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Or all the
Border Slave States,
Virginia held the most equivocal and deceptive attitude.
Beyond all doubt a majority of her people desired to adhere to the
Union, and at an election for members of a State convention held in February the majority of professedly Union men chosen was as three to one.
But when this convention met, it appeared that many of these so-called
Unionists had trifled with their constituents, and finally betrayed their trust; they were
Unionists only upon conditions to which the
Union would never consent.
Governor Letcher, of
Virginia, also labored in secret activity to promote secession.
There was a pestiferous clique of radical disunionists about
Richmond, and, under an outward show of qualified loyalty, the conspiracy was almost as busy and as potent in the “Old Dominion” as in the
Cotton States themselves.
When
Sumter fell, all this hidden intrigue blazed out into open insurrection.
The convention, notwithstanding many previous contrary votes, held a secret session on April 17th, and passed an ordinance of secession, eighty-eight to fifty-five.
The gradual but systematic arming of the
State militia had been going on for a year past.
Governor Letcher insultingly refused the
President's call for troops on the 16th, and immediately set military expeditions in movement to seize the
United States
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Navy Yard at
Norfolk, and the United States Armory at
Harper's Ferry.
The convention made a pretence of submitting the question of secession to a popular vote, to be taken on May 23d following; and then, as if in mockery, entered at once into a secret military league with the “
Confederate States” on April 24th, placing
Jefferson Davis in control of all her armies and military affairs, and filling the
State with “foreign” regiments from the
South.
In the Border
State of Maryland the situation was somewhat different.
The
Unionists were also in the majority, with an active and influential minority for secession.
Here, as elsewhere, conspiracy had been at work for months, and gained many of the prominent leaders in politics.
The Legislature was believed to be unreliable.
Treason had so far taken a foothold in the populous city of
Baltimore, that a secret recruiting office was sending enlisted men to
Charleston.
But all local demonstration was as yet baffled by the unwavering loyalty of the
Governor of
Maryland,
Thomas Holliday Hicks.
He had refused and resisted all the subtle temptations and schemes of the traitors, especially in declining to call the Legislature together to give disunion the cloak of a legal starting-point.
To understand correctly the series of sudden and startling events which now occurred in quick succession, it is necessary to bear in mind that the ten miles square of Federal territory known as the District of Columbia, in which the capital of the country,
Washington, is situated, lies between
Virginia and
Maryland, and was formed out of the original territory of those States.
In all wars, foreign or domestic, the safety of the capital, its buildings, archives, and officers, is, of course, a constant and a paramount necessity.
To guard the
City of Washington against a rumored plot of seizure by the conspirators,
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President Buchanan had in January permitted
Secretary Holt and
General Scott to concentrate a small number of regular troops in it. Some of these had ever since remained there.
As soon as
President Lincoln decided to send provisions to
Sumter, he had, in anticipation of coming dangers, ordered
General Scott to take additional measures for the security of the capital, and to that end authorized him to muster into the service of the
United States about fifteen companies of District militia.
When
Sumter fell and the proclamation was issued, as a still further precaution the first few regiments were ordered directly to
Washington.
To the
Massachusetts Sixth belongs the unfading honor of being the first regiment, armed and equipped for service, to respond to the
President's call.
Mustering on Boston Common, on Tuesday morning, April 16th, it embarked on railroad cars on Wednesday evening, April 17th, and, after a continuous popular ovation along the route, it reached
Philadelphia Thursday evening, April 18th. Friday, April 19th, was the anniversary of the
battle of Lexington, famous in American history.
Early that morning, after a short bivouac, the regiment was once more on its way. It had been warned of danger in
Baltimore; the unruly populace was excited by a series of secession meetings; part of an unarmed
Pennsylvania regiment had, in its transit, been hooted and stoned the evening before.
As the train approached the city,
Colonel Jones, commanding the Sixth, ordered his men to load and cap their rifles, and instructed them to pay no attention to insults or even ordinary missiles, but to vigorously return any attack with firearms.
A misunderstanding existed about the method of proceeding.
