[793]
also ordered the arrest of a number of persons for seditious utterances, and actually issued a proclamation “concerning one Spencer,” who had been heard to express disloyal sentiments, and warning others not to imitate his example.
The General seems to have stood in considerable awe of the Baltimore mob, although, at this time, the civil authorities had regained full control of affairs.
The following letter from his aide, as late as May 11th, shows that an attack at the Relay House, even then, was feared:
It was all a sham.
The attack existed only in the fertile imaginations of General Butler's informants.
Quiet had for some days been completely restored in Baltimore.
A number of the prominent agitators had gone South, and the riotous element — what there was left of it — was without leaders.
On the night of the 13th of May, General Butler, with a strong force of volunteers, moved from the Relay House to Federal hill — an elevation commanding the harbor of Baltimore-and took possession.
The civil authority was, of course, deposed; the administration of affairs was handed over to the military, and for several weeks General Butler reigned supreme.
Subsequently, he was removed to new fields of activity, and was succeeded in turn by Generals Dix, Wool, and Wallace.
The only trouble which the government had, subsequently, in Baltimore, was with the women — they did not yield as soon as the men. A number of the most obstreperous were imprisoned; fortifications, barracks, and hospitals were erected, and Baltimore, for the remainder of the war, was practically a Federal town.
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Philadelphia. 1878.
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