THE

OF

Wikipedia

The Baltimore riot of 1861 (also called the "Pratt

Street Riots" and the "Pratt Street Massacre")

was a civil conflict which occurred on Friday,

April 19, 1861, on Pratt Street, in Baltimore,

Maryland, between antiwar "Copperhead"

Democrats (the largest party in Maryland) and with

a significant number of other sympathizers to the

Southern/Confederate cause on one side and

members of the primarily Massachusetts and some

Pennsylvania state militia regiments en route to the

national capital at Washington called up for federal

service on the other. Fghting began at President

Street Station, then spread throughout President

Street and subsequently to Howard Street, where it

ended at the Camden Street Railroad Station.

The riot produced the first deaths by hostile action

in the American Civil War and is nicknamed the

"First Bloodshed of the Civil War".

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

DISCUSSION GROUP AT

TO

AND

OF THE

PRESENTATION

BRING AN ITEM AND

SHARE ITS STORY

a

THE

DEADLIEST GROUND OF THE

CIVIL WAR-

AT

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CIVIL WAR MEDICINE

Nearly 30,000 prisoners occupied the prison at

Andersonville, Georgia in July 1864 when Dr.

John M. Howell arrived. Born and raised in

nearby Houston County, Georgia, Dr. Howell

enlisted as a surgeon in the Confederate Army

in April 1862 and served until the end of the

war. By mid-summer 1864 he had been briefly

reassigned to the Union hospital at the

infamous Camp Sumter Military Prison. The

newly constructed prison opened on February

24, 1864, and by the end of July it had claimed

the lives of 4,576 Union soldiers. As Dr.

Howell approached his newly assigned post,

the sweltering summer heat inflamed the

smells and cries coming from the stockade-

styled prison pen. He quickly took note of the

“hundreds of blue coats making their way

through two lines of guards to the prison gates,

and described the prison as

“the most uninviting place of which a

Yankee knows anything about.”

Dr. Howell served as Acting Assistant Surgeon

at Andersonville, and was a member of a small

15 person medical staff, with Dr. Isiah White at

the helm responsible for caring for a prison

population that ranged from 28,000 to 33,000.

During his tenure at the ill-reputed prison, Dr.

Howell wrote letters to his wife describing his

duties, the conditions of the prisoners, and

difficulties the medical staff encountered. His

writings allow a unique opportunity to observe

hospital organization at the deadliest ground of

the Civil War. Upon his arrival, Dr. Howell

described the dilapidated conditions he found:

“I met up with Dr. Crodille, raised in

Greene, who asked me to walk with him to

the Yankee hospital. I did so, and such

objects in the way of men I never saw

before. Sick and emaciated, naked, ragged

and dirty – some on straw with a blanket

under them – some without either – some

that will die tomorrow, some today – some

dying with another whose face is turned

toward him breathing his last. I saw too

some awful cases of gangrene – cases

where the flesh has been destroyed to the

bone. But before you can imagine such

pictures, you must first see some sufferings

like these. I can give you no idea of them.

In comparison an ordinary death is

pleasant to contemplate.”

Each surgeon was paired with an assistant,

usually a paroled Union prisoner, which brought

the hospital staffing to a minimum 30 person

medical team. According to Dr. Howell, each

surgeon was assigned to examine around 500

prisoners each, per day. They were only

allowed to admit roughly 200 prisoners to the

hospital every day, leaving hospital staff to turn

away many who desperately needed medical

attention. The hospital itself was haphazardly

divided into wards with each one filled past

capacity. Those who were admitted into the

hospital were the sickest of the sick and their

next destination was often the prison cemetery.

Hospital Ward at Andersonville

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

The number of prisoners turned away from

being admitted to the hospital devastated morale

inside the prison stockade. In some cases,

prisoners who were miserable with their inflicted

illness would speed up the process of dying by

taking their own life. Others, like the case of

Griggs Holbrook, held on to hope until their last

moments. Suffering from chronic diarrhea,

Holbrook focused his attention on his comrade

Jones Sherwood – both of the 76th New York

Infantry. Holbrook cared for Sherwood who was

also rapidly growing sicker each day, and noted

in his diary, “After carrying Jones over to the

hospital several times – [I] finally succeeded

in getting him in.” Three weeks later

Sherwood was laid to rest in the red Georgia

soil. Holbrook, who stayed positive through his

diary, joined Sherwood in the prison cemetery

later that month.