Colonel Jones expected that his regiment would march in a body through the open streets, and had made his dispositions accordingly.
When, therefore, the train halted, he
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was surprised and disconcerted to find that the cars were suddenly detached from the train and from each other, and, with the troops still in them, were rapidly drawn by horses through the streets on a track running from the
Philadelphia depot to the
Washington depot, the two being about a mile apart.
Himself and the
regimental officers were in the first car; others followed, and, until eight cars had thus passed, no detention or demonstration occurred.
But an excited
 |
Route of the Massachusetts Sixth through Baltimore. |
crowd meanwhile gathered along the track; the ninth car was received with hootings and insults, was detained by slight obstructions, and, before it finally reached the
Washington depot, its windows were smashed by stones and bricks, and some of its occupants wounded by gun-and pistol-shots, the soldiers having also returned the scattering fire.
By this time the crowd, grown to formidable proportions, and fully maddened, succeeded in placing more permanent
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obstructions on the track-sand, paving-stones, heavy anchors from a wharf near by, and in one place had partially torn up a small bridge.
Four companies still remained behind; and these were now notified by the railroad employees of the dangers ahead, and the impossibility of proceeding in the cars as the preceding companies had done.
The officers thereupon consulted together, and determined to undertake the trip on foot; and, placing
Captain Follansbee in command, they descended from their cars, formed deliberately on the sidewalk, and started forward.
Almost at the outset they encountered an improvised procession of the mob following a secession flag, and in an instant there was a quick and short
melee. Disentangling themselves from this, the officers urged the men into a double-quick, which, however, only encouraged the rioters, who looked upon it as a sign of fear and flight.
New and increased crowds were soon met; they were threatened in rear and front, and a discharge of firearms began from sidewalks and windows.
Then the order was given to return the fire.
There was struggle, confusion, smoke, hooting, yells of “nigger thieves,” “traitors,” men dropping on the sidewalk and falling from windows, and wounded soldiers crawling feebly away under the feet of the rushing, howling mob.
Into the midst of this terror there suddenly came a little ray of hope and help.
People began to shout, “Here comes the
Mayor!”
The city authorities, who had been waiting at the
Washington Depot, had heard of the riot and were hastening to the rescue.
The crowd fell back; a man came up, shook hands with
Captain Follansbee, saying, “I am the
Mayor of
Baltimore.”
Mayor Brown courageously placed himself beside the captain, and, by voice and gesture, endeavored to quell the tumult, but to little purpose.
The
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struggling, fighting column pushed ahead doggedly a square or two farther, the attack increasing rather than diminishing.
The
Mayor's own patience and temper was exhausted, and, seizing a gun from the hands of a soldier, he fired at and brought down one of the rioters.
At this point,
Captain Follansbee states, the
Mayor disappeared-most probably, as it would seem, because of the fortunate arrival of more effective help.
Marshal Kane,
chief of police, also hastening to the relief, here arrived on the scene of conflict with a squad of fifty policemen.
Taking advantage of a favorable instant, he deployed his men in a line across the street, opened their ranks to allow the troops to pass through, and then, closing his line again, confronted the advancing mob with drawn revolvers.
The movement diverted a moment's attention and checked the onward rush; the barrier held firm, the column of soldiers passed quickly on, and, though it met one or two slight additional attacks, it made its way to the
Washington Depot.
Here also there was a great crowd and excited tumult; the men were got into cars, and the train put into motion toward
Washington under much difficulty; but no bloodshed occurred till at the last moment, when a shower of stones or a pistol-shot provoked a return volley from a window of the rear car, killing a prominent citizen.
The number of casualties was never correctly ascertained.
The soldiers lost four killed and some thirty wounded; the citizens probably two or three times as many.
With the departure of the Massachusetts Sixth, the
Chief of Police supposed his immediate troubles at an end. But not yet; he was again notified that a new riot was beginning at the
Philadelphia Depot.
Hurrying there, he found that the regimental band had been left behind; and worse still, that a large number of cars constituting the rear end of the
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train, yet contained
Small's Pennsylvania Brigade, numbering some thousand men, all unarmed.
