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Baltimore and the 19th of April 1861

National History Standards

Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades 5-12:

Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

STANDARD 2: The course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people. 

Standard 2B: The student understands the social experience of the war on the battlefield and homefront. 

7-12: Compare the motives for fighting and the daily life experiences of Confederate with those of white and African American Union soldiers. [Evidence historical perspectives] 

Primary Resources

  1. DESCRIPTION: View of Baltimore City from Federal Hill
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1859
    SOURCE: Cator Collection
    REPOSITORY: Enoch Pratt Free Library

  2. DESCRIPTION: Governor Thomas Hicks
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1867
    SOURCE: Maryland Commission on Artistic Property Collection, MSA SC 1545-1-1175
    REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

  3. DESCRIPTION: Mayor George William Brown
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: published 1919
    SOURCE: Image taken from Wilbur F. Coyle, The Mayors of Baltimore (Reprinted in the Baltimore Municipal Journal, 1919), 101.
    REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives

  4. DESCRIPTION: Letter, Simon Cameron, Secretary of War to Governor Thomas H. Hicks
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 18, 1861
    NOTES: "The President is informed that threats are made and measures taken by unlawful combinations of misguided citizens of Maryland to prevent by force the transit of U.S. troops across Maryland on their way pursuant to orders to the defense of this capital."
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 1. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 564.

  5. DESCRIPTION: "Attack on the Massachusetts Sixth in Baltimore"
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: Wood engraving from Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, April 30, 1861
    SOURCE: Cator Collection
    REPOSITORY: Enoch Pratt Free Library

  6. DESCRIPTION: The Sixth Massachusetts Regiment Fighting Their Way Through Baltimore
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: Published in Harper's Weekly, May 4, 1861
    SOURCE: Son of the South

  7. DESCRIPTION: "Massachusetts Militia Passing through Baltimore"
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1861
    REPRODUCTIONS: Ordering Information
    REPOSITORY: Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore (Z24.479)

  8. DESCRIPTION: Newspaper account, Battle of Baltimore
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: Published in Harper's Weekly, May 4, 1861
    SOURCE: Son of the South

  9. DESCRIPTION: Battle in Baltimore April 19th, 1861
    ARTIST: Adalbert John Volck (1828-1912) 
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1863
    REPRODUCTIONS: How to Order Photographic Reproductions
    COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
    SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
    REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society

  10. DESCRIPTION: Captain Hare Demanding of Marshal Kane the Arms Taken from the Massachusetts Soldiers on the 19th of April, 1861.
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1861]
    SOURCE: Cator Collection
    REPOSITORY: Enoch Pratt Free Library

  11. DESCRIPTION: Letter of Mayor George William Brown to President Lincoln
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 19, 1861
    NOTES: "The people are exasperated to the highest degree by the passage of troops and the citizens are universally decided in the opinion that no more should be ordered to come. The authorities of the city did their best to-day to protect both strangers and citizens and to prevent any collision but in vain; and but for their great efforts a fearful slaughter would have occurred. Under these circumstances it is my solemn duty to inform you that it is not possible for more soldiers to pass through Baltimore unless they fight their way at every step."
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 1. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 564.

  12. DESCRIPTION: Letter of Governor Thomas H. Hicks to President Lincoln
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: n. d.; appended to letter of Mayor George William Brown to Lincoln, April 19, 1861
    NOTES: "I have been in Baltimore since Tuesday evening last and co-operated with Mayor G. W. Brown in his untiring efforts to allay and prevent the excitement and suppress the fearful outbreak... and I fully concur in all that is said by him..."
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 1. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 565.

  13. DESCRIPTION: The Lexington of 1861. The Massachusetts Volunteers Fighting Their Way Through the Streets of Baltimore on Their March To the Defense of the National Capitol, April 19, 1861. Hurrah For the Glorious 6th.
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: Colored lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1861
    SOURCE: Cator Collection
    REPOSITORY: Enoch Pratt Free Library

  14. DESCRIPTION: Sixth Regiment Massachusetts Troops
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: Wood engraving from Leslie's illustrated newspaper of April 30, 1861
    SOURCE: Cator Collection
    REPOSITORY: Enoch Pratt Free Library

  15. DESCRIPTION: Captain Hare Demanding of Marshal Kane the Arms Taken from the Massachusetts Soldiers on the 19th of April, 1861
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: n. d.
    SOURCE: Cator Collection
    REPOSITORY: Enoch Pratt Free Library

  16. DESCRIPTION: Letter of Governor Thomas H. Hicks to Simon Cameron
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 20, 1861
    NOTES: "...the outbreak came; the turbulent passions of the riotous element prevailed; fear for safety became reality; ... the rebellious element had control of things. They took possession of the armories, have the arms and ammunition, and I therefore think it prudent to decline (for the present) responding affirmatively to the requisition made by President Lincoln for four regiments of infantry."
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 1. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 565.

  17. DESCRIPTION: Letter of President Lincoln to Governor Hicks
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 20, 1861
    NOTES: "Please come immediately..."
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 1. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 565. 

  18. DESCRIPTION: Letter, Henry Stump to Mary A. Stump
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 20, 1861
    NOTE:     Eyewitness account of the riot
    SOURCE: Maryland Historical Magazine, 53 (1958): 403

  19. DESCRIPTION: Report of Col. Edward F. Jones, Sixth Massachusetts Militia
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 22, 1861
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 1 - Volume 2. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 7-9.

  20. DESCRIPTION: Extracts from report of the Baltimore Police Commissioners
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 3, 1861.
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 1 - Volume 2. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 9-11.

  21. TITLE:  Baltimore and the nineteenth of April 1861
    AUTHOR:  George William Brown
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED:      1887
    NOTE:      Brown was the mayor of Baltimore at the time of the riot.
    SOURCE:      The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, ca. 1600-1925 
    REPOSITORY:     Library of Congress, American Memory

  22. DESCRIPTION: Report of Hon. George William Brown, Mayor of Baltimore
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 9 (?), 1861
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 1 - Volume 2. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 12-15.

  23. DESCRIPTION: Extracts from the message of the Mayor of Baltimore
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: July 11, 1861
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 1 - Volume 2. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 15-20.

  24. DESCRIPTION: Statement of George M. Gill
    DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: July 12, 1861
    SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 1 - Volume 2. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 20-21.

Additional Media Resources

Union Policy of Repression in Maryland. Timeline of Events. From United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 1. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 563.

Secondary Resources

Chalkley, Tom. "First Blood." Baltimore City Paper, 23 April 2003.

Harris, James Morrison. A Reminiscence of the Troublous times of April, 1861, Based upon Interviews with the Authorities at Washington, Touching the Movement of Troops through Baltimore; a paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, March 9th, 1891, by J. Morrison Harris. Baltimore [Printed by J. Murphy] 1891.

Sheads, Scott Sumpter and Daniel Carroll Toomey. Baltimore During the Civil War. Linthicum: Toomey Press, 1997.

Associated Heritage and Preservation Organizations

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine
Fort Avenue
Baltimore, MD		 Baltimore Civil War Museum -- President Street Station
601 President Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 385-5188

Copyright and Other Restrictions

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Credits

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This document packet was researched and developed by Nancy Bramucci.

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