During moments of unrest, it is common for historians to look back and search for precedent. One reason many choose to study history is to get a sense context for the present moment and try to understand what may happen next. Historians have spent the last few years looking for parallels of the current moment in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the Spanish Influenza of 1918, and even the extraordinary division in the days leading up to the United States Civil War (1861-1865). In light of the recent insurrection at the United States Capitol — a historical event that someone else may draw on to understand their own time in the future — the latter has become the most popular.

Although Americans fighting one another over a vision of what their country should look like and who it should serve is by no means limited to the 1860s, the Civil War is by far the most dramatic example of what happens when one group of citizens takes up arms against another. While this author hopes with all his heart that we are nowhere near any type of conflict, let alone one as horrific as that like that, it may behoove us to reflect back to that time in Germantown’s history and see if there are any lessons for today.

You may recall from an earlier blog post that George Atzerodt was the most famous Germantowner involved in the war, but he was certainly not the only one. Young men, who had spent their entire lives as farm hands until that point, joined both the Union and Confederate armies en masse. Although Maryland remained in the Union, it was a slave state and bordered both Virginia and Washington, D.C., placing it squarely in the center of the conflict.

In May of 1861, Union General Charles P. Stone established screening points along the Potomac River to protect the C&O canal and fords, which they feared could allow Confederate troops across the border. One battalion was stationed at Clopper’s Mill in town and another was in Darnestown just to the West, before both were moved to Point-of-Rocks. The detachments that battalion left behind were the closest the Germantown came to a permanent military presence. As a result, Germantown was a warzone, albeit not a battlefield.

Instead, this area was used primarily as a crossroads and camping ground for troops on both sides: A division under Union General Nathan Banks camped out in Darnestown in the summer and fall of 1861; Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac marched up Fredrick Road (Rt. 355) chasing the Confederates to the city of Fredrick in early  September, 1862; Confederate General Jeb Stuart’s cavalry marched through town twice, the first down Fredrick Road to Hyattstown later that same month, the second during his famous “ride around the Union Army” in October, 1862 after the Battle of Antietam; and Confederate General Jubal Early marched his men down Fredrick Road from the City of Fredrick towards Washington in July of 1864. 1864 was the last time that Germantown saw major troop movements during the war, but skirmishes between Union and Confederate troops and sympathizers in the area continued uninterrupted. The most notable was early in the war when Union troops burned down the general store in Germantown, which was owned by a Confederate sympathizer.

I would be remiss if I neglected to mention how much the war’s impact on slavery shaped day-to-day life in town given that Germantown was largely rural at that point, and dominated by a few big slave plantations. Several plantation owners, like John Gassaway, emancipated all those enslaved on their farms and gave them plots of land. Decisions like these were, of course, driven largely by economic considerations: the enslaved could often find freedom simply by running away to Union encampments or to Washington, D.C. only 20 miles away, so enslavers offered payment, freedom, and land in exchange for them continuing to operate the farm. Many decided that they would rather leave and took advantage of their newfound opportunities to do so. It was in this way that those enslaved in Germantown used the war and the proximity of a free city to negotiate for their freedom and effectively emancipate themselves. As a result, three free Black communities emerged in Germantown immediately after the war.

The Civil War drastically changed life in Germantown, slaughtering dozens of young men, destroying businesses and the local economy, and tearing apart the sense of community that had existed (at least among the white farmers and merchants) for generations before, but it also set the stage for a new era of freedom and decades of industrialization.

It took generations to forge a new identity for Germantown, built not on ignoring the underlying divisions and injustice of slavery and the previous economic order, but rooted in shared experience and a common commitment to prosperity for all. We have succeeded in moving towards that type of community — what President Lincoln called “a nation conceived in Liberty” — in the ensuing years because instead of denying the wrongs of our society, we have confronted them. We have reflected honestly about the challenges we face and the wrongs in the world around us and, yes, we have often met resistance — because there is no progress without struggle — but we have overcome it without war and bloodshed because Germantown was committed to building that kind of a community. We can do the same today: America, and Germantown, are not without inequity or hardship — anyone who has lived through the last year knows that — but we can fix those wrongs if we come together and pledge ourselves to stand as one for the betterment of all.

Last point, because I admit that this blog post is getting rather long and rambly: democracy is fragile. This was all too clear to those who lived during the Civil War. They saw just what happened when one part of the country refused to accept the outcome of a free and fair presidential election and took up arms for the preservation of a certain social order. I hope that in this moment, after the insurrection, we remember that a democratic society is something we must work to uphold every day whether we always like the short-term outcomes or not.

Thanks for reading, stay well.