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In many ways, Maryland is a microcosm of much of the United States, combining elements from the north, south, east, and west. Physically located in the middle of the English colonies, it was the center state of the new nation and thus the logical site for a capital, which is located in the District of Columbia.

After a copy of his plans detailing the widely scattered nature of his army fell into Union hands, Robert E. Lee hurriedly concentrated his troops at Sharpsburg. George B. McClellan pursued cautiously, assembling his army along Antietam Creek. There on September 17, the war’s bloodiest single-day battle was fought.

Born in Montgomery County, Maryland, and living and working at a time and place hostile to people of African American descent, Henry Blair is the only inventor described as “a colored man” in the records of the U.S. Patent Office. His corn seed planter, patented on October, 14, 1834, allowed farmers to plant more corn in a shorter period of time. The corn planter, which was pulled by horses or oxen, dropped individual kernels of corn into furrows, which were then automatically covered with earth as a farmer walked behind the planter. Blair’s cotton planter, patented two years later in 1836, was equally instrumental to the agricultural revolution that began in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century.

DATE Town founded in 1694; U.S. Naval Academy established in 1845

In many ways, Maryland is a microcosm of much of the United States, combining elements from the north, south, east, and west. Physically located in the middle of the English colonies, it was the center state of the new nation and thus the logical site for a capital, which is located in the District of Columbia. After the Revolution, Maryland led efforts to develop the nation westward; it remained in the Union during the Civil War but sent soldiers to both the North and the South during that conflict. After World War II, the state managed to preserve its historic traditions and environmental legacy while advancing into the future.

DATE Established in 1745