The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South
Alexander Kelly McClure, Ed.

[778] were sober and clear-headed enough to see that a collision between the Federal authorities and the citizens of Baltimore could not but result in the most disastrous consequences. The Mayor of Baltimore, at the time, was George William Brown, now Chief Judge of the Supreme Bench of that city, a person of determined courage and impartial judgment. The Marshal of Police was George P. Kane, a man of inflexible honesty and singleness of purpose and great determination. To these two men must be ascribed the highest honor for their strenuous efforts, in the great part successful, to prevent further bloodshed after the first attack at the Pratt street bridge. Had they been notified in time of the coming of the troops, it is probable that the riot might have been prevented altogether. It has frequently been asserted at the North that the city authorities were in league with the mob; but, after a diligent search, I think I may say, with perfect truth, that Mayor Brown and the Chief of Police, notwithstanding their strong Southern sympathies, did everything in their power to prevent bloodshed.

The Governor of Maryland, Thomas H. Hicks, was a Union man, although he had been elected as a Pro-slavery Know-Nothing. His loyalty was suspected at Washington, but he lent no countenance whatever to the proposed resistance to the “Federal invasion.” After the event, Governor Hicks was the first man, however, to suggest the armed resistance which he afterward deprecated with so much honor; and, in this connection, I cannot forbear printing the following curious document written by him:

The writer became conspicuously “loyal” before spring!

On the 18th of April, a dispatch was received in Baltimore from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, announcing that the Northern Central