On April 17, the Sixth Massachusetts Militia departed from Boston, Massachusetts, arriving in New York the following morning and Philadelphia by nightfall. To add the foregoing, an assembly elected in defiance of law, but claiming to be the legislative body of your State, and so recognized by the Executive of Maryland, was debating the Federal compact. Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Railroad organized, later became Western Maryland Railroad. If all this be not rebellion, I know not what to call it. The 6th Massachusetts Infantry arrived at the President Street Station and began the process of changing trains. Maryland, My Maryland. This incident, between members of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry traveling through Baltimore to Washington, D.C., and Southern sympathizers, is considered by many to be the … A Google search of "Baltimore riot of 1861" shows me 123,000 results, while "Pratt Street riot" gives 79,800. Butler intimated that armed men were not always limited to the necessity of purchasing food when famished.”. The Mayor bravely attempted to stop the battle without success. But that night, the Pennsylvania troops, later known as “The First Defenders” camped at the U.S. Capitol under the uncompleted dome, which was under construction. The Baltimore riot of 1861 (also called the Pratt Street Riot and the Pratt Street Massacre) was an incident that took place on April 19, 1861, in Baltimore, Maryland between Confederate sympathizers and members of the Massachusetts militia en route to … It is regarded by historians as the first bloodshed of the American Civil War. 1854. March 20, 2011 On April 15th,1861, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 troops in response to the rebellion that had commenced three days earlier when Confederate forces fired … Sympathetic Marylanders, who had supported secession ever since John C. Calhoun spoke of nullification, agitated to join Virginia in leaving the Union. After the April 19 riot, some small skirmishes occurred throughout Baltimore between citizens and police for the next month, but a sense of normalcy returned as the city was cleaned up. Someone fired a shot. A Brief History. Since Annapolis, the capital, was occupied by Federal troops, and Baltimore was harboring many pro-Confederate mobs, Hicks directed the legislature to meet in Frederick, in the predominantly Unionist western part of the state. Gov. On April 18, 460 newly mustered Pennsylvania volunteers (generally from the Pottsville, Pennsylvania area) arrived from Harrisburg on the Northern Central Railway at the Bolton Street Station off North Howard Street (present site of the later Fifth Regiment Armory). The 8th Massachusetts, with the 7th New York, proceeded to Annapolis Junction (halfway between Baltimore and Washington), and the 7th New York went on to Washington, where, on the afternoon of April 25, they became the first troops to reach the capital by this route. On April 19, 1861, only five days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, the situation in Baltimore exploded into violence. It produced the first deaths by hostile action in the … They were joined by several regiments of regular United States Army troops under John C. Pemberton (later the Confederate general and commander at the siege of Vicksburg in Mississippi whose surrender in July 1863, resulted in the first split of the Confederacy) returning from duty on the western frontier. The despot's heel is on thy shore, All but two of the cars had been transferred when the crowd blocked the tracks with timbers and anchors. entered the city and built earthworks on Federal Hill. Many also felt that Maryland should not permit troops to pass through the state to attack a sister state, and others mistrusted the President's intentions, suspecting that the troops would be used to force Maryland to remain in the Union. Marshal Kane put his policemen between the two groups and escorted the troops to Camden Station, where they boarded the train and left Baltimore. Maryland! And be the battle queen of yore, The Baltimore Riot of 1861 (also called the Pratt Street Riot and the Pratt Street Massacre) was an incident that took place on April 19, 1861, in Baltimore, Maryland between Confederate sympathizers and infantrymen of the United States Army. Result:Confederate sympathisers ultimately suppressed. 21230. One of the militia leaders was John Merryman, who was arrested one month later, and held in defiance of a writ of habeas corpus, which led to the case of Ex parte Merryman. As a result of the riot in Baltimore and pro-Southern sympathies of much of the city’s populace, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company also declined the same day a Federal government request to transport Union forces to relieve the beleaguered Union naval yard facility at Portsmouth, Virginia. Background However, as Lincoln remarked to a peace delegation from the Young Men’s Christian Association, Union soldiers were neither birds to fly over Maryland, nor moles to burrow under it. Finally, in June, 1861, Maryland voted on secession. Baltimore Riot of 1861. 