Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/267

 April 10th, MY;/. 251

[From the Baltimore, Md., Sun, July 24, 25, 1901.]

APRIL igth, 1861.

A Record of the Events in Baltimore, Md., on that Day,

CONFLICT OF THE SIXTH HASSACHUSETTS REGiriENT WITH CITIZENS.

Of the 215,000 people who resided in Baltimore on April 19, 1861, there are perhaps not 50,000 remaining here to this day. Of the thousands who took part in the attack upon the Massachusetts troops as they passed through the city on that eventful day, or who wit- nessed the attack, but few remain. To the great mass of our people the riot of April 19 is simply an event of history. Men who were born here since it occurred have arrived at middle age, and those who were in the melee can now look back upon that time of intense excitement as calmly and dispassionately as upon the assault upon the British troops at Lexington, on April 19, 17/5.

Much has been said and written about the strange coincidence in the date of the first bloodshed in the two most momentous conflicts of modern times. But the coincidence of dates is the only similarity between the two events. The minute men of Massachusetts who attacked the British soldiers April 19, 1775, had long looked forward to the event, and were prepared and armed for it. The people of Baltimore were suddenly confronted with an army of armed men whom they regarded as enemies and invaders, and upon the impulse and fury of the moment, made an assault upon them. This attack was entirely unpremeditated.

On April 18, when the rumor reached the city that troops would arrive during the afternoon by the Northern Central road, a meeting of " Southern Rights" men, of which Albert Ritchie and G. Har- lan Williams, were secretaries, was held at the Taylor building, on Fayette street, near Calvert, and while it was not determed to offer resistance to the passage of the troops through the city, yet a reso- lution offered by Mr. Ross Winans was of a bold and somewhat threatening character.