assault, a brass field-piece was placed in the angle commanding the approach from the town, and another was placed on the parade ground, pointed toward the sally-port and loaded with canister for the benefit of any party that might succeed in forcing the gates. An old mortar was found and a bed improvised for it. As long as it would stand fire, shells could have been thrown into Monument square, or the heart of the city. It was, however, honeycombed, and probably would not have lasted long. Requisitions had previously been made out and forwarded for ordnance and ordnance stores and other supplies, to which no answer had been received, but subsistence stores were purchased in Baltimore and carted to the fort. At the first intimation of trouble, the orders already given were duplicated, so that rations enough were on hand to meet the emergency. At about 9 o'clock on the evening of the 20th, Police Commissioner Davis called at the fort, bringing the following letter from the President of the Police Board: Office Board of Police Baltimore April 20, 1861 Capt. Robinson, U. S. A. Dear Sir Commanding Fort McHenry. From rumors that have reached us, the Board are apprehensive that you may be annoyed by lawless and disorderly characters approaching the walls of the Fort to night. We propose to send a guard of perhaps 200 men to station themselves on Whet-stone Point, of course entirely beyond the outer limits of the Fort, and within those of the City. Their orders will be to arrest and hand over to the Civil authorities any evil disposed and disorderly persons who may approach the Fort. We should have confided this duty to our regular Police Force, but their services are so imperatively required elsewhere, that it is impossible to detail a sufficient number of them to your vicinity, to insure the accomplishment of our object. This duty has therefore been entrusted to a detachment of the regular organized Militia of the state, now called out pursuant to law and actually in the service of the State of Maryland. The commanding officer of the detachment will be instructed to communicate with you. Permit me here to repeat the assurance I verbally gave you this morning that no disturbance at or near your post shall be made with the sanction of any of the constituted authorities of the City of Baltimore, but that on the contrary all their powers shall be exerted to prevent any thing of the kind, by any parties. I have the honor to be Very respectfully Your ob'd't Servt. Charles Howard Pres't. (By order of the Board of Police.) P. S. There may perhaps be a Troop of Volunteer Cavalry with the detachment. Yours &c Charles Howard Pres't. I did not question the good faith of Mr. Howard, but Commissioner Davis verbally stated that they proposed to send the "Maryland Guards" to help protect the fort. Having made the acquaintance of some of the officers of that organization and heard them freely express their opinions, I declined the offered support, and then the following conversation occurred: Commandant.-"I am aware, sir, that we are to be attacked to-night. I received notice of it before sundown. If you will go outside with me you will see we are prepared for it. You will find the guns loaded and men standing by them. As for the Maryland Guards, they cannot come here. I am acquainted with some of those gentlemen and know what their sentiments are." Commissioner Davis.-"Why, Captain, we are anxious to avoid a col lision." Commandant.-"So am I, sir. If you wish to avoid a collision, place your city military anywhere between the city and that chapel on the road,* but if they come this side of it I shall fire on them." Commissioner Davis.-" Would you fire into the City of Baltimore?" Commandant.-"I should be sorry to do it, sir, but if it becomes necessary in order to hold this fort, I shall not hesitate for one moment." Commissioner Davis (very excitedly).—“I assure you, Captain Robinson, if there is a woman or child killed in that city there will not be one of you left alive here, sir." Commandant." Very well, sir. I will take the chances. Now I assure you, Mr. Davis, if your Baltimore mob comes down here to-night you will not have another mob in Baltimore for ten years to come, sir." Fortunately that night the steamer Spaulding, that had been carrying troops to Fortress Monroe, came into the harbor and anchored under the guns of the fort and sent up to the city for coal, which was supplied by a lighter. A report was spread in Baltimore that this ship had brought a reinforcement of eight hundred men. All the tents to be found at the post were pitched on the esplanade, as if for accommodation of the newly arrived troops. All communication with the city was cut off; a picket guard was placed at the hospital gate, and no one was allowed to go out or come in except officers and a trusty messenger. All civilians were stopped there until an officer could be sent for to ascertain their business. It was ten days before the public knew that no reinforcement had been received. By that time there was a reaction; the reign of terror was over, and Baltimore became a quiet city. * A Roman Catholic chapel about three-quarters of a mile from the fort. One day word came in that there was a stranger at the picket who wanted to see the commanding officer. When I met him he wished to see me privately, and when out of view of the guard he informed me that he was the bearer of a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, that as he did. not know what might happen to him in Baltimore he had concealed it in a queer place. He then removed his hat, and lifting his wig, drew out the letter from between it and his bald crown. It was