The Baltimore riots of April 19, 1861, saw some of the first casualties of the Civil War. For several days after the riots, Northerners worried that Maryland had joined the Confederacy.
Maryland was part of the upper South, a tier of states extending from Delaware to Missouri. The SECESSION issue deeply divided these states, for while they permitted slavery, all had deep commercial links to the North. In addition, all had fewer slaves than their Confederate sisters, and in some ways their societies reflected Northern values. For the Union, Maryland’s strategic significance was enormous: If the state seceded, the Confederacy would surround the Union capital of WASHINGTON, D. C.
Any Northern troops bound for Washington, D. C., had to pass through Baltimore. On April 19, 1861, the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry arrived, the first Northern unit to enter the city. Because no direct rail line ran all the way through Baltimore, the soldiers disembarked at the President Street Station and prepared to make their way across town to the Calvert Street Station. To avoid confrontation, troops did not march but instead remained in railway cars, pulled by horses down a connecting line between the two stations.
Fearing that the UNION army would occupy Maryland before the state could even consider joining the Confederacy, angry secessionists attacked the rail cars, injuring a few soldiers. Members of the Sixth Massachusetts opened fire. At the end of the day, four soldiers and 12 civilians had been killed. Soon after, Confederate sympathizers began destroying bridges and telegraph lines linking Washington to the rest of the country.
Following behind the Sixth Massachusetts with the Eighth Massachusetts, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler learned ofthe riots and found an alternative route through Annapolis, reaching Washington on April 25, to Abraham Lincoln’s profound relief. Butler then turned back into Maryland, restored the state’s rail lines, and occupied Baltimore.
On May 8, continuing concern over Baltimore’s loyalties prompted a declaration of martial law. Over the next several months, the Union army arrested Baltimore’s mayor, police marshal, and a number of other leading citizens for their alleged role in the riot or support of secession. In a controversial decision, Lincoln suspended the right of HABEAS CORPUS in these cases. With the leading supporters of secession imprisoned and the Union army in control of the state, Unionists won Maryland’s November 1861 election, effectively ensuring Maryland’s political loyalty.
See also PEACE MOVEMENT.
Further reading: William Brown, Baltimore and The Nineteenth of April, 1861 (Baltimore: City of Baltimore, 1887); Mark E. Neely, Jr., The Fate of Liberty (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
—Tom Laichas
World History
