CHAPTER IV.

TPRISING OF THE NORTH,

RIOT IN BALTIMORE.-THE ANNAPOLIS ROUTE OPENED.-MARCH OF THE Seventh, New York. -ENTHUSIASM OF THE NORTH.-DESIGNS UPON WASHINGTON.-PROF. MITCHELL.-EXTENT OF TREASON.-ANECDOTES.—ATTEMPTS TO BURN WASHINGTON.-ENERGY OF GENERAL BUTLER.NORTHERN TROOPS.-JACOB THOMPSON.-PATRIOTISM OF GENERAL SCOTT.-EFFICIENCY OF THE PRESIDENT.-MORAL POISON.-NOBLE PRINCIPLES OF THE PRESIDENT.

IN immediate response to the appeal of the President, four hundred Pennsylvania volunteers, escorted by three hundred United States troops, were the first who reached Washington. They went from Carlisle Barracks, and arrived in Washington at 10 o'clock in the night of the 18th, and bivouacked in the Capitol. On the same day, the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers left Boston for Washington. They reached Baltimore, forty miles from the Capitol, on the 19th, and there met a regiment from Philadelphia. Both of these bodies of citizen troops had started so suddenly, that they were quite unprepared for hostilities. The Massachusetts troops were partially armed, but the Pennsylvania men had scarcely a musket. They were expecting to be supplied with arms in Washington. The Massachusetts regiment occupied eleven cars, and reached Baltimore, through New York and Philadelphia, without accident. But here, in the first slaveholding city they entered, they found a large crowd assembled, with menacing looks and words, and hostile demonstrations of a very serious character began to be made.

It was necessary to pass directly through the city, a distance of two and a half miles, in the cars, drawn by horses instead of engines, to the Washington station. In this way, nine out of eleven of the cars passed in' safety, though insults and curses pursued them all the way, and not a few stones and brickbats were hurled at them. The excitement rapidly increased, and denser multitudes flooded the streets, until there was a mass of ten thousand men, not all indeed sympathizing with the rioters, who surrounded and arrested the progress of the two last cars, which contained but one hundred men, and many of them unarmed.

A hideous scene of uproar and clamor ensued. There was no police power to stay the tumult. Heavy anchors and other obstructions were thrown upon the track, and the rails torn up. A secession flag was waved defiantly, and the most bitter curses of the Union were blended with huzzas for the Confederacy. Thus far the soldiers had remained quietly in the cars, making no reply, by word or look, to their insulting foes.

Finding further progress by the cars impossible, the. soldiers left their seats, and formed into line on the sidewalk. Captain Follensbee then drew them up in solid square, and endeavored, advancing with fixed bayonets, to force his way through the crowded streets, in double quick time, to the station. The mob now fell upon them with the fury of tigers, fearful of losing their prey. Never did Indian warwhoop rise more fierce than the hootings and yellings of these savage men, as from housetops and windows, and behind corners, they assailed with stones, clubs, bricks, and occasionally pistol shots, the almost defenseless band. The officers were humanely reluctant to give the command to fire, since the streets were filled with women and children, and loyal citizens, drawn to the spot by curiosity, and the bullets would strike friends as well as foes. The active rioters probably numbered but a few hundred.

At length a burly ruffian sprang upon a youthful soldier, wrested his musket from his hands, and discharged its contents into his bosom. The column was thus staggering along, beaten down by this storm, many mangled and bleeding, some so sorely wounded that they were borne in the arms of their friends, when self-preservation rendered it necessary to fire. It was indeed mistaken humanity which delayed so long. And still, when the command was given to fire, it was obeyed, not by deadly volleys, which swept through and through the ranks of the mob, but singly, here and there one, selecting some audacious villain, and being very careful to hit no one else. This course did not disperse the mob. Thus fighting, the soldiers struggled along, pursued and pelted by their foes, until they reached their companions at the Washington station, and entered their cars. It is to be regretted, that then the soldiers did not teach the mob a lesson never to be forgotten. But it was an hour of terrible perplexity, the scene was new, the soldiers were young men, fresh from their homes, who recoiled from the necessity of taking human life; and it was deemed infinitely important, by all the friends of the Union, to avoid every act of exasperation, so far as possible. But history may be searched in vain for another record of such forbearance. The spirit of conciliation but emboldened crime.

