In 1861, Baltimore was a city deeply divided over the prospect of civil war. Many Baltimoreans opposed violent conflict with their southern neighbors, and some strongly sympathized with the Southern cause. Historian David J. Eicher described Baltimore as a "largely pro-Southern city" at the time. This sentiment was evident in the previous year's presidential election, when Abraham Lincoln received only 1,100 of more than 30,000 votes cast in the city. The underlying tensions between Union supporters and Confederate sympathizers created an environment ripe for conflict when federal troops began moving through the city.
On Friday, April 19, 1861, the Baltimore riot erupted on Pratt Street when members of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania state militia regiments, called up for federal service and en route to Washington, encountered antiwar "Copperhead" Democrats and other Confederate sympathizers. The fighting began at the President Street Station and spread throughout President Street before moving to Howard Street, where it ended at the Camden Street Station. The violence represented a direct confrontation between Union troops attempting to reach the nation's capital and civilians who opposed their passage through Baltimore.
The Baltimore riot was historically significant as it produced the first deaths of Union volunteers caused by hostile action in the American Civil War, though these deaths were inflicted by civilians rather than organized military forces. Civilians among the attackers were also killed in the violence. This event marked an early and violent escalation of sectional tensions, demonstrating that conflict between North and South was not limited to organized military engagements but could erupt spontaneously in border cities where divided loyalties created volatile situations.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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