Biography
Richard Bennett Carmichael was a Maryland circuit-court judge who, from the bench, denounced the arbitrary arrests of citizens for disloyalty. In May 1862 federal officers dragged him from his own courtroom while court was in session, beating and arresting him, and held him without charge for more than five months at Fort McHenry, Fort Lafayette, and Fort Delaware.
Additional source for this Civil War detention: John A. Marshall, American Bastile (1869), printed pages 208-211, https://archive.org/details/americanbastile00marsgoog/page/n221/mode/2up. This is a partisan retrospective account; its judgments should be read as attributed claims.
Charles B. Clark’s 1959 study of federal control in Maryland describes Carmichael’s seizure while presiding at Easton, his forcible removal and confinement at Fort McHenry. Citing contemporary Baltimore newspapers, Clark dates his transfer to Fort Lafayette to July 9, 1862 and records Secretary of State Seward’s order for unconditional release on December 3. The account states that no charges were made and no trial was granted. The December 3 event is the release order; the study does not independently identify the precise time Carmichael physically left custody. Charles B. Clark, “Suppression and Control of Maryland, 1861–1865,” Maryland Historical Magazine, volume 54, number 3 (September 1959), pages 254–256.
