City, port of entry, commercial metropolis of
Maryland, and sixth city in the
United States in population according to the census of 1900; on the
Patapsco River; 38 miles northeast of
Washington, D. C. The city covers an area of 28 square miles; has an admirable harbor defended by
Fort McHenry (see
McHenry, Fort); and is popularly known as “The
Monumental City.”
Baltimore has a history dating back to 1662, when its site was included in a patent for a tract of land granted to
Charles Gorsuch.
David Jones, the first settler on the
site of
Baltimore, in 1682, gave his name to a small stream that runs through the city.
In January, 1730, a town was laid out on the west of this stream, contained in a plot of 60 acres, and was called
Baltimore, in honor of
Cecil, Lord Baltimore.
In the same year William Fell, a ship-carpenter, purchased a tract east of the stream and called it
Fell's Point, on the extremity of which
Fort McHenry now stands.
In 1732 a new town of 10 acres was laid out on the east side of the stream, and called
Jonestown.
It was united to
Baltimore in 1745, dropping its own name.
In 1767
Baltimore became the county town.
The population in 1890 was 434,439; in 1900, 508,957.
When the
British army approached the
Delaware River (December, 1776), and it was feared that they would cross into
Pennsylvania and march on
Philadelphia, there was much anxiety among the patriots.
The Continental Congress, of the courage and patriotism of which there was a growing distrust, were uneasy.
Leading republicans hesitated to go further, and only
Washington and a few other choice spirits were hopeful.
When the
commander-in-chief was asked what he would do it
Philadelphia should be taken, he replied, “We will retreat beyond the
Susquehanna River, and thence, if necessary, to the
Alleghany Mountains.”
The great body of Quakers, numerous and influential in
Pennsylvania, were opposed to the war, and loyalists abounded everywhere, Mifflin, who was a disowned member of the Society of Friends, and had witnessed the sudden growing lukewarmness of the
Congress, fearing the effect of
Howe's proclamation upon both, strongly recommended the removal of that body from
Philadelphia.
General Putnam, who had been sent to that city to fortify it, earnestly seconded
Mifflin's proposition; and the
Congress, trembling for their personal safety, gladly complied, and adjourned (Dec. 12), to meet at
Baltimore, Dec. 20.
Putnam was invested with almost absolute control of military affairs in
Philadelphia, and the
Congress delegated its executive powers to a resident committee composed of
Robert Morris,
George Clymer, and
George Walton, to act in their behalf during their absence.
In
Baltimore, the
Congress reassembled (Dec. 20, 1776) in a spacious brick building that stood until within a few years,
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with fronts on Baltimore, Sharpe, and Liberty streets, and where, on the 23d,
Rev. Patrick Allison, first minister of the Presbyterian Church in
Baltimore, and
Rev. William White, of the Episcopal Church in
Philadelphia, were appointed chaplains.
On June 18, 1860, the adjourned convention of Democratic delegates who had assembled in
Charleston met at
Baltimore, with
Mr. Cushing in the chair.
The
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Meeting-place of Congress in Baltimore in 1776. |
seceders from the Charleston Convention, who had been in session at
Richmond, had adjourned to
Baltimore, and claimed the right to sit in the convention from which they had withdrawn.
Mr. Cushing declined to decide the delicate question which arose, and referred the whole matter to the convention.
It was debated for some time, when it was proposed that no delegate should be admitted unless he would pledge himself to abide by the action of a majority of the convention and support its nominees.
The debates were hot and acrimonious, and at evening there were two mass-meetings of the Democracy in
Baltimore, attended by tens of thousands of citizens and strangers.
On the morning of June 19 the subject of contesting delegates was referred to the committee on credentials, and on the 21st, the committee not agreeing, two reports were submitted.
Then a very warm debate was had, in which free rein was given to the expression of opinion, and the reopening of the slave trade was advocated.
Finally, on Friday, the 22d, the majority report was adopted, and the places of most of the seceders, who were unseated, were filled by
Douglas men. Then there was another secession of delegates from the slave-labor States, and on the following morning
Mr. Cushing and a majority of the
Massachusetts delegation also withdrew.
