SAVE THIS DATE---Frederick County Genealogical Meeting, Saturday April 9, 2011 1pm Homewood at Crumland Farm Visit www.frecogs.com for directions. Refreshments served. Visitors welcome. A very special presentation by one of FRECOGS’ favorite speakers. Civil War is about to begin and Maryland is right in the middle. Some of our ancestors were pro-union and some were pro-confederate. Sometimes it was in the same family; brother against brother. On April 12, 2011, the civil war beginning will be reaching its sesquicentennial. Over the next four years many anniversaries of important events during the civil war will be occurring. The Antietam Battle is still the event where in one day the most people died on American soil. THE ANTIETAM BATTLE AND THE MANY FALLEN SOLDIERS-- Speaker: John Nelson of Hagerstown will speak on the Antietam Battle and hunt for the names of all the fallen soldiers and their burial locations. Called the "Bloodiest One Day Battle in American History", 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. TIMELINE: November 6, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln, who had declared "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free..." is elected president, the first Republican, receiving 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote December 20, 1860 - South Carolina secedes from the Union followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. February 9, 1861 - The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, as president April 12, 1861 - At 4:30 a.m. Confederates under Gen. Pierre Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. THE CIVIL WAR BEGINS. April 17, 1861 - Virginia secedes from the Union, followed within five weeks by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, thus forming an eleven state Confederacy with a population of 9 million, including nearly 4 million slaves. The Union will soon have 21 states and a population of over 20 million September 17, 1862 - The bloodiest day in U.S. military history as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Armies are stopped at Antietam in Maryland by McClellan and numerically superior Union forces. By nightfall 23,000 men are dead, wounded, or missing. Lee then withdraws to Virginia. Confederate dead lay by the fence bordering Farmer Miller's 40 acre Cornfield at Antietam where the intense rifle and artillery fire cut every corn stalk to the ground "as closely as could have been done with a knife." September 22, 1862 - Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves issued by President Lincoln. Jane Thursby President Frederick County Genealogical Society Researching Maryland families from early 1600's to present: Thursby, Stinchecum, Seward, Claggett, McNamara, Barnes, Muckelroy, Watkins, Kennard, Cullison, Benson, Snyder, Oldner, Griffin, Beall, Keith, White, Kirkley, Davis, Hubbard, Jillard, Fell, Lee, Dawson, Thompson, Marshall, Hahn, Whelerig, Merrick, Hitchcock, Musgrove, Shipley, Clark, Mullineaux, Benton, Moxley, Lucas, Hanson, Waugh, Magruder, Ogg