Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/229

Rh quickly into the firm grasp of the Federal forces. Across the route on which the troops called for by Lincoln's proclamation were to march to Washington, lay this southern commonwealth pleading like Kentucky and Missouri for neutrality and imploring the stay of the threatening conflict. Maryland asked that her soil be relieved from the odium of being the passage ground of troops called to invade Virginia and the South. The reasonable request was refused, and on the 19th of April a body of Federal troops on the way to Washington landed in Baltimore, marched through its streets and encountered an excited population. Mutual firing ensued, during which the first blood of the Southern revolution was shed. The event startled the administration at Washington and caused a temporary apparent change of policy, but within a few days it became clear that Maryland was to be devoted to complete subjugation. General Butler, placed in command to execute this policy, began by fortifying the position at the Relay house, and on the 5th of May took military possession of Baltimore and converted it into a military encampment. Civil authority was entirely overthrown, arrests of officials and citizens followed, and the State government was subverted.

The Confederate government was transferred from Montgomery to Richmond in May, from which situation, fronting Washington, it began preparations to meet the invasion of Virginia by the great force gathering on the Potomac, and to counteract the operations by sea and land which threatened the southern coast and the western borders. The Tredegar foundry was converted into a manufactory of guns, the machinery obtained at Harper's Ferry was sent to Fayetteville and Richmond where it could be used in making arms, small foundries were put into service wherever they could be established, powder works were erected, and, in general statement, the