Currently viewing the tag: "Maryland on Stamps"

Maryland on Stamps…

By On · Add Comment · In Featured Articles

Antietam,2012
Richard D. L. Fulton

Such a storm of balls I never conceived it possible for men to live through. Shot and shell shrieking and crashing, canister and bullets whistling and hissing most fiend-like through the air until you could almost see them…

                                          – Lt. Col A.S. Pendleton, CSA

On April 24, 2012, the United States Postal Service issued a Forever Stamp commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the September 17, 1862, Battle of Antietam, which occurred among the fields and hills around Sharpsburg during the American Civil War.

The stamps were issued as part of a series of stamps commemorating the 150th anniversary of the 1861-1865 Civil War. 

The Antietam stamp was issued along with the stamp commemorating the 1862 Battle of New Orleans. A sheet of stamps consisted of four Antietam and four New Orleans stamps (issuing different stamps attached to each other in a single sheet is referred to as se-tenant).

Antietam First Day of Issue covers can be found postmarked by the New Orleans Post Office (by virtue of being issued at the same time as the se-tenant New Orleans stamps) and by the Sharpsburg Post Office.

Confederate Maryland

Amid the secession of the Southern states as the nation stood on the brink of a civil war, a significant number of Marylanders had launched an effort to join the rapidly assimilating Confederate States of America.

It’s probably safe to state that the population of Maryland was deeply divided on the issue, with perhaps a third of the populace supporting the secession movement, a third rabidly against secession, and a third that wanted nothing whatsoever to do with either side, and simply desired to remain neutral.

Sensing the possibility that Maryland legislature might vote to join the Confederacy, President Abraham Lincoln dispatched agents into Maryland to track down and arrest any legislators who were found to be considering voting for secession.

In addition, the President sent federal troops to occupy Baltimore and Annapolis.  Due to the federal occupation of the Maryland capital, the legislature was relocated to Frederick, resulting in Frederick having become the capitol of Maryland until the pro-secession legislators rescinded the effort to secede.

Although the secession effort failed, more than 20,000 Marylanders left the state and joined the Confederate Army.

The Road to Antietam

Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Army of Northern Virginia, led his army north, beginning on September 4, 1862, ultimately colliding with the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George B. McClellan, in and around Sharpsburg on September 17.

The Army of Northern Virginia consisted of more than 100,000 troops, while the Army of the Potomac consisted of some 50,000 troops (13,000 Union troops had already been captured in Harper’s Ferry two days before the engagement at Sharpsburg),

So why did Lee march into Maryland?

One of the primary reasons given was to take the war into the north in the hopes of convincing the Northern population of the futility of continuing the war. But another motive was inspired by the 20,000 Marylanders who had already joined the Confederate Army—that being the possibility that if the Confederates crossed into Maryland, countless additional Marylanders might have joined their numbers.

On September 17, the two opposing Armies collided around Sharpsburg, resulting in the bloodiest one-day battle of the “War of Rebellion.” 

Before the September 18 withdrawal of the Confederate forces, the Confederates had suffered more than 28,000 casualties (of which 2,783 were killed), and the Union Army had sustained more than 16,000 casualties (of which more than 3,800 were killed).”

Although the battle ended Lee’s first invasion of the north, the outcome of the battle by most writers was/is considered as having been a tactical draw. 

Some “historians” have claimed it was a Union victory, but Lincoln himself simply called the battle the “closest thing to a victory” that the Union Army had thus far experienced.

Lee also did not see any significant increase in Maryland recruits as having been a direct result of the Maryland campaign.

Sept. 12, 2012 Antietam First Day of Issue cover.

Maryland on Stamps…

By On · Add Comment · In Featured Articles

maryland bicentennial,1988

Richard D. L. Fulton

On February 15, 1988, the United States Postal Service issued a set of 50 22-cent stamps commemorating when each of the 50 states had achieved statehood, one of which was devoted to Maryland.

Each state’s stamps were featured on First Day of Issue covers (FDCs) when the stamps had been initially made available to the public. FDCs of the Maryland stamp were cancelled in the Annapolis Post Office – Annapolis, of course, being the capitol of the state.

The Maryland stamp featured a skipjack (two-sailed fishing boats used particularly for harvesting oysters) displayed with the Maryland statehouse within the background.

The skipjack was also designated as being the “State Boat” in 1985. The Maryland statehouse is the oldest state capital building that has been in continual legislative use since its establishment and had additionally served as the nation’s capital building from November 26, 1783 to August 13, 1784.

Maryland, initially established as a British colony and province, actually became a state twice… and nearly became a third one.

The First State of Maryland

The first United States of America was established with the passage of the Articles of Confederation. The proposal to unite the then-existing but seceded British colonies into a united form of governance under the auspices of a central (federal) government had been approved by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, before the American Revolution had even concluded.

