DISLOYALTY IN MARYLAND. 551 was, as we have already observed, continually thrust upon the notice of that people through the most respectable as well as the most disreputable of their public speakers and journals. The Richmond papers, published under the inspiration of Davis and his fellow-conspirators, were especially offensive. Sufficient has been cited from these journals, and others in the Slave-labor States, to show how horribly the minds of the people were abused; and yet what we have given is mild in sentiment and decent in expression compared with much that filled the newspapers of the Confederacy and was heard from the lips of leaders. 1 a June 13, 1861. The speech of Davis and the proclamation of Beauregard were applauded by the secession leaders in Washington City and in Baltimore, as exhibiting the ring of true metal, and gave a new impulse to their desires for linking the fortunes of Maryland with the Confederacy, and renewed their hopes of a speedy consummation of their wishes. The temporary panic that seized them when Butler so suddenly took military possession of Baltimore had quickly subsided after he was called away; and under the mild administration of martial law by General Cadwalader, his successor, they became daily more bold and defiant, and gave much uneasiness to the Government. It was known that the majority of the members of the Maryland Legislature were disloyal, and that secretly and openly they were doing all they could to array their State against the National Government. A committee of that body had addressed a sympathizing epistle to Jefferson Davis, in which he was unwarrantably assured that the people of Maryland coincided with the conspirators in sentiment; for at the elections for members of Congress, to represent the State in the extraordinary session to begin on the 4th of July, so loyal was the great mass of the people of that State, that not a single sympathizer with secession was chosen. In the city of Baltimore was the head of the secession movements in the State; and it was made apparent to the Government, early in June, that there was a powerful combination there whose purpose was to co-operate with the armed insurgents in Virginia in attempts to seize the National Capital, by preventing soldiers from the North passing through that city, and by arming men to cross into Virginia to swell the ranks of the insurgents there. The Government took energetic steps to avert the threatened danger. N. P. Banks, Ex-Governor of Massachusetts, who had lately been appointed a Major-General of Volunteers, was assigned to the command of the Department of Annapolis, with his head-quarters at Baltimore; and on the 10th of June he succeeded Cadwalader, who joined the expedition under General Patterson." It soon became so evident to Banks that the Board of Police, and Kane, the Chief of that body, were in active sympathy, if not in actual complicity, with the conspirators, that he reported to his Government his suspicions of the dangerous character of that organization, suspicions which subsequent events showed to be well founded. 3 $ 1861. After satisfying himself of the guilt of certain officials, General Banks ordered a large body of soldiers, armed and supplied with ball-cartridges, to march from Fort McHenry into the city just before daybreak on the 27th 1 The Committee consisted of Messrs. McKaig, Yellott, and Harding. See page 521. 3 See page 281. 552 MARTIAL LAW IN BALTIMORE. of June, and to proceed to the arrest of Marshal Kane, and his incarceration in that fort. He at once gave to the people, in a proclamation, his reasons for the act. He told them it was not his intention to interfere in the least with the legitimate government of the citizens of Baltimore or of the State; on the contrary, it was his desire to "support the public authorities in all appropriate duties. But unlawful combinations of men," he continued, "organized for resistance to such laws, that provide hidden deposits of arms and ammunition, encourage contraband traffic with men at war with the Government, and, while enjoying its protection and privileges, stealthily wait an opportunity to combine their means and force with those in rebellion against its authority, are not among the recognized or legal rights of any class of men, and cannot be permitted under any form of government whatever." He said that such combinations were well known to exist in his department, and that the Chief of Police was not only believed to be cognizant of those facts, "but, in contravention of his duty and in violation of law," was, "by direction or indirection, both witness and protector to the transaction and parties engaged therein." Under such circumstances, the Government could not "regard him otherwise than as the head of an armed force hostile to its authority, and acting in concert with its avowed enemies." He further pro claimed that, in accordance with instructions, he had appointed Colonel (afterward BrigadierGeneral) John R. Kenly, of the First Maryland Volunteers, provost-marshal in and for the city of Baltimore, "to superintend and cause to be executed the police laws" of the city, "with the aid and assistance of the subordinate officers of the police department." He assured the citizens that whenever a loyal man among them should be named for the performance of the duty of chief of police, the military would at once yield to the civil authority. Colonel Kenly was well known and highly respected as an