[central_va]

On August 7, the General Assembly adjourned, intending to meet again on September 17. However, on that day Federal troops and Baltimore police officers arrived in Frederick with orders to arrest the pro-Confederate members of the General Assembly. Thus, the special session in Frederick ended, as did Frederick's summer as the state capital, as Maryland found itself inexorably drawn further and further into the heart of the bloodiest war in American history.

MD legislature arrested.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Thus, the special session in Frederick ended, as did Frederick's summer as the state capital, as Maryland found itself inexorably drawn further and further into the heart of the bloodiest war in American history.

It seems to me that by preventing the disunionists from putting Maryland into the confederacy, Lincoln in fact prevented the state from finding itself in the heart of the war, one more place that would have been devastated by clashing armies on it's soil. And if someone had done the same thing in every state, there wouldn't have been a war at all.