As summer progressed, the prison population

peaked at 33,006 on August 9, 1864. By the

end of the month, the medical team at

Andersonville had decreased by three while the

death rate at the prison steadily rose. Dr.

Howell had a daily routine in play within a month

after arriving. His wife wrote him a letter

expressing curiosity about what he did on a day-

to-day basis, to which on August 29, 1864 he

replied: “In the first place I go to the chief

surgeon’s Hd Qtrs about 8 A.M. There I

ascertain the number of sick to be admitted

to the hospital. This number, divided by

twelve, which is the number of physicians

now on duty at the stockade, which is the

amount each one is to admit. The number to

be admitted depends upon the capacity of

the hospital the day previous.

We can only fill up the vacancies. After

knowing what the number to be admitted

to the hospital is, I have only to select

that number from the sickest cases, make

an entry of it by writing private or not

(the grade). I have a clerk do the writing.

(He) gives each case, as the prisoners call

it, a label, and I have them be sent to the

hospital. I forgot to mention that the

entry has the diagnosis and the word

hospital written on a line corresponding

to the date of admission. I now prescribe

for the other cases, my clerk writing the

prescriptions. I am usually engaged from 8

to 12.”

The medical staff at Andersonville never

caught a break during the month of August,

which was the deadliest time at the prison with

nearly 3,000 Union soldiers dying in that

month alone.

General William Sherman unexpectedly

brought relief to the prison hospital when he

captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864.

Evacuation orders were issued on September

7th, relieving the prison of over three-fourths

of its population in just two months, thus

minimizing the number of patients in the

hospital. Several physicians at Andersonville,

including Dr. Howell, were critical of their

superiors. Some accused Dr. White of

withholding medical supplies and others

complained they were unsure of who was

really in charge of the hospital, Dr. Isiah White

or Captain Henry Wirz.

Another hospital scene from Andersonville

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Overall, Dr. Howell’s letters combined with

testimonies from the trial of Henry Wirz gives

us just a glimpse into the commotion outside

the stockade among Confederate staff.

Working at the most crowded and deadliest

ground of the Civil War was no easy feat for

any member of the staff, and like the prisoners

locked inside the stockade walls they were

eager to get home.

Signing off on his last preserved letter, Dr.

Howell wrote, “I want to see you all very

much and hope the time is not too far

distant when I might be allowed that

privilege.”

FROM PAGE 1

THE BALTIMORE RIOTS

Background

In 1861, most Baltimoreans were anti-war

and did not support a violent conflict with

their southern neighbors, however, there

were many who sympathized passionately

with the Southern cause but many

sympathized passionately with the Southern

cause.

In the previous year's presidential election,

Abraham Lincoln had received only 1,100 of

more than 30,000 votes cast in the city.

Lincoln's opponents were infuriated (and

supporters disappointed) when the

president-elect, fearing an infamous

rumored assassination plot, traveled

secretly through the city in the middle of the

night on a different railroad protected by a

few aides and detectives including the

soon-to-be famous Allan Pinkerton in

February en route to his inauguration (then

constitutionally scheduled for March 4) in

Washington, D.C.

The city was also home to the country's

largest population (25,000) of free African

Americans, as well as many white

abolitionists and supporters of the Union.

As the war began, the city's divided loyalties

created tension. Supporters of secession

and slavery had organized themselves into

a force called "National Volunteers" while

Unionists and abolitionists called

themselves "Minute Men".

The American Civil War began on April 12,

one week before the riot. At the time, the

slave states of Virginia, North Carolina,

Tennessee, and Arkansas had not yet

seceded from the U.S.

The status of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri,

and Kentucky (later known as "border

states"), remained unknown.

When Fort Sumter fell on April 13, the

Virginia legislature took up a measure on

secession. The measure passed on April

17 after little debate. Virginia's secession

was particularly significant due to the state's

industrial capacity.

