Mount Vernon Place “Improvement”

During the mid-1920s the idea of turning Mount Vernon Square into a cultural center first began to be investigated.  At that time three art-related institutions were located upon the Square: The Walters Art Gallery, The Peabody Institute of Music; and the Baltimore Museum of Art.[1] The long-range pursuit of this plan suffered an initial setback when the Baltimore Museum of Art decided to locate elsewhere in the city.  Though the Great Depression deferred the dream of making the Square into a cultural center, the concept did not entirely die.

Post-World War II prosperity gave the redevelopment plan new impetus.  Under the administration of Mayor Theodore McKeldin, the first plan was laid out to redevelop the Square.  The architect Dana Loomis working with the firm of Wrenn, Lewis, and Jencks formulated the initial concept for the area.  An eight-page report, that included a conceptual drawing, was submitted to Baltimore’s Department of Public Works for consideration and possible implementation in October 1946.[2]  Most of the private dwellings upon the south side of Washington Place were slated to be leveled (with the exception of the project architect Francis Haynes Jencks’ own family home at No. 1, today known as Hackerman House). That opulent circa 1848 mansion would have been retained and become the Baltimore “Mayor’s House.”

Other plans called for a new “sunken” east-west expressway to abut the south perimeter.  Part of an exit ramp would have been situated at the east end of the Square.  If the expressway would have undermined the peaceful integrity of Mount Vernon Place, the Wrenn, Lewis, and Jencks plan hoped to obliterate much of the fabric.  The plan paradoxically advocated that the best means for “preserving” the Square was to first destroy most of it.

Ultimately, the redevelopment initiative never came to fruition.  The presence of a watchdog organization in the form of the Mount Vernon District Improvement Association assisted in thwarting the plans.  Douglas Gordon, the president of this group, mounted a campaign that ultimately killed the bond issue to underwrite the construction during the 1950s.[3]

[1] The BMA was housed at the Mary Garrett Mansion [demolished in the early 20c.]; replaced by an apartment building on the southwest corner of Monument and Cathedral Streets.

[2] Copy of report, October 28, 1946, “Walters Art Gallery” project file, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Wrenn, Lewis and Jencks Architectural Collection) MSA SC 2349, Maryland State Archives.

[3] John R. Dorsey, Mount Vernon Place: An Anecdotal Essay with 66 Illustrations, (Baltimore: Maclay, 1983), 86-89.

“Unwearied in Their Attentions”: Secessionist Women and the 1866 Southern Relief Fair

Report… Ladies’ Southern Relief Association, 1866 (Rarebooks Collection, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries)

The Civil War deeply divided Baltimoreans along philosophical and sectional lines. The Secessionist women of Baltimore, those whose sympathies lay with the South, were often singled out for their devotion to the Confederacy. They supported their husbands and brothers in gray throughout the war, often risking arrest, imprisonment, or banishment. During the post-war era, the 1866 Southern Relief Fair provided the large-scale opportunity for them to demonstrate both their patriotic and benevolent dedication to the people of the South.

Fundraising fairs in Baltimore had been organized and held for decades previously. Most Baltimore fairs, but not all, appear to have been orchestrated by women to benefit their own church congregations. One of the earliest recorded, held in 1827, was to aid the needy children of Greece in the aftermath of the overthrow of their Turkish occupiers. The largest such effort came in 1864, with the Maryland State Fair for U.S. Soldier Relief or, as it is more commonly known, the Baltimore Sanitary Fair.

The prospect of holding a fair to raise funds for impoverished Southerners first arose in Baltimore during the fall of 1865. The sixty-six year old Jane Gilmore Howard, wife of General Benjamin Chew Howard, was elected to serve as the President of the Relief Fair. All six of Mrs. Howard’s sons had worn the Confederate gray. Annie Thomas, 46, a Virginian by birth, and Elizabeth Key Howard, 62, the daughter of Francis Scott Key, served as vice presidents. These latter two women were distinguished from the other Fair executive committee members in that their spouses had been arrested in 1861 and detained by US military authorities for disloyalty.

