Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[415] back to Philadelphia. After their departure, the mob proceeded to barricade the Pratt Street Bridge, and to break open the store of Henry Meyer, from which they carried off a large number of guns and pistols. At that moment General Egerton appeared in full uniform, imploring them to cease rioting. He assured them that no “foreign troops” were in the city, and that Governor Hicks had declared that no more should pass through it.¹

The mob was quieted by four o'clock in the afternoon, when they had placed the city in the hands of the secessionists. At that hour a great meeting of the dominant party was held at Monument Square, where General George H. Stewart (who afterward joined the insurgents in Virginia²) had paraded the First Light Division with ball cartridges. Over the platform for the speakers floated a white flag bearing the arms of Maryland; and under this Mayor Brown, S. T. Wallis, W. P. Preston, and others, addressed the vast multitude, assuring them that no more Northern troops should pass through the city, and advising them to disperse quietly to their homes. Already Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown had sent a dispatch to President Lincoln, saying:--“A collision between the citizens and the Northern troops has taken place in Baltimore, and the excitement is fearful. Send no troops here. We will endeavor to prevent bloodshed. A public meeting of citizens has been called, and the troops of the State and city have been called out to preserve the peace. They will be enough.” They had also taken measures to prevent any more troops coming over the railway from Philadelphia.

When the meeting at Monument Square was convened, a committee was appointed to invite Governor Hicks to the stand. His age was bordering on seventy years, and caution was predominant. He was appalled by the violence around him, and after listening to Mayor Brown, who declared that it was “folly and madness for one portion of the nation to attempt the subjugation of another portion — it can never be done,” --the Governor arose and said :--“I coincide in the sentiment of your worthy Mayor. After three conferences we have agreed, and I bow in submission to the people. I am a Marylander; I love my State, and I love the Union; but I will suffer my right arm to be torn from my body before I will raise it to strike a sister State.” ³

The meeting adjourned, but the populace were not quiet. They paraded the streets, uttering threats of violence to Union citizens, who were awed into silence, and driven into the obscurity of their homes. About five hundred men, headed by two drums, went to the President Street Station to seize arms supposed to be there. They found none. Disappointed, they marched to Barnum's Hotel, and called for Ex-Governor Louis E. Lowe, who made a speech to them under a Maryland flag, from a balcony, in which he