“We put our withdrawal before you,” said
Mr. Butler (
Benjamin F.) of that delegation, “upon the simple ground, among others, that there has been a withdrawal, in part, of a majority of the States, and, further (and that, perhaps, more personal to myself), upon the ground that I will not sit in a convention where the African slave trade — which is piracy by the laws of my country — is approvingly advocated.”
Gov. David Tod, of
Ohio, was then called to the chair in place of
Cushing, retired, and the convention proceeded to ballot for a Presidential candidate.
Some of the
Southern members remained in the convention; and the speech of a delegate from
Arkansas (
Mr. Flournoy), a slave-holder and friend of the system, was so liberal that it had a powerful effect upon delegates from the free-labor States in favor of
Mr. Douglas.
Of 194 votes cast on the second ballot,
Mr. Douglas received 181, and he was declared duly nominated.
Mr. Fitzpatrick, of
Alabama, nominated for
Vice-President, declined two days afterwards, and
Herschel V. Johnson, of
Georgia, was substituted.
The convention adjourned June 23, 1860.
Early in January, 1861,
Gov. John A. Andrew (q. v.), of
Massachusetts, tendered troops to the government for its protection.
Fort Sumter was attacked, and on the day when the
President's call for troops was issued,
Senator Wilson telegraphed to
Governor Andrew to despatch twenty companies to
Washington
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immediately.
The formal requisition of the
Secretary of War arrived an hour later, calling for two regiments from
Massachusetts, and before sunset the same day an order went out for four regiments to muster forthwith on Boston Common.
Benjamin F. Butler was commissioned brigadier-general, and these regiments formed his brigade.
On the 16th
Senator Wilson telegraphed for four regiments.
They were ready, and the 6th Regiment,
Colonel Jones, was sent forward immediately, to go by way of New York,
Philadelphia, and
Baltimore.
The regiment consisted of eleven companies, and to these were added two more.
News had reached
Baltimore of the approach of these troops, and there was much excitement there on the morning of April 19, for they had heard of the destruction of the armory and arsenal at
Harper's Ferry the night before.
At near noon the
Massachusetts troops arrived, and the excitement was intensified.
When the train reached the President Street station, between which and Camden Street station the cars were drawn by horses, a mob of about 500 men were waiting to receive them.
The number rapidly increased, until, when the cars started, at least 2,000 men followed them, with yells, to the
Camden Street station, where another mob, which had been gathering all the morning, met them.
A mob in Pratt Street became more and more unruly, shouting lustily for “Jeff Dais and the Southern Confederacy,” and at near the corner of Gay Street, where lay a heap of stones, they broke loose from all restraint, and hurled these missiles upon the cars loaded with soldiers as they were passing.
Every window was demolished, and several soldiers were hurt.
Then the cry was raised, “Tear up the track!”
That could not easily be done, and the mob barricaded the street by dragging anchors upon it from a store near by. The troops back of the barricade alighted for the purpose of marching to the station.
They consisted of four companies.
As they began a march in close order the mob fell upon them.
The rioters were led by a man with a Confederate flag on a pole, who told the troops they should never go through the city---that “every nigger of 'em ” would be killed before they could reach the other station.
The word
March! was given to the troops, when the mob began hurling bricks and stones.
The missiles filled the air like hail, while the troops advanced at a “double-quick.”
Very soon the attack became mole furious, and several of the soldiers were knocked down by stones and their muskets taken from them.
Presently some shots were fired by the infuriated populace.
Up to this time the troops had made no resistance.
Now, finding the mob intent upon murder, the troops were ordered to cap their muskets (already loaded) and defend themselves.
They had now reached Gay Street, and the mob was full 10,000 strong, hurling stones and bricks.
Heavy pieces of iron were thrown upon them from windows.
One of them crushed a man to the earth.
Now the troops turned and fired at random at the mob. Shouts, stones, musketry, shrieks of women, and the carrying of wounded men into stores made an appalling tragedy.
The severest of the fight was in Pratt Street, between Gay and Bowley's wharf, neal Calvert Street. The mayor of
Baltimore tried to quell the storm of passion, but in vain, and the New-Englanders were left to fight their way through to the
Camden Street station.