Sympathetic Marylanders, who had

supported secession ever since John C.

Calhoun spoke of nullification, agitated to

join Virginia in leaving the Union.

Their discontent increased in the days

afterward when President Lincoln put out a

call for volunteers to serve 90 days to put

an end the insurrection.

but march with your faces to the front,

and pay no attention to the mob, even if

they throw stones, bricks, or other

missiles; but if you are fired upon and

any one of you is hit, your officers will

order you to fire. Do not fire into any

promiscuous crowds, but select, any

man whom you may see aiming at you,

and be sure you drop him”

.

Indeed, as the militia regiment transferred

between stations, a mob of anti-war supporters

and Southern sympathizers attacked the train

cars and blocked the route.

When it became apparent that they could travel

by horse no further, the four companies, about

240 soldiers, got out of the cars and marched in

formation through the city.

However, the mob followed the soldiers,

breaking store windows and causing damage

until they finally blocked the soldiers.

The mob attacked the rear companies of the

regiment with "bricks, paving stones,

and pistols."

In response, several soldiers fired into the mob,

beginning a giant brawl between the soldiers,

the mob, and the Baltimore police.

In the end, the soldiers got to the Camden

Station, and the police were able to block the

crowd from them. The regiment had left behind

much of their equipment, including their

marching band's instruments.

Four soldiers (Corporal Sumner Henry

Needham of Company I and privates Luther C.

Ladd, Charles Taylor, and Addison Whitney of

Company D) and twelve civilians were killed in

the riot, also about 36 of the regiment were

wounded and left behind. It is unknown how

many additional civilians were injured.

Needham is sometimes considered to be the

first Union casualty of the war, though he was

killed by civilians in a Union state. He is buried

in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Ladd and

Whitney are buried in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Taylor was buried in Baltimore; though his grave

was lost, his name appears on the Lowell

Monument.

The same day, after the attack on the soldiers,

the office of the Baltimore Wecker, a German-

language newspaper, was completely wrecked

and the building seriously damaged by the same

mob.

As a result of the riot in Baltimore and pro-

Southern sympathies of much of the city's

populace, the Baltimore Steam Packet

Company also declined that very same day a

Federal government request to secure transport

for Union forces to relieve the beleaguered

Union naval yard facility at Portsmouth, Virginia.

On Thursday, April 18, 460 newly-mustered

Pennsylvania state militia volunteers (generally

from the Pottsville, Pennsylvania area) arrived

from the state capital at Harrisburg on the

Northern Central Railway at its Bolton Street

Station (off present-day North Howard Street —

across the street from the present site of the

Fifth Regiment Armory of the Maryland National

Guard, built 1900). They were joined by several

regiments of regular United States Army troops

under John C. Pemberton. They split off from

Howard Street in downtown Baltimore and

marched east along the waterfront to Fort

McHenry and reported for duty there.

Seven hundred "National Volunteers" of

Southern sympathizers rallied at the Washington

Monument and traveled to the station to confront

the combined units of troops, which

unbeknownst to them were unarmed and had

their weapons unloaded.

Kane's newly organized city police force

generally succeeded in ensuring the

Pennsylvania militia troops' safe passage

marching south on Howard Street to Camden

Street Station of the Baltimore and Ohio

Railroad. Nevertheless, stones and bricks were

hurled (along with many insults) and Nicholas

Biddle, a black servant traveling with the

regiment, was hit on the head. But that night the

Pennsylvania troops, later known as the "First

Defenders", camped at the U.S. Capitol under

the uncompleted dome, which was then under

construction.

April 19, 1861

On April 17, the 6th Massachusetts Militia

departed from Boston, Massachusetts, arriving in

New York the following morning and Philadelphia

by nightfall.

