Because of the way the Electoral College works, “swing states” get a lot of attention (and advertising!) because we say they are still “in play.”

            Maryland was a swing state long before anyone thought of the term. During the American Civil War, it was one of a handful of slave states that chose to remain in the Union. Many considered it still “in play” — that is, Maryland might stay in the Union, or it might switch to the Confederacy.

            So Maryland came in for plenty of attention, much of it unwanted. In the fall of 1862, the Confederates invaded Maryland partly to influence the local populace to switch sides.

            One result of that invasion was the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), near the quiet little town of Sharpsburg. It was the bloodiest single day in American history. The 22,720 casualties included 3,650 dead and 1,770 missing in action. In addition, at least one out of seven of the 17,300 wounded later died.

            Strategically, it was considered enough of a victory for the North to provide President Abraham Lincoln the political cover he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, casting the Civil War as a conflict over slavery and thus preventing England and France from intervening or recognizing the Confederacy as a separate country. But the ordinary people who lived in the area were now filled with fear, confusion and anguish, and they lived in the midst of human corpses rotting in the fields alongside dead animals, smashed carts and ruined farm machinery.

            After the tumult died away, two things were apparent: First, the armies had taken away most of the food they hadn’t already destroyed or eaten. Second, they’d left behind thousands of wounded who desperately needed care, without any supplies to care for them.

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