via post riders, news of British Fleet activity in the lower Bay.
In 1830 the federal government erected a lighthouse on the tip of the Point. This lighthouse, though modified, is still in existence though it is no longer active. In 1857, William Cost Johnson, a wealthy Marylander, bought much of the land on the Point to develop as a resort. The Civil War intervened to disrupt Johnson's plan and in 1862, following General George B. McClellan's unsuccessful campaign to capture Richmond, the federal government erected Hammond Hospital at the tip of the Point. The ward buildings radiated in spoke fashion from a central bay. Wounded and sick soldiers began pouring in for treatment.
Prisoners of Point Lookout
The following year, after the Battle of Gettysburg, Union authorities started sending Confederate prisoners to Point Lookout for incarceration. As the prisoner population swelled to 20,000 and more, a wooden walled prisoner pen was constructed on the bay shore. The rebel captives were held inside and were given only tents for shelter. Exposure, disease, and starvation took their toll. Of the 50,000 men held at the Point between 1863 and 1865, nearly 4,000 died. Ironically, however, this death rate of 8 percent was less than half the death rate among soldiers who were in the field with their own armies.
In 1864, the Maryland Confederate General Bradley T. Johnson attempted a daring raid on the prison. His plan was to liberate the prisoners, arm them, and march on Washington as part of General Jubal Early's offensive. Intelligence of his plan reached Union authorities in time for them to make preparations, and Johnson abandoned his plan when the Confederate authorities found out that the plans has been published.
"The bottom rail's on top now!" Among the Federal Army units to rotate from the front to serve as guards at Point Lookout were African-American soldiers of the U.S.C.T. Regiments (United States Colored Troops). Ironically, in some cases, these soldiers had occasion to guard their former masters, which led to instances of brutality, or of kindness, depending on the nature of their relationship previous to the war. Sgt. Christian A. Fleetwood of the 4th U.S.C.T., a Baltimore native who had never been a slave, and Medal of Honor winner for his bravery at the Battle of Chapin's Farm in front of Richmond, and Sgt. Charles Douglass, of the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry, and son of Frederick Douglass the noted black abolitionist, were among the soldiers rotating through Point Lookout. Elements of the Veteran Reserve Corps also served as guards, and in the hospital as orderlies and stewards. The First Regiment, and Fourth Regiment U.S. Volunteers, were organized from "galvanized" Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout, and shipped out from there for service in the west fighting Indians.
After the war a benevolent society attempted to salvage government property on the point to support the establishment of a home for disabled Union Army and Navy veterans. The effort was not successful due to the unusual speed with which the government officials dismantled the facilities and sold the scrap.
**Maryland Line Camp is now selling Botony Cross pins and Bradley T. Johnson pins**The cost of the Botony Cross pin is $9.00 plus s/h (if applicable)
The cost of the Bradley T. Johnson pin is $6.00 plus s/h (if applicable)
Contact Commander Tom Dale to order pins- /301-262-8992
Contact Information for Maryland Line Camp officers
Commander: Tom Dale 301-262-8992
1st Lt. Commander: Michael Hinton 301-741-5267 /703-930-1083
Adjutant: Ron Poling 301-345-4629/301-821-3877
2nd Lt. Commander/Treasurer: Scott Talbott 301-641-2360/443-550-3738
Color Sergeant: Thomas Dale Jr. 301-245-3779/301-385-7822
Quartermaster: Matthew Duvall 410-729-3882
Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans
“To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier’s good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations.”
Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General,
United Confederate Veterans,
New Orleans, Louisiana, 1906