By early March 1866, 316 women had banded together to shape and promote the relief fair. A handful of well-to-do German immigrant women were also included. It does not appear that any woman officer connected with Baltimore’s 1864 US Sanitary Fair served as a manager in this endeavor. Speaking of the Relief Fair committee, the Baltimore American newspaper stated “[w]e do not find the name of a single loyal lady, nor among its gentleman managers and… we find… that the great mass… have been, and still are, active and persistent in the sentiment of disloyalty.”

In contrast to the 1864 Sanitary Fair, the April 2, 1866 opening day of the Relief Fair did not bring a holiday-like atmosphere throughout the city. No parades; businesses and schools remained open. Held at the Maryland Institute hall (when it was located near today’s Inner Harbor), the Relief Fair hosted no high ranking Washington officials on the opening night or any night. Also noticeably absent was any official delegation from Baltimore City or the Maryland State government.

The city newspapers reported immense crowds present throughout the entire length of the fair’s run. As the Baltimore Gazette reported, “[s]tretched across the centre of the hall is the star-spangled banner [a US flag], and at the end of the hall, the same emblems are [draped].” This overt nod to national patriotism and to a restored Union, however, was tempered by what no city newspaper described explicitly. Upon many of the 57 display tables, either for sale or for raffle, could be found portraits of the military heroes of the Confederacy. Paintings, prints and photographs of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston, to name a few, could be found throughout the hall. No likenesses of Jefferson Davis appear to have been present. Less than one year before, Baltimore’s Secessionists could have been arrested by the US Provost Marshall for displaying or even possessing such images.

The Southern Relief Fair could be termed a great success when compared to similar efforts. The 1864 Sanitary Fair managers raised a final amount of just over $86,000. The Relief Fair women, in comparison, grossed approximately $160,000 for their efforts, about 2.3 million dollars in 2011 currency. The Baltimore Gazette opined “[the ladies] have been constant in their attendance and unwearied in their attentions…[t]he Fair women of Baltimore have crowned themselves with laurels, well deserved in many ways. The Fair also revealed that the split in Baltimore society still remained chasm-like within the breasts of many. The Baltimore American, a moderate Unionist paper during the conflict, simply refused to report on the Relief Fair. It gave the following reason:

“If there had been any attempt made, or any desire evinced, to secure the participation of the Union people of the city or State in this Fair, it would have been promptly responded to by them and heartily seconded by the American. On the contrary, there has been a persistent effort to make [the fair] a grand disloyal demonstration.”

In conclusion, the Southern Relief Fair gave Baltimore’s Secessionist women their most spectacular means to express their devotion to the people of the South. Channeling their energies, the women successfully mobilized thousands of fellow Marylanders, as well as sympathetic out-of-state parties, behind the cause of assisting the destitute citizens of the former Confederacy.

To Benefit The Human Family

Petition of “Friends Association in Aid of Freeman,” signed by Rebecca Sinclair Turner, BRG16, 1865-257

As African Americans freed from the bonds of slavery made their way to Baltimore in the winter of 1864, their appearance within the city elicited mixed reactions from the white citizenry.[1]  Rebecca Sinclair Turner, a white member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), had a positive, sympathetic response. As a manager of the Friends’ Association in Aid of Freeman, she helped to house the sick and indigent former slaves, referred others to jobs, and sewed new garments as substitutes for their plantation tow cloth. Her actions sprang forth from what she deemed to be her greater purpose. Turner’s 1865 New Year’s Day journal entry revealed:

I have much to be thankful for–and [personal] desires have arisen that I may be more faithful in the performance of my duties… in all concerns pertaining to this life, whereby the human family may be benefited, and that I may so walk and act not to be a stumbling block in the way of others.[2]

Rebecca Sinclair Turner

Other Baltimoreans joined Turner in choosing to benefit the human family by assisting both the freedmen and the city’s general African American population, founding private, non-denominational benevolent organizations to do so.  Their ranks, derived mostly from Union sympathizers and previously helpful persons, such as Quakers and Unitarians, were few in number. This small but very significant cadre of idealistic Marylanders attempted to maximize the effects of emancipation in Baltimore by first organizing schools for the freedmen and their children.  Later, they helped to found an orphanage for the children of deceased US Colored Troops and a home for the elderly. These activities served to supplement the ongoing efforts of Baltimore’s own African American community to aid the newly emancipated.

