Actually, I have a friend whose ancestor joined almost all his town in fighting for the Union. They were from some place downstate; I don’t remember where. But definitely Union people.
Here in NC, Marylanders are considered in-betweeners, like people from the Far West. Sure, a lot of them fought for the North, but where do the modern people like Westerners fit in? Does it even matter? I don’t think so.
/My sister is the child of a Southerner and an immigrant from Scandinavia. She was born in California, and has spent most of her life in Arizona. She considers herself Southern.
Does it matter? I think not.
//My wife was born in Cuba, was naturalized at the age of fifteen, and considers herself a Star Trek nerd. Does it matter?
///Only 1%’ers profit from keeping us at each others’ throats like this. That matters.
When I was younger, the State was referred to as "America in Miniature", with a wide variety geographically and culturally. Certainly every political attitude can be found there now, and could be found there, then.
Had the State not waited on Virginia to vote on a Bill of Secession, it is likely it would have seceded. By the time Virginia made their move, Maryland had been invaded.
Nonetheless, the State lies South of the Mason-Dixon Line, the traditional line dividing North and South, and had (at least in the Southern part) far more in common with Southern Culture than Northern. By the time you got to Fredrick or Hagerstown, that changed.
Does it matter now?
Yes. Of course it does.
The histories we were fed as schoolchildren were filtered through the eyes of the victors and published in the heart of what had been enemy territory. Certainly the Union fighting for "freedom" (propaganda, the war was economic) could never admit it forced an entire State into submission to avoid moving the capital and to retain the harbors. The victors will ever have the means to write their story as they please, and polish away such inconvenient details to make themselves more grand or justified, and every nation does it, unless they lose.
It is also the turning point, where These United States became The United States, and our government made the subtle change from a Federal one to a National one.
The war is increasingly significant in view of the subsequent loss of State's Rights, and the diminishment of individual rights (despite expanding those they legally applied to) which has ensued since.