influential citizen and thorough loyalist; and he entered upon the important duties of his office with promptness and energy. The Police Commissioners' had met as soon as Banks's proclamation appeared, and protested against his act as illegal, and declared that the "suspension of their functions suspended at the same time the operations of the police laws," and put the subordinate officers and men off duty. This declaration filled the citizens with the liveliest excitement, caused by indignation and alarm. They felt that they were given over to the power of the worst elements of society, with no law to protect them. June 27, Banks hastened, by the publication of instructions to Kenly, to disabuse and quiet the public mind. He therein declared that the functions of the police officers and men, and the operations of police 1861. a 1 These Commissioners were Charles Howard, President, and William H. Gatchell, Charles D. Hincks, and John W. Davis, with George W. Brown, the Mayor, who was ex-officio a member of the Board. MILITARY AND CIVIL AUTHORITY IN CONFLICT. 553 laws, were in full force, excepting so far as the latter affected the Commissioners and the Chief of Police; and he authorized Kenly, in the event of a refusal of any of the police force to perform their duty, to select, in conjunction with such of the public authorities as would aid him, "good men and true," to fill their places. Kenly worked with energy. He chose to select new men for a police force. Before midnight, he had enrolled, organized, and armed such a force, two hundred and fifty strong, composed of Union citizens whom he could trust, and had taken possession of the head-quarters of the late Marshal and Police Commissioners, in the Old City Hall, on Holliday Street. In that building he found ample evidence of the guiltiness of the late occupants. Concealed beneath the floors, in several rooms, were found a large number of arms, consisting of muskets, rifles, shot-guns, carbines, pistols, swords, and dirk knives, with ample ammunition of various kinds; also, in the covered yard or woodroom in the rear, in a position to command Watch-house Alley, leading to Saratoga Street, were two 6-pound and two 4-pound iron cannon, with suitable cartridges and balls. In that building was also found the cannon-ball sent from Charleston to Marshal Kane, delineated on page 322. These discoveries, and others of like character in other parts of the city, together OLD CITY HALL, BALTIMORE.1 JOHN R. KENLY. with the rebellious conduct of the Board of Police, who continued their sittings daily, refused to acknowledge the new policemen, and held the old force subject to their orders, seemed to warrant the Government in ordering their arrest. They were accordingly taken into custody, and were confined in Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, as prisoners of State. These vigorous measures secured the ascendency of the Unionists in Maryland, which they never afterward lost. It was thenceforward entitled to the honor of being a a 1861. loyal State, and Baltimore a loyal city. The secessionists were silenced; and, at the suggestion of many Unionists of Baltimore, July 10, George R. Dodge, a citizen and a civilian, was appointed marshal of police in place of Colonel Kenly, who, with his regiment, soon after This is a view of the building as it appeared when the writer sketched it, in the autumn of 1864, from Holliday Street, near Saratoga Street. Adjoining it is seen the yard of the German Reformed Church, and in the distance the spire of Christ Church. The City Hall was built of brick, and stuccoed. 554 DISLOYAL MARYLANDERS IN RICHMOND. ward joined the Army of the Potomac. When the necessity for their presence no longer existed, Banks withdrew his troops from the city, where they had been posted at the various public buildings and other places; and, late in July, he superseded General Patterson in command on the Upper Potomac, and his place in Baltimore was filled by General John A. Dix. A few days later, Federal Hill was occupied, as we have observed, by the Fifth New York regiment (Zouaves), under Colonel Duryée (who was appointed a brigadier on the 31st of August), and by their hands the strong works known as Fort Federal Hill were constructed. a June 8, 1861. The turn of affairs in Maryland was disheartening to the conspirators. They had counted largely upon the active co-operation of its citizens in the important military movements about to be made, when Johnston should force his way across the Potomac, and with their aid strike a deadly blow for the possession of the National Capital in its rear. These expectations had been strongly supported by refugees from their State who had made their way to Richmond, and these, forming themselves into a corps called The Maryland Guard, had shown their faith by offering their services to the Confederacy. These enthusiastic young men, blinded by their own zeal, assured the conspirators that the sympathies of a greater portion of the people of their State were with them. This was confirmed by the arrival of a costly "Confederate" banner for the corps, wrought by women of Baltimore, and sent clandestinely to them by a sister secessionist. This was publicly presented to the Guard" on Capitol Square, in front of the monument there erected in honor of Washington and the founders of Virginia. Ex-Senator Mason made a speech on the occasion, in which the hopes of the conspirators concerning Maryland were set