April 19, 1861---The Baltimore Riot

APRIL 19, 1861:          

At the beginning of the war, Maryland, a Border Slave State, was home to a very large pro-Southern population. 

 The Baltimore Riot (also called the Pratt Street Riot and the Pratt Street Massacre) took place in Baltimore, Maryland between Confederate sympathizers and members of the Massachusetts militia en route to Washington for Federal service. 

As the Massachusetts men transferred between stations, a mob of secessionists and Southern sympathizers attacked the train and blocked the tracks. The troops disembarked from the train and marched in formation through the city. The mob followed the soldiers, breaking store windows and causing damage until they finally attacked the rear companies of the regiment with "bricks, paving stones, and pistols" as one contemporary report said. 

In response, several soldiers fired into the mob, beginning a giant brawl between the soldiers, the mob, and the Baltimore police. In the end, the soldiers got to Camden Station and embarked for Washington D.C. 

The regiment left behind much of their equipment, including their marching band's instruments. Four soldiers (Corporal Sumner Needham and Privates Luther C. Ladd, Charles Taylor, and Addison Whitney) and twelve unnamed civilians were killed in the riot.