They were furiously assailed at Howard Street, where about twenty slots were fired.
At a little past noon the troops entered the cars for
Washington.
Three of their number had been killed outright, one mortally wounded, and eight were seriously hurt and several slightly.
Nine citizens of
Baltimore were killed and many — how many is not known — were wounded.
The mob followed the cars as they went off for
Washington, more than a mile, impeding the progress of the train with stones, logs, and telegraph-poles, which the accompanying police removed.
The train was fired into from the hills on the way. The troops leached the
Capitol that evening, and were quartered in the
Senate Chamber.
On the night of this fearful riot
Marshal Kane and
ex-Governor Lowe went to the mayor and
Governor Hicks for authority to commit further outrages.
Kane said he had information that other Union troops were on the way by railroad from
Harrisburg and
Philadelphia, and he wanted authority to destroy the bridges on those roads.
The mayor cheerfully gave
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them power so far as his authority extended, but the governor refused.
So, without his sanction,
Kane and the mayor went to the office of Charles
Howard, president of the board of police, and received orders for the destruction of bridges on roads entering
Baltimore.
A gang of men was sent out who destroyed the
Canton bridge, a short distance from the city.
When a train from the north approached, it was stopped, the passengers were turned out, the cars were filled by the mob, and the engineer was compelled to run his train back to the long bridges over the
Gunpowder and
Bush creeks, arms of
Chesapeake Bay.
These bridges were fired and a large portion of them consumed.
Another party went up the Northern Central Railway from
Baltimore to
Cockeysville, 15 miles north, and destroyed two wooden bridges there, and smaller structures on the road.
The telegraphwires on all the leading lines out of
Baltimore, excepting the one that kept up a communication with the
Confederates at
Harper's Ferry, were destroyed, and thus all communication by telegraph and railway between
Washington and the loyal States was cut off.
Governor Hicks passed the night of April 19 at the house of
Mayor Brown in
Baltimore.
It was the night after the attack on the
Massachusetts troops there.
At eleven o'clock the mayor, with the concurrence of the governor, sent a committee of three persons to
President Lincoln with a letter in which he assured the
chief magistrate that the people of
Baltimore were exasperated to the highest degree by the passage of troops through that city, and that the citizens were “universally decided in the opinion that no more should be ordered to come.”
He gave notice of the fearful riot the day before, and he requested the
President not to order or permit any more troops to pass through the city, adding, “If they should attempt it the responsibility for the bloodshed will not rest on me.”
The committee saw the
President early in the morning (April 20). The President told them that no more should come
through the city if they could pass peaceably
around it. This answer did not satisfy the
Confederates, and they pushed forward military preparations, making the capital more isolated from the loyal people every hour.
The excitement in
Washington was now becoming fearful, and at three o'clock on Sunday morning (April 21) the
President sent for
Governor Hicks and
Mayor Brown.
The former, with two others, hastened to
Washington.
At an interview with the
President and
General Scott, the latter proposed to bring troops by water to
Annapolis, and march them across
Maryland to the capital, a distance of about 40 miles. The Baltimore Confederates were not satisfied.
The “soil of
Maryland must not be polluted by the feet of National troops
anywhere.”
On the 22d,
Governor Hicks was induced to send a message to the
President, advising him not to order any more troops across the soil of
Maryland, and to send away some who were already at
Annapolis.
The President replied kindly but firmly.
He reminded his
Excellency that the route of the troops across that State chosen by the
general-in-chief was farthest removed from populous towns, and said: “The President cannot but remember that there has been a time in the history of our country [1814] when a general [Winder, of
Maryland] of the American Union, with forces designed for the defence of the capital, was not unwelcome anywhere in the
State of Maryland, and certainly not at
Annapolis, then, as now, the capital of that patriotic State; and then, also, one of the capitals of the
Union.”
Governor Hicks had also unwisely recommended the
President to refer the matter in dispute between the national government and
Maryland to Lord Lyons, the
British minister at
Washington.
To this proposition
Mr. Lincoln replied: “If eighty years could have obliterated all other noble sentiments of that age from
Maryland, the
President would be hopeful, nevertheless, that there is one that would ever remain there, as elsewhere.
