網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

of the defenceless condition of Wash- at the time, and the calm, determined ington at the time, it is quite possible manner in which it was met by the loyal that the rebels might have seized upon the city. Happily, they did not make the attempt, and the government was roused to provide for the emergency.

+

men of Massachusetts. On the 18th of April, the Sixth Massachusetts regi. ment passed through New York, where it was warmly greeted and cheered onOn the 18th of April, a body of ward in its noble work in defence of troops, about 500 in number, arrived the common capital of the Union. It from Pennsylvania, unarmed, it is true, reached Philadelphia the same day, and but ready to take their places at the the next morning was forwarded to Balpost of danger. A few days brought timore. The cars reached the depot, on troops from Massachusetts and New the northern side of the city, about ten York, and in a few weeks, under the o'clock, and the troops expected to pass patriotic exertions and energy of the without difficulty in the horse-cars to venerable General Scott, Washington the station, where they were to embark was placed in a position which rendered for Washington. But a crowd was it safe against rebel assault. found awaiting them, which, like all It was not, however, without toil and crowds under excitement, needed but exposure to outrage and insult that this to be set in motion, in order to proceed result was accomplished. Maryland, to any extreme. Hootings, jeerings, one of the slave states, and having abusive epithets were freely employed; among its population many ardent sym- but these were comparatively harmless, pathizers with secession and its ex- and the troops regarded them with cesses, was so situated as to make it silent contempt. In a little while, stones necessary to march the troops through and other missiles were used, and the ber territory in order to reach the capi- leaders of the mob exulted in witnessing tal. Baltimore, through which the the patience with which these too were great line of railroad communication received. Some of the cars were at last between the North and South passed, got through, but four companies yet was a city of not too good reputation, remained in the rear cars. Soon it be. where political questions and discords canie known that the rails were blocked, were concerned; and there were in this and passage was no longer practicable. city not a few disorderly and unscrupu. In the emergency, the Massachusetts lous characters, who were ready to com- men determined to proceed on foot and mit outrage and violence to any extent, join their companions at the depot. when urged on by passion and self-in- They formed in close order, and started; terest. This was made evident by the when immediately the mob, with terriscandalous riot of the 19th of April, in ble threats and denunciations, began Baltimore, the particulars of which we anew the assault with brickbats and put on record, not so much because of stones. Not content with this, shots any importance in the riot itself, as to were fired at them from the streets and show forth the detestable spirit existing houses; whereupon the commanding

CH. II.]

SCANDALOUS RIOT IN BALTIMORE.

officer ordered his men to protect themselves and return the fire. Amid this shocking and outrageous attack, the troops fought their weary way for more than a mile, and finally rejoined their comrades. Three of the soldiers were killed and eight wounded; eleven of the Baltimorians were killed, and a large number wounded. Other troops from Pennsylvania, being without arms, after a furious assault upon them by the populace, were finally sent back in the cars to Philadelphia.

Law and order, for the time, seemed to be lost. Mayor Brown and police marshal Kane, were virtually helpless, as well as in sympathy with the rebels, and the city to all appearance was given over to mob law and unutterable disgrace. The gun shops of the city were plundered at night, and the city authorities, under an impression of its necessity, and also its helpfulness to the cause of secession, the same night issued an order for the destruction of the railroad bridges on the northern routes, as the only means of impeding the arrival of the Pennsylvania troops on their way, and preventing a repetition of the conflict of the day; and the order was promptly executed. The great 1861. est excitement and apprehension prevailed throughout the city. The most violent secession sympathies were openly avowed, the flag of the Confederate States was seen in all directions, and the glorious Stars and Stripes were shamefully insulted. No more troops, this was their determination, should pass through their city.*

* "Baltimore was a secession volcano in full eruption: while the count es south of that city were overwhelm

27

On the afternoon of this same 19th of April, the gallant Seventh Regiment of New York, a regiment which stands high in popular favor in the Empire City, set out on its way to Washington. They were aware of what their countrymen from Massachusetts had just met with in Baltimore; but they faltered not; they were prepared to go through whatever was before them. The enthusiasm of the city, as they de parted, was raised to its highest pitch, although no man knew how soon that noble band of soldiers would meet with deadly enemies in their path. On reaching Philadelphia, and finding it impossible to go by way of Baltimore, the seventh embarked in the steamer Boston, to find their way to Washington by water. At Annapolis, thirty miles south of Baltimore, they found General Butler with the Eighth Massachusetts regiment. He had, on the 20th of April, reached Perrysville, on the Susquehanna, when ascertaining that the bridges were burned and that there were no cars to proceed with, he seized the railroad ferry steamboat Maryland, and early the next morning arrived at Annapolis. The seventh joined the troops under Gen. Butler, ingly in sympathy with the slaveholders rebellion, and their few determined Unionists completely overawed and silenced. The counties near Baltimore, between ing with the rebellion, or terrified into dumb submission to its b hests. The great populous counties of Frederick, Washington, and Alleghany, composing

