Baltimore and The Nineteenth of April, 1861 Part 4

APRIL 20th, INCREASING EXCITEMENT. -- APPROPRIATION OF $500,000 FOR DEFENSE OF THE CITY. -- CORRESPONDENCE WITH PRESIDENT AND GOVERNOR. -- MEN ENROLLED. -- APPREHENDED ATTACK ON FORT McHENRY.

-- MARSHAL KANE. -- INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT, CABINET AND GENERAL SCOTT. -- GENERAL BUTLER, WITH THE EIGHTH Ma.s.sACHUSETTS, PROCEEDS TO ANNAPOLIS AND WAs.h.i.+NGTON. -- BALTIMORE IN A STATE OF ARMED NEUTRALITY.

On Sat.u.r.day morning, the 20th, the excitement and alarm had greatly increased. Up to this time no answer had been received from Was.h.i.+ngton. The silence became unbearable. Were more troops to be forced through the city at any cost? If so, how were they to come, by land or water? Were the guns of Fort McHenry to be turned upon the inhabitants? Was Baltimore to be compelled at once to determine whether she would side with the North or with the South? Or was she temporarily to isolate herself and wait until the frenzy had in some measure spent its force and reason had begun to resume its sway? In any case it was plain that the authorities must have the power placed in their hands of controlling any outbreak which might occur. This was the general opinion. Union men and disunion men appeared on the streets with arms in their hands. A time like that predicted in Scripture seemed to have come, when he who had no sword would sell his garment to buy one.

About ten A. M. the city council a.s.sembled and immediately appropriated $500,000, to be expended under my direction as mayor, for the purpose of putting the city in a complete state of defense against any description of danger arising or which might arise out of the present crisis. The banks of the city promptly held a meeting, and a few hours afterward a committee appointed by them, consisting of three bank presidents, Johns Hopkins, John Clark and Columbus O'Donnell, all wealthy Union men, placed the whole sum in advance at my disposal. Mr. Scharf, in his "History of Maryland," Volume 3, page 416, says, in a footnote, that this action of the city authorities was endorsed by the editors of the _Sun_, _American_, _Exchange_, _German Correspondent_, _Clipper_, _South_, etc. Other considerable sums were contributed by individuals and firms without respect to party.

On the same morning I received a dispatch from Messrs. Bond, Dobbin and Brune, the committee who had gone to Was.h.i.+ngton, which said: "We have seen the President and General Scott. We have from the former a letter to the mayor and Governor declaring that no troops shall be brought to Baltimore, if, in a military point of view and without interruption from opposition, they can be marched around Baltimore."

As the Governor had left Baltimore for Annapolis early in the morning, I telegraphed him as follows:

"BALTIMORE, _April 20, 1861_.

"_To Governor Hicks._

"Letter from President and General Scott. No troops to pa.s.s through Baltimore if as a military force they can march around. I will answer that every effort will be made to prevent parties leaving the city to molest them, but cannot guarantee against acts of individuals not organized. Do you approve?

GEO. WM. BROWN."

This telegram was based on that from Messrs. Bond, Dobbin and Brune.

The letter referred to had not been received when my telegram to Governor Hicks was dispatched. I was mistaken in supposing that General Scott had signed the letter as well as the President.

President Lincoln's letter was as follows:

"WAs.h.i.+NGTON, _April 20, 1861_.

"_Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown._

"_Gentlemen_:--Your letter by Messrs. Bond, Dobbin and Brune is received. I tender you both my sincere thanks for your efforts to keep the peace in the trying situation in which you are placed.

For the future troops _must_ be brought here, but I make no point of bringing them _through_ Baltimore.

"Without any military knowledge myself, of course I must leave details to General Scott. He hastily said this morning, in presence of these gentlemen, 'March them _around_ Baltimore, and not through it.'

"I sincerely hope the General, on fuller reflection, will consider this practical and proper, and that you will not object to it.

"By this, a collision of the people of Baltimore with the troops will be avoided unless they go out of their way to seek it. I hope you will exert your influence to prevent this.

"Now and ever I shall do all in my power for peace consistently with the maintenance of government.

"Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN."

Governor Hicks replied as follows to my telegram:

"ANNAPOLIS, _April 20, 1861_.

"_To the Mayor of Baltimore._

"Your dispatch received. I hoped they would send no more troops through Maryland, but as we have no right to demand that, I am glad no more are to be sent through Baltimore. I know you will do all in your power to preserve the peace.

THOS. H. HICKS."

I then telegraphed to the President as follows:

"BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, _April 20, 1861_.