That sentiment is, that no domestic contention whatever that may arise among the parties of this republic ought, in any case, to be referred to any foreign arbitrament, least of all to the arbitrament of a European monarchy.”
This rebuke was keenly felt.
Yet still another embassy in the interest of the
Baltimore Confederates visited the
President.
Five members of the Young Men's Christian Association of Baltimore,
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with
Rev. Dr. Fulton, of the Baptist Church, at their head, waited on the
President, and assured him that if he would let the country know that he was disposed “to recognize the independence of the
Southern States, that they had formed a government of their own, and that they would never again unite with the
North,” he could produce peace.
When
Dr. Fulton expressed a hope that no more troops would be allowed to cross
Maryland, the
President replied, substantially: “I
must have troops for the defence of the capital.
The
Carolinians are now marching across
Virginia to seize the capital and hang me. What am I to do?
I
must have troops, I say; and, as they can neither crawl under
Maryland nor fly over it, they must come across it.”
With this significant intimation of the
President that he should take measures to defend the republic without asking the consent of the authorities or inhabitants of any State, the deputation retired, and none other was afterwards sent by the enemies of the
Union in
Baltimore.
The authorities of
Baltimore, civil and military, took measures, however, to prevent any more National troops from passing through the city.
Armed men flocked into the town from the country with all sorts of weapons.
Cannons were exercised openly in the streets.
Marshal Kane, under the direction of the city authorities, forbade the display of the national flag for thirty days, that it might not “disturb the public peace.”
The exasperated people of the free-labor States could hardly be restrained from marching on
Baltimore and laying it in ashes.
Measures were soon used to subdue that city by force.
Steps were taken to repair the burned railway bridges.
and a singular railway battery was constructed in
Philadelphia for the protection of the men engaged in the work — a car made of boileriron, musket-proof, with a 24-pound cannon mounted at one end to fire grape and chain shot.
General Scott planned a grand campaign against
Baltimore.
He proposed to move simultaneously upon the city four columns of troops of 3,000 men each--one from
Washington, a second from New York, a third from
Perrysville, or
Elkton, by land or water, or both.
and a fourth from
Annapolis.
It was thought 12,000 men would be needed for the enterprise.
They were not at hand, for 10,000 troops were yet needed at the capital for its perfect security.
The time for the execution of the plan seemed somewhat remote.
Gen. B. F. Butler conceived a more expeditious and less cumbersome plan.
He was satisfied that the
Confederates in
Baltimore were numerically weak, and that the Unionists, with a little help, could easily reverse the order of things there.
He hastened to
Washington to consult with
General Scott, and simply asked permission to take a regiment or two from
Annapolis, march them to the relay house on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway (9 miles from
Baltimore) and hold it, so as to cut the
Confederates off from facile communication with
Harper's Ferry.
The permission was granted.
“What are the powers of a general commanding a department?”
asked
Butler.
“Absolute,” responded
Scott.
Butler ascertained that Baltimore was in his “department,” and he went back to
Annapolis to execute a bold plan which he had conceived.
At the close of April, 1861, he had fully 10,000 men under his command, and an equal number were guarding the seat of government.
The
Unionists of
Maryland were already asserting their rights openly.
Governor Hicks had just cast a damper on the
Confederates by recommending, in a message to the legislature, a neutral policy for
Maryland.
On the evening of May 4 an immense Union meeting was held in
Baltimore.
These proofs of the latent force of the Unionists of
Maryland gave
Butler every encouragement.
He had proposed to do himself, with a few men, at once, what
Scott proposed to do with 12.000 men in an indefinite time.
On the afternoon of May 4 he issued orders for the 8th New York and 6th Massachusetts regiments, with a battery of the
Boston Light Artillery, to proceed from
Washington, D. C., to the relay house on the morning of the 5th.
They did so, in thirty cars.
They seized the railway station at the relay house.
Butler accompanied them, and remained there a little more than a week.
From
Unionists of
Baltimore he obtained all desired information.
Through
Col. Schuyler Hamilton, on
Scott's staff, he received permission to arrest Confederates
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in and out of
Baltimore, to prevent armed bodies from joining those at
Harper's Ferry, and to look after a quantity of gunpowder said to be stored in a church in
Baltimore.
