406

THE FIRST DEFENDERS OF THE CAPITAL.

Georgians, then sojourning in Baltimore, followed the troops all the way from one railroad station to the other, offering the most indecent insults; shouting, "Welcome to Southern graves!" uttering the most blasphemous language, and throwing a few missiles which slightly injured some of the men. A colored man, over sixty years of age,' in military dress, attached as a servant to the "Washington Artillery" Company, greatly excited their ire. They raised the cry of "Nigger in uniform!" and stones and bricks were hurled at him. He received a severe wound on the face and head, from which blood flowed freely.

The Pennsylvanians left Baltimore at four o'clock and reached Washington City at about seven, where they were received by the anxious loyal inhabitants and the officers of the Government with heart-felt joy, for the rumbling volcano of revolution threatened them with an eruption every moment. For a day or two the city had been full of rumors of the movement of Virginia and Maryland secessionists for the seizure of the Capital, and many families had fled affrighted. Troops from Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania had been hourly expected all that day, and when evening approached, and they did not appear, the panic increased. When the Pennsylvanians came, they were hailed as deliverers by an immense throng, who greeted them with prolonged cheers, for they were the first promise of hope and safety. The fears of the inhabitants were immediately quieted.

The Pennsylvanians were at once marched to the Capitol grounds, where they were reviewed by General McDowell, and then assigned quarters in the hall of the House of Representatives, in the south wing of the Capitol. They had been without food all day, but were soon supplied. The halls were at once lighted up and warmed, and the startling rumor spread over the city, that two thousand Northern troops, well armed with Minié rifles, were quartered in the Capitol! The real number was five hundred and thirty. It was the intention of the Government to arm them with muskets from Harper's Ferry, but the armory there was destroyed that very evening.3

It is believed by the best informed, that these troops arrived just in time to awe the conspirators and their friends, and to save the Capitol from

1 This man, supposed to have been a runaway slave, was known by the name of "Nick Biddle." He had resided for a number of years in Pottsville, where he sometimes sold oysters in the winter and ice-cream in the summer. He attended the Washington Artillery company on its target and other excursions. His excursion through Baltimore was never pleasant in his memory. He was heard to say that he would go through the infernal regions with the Artillery, but would never again go through Baltimore. His was almost the first blood shed in the rebellion, that of the wounded at Fort Sumter being the first by a few days.

2 This rumor was started by James D. Gay, a member of the Ringgold Light Artillery, who was in Washington City on business at the time of their arrival. He was already an enrolled member of a temporary homeguard in Washington, under Cassius M. Clay, which we shall consider presently, and was working with all his might for the salvation of the city. After exchanging greetings with his company at the Capitol, he hastened to Willard's Hotel to proclaim the news. In a letter to the writer, he says:-"The first man I met as I entered the doors was Lieutenant-Colonel Magruder [who afterward abandoned his flag and was a General of the “Confederate" army]. I said, 'Colonel, have you heard the good news? What is it?' he asked. I told him to step to the door. He did so. Pointing to the lights at the Capitol, I said. 'Do you see that? Yes,' he answered, `but what of that? Two thousand soldiers,' I said, 'have marched in there this evening, Sir, armed with Minié rifles. Possible! so much!' he exclaimed, in an excited manner. Of course what I told him was not true, but I thought that, in the absence of sufficient troops, this false report might save the city." Mr. Gay's "pious frand" had the desired effect.

3 I am indebted to Francis B. Wallace, Esq., editor of the Miner's Journal, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, for the facts concerning this movement of Pennsylvania troops, and also for the muster-roll of the five companies who so patriotically hastened to the defense of the Capital. Mr. Wallace was an officer of the "Washington Artillery" Company, and was a participant in the exciting scenes of a three months' campaign.

EARLY DEFENDERS OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.

407

seizure. It is believed that if they had been delayed twenty-four hours-had they not been there when, on the next day, a tragedy we are about to consider was performed in the streets of Baltimore-the President and his Cabinet, with the General-in-chief, might have been assassinated or made prisoners, the archives and buildings of the Government seized, and Jefferson Davis proclaimed Dictator from the great eastern portico of the Capitol, where Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated only forty-five days before. These citizen soldiers well deserved the thanks of the nation voted by Congress at its called session in July following,' and a grateful people will ever delight to do homage to their patriotism.*

1 In the House of Representatives, July 22, 1861, on motion of Hon. James Campbell, it was “Resolved, That the thanks of this House are due, and are hereby tendered, to the five hundred and thirty soldiers from Pennsylvania who passed through the mob at Baltimore, and reached Washington on the 18th day of April last, for the defense of the National Capital."

