Historical Notes
Joseph Schwartz's Story
by Carolyn Reeder

Chapter One

Alexander declared, "It's about time Virginia left the Union—they waited long enough." The Virginia Secession Convention had been meeting since February, and twice it had voted to stay in the Union. (Two-thirds of the delegates that Virginians elected to represent them at the Convention were Unionists.) But with Lincoln's April 15 call for troops to put down the South's rebellion, Virginia chose to cast her lot with the Confederacy rather than force the southern states to remain in the Union against their will.

Chapter Two

"Did you hear the news? Virginia troops have taken over the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry!" Today, Harpers Ferry (written without the apostrophe now) is in West Virginia, but this was before Virginia's forty western counties broke away to form a new state loyal to the Union. The U.S. soldiers garrisoned in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, set the arsenal afire and withdrew after they received news of the state's secession, but when the Virginia militiamen arrived, they were able to put out the fire and save much of the machinery used for manufacturing the rifles that had been stored there. (It was the arsenal at Harpers Ferry that had been John Brown's objective in 1859, when he and his small band attempted to seize the weapons stored there and use them to arm a slave uprising. )

Chapter Seven

Joseph knew that from Frederick on west, Maryland was mostly Unionist — In the western part of the state where wheat was a major crop, farmers needed workers only at harvest time, so they would hire a crew of men each autumn. But in the eastern and southern part of the state where tobacco was raised, farmers needed workers all year round for planting, for thinning the plants, for keeping the insects off, for harvesting the leaves, and finally for drying them. They found it more economical to own slaves than to hire full-time workers.

Chapter Eight

"If you're so strong for Maryland, you must be for states' rights," one of the boys said, looking puzzled, "but if you're for states' rights, I don't see why you're neutral instead of for the Confederacy." People who are for "states' rights" believe that individual states should make decisions on important issues that affect them rather than having the federal government make a single decision that would affect all the states. (Most people in the South regarded secession as a states' rights issue.)