[1] Appeal for the Shelter of Aged and Infirmed Colored People (1881), Printed Ephemera, Box D-15, Prints & Photographs Department, Maryland Historical Society Library.

[2] January 1, 1865 entry, Rebecca Sinclair Turner diary, Turner Family Papers, RG 5, 152, Society of Friends Archives, Swathmore College.

Emancipation Day in Baltimore

Resolutions in honor… New Constitution, BCA, 1864-884

On November 1, 1864, Maryland abolished slavery when a new state constitution forbidding the practice went into effect.  The simple words of Article 24 of that document stated:

“[T]hat hereafter, in this State, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor as slaves, are hereby declared free.”

How did the Baltimore City government react to the news of emancipation?  The all-male, all-white City Council passed a remarkable resolution that starts:

Whereas it is fitting that a people freed from a barbaric custom of a feudal age should… tak[e] their proud position among the free… Whereas the people of Maryland have by the adoption of a free State Constitution have been redeemed regenerated and disenthralled, And by this progressive act in the cause of freedom… have earned immortal honors for themselves….

A committee of the City Council, at the urging of Mayor Chapman, arranged for a 500 gun salute “as an evidence of  [the] joy felt by the people of Baltimore for the Salvation of Maryland.” Chapman further requested that church bells ring at sunrise to greet the dawning of this new era.

How did Baltimore’s African American population greet the news of emancipation?  According to the Baltimore Clipper newspaper:

The colored portion of our community converted [the first of November] into a day of holiday, thanksgiving, and prayer… they donned their best attire, and social reunions were indulged in… [t]he various churches were thronged during the entire day, and at the church on Saratoga Street [Bethel A.M.E.]… the place was crowded, and at times it was impossible for a vehicle to pass… so dense was the mass of persons. 

Emancipation Day activities in Baltimore, Baltimore Clipper, November 2, 1864

 

 

 

 

 

The “Other Lincoln Bible”

The “Other Lincoln Bible,” Fisk University, Franklin Library

President Barack Obama at his inaugurations in 2009 and 2013 used a Bible once owned by the Lincoln Family. Known today as the “Lincoln Bible,” it resides currently at the Library of Congress. Do you know, however, about the “Other Lincoln Bible” at Fisk University and its Baltimore connection?

On September 7, 1864, a delegation of African American Baltimoreans paid a visit to the White House. The purpose was to express their gratitude, on behalf of city’s black community, to President Lincoln for his issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, which they termed “the most sublime State Paper of Modern Civilization.” They also wished to thank him for allowing African American men to shoulder arms in defense of the Union.

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.[1]  Baltimore’s African American citizens soon organized a fund raising campaign to place a tangible token of their appreciation into the hands of the Chief Executive. Unfortunately, we don’t know the names of the committee members or their decision making when it came to the selection of the gift.[2]

The committee decided that a Bible would be the most appropriate gift for President Lincoln. Yet, this was to be no ordinary Bible. Only the finest would do. Here is a period description of the item:

The book in size is imperial quarto [about 11” x 15”], bound in royal purple velvet. On the upper side of the cover is a solid 18 carat gold plate, nine and a half inches in circumference, bearing a design representing the President in the act of removing the shackles from a slave. On the lower side of the cover is a solid 18 carat gold plate, four inches long and two inches wide, bearing the following inscription:

‘To ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, from the loyal colored people of Baltimore, as a token of respect and gratitude….’

Accompanying the Bible is a solid black walnut case with a silver plate on the lid, on which is engraved a picture of the Capitol and the words ‘Holy Bible.’ [3]

Over five hundred individuals, more women than men, donated various amounts for a total of $580 ($580 in 1864 is the equivalent of $8522 in 2013). The elaborate binding and the engraved gold plate may have been fabricated locally. The work involved to produce the Bible, according to a scholar of Baltimore’s nineteenth century book trade, was within the capacity of a larger city firm such as Lucas Brothers.

In 1916, Robert Todd Lincoln donated the Bible to Fisk University. Today it resides with the Special Collections Department at the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library.