1855. Other men were seen brandishing pistols and muskets. The Baltimore riot of 1861 (also called the "Pratt Street Riots" and the "Pratt Street Massacre") was a civil conflict on Friday, April 19, 1861, on Pratt Street, (beginning at the President Street Station and President Street and continuing ending on Howard Street at the Camden Street Station) in Baltimore, Maryland, between antiwar "Copperheads" Democrats (the largest party … Created / Published c1862. The Baltimore Riot of 1861 . At this time the legislature seems to have wanted to maintain Maryland’s neutrality in the conflict. Knowing that there were secessionists in the militia ranks, the commander of the Fort accepted the help on the condition that the militia could come no closer to the Fort than the Catholic chapel a half mile from the Fort or he would fire on them. The 6th Massachusetts Infantry arrived at the President Street Station and began the process of changing trains. “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. A man supposed to be a Maryland State Militia soldier was detained in Ft. McHenry, and Judge Giles, in Baltimore, issued a writ of habeas corpus, but Major W. W. Morris, commander of the fort, wrote back, “At the date of issuing your writ, and for two weeks previous, the city which you live, and where your court has been held, was entirely under the control of revolutionary authorities. Many more Union troops arrived. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN Historical and Political Science HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor History is past Politics and Politics present History.— At 1 a.m. on April 19, 1861, the men of the 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia were asleep on the floors of the Girard House Hotel in Philadelphia when the long roll sounded. The troops then marched back down Pratt Street, led by a man carrying a rebel flag, and followed by the mob. Ladd and Whitney are buried in Lowell, Massachusetts. Following are telegraph dispatches regarding the Baltimore Riot, also known as the Pratt Street Riot, of April 19th, 1861, as reported in the April 24, 1861, issue of The Hudson North Star. Notes - … Instead, like so many other Baltimoreans, he found himself engrossed in the events of the day before, and the speculation about what lie ahead. On July 10, George R. Dodge, a civilian, was appointed as marshal of police. However, the mob followed the soldiers, breaking store windows and causing damage until they finally blocked the soldiers. The Riot On April 19, 1861, only five days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, the situation in Baltimore exploded into violence. File:Baltimore Riot 1861.jpg. That flecked the streets of Baltimore, His torch is at thy temple door, April 19, 1861: The Baltimore Riot. While there may have been accidents, and maybe a secessionist shot or two during their tour, wounding men of the 6th, the majority of the casualties occurred in the Riot. National Park Service. Baltimore riot of 1861. Topic. (Ironically, federal troops imprisoned the young newspaper editor in Fort McHenry, which, as he noted, was the same fort where the Star Spangled Banner had been waving “o’er the land of the free” in his grandfather’s song.) At this time, the most efficient means to transport such large numbers of men was by rail, and the only routes to Washington passed through Baltimore. References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_riot_of_1861. Seven hundred “National Volunteers” of southern sympathizers rallied at the Washington Monument and traveled to the station to confront the combined units of troops, which unbeknownst to them were unarmed and had weapons unloaded.Kane’s city police force generally succeeded in ensuring the Pennsylvania troops’ safe passage marching south on Howard Street to Camden Street Station of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. On April 19, 1861, just one week after the attack on Fort Sumter by Confederate forces marked the beginning of the Civil War, a train carrying Union volunteers with the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment pulled into the Philadelphia, Wilmington and… At the time, the slave states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas had not yet seceded from the U.S. Baltimore 1861 Dennis Ahern will address this topic at the Boston Public Library Orientation Room, McKim Building 230 Dartmouth Street, Copley Square Wednesday, October 12th at 6:00 p.m. Every year, on April 19th, we are reminded of the minutemen who went to the bridge in Concord in 1775. On April 19, 1861, the first blood of the American Civil War is shed when a secessionist mob in Baltimore attacks Massachusetts troops bound for Washington, D.C. … In 1863 Howard wrote about his experience as a political prisoner at Fort McHenry in the book Fourteen Months in the American Bastille; two of the publishers selling the book were then arrested. It produced the first deaths by hostile action in the American Civil War. Supporters of secession and slavery organized themselves into a force called “National Volunteers” while unionists and abolitionists called themselves “Minute Men.”. James Ryder Randall, a teacher in Louisiana but a native Marylander who had lost a friend in the riots, wrote “Maryland, My Maryland” for the Southern cause in response to the riots. On the afternoon of April 18, 1861, Baltimore Mayor George W. Brown dispatched a strong letter of warning to Abraham Lincoln. On April 19, 1861, only five days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, the situation in Baltimore exploded into violence. Baltimore Mayor George William Brown and new Police Marshal (chief) George Proctor Kane anticipated trouble and began efforts to placate the city’s population. Four soldiers (Corporal Sumner Needham of Co I and Privates Luther C. Ladd, Charles Taylor, and Addison Whitney of Company D) and twelve civilians were killed in the riot. Baltimore, MD The Pratt Street Riot was over. They begged President Abraham Lincoln to bring troops to Washington via an alternative route, but as Lincoln drily noted, his soldiers could not fly or burrow under the state; … Was this the worst riot in Maryland history?I know that the civil disorders in Baltimore in 1968 was bad,but the one in 1861 looks like a Civil War battlefield.Were people smashing windows like they were in The New York Draft Riots in 1861? The soldiers returned the fire. 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