rather oily, but, nevertheless, a document I was glad to receive. About the time the excitement commenced Lieutenant Grey arrived at the post with a skeleton company of the Second Artillery. He was soon after sent in disguise through Baltimore with a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, calling his attention to the fact that the United States receiving ship Alleghany was lying at Baltimore, and suggesting to him that under the circumstances she would be much safer under the guns of Fort McHenry. On reading the letter the Secretary started from his chair, saying no one in his own department had reminded him of this thing, and immediately gave orders for the removal of the ship. Captain Hunter, who commanded her, obeyed the order, reported to me the position of the vessel, returned to the city and resigned from the navy. Soon after the attack on the Massachusetts troops, Brevet-Colonel Ben Huger, of the ordnance corps, who was in charge of Pikesville Arsenal, and living in Baltimore, resigned his commission in the army. Meeting him afterwards and expressing regret at the course he had taken, he replied: "I never did anything with so much regret in my life. I was brought up in the army, my father was in the army, my son is in the army, and I hoped to end my days in the army, but the country has gone to! My friends in South Carolina are constantly writing to me, urging and begging me to resign and come home, and I can't stand it any longer. But one thing I assure you, old fellow, I never will fight against the old flag." On the 25th day of June, 1862, at the Orchard, the first battle of the seven days' fighting on the Peninsula, the First Brigade of Kearney's division under my command was directly opposed by the division of Major-General Ben Huger. This is not an isolated case. There were other officers who, feeling compelled to leave our service, did so with the same determination as Huger, but after they reached home within the limits of the Confederacy they found the pressure too strong, and were almost forced to draw their swords against the flag they had sworn to defend. Were they not virtually conscripted as well as the men they commanded? The first demonstration of returning loyalty was on Sunday morning, the 28th day of April, when a sailing vessel came down the river crowded with men, and covered from stem to stern with national flags. She sailed past the fort, cheered and saluted our flag, which was dipped in return, after which she returned to the city. The tide had turned. Union men avowed themselves, the stars and stripes were again unfurled, and order was restored. Although after this time arrests were made of persons conspicuous for disloyalty, the return to reason was almost as sudden as the outbreak of rebellion. The railroads were repaired, trains ran regularly, and troops poured into Washington without hindrance or opposition of any sort. Thousands of men volunteered for the Union army. Four regiments of Maryland troops afterwards served with me and constituted the Third Brigade of my division. They fought gallantly the battles of the Union, and no braver soldiers ever marched under the flag. In the summer of 1882 the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic was held in the City of Baltimore and received a welcome never exceeded in any Northern city. The escort was composed of military companies of Maryland and Virginia. The blue and the gray mingled. Union and Confederate soldiers walked the streets arm in arm, red, white and blue bunting covered the buildings on all the business streets, and the starry banner of the Union floated from every flagstaff. In May last the Society of the Army of the Potomac held its annual meeting in Baltimore. Hundreds of the soldiers who had marched through Baltimore to Washington in 1861 received a cordial and hearty welcome to that city in 1885. Mo. Notinson BEGINNINGS OF THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA THE CONFEDERATES TAKE THE OFFENSIVE (Continued from page 137) In view of the inauspicious attitude so generally taken at Washington by the leading men of the incoming political party toward the compromise measures proposed by the Peace Congress, or, indeed, toward the idea of any compromise of the questions which had culminated in the secession movement, the congress at Montgomery, about a fortnight before the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, or on the 15th of February, considered it expedient to be so prepared that the possible arbitrament of the sword should not come upon them with unavoidable disadvantages in Charleston Harbor-the point, in all likelihood, of first armed collision. Accordingly the Confederate Executive was directed by formal resolutions to make all possible military preparations to obtain possession, either by negotiation or force, of Forts Sumter and Pickens as early as STATE FLAG OF practicable. It was not, SOUTH CAROLINA however, until eight days afterwards that Major Whiting, lately a captain of United States engineers stationed at Savannah, was dispatched from Montgomery to inspect the works held or being constructed by the State authorities of South Carolina, and to report their condition to the Confederate Government, as well as all the information to be had regarding Fort Sumter. This action of the Confederate Congress was followed by a further resolution, a week later, assuming the control of all operations in the quarter of Charleston. Thereupon Mr. Davis called to Montgomery G. T. Beauregard, who had upon the secession of his native State, Louisiana, resigned his commission of captain of engineers and of brevet-major of the United States |