The outbreak of the Civil War marked a dilemma that would plague several families in

America. Whether to stay and fight for a cause that may not affect your every day well being,

to resist, or to simply leave were questions that families faced from Maine to Texas. However,

it was the families on the border states who faced the decision the roughest. In the example of

the Beamers the two states of Ohio and Maryland were the states in which such decisions

needed to be made.

     Caught between Union Pennsylvania and Confederate Virginia, Maryland's remaining part of

the North was a something that Lincoln could ill afford to lose. In addition to being able to keep

the capital in Washington DC, Maryland would afford the North an increased buffer zone between

themselves and the early invading armies of the SCA.

                                                             Maryland was caught in between two apparent enemies

      However, it should not be misunderstood that because Maryland was a buffer zone thence

every element of the state was Unionized. Rather, the location, culture, and voting pattern of

Maryland made it paradoxically both Northern and Southern. On one hand, Maryland had

hosted one of the Civil War's first assault on Northern troops in the Baltimore . On the other hand,

the state had gone the way of Lincoln in the election of 1860, indicating a pro-Union stance. The

turnout for how Maryland's men would fight would mirror that pattern, as the state provided

for both the Yankees and the Rebels.

      Among the enlistees for the SCA there were some who stayed and some who left. Those who

stayed fought in the highly clandestine battalions of Maryland's SCA divisions. On the other hand,

several thousand went South to Virginia to fight for General Lee's Army of the Potomac. A total

of 41,000 in Maryland joined the Union effort (9000 being blacks) and 20,000 went South to fight

for the Confederacy. This was the case for some of the Beamers in Frederick County Maryland, and

thus roles of the Beamer children of Van Wert County, Ohio was a prime example of that in the

separation of four brothers.