Maryland remained in the Union, but many a Confederate
soldier was also recruited in the State. Lee occupied Fred-
erick, and later in the war occurred the Battles of South
Mountain, Antietam and Monocacy. Unionist sympathizers
held the state government in line, and, in 1864, modified the
Maryland Constitution to abolish slavery.

Years of Peace

Between the end of the war and the beginning of the
next century, the boom in industry and commerce brought
business to Baltimore and the State, an increase in rail and
water facilities, and made large philanthropies possible.
Three of these, the gift in 1857 of $1,400,000 by a one-time
Baltimore resident, George Peabody, who had made a for-
tune in England; the endowment of a university by the
merchant, Johns Hopkins (1876), and the gift of a public
library in 1882 by Enoch Pratt benefited the State as well
as its largest city. Even the $125,000,000 fire which began
February 7, 1904, did not retard Baltimore's progress; the
population increased with every decade.

Later History

The story of the twentieth century in Maryland is largely
one of detailed statistics. As Baltimore forged ahead to be
the sixth city in the country, the State ranked only twenty-
fourth in point of population.

In World War I approximately 75,000 of its citizens
represented the State's service in the conflict. The martial
activities of the United States also appeared in the many
Federal establishments on Maryland soil, of which the
United States Naval Academy (Annapolis), opened in
1845, is the oldest. The United States Army built Fort
George G. Meade on more than 7,500 acres near Odenton
and established its proving ground at Aberdeen and an
arsenal at Edgewood.

Between wars, Maryland assumed a forward-looking at-
titude. Legislation was enacted to create old-age and
mothers' pensions, to give aid to dependent children, and
to assist the needy blind.

In World War II about 250,000 Marylanders served.
More than ever before, state industrial power—particularly
that devoted to the building of ships and aircraft—fought
the "Battle of Materials." The Army enlarged and rebuilt
Fort Meade and built Andrews Air Force Base in Prince
George's County; at Port Deposit the Navy built an exten-