however, to inflame the disaffected, and preparations commenced to resist the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, which started on the 17th, passed through New York on the 18th, in a sort of triumphal march, and on the morning of the 19th arrived at Camden Station in Baltimore, together with a portion of the Seventh Pennsylvania.

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Several of the cars containing the troops pushed through the city with horses to the Washington Dépôt, but the remainder, from want of horses, were unable to proceed. Meanwhile an excited and angry crowd gathered in the vicinity of the Camden Station, and while a portion tore up the rails and otherwise obstructed the track, others began to make threatening demonstrations against the remaining Massachusetts and Pennsylvania troops. These remained quiet for a short time, when the infuriated mob assailed them with stones, bricks, and other missiles, wounding several of the soldiers. The men then alighted, formed a solid square, with fixed bayonets, and with the Mayor of Baltimore and a body of police at their head, started through the city. The mob rapidly increased in numbers and ferocity, and the shower of missiles upon the troops momentarily thickened, interspersed with shots of revolvers and discharges from the muskets taken from the soldiers. As the wounded soldiers dropped they were taken into the centre, sustained by their comrades, and the column pushed on. were now dead and several wounded, when some of the exasperated soldiers returned the fire by single shots. After a severe and protracted struggle, the men finally gained the Washington Dépôt, and immediately embarked, having sustained a loss of three killed and eight wounded. Eleven of the rioters were killed and an unknown number wounded. The Pennsylvanians were also attacked and many injured; as they were unarmed, they were sent back whence they came. The mob now ruled supreme. The gun-shops were plundered, other stores closed, and a public meeting summoned for the afternoon. Mayor and Governor both notified the President that no more troops could pass through Baltimore, and also advised the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that the troops then in the city should be sent back, which was done. The mob then waited at Canton for the train coming from Philadelphia, compelled the passengers to alight, and went back in the train to Gunpowder Bridge, which they burned, after which they burned Cushman Bridge and Canton Bridge.

The

The news of this conflict, as it flew North, caused great excitement. The Northern blood boiled with indignation, and all were eager to save the capital of the Nation. Troops hastened their preparations to press forward and force a passage to the seat of Government. The fact did not fail to impress itself on the public mind, that this first conflict, in this great strife, was the anniversary of the day, the 19th of April, 1775, when the Massachusetts yeomen drew the first blood, from the invading English, at Lexington. The lineal representatives of these men, after a lapse of eighty-six years, were the first to open the war on the soil of Maryland. The deep movement of the popular passions was manifest in many ways. The National flag, which had gone down before the guns of the enemy, became at once the emblem of patriotism and of decided purpose. It fluttered from every build

ing, and was borne by every person. The stopping of the highway to the capital served to give point to the public purpose, and "through Baltimore" became a rallying-cry. General Scott, at Washington, immediately took measures to open the communication on that side. The news had no sooner reached him than he issued a general order, adding Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania to the military department of Washington, and placing Major-General Patterson, of the Pennsylvania volunteers, in command. with orders to post Pennsylvania troops all along the line, from Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington City.

The enthusiasm in New York was very demonstrative, showing a great contrast to the apparent apathy that had prevailed, since its longcontinued efforts to effect some compromise had ceased to be of any avail. The political sentiment as well as the material interests of New York were ever eminently conservative. Her geographical position had made her the commercial centre of the Union, and her acquired wealth had made her its financial head. The capital of the whole country came to her for investment. Her own vast capital moved the crops of the West, and the exchanges, based on Southern productions, were negotiated in her market. She was the factor for every producer, the banker for every merchant; she was, so to speak, the negotiator between every section of the Union and foreign nations. She had debtors in every town and hamlet of the country, and every producer, even of the most remote region, was directly or indirectly her customer. In every harbor her shipping was to be found, and her capital insured the merchandise on every lake and river. She could not, therefore, but regard the approach of hostilities with dissatisfaction and dread. She knew that she held the purse-strings of the Nation; that, whatever Congress might plan, or President execute, nothing could be effected without her aid, and that the first burden of every struggle must fall upon her. She therefore strove earnestly to avoid the difficulty; but when once it burst upon the country, she offered her vast means upon the altar of the Nation, and frankly accepted the situation. Her troops at once assembled in imposing force. Every armory and drill-room was busy with active officers, mustering, organizing, and preparing for the march. The Seventh militia regiment, long the pride of the city, was the first ready, and its departure was a day of triumph long to be remembered.

It marched at four P. M. of the 19th, amidst unparalleled demonstrations of enthusiasm from the dense multitudes who thronged the streets; and on the same day the Rhode Island artillery, Colonel Tompkins, and the Massachusetts Eighth, Colonel Monroe, with General B. F. Butler, went through New York. The troops now began to move in crowds from all quarters. "Through Baltimore," was the rallying-cry, and the hurrying tread of departing regiments of determined men was drowned amid the cheers and acclamations of the throngs, which peopled house-top, street, and wharf, alive with flags and banners, and vocal with patriotic strains. Every Northern State and every condition of life sent its enthusiastic patriots to meet the National foes, and defend the old Stars and Stripes, that, born of inde

pendence, has so often been flung to the breeze in the strife of liberty. Massachusetts, in six days from the date of the President's call, had six regiments on the way, including a battalion of riflemen and a battery of artillery. Rhode Island had sent two under Governor Sprague, New York had sent seven. This Northern "avant-garde," as they passed on, were joined by the troops of Ohio and Pennsylvania. In Indiana, six regiments were raised and mustered into service in a week after the call was made. All the other States were prompt and effective in their aid. The living stream poured on by rail and flood, and Baltimore, which had, under the bad impulse of the moment, attempted to stay its course, only caused by its resistance an accumulation of force that threatened to sweep the city from existence.