 ***

[1] We simply do not know what the reactions of Baltimore’s citizens were to this momentous news. While some Baltimore newspapers recorded the jubilations of the “contrabands” in Washington, none featured any similar celebratory events within the Monumental City. Even the Baltimore Clipper, one of the staunchest Union sympathizing local papers, merely printed the text of the Proclamation and made no editorial comments.

[2] The Lyceum Observer, an African American owned and operated Baltimore newspaper printed from 1863 to 1866, might have provided those insights. Tragically, only a single issue has survived the ages.

[3] The New York Times, September 11, 1864.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baltimore Sanitary Fair Sesquicentennial

Maryland Institute, site of the Sanitary Fair

The 1864 Baltimore Sanitary Fair (April 18-April 30) provided the large-scale vehicle for Maryland’s Unionist women to bring together both of their benevolent and patriotic impulses. Other cities across the Union, such as Chicago and Boston, previously coordinated such events. Proceeds from these affairs swelled the coffers of the U.S. Christian and the U.S. Sanitary Commissions, the two major national relief organizations for the Union armed forces. The prospect of holding a fair to raise funds for these entities first arose in Baltimore during the fall of 1863 and a series of female-led meetings soon followed. The women chose the 18th of April as the official opening date and invited a special guest to inaugurate the event.

April 18th witnessed general public celebration, transforming the drab thoroughfares of the war-time city. Acting upon a resolution of the City Council, Mayor John Lee Chapman issued a proclamation asking businesses to close at noon on April 18. Most tradesmen, with the exception of a few ardent secessionists, complied. Likewise, city school pupils enjoyed a half-day. The frenetic pace of city-life came to a complete stand-still as a grand military parade featuring over three thousand soldiers commenced at two o’clock. Starting at Monument Square, the nearly mile long column wended its way through the heart of the business district as the Eighth New York Artillery band serenaded the estimated 30,000 people lining the streets. Over four hundred of the original members of the First Maryland Cavalry, which had included four companies of Baltimoreans, veterans of Stoneman’s Raid, Brandy Station, and Gettysburg, proudly rode in formation. The throngs of spectators “not only repeatedly cheered . . . but from the windows of many of the residences ladies crowded all the available space, waving their handkerchiefs and display[ing] the National banner.” A second parade featured three thousand African-American soldiers in new blue uniforms, their gold buttons reflecting the brilliant sunshine of the temperate day. Constituting a portion of Maryland’s volunteer “Colored” regiments, the new enlistees were “huzzahed on their way to the front by the white population.”

          President Abraham Lincoln

Acting upon the invitation of the women organizers, President Abraham Lincoln agreed to preside over the fair opening ceremonies. Lincoln’s appearance in Baltimore held symbolic importance for city Unionists, and perhaps, to himself. For loyal citizens it offered both a chance to display their devotion to the man who embodied the Union and cast off doubts about Baltimore’s predominant political sympathy. For the President, coming to Baltimore presented an opportunity to make amends for a past indiscretion. In March 1861, en route to his inauguration, Lincoln secreted himself through Baltimore’s darkened streets in response to the rumor of an alleged assassination plot. Already held in low regard by his affiliation with the perceived anti-Southern Republican Party, many residents regarded the President-elect’s distrustful action as an affront to their city’s honor; even Unionists expressed bewilderment. Later, the President “was convinced that he had committed a great mistake.” By opening the Maryland Fair, Lincoln could both mitigate his wrong and express his confidence in the city’s national loyalty.

Despite the apparent solidarity of the state’s loyal population, the Maryland Fair could only be termed a modest financial success when compared with similar 1864 events. The final tally exceeded just over eighty-three thousand dollars. In contrast, both the New York and Philadelphia fairs each cleared over one million dollars. Yet, when compared to all similar soldier relief fairs, the Maryland total stands respectable. Chicago’s, of December 1863, “netted between $86,000 and $100,000”; Boston’s, held in the state whose militia first answered Lincoln’s Call to put down the Rebellion, garnered but $146,000. Both Illinois and Massachusetts possessed vastly larger and much less philosophically divided populations. While competition for donations from other cities most likely affected Maryland’s net amount, both economic realities and the state’s political division did factor largely.