2 The Philadelphia Press, on the 8th of April, 1862, said:-" We understand that a gentleman of high position and good judgment, who has taken a very prominent part in public affairs ever since the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, recently declared, that the small band of Pennsylvania troops who arrived at Washington on the 18th of April, saved the Capital from seizure by the conspirators. In his judgment, if their response to the call of the President had been less prompt, the traitors would inevitably have gained possession of the archives and public buildings of the Nation, and, probably, of the highest officers of the Government." The names of that little band are given in the following muster-rolls of the companies. It may be proper to remark, that these names are not given to mark these men as more patriotic than thousands of others who were then pressing eagerly toward Washington City, but for the obvious reason that they were the first to arrive, and give the earliest efficient check to the hands of the conspirators, uplifted to smite the Nation with a deadly blow. The muster-rolls of the companies, on that occasion, are as follows:

WASHINGTON ARTILLERY COMPANY, OF POTTSVILLE.

OFFICERS AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.-Captain, James Wren; First Lieutenant, David A. Smith; Second Lieutenant, Francis B. Wallace; Second-Second Lieutenant, Philip Nagle; First Sergeant, Henry C. Russel; Second Sergeant, Joseph A. Gilmour; Third Sergeant, Cyrus Sheetz; Fourth Sergeant, William J. McQuade; Quartermaster-Sergeant, George H. Gressang; First Corporal, D. J. Ridgway; Second Corporal, Samuel R. Russel; Third Corporal, Charles Hinkle; Fourth Corporal, Reuben Snyder.

PRIVATES.-George H. Hill, Francis P. Dewees, Wm. Ramsey Potts, Thomas Johnson, Nelson T. Major, Isaac E. Severn, Edward L. Severn, Thomas Jones, George Meyer, J. C. Weaver, John Engle, Charles P. Potts, Charles P. Loeser, H. K. Downing, William II. Hardell, J. B. Brandt, Charles Slingluff, Theodore F. Patterson, Charles Evans, Charles Hause, Francis Hause, D. B. Brown, John Christian, Albert G. Whitfield, William Bates, Oliver C. Bosbyshell, Robert F. Potter, A. H. Titus, Joseph Reed, Joel H. Betz, John Curry, Robert Smith, Augustus Reese, Hugh Stevenson. H. H. Hill, Eli Williams, Benjamin Christian, Thomas Petherick, Jr., Louis T. Snyder, Edwin J. Shipper, Richard M. Hodgson, William W. Clemens, Curtus C. Pollock, William Auman, William Riley, Edward T. Leib, Daniel Moser, William Brown, Edward Nagle, Godfrey Leonard, G. W. Bratton, William Heffner, Victor Wernert, Charles A. Glenn, William Spence, Patrick Hanley, William J. Feger, William Lesher, D. C. Pott, Alba C. Thompson, Daniel Christian, Samuel Beard, Thomas Irwin, Henry Dentzer, Philip T. Dentzer, H. Bobbs, John Pass, Heber S. Thompson, B. F. Jones, John I. Hetherington, Peter Fisher, William Dagan, J. R. Hetherington, Nelson Drake, Charles A. Hesser, Samuel Shoener, Charles Maurer, James S. Sillyman, Henry Brobst, Alfred Huntzinger, Wm. Alspach, John Hoffa, J. F. Barth, William Cole, David Williams, George Rice, Joseph Kear, Charles E. Beck, F. B. Hammer, Peter H. Frailey, Thomas Corby, Charles Vanhorn, John Noble, Joseph Fyant, Alexander S. Bowen, John Jones, Francis A. Stitzer, William A. Maize, William Agin, George H. Hartman, Richard Bartolet, Lewis Douglass, Richard Price, Frederick Christ, Valentine Stichter, Francis B. Bannan, William Bartholomew, Frank P. Myer, Bernard Riley, George F. Stahlen, Edward Gaynor.

MUSICIANS.

Thomas Severn, Fifer; Albert F. Bowen, Drummer.

NATIONAL LIGHT INFANTRY, OF POTTSVILLE.

OFFICERS AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.-Captain, E. McDonald; First Lieutenant, James Russell; Second Lieutenant, Henry L. Cake; Third Lieutenant, Lewis J. Martin; First Sergeant, La Mar S. Hay; Second Sergeant, Abraham McIntyre; Third Sergeant, W. F. Huntzinger; Fourth Sergeant, George G. Boyer; Quartermaster Sergeant, Daniel Downey; First Corporal, Ernst A. Sauerbrey; Second Corporal, Charles C. Russell; Third Corporal, Edward Moran; Fourth Corporal, Frederick W. Conrad.

