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The troops from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts were not too soon in the National capital; for all communication between Washington and the North, by railway and telegraph, was cut off for a week after the affray in Baltimore. On the night of the riot the bridges of the railway running northward from that city were burned, and the telegraph wires were cut,

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under the sanction of its mayor and chief of police; and the President of the United States and other officers of government, civil and military, at the capital, were virtually prisoners in the hands of the enemies of their country. The capital was swarming with them; and these, with the Minute-men of Maryland, were barely restrained from violence by the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts soldiers in Washington,

The Maryland Secessionists now declared that no more troops should

CHAP. VIII.

SECESSIONISTS OF BALTIMORE FOILED.

1485

pass through that State to Washington; and the mayor of Baltimore, with the sanction of Governor Hicks, sent a committee to President Lincoln to tell him of this decision. The President received them courteously, and yielded much for the sake of peace, proposing to have the troops go by water to Annapolis, and thence march through the sparsely settled country to the capital. The Secessionists would not yield an iota of their demand that "no United States soldier should tread the soil of Maryland." Governor Hicks, a sincere Unionist, but not in robust bodily health and almost seventy years of age, was overborne by the violent Secessionists in official position, and was made their passive instrument in some degree. He was induced to make the degrading proposition that Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, "be requested to act as mediator between the contending parties in our country." In the name of the President, Mr. Seward reminded the governor that when the capital was in danger in 1814, as it was now, his State gladly welcomed the United States troops everywhere on its soil, for the defence of Washington. This mildly drawn but stinging rebuke of the chief magistrate of a State that professed to be a member of the Union, gave the Secessionists notice that no degrading propositions would, for a moment, be entertained by the Government.

Still another delegation went from Baltimore to the President to give him advice in the interest of the Secessionists. They represented the theological element of Baltimore society, and were led by Rev. Dr. Fuller of the Baptist Church. When that gentleman assured the President that he might secure peace by recognizing the independence of the "seceded" States; that they would never be a part of the Union again, and expressed a hope that no more troops would be allowed to pass through Maryland, the President listened patiently, and then said significantly: "I must have troops for the defence of the capital. The Carolinians are now marching across Virginia to seize the capital, and hang me. What am I to do? I must have troops, I say; and as they can neither crawl under Maryland nor fly over it, they must come across it." The deputation returned to Baltimore, and the Secessionists of that city never afterward gave suggestions or advice to President Lincoln.

The critical situation of the capital created intense anxiety throughout the free-labor States. All communication between Washington and the rest of the world was cut off. General Scott could not send an order anywhere. What was to be done? That question was promptly answered by the veteran General John E. Wool. He hastened from his headquarters in Troy, New York, to the presence of the governor of the State (Morgan) at Albany, and they went immediately to the city of New York. Wool was

the commander of the Eastern Department of the Army, which included the whole country eastward of the Mississippi River. He and the governor held a conference with the "Union Defence Committee," composed of some of the leading citizens of New York, with General John A. Dix as chairman and William M. Evarts as secretary. A plan of action for the relief of the capital was formed and put into immediate operation. Wool, unable to communicate with the General-in-Chief (Scott), assumed the responsibility of ordering the movements of troops, providing for the safety of Fortress Monroe, and sending forward immediate military relief and supplies for the menaced capital. The governors of a dozen States applied to him for relief and munitions of war, as he was the highest military authority then accessible; and he assisted in arming no less than nine States. By his prodigious and judicious labors in connection with the liberal "Union Defence Committee" of New York, the capital was saved.

The destruction of bridges north of Baltimore prevented troops from passing that way. So the Seventh Regiment of New York, Colonel Ellsworth's New York Fire Zouaves and some Massachusetts troops, under General B. F. Butler, proceeded to Annapolis by water, and saved the frigate Constitution there, which was about to be seized by the Secessionists. Butler took possession of the railway between Annapolis and Washington, and first opened communication with the capital; and on the 25th of April he took possession of the Relay House, nine miles from Baltimore, where the Baltimore and Ohio railway turns toward Harper's Ferry. While he was there, over nine hundred men, with a battery, under Colonel F. E. Patterson, sailed from Philadelphia and landed near Fort McHenry, at Baltimore, in the presence of the mayor of the city, Chief of Police Kane and many of his force, and a vast crowd of excited citizens. Latent Unionism in Maryland was then astir, and shouts of welcome greeted the Pennsylvanians. That was on the 9th of May-three weeks after the attack on the Massachusetts troops in the streets of Baltimore. These were the first troops that had passed through since, and were the pioneers of tens of thousands of Union soldiers who streamed through that city during the war that ensued. Though the Maryland Legislature shielded, by special law, the leaders in the murderous assault on the troops on the 19th of April, from punishment, no such violence was ever attempted afterward.

