Henry Watkins Allen Camp #133, Sons of Confederate Veterans

06/01/2026

State employees will also get the day off.

05/28/2026

On May 27, 1862, Maryland's Talbot County courthouse was surrounded by Union troops to support federal Provost Marshals in the arrest of Judge Richard Bennett Carmichael. Four Provost Marshals barged into the Judge’s courtroom and bloodily bludgeoned him with the butt of a pistol in front of his jury and civilian spectators. Prosecuting attorney J.C.W. Powell rushed to the judge’s aid and the crier of the court ran to the window to call for the Sherriff, but both were physically subdued. All three were sent to Fort McHenry for imprisonment.

The next day the federal War Department issued a press release stating that the Judge had been imprisoned for treason. The press release was published in every major Northern newspaper and in Europe as soon as the news crossed the Atlantic. Judge Carmichael and attorney Powell were imprisoned for over 9 months under the harshest conditions without trial or charges ever placed against them.

These men were imprisoned and denied their basic constitutional rights to have legal counsel challenge the validity of their imprisonment, to be presented with charges, to have the government’s charges reviewed by a civilian court, to confront their accusers or to provide a defense in a civilian court of law. All these constitutional rights were denied because the President had suspended the sacred right of habeas corpus, an act that the Constitution had granted solely to Congress and not the Executive.

The Judge’s imprisonment for treason, as professed by the federal government, became established history for over 160 years touted by follow-on historians who simply relied upon the statements issued by the government. This was indicative of how history recorded the imprisonment of so many other Maryland political leaders, newspaper editors and other citizens imprisoned under the suspension of habeas which denied their right to present a defense or to even publicly proclaim their side of the story. The free press was grossly impacted by the suspension of habeas with numerous newspapers who presented dissenting views shut down or had their editors imprisoned and where the threat of such retaliation caused many others to remain compliant and not question the Executive.

With today’s technology to digitally search thousands of official records along with historical newspapers across the globe, the actual history of Judge Carmichael’s arrest can now be told - and it had nothing to do with secession or traitorous activity.

Judge Carmichael got the attention of Secretary William Seward in June of 1861 by sending a petition along with 48 others, to the Maryland Legislature detailing how Union soldiers had entered Queene Anne’s County and had placed themselves as a military police superior to civilian authority and were conducting unlawful searches, arrests and imprisonments and had unilaterally suspended habeas corpus to those they detained. This document recorded in the Maryland Archives is hugely important in understanding President Lincoln’s early suspension of habeas enacted just weeks prior. The President’s first suspension was touted as a military necessity to protect a narrow supply corridor between Philadelphia and Washington. With Carmichael’s communication to the Legislature, we find it was also suspended in places in Maryland far removed from this supply route and for totally different reasons as well.

Secretary Seward in learning of the Judge’s communication, issued a directive to General John Adams Dix to have the Judge imprisoned in Fort Lafayette for “treason” and to have the arrest conducted in the Judge’s courtroom to maximize the public impact. General Dix however did not act upon this directive at this time but continued to monitor the Judge. As a circuit court Judge, Carmichael was also a Judge in Queen Anne’s County and shortly before the state elections in November 1861 the clerk of Queen Anne’s Court, Madison Brown, was arrested and temporarily imprisoned by Union troops. Brown was running on the “Peace Party” ticket as a candidate for the Maryland Appellate Court during the upcoming state election and was just one of many Maryland political candidates that had been harassed and even imprisoned by the occupying Union troops prior to the election. Judge Carmichael had the offending military officers charged by the grand jury for the unlawful imprisonment of Brown and others, but the Union military simply relocated the charged officers outside of the Judge’s jurisdiction to prevent their trial.

Similar incidents also happened in Talbot County where dissenters were imprisoned by the occupying military command. In Talbot County however, something very different occurred. Prosecuting attorney J.C.W. Powell learned that a Maryland politician, State Senator Henry Holiday Goldsborough, had embroiled himself in directing the Union troops on the arrest of Talbot civilians.

Goldsborough was the leader of the Maryland Senate and a strong Lincoln ally. Attorney Powell was successful in having Talbot’s Grand Jury issue indictments against Goldsborough along with the associated Union officers responsible for the arrests.

The military officers were removed from Talbot’s legal jurisdiction, but Senator Goldsborough lived in Talbot County and could not avoid prosecution. Shortly before Goldsborough’s trial General Dix issued a written communication to him stating that he was sending the military officers subpoenaed for his trial but was also sending four Provost Marshals “well armed.” In this communication Gen. Dix left it to Goldsborough to authorize the Provost Marshals to arrest Judge Carmichael. In Dix’s after-action report to Secretary Seward, he noted that the Judge had been arrested in his courtroom for the maximum public impact per the stated desire of Seward. The imprisonment of Judge Carmichael and prosecuting attorney Powell had nothing to do with treason but was simply to protect a political ally of the President and to display the power of the federal government. The false report of “treason” was simply cover to make such a drastic measure publicly acceptable.

Some of those who read this will attempt to immediately defend President Lincoln’s actions. Human nature has not changed in 163 years and there are many who will blindly trust and defend their chosen political leader regardless of evidence. These events are our history which cannot be changed but which provide us with important insights and lessons that we should apply to the issues of our day.

For more on this important history to include the uncovering of the details regarding the imprisonment of the Maryland Legislature and other important Maryland leaders, please refer to my book “When Democracy Fell, The Subjugation of Maryland During the U.S. Civil War,” available on Amazon.

05/19/2026

04/09/2026

Celebrate the life of Gerard Ruth, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Rabenhorst Funeral Home & Crematory.

04/09/2026

04/02/2025

In honor of the month of April being Confederate History month, the Southeast Brigade's billboards are up! The one in Baton Rouge is on I-110 northbound at the Hollywood/Evangeline exit. The one in Hammond is just east of exit 40 on I-12. Pictured below is the billboard in Baton Rouge, LA.

02/05/2024

Interesting read:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/civil-war-veterans #26

02/05/2024

Interesting read:

The flesh and blood behind a war remembered only in documentaries and textbooks.

11/07/2023

Members of the Henry Watkins Allen Camp, Nicholson Camp, Benton Camp, Ward Camp, Mouton Camp and, the Washington Rifles Camp marched in honor of our veterans in the Port Allen Veterans Day Parade. Th parade was held on November 5, 2023.

06/10/2023

I’ve had several people ask me where to get one of these General Lee replica statues. Here is a link to the folks that sell them:

This concrete replica statue of Robert E. Lee comes as one solid piece, with two painted finishes (bronzed and multi-colored) as well as an unpainted concrete version. Ideal for indoor or outdoor display. Delivery included in cost.CAN ONLY BE DELIVERED TO THE SOUTHSHORE NEW ORLEANS AREA (Kenner, Met...