"_To President Lincoln._

"Every effort will be made to prevent parties leaving the city to molest troops marching to Was.h.i.+ngton. Baltimore seeks only to protect herself. Governor Hicks has gone to Annapolis, but I have telegraphed to him.

"GEO. WM. BROWN, _Mayor of Baltimore_."

After the receipt of the dispatch from Messrs. Bond, Dobbin and Brune, another committee was sent to Was.h.i.+ngton, consisting of Messrs.

Anthony Kennedy, Senator of the United States, and J. Morrison Harris, member of the House of Representatives, both Union men, who sent a dispatch to me saying that they "had seen the President, Secretaries of State, Treasury and War, and also General Scott. The result is the transmission of orders that will stop the pa.s.sage of troops through or around the city."

Preparations for the defense of the city were nevertheless continued.

With this object I issued a notice in which I said: "All citizens having arms suitable for the defense of the city, and which they are willing to contribute for the purpose, are requested to deposit them at the office of the marshal of police."

The board of police enrolled temporarily a considerable number of men and placed them under the command of Colonel Isaac R. Trimble. He informs me that the number amounted to more than fifteen thousand, about three-fourths armed with muskets, shotguns and pistols.

This gentleman was afterward a Major-General in the Confederate Army, where he distinguished himself. He lost a leg at Gettysburg.

By this means not only was the inadequate number of the police supplemented, but many who would otherwise have been the disturbers of the peace became its defenders. And, indeed, not a few of the men enrolled, who thought and hoped that their enrollment meant war, were disappointed to find that the prevention of war was the object of the city authorities, and afterwards found their way into the Confederacy.

For some days it looked very much as if Baltimore had taken her stand decisively with the South; at all events, the outward expressions of Southern feeling were very emphatic, and the Union sentiment temporarily disappeared.

Early on the morning of Sat.u.r.day, the 20th, a large Confederate flag floated from the headquarters of a States Rights club on Fayette street near Calvert, and on the afternoon of the same day the Minute Men, a Union club, whose headquarters were on Baltimore street, gave a most significant indication of the strength of the wave of feeling which swept over our people by hauling down the National colors and running up in their stead the State flag of Maryland, amid the cheers of the crowd.[12] Everywhere on the streets men and boys were wearing badges which displayed miniature Confederate flags, and were cheering the Southern cause. Military companies began to arrive from the counties. On Sat.u.r.day, first came a company of seventy men from Frederick, under Captain Bradley T. Johnson, afterward General in the Southern Army, and next two cavalry companies from Baltimore County, and one from Anne Arundel County. These last, the Patapsco Dragoons, some thirty men, a st.u.r.dy-looking body of yeomanry, rode straight to the City Hall and drew up, expecting to be received with a speech of welcome from the mayor. I made them a very brief address, and informed them that dispatches received from Was.h.i.+ngton had postponed the necessity for their services, whereupon they started homeward amid cheers, their bugler striking up "Dixie," which was the first time I heard that tune. A few days after, they came into Baltimore again. On Sunday came in the Howard County Dragoons, and by steamboat that morning two companies from Talbot County, and soon it was reported that from Harford, Cecil, Carroll and Prince George's, companies were on their way. All the city companies of uniformed militia were, of course, under arms. Three batteries of light artillery were in the streets, among them the light field-pieces belonging to the military school at Catonsville, but these the reverend rector of the school, a strong Union man, had thoughtfully spiked.

[Footnote 12: Baltimore _American_, April 22.]

The United States a.r.s.enal at Pikesville, at the time unoccupied, was taken possession of by some Baltimore County troops.

From the local columns of the _American_ of the 22d, a paper which was strongly on the Union side, I take the following paragraph:

"WAR SPIRIT ON SAt.u.r.dAY.

"The war spirit raged throughout the city and among all cla.s.ses during Sat.u.r.day with an ardor which seemed to gather fresh force each hour.... All were united in a determination to resist at every hazard the pa.s.sage of troops through Baltimore.... Armed men were marching through the streets, and the military were moving about in every direction, and it is evident that Baltimore is to be the battlefield of the Southern revolution."

And from the _American_ of Tuesday, 23d:

"At the works of the Messrs. Winans their entire force is engaged in the making of pikes, and in casting b.a.l.l.s of every description for cannon, the steam gun,[13] rifles, muskets, etc., which they are turning out very rapidly."

[Footnote 13: Winans's steam gun, a recently invented, and, it was supposed, very formidable engine, was much talked about at this time.

It was not very long afterwards seized and confiscated by the military authorities.]

And a very significant paragraph from the _Sun_ of the same day:

"Yesterday morning between 300 and 400 of our most respectable colored residents made a tender of their services to the city authorities.