PRIVATES.-J. Addison McCool, Thomas G. Bull, William Becker, John Simpson, Thomas G. Houck, Edward Thomas, Elias B. Trifoos, John Stodd, Lawrence Manayan, B. F. Barlett, Wm. Madara. Emanuel Saylor, Wm. F. Garrett, John P. Womelsdorff, George De Courcey, J. J. Dampman, John Schmidt, C. F. Hoffman, Jacob Bast, Daniel Eberle, Wm. H. Hodgson, Ernst T. Ellrich, Amos Forseman, C. F. Umberhauer, James Sammon, Wm. R. Roberts, Jonas W. Rich, Charles Weber, Terrence Smith, F. A. Schoener, William Pugh, Frank Hanley, James

Smith, Geo. W. Mennig, James Marshall, Ira Troy, Uriah Good, Wm. Irving, Patrick Curtin, John Burns, Edward McCabe, Fred. Seltzer, John Donegan, John Mullens, John Lamons, Wm. McDonald, Geo, W. Garber, F. W. Simpson, Alexander Smith, David Dilly, George Shartle, A. D. Allen, Charles F. Garrett, Geo. A. Lerch, James Carroll, John Benedict, Edmund Foley, Thomas Kelley, John Eppinger, John Rouch, David Howard, Jeremiah Deitrich, William Weller, Wm. A. Christian, Mark Walker, Ralph Corby, Henry Mehr, F. Goodyear, Wm. Carl, Anthony Lippman, John P. Deiner, Wm. A. Beidleman, Chas. J. Shoemaker, Jas. Donegan, Herman Hauser, Louis Weber, Thomas H. Parker, John Howell, Henry Yerger, Wm. Davenport, James Landefield, James R. Smith, Michael Foren, Alex. Smith, W. M. Lashorn, Levi Gloss, Samuel Heilner, Enoch Lambert, Frank Wenrich, Joseph Johnston, Henry C. Nies, Jacob Shoey, John Hartman, Wm. Buckley, Henry Quin, Thomas G. Buckley, Wm. Becker, J. P. McGinnes, Charles J. Redeay, Jr., Wm. Britton, Thomas Smith, J. M. Hughes, Thomas Martin, Henry Gehring, Dallas Dampman, John Bocdefeld, M. Edgar Richards.

RINGGOLD LIGHT ARTILLERY, OF READING.

OFFICERS AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.-Captain, James M'Knight; First Lieutenant, Henry Nagle; Second Lieutenant, Wm. Graeff; First Sergeant, G. W. Durell; Second Sergeant, D. Kreisher; Third Sergeant, H. S. Rush; First Corporal, Levi S. Homan; Second Corporal, F. W. Folkman: Third Corporal, Horatio Leader; Fourth Corporal, Jacob Womert; Bugler, John A. Hock.

PRIVATES. James A. Fox, Samuel Evans, Amos Drenkle, Fred. Yeager, Geo. W. Silvis, Ed. Pearson, Fred. Shaeffer, Wm. C. Eben, Henry E. Eisenbeis, Daniel Maltzberger, Adam Freeze, Augustus Berger, Solomon Ash, Fred. H. Phillippi, Nathaniel B. Hill, James E. Lutz, Geo. S. Bickley, Samuel Hamilton, Amos Huyett, Andrew Helms, Wm. W. Bowers, Henry Neihart, Ferd. S. Ritter, Daniel Whitman, Jeremiah Seiders, Anthony Ammon, Henry Fleck, Henry Rush, Jacob J. Hessler, Henry G. Baus, Charles Gebhart, Henry Coleman, Chas. P. Muhlenberg, Jacob Leeds, James Gentzler, J. Hiester McKnight, B. F. Ermentrout, James Pflieger, Charles Spangler, Geo. W. Knabb, D. Dickinson, C. Levan, Albert Shirey, Adam Faust, Peter A. Lantz, Geo. D. Leaf, H. Whiteside, A. Levan, C. Frantz, Wm. Sauerbier, Jonathan Sherer, H. Geiger, Wm. Lewis, A. Seyfert, Robert Eltz, J. S. Kennedy, E. L. Smith, George Lauman, Lemuel Gries, James L. Mast, Christopher Loeser, Howard M'Ilvaine, C. B. Ansart, Win. Haberacker, John A. M'Lenegan, George Eckert, William Herbst, Wm. Rapp, Isaiah Rambo, Daniel Levan, John Yohn, Isaac Leeds, Francis Rambo, Wm. Christ, Fred. Peck, John Freeze, Jr., William Fix, Edward Scull, Jackson Sherman, Ad. Gehry, Daniel Yohn, James D. Koch, H. Fox, F. Housum, William Smith, C. A. Bitting, Wm. P. Mack, Wm. Miller, Fred. Smeck, Milton Roy, Geo. B. Rhoads, James Anthony, David Bechtel, F. G. Ebling.

