Maryland's Blue & Gray

the long version

Maryland's Blue and Gray is a collective biography focusing on the 365 men from Maryland who served as captains and lieutenants in the Virginia theater of operations, specifically with the Army of the Potomac's Maryland Brigade and the Army of Northern Virginia's Maryland Line. These soldiers provide a rare opportunity to investigate the backgrounds, military careers, and wartime experiences of a specific group who fought on both sides of the nation's bloodiest and most contentious war. Ruffner examines the effects of the conflict on the officer corps in terms of promotions, morale, and discipline, and on their relationships with the home front, subordinates, and commanders. Ruffner offers insight into the cultural affinities between the Union and Confederate Marylanders as well as into the nature of the divisiveness that resulted in deadly combat. A groundbreaking study, Maryland's Blue and Gray utilizes both military and social history to plumb the motivations, ambitions, and experiences of men from a single state that, like the country at large, was torn asunder.