that city and the Susquehanna, were actively co-operat

Western Maryland-having few slaves—were preponderantly loyal; but they were overawed and paralyzed by the attitude of the rest of the state, and still

more by the large force of rebel Virginians-said to be 5,000 strong--who had been suddenly pushed forward to Harper's Ferry, and threatened Western Maryland from that commanding position."-Greeley's ' .Ameri can Conflict," vol. i., p.

468

and after enduring hardships of no light kind, from heat, exposure, want of food, and the like, took the cars at Annapolis Junction, and reached Washington on the 25th of April.

1861.

quired some considerable notoriety in the course of the great rebellion.

Having been ordered to Fortress

passed freely through the city. Union men were at liberty to express their sentiments without molestation, and to act in accordance therewith; and sedition, though not dead, was held in abey Anxious to secure peace while calling ance at least.* Governor Hicks, on the for aid, the president, by advice of Gen. 14th of May, on the last day of the Scott, favored the sending of troops by meeting of the legislature, issued a call way of Annapolis, or around Baltimore, for four regiments to serve for three instead of forcing a way through months in Maryland or for the defence that city. Gen. Butler was es- of Washington. The saving of Marypecially serviceable in this emergency. land from the evil designs of those who He not only took post at Annapolis, would have hurried her into secessiou, but he held it. He secured to the gov- was due, in measure, to the active ernment the noble old frigate Constitu- and judicious movements of Gen. B. F. tion, "Old Ironsides," and saw it safely Butler, a name, by the way, which ac conveyed away from danger. He was prepared to enforce the rights of those called by the president to go to Washington and defend the capital from invasion. Governor Hicks protested against his landing, or remaining in Annapolis; but the general was firm and decided. The legislature of Mary. land met at Frederick, on the 27th of April, and the governor endeavored to assume and claim for the state a neutral position, helping, as he wished, neither side, but in effect cutting off the capital from the loyal states. On the 5th of May, General Butler advanced a portion of his command to the Relay House, about nine miles from Baltimore, and on the 14th, he entered the city, took possession of Federal Hill, and issued a straightforward proclamation, insisting upon the observance of law and order, and expressing the determination of the government to sustain all good citizens in their rights and privileges.

movements on the part of the police authorities in Baltimore and also of the legislature of Maryland, see Me Pherson's "History of the Rebellion," pp. 392–398. patriots of Maryland, in a speech at Frederick, May 7th, thus expressed himself: "What is there in the modern history of South Carolina which should recommend her

* For some instructive details in regard to the

The Hon. Reverdy Johnson, one of the high-toned

teachings to Maryland? What is there in the intel

could to achieve the election of Mr. Lincoln, and hailed

ished hopes-the precipitation of the cotton states

lects of the Rhetts, the Yanceys, the Cobbs, et id genus omne, to make them our leaders? They did all they its accomplishment with undissembled delight. They thought they saw in it the realization of their long-cher into a revolution; and then fancied exemption from the worst of the perils-and they now seek to effect it—in the intervention of the other slave states between them and the danger. Short-sighted men! they never anticipated the calamities already upon them, and the greater certain to follow. Besides relying on the fact

just stated, they also counted securely on a large influential support in the free states. Little did they know the true patriotic heart of the land... Where, in the past, the South could count its friends

by thousands and hundreds of thousands, not one is now to be found. The cry is, the government must be sustained; the flag must be vindicated. Heaven forbid that the duty of that vindication should be for

The way through Baltimore was again open from the North, and troops gotten by Maryland "

[ocr errors]

CH. II.]

GREAT UNION MEETING IN NEW YORK.

29

succeeded Gen. Cadwalader in command. On the 27th, he ordered the arrest of police marshal Kane, and broke up the Board of Police in Balti more, on the ground of complicity and agreement with traitors. The two proclamations, which Gen. Banks issued, show clearly the basis and the necessity of his action in behalf of law and order. By these vigorous means Maryland was saved from the evil purposes of secession and rebellion, and retained her rightful place in the Union. Gen. Banks being called to supersede Patter son on the Potomac, Gen. Dix took his place in Maryland, at the close of the month of July.

