Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[442] de Grace and Baltimore; and a singular railway battery was constructed in Philadelphia, to be used for the protection of the men engaged in the work. It was a car made of heavy boiler iron, musket-proof, with a 24-pound cannon mounted at one end, on a gun-carriage. This was to fire grape, canister, and chain shot, while a garrison of sixty men inside would have an opportunity to employ musketry, through holes pierced in the sides and ends for the purpose.

General Scott planned a grand campaign against Baltimore. “I suppose,” he said, in a letter to General Butler, General Patterson, and others,

April 29, 1861.

“that a column from this place [Washington] of three thousand men, another from York of three thousand men, a third from Perryville, or Elkton, by land or water, or both, of three thousand men, and a fourth from Annapolis, by water, of three thousand men, might suffice.” Twelve thousand men, it was thought, might be wanted for the enterprise. They were not in hand, for at least ten thousand troops were yet needed at the capital, to give it perfect security. The Lieutenant-General thought some time must elapse before the expedition could be under-taken against the rebellious city.

General Butler had other views. He had become satisfied that the secession element in Baltimore was numerically weak, and that the Union men, with a little help,. might easily reverse the order of things there. He hastened to Washington to consult with General Scott. He did not venture to express any dissent to the plans of the General-in-chief. He simply asked permission to take a regiment or two from Annapolis, march them to the Relay House, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, nine miles from Baltimore, and hold it, so as to cut the secessionists off from facile communication with Harper's Ferry. It was granted. He then inquired, what were the powers of a General commanding a Department. “Absolute,” replied the Lieutenant-General; “he can do whatever he thinks best, unless restricted by specific orders or military law.” ¹ Butler ascertained that Baltimore was within his Military Department, and, with a plan of bold operations teeming his brain, he returned to Annapolis.

At the close of April, General Butler had full ten thousand men under his command at Annapolis, and an equal number were guarding the seat of Government. Already the Unionists of Maryland were openly asserting their rights and showing their strength. An extraordinary session of the Legislature, called by Governor Hicks at Annapolis, was not held there, for obvious reasons, but was opened on the 27th,

April.

at Frederick, about sixty miles north of Baltimore, and far away from National troops. In his message to that body, the Governor said it was his solemn conviction that the only safety for Maryland lay in its maintaining a neutral position in the controversy, that State having “violated no right of either section.” He said: “I cannot counsel Maryland to take sides against the General Government, until it shall commit outrages upon us which would justify us in resisting its authority. As a consequence, I can give no other counsel than that we shall array ourselves for Union and peace, and thus preserve our soil from being polluted with the blood of brethren. Thus, if war ”