The New York Seventh arrived in Philadelphia at four o'clock a. M. of the 20th. The universal desire of the regiment was to push through, and emulate the gallant Massachusetts men, if it did not avenge them. The difficulties that presented themselves were, however, very grave. The bridges were burned in many places, the rails torn up forty miles from Baltimore, and the road was commanded by the mob, to quell which was no part of the business in hand. The great object was to throw a force into Washington, which should protect the Government; that, once safe, the riot would be taken in hand in its turn. To effect that object, it was necessary to go round Baltimore, and accordingly the regiment proceeded by water to Annapolis, where it arrived on the afternoon of the 22d, in company with the Eighth Massachusetts, under General Butler. The regiment was quartered in the Naval School. On the 23d, General Butler took military possession of the Annapolis and Elkridge Railroad; and on the same day, the Seventy-first New York arrived. On the morning of the 24th, the troops began their march to Washington.

The track had been torn up between Annapolis and the junction with the Baltimore and Washington Railroad, and here it was that the wonderful qualities of the Massachusetts Eighth regiment came out. The locomotives had been taken to pieces by the inhabitants, in order to prevent the march. A Massachusetts volunteer stepped up, and looking at a piecemeal engine, remarked, "I helped make this engine, and I can put it together again." Engineers were wanted when the engine was ready; nineteen stepped out of the ranks. The rails were torn up; practical railroad-makers out of the regiment laid them again; and all this without care or food. These brave men were nearly starving while they were doing this good work. As they marched along the track that they had laid, they greeted the New York Seventh with ranks of smiling but hungry faces. One boy said, with a laugh on his young lips, "that he had not eaten any thing for thirty hours." There was not a haversack in the Seventh regiment that was not emptied into the hands of these ill-treated heroes, nor a flask that was not at their disposal.

The march continued until the next morning, with a short halt here and there. There were two roads to Washington; one by the railtrack, and the other the common country road. The commander had information that the latter was beset by parties of cavalry, intending

to cut off the march, which was therefore directed by the railroad. The sleepers made the march terribly fatiguing, and as the road required to be explored inch by inch, exceedingly slow. But the troops finally reached Washington on the 25th, and succeeding regiments following by the same route, soon insured the safety of the capital.

The position of Maryland had been from the first very critical. She had sympathized strongly with the Southern States, yet she had a large conservative element, which was manifested in her vote at the Presidential election. The total vote cast in the State was ninety-two thousand five hundred and two. Of these, forty-two thousand four hundred and eighty-two were cast for Breckenridge, forty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty for Bell, and five thousand nine hundred and sixtysix for Douglas. Of the remainder, Mr. Lincoln received two thousand two hundred and ninety-four. When the difficulties thickened, it became evident that, in case of a conflict, Maryland, with her small resources and exposed situation, would suffer greatly. Her Governor, Hicks, strongly opposed secession in an address to the people, in January. He refused to convene the legislature, saying:

war.

"I firmly believe that a division of this Government would inevitably produce civil The secession leaders in South Carolina, and the fanatical demagogues of the North, have alike proclaimed that such would be the result, and no man of sense, in my opinion, can question it. What could the legislature do in this crisis, if convened, to romove the present troubles which beset the Union ?

"That Maryland is a conservative Southern State, all know who know any thing of her people or her history. The business and agricultural classes, planters, merchants, mechanics, and laboring men; those who have a real stake in the community, who would be forced to pay the taxes and do the fighting, are the persons who should be heard in preference to excited politicians, many of whom, having nothing to lose from the destruction of the Government, may hope to derive some gain from the ruin of the State. Such men will naturally urge you to pull down the pillars of this accursed Union,' which their allies at the North have denominated a 'covenant with hell.' The people of Maryland, if left to themselves, would decide, with scarcely an exception, that there is nothing in the present causes of complaint to justify immediate secession."

Notwithstanding that the legislature did not meet, the excitement in the State, particularly in Baltimore, continued very great. Upon the receipt of the first call for troops, the Governor wrote to the Secretary of War to be informed if the troops were to be used solely in the limits of the State, and for the protection of the National capital. He was informed that the troops were only for the defence of the capital. The Secretary of War, also, April 18th, notified him that fears were entertained that the passage of the troops through Baltimore would be obstructed, and hoped the State authorities would prevent it. The Governor on the 20th replied, that the mob had control, that the military fraternized with them, therefore he declined sending troops, and insisted that no more should be sent through Maryland. The Government replied, that the troops would be sent round Baltimore. On the 22d, the Governor repeated his request in respect to troops, and suggested that Lord Lyons" should be requested to act as mediator between the contending parties of our conntry." The Secretary of State replied, declining foreign mediation, and affirmed the right to send troops through