William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

[96] Baltimore. Seven companies went safely through that city to the Washington Depot. Four others, with the band, were in the rear, and those were the companies which bore the brunt of the attack. They are designated in Colonel Jones's report. It was the expectation that the entire regiment would march through Baltimore to the Washington Depot, in conformity with previous orders. The companies in the forward cars were being drawn across the city while those in the rear cars were in the depot, waiting orders to file out. A writer and eyewitness says,—

No orders came to file out; and, in a few minutes, all the cars forward of the one occupied by Captain Sampson's company disappeared. We knew nothing of the movements of the balance of the regiment, as no intimation had been transmitted to us of a change of the orders. Meanwhile the mob increased in numbers about the depot. Soon the car moved on. At the first turn of a street, it was thrown from the track. The men were ordered to remain in the car until it was put again on the track. The mob now begun to throw stones and brickbats, some of which entered the car. On Pratt Street, the mob surrounded it; the car was made a complete wreck. Shots were fired by the mob, which were returned by the company, and was kept up with more or less spirit until the company reached the Washington Station, and joined the other seven.

Major Watson was with this company in its perilous passage, and exhibited much coolness and capacity. The other three companies, which had been separated from the rest of the command after crossing the Susquehanna, had not yet been heard from. These were the companies commanded by Captains Follansbee, Pickering, and Dike. Before they got from the Baltimore Depot, the rebels had barricaded the streets, and removed the rails from the track crossing the city, so the cars containing these companies could not move. They had, therefore, either to force their way through the city on foot, retreat, or surrender. They determined to go forward. In getting out of the cars, cheers were given by the mob for Jeff Davis and South Carolina. Secession flags were flaunted in the faces of the men; they were told to dig their graves; that thirty Southern men could whip the whole of the Yankee State of Massachusetts. Our men bore these affronts with silence. They were two hundred men