Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/268

 252 Southern Historical Society Papers.

ARRIVAL OF RECRUITS.

A battery of artillery and several hundred Pennsylvania recruits arrived at Bolton Station about 2 o'clock on April 18. The recruits were without uniforms and some of them almost without clothing. A few carried flint-lock rifles, but most of them were unarmed. A great crowd of people was at the station to meet them. The regu- lars marched to Fort McHenry, and the volunteers went down How- ard street to Camden Station. Not finding a train there, they con- tinued on to Mount Clare, where a train was made up to carry them to Washington. Several thousand people, all laboring under intense excitement, met the troops at Bolton Station and followed them to Mount Clare. All the way there was a riotous demonstration. Marshal Kane was there with 120 policemen, and while he succeeded in preventing any serious breaches of the peace, he could not stop the mouths of the people, who hissed, jerred and ridiculed the vol- unteers. The march through the city was rapid, and the troops were protected on either flank by files of policemen. The mob sang " Dixie," cheered for "Jeff." Davis and the Confederacy, and while, the troops were getting into the cars at Mount Clare, there was pan- demonium, and two bricks were hurled at them. But the train pulled out at 4 o'clock without any really serious trouble.

OPPOSING SENTIMENT.

In the meantime the population of Baltimore was in a very feverish condition. The Southern rights men raised a large Confederate flag at the intersection of Greenmount avenue and Chase street and fired a salute of 100 guns in its honor. But the sympathy of the people was not as yet entirely with the Confederate cause. A party of young men carried a swivel to the top of Federal Hill to fire a salute of fifteen guns in honor of the secession of Virginia. After a few shots had been fired a party of workingmen from the neighboring shops charged upon them and tumbled the gun into the river. At the corner of Baltimore and North streets several young men ap- peared wearing badges representing the Confederate flag. They were quickly surrounded by a crowd, who demanded that they should remove them. The crowd followed the young men down South and Lombard streets. Marshal Kane came to their protection. They appealed to him to know whether they had a right to wear those badges. The Marshal replied that they had a perfect right to do so