The Civil War had a major impact on the people of Anne Arundel County. As a border state, Maryland was home to both Confederate and Union sympathizers, and Annapolis, like Baltimore, was occupied by Union troops to secure Maryland for the Union cause and protect Washington, D.C. By 1863, Annapolis had become the most important depot on the coast for prisoners paroled from Confederate prisons, leading to the construction of the larger Camp Parole just outside the city beside the railroad linking it with Washington and Baltimore. There, Union prisoners could receive a bath, a shave, fresh clothing, and sometimes badly needed medical attention, and they remained until they could return home or rejoin their regiments. When the camp was disbanded in October 1865, the grounds were still called Camp Parole. African-American individuals and families who had come from far and wide to work at the camp and in Annapolis stayed after the war, established a community, and took advantage of opportunities on nearby farms and in Annapolis, and many of their descendants still live there today.