First Defenders and Minute Men of '61

John Hartwell

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On the 18th of April, 1861, the first troops to answer President Lincoln's appeal for defenders of the Capitol, passed through Baltimore. Five companies of Pennsylvania Militia:

The National Light Infantry of Pottsville
The Allen Guards of Allentown
The Logan Guards of Lewistown
The Ringgold Light Artillery of Reading
and the Washington Infantry of Pottsville

These, totalling 432 men, hurriedly assembled, (along with 40 men of Co. H, 4th U.S. Artillery), took train for Baltimore. Their arrival, about 6 p.m., had been unexpected, but rebel elements in the city reacted quickly. The men had to deboard, and march about three miles to another station, there to board another train for Washington.

On leaving the cars, a battalion was formed as a battalion: the regulars, on the right, followed by the Logan Guards, and the other companies following in suit, with the Ringgold Artillery, bringing up the rear. As the column was forming near Bolton station, the police of Baltimore appeared in large force, headed by Marshal Kane, and followed by a mob, who at once commenced an attack upon the volunteers, countenanced by a portion of the police, sent to give safe conduct through the city. Orders were given to the men to preserve their temper, and to make no reply to anything that should be said to them. At the command "forward," the mob commenced hooting, jeering, and yelling, and proclaimed with oaths, that the troops should not pass through their city to fight the South.

Near the city centre, the regulars split off, and headed towards Fort McHenry. The volunteers marched on, with the howling mob following. Except for officers' pistols, and a few other guns scattered among the five companies, most of the Pennsylvanians were unarmed, and some wore only pieces of uniforms. But, The Logan Guards were armed with thirty-four Springfield muskets, which had been drawn from the National armory, on a requisition from the Adjutant General of Pennsylvania, and the thirty-four of their number carrying them, were uniformed precisely like the regulars. Furthermore, there was not a charge of powder in the five companies; but one of the men of the Logan Guards, happening to have a box of percussion caps in his pocket, had previously distributed them to his comrades, and the thirty four muskets of the Guards were capped, and carried, half cocked, at a support arms, creating the impression in the mob, that these muskets were loaded, and would be used against them, if they attempted an assault.

Until they reached Camden Station they were opposed by nothing but insults and threats. But as the volunteers were boarding the train at the station, the angry mob hurled a shower of bricks, clubs, and stones into their disorganized ranks, fortunately, however, inflicting only slight injuries. In the midst of the confusion, an attempt was made to detach the engine from the train and run it away. This was only prevented by the determined character of the engineer and his assistants, who drew revolvers, and threatened to shoot any who dared to make the attempt. At length, amidst the demoniac yells of the crowd, the train moved off, carrying the volunteers safely beyond the reach of their desperate assailants.

Some of the Pennsylvanians were injured by the flying missiles. Ironically, perhaps, the first man so injured (the "first blood" of the war, in a sense), was Nicholas Biddle, a 65-year-old African American fully-uniformed orderly with the Washington Infantry, whose head injury exposed part of his skull.

The five companies finally made their way to Washington, where they were barracked in the basement of the Capitol, and were finally given arms and uniforms, and equipment.
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The First Defenders Medal​

See: http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/pa-heritage/nick-biddle-forgotten-hero-civil-war.html
 
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Four days prior to the above event, the newly elected senator from Kansas, Jim Lane, had formed the "Frontier Guard" in Washington D.C. from fellow Kansans ( in Washington seeking jobs from the new administration).
For two weeks the Frontier Guard protected the White House and stayed in the East Room, until more troops arrived. From this event, Lane received the gratitude of the president.
 
Good article.... I have some information about the First Defenders from the Schuylkill Living Magazine...Hoptac's article gives information on where he is buried and the plaque on Garfield Avenue in Pottsville......did not know that.......living four miles South of Pottsville....now I know what and where to look for....
 
April 19

The next morning a train moved south along the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad carrying 700 members of the 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, the first fully drilled and equipped unit to answer the president’s call for troops. Like the Minutemen of 1775, the 6th’s ranks had reported for duty without question or delay.

The evening before, the regiment’s commander, Colonel Edward F. Jones, had received dispatches informing him of what had befallen the Pennsylvania men that afternoon, and warning that his men would likely meet even stronger resistance. It was a stark contrast to the trip’s first 300 miles, throughout which jubilant crowds hailed them with refreshments and patriotic demonstrations at every station. Forewarned, and now told of the events of the previous day, the men loaded and capped their Springfields

Col. Edwards moved from car to car, repeating the same message: “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…even if they throw stones, bricks, or other missiles….But,” Jones added, “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.”

Around noon the 6th pulled into Baltimore’s President Street depot, where things seemed eerily quiet. But, news of the Federals’ arrival had already begun circulating, and Baltimore’s residents and local leaders made no secret of their disdain for the Union’s new administration. Before Colonel Jones could even begin organizing his planned march, workers had uncoupled the engine and hitched teams of bay mares to each car. In swift succession they rolled out of the yard and onto President Street. What happened next would catapult the 6th Massachusetts to near-mythic status—and also doom Baltimore to a lengthy military occupation.
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Inside the rail cars, the air was thick with tension. Every man tightened his grip on his Springfield, and most avoided looking out the windows, for fear of locking eyes with a pro-Confederate rough. By the time they had gone just a few blocks, the 6th had attracted an angry crowd, spewing a torrent of epithets punctuated by cheers for “Jeff Davis!”
The growing mob followed the line of cars, now seven long, as it turned onto Pratt Street, the east–west axis of the waterfront. By this time its ranks had swelled to several hundred. Suddenly the onlookers unleashed a shower of paving stones and gunfire on the last coach, which was carrying Major Watson and 50 men. Two men were hit in the head and upper body with bricks, while another soldier lost his thumb to a pistol shot. Holding up his bloody hand, the latter requested permission to return fire, which Major Watson promptly granted. That volley repelled the rioters long enough for the major and his men to escape. Their car was the last to make it to Camden Station, arriving windowless and riddled with bullet holes.
 