LOGAN GUARDS, OF LEWISTOWN.

OFFICERS AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.-Captain, J. B. Selheimer; First Lieutenant, Thomas M. Hulings; Second Lieutenant, Robert W. Patton; Third Lieutenant, Francis R. Sterrett; First Sergeant, J. A. Matthews; Second Sergeant, Joseph S. Waream; Third Sergeant, H. A. Eisenbise; Fourth Sergeant, William B. Weber; Fifth Sergeant, C. M. Shull; First Corporal, E. W. Eisenbise; Second Corporal, P. P. Butts; Third Corporal, John Nolte; Fourth Corporal, Frederick Hart; Musicians, S. G. McLaughlin, William Hopper, Joseph W. Postlethwait.

PRIVATES.-William H. Irwin (subsequently elected Colonel of the Seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers), David Wasson, William T. McEwen, Jesse Alexander, James D. Burns, Robert Betts, Henry Comfort, Frank De Armint, James B. Eckebarger, Joseph A. Ficthorn, George M. Freeborn, George Hart, James W. Henry, John S. Kauffman, George I. Loff, Elias W. Link, Samuel B. Marks, William McKnew, Robert D. Morton, Thomas A. Nuree, Henry Printz, James N. Rager, Augustus E. Smith, James P. Smith, Gideon M. Tice, Gilbert Waters, David Wertz, Edwin E. Zergler, William H. Bowsun, William K. Cooper, Jeremiah Cogley, Thomas W. Dewesc, Asbery W. Elberty, Abraham Files, Daniel Fessler, John Hughes, John Jones, Thomas Kinhead, John S. Langton, William G. Mitchell, John S. Miller, Robert A. Mathner, William A. Nelson, John A. Nale, John M. Posticthwait, James H. Sterrett, Theodore B. Smith, Charles W. Stahl, Thomas M. Uttley, David B. Weber, George White, William E. Benner, William Cowden, Samuel Comfort, George W. Elberty, William H. Freeborn, J. Bingham Farrer, Owen M. Fowler, John T. Hunter, James M. Jackson, Henry F. Keiser, Charles E. Laub, William R. McCay, Joseph A. Miller, John A. McKee, Robert Nelson, James Price, Bronson Rothrock. William Sherwood, Nathaniel W. Scott, George A. Snyder, Franklin H. Wentz, Henry G. Walters, Philip Winterod.

ALLEN INFANTRY, OF ALLENTOWN.

OFFICERS AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.-Captain, Thomas B. Yeager; First Lieutenant, Joseph Wilt: Second Lieutenant, Solomon Geoble,

PRIVATES.-John G. Webster, Samuel Schneck, David Kramer, David Jacobs, Edwin Gross, Charles Deitrich, M. R. Fuller, Edwin H. Miller, Ben. Weiandt, Darius Weiss, John Romig. Isaac Gresser, Milton H. Dunlap, Wilson H. Derr, Joseph Weiss, William Kress, William Ruhe, Charles A. Schiffert, Nathaniel Hillegar, George A. Keiper, James Geidner, Gideon Frederick, Norman N. Cole, William Early, George Haxworth, Chas. A. Pfeiffer, James M. Wilson, M. G. Frame. Joseph Hettinger, George Henry, Jonathan W. Reber, Henry Stork, John Hoke, Martin W. Leisenring, Franklin Leh, Ernest Rottman, Allen Wetherhold. George W. Rhoads, Wm. H. Sigmund, William Wagner, Wm. Wolf, Lewis Seip, Edwin Hittle, William S. Davis, C. Slatterdach.

CONSPIRATORS ALARMED BY LOYALTY.

409

CHAPTER XVII.

EVENTS IN AND NEAR THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.

