Baltimore and the Nineteenth of April, 1861: A Study of the War

The first blood of the American Civil War was spilled not at Fort Sumter, not at Bull Run, but on the cobblestones of Baltimore's Pratt Street. On April 19, 1861, a mob of nearly 5,000 Southern sympathizers descended upon 1,700 Union soldiers marching from President Street station to Camden Yards. When the firing stopped, 21 lay dead and more than 100 lay wounded. The Civil War had begun in earnest. George William Brown, the mayor of Baltimore at the time, writes this memoir from the unique vantage of a man who was both participant and observer in the chaos. He chronicles the tense weeks leading to the riot: Lincoln's clandestine passage through the city, the rumors of assassination plots, the deepening fractures between North and South. He recounts his desperate attempts to maintain order, including his controversial order to burn the railroad bridges to halt the arrival of more troops. First published in 1887, this is a indispensable primary source for anyone seeking to understand how a divided city became the flashpoint that made retreat impossible. For Civil War historians and anyone drawn to the human drama of American history.