Maryland Unionists, nonetheless, regarded their fair efforts to be fruitful. Governor Augustus Bradford at the May 2 closing ceremonies remarked, “success is not to be estimated merely by its financial results, but by the wholesome moral influences it exerted . . . it has brought together loyal women . . . and served to show that American patriotism is confined to no climate, nor indigenous to any particular soil.” The press singled out the organizer’s and participants for their devotion. The Baltimore American newspaper lauded “the noble women of Maryland who have labored so long and so well . . . [they] deserve all praise and honor.”

Baltimore’s First Building Laws

BMS 41, The Builder’s Exchange of Baltimore City Collection

We received an unsolicited gift recently, something atypical of what has been donated in the recent past. It is an object that holds significance to both the appearance and growth of Baltimore’s urban landscape. And it’s kind of fun (hey, I’m an archivist—what can I say?)

The item is the signing pen used by the Baltimore’s one-term Mayor Robert G. Davidson (1889-1891) to affix his signature to the 1891 “Building Laws” ordinance. Before that time Baltimore had “no code of laws to regulate the construction and inspection of her new buildings,” according to the City’s Annual Report of 1891. As J. Theodore Oster, Inspector of Buildings, opined, “[i]t is gratifying… that we have at last succeeded in getting a code… passed, which we trust will secure to the public safer and more substantial buildings.” Oster added that he now required at least four more assistants, adding but a slight bump upward to the city bureaucracy.

We know that the item was displayed originally at the offices of the Builder’s Exchange. Founded in 1888, the Exchange headquarters stood at 19 W. Saratoga Street in 1892 and served as a meeting place for individuals in the building trade. A committee from the Exchange was present at the ordinance signing and “requested the pen that was used, and [intended to] have it suitably framed and hung in the exchange.”

BMS 41 detail

The Committee mounted and framed the item in great style. They commissioned a special engrossed background upon which the pen would be mounted. That, in itself, was not unusual. But this background, in addition to the pertinent hand-lettered information about the pen, included fine scrollwork, flourishes, and other embellishments from the fine art of penmanship. Dr. S. C. Malone, who styled himself as an “artist penman” performed the work. Not only did he take on commissioned work, he taught penmanship classes at his Charles Street office and, later, served as an expert witness in matters relating to handwriting analysis. In thirty-eight years, he “testified in 2,000 cases… and lost only seven.”

The pen has been added to the Baltimore City Archives holdings as BMS 41, The Builder’s Exchange of Baltimore City Collection

Sweet Annaline: The Tale of a Marylander at the White House

An Alderney cow (Annaline’s relative)

“Political animal” is a term sometimes used to describe the chief resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Washington, DC’s most exclusive address indeed has seen a number of donkeys and pachyderms, and even a bull moose.  But did you know of Maryland’s four-legged contribution to this menagerie? Baltimore businesman Samuel Moor Shoemaker, a nineteenth century resident of 901 St. Paul Street, made it all possible.

A national tragedy brought Annaline, an Alderney cow from Shoemaker’s farm, to nibble clover at the White House.  On July 2, 1881, at a Washington, DC railroad station, Charles Guitreau, a disappointed government office seeker, unloaded his revolver into the back of President James Garfield.  Letters and telegrams professing sympathy and wishes for the President’s recovery swept over the Executive Mansion.  One Maryland correspondent offered more.  Garfield’s doctors “had found some difficulty in procuring the very best milk, and it was their wish that the milk given their patient should not only be of the best, but should be drawn from one animal”, so Samuel Moor Shoemaker, the owner of a prize-winning cowherd in Greenspring Valley offered Annaline to aid the President’s recovery.

Sent by rail to Washington, Annaline arrived on July 9 and “was tethered at a stable below the State Department Building” just next to the White House.  By sunset, the Maryland cow was chomping upon the cool grass of the White House lawn and “switching her tail in glee.”  The Garfield children witnessed the first milking which produced “a splendid gallon of rich milk, some of which was soon served to the President and relished very much.”

The White House staff treated Annaline as any dignitary or special envoy.  And why should it have been any different?  “The cow [was] doing her part nobly…the nation’s hopes rest[ed] somewhat upon her being a success.”  Curry-combed and washed twice daily, she grazed freely upon the back lawn of the White House during the daylight hours.  Each morning and evening, Annaline feasted on grain back at her stable.