Subsequently, the congressionally approved Articles of Confederation were ratified into law by the 13 autonomous, ex-colonies in 1781, thereby resulting in each of the former colonies becoming the first states of America.

Naturally, Maryland was among the newly founded states. Under the Articles of Confederation, Maryland, and her sister states, thrived under the limited power of the federal government… for a time, just shy of a decade.

In the wake of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, there were dissenters seeking to “overthrow” the newly formed United States, and create a new, second United States of America, headed up by a more powerful form of central (federal) government.

The Second State of Maryland

The proposal to secede from the (first) United States and replace it with a second version was not a thoroughly popular idea.

In fact, the idea was so unpopular from the outset that the soon-to-be founding fathers, under the guise of holding a Constitutional Convention with the stated purpose to revise the Articles of Confederation, hid themselves away in the Pennsylvania State House, locking the door and posting guards, with the intent to dissolve the Articles of Confederation, and replace it with a new constitution – which, basically they had feared, could constitute an act of insurrection.

When the proposed new constitution was fully disclosed to the general population, and the road to ratification had been initiated, the “founders” managed to avoid having the new constitution ratified by each of the state legislatures, knowing that most would be reluctant to authorize surrendering their more lenient individual autonomy, as had been established under the Articles of Confederation, to founding a more heavy-handed form of central governance.

As was noted in The Constitution: How Did it Happen? (National Archives),“The Anti-Federalists fought hard against the Constitution because it created a powerful central government that reminded them of the one they had just overthrown… The ratification campaign was a nail-biter.”

Nevertheless, the effort succeeded, and Maryland officially became a state (again) on April 28, 1788 (although the newly ratified Constitution did not take effect until March 9, 1789), when Maryland’s appointed representatives cast their vote to ratify the United States Constitution. Maryland was the seventh state of the 13 states to do so.

The Confederate State of Maryland?

But a subsequent war, which erupted between the states in 1861, saw Marylanders launching an effort to a new statehood, this time under the constitution of the Confederate States of America.

However, “Confederate Maryland” will be further addressed in the next column, Maryland on Stamps… Antietam, in the September issue of the Catoctin Banner).

First Day of Issue Cover of Maryland’s Bicentennial stamp with 22K gold version insert.

Maryland on Stamps…

By On · Add Comment · In Featured Articles

Richard D. L. Fulton

Annapolis Tercentenary, 1949

On May 23, 1949, the United States Postal Service commemorated the 300th anniversary of the establishment of Annapolis as the capital of Maryland via the issuance of a three-cent stamp.

First Day of Issue cancellations of the stamps were conducted at the post office in Annapolis—the first capital of Maryland, and at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the United States Postal Service. To collectors, the Annapolis cancellation is more desirable than the Washington, D.C. cancellation.

Further, the First Day of Issue cancellations issued at Annapolis bore the correct date of the Tercentenary (May 23, 1949), while the same issued at the D.C. post office bore the next day’s date (May 24, 1949).

Annapolis’ road to being recognized as Maryland’s capital began when Leonard Calvert, along with 140 to 150 Catholic and Protestant settlers, set sail from the Isle of Wight, England, and ventured up the Potomac River, whereon on March 25, 1633, they founded Saint Mary’s City. Doing so resulted in Saint Mary’s City then being recognized as Maryland’s first European settlement and the Province of Maryland’s first capital.

Maryland was, of course, a British colony at the time, and was thus deemed as the Province of Maryland, Maryland, having been named in honor of Henrietta Maria of France, queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (coincidentally, her husband was executed in the wake of the English Civil War in the same year Annapolis was named as Maryland’s capital).  Likewise, Saint Mary’s City was also named in her honor.

By the late 1640s, settlers had already begun to fan out in the area that would ultimately become both Anne Arundel County (established as a county in 1650), and Annapolis.  Forty-four years later, in 1694, the then provisional Governor Francis Nicholson, along with the Maryland General Assembly, elected to move Maryland’s capital from Saint Mary’s City to more centrally located Anne Arundel County.

As a result, Saint Mary’s City was abandoned.  The location of the original Saint Mary’s City can only be ascertained through archaeological excavations, according to hsmcdigshistory.org,  although the city was essentially reborn when it eventually “rose from the grave,” beginning in the early 1900s,  Today, it boasts a population of around 1,000 residents and some 1,500 students housed in association with the city’s educational institutions.

Before the provincial capital was moved from Saint Mary’s City, the settlements around what would become Annapolis were initially called Providence, and subsequently, Anne Arundel’s Towne, according to annapolis.gov.  The name was changed to Annapolis (meaning Anne’s Town or City) when the town was designated as the new provincial capital.