forth. "Your own honored State," he said, "is with us heart and soul in this great controversy. ... We all know that the same spirit which brought you here actuates thousands who remain at home." He complimented Chief Justice Taney for his sympathies with the conspirators, as one (referring to his action in the case of Merryman) who had "stood bravely in the breach, and interposed the unspotted arm of Justice between the rights of the South and the malig nant usurpation of power by the North." In conclusion, after hinting at a contemplated Confederate invasion of Maryland, in which the troops before him were expected to join," he told them they were to take the flag back to Baltimore. "It came here," he said, "in the hands of the fair lady who stands by my side, who brought it through the camps of the enemy with a 1 The Richmond Despatch of June 10 thus announced the event:-"Mrs. Augustus McLaughlin, the wife of one of the officers of the late United States Navy, who brought the flag from Baltimore, concealed as only a lady knows how, was present, and received the compliments of a large number of ladies and gentlemen who surrounded her upon the steps of the monument."-Moore's Rebellion Record, vol. i., Diary, page 96. On the banner were the following words:-"The Ladies of Baltimore present this flag of the Confederate States of America to the soldiers comprising the Maryland Regiment now serving in Virginia, as a slight testimonial of the esteem in which their valor, their love of right, and determination to uphold true constitutional liberty are approved, applauded, and appreciated by the wives and daughters of the Monumental City.” 2 See page 451. 3 A correspondent of the Charleston Mercury, writing at Richmond, on the 4th of July, said:—“Every thing depends upon the success and movements of General Johnston. If he has orders from President Davis to march into Maryland, and towards Baltimore, the game commences at once. Lincoln will find himself encompassed by forces in front and rear. Cut off from the North and West, Washington will be destroyed, and the footsteps of the retreating army, though tracked in blood across the soil of Maryland-as they assuredly will be, in such an event-may possibly pave the way to an honorable peace.”—Duyckinck's War for the Union, i. 249. PIRATES ON THE CHESAPEAKE. 555 woman's fortitude and courage and devotion to our cause; and you are to take it back to Baltimore, unfurl it in your streets, and challenge the applause of your citizens." For more than three years the conspirators were deceived by the belief that Maryland was their ally in heart, but was made powerless by military despotism; and her refugee sons were continually calling with faith, in the spirit of Randall's popular lyric: "Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain, Maryland! Virginia should not call in vain, Maryland! She meets her sisters on the plain; Maryland! Arise in majesty again, Maryland! my Maryland!" The delusion was dispelled when, in the summer of 1863, Lee invaded Maryland, with the expectation of receiving large accessions to his army in that State, but lost by desertion far more than he gained by recruiting. a June 28, 1861. At about this time, a piratical expedition was undertaken on Chesapeake Bay, and successfully carried out by some Marylanders. On the day after the arrest of Kane," the steamer St. Nicholas, Captain Kirwan, that plied between Baltimore and Point Lookout, at the mouth of the Potomac River, left the former place with forty or fifty passengers, including about twenty men who passed for mechanics. There were also a few women, and among them was one who professed to be a French lady. When the steamer was near Point Lookout, the next morning, this "French lady," suddenly transformed to a stout young man, in the person of a son of a citizen of St. Mary's County, Maryland, named Thomas, and surrounded by the band of pretended mechanics, all well armed, demanded of Captain Kirwan the immediate surrender of his vessel. Kirwan had no means for successful resistance, and yielded. The boat was taken to the Virginia side of the river, and the passengers were landed at Cone Point, while the captain and crew were retained as prisoners. There one hundred and fifty armed accomplices of the pirates, pursuant to an arrangement, went on board the St. Nicholas, which was destined for the Confederate naval service. She then went cruising down the Chesapeake to the mouth of the Rappahannock River, where she captured three brigs laden respectively with coffee, ice, and coal. With her prizes, she went up the Rappahannock to Fredericksburg, where the pirates sold their plunder, divided the prizemoney, and were entertained at a public dinner by the delighted citizens of that town, then suffering from the blockade, when Thomas appeared in his costume of a "French lady," and produced great merriment. A few days after this outrage, officers Carmichael and Horton, of Kenly's Baltimore police force, were at Fair Haven, on the Chesapeake, with a cul 1 Written by James R. Randall, at Point Coupee, Louisiana, on the 26th of April, 1861. It contains nine stanzas, and was very popular throughout the "Confederacy." It was successfully parodied by a loyal writer, after Lee's invasion of Maryland. 2 This was Thomas Carmichael, who was afterward marshal of the police of Baltimore, and, with officer D. P. West, arrested a number of the members of the Maryland Legislature on a charge of disloyalty. |