On April 19, the unit headed on to Baltimore,

where they anticipated a slow transit through the

city. Because of an ordinance preventing the

construction of steam rail lines through the city,

there was no direct rail connection between the

Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore

Railroad's President Street Station and the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Camden Station

(ten blocks to the west). Rail cars that

transferred between the two stations had to be

pulled by horses along Pratt Street. Sometime

after leaving Philadelphia, the unit's Colonel,

Edward F. Jones, received information that

passage through Baltimore "would be

resisted". According to his later report, Jones

went through the railroad cars and gave the

following order: “The regiment will march

through Baltimore in column of sections,

arms at will. You will undoubtedly be

insulted, abused, and, perhaps,

assaulted, to which you must pay no

attention whatever,

MCCWRT

JULY

PRESENTATION

REVIEW

BY BOB FRENZ

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad played a

vital role in the Civil War. In fact, July’s

speaker, Charlie Banks, stated that it

helped decide the fate of the Union.

In 1827, Congress appropriated $3 million

to build the railroad from western

Maryland to Baltimore, a distance of 184

miles. With the now familiar “cost

overruns” the final figure came in at $11

million. The first stone was laid in 1828

on the same day that the Chesapeake &

Ohio Canal was started. At Point of

Rocks the canal and railroad actually ran

side by side. There was a main trunk, or

stem, as well as auxiliary lines. The

Baltimore to Washington branch was the

last link, although only single tracked.

Telegraph lines were also erected along

the right-of-way.

At the time of the Civil War, the president

of the railroad, John W. Garrett, wanted

to make improvements such as building a

bridge over the Ohio River at Wheeling.

War Secretary, Simon Cameron – the

chief shareholder of a rival railroad –

opposed him on this. Cameron wanted to

funnel troops and supplies via the

Pennsylvania R.R. and Northern Central

R.R. Fortunately, Lincoln replaced him in

early 1862 with Edwin Stanton.

Even before the war began the B&O was

at the center of great historic events. In

1859, Colonel Robert E. Lee and United

States Army troops arrived by train at

Harper’s Ferry to suppress the attack on

the town led by John Brown. En route to

his inauguration Lincoln traveled through

Baltimore at night, and switched cars, to

avoid a possible assassination attempt.

Troops of the 6th Massachusetts en route

to Washington actually were attacked by

angry mobs in Baltimore. And, John

Mosby and Thomas J. Jackson led early

raids on the railroad, its tracks, bridges

and rolling stock.

In fact, Jackson when placed in charge of

Confederate troops at Harper’s Ferry

(which was then still part of Virginia),

complained that rail traffic was “disturbing

his sleep.”

Trains were only “allowed” to run between 11

a.m. and 1 p.m. Later, his troops attacked at

Point of Rocks destroying engines and coal

cars, thus shutting the line down for 10 months.

They also destroyed all B&O property at

Martinsburg, thus denying coal to Washington

D.C. and the Union Army. Fortunately, Stanton

took a greater interest in the B&O and ordered

increased protection.

In one famous incident partially involving the

B&O, Secretary Stanton in September, 1863

proposed sending the 11th and 12th Corps to

Chattanooga by rail from Washington. This

necessitated first traveling to Indiana and then

south to Alabama in order to skirt Confederate

held territory. This massive troop movement

was completed by the first week in October.

OTHER INTERESTING FACTS

INVOLVING

THE EASTERN RAIL LINES

INCLUDE:

Floods also frequently destroyed bridges

During the Antietam and Gettysburg campaigns

the Confederates again destroyed bridges and

rails

In April, 1863 Generals Imboden and Jones

attacked the line

Lincoln traveled on the Northern Central R.R. to

give his address at Gettysburg

Early’s raid on Washington also destroyed B&O

property.

The Battle of Monocacy delayed his advance

and allowed time for Union reinforcements

Mosby attacked B&O Railroad trackage 11

miles west of Harper’s Ferry in what was to

become known as the

taking over

Ellicott City has the oldest depot on the line;

Duffield’s Depot is the second oldest

Lincoln’s funeral train used the B&O line

Garrett was a southern sympathizer, but

believed the B&O was a northern railroad

THE EDWARD M. STANTON 1864

PLEASE VISIT THE

MCHENRY COUNTY

CIVIL WAR

ROUND TABLE

WEB SITE ON LINE

@

www.mchenrycivilwar.com

DON PURN WEB MASTER

AND READ THE

MCHENRY COUNTY

CIVIL WAR

ROUND TABLE

MONTHLY

NEWSPAPER

KEITH FISHER EDITOR