General Scott had planned a ponderous expedition for seizing and holding Baltimore. It was to consist of twelve thousand men divided into four columns, who were to approach that city from four different points at the same time. General Butler saw that a swifter movement was necessary to accomplish that end. He obtained permission of General Scott to attempt

CHAP. VIII. SEIZURE OF BALTIMORE BY NATIONAL TROOPS.

1487 the seizure of some arms and ammunition said to be concealed in Baltimore, and to arrest some Secessionists there. Baltimore was in the Department of Annapolis, of which Butler was commander, and the permission implied the use of troops. Having promised Colonel Jones, of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, that his men should again march through Baltimore, he summoned that regiment from the capital to the Relay House. With these and a few other troops, and two pieces of artillery well manned, in all a little more than a thousand men, he entered cars headed toward Harper's Ferry. They ran up the road a short distance, and then backed slowly past the Relay House and into Baltimore early in the evening, just as a heavy thunderstorm burst upon the city. Few persons were abroad, and the citizens were ignorant of this portentous arrival. The mayor was soon afterward apprised of it, and sent a note to General Butler inquiring what he meant by thus threatening the peace of the city by the presence of a large body of troops.

When the mayor's message arrived at the station, Butler and his men had disappeared in the gloom. Well piloted, they marched to Federal Hill, an eminence that commanded the city. The rain fell copiously; the rumble of the cannon-wheels was mingled with that of the thunder, and was mistaken for it, and the lightning played around the points of their bayonets. In his wet clothing, at near midnight, General Butler sat down and wrote a proclamation to the citizens of Baltimore, assuring all peaceable citizens full protection, and intimating that a much larger force was at hand to support the Government in its efforts to suppress the rebellion. This proclamation (dated May 14, 1861) was published in a city paper (the Clipper) the next morning, and gave the people of Baltimore the first intimation that their town was in the actual possession of National troops. In a single night, a little more than a thousand men had accomplished, under an audacious leader, what General Scott proposed to do with twelve thousand men in an indefinite time. The jealous pride of the General-in-Chief was offended by the superior action of a subordinate. He reproved him for acting without orders, and demanded his removal from the Department. The goodnatured President did remove Butler, but to a more extended field of operations, with a higher commission. From that time, troops were enabled to pass freely through Baltimore from the North; and at the middle of May, the National capital was so well protected that it was regarded as abso. lutely safe from capture by the insurgents.

The contest had now assumed the dignity of Civil War. The Confed erates were putting forth all their energies to meet the forces called to the field by the President of the Republic. Davis summoned his " congress," as

we have observed, to meet at Montgomery on the 29th of April, to take measures for prosecuting the war, offensive and defensive. At that time the Confederates had seized property belonging to the United States valued at $40,000,000, and had forty thousand armed men in the field, more than one-half of whom were then in Virginia, and forming an irregular line from Norfolk to Harper's Ferry. At the beginning of May they had sent emissaries abroad to seek recognition and aid from foreign governments. They had extinguished the lamps of the light-houses, one hundred and thirtythree in number, all along the coasts of the Republic, from Hampton Roads to the Rio Grande, and had commissioned numerous "privateers" to prey upon the commerce of the United States. Encouraged by their success at Charleston, they were then besieging Fort Pickens, as we have observed, and were using prodigious exertions to obtain possession of the National capital.

The magnitude of the disaffection to the National Government was now more clearly perceived; and the President, satisfied that the number of militia called for would not be adequate for the required service against the wide-spreading rebellion, issued a proclamation on the 3d of May, calling for sixty-four thousand volunteers for the army, and eighteen thousand for the navy, to "serve during the war." Fortress Monroe, a very important fort in Southeastern Virginia, and Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, were reinforced; and the blockade of the Southern ports, from which "privateers" were preparing to sail, was proclaimed. Washington city was made the general rendezvous of all troops raised eastward of the Alleghany mountains. These came flocking thither by thousands, and were quartered in the Patent-Office building and other edifices, and the Capitol was made a vast citadel. Its legislative halls, the rotunda, and other rooms were filled with soldiery; so also was the great East Room in the President's house. The basements of the Capitol were converted into store-rooms for barrels of flour, beef and pork, and other commissary stores. The vaults under the broad terrace on its western front were converted into bakeries, where sixteen thousand loaves of bread were baked each day.

Before the summer of 1861 had fairly begun, Washington was an immense garrisoned town, and strong fortifications were growing upon the hills that surround it. The States westward of the Alleghanies were also pouring out their thousands of armed men, who were gathered at appointed rendezvous; and every department of the National Government was active in preparation for the great conflict of mighty hosts that were to fight, one party for freedom and the other for slavery.

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