General Butler's Operations in Maryland

The destruction of bridges north of Baltimore prevented troops from passing that way. So the Seventh Regiment of New York, Colonel Ellsworth's New York Fire Zouaves and some Massachusetts troops, under General B. F. Butler, proceeded to Annapolis by water, and saved the frigate Constitution there, which was about to be seized by the Secessionists. Butler took possession of the railway between Annapolis and Washington, and first opened communication with the capital; and on the 25th of April he took possession of the Relay House, nine miles from Baltimore, where the Baltimore and Ohio railway turns toward Harper's Ferry. While he was there, over nine hundred men, with a battery, under Colonel F.E. Patterson, sailed from Philadelphia and landed near Fort McHenry, at Baltimore, in the presence of the mayor of the city, Chief of Police Kane and many of his force, and a vast crowd of excited citizens. Latent Unionism in Maryland was then astir, and shouts of welcome greeted the Pennsylvanians. That was on the 9th of May--three weeks after the attack on the Massachusetts troops in the streets of Baltimore. These were the first troops that had passed through since, and were the pioneers of tens of thousands of Union soldiers who streamed through that city during the war that ensued. Though the Maryland Legislature shielded, by special law, the leaders in the murderous assault on the troops on the 19th of April, from punishment, no such violence was ever attempted afterward.

General Scott had planned a ponderous expedition for seizing and holding Baltimore. It was to consist of twelve thousand men divided into four columns, who were to approach that city from four different points at the same time. General Butler saw that a swifter movement was necessary to accomplish that end. He obtained permission of General Scott to attempt the seizure of some arms and ammunition said to be concealed in Baltimore, and to arrest some Secessionists there. Baltimore was in the Department of Annapolis, of which Butler was commander, and the permission implied the use of troops. Having promised Colonel Jones, of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, that his men should again march through Baltimore, he summoned that regiment from the capital to the Relay House. With these and a few other troops, and two pieces of artillery well manned, in all a little more than a thousand men, he entered cars headed toward Harper's Ferry. They ran up the road a shot distance, and then backed slowly past the Relay House and into Baltimore early in the evening, just as a heavy thunderstorm burst upon the city. Few persons were abroad, and the citizens were ignorant of this portentous arrival. The mayor was soon afterward apprised of it, and sent a note to General Butler inquiring what he meant by thus threatening the peace of the city by the presence of a large body of troops.

When the mayor's message arrived at the station, Butler and his men had disappeared in the gloom. Well piloted, they marched to Federal Hill, an eminence that commanded the city. The rain fell copiously; the rumble of the cannon-wheels was mingled with that of the thunder, and was mistaken for it, and the lightning played around the points of their bayonets. In his wet clothing, at near midnight, General Butler sat down and wrote a proclamation to the citizens of Baltimore, assuring all peaceable citizens full protection, and intimating that a much larger force was at hand to support the Government in its efforts to suppress the rebellion. This proclamation (dated May 14, 1861) was published in a city paper (the Clipper) the next morning, and gave the people of Baltimore the first intimation that their town was in the actual possession of National troops. In a single night, a little more than a thousand men had accomplished, under an audacious leader, what General Scott proposed to do with twelve thousand men in an indefinite time. The jealous pride of the General-in-Chief was offended by the superior action of a subordinate. He reproved him for acting without orders, and demanded his removal from the Department. The goodnatured President did remove Butler, but to a more extended field of operations, with a higher commission. From that time, troops were enabled to pass freely through Baltimore from the North; and at the middle of May, the National capital was so well protected that it was regarded as absolutely safe from capture by the insurgents.

The contest had now assumed the dignity of Civil War. The Confederates were putting forth all their energies to meet the forces called to the field by the President of the Republic. Davis summoned his "congress," as we have observed, to meet at Montgomery on the 29th of April, to take measures for prosecuting the war, offensive and defensive. At that time the Confederates had seized property belonging to the United States valued at $40,000,000, and had forty thousand armed men in the field, more than one-half of whom were then in Virginia, and forming an irregular line from Norfolk to Harper's Ferry. At the beginning of May they had sent emissaries abroad to seek recognition and aid from foreign governments. They had extinguished the lamps of the light-houses, one hundred and thirty-three in number, all along the coasts of the Republic, from Hampton Roads to the Rio Grande, and had commissioned numerous "privateers" to prey upon the commerce of the United States. Encouraged by their success at Charleston, they were then besieging Fort Pickens, as we have observed, and were using prodigious exertions to obtain possession of the National capital.