Visitors came to call and others bestowed gifts upon the special lady.  Mrs. Garfield visited with Annaline at the stable, escorted by Secretary of State Blaine.  One smitten Bostonian sent two silver tips for the ends of Annaline’s horns, though “this mark of distinction is not nearly so great as the cow deserves.”

Despite the valiant efforts of our Maryland cow, the President experienced numerous reverses.  On September 6, to speed Garfield’s recovery, his doctors moved him to the seaside resort town of Long Branch, New Jersey.  Annaline remained back in Washington though her transfer was being seriously discussed.  Unwisely, a Jersey cow named “Repartee” took over Annaline’s sacred mission in mid-September. The President died soon thereafter.

Yet, the tale has a happy ending for our sweet Annaline.  Although she never munched upon the verdant grass of Maryland again, she likely spent her last days in the company of the Garfield family.  Mrs. Garfield sent a note of thanks to Samuel Shoemaker in November 1881, after leaving the White House for their Mentor, Ohio farm. She wrote: Your kindness…has enabled me to receive in most excellent condition the cow and household goods from Washington…. It adds one more to the very thoughtful and considerable acts performed for me by the friends of General Garfield.  So it appears that the pampered former White House guest whiled away her hours–chewing her cud, occasionally running from playful children, and very likely “switching her tail in glee.”

Cow image (without the bow) courtesy of:  http://vintageprintable.com/wordpress/

“Monuments Of Their Patriotism”: Building Baltimore’s Civil War Defenses, Summer 1863 (Part 2)

Fort No. 1, West Baltimore, Courtesy of Brown University Library

[On the 20^th of June, 1863, hundreds of Baltimore’s African American men were pressed into service to build earthen fortifications to further secure the city from a Confederate Army attack.  It was very hard labor for a wage of $1 per day plus rations. ]

Payroll Slip, [July 1863] BRG41-3-1497A

Who were the workmen? While a full accounting may be impossible, we know a few of them through some payroll slips at the Baltimore City Archives (http://guide.mdsa.net/series.cfm?action=viewDetailedSeries&ID=BRG41-3-105-10). Organized into squads under the supervision of white overseers, Joseph Barnes, a drayman from Mullikin Street and Eli Carpenter, a day-laborer from Cider Alley, toiled under the hot July sun with shovel, pick, and pounder stone. Young boys, paid a wage of .50 per day, bore water buckets from which the men would quench their thirst. It is possible that some construction assistance also came from teenagers who were paid .75 per day. Mealtime meant U.S. Army rations, which likely consisted of hard bread (hard tack) with about a pound of meat and some coffee.[1]

General Robert C. Schenck, the regional military commander stationed in Baltimore, took notice of the men and their work.  He “repeatedly urged President Lincoln to authorize enlistment of the several thousand blacks, mostly free, who labored on the fortifications around Baltimore”[2] and “to create from among them a reg[imen]t of Sappers & Miners.”[3] The President eventually agreed to Schenck’s request and Secretary of War Stanton appointed Colonel William Birney, the son of antislavery politician James G. Birney, to take charge of recruiting the workmen. Birney established a Baltimore-based recruiting office in Mid-July and in less than seven weeks filled the ranks of the Fourth US Colored Troops.

On the 20th of July, hundreds of African American laborers from the various project gathered together for a special ceremony.  They assembled at Fort No. 1, also known as Fort Davis, on West Baltimore Street (in the area of today’s Bon Secours Hospital) for the purpose of a flag presentation. The laborers had pooled together their money to purchase a very large, garrison-style flag for the use of the soldiers stationed at the fort.

Some special guests were also present. Two companies, about 160 men, of the newly formed Fourth United States Colored Troops, stood at attention, the gold buttons of their new blue uniforms glinting in the waning afternoon sun. It would be  sometime in late August before they would be issued any firearms. These soldiers, likely constituting Companies “A” and “B,” had been in army dress for only five days.

