April 12, 1861

After the shelling of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the secession crisis was rapidly escalating into full-blown war. President Lincoln ordered all states to call up their militias and provide 75,000 soldiers to suppress the rebellion. The middle south states, which were not part of the Confederacy, but which opposed any use of force against the seceding states, uniformly rejected the call for troops, and began dropping out of the Union themselves. Virginia seceded on April 17.

Lincoln knew it was vitally important to get troops to Washington D.C., to keep the nation’s capital from falling into secessionist hands. But there was a problem. The railroads into Washington from the north passed through Maryland, and Maryland wanted nothing to do with the mobilization. Passions were especially high in pro-Southern Baltimore, where citizens were arming themselves and preparing for battle. “Northern troops shall not pass unharmed through the State of Maryland for the purpose of subjugating the South,” a Baltimore newspaper declared.

On April 19 eighteen hundred Massachusetts militiamen arrived in Baltimore, on their way to defend Washington. In order to board the train to Washington, the soldiers had to disembark the train they arrived in, march thirty blocks, and then board a different train, which would carry them to D.C. Along the route of their march, the New Englanders were surrounded by thousands of angry Baltimoreans, who shouted insults and pelted the soldiers with rocks, bricks, and debris. At some point shots were fired from the window of a building, and the soldiers leveled their weapons and returned fire. A running battle ensued and when the smoke had cleared twelve Baltimoreans and four of the Massachusetts soldiers were dead. Many dozens on both sides were wounded. The soldiers fought their way to their train and made it out of Baltimore. The Pennsylvania troops who were following them turned back and returned north.

Across America newspapers and citizens exploded with indignation. The Richmond Enquirer cheered the Baltimoreans for attacking “the ruffians.” “Baltimore has covered herself with glory,” the Charleston Mercury declared. Meanwhile, Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune called for Baltimore to be “burned to the ground,” and the Philadelphia Inquirer called the Baltimoreans “cowardly rebels.” Partisans on both sides were quick to point out that “the Baltimore Massacre” occurred on the anniversary of the “shot heard ‘round the world,” Patriots Day in Massachusetts.

To prevent any more Federal troops from arriving, Maryland’s governor ordered the railroad bridges destroyed. Lincoln knew he could not garrison Washington without bringing troops through Maryland (soldiers aren’t birds who can fly over the state or moles who can dig under it, he quipped) so he acted quickly and aggressively. Martial law was declared, habeas corpus was suspended, and the mayor, the police chief, newspaper editors, judges, politicians and known or suspected Southern sympathizers were arrested and imprisoned in Fort McHenry, which was soon filled to capacity. The military seized the railroads and placed cannons on heights surrounding Baltimore, trained on the city. When the Maryland legislature attempted to convene in a special session to consider secession, Lincoln had one third of the legislators arrested and jailed, causing the session to be canceled. Maryland stayed in the Union.

Inspired by the death of a friend in the “Baltimore Massacre,” James Ryder Randall wrote “Maryland, My Maryland,” which became the official state song of Maryland in 1939 and remained so until 2021 (Maryland currently has no official state song). The first verse alludes directly to the “massacre”:

The despot's heel is on thy shore,

Maryland!

His torch is at thy temple door,

Maryland!

Avenge the patriotic gore

That flecked the streets of Baltimore,

And be the battle queen of yore,

Maryland! My Maryland!

As does the last:

I hear the distant thunder-hum,

Maryland!

The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum,

Maryland!

She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb—

Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!

She breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come!

Maryland! My Maryland!

The “Baltimore Massacre” occurred on April 19, 1861, one hundred sixty-two years ago today. Interestingly, there were no casualties in the attack on Fort Sumter. The first Americans to die in the Civil War were arguably those who were killed in Baltimore that day.