William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

[101] was the city to be avoided. Neither the despatch nor the biography gives just credit to Mr. Felton, who had suggested and fixed upon this route on the 19th, when the Mayor of Baltimore telegraphed him to send no more troops through that city, and he promised that no more would be sent. Mr. J. Edgar Thompson, President of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, and Isaac Hazlehurst, Esq., of Philadelphia, were in his office when the despatch from the Mayor of Baltimore was received; and to them he suggested the Annapolis route, and they agreed that it was ‘the only thing to be done.’ He immediately telegraphed to Captain Galloway, of the ferry-boat ‘Maryland,’ at Perryville, to fill her up with coal, and to make her ready to go to Annapolis; and also to procure a pilot who knew Annapolis Harbor. These three gentlemen also conferred with the steamboat owners in Philadelphia about getting their boats ready to take troops from Perryville to Annapolis; and, in some cases, they became personally responsible for the pay of the officers of the boats. Some of the men declined absolutely to put their boats at the disposal of the Government; and they were seized by Governor Curtin, who arrived that evening from Harrisburg. A consultation was held that night at the house of General Patterson, in Philadelphia, at which Governor Curtin, Mr. Felton, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Hazlehurst, and Mr. Henry, Mayor of Philadelphia, were present. The exciting state of affairs was discussed, and Mr. Felton explained the route to Washington by way of Annapolis. ‘After considerable discussion, the Annapolis route was adopted by the military, and the programme of Mr. Felton and Mr. Thompson approved.’ I now quote from Mr. Felton's manuscript:—

General Butler arrived in Philadelphia the same evening, with the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment; and I requested General Patterson to give me an order to take to General Butler, directing him to go to Washington by the Annapolis route. The general said he had no military authority over General Butler, and could not give the order; but that I might say to him that he most urgently advised that he should go to Annapolis. I then, in company with Admiral, then Commodore, Dupont, and my brother Frank, called upon General Butler at the Continental Hotel, and told him all I knew about the condition