The Civil War - 150 Years Later -Baltimore Bloodshed

In this and subsequent special editions of Hooves, Heels and Wheels, the blog will take a look at the 150th anniversary of the events of the Civil War, and reflect on how they came about, and what implications they have for today ...

The Civil War

150 years ago This Spring - Bloodshed In Baltimore

April 19, 1861

Lincoln’s Call To Arms

“ … flushed faces, wild eyes, screaming mouths hurrahing for ‘Jeff Davis’ and ‘the Southern Confederacy’ so that the yells overpowered the discordant bands which were busy with ‘Dixie’s Land’ … here was the true revolutionary furor in full sway” The Times of London reporting in Goldsboro, NC (which hadn’t broken away from the Union yet)

“Carry terror into the hearts of the Confederates … to conquer them – not merely to defeat but to conquer, to subjugate them!” New York Times

“[the seven seceded states have] constituted combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. [The militia is needed] in order to suppress said combinations and cause the laws to be duly executed” “ … favor, facilitate and aid in this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured”. --- Abraham Lincoln

“All we want is to be left alone” “The moment that this pretension is abandoned, the sword will drop from our grasp. So long as this pretension is maintained, with a firm reliance on that Divine Power which covers with Its protection the just cause, we will continue to struggle for inherent right to freedom, independence, and self government” -J efferson Davis

150 years ago, in the weeks after the attack on Fort Sumter, telegraphs clicked and sparked throughout the North. The printing presses of the Chicago Tribune, New York Herald, New York Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer (Then called the Pennsylvania Inquirer) all swung into action. Shots had been fired! Gunpowder had been burnt! The Stars And Stripes had come under attack, fired on by secessionists who, up until a few months prior, had considered themselves good and loyal Americans.

The whirlwind of outrage that roared through the North was unlike anything the country had experienced before, and would not be matched until December of 1941. So it had actually come to this! – Southerners were so determined to break away and set up their own country, that they were perfectly willing to assault the Star Spangled Banner, under which Americans had suffered and bled throughout three wars. Perhaps once the Confederates were misguided zealots, ‘dissatisfied countrymen’ as Lincoln described them. Now, with an attack upon the US Army, the desecration of the precious flag, and attempt to kill US servicemen, the North saw Confederates as the vilest of traitors, nefarious evildoers who needed to be beaten and crushed.
On April 15th, just 2 days after the guns fell silent at Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln called for the first 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion.





In Montgomery, the temporary capital of the Confederacy, President Jefferson Davis reacted to the call with shock and outrage of his own. How dare Lincoln prepare an invasion of the South? Did not he realize that he brought the attack on Sumter on himself? Had not the Confederacy given the Union garrison there four months to peaceably evacuate? The pipe dream held by many Southerners – that their independence was as good as won with the fall of Fort Sumter – evaporated with Lincoln’s call.

The ideological gulf that separated North from South was never more apparent then in this the first few weeks of the Civil War.

Virginia Secedes – Loosing Lee

“I have served my country under the flag of the Union for more then 50 years, and so long as God permits me to live I will defend that flag with my sword, even if my own native state assails it.” Gen. Winfield Scott (Virginia)

“How can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native state? [I shall] share the miseries of my people and save in defense will draw my sword on none” Col. Robert E. Lee (Virginia)

Most of the population of Virginia was firmly on the side of Jefferson Davis and the southern Confederacy. Lincoln’s call had outraged the Old Dominion- the richest and most populous state in the South, and the birthplace of seven of the country’s sixteen presidents. Virginians were appalled that the North was preparing to invade the Deep South, and that they would be expected to stand by idly—or even participate. Virginia lawmakers made their loyalties known—on April 17th 1861, the home of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.

Not only was the United States losing much of it’s land mass to the Confederate States, it was also losing a great deal of top-flight military talent. In an age when most men and women were born, raised, educated, married, and died all within twenty miles of their cradle, feelings for home were stronger then compared to now. A few career Army officers like the General In-Chief Winfield Scott remained loyal to the Union, despite their southern roots.



However, most of the Southern born officers and men of the US Army and Navy resigned their posts, and cast their fortunes with their home states. Pierre G.T. Beauregard had been one of the first generals to go. When Virginia seceded, Beauregard was followed by Thomas Jackson, and Joseph Johnson.

No solider in the US Army was more precious to Lincoln and Scott then Col. Robert E. Lee. Brilliant and daring, Lee was the first choice of Lincoln to lead the tremendous army that was now being assembled in Washington.






To the misery of the North, it was not to be. After contemplating this heart-rending dilemma for two days at Arlington, his home, Lee resigned his commission in the US Army, the army that he had served for 30years, and offered his services to his new President, Jefferson Davis.