The workmen chose Colonel Birney to make the presentation speech on their behalf.  Here is an excerpt:

The flag they present you to-day, is in token of their loyalty. Their hearts are true. Whoever else may be swayed from duty, the black remains firm. Pluck him from the very core of rebeldom and he is a true man. You may trust him. All his aspirations are for the success of the right, the triumph of the nation. For him the success of traitors is his own degradation, the dishonor of his family, the doom of his race to perpetual infamy.

You may regard, sir, the presentation of this fine flag, as implying the readiness of the men of color to defend it. You have witnessed their alacrity in springing to the lines of these fortifications when Baltimore was menaced, their cheerfulness in volunteering their labor, their patience in its prosecution. These forts around the city will be monuments of their patriotism. [emphasis added] With equal alacrity, sir, do they respond to the call of the country, “To arms!” When the Goddess of American Liberty hands them the musket, they accept it with stalwart and ready arms, thankful to Providence that their frugal diet has prepared them for the soldier’s rations, that their life of continuous labor in the open air has inured them in advance to the hardships of campaigning, and that they have not now to learn patience and obedience, these two virtues of the soldier.[4]

Some of the workmen did step forward to join the ranks of their brothers and shoulder a musket for the Union cause. In the ensuing months some 1,000 African American men, from Baltimore and elsewhere in Maryland, would fill the ranks of Colonel Birney’s command.

By the end of August, most of the work on the fortifications had been completed.[5] The forts served their purpose but were never actually tested in battle. The closest Confederate incursion came in July 1864 when Major Harry W. Gilmor with 135 men from the First and Second Maryland Cavalry (CSA) regiments traveled down the York Road as far as Govanstown (Govans), then a part of Baltimore County.

With the Civil War’s end, the fortification sites themselves became immediately obsolete and a hindrance to future city development.  Rather than the forts being “monuments” to the patriotism of African American men, the work soon commenced to obliterate them in their entirety.  All buildings were first auctioned off as surplus US Government property.  Next, though it took several years, the city passed ordinances calling for the dismantling of certain earthworks.  Fort No. 8, just south of Greenmount Cemetery, was leveled in 1869 while the Fort Federal Hill breastworks remained until 1879. But unlike the vast majority of the forts, both locations would eventually be designated as public parks, Johnston Square and Federal Hill, respectively. Most became the building sites for Baltimore’s famed row houses.  Fort No. 1 finally succumbed to development in the 1890s.[6]

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[1]A Union soldier was entitled to receive daily 12 oz of pork or bacon or 1 lb. 4 oz of fresh or salt beef; 1 lb. 6 oz of soft bread or flour, 1 lb. of hard bread, or 1 lb. 4 oz of cornmeal. The marching ration consisted of 1 lb. of hard bread, 3/4 lb. of salt pork or 1 1/4 lb. of fresh meat, plus the sugar, coffee, and salt.

[2] The Black Military Experience , Ira Berlin, editor ; Joseph P. Reidy, associate editor, Leslie S. Rowland, associate editor. (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 184.

[3] Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 6. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), p. 317.

[4] Christian Recorder, July 26, 1863.

[5] Sun, August 28, 1863.

[6] Sun, November 24, 1903.

“Monuments Of Their Patriotism”: Building Baltimore’s Civil War Defenses, Summer 1863 (Part 1)

Workman’s pay slip, July 1863, BRG41, S3, 1497a

In mid-June of 1863, great alarm gripped Baltimore. The Confederate Army under the able command of General Robert E. Lee had crossed into Maryland and might advance in an attempt to take the city. Meetings to organize citizen militias took place throughout the wards. White male citizens, members of the various Union League chapters and the Union Club, mustered into home defense units. If Baltimore fell, the surrender of Washington might be inevitable.

On Saturday, the 20th of June, Mayor Chapman called a special session of City Council to consider the erection of additional defensive fortifications around the city.  In all, “twenty-two works of defen[s]e, of various size and strength… which, in case of attack… would be very difficult to break” were envisioned.  Supported in the endeavor by General Robert Schenck, the regional military administrator, with his offer of supplies and tools to assist in the task, the Council approved $100,000 to build earthen bulwarks to secure the city from Rebel attackers. The U.S. Army ultimately decided on the final location and the types of fortifications to be built.

