A reign of terror.
The work of oppressing the citizens of
Baltimore began as soon as
General Butler had established himself, and a reign of terror began.
Spies and informers abounded.
One of
General Butler's soldiers at the
Relay had a case of cholera morbus.
He assumed that the man had been poisoned with strychnine and he threatened to put an agent armed with poison in every family in the
State.
Leading citizens were arrested and dragged from their beds at midnight and sent to prison, without knowing the nature of the charges against them.
The
Chief Justice of the
United States was defied and his authority scoffed at by military underlings.
The
Mayor of the city, the
Marshal of Police and the
Police Commissioners were all subjected to arrest, and military rule succeeded in the city government.
Gentlemen whose only offense was that they were members of the General Assembly, were hunted down like criminals, and some of them sent to a Massachusetts prison.
To secure the arrest of a man no evidence was necessary.
Even children and nurse girls on the street were unsafe.
If a little girl happened to wear a white apron with a red binding, it was considered a display of Confederate colors and an act of disloyalty.
General Dix, who took command July 24, said it required 10,000 men to keep
Baltimore in subjection, and he put the city under the heavy guns of three fortifications.
All over the
State men were arrested upon the information of spies, and subjected to hardships and indignities.
Judge Carmichael while sitting in his court at
Easton, was assaulted by soldiers and a provost marshal, with his deputies, and dragged bleeding from the bench.