Corporal Tyler, one of the soldiers of the Massachusetts Sixth, describing his personal experience in this mob, says, "I saw a man with three stones under his arm, and one in his hand, pelting away at the troops,when I fired at him, and the man dropped the bricks, and laid down."

The Pennsylvania regiment were preparing to follow the Massachusetts troops in eleven cars. They were without arms, and the mob, now having tasted of blood almost with impunity, turned fiercely upon them. Under these circumstances it was not deemed prudent to attempt to cross the city, and these unarmed citizens, who were rushing to the rescue of their national capital, at the call of their country, after very severe handling by the mob, succeeded in escaping, and were conveyed back to Philadelphia. The fact that these men were compelled to embark on such an enterprisé, unarmed, shows how effectually Floyd had robbed the Northern arsenals.

The first young man who fell a victim to this rebellion, and sealed his

patriotism with his blood, was Luther Crawford Ladd, a native of Alexandria, New Hampshire, but a resident of Lowell, Mass. He was but seventeen years of age, when, in view of the approaching peril, he joined the City Guards, assigning as a reason for choosing that company, that he thought they would be called into service first. He was so young that his friends urged him not to go. But he replied, "I shall go for the Stars and Stripes any way." Exchanging his tools of peaceful industry for the musket, he started with a brave heart for the Capital. His companion in death was A. O. Whitney. Several others were severely wounded. Seven rioters were killed, and many wounded. The following telegraphic dispatch from Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, to the Mayor of Baltimore, touched a chord which vibrated through the nation:

"I pray you cause the bodies of our soldiers dead in Baltimore to be immediately packed in ice, and tenderly sent forward by Express to me. All expenses will be paid by this commonwealth."

How much there is in a word fitly spoken. Tenderly! It moistened ten thousand eyes. The remains of the honored dead were received with every mark of respect along the route, and were consigned to their burial with signal demonstrations of public grief.

As these heroic men, the Massachusetts Sixth, but partially armed, worn and weary, the advance guard of an army of six hundred thousand, entered Pennsylvania Avenue, they were greeted by the patriots with the most hearty joy. Though but few in number, for the regiment, starting almost at an hour's notice, was by no means full, still they were determined men, ready to face any of the terrors of battle. And they brought the first intelligence to beleaguered Washington, that the North was thoroughly aroused, and that troops, by tens of thousands, were already on the march for the protection of the Stars and Stripes. An anecdote may illustrate the character of some, at least, of the noble Sixth.

As they were passing through Trenton, New Jersey, a person residing there asked one of the soldiers, if he had good whisky in his canteen to stimulate his courage. The soldier drew a Bible from his pocket, and said, "This is my stimulant;"-an answer worthy of a son of the Puritans,-a stimulant which never fails in the hour of trial.

The promptness and energy displayed by Massachusetts, in this crisis, excited the surprise and admiration of the whole country. There was no dissent from the generous eulogy pronounced by the Albany (N. Y.) Evening Journal: "Massachusetts was the first to start a regiment for Washington. Massachusetts' blood was the first shed in the war; a Massachusetts regiment was the first to reënforce Fort Monroe; the first to open a pathway from Annapolis to Washington; the first to reach the Capital, and is the first to invade Virginia. God bless the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

The question has often been asked, how it happened that Massachusetts was able, with such unprecedented celerity, to dispatch her troops to the Capital. It was owing first, to the almost miraculous prescience of Governor Andrew, and secondly, to the inborn energy of Massachusetts men. On the 16th of January, 1861, an order was issued, through the Adjutant

General, William Schouler, to ascertain and enroll, with the greatest accuracy, the number of officers and men in the volunteer militia, who could respond instantly to any call which might be made upon them, by the President of the United States. This order was very energetically obeyed. All the men who, from age, physical defect, business, or family causes, could not respond at once, were discharged, and their places filled by others.

On the 3d of April, the Governor, after conferring with prominent members of the Legislature, and the highest military officers of the State, induced the Legislature to pass a bill, appropriating twenty-five thousand dollars for the purchase of overcoats, blankets, knapsacks, two hundred thousand ball cartridges, etc., for two thousand troops. The militia soldiers had uniforms of their own. They had also, in their armories, three thousand rifle muskets of the best pattern. All manner of ridicule was for a time heaped upon this measure, but its wisdom soon became manifest.

