Discover Worcester County - Didn’t It Rain: Civil War
Isaiah Fassett
(Courtesy David Briddell) |
With its closeness to Virginia, the lower Eastern Shore population was bitterly divided on issues surrounding the Civil War. For most Southern sympathizers on the lower Shore, the federal recruitment of free blacks and fugitive slaves was an intolerable insult. It is estimated that 20 percent of Maryland's Union companies were composed of black soldiers.
General Lockwood, commander of the Eastern Shore companies, was especially active in recruiting black enlistees. One Civil War participant from Worcester County, Isaiah "Uncle Zear" Fassett (1844-1946) was born into slavery but released at age 19, by his owner Sarah A Bruff on November 11, 1863 upon payment of $300 by the U.S. Army. Likewise, his brothers Franklin Andrew (b. 1836), John (b. 1839), and George Fassett (b. 1846) achieved their freedom by serving in the Civil War. The same day Isaiah was freed he enlisted in the 9th Infantry Regt., U.S.C.T., Company D. He fought in the Wilderness, John's Island, S.C., Deep Bottom, Va., Fussel's Mills, Petersburg and Richmond campaigns. After Richmond he was promoted to corporal. He was discharged on November 26, 1866. "Uncle Zear" Fassett was one of Maryland's "Boys of 61" to attend the 75th Battle Reunion at Gettysburg in July, 1938. He was the next-to-last Civil War soldier in Maryland when he died on June 24, 1946. Memorabilia associated with Isaiah Fassett and other African-Americans involved in the Civil War is part of the collections at Berlin's Calvin B. Taylor House.
Sampson Harmon
(Courtesy Julia A. Purnell Museum) |
Following the Civil War, Worcester County black residents turned to livelihoods they had known before the war, sometimes hiring on as sharecroppers for their former masters.
One of the beloved 19th century black figures of Worcester County was Sampson Harmon, fictionalized as "Sampson Hat" in George Alfred Townsend's novel, "The Entailed Hat." Portrayed as a folk hero, he was reputed to be the strongest and fastest man in at least two counties and able to run down a deer to capture it. He is best remembered as a long-time resident of Furnace Town, where he worked for Judge Thomas Spence who operated the furnace during the mid 19th century. Sampson Harmon reached 106 years of age.
Copywriting by Paul Touart
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