1862: Dangers of roadside rebel coffee in Baltimore …
Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby (continued):
<< BEFORE: Food & medicine in Philadelphia …
NEXT: Writing home >>
Travel through Maryland was something of a rite of passage for many NH men during the war. As a slave state, a “border state”, and in many ways the gateway to the South, Maryland presented Union troops with many perils… See especially:
- Maryland in the Civil War
- Baltimore Riots (Spring 1861)
= First Union troops killed in action… by a mob, while trying to pass through Baltimore! - The Maryland Line
= Maryland soldiers fight for the C.S.A.
Live Free and Draw 
Wow! That’s incredible that people thought is was okay to do that!
Simon —
Well, I don’t know if Confederate Baltimoreans thought it was “okay” in a moral sense, but it was apparently something that happened during war. I say “apparently”, of course, because this is after all Colby’s side of the story… Even before they reach the front lines, the men were often dropping like flies from various illnesses & issues related to the conditions of travel. Newton Colby, as we’ll soon find, is already ill and eventually receives “invalid” from illness dating to this early phase of his service… So it’s possible it’s a coincidence.
Of course, it’s also very possible it’s a deliberate case of poisoning. Maryland was, after all, a “Border State”, a slave state, and culturally more of a Southern state than a Northern state…
Anyhow, I’ll append to the post above some links about Baltimore’s history in the Civil War, in case the reader is at all interested!
— M