For three months, the militia were almost nightly drilled in their armories. On the 15th of April, the first telegram came from Washington to Boston, calling for help. The citizen soldiers were all at their work, in their offices, on their farms, in their workshops, their ship-yards, and at their nets and barges, scattered over several counties. Orders were instantly dispatched to Lowell, Quincy, New Bedford, and Lynn, for the companies to repair to Boston. The next morning, in a drenching rain, three companies came in from Marblehead, and marched to their quarters in Faneuil Hall, to the music of Yankee Doodle. Through all the day troops were arriving from all points of the compass. Captain Pratt, of the Worcester company, received his order to join the Sixth Regiment, late in the afternoon of the 16th. Early on the morning of the 17th, he was in Boston with his full command. It was 9 o'clock in the evening of the 16th, when the Governor decided to add to the 6th Regiment the company of Capt. Dike, of Stoneham. A messenger was immediately dispatched to Stoneham, with orders for Capt. Dike. He was called from his bed, at his house, at 2 o'clock in the morning. As he read the order he said, "Tell the Adjutant-General, that I shall be at the State House, with my full company, by 11 o'clock to-day." He was there at the appointed hour. That afternoon the heroic Sixth left for Washington, via New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

Almost at the same hour, on the evening of the same day, the Third and Fourth Regiments left for Fortress Monroe in Virginia; the one by steamer from Boston, the other by rail to Fall River, and thence by steamer. Two days after this, the Sixth Regiment was fighting its way through Baltimore. Capt. Dike was shot down, receiving a wound in the leg, which crippled him for life. Thus, while one Massachusetts regiment was forcing its passage at the point of the bayonet to Washington, two others were on the sea, hastening to the protection of an important military post. The next day, General Butler left with the 8th Regiment, via Philadelphia, and finding his path through Baltimore obstructed, sagaciously opened a route through Annapolis, as will hereafter be shown.

On the 19th of April, Colonel Sam. C. Lawrence was ordered to report with his regiment, the Fifth, ready for service. The companies were mustered with hardly an hour's delay. At 4 in the morning of the 20th, Major Asa F. Cook was ordered to have his company of light artillery in readiness to proceed to Washington. At 10 o'clock he reported his company prepared to march; and on the same day the regiment was on its way towards the Capital.

It was on Monday morning, April 15th, that the telegram came from Washington, calling for two Massachusetts regiments, which was speedily followed by a call for two more. At 9 o'clock Sabbath morning, April 21st, these four regiments were either in Washington, or in Fortress Monroe, or on their march, drawing near to the Capital. Col. Wardrop, of the Third, on the very day of his arrival at Fortress Monroe, was put, with his command, as has been already shown, on board the United States steamer Pawnee, to assist in the hazardous, yet brilliantly successful movement of destroying the United States vessels and military stores, which the rebels were just on the point of seizing, at the Gosport Navy Yard.

Nothing in this war seems more providential than that there should have been such a noble set of men in the gubernatorial chairs of the Free States. Sprague of Rhode Island, Buckingham of Connecticut, and all the other governors of the New England States, the Middle States, and the great West, advanced in solid phalanx, the vanguard, the revered commanders-in-chief of the multitudinous, army of the patriots.

Never was there a war waged upon this earth, which enlisted so much of Christian sympathy and prayer, which was so imbued with the spirit of Christ, as this war waged by the patriots of our land, to rescue the United States from the anarchy which dissolution would render inevitable, and to defend it from lapsing into barbarism by extending the institution of slavery over its wide domain. The following letter breathes the spirit then cherished by almost every Christian mother, throughout our land. The lady, of New York, who wrote it was absent from home, when the alarm came that the rebels, in arms, were marching upon Washington, and her five sons all immediately volunteered for the war.

"MY DEAR HUSBAND,

"Your letter came to hand last evening. I must confess I was startled by the news referring to our boys, and for the moment I felt as if a ball had pierced my own heart. For the first time I was obliged to look things full in the face. But although I have always loved my children with a love that none but a mother can know, yet when I look upon the state of my country, I can not withhold them; and in the name of their God, and their mother's God, and their country's God, I bid them go. If I had ten sons, instead of five, I would give them all, sooner than have our country rent in fragments. The Constitution must be sustained at any cost. We have a part to act, and a duty to perform, and may God, our Father, strengthen us, and nerve us to the task, and enable us to say, Whatever thou requirest, that will I cheerfully give and do! May He bless and protect our dear children, and bring them home to us in safety! I hope you