Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/277

 April /.'////, MY;/. 2<n

hoped no more troops would be sent through Maryland, but it could not be helped.

On the afternoon of Friday, April 19, 1861, at 4 o'clock there was a great mass-meeting in Monument Square. Speeches were made by Dr. A. C. Robinson, Mayor Brown, William P. Preston, S. Teac- kle Wallis, John E. Wethered, Robert L. McLane and Governor Hicks. The people were counseled to rely upon the authorities, which would protect them. The invasion of the city and the slaugh- ter of citizens were denounced. Mr. WalHs said it was not neces- sary to speak. " If the blood of citizens on the stones in the street does not speak," he said, "it is useless for man to speak." His heart, he said, was with the South, and he was ready to defend Bal- timore. The Governor made his famous declaration that he would suffer his right arm to be torn from his body before he would raise it to strike a sister State. That night ex-Governor E. Louis Lowe made a speech to a great gathering in front of Barnum's Hotel. The streets were thronged with people discussing the events of the day and many citizens walked the streets with muskets or guns in their hands.

PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE.

The condition of Baltimore on Saturday, the 2Oth of April, the day succeeding the riot, reminded the old inhabitants of similar incidents on the nth and I2th of September, 1814, many of whom had wit- nessed those events. The streets were thronged with armed men marching to and fro and with citizens wildly excited. The town seemed to be a part of the Confederacy. A large Confederate flag floated from a building on Fayette street near Calvert. The Minute Men, a Union club, hauled down the United States flag from their headquarters on Baltimore street and raised the flag of Maryland amidst the cheers of a crowd which witnessed it. The Confederate flag was everywhere. It seemed as if nearly every citizen wore a badge which displayed the Confederate colors. It was rumored that the Turner Rifles, a Gentian company, had offered their services to the President, and their armory on West Pratt street was looted. There was a great rush for arms, and a number of muskets belonging to the State were seized. The works of the Messrs. Winans were engaged in making pikes, in casting balls for muskets and cannon and the steam gun which Mr. Winans had invented. A "centri- fugal steam gun " invented by Mr. Dickinson was purchased by the city to be used in the public defense. "A party of young men took