Maryland's Eastern Shore

Maryland's Eastern Shore. Faced with Decisions. , Welcome to Dorchester County! When the Civil War intruded into quiet communities, residents here, as elsewhere on the Eastern Shore, faced difficult choices., Before the war, enslaved African Americans here began escaping bondage via the Underground Railroad, helped along their way by sympathetic blacks and whites and such courageous "conductors" as Harriet Tubman, Dorchester County native. Frederick Douglass, who escaped in 1838, inspired many with his 1845 autobiography and later speeches. During the war, enslaved and free Eastern Shore black men enlisted in the U.S. Colored Troops authorized after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863., Some of the Shore's white residents, including Anna Ella Carroll, held fast to the Union while others supported the Confederacy. Families here as elsewhere suffered the loss of their men as well as the hardships of war. Newspaper publishers suspected of disloyalty to the Union were arrested. Streams and towns on both sides of the Chesapeake Bay became smugglers' havens as watermen ran the Federal blockade to supply Confederate forces. Afterward, Eastern Shore residents returned to their fields and fishing vessels, and the passions of war subsided., Follow the red bugle to more than 1,500 sites across six states. Stand in the footsteps and hear the personal stories of the men and women involved in our nation's greatest conflict. Inspired by what you see? Share your adventures: #civilwartrails #mdinfocus