ALTIMORE became the theater of a sad tragedy on the day after the loyal Pennsylvanians passed through it to the Capital. The conspirators and secessionists there, who were in complicity with those of Virginia, had been compelled, for some time, to be very circumspect, on account of the loyalty of the great body of the people. Public displays of sympathy with the revolutionists were quickly resented. When, in the exuberance of their joy on the "secession of Virginia," these sympathizers ventured to take a cannon to Federal Hill, raise a secession flag, and fire a salute," the workmen in the iron foundries near there turned out, captured the great gun and All 18, cast it into the waters of the Patapsco, tore the banner into shreds, and made the disunionists fly in consternation. At about the same time, a man seen in the streets with a secession cockade on his hat was pursued by the populace, and compelled to seek the protection of the police. These and similar events were such significant admonitions for the conspirators that they prudently worked in secret. They had met every night in their private room in the Taylor Building, on Fayette Street;' and there they formed their plans for resistance to the passage of Northern troops through Baltimore.

1861.

April 18.

On the day when the Pennsylvanians passed through,' some leading Virginians came down to Baltimore from Charlestown and Winchester as representatives of many others of their class, and demanded. of the managers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway not only pledges, but guaranties, that no National troops, nor any munitions of war from the Armory and Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, should be permitted to pass over their road. They accompanied their demand with a threat that, if it should be refused, the great railway bridge over the Potomac at Harper's Ferry should be destroyed. They had heard of the uprising of the loyal people of the great Northwest, and the movement of troops toward the National Capital from that teeming hive, and they came to effect the closing of the most direct railway communication for them. They had heard how Governor Dennison, with a trumpet-toned proclamation, had summoned the people of Ohio, on the very day when the President's call appeared, to "rise above all party names and party bias, resolute to maintain the freedom so dearly bought by our fathers, and to transmit it unimpaired

April 15.

See page 278.

410

MEETING OF SECESSIONISTS IN BALTIMORE.

to our posterity," and to fly to the protection of the imperiled Republic. They almost felt the tread of the tall men of the Ohio Valley,' as they were preparing to pass over the "Beautiful River" into the Virginia border. They had heard the war-notes of Blair, and Morton, and Yates, and Randall, and Kirkwood, and Ramsay, all loyal Governors of the populous and puissant States of that great Northwest, and were satisfied that the people would respond as promptly as had those of New England; so they hastened to bar up the nearest passage for them to the Capital over the Alleghany Mountains, until the disloyal Minute-men of Maryland and Virginia, and of the District of Columbia, should fulfiil the instructions and satisfy the expectations of the conspirators at Montgomery in the seizure of the Capital. They found ready and eager sympathizers in Baltimore; and only a few hours before the coveted arms in the Harper's Ferry Arsenal were set a-blazing, and the Virginia plunderers were foiled, the "National Volunteer Association" of Baltimore (under whose auspices the secession flag had been raised on Federal Hill that day, and a salute attempted in honor of the secession of Virginia), led by its President, William Burns, held a meeting in Monument Square. T. Parkins Scott presided. He and others addressed a multitude of citizens, numbered by thousands. They harangued the people with exciting and incendiary phrases. They denounced "coercion," and called upon the people to arm and drill, for a conflict was at hand. “I do not care," said Wilson C. Carr, "how many Federal troops are sent to Washington, they will soon find themselves surrounded by such an army from Virginia and Maryland that escape to their homes will be impossible; and when the seventy-five thousand who are intended to invade the South shall have polluted that soil with their touch, the South will exterminate and sweep them from the earth.” These words were received with the wildest yells and huzzas, and the meeting finally broke up with three cheers for "the South," and the same for "President Davis."

992

With such seditious teachings; with such words of encouragement to mob violence ringing in their ears, the populace of Baltimore went to their slumbers on that night of the 18th of April, when it was known that a portion of the seventy-five thousand to be slaughtered were on their way from New England, and would probably reach the city on the morrow. While the people were slumbering, the secessionists were holding meetings in different wards, and the conspirators were planning dark deeds for that morrow, at Taylor's Building. There, it is said, the Chief of Police, Kane, and the President of the Monument Square meeting, and others, counseled resistance to any Northern or Western troops who might attempt to pass through the city.

There was much feverishness in the public mind in Baltimore on the morning of the 19th of April. Groups of excited men were seen on the corners of streets, and at the places of public resort. Well-known secessionists were hurrying to and fro with unusual agility; and in front of the

1 By actual measurement of two hundred and thirty-nine native Americans in five counties in the Ohio Valley, taken indiscriminately, it appears that one-fourth of them were six feet and over in hight. As compared with European soldiers, such as the Belgians, the English, and the Scotch Highlanders, it was found that the average hight of these Ohio men was four inches over that of the Belgians, two and a half inches above that of English recruits, and one and a half inches above that of the Scotch Highlanders.

2 Greeley's American Conflict, i. 462.