First Blood: 1861 Baltimore Riots
The American Civil War may have begun in South Carolina, but how and where it was going to begin in earnest was uncertain
The Baltimore Riots happened April 19, 1861. Also known as the Pratt Street Riot, only one week had passed since the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter.
Maryland and nearby Delaware were border states. These were the states exposed to Northern influences and culture, but with a Southern exposure too —and numerous Confederate sympathizers. A tinder box. Washington, D. C., even farther south, was still quite vulnerable.
On their way to defend Washington, the Sixth Massachusetts Militia passed through Baltimore. Traveling along Pratt Street they encountered a mob of secessionist Southern sympathizers. Bricks and paving stones soon filled the air and the militia defended itself with their own deadly force—gunfire. Soldiers don’t trade in subtlety.
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Four soldiers and 12 civilians were killed in the riots. The first bloodshed of the Civil War. On a random Baltimore street.
The above engraving was published in the North the following year within Tomes & Smith, The War With the South… New York, (1862).
The engraving shows the chaos of the Baltimore street riot, but in its stylized depiction of that April day is seen the clear resolve of a Yankee soldier to preserve the Union.
The Union solider is posed before the smoke cloud of battle and surrounded by flying bricks and stones. He stands firm unaware of the pistol aimed at him by Southern sympathizer.
The American Civil War ended four years later. An estimated 750,000 soldiers died.