Monroe, on the 22d of May, Gen. Butler resigned the charge of matters at Baltimore into the hands of Gen. Cadwala der. This officer acted with that prudence and conciliatory spirit deemed so important at the time; yet he was not lacking in firmness on an important question which came up for decision a few days after Gen. Butler left. This was the suspension of habeas corpus, or the prevalence of martial law. The president, taking the ground of necessity, had authorized Gen. Scott, April 27th, to suspend the writ above named any where between Philadelphia and Washington, which was extended, July 2d, to any where between New York and Washington. A wealthy Marylander, John Merryman, was arrested by military authority, on 25th of May, charged with treasonable practices, etc. Merryman applied to Chief-justice Taney for a writ of habeas corpus, to test the legality of the arrest. It was granted at once, and efforts made to enforce it against Gen. Cadwalader; but to no purpose. Taney then delivered his opinion adverse to the president's action, condemning him and it in no measured terms. Other authorities, quite equal to the chief-justice in weight of character and legal acumen, sustained the course which Mr. Lincoln had felt himself compelled to pursue, such as Prof. Parsons, Horace Binney, Attorney-general Bates, etc.; and the people generally acquiesced in the result, as inseparable from a state of war and insurrection.* General Banks, on the 10th of June, mary of their words; one short extract

* For the legal opinions referred to, see McPherson's "History of the Rebellion," op. 155–162.

A

The noble and manly spirit of the people, which was aroused by the outbreak of the rebellion, was manifested in all parts of the loyal states, but more especially in the large cities. vast and imposing assemblage gathered at Union Square, New York, on the 20th of April, the glorious flag of our country waving in all directions, and the equestrian statue of Washington being in the midst. All party distinctions were ignored; they stood there as citizens of one common country. The meeting was addressed by prominent speakers from various regions. Gen. Dix, Colonel Baker, Professor Mitchel, and others (some thirty in all), poured forth eloquent words, adapted to the fearful exigency, and appealing to every heart to stand by and uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States. We cannot pretend to give even a sum

must suffice from Prof. Mitchel's speech, whose language, though not noted at

the time, was almost prophetic: "The lars. The appropriations of the states rebels and the traitors in the South, we of Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, must set aside; they are not our friends. reached the sum of three millions each, When they come to their senses we will and others were quite as liberal in proreceive them with open arms; but till portion to their wealth, if they did not that time, while they are trailing our in some instances exceed them. Conglorious banner in the dust, when they necticut contributed two millions, and scorn it, condemn it, curse it, and tram- Illinois the same; Indiana, Maine, New ple it under foot, then I must smite. Jersey, Vermont, a million each; and In God's name I will smite, and as long the corporation of the city of New York as I have strength I will do it. O, an equal sum, which was speedily more listen to me, listen to me! I know these than doubled by the subscriptions of men; I know their courage; I have the citizens. Cincinnati kept pace with been among them; I have been with New York, and the great West gener them; I have been reared with them; ally throughout its borders was as they have courage; and do not you prodigal of its resources as the wealthy pretend to think they have not. I tell East. Patriotic women also took their you what it is, it is no child's play you share in the good work, and especially are entering upon. They will fight, in providing articles of every kind for and with a determination and a power the wants of the soldiers, such as hoswhich is irresistible. Make up your mind to it. Let every man put his life in his hand and say, 'There is the altar of my country; there I will sacrifice my life.' I for one will lay my life down. It is not mine any longer. Lead me to the conflict. Place me where I can do my duty. There I am ready to go, I care not where it leads me."

pital stores, haversacks, delicacies for the sick, and the like. Many an one, too, though bred in luxury, gave her services in the good cause, quietly and unostentatiously, but none the less acceptably; and were the full record ever to be made up, it would show such acts of personal devotion on the part of our country women as have never been surpassed.*

The month of May found the country actively engaged in preparations for the conflict of arms. Forces 1861.

But it was not in words merely, that the loyalty of the nation was manifested. Money as well as men were most liberally furnished. The subscriptions of individuals, corporations, banking were mustering into service; institutions, towns, cities, and the leg officers were busy at recruiting stations islatures of the northern and western companies were forming; men were enstates, freely offered for the purchase of listing in favorite regiments; private arms, the raising and equipment of contributions, as well as legislative loans troops, and the support of the government, in a fortnight after the day of the attack upon Sumter, reached a sum estimated at over thirty millions of dol

On this subject may be consulted to advantage "THE TRIBUTE BOOK, a Record of the Munificence, Self-sacrifice, and Patriotism of the American people New York, 1865, pp. 572. during the war for the Union." By Frank B. Goodrich,

« 上一頁繼續 »