The former had already been driven from their car and scattered; the latter were just beginning to debark, entirely ignorant of what had happened.
Gathering such of his policemen as were in the neighborhood,
Marshal Kane intervened actively and with success for their temporary protection; and a hasty conference having been held with the railroad officers, the train was, by common consent, backed out of the depot and speedily despatched on its return toward
Philadelphia.
These events took place in the forenoon, between ten and twelve o'clock. As the intelligence of the riot and its bloodshed was diffused through the great city, it called into immediate action the worst passions of the populace.
For the remainder of the day the city was virtually at the mercy of the mob. By good fortune no general or widespread damage or spoliation occurred; but many minor acts of injury and law-breaking were perpetrated with impunity.
Persons were maltreated, newspapers were mobbed, and stores and gunshops were broken into and robbed of their contents.
The secession conspirators were prompt in their endeavor to turn the incident to their own advantage.
Under their management a mass meeting was called to meet that afternoon at four o'clock, in Monument Square, where, at the appointed hour, an immense concourse assembled.
All the sweeping tide of popular sentiment ran against the
Union and the
North.
There was not a National flag to be seen.
The State flag of
Maryland was displayed above the rostrum.
In substance, most of the speeches were secession harangues.
Denunciation of the soldiers, eulogies of the
South, appeal and protest against invasion and coercion, met stormy applause.
Governor Hicks was called to the stand, and yielding to the torrent of treasonable fury, made a short address
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which chimed in with the current outburst of hostile feeling.
He intimated that the
Union was broken, and that he was ready to bow before the will of the people.
He would rather lose his right arm than raise it to strike a sister State.
Finding the
Governor thus giving way, and the populace of
Baltimore rising in response to their revolutionary promptings, the conspirators pushed forward their scheme of insurrection with all diligence, and succeeded in placing
Maryland in a state of thorough revolt against the
General Government, which lasted nearly a week.
They prevailed on the
Governor to call out the militia, which, under officers mostly inclined to secession, put all military acts and authority directly against the
Union.
They induced him to call a special session of the Legislature, and under the revolutionary terror of the hour, at a special election held in
Baltimore the following week, a farcical minority vote was made to result in the choice of a city delegation to the
Lower House, from among the rankest disunionists.
They controlled the City Council, which, under plea of public defence, appropriated half a million to purchase and manufacture arms and gather the material of war. From
Baltimore the furor spread to the country towns, where companies were raised and patrols established under the instructions and command of the secession militia general of
Baltimore.
Within a few days the
United States flag practically disappeared from
Maryland.
Their most effective act remains yet to be noticed.
Near midnight of the day of the riot (April 19, 1861), the
Mayor and police authorities made an official order (secret at the time, but subsequently avowed) to burn the nearest bridges on the railroads leading into
Baltimore from the
Free States, and immediately sent out different parties (the
Chief of Police himself leading one of them), to execute the order-
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Before daylight next morning, the bridges at
Melvale, Relay House, and
Cockeysville, on the
Harrisburg road, and over the
Bush and
Gunpowder Rivers and
Harris Creek on the
Philadelphia road, were accordingly destroyed by fire, completely severing railroad communication with the
North.
The excuse was that they feared reprisal and revenge from the
Northern armies; the real motive appears to have been the stronger underlying spirit of insurrection.
Mayor Brown claimed that
Governor Hicks approved the order; the
Governor soon afterward publicly and officially denied it. Whether
Mayor Brown was a secession conspirator seems doubtful; but it is hard to resist the inference that the revolutionists influenced his action.
The controlling animus of the deed is clearly enough revealed in a telegram sent out that night by
Marshal Kane:
Thank you for your offer; bring your men in by the first train and we will arrange with the railroad afterward.
Streets red with Maryland blood.
Send expresses over the mountains and valleys of Maryland and Virginia for the riflemen to come without delay.
Fresh hordes will be down on us to-morrow (the 20th). We will fight them and whip them, or die.
This language at night, from the man who that morning had risked his life to protect the
Massachusetts soldiers, sufficiently shows the overmastering outbreak of revolutionary madness.