On April 19, 1861, the first blood of the American Civil War is shed when a secessionist mob in Baltimore attacks Massachusetts troops bound … From the 6th Massachusetts, Addison Whitney, Luther Ladd, Sumner Needham and Charles Taylor were killed during the march. The Pratt Street Riot was over. That volley repelled the rioters long enough for the major and his men to escape. The two cars returned to the President Street Station and the soldiers disembarked to the howls and jeers of the mob.
Holding up his bloody hand, the latter requested permission to return fire, which Major Watson promptly granted. Without hesitation, he gave the order to march. [B]ut,” Jones added, “if you are fired upon and any one of you is hit, your officers will order you to fire. “You will undoubtedly be insulted, abused, and, perhaps, assaulted, to which you must pay no attention…even if they throw stones, bricks, or other missiles…. “This is nothing. More than half a dozen states had already left the Union, and more were sure to follow. Three blocks of this charade was all that Lieutenant Leander Lynde could take. Civilians who had demonstrated secessionist sympathies were arrested and taken to Fort McHenry, where they were held without charge. To ensure that no one attempted to pass, Kane, a burly, no-nonsense tough, raised his revolver and cried out, “Keep back, men, or I shoot!” Kane’s reputation intimidated even the roughest thugs, helping to quell the riot.
Southern cartoonist Adalbert Volck lampooned that humiliating maneuver in an etching, Passage Through Baltimore, depicting a cowardly-looking Lincoln peeking through the side door of a boxcar.Like all Washington-bound passengers arriving from Philadelphia, Lincoln had to switch trains at the B&O line’s Camden Station, a mile and a half west of the PW&B’s depot. What’s more, the Union men faced a plain-clothed enemy familiar with every inch of the neighborhood.Once word came that the tracks were now impassable, the 220 men who still needed to reach Camden Station wheeled into columns outside the President Street depot under the command of stout Captain Albert S. Follansbee. On April 16, Major Benjamin Watson closed his law office in Lawrence with scarcely two hours’ notice. The Baltimore Plot was an conspiracy in late February 1861 to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln en route to his inauguration. The authorities…did their best to day [sic] to protect both strangers and citizens and to prevent a collision, but [in] vain….it is my solemn duty to inform you that it is not possible for more soldiers to pass through Baltimore unless they fight their way at every step.”Earlier that day five companies of Pennsylvania militia and a detachment of 4th Artillery Regulars ran into a rock- throwing mob at the Bolton Street station. Lincoln knew that if Union forces were denied this vital transportation route, the North would lose the war before it started.
They rounded the bend from President Street at the double quick, firing haphazardly at the mob, which was close on their heels. Quartermaster James Munroe issued each man aboard the train 20 rounds of ball cartridges in preparation for their arrival at the Baltimore station. “The people are exasperated to the highest degree by the passage of troops,” Brown wrote, “and the citizens are universally decided in the opinion that no more should be ordered to come.
Just two months before, the president-elect opted to sneak through Baltimore under cover of darkness, to avoid a possible assassination plot. Nicholas Biddle, a 65-year-old black orderly, caught the brunt of the crowd’s wrath. No one was safe. In swift succession they rolled out of the yard and onto President Street. Rioters dumped heavy anchors and cartloads of sand onto the tracks. Finally, in June, 1861, Maryland voted on secession. Eight rioters, one innocent bystander and three soldiers were killed, twenty four soldiers and an unknown number of civilians woundedIn May, less than a month after the riot, General Butler and the 6th Mass. Baltimore fell under military rule. As the soldiers brought their guns to shoulder, Mayor Brown ran forward, shouting at them, “For God’s sake, don’t shoot!” Given the noise and chaos at that moment, it’s unlikely that anyone heard him.The regiment fired into the crowd one last time before Police Marshal George Proctor Kane and 50 officers arrived to form a barrier between the troops and the mob. According to Private William Gurley of Company K, all accepted their lot “solemnly [and] with unchanged features,” then capped and loaded their .58-caliber Springfields as ordered.Few of the men spoke as they neared the city. When members of this 11-company regiment—once farmers, merchants, tradesmen and lawyers—left for Washington, they were heralded by Northerners as the Union’s heroic protectors.But the journey’s romance soured for the new troops as their train neared Baltimore. A few were shot or beaten senseless.The mayor and Follansbee met at the base of Pratt Street, and Brown introduced himself. The metallic scraping of ramrods and the train’s rhythmic clatter were the only sounds that filled the coach—that is, until Colonel Jones entered the car and broke the silence with an ominous set of instructions.
Maryland, My Maryland. Their arrival went largely unnoticed by pedestrians, most of whom hadn’t yet realized that the train was carrying Federal troops. Moments later the 6th was able to march the rest of the way to Camden Station, where they boarded a train to Washington, D.C.Though the fighting had lasted less than an hour, there was a sizable butcher’s bill. Without a substantial military force to protect it, the U.S. capital remained an inviting target, and Northern troops’ shortest route was through the major railroad hub of Baltimore, the North’s gateway to the South.