1861 Civil War newspaper PRATT STREET RIOT in BALTIMORE Maryland -1st blood shed

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1861 Civil War newspaper PRATT STREET RIOT in BALTIMORE Maryland -1st blood shed:
$30.00

1861 Civil War newspaper PRATT STREET RIOT in BALTIMORE Maryland - 1st blood of the Civil War is shed

-inv # 6X-123

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SEE PHOTO-----COMPLETE, ORIGINALCivil War NEWSPAPER,theAlbany Atlas and Argus (NY) dated April 23, 1861. This newspaper containsinside page news of thePRATT SREET RIOT in Baltimore, Maryland. This is considered to be thefirstblood shed in the Civil War.

The Baltimore riot of 1861 (also called the \"Pratt Street Riots\" and the \"Pratt Street Massacre\") was a civil conflict on Friday, April 19, 1861, on Pratt Street, (beginning at the President Street Station and President Street and continuing ending on Howard Street at the Camden Street Station) in Baltimore, Maryland, between antiwar \"Copperheads\" Democrats (the largest party in Maryland), as well as Southern / Confederate sympathizers, 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. It produced the first deaths by hostile action in the American Civil War and is nicknamed the \"First bloodshed of the Civil War\".

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 this 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, 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[citation needed] 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. About 36 of the regiment were also 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. The publisher, William Schnauffer, and the editor, Wilhelm Rapp, whose lives were threatened, were compelled to leave town. The publisher later returned and resumed publication of the Wecker which continued throughout the war to be a supporter of the Union cause. The editor moved to another paper in Illinois.

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 the same day a Federal government request to transport Union forces to relieve the beleaguered Union naval yard facility at Portsmouth, Virginia.

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