1861.]

THE AWAKENING OF THE NORTH.

51

who had long been Lincoln's rival and had opposed the policy of coercion, went to the White House the day before Sumter fell, had a long interview with the President, and promised a hearty support of the Administration, which was immediately telegraphed over the country and had a powerful effect. Ex-President Pierce (who had made the direful prediction of blood in Northern streets), ex-President Buchanan (who had failed to find any authority for coercion), General Lewis Cass (a Democratic partisan since the war of 1812), Archbishop Hughes (the highest dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church in America), and numerous others, all" came out for the Union," as the phrase went. The greater portion of the Democratic party, which had opposed Lincoln's election, also, as individuals, sustained the Administration in its determination not to permit a division of the country. These were known as "war Democrats," while those that opposed and reviled the government were called "Copperheads," in allusion to the snake of that name. Some of the bolder ones attempted to take the edge off the sarcasm by cutting the head of Liberty out of a copper cent and wearing it as a scarf-pin; but all they could say was quickly drowned in the general clamor.

Town halls, school-houses, academies, and even churches, were turned into temporary barracks. Village greens and city squares were occupied every day by platoons of men, most of them not yet uniformed, marching and wheeling and countermarching, and being drilled in the manual of arms

52

RIOT IN BALTIMORE.

[1861.

by officers that knew just a little more than they did, by virtue of having bought a handbook of tactics the day before, and sat up all night to study it. There was great scarcity of arms. One regiment were looking dubiously at some ancient muskets that had just been placed in their hands, when the Colonel came up and with grim humor assured them that he had seen those weapons used in the Mexican war, and more men were killed in front of them than behind them. The boys had great respect for the Colonel, but they wanted to be excused from believing his story.

In many of the Northern cities small organizations of uniformed militia had been kept up for years, and many of them were exceedingly well drilled and fairly armed. New interest had been awakened in militia service only the year before (1860), when a young man named Ephraim E. Ellsworth, who had drilled a Chicago company to perfection in the zouave tactics, exhibited their skill in most of the large cities. The uniformed militia was first ready to respond to the President's proclamation, and within two days the Sixth Massachusetts, Colonel Edward F. Jones, was on its way to Washington. On the 19th (the anniversary of the battle of Lexington) it arrived at Baltimore, where trouble was expected and trouble came. An immense mob of secessionists that had hooted and stoned an unarmed Pennsylvania regiment passing through the city the previous evening now collected again in greater force and with deadlier purpose. A part of the regiment had been taken

1861.]

THE FIRST BLOODSHED.

53

across the city in detached cars, when the track was obstructed, and the last four companies attempted to march across. They encountered a riotous procession that was following a secession flag; the crowd closed in around them; such epithets as "abolitionists," nigger-thieves," and

"black Republicans," were freely hurled at them and emphasized with paving-stones; pistol-shots were fired from windows and from the side-walk; several soldiers were struck, and at length orders were given to fire into the mob, when many of the rioters fell. The Mayor of the city pushed through the crowd, and placed himself at the head of the column, hoping that his presence would be some protection. But the rioters still pressed hard upon the little band of soldiers, and the Mayor seized a musket and shot one of the foremost. Soon afterward half a hundred policemen with drawn revolvers were interposed between the mob and the soldiers, who made the remainder of the march without serious difficulty.

The bodies of three militiamen that had been killed were sent home to their native State and deposited in the little hillside cemeteries-the first of a long procession of young men destined within the next four years to lay down their lives for their country. It was a coincidence that in the last war with Great Britain (1812-'15) the first bloodshed had been in this same city of Baltimore, and was also the work of a mob.

The New York Seventh Regiment, Colonel Marshall Lefferts, and the Massachusetts Eighth,

54

A WEEK OF DISASTERS.

[1861.

General Benjamin F. Butler, followed close after the Sixth in the march to the national capital; but they went by way of Annapolis, avoiding Baltimore by request of the State and municipal authorities. Indeed, the chief of police, immediately after the riot, had burned the bridges north and east of the city, so that no more troops could come through.

This affair intensified the excitement and the patriotic determination at the North. A monster meeting was held in New York city, and a Union. Defence Committee was appointed to facilitate the equipment of troops and the furnishing of ships and money. The effect in Maryland was to increase the disunion feeling and create a tremendous excitement. Arms were sent from Richmond to the secessionists of that State, and for a time it seemed probable that she would be lost to the Union, and Washington be surrounded by the territory of the enemy.

Meanwhile the Virginia troops were moving to capture the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the Gosport navy-yard. The commandants of both set the buildings on fire and attempted to destroy the machinery and other property, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Confederates, but only partially succeeded. The loss at the navy-yard, in ships and material, was enormous. All these disasters-Sumter, Baltimore, the secession of Virginia, Harper's Ferry, Gosport-had occurred within one week, April 12-20; but the Administration, though cut off from communication with the friendly North, was

1861.]

TROOPS POURING INTO WASHINGTON.

55

not appalled. The various departments of the Government went on regularly with their duties, and the veteran General Winfield Scott, who had been through two or three wars, and fourteen. years before had dictated terms of peace in the capital of Mexico, made the best possible dispositions, with the force at his command, for the defence of Washington.

Troops in abundance were soon pouring into the city, till the authorities hardly knew what to do with them, and they hardly knew what to do with themselves. They slept on the floors of the Government buildings by night, and swarmed everywhere by day. A regiment of zouaves, recruited from the New York fire department and commanded by Ellsworth, amused themselves and astonished the citizens by scaling the walls of the Capitol, running along the cornices and water-tables, and clambering from window to window. To outward appearance the affair was one vast picnic, and few seemed to realize that desperate and bloody work was to come.

On the 24th of May, in the night, four regiments crossed the Potomac and took possession of Arlington Heights, which commanded Washington, and from which shells might have been thrown into the White House. This was called the first invasion of "the sacred soil of Virginia "-an expression that became a by-word. One regiment, Ellsworth's, went by way of Alexandria, where a secession flag had long been flying over the principal hotel. Ellsworth himself, accom