Baltimore agreed to supply the manpower. General Schenck, however, required the immediate service of 1,000 men by 4PM on the very same day. Could such laborers materialize seemingly from the air? Schenck offered some additional assistance in the form of martial persuasion: “If you have any difficulty in furnishing the labor… I will furnish you the military power to enforce… impressment.”[1] Impressment meant that any person could be seized, without notice, and forced to work, on the fortifications.

The Baltimore City Police, supported by the military, immediately set about gathering all able-bodied men. They, however, singled out only African American males. The hapless men were simply arrested and forcibly marched out to the outskirts of the city under armed guard. It is doubtful that the men had any opportunity to even leave word with family or friends about their fate. A few apparently resisted though not without consequence.  An African American “servant,” a local euphemism for the word “slave,” of one Mrs. Fenby was shot in the foot as he tried to escape from his impressment.[2]

Reverend Alexander Wayman

The heavy-handed actions of the authorities were unwarranted and an insult to the patriotism of the men. Reverend Alexander Wayman (1821-1895), Pastor of the Bethel A.M.E.Church and a leader in the African-American community, inquired about his son at a local police station and narrowly escaped being sent to work. Before leaving the station, he voiced, “Gentlemen, there is no need of the police officers running after us… this way. All that was necessary was to let us know that we were wanted, and you could have five thousand of us before sun-down.”[3]

Work on the fortifications took place around the clock. Wayman went out again to visit the workmen on early Sunday before his church service, and, once more, was almost made to shoulder a spade. Wayman advised the workman to “be brave” and assured them that “it will come out all right.”[4] The City did eventually come around as Wayman predicted. The City Fathers decided to pay each worker one dollar per day plus rations. Yet, it was a hard-earned dollar, an especially tough, back-breaking labor made worse by the clay-like soil that characterizes most of the region.  The fortifications put up varied in size but they all required the same mounding up and compression of soil. Armed with only pick, shovel and spade, and a large measure of determination on the part of the men, the earthworks did rise.

Heavy labor and hot sun made the work tough but overt racism while on their marches to and from their worksite made things even more onerous. Some white men and boys hurled stones or else insulted them along the way. The African American workmen devised the means to end these incidents. They took up a collection from among themselves and purchased a US flag which would, henceforth, lead them forward on their marches.  From that moment forward, any attack upon them was seen as an attack upon the flag so that the city police, prompted by the Provost-Marshall, provided them with additional protection. In an ironic turn of events, three white men who interfered with the workmen “were taken before the military authorities, who ordered them to labor four weeks on the fortifications with the negroes, without pay and [at] half-rations.[5]

Reverend William Whittingham

Not all whites, however, held a low opinion of the men. Many appreciated what they were doing to benefit all Baltimoreans. The mere sight and sound of the marching men greatly impressed one resident of Madison Street, a major east-west artery. The Reverend William Whittingham (1805-1879), Protestant Episcopal Bishop and a staunch Union sympathizer, viewed many columns of men passing by his home on the morning of July 4th, a day typically set aside for rest and celebration. These times, however, were very different and the Confederate Army, though bloodied from the Gettysburg battlefield, would soon be on the march again. Bishop Whittingham recounted:

Daily, now, morning and evening we have long processions of hundreds (sometimes, as [in] last night, thousands) of blacks returning from work on the outer fortifications.  They work by relays, night and day, and are working all day today, holiday or not. They march two by two or four by four, with flags, sometimes singing – with much pride in their employment and evident content[ment] – altho’ they tell funny stories about the way in which they in which some… were run down and forced into service.[6]

To be continued…

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[1] U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: Series 1, Vol. XXVII, Part III (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1889), p. 235.

[2] Sun, June 22, 1863.

[3] A. W. Wayman, My Recollections of African M. E. Ministers, or Forty Years’ Experience in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. (Philadelphia: A. M. E. Book Rooms, 1881), p. 86.

[4] My Recollections, p. 88.

[5] Sun, July 3, 1863.

[6] Rev. William T. Whittingham to “Dear Children”, July 4, 1863 William Whittingham Papers (uncataloged series), F. Garner Ranney Archives, Maryland Episcopal Diocese.