Anne Arundel County, Anne Arundel’s Towne, and Annapolis were all named in honor of Anne Arundel, whose name is also spelled as Anne Arundell, and even Arrundell, who had married Cecil Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore.  Although she never came to America, she was honored in Maryland as the result of spending much of her inheritance from her father, Lord Thomas Arundell, to help fund the new colony of Maryland.

Anne Arundel’s royal badge, which is a crown over the entwined thistle of Scotland and Tudor rose of England, is depicted on the Annapolis flag, according to annapolis.gov.

Maryland became a state when it ratified the United States Constitution on April 28, 1788, and retained Annapolis as being the state’s capital.  Maryland actually became a state twice.  First under the Articles of Confederation, which was adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. The adoption of the Constitution on April 28, 1788, effectively disbanded the first United States that had been established under the Articles of Confederation.

Annapolis.gov stated that “Today, Annapolis has more of these original 18th-century structures standing than any other city in the United States.”

Once known as the “Athens of America,” due to its early “wealth of cultural activities, a glittering social season. gracious hospitality, and intellectual stimulation,” the city has grown to a population of over 40,000 residents, numerous educational institutions, and even serves as home to the prestigious United States Naval Academy.

First Day Cover of Annapolis Tercentenary stamp, cancelled May 23,1949.

Maryland on Stamps…

By On · Add Comment · In Featured Articles

Richard D. L. Fulton

Fatty Maschii Parole Femine (Strong Deeds, Gentle Words)

– The motto of the State of Maryland

On March 24, 1934, America celebrated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the colony of Maryland through the issuance by the United States Postal Service of a 3-cent stamp.

First Day of Issue cancellations of the stamps were conducted at the post office in Saint Mary’s City—the first capital of Maryland—and at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Postal Service. The Saint Mary’s City cancellation is more desirable than the Washington, D.C. cancellation.

The carmine-red stamps depicted the two ships, the Ark and the Dove, that had arrived from England with the first European colonists, who disembarked at Point Comfort near a location that would eventually become Saint Mary’s City.

According to marylanddove.org, the Ark, a three-master (meaning it had the main sails) was described as having a 400-ton cargo capacity, while the Dove, a two-master (meaning it had two main sails) was a small vessel capable of carrying some 40 tons of cargo.

The Ark carried approximately 140 to 150 colonists, comprised of a mix of Catholics and Protestants, and their servants, and the ship’s crew members. The ship was leased by Cecil Calvert for the trip.

It is believed that the Dove was mainly manned by only the crew, according to Chesapeake Magazine, and was, by design, a lighter vessel intended in this instance to be utilized by Calvert to engage in coastal trade.

Not among the passengers aboard the Ark was Cecil (Cecilius) Calvert, who inherited the land that would become Maryland when his father, Geroge Calvert, died in 1632.

King Charles I had granted Calvert’s father a request for a colony in the “New World,” to be called the Province of Maryland, dubbed Terra Mariae. But the charter enabling the act was not consummated until after Calvert’s father’s death, so the charter fell to the survivors, resulting in Cecil Calvert embarking enroute to the Mid-Atlantic Coast of America in order to bring the dream of his father into reality, thereby establishing the colony of Maryland.

According to “Founding of Maryland – Educational Project for Elementary and Middle School Students,” written by Maria A. Day, an archival intern with the Maryland State Archives, “He (Cecil) did not have his father’s years of experience at governing colonies. No one knew what kind of leader Cecil might turn out to be when the king named him Lord Proprietor of Maryland.”

Nevertheless, he elected to remain in England to protect the integrity of his charter, apparently feeling there were those who would seek to repeal this father’s charter. He sent his brother, Leonard, overseas in his place, along with a set of instructions on how to govern the colony, entitled, “Instructions to the Colonists by Lord Baltimore (Cecil held the title of the Second Lord Baltimore, although he had never been there).”

Among the instructions was the intent to ensure that whatever conflicts existed between religions in England stayed in England and assured that “freedom of religion” would become the policy of the colony of Maryland. The instructions would become the basis for Maryland law.

Leonard Calvert, along with Cecil Calvert’s instructions, and 140 to 150 Catholics and Protestants, set sail from the Isle of Wight, England, on November 22, 1633. They arrived in Barbados in January 1633, and then sailed to Point Comfort (Virginia), having arrived there on February 24, 1634.

A month later, the colonists sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and then to one of the Potomac River islands, arriving there on March 25, subsequently establishing Saint Mary’s City, thereby making that community as having been Maryland’s first European settlement and the state’s first capital.

Things remained peaceful in the new colony until 1645 when a force commanded by anti-Catholic Richard Ingle attacked Saint Mary’s City, taking a number of prisoners, while Leonard Calvert was forced to flee to Virginia for nearly a year, according to the Maryland State Archives.

 First Day Cover of Maryland Tercentenary stamp, cancelled March 23, 1934, at Saint Mary’s City.