Towards the evening of the 13th the entire 6th Massachusetts Regiment, a part of the New York 8th, with the
Boston Light Artillery with two cannons — about 1,000 men in all — were put on cars headed towards
Harper's Ferry.
The train moved up the
Patapsco Valley about 2 miles, and then backed slowly to the relay house and past it. At dark it was in the
Camden Street station.
in
Baltimore.
A heavy thunder-storm was about to burst upon the city, and, few persons being about, little was known of this portentous arrival.
Butler marched his troops from the station to
Federal Hill in a drenching shower.
He sat down in his wet garments at past midnight and wrote a proclamation, dated “
Federal Hill,
Baltimore, May 14, 1861,” in which it was announced that troops under his command occupied the city for the purpose of enforcing respect and obedience to the laws, as well of the
State as of the
United States, which were being “violated within its limits by some malignant and traitorous men.”
This proclamation, published in the
Baltimore Clipper in the morning, was the first intimation to the citizens that National troops were in possession of their town.
The conquest was complete, and the hold thus taken on
Baltimore was never relinquished.
General Scott was offended because of
Butler's unauthorized act, and requested
President Lincoln to remove him from the department.
The President did so, but gave
Butler the commission of a major-general and the command of a much more extended military district — the Department of Virginia, which included
Fort Monroe.
The
chief of police in
Baltimore at this exciting period was
George P. Kane, with the title of “marshal.”
He was a leading Confederate in that city and an active opposer of the government in
Maryland.
In
Baltimore he was the head of the
Confederate movements in
Maryland; and early in June, 1861, the national government was satisfied that a powerful combination was forming there, whose purpose was to assist the army of Confederates at
Manassas, under
Beauregard, to seize the national capital, by preventing loyal soldiers passing through that State, and aiding Marylanders to cross into
Virginia and swell the ranks of the Confederate forces.
The government took energetic steps to avert this threatened danger.
Nathaniel P. Banks (q. v.),
ex-governor of
Massachusetts, lately commissioned major-general of volunteers, was assigned to the command of the Department of Annapolis, as
Butler's successor, with his headquarters at
Baltimore.
It was evident to
Banks that the board of police and
Marshal Kane were in active sympathy, if not in actual league, with the leading Confederates of
Maryland.
After satisfying himself of the complicity of certain officials in the movement, he ordered a large body of soldiers, armed and equipped with ball cartridges, to march into
Baltimore from
Fort McHenry before daybreak on June 2, and to arrest
Marshal Kane and place him a prisoner in that fort.
At the same time
Banks issued a proclamation, giving his reasons for the act. He did not intend to interfere with the lawful acts of the civil authority, he said, but as it was well known that a disloyal combination existed in his department, and that the
chief of police, “in contravention of his duty and in violation of law,” was “by direction or indirection both witness and protector in the transactions of armed parties engaged therein,” the government could not “regard him otherwise than as the head of an armed force hostile to its authority, and acting in concert with its avowed enemies.”
He appointed
Brig.-Gen. John R. Kenly, a citizen of
Baltimore,
provost-marshal in and for that city, to “superintend and cause to be executed the police laws” of
Baltimore, “with the aid and assistance of the subordinate officers of the police department,” assuring the citizens that when a loyal man should be appointed chief of police the military would at once yield to the civil authority.
The police commissioners met and protested against this act as illegal, and disbanded the police.
Banks soon regulated the matter so as to quiet the citizens, and
Kenly, organizing a police force of loyal men, whom he could trust, 250 strong, took possession of the quarters of the late
marshal and police commissioners.
There he found ample evidence of treacherous
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designs.
Concealed beneath the floors in several rooms he found a large number of small-arms, of every description; and in a wood-yard in the rear, in a position to command an alley, were four iron cannon with suitable cartridges and balls.
The old police commissioners continuing to hold meetings, they were arrested and sent to
Fort Warren, in
Boston Harbor.
At the suggestion of many Union citizens of
Baltimore,
George R. Dodge, a civilian and citizen, was appointed chief of police, and
Colonel Kenly joined his regiment — the 1st Maryland Volunteers.
