Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

The absolute number of Maryland civilians arrested drops but the tempo of arrests increases in Union-controlled parts of Virginia. In 1863/64, residents resuming normal life - and falling afoul of restrictions on blockade running, smuggling, and carrying contraband goods - dominate Maryland arrests. Disloyalty and non-commercial charges yield few prisoners, while refugees from the South account for 20.8%.

Historians sometimes label civilians caught in the way of the advancing army "political prisoners" or victims of "arbitrary arrest," terms the Lincoln administration uses interchangeably with "prisoner of state," but without the modern moral connotation. Such civilian prisoners are commonplace in 19th century European warfare, and only in the fourth year of the Civil War does the victimization of civilians in the 20th-century pattern begin to emerge, as some Generals drop distinctions between civilians and soldiers. This is not, as some say, a result of...