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| Block-House.1 |
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were marching toward Pittsburg, and would scale the Alleghanies; then on Harrisburg, and would destroy the State buildings and archives; now on Philadelphia, to plunder its mansions and store-houses; and then on Baltimore and Washington, to proclaim Jefferson Davis the ruler of the Republic, with the power of a Dictator.
Brooks cast up breastworks on the line of their expected approach to the mountains; Couch made entrenchments opposite Harrisburg, and some of his troops skirmished with the Confederate vanguard within four miles of the capital.
Stockades and block-houses were constructed along the line of the Northern Central railway, between Baltimore and Hanover Junction; and at Philadelphia some pretty little redoubts were erected, at which the citizens laughed when the danger was over.
That danger, so sudden and awful, seemed to have paralyzed efforts for any movement excepting in a search for safety of person and property.
The contents of bank vaults were sent to points beyond peril; and valuable merchandise, household treasures, and bank deposits, were transported from Philadelphia
to distant places of safety,2 while troops from farther north were hurrying through the city to meet the impending danger.
But Philadelphia soon aroused from its stupor.
Its mayor issued a stirring appeal to the citizens to “close their manufactories, workshops, and stores, before the stern necessity of common safety made it obligatory.”
the drill-rooms were soon crowded with volunteers from every class of citizens, and very speedily full regiments were organized and on their way to the field.
“even the clergy,” said an eye-witness,: “assembled, and to a man offered to drop both preaching and the pen, and take up either musket or spade.”
1 this little cut shows the form of block-houses erected along the line of the road, particularly at the bridge where the railway crossed gunpowder Creek. These were built of stout hewn logs and pierced for musketry. At the dam of Jones's Falls Creek, about eight miles from Baltimore, where a reservoir, called Swan Lake, is formed, from which Baltimore is supplied with water, palisades, as seen in the annexed engraving, were erected across a road approaching from the westward. These were for the purpose of preventing the invaders, marching, from that direction, striking the railway there, or cutting off the supply of water from the city.
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| Palisades at Swan Lake. |
the alarm of the loyal people of Baltimore was. Also great. All the military and many citizens were made busy in erecting fortifications to defend the city against the invaders, while the secessionists were joyful because of the prospect of soon welcoming to Baltimore what they were pleased to call “the deliverers of Maryland.” lines of intrenchments, with redoubts, were constructed, extending a long distance, so as to completely inclose the city on the land side. In that work the colored people, bond and free, bore the brunt of labor. A thousand of these were gathered by the police in one day and put into the ranks of workers.
2 as an illustration of the sudden change from perfect confidence to wild alarm, the writer will mention the following occurrence: the loyal League of Philadelphia had made extensive preparations for a magnificent celebration of the approaching anniversary of our National Independence. The writer was invited to be present as a guest. When the news came that Jenkins had been at Chambersburg and Ewell was in Maryland, he wrote to a leading citizen of Philadelphia, suggesting that the thousands expected at that celebration might be called to a defense of their homes rather than the pleasures of a festivity. In a letter on the 27th, that citizen repelled the idea of any peril, but on the 29th he wrote; “we are in danger. Heaven knows whether we are to be captured. All the town is excitement. We know not what to do!” and a friend who, in a letter two days before, declared there was no danger, wrote on that day, “I avail myself of your kindness to place under your care a box of merchandise, which you will please put in a dry place.” even the city of New York was considered unsafe in the last week in June, and for that reason precious things were sent from Philadelphia as far as the writer's home, more than seventy miles up the Hudson River.
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