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Back at Pratt Street, an orgy of destruction unfolded. Rioters dumped heavy anchors and cartloads of sand onto the tracks, to prevent the remaining cars from being moved. To the four companies stranded at the depot, it meant marching through a gauntlet of narrow streets flanked by tightly packed rows of brick buildings—terrain that put the 6th at a marked disadvantage. They had not been trained for street-fighting. What’s more, the Union men faced a plain-clothed enemy familiar with every inch of the neighborhood.

Once word came that the tracks were now impassable, the 220 men who still needed to reach Camden Station wheeled into columns outside the President Street depot under the command of Captain Albert S. Follansbee. Without hesitation, he gave the order to march. But as the columns moved forward, they were surrounded by a howling mob of secessionists shouting that they would kill “every white n*gg*r” of them before they reached Camden Station. The soldiers pressed on while onlookers pelted them with anything they could throw. The rioters had littered their path with makeshift barricades to slow the troops’ progress. One rioter drew a swell of cheers from the mob as he took up position at the front of the 6th’s line, marching oafishly while dangling a Southern Palmetto flag from a piece of flimsy lumber. Three blocks of this charade was all that Lieutenant Leander Lynde could take. He coolly stepped out of line, ripped down the flag and shoved it under his coat, then rejoined the march as though nothing had happened. The crowd responded with a fusillade of bricks and gunfire that injured at least six troops.
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Baltimore mayor Brown and Follansbee met at the base of Pratt Street. “We have been attacked without provocation,” gasped the winded captain. Brown nodded, adding the laughably obvious recommendation, “You must defend yourselves.” Follansbee pushed on without a word. No one was safe. Bullets whistled past from all directions, striking rioters, soldiers and bystanders.

Four blocks west, at the corner of Gay and Pratt streets, the mob let loose a heavy barrage of stones and hot lead. “[That’s] right! Give it to them!” a rioter shouted. “They won’t shoot, they’re too afraid of their cowardly necks!” shrieked another. He was wrong.


Finally Follansee barked out the order to fire. The 6th’s men raised their rifles and delivered a volley, then jogged 200 feet to South Street, where more stones and pistol shots rained down. Again the 6th returned fire. Eleven rioters dropped in that salvo, one of them hit in the throat.

That kept the mob at bay temporarily. But two blocks farther on, near the corner of Light Street, rioters hit the 6th’s men again, this time killing teenager Luther Ladd, who just two days before had traded his machinist’s apron for a uniform. As the soldiers brought their guns to shoulder, Mayor Brown ran forward, shouting at them, “For God’s sake, don’t shoot!” Given the noise and chaos at that moment, it’s unlikely that anyone heard him.

The regiment fired into the crowd one last time before Police Marshal George Kane and 50 officers arrived to form a barrier between the troops and the mob. To ensure that no one attempted to pass, Kane, a burly, no-nonsense tough, raised his revolver and cried out, “Keep back, men, or I shoot!” Kane’s reputation intimidated even the toughest thugs, helping to quell the riot. Moments later the 6th was able to march the rest of the way to Camden Station, where they boarded a train to Washington, D.C.

Though the fighting had lasted less than an hour, there was a sizable butcher’s bill. From the 6th Massachusetts, Addison Whitney, Luther Ladd, Sumner Needham and Charles Taylor were killed during the march. What’s more, Taylor’s face had been smashed beyond recognition from repeated blows with heavy paving stones. Thirty-six others in the regiment were wounded, many of them seriously. Of the rioters, 11 died—among them a ship’s cabin boy who was hit in the stomach by a stray bullet. Countless others stumbled away to nurse their wounds.

The 6th finally made it to Washington late that afternoon, where they were housed in the Senate Chamber and Rotunda of the Capitol. After a review by Pres. Lincoln, the regiment spent its 3-months of duty mainly between Baltimore and Relay House, guarding the railroad out of the city, ensuring that their experience there would not be repeated.
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The northern Press made a great deal of the fact that the 6th regiment’s passage through Baltimore took place on the 19th of April -- the 86th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord at the start of the Revolutionary War. The Minute Men of 1861, it was said, were true sons of those of 1775 -- the first in the field.

In 1886, the 25th anniversary, survivors of all the Massachusetts units that answered that first Call (including 5 regiments, 1 rifle battalion, and 1 light battery) organized themselves as the Association of Minute Men of 1861. Twenty-five years later, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts authorized a medal, to be awarded for every man. Struck at the U.S. mint, it bears the arms of the Commonwealth on the obverse. The individual recipient’s name is engraved along the edge.
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For the full story see: https://historicaldigression.com/2015/03/05/6th-massachusetts-and-the-baltimore-riot/
 
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