Civilian v.s. Military: Finding Civilians in a history of War

In conducting the secondary source research, I started back at the American Revolution and worked my way to the Civil War. Many books on the American Revolution focus on major battles and figures and not on ordinary citizens. There is even less information about Fort Whetstone because the fort did not see any major action like it would see in 1814. Maryland also did not see major combat like Charlestown or Boston. Wealthy Baltimoreans supplied supplies and money to the Army, which is seen in the primary source documents in the H.A.R.P. collection. When civilians are mentioned in aiding, the cause men are more likely to be named than women even though women, in general, are thanked for sewing clothes and bandages. The interwar years provide a challenge because Fort Whetstone was being reinforced and would eventually be torn down in the 1790s and Fort McHenry would be built in its place. For the citizens of Baltimore they would try to return to pre-war lives, merchants would begin exporting and importing again to establish connections broken during the revolution.  The focus of most books of the interwar years between the Revolution and the War of 1812 concentrate on political and maritime problems that are directly caused by the Napoleonic wars.  The War of 1812 books unless they are about Baltimore only mentions Fort McHenry at the end. Examples of these books are Walter Lord’s Dawns Early Light, Christopher T. Georges Terror on the Chesapeake or Scott Shead’s Rocket’s Red Glare. Again the mention of civilians is mostly men that made up the committee of vigilance and Safety, who were responsible for raising money for the defenses of the city and for getting supplies to the soldiers. Women again were asked to make clothing and bandages, and in September of 1814 were asked to help dig entrenched and retrieve water and food supplies. Fort Mchenry played an important role in the defense of the city holding out against a 25 hour bombardment by the most powerful navy, but one part of the story is largely forgotten in the history books.  A woman, her name, and occupation are unknown was hit by a large piece of British bomb and was killed instantly. I have only seen her mentioned in detail in the primary source material.
 History has always been concerned with men and with the military parts of history. Women, if mentioned, are in their acceptable roles in society, in the home doing domestic chores and pushing their sons to fight to protect the Unites States and Republican ideals (Frank,63). Women’s place was in the home thus making their participation in history limited to times of crisis or if they wanted to deviate from the accepted norms for women in the 19th century.  The Civil War in Baltimore saw the challenging of liberty with the suspension of Habeaus Corpus and the institution of Martial Law. Women used their position in the home to aid the war effort either by becoming spies or by urging their men to fight to preserve the Union or to aid the Confederacy.  Fort McHenry became a prison to house political prisoners and Confederate soldiers. Some of the famous prisoners of the Fort were the Governor, Mayor, and Chief of Police. There was also one female prisoner detained; her name was Susan Archer Talley. She was a poet and friend of Edgar Allan Poe (Bailey 71).  Women who acted out against the Union occupation challenged the male notions of womanhood for they were acting outside the home and posed a problem for the men that had to try and arrest them.
Trying to find Civilians in the history of a military garrison is difficult with much of the history being written about the military activities. Fort McHenry is no exception; I have found more information about the civilian involvement at the Fort with the primary sources than the secondary. Civilian populations are usually pushed down to secondary importance to the military in the history of wars. Civilian and social histories are always written separately from battle history. I found that the social history is more interesting than military history because civilians are affected longer by conflict than those fighting the battles. Civilians are the ones left behind to clean up and rebuild after the cannons and muskets cease.

Sources consulted:

“American Bastille? Fort McHenry and Civil Liberty, 1861 - 1862 :: UMBC Electronic Theses and Dissertations.” 2015. Accessed December 10. http://contentdm.ad.umbc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ETD/id/92/rec/1.

 Frank, Andrew K ed. Early Republic: People and Perspectives. 2008. 1 edition. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.