The Pratt Street Riot – Baltimore

The loss of Virginia and Lee was bad enough for the North. 150 years ago the President also learned how frighteningly close to losing the state of Maryland he was. Had Maryland joined the Confederacy, the Union capital would be completely severed from the Union … hardly the proper way to fight a war.

The secession of Virginia meant that the Confederacy was now right across the Potomac River in Virginia. In order to protect the capital from a possible Confederate attack, and of course to begin forming his army to recapture the South, Lincoln began ordering soldiers from all over the North to Washington DC. Train travel made the journey much faster and less arduous then it used to be, and the first soldiers – 100 Pennsylvanians- arrived three days after Lincoln’s call to arms, April 18th.

The Keystone Staters brought bad news. Maryland had not looked like friendly territory, or at least Baltimore hadn’t. Pro-Confederate secessionists had howled and cursed the Pennsylvanians as they made their way through the town, even chucking rocks and paving stones.

A crack brigade of Massachusetts soldiers were the next troops scheduled to arrive. With commendable foresight, several Bay State volunteer units had begun drilling, clearly foreseeing that the secession phenomenon could only mean war. By April they were ready to jump at Lincoln’s call to arms. The 6th Massachusetts, commanded by Col. Edward F Jones, immediately piled onto a train and made for DC. By April 18th, they were in Philadelphia, and as their train pulled out for the trip to Baltimore and Washington, they learned of the hostility of Baltimore. Col. Jones saw to it that his troops had their rifles loaded as the 10-coach train left Philadelphia.

Like most of Maryland, Baltimore was deeply split in its loyalties. Manufacturing and shipping were big business, and the state had commercial ties with the North … but at its heart, Maryland was an agricultural state, making a fortune in slave-worked tobacco plantations. This gave it something fundamentally in common with the succeeding Confederate states. Ultimately most Marylanders would favor the Union, but in these early days of the War, secessionists would have a strong voice. All Old Linesmen would evaluate and re-evaluate their loyalties, and ask the same questions that Southerners were asking. Did a state have a right to secede? Did a president have a right to prevent secession? Did the state of Maryland have the right to refuse to allow troops to be transported through its soil? Did the Federal government have the right to compel Maryland to cooperate?

A great many Marylanders had firmly made their decisions by the time the train carrying the 6th Massachusetts came snorting into President Street Station, Baltimore.

Years prior, when the train tracks had been laid in Baltimore, the city decided that they didn’t want locomotives rumbling through the heart of town. Thus a southbound journey ended at the eastern end of the city, at President Street. From there, passengers (and of course, soldiers) continuing south to Washington DC needed to wait in their coaches as they were, one by one, hitched up to a team of horses, and hauled through the city streets, north on President Street, west on Pratt Street, and South on Camden to Camden Street Trainyards. There, a locomotive to DC stood by to complete the trip.





At President Street Station, Col Jones had the choice of either disembarking all 800 men and marching them through to Camden Yards, or keeping the men in their cars and letting the horse teams move them. Perhaps with an eye to keeping a low profile, he chose the latter. It had a better chance of keeping the transit quiet, but also divided the regiment, and made the individual companies vulnerable to any sort of attack.

Seven out of ten train cars made it through the city without any problem. Unfortunately, it didn't take long before pro-Confederate Baltimoreans figured out what was going on, and an angry mob formed along the route. When the eighth car of soldiers was shot at, the soldiers of cars eight, nine and ten piled out and began to march for their lives, with Capitan Albert Follansbee in command of the detachment.

For the most part the mob taunted and jeered, and the soldiers quick marched through a storm of spittle, insults and curses. They made no response. Verbal harassment turned to rocks and paving stones. Still the solders made no retaliation as they marched down Pratt Street. Then gunshots rang out. Three Massachusetts soldiers fell dead.

The enraged Bay Staters leveled their rifles at the crowd and loosed several volleys, dropping scores of the mob. They proceeded on their way at the double-quick, literally conducting a fighting retreat as the four companies made their way to Camden Yards, and the safety of their comrades.

A furious Colonel Jones wanted to wreak bloody vengeance upon the mob and formed up his 800 men for an attack, but cool-headed subordinates reminded him of his mission – bring the 6th Massachusetts to Washington DC! Jones loaded his men onto the southbound train, and the 6th continued to DC.

The train pulled into the National Capital at 5:00pm, and was greeted by none other then the President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln shook Col. Jones hand, saying “Thank God you have come.”

Three soldiers and 12 Baltimoreans had been killed in the Pratt Street Riot, as the incident was called. 20 solders had been injured. The Civil War had not yet had it’s first major battle, but the bloodshed had started just the same, 150 years ago this spring.