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April 25, 1861 – reinforcements reach Washington
Many in Lowell know the story of the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment and its involvement in the Baltimore Riot of April 19, 1861 that cost four soldiers (including Lowell’s Luther Ladd and Addison Whitney) their lives. Few realize that for a week following that incident, Washington DC was at great risk of capture by Confederate forces, a crisis that was resolved thanks mainly to the ingenuity and initiative of Lowell’s Ben Butler.
The reason the Sixth Regiment had fought so hard to get through Baltimore was that there were no organized and loyal military units in Washington when the war broke out. The Sixth did arrive late in the day on April 19th, but the riot earlier in the day had caused the Baltimore civic leaders to burn all of the railway bridges leading into the city from the north to prevent the passage of any more northern troops through the city. With Baltimore in the hands of pro-southern forces, Washington was cut off from the north. The western route into Washington had also been cut when Harpers Ferry was captured by Confederate forces on April 18, The southern route into the capital, up the Chesapeake Bay and then the Potomac River was also cut when the Confederates captured the Norfolk Naval Shipyard (then known as Gosport Navy Yard) and later placed cannon on the banks of the Potomac downriver from Washington. With Washington defended only by the Sixth Regiment, thousands of Confederates began massing in nearby Arlington and Alexandria.
Two more Northern regiments, the Eighth Massachusetts and the Seventh New York, were stuck in Philadelphia due to the rail line to Baltimore being cut. Accompanying the Eighth Regiment, however, was Ben Butler and he was not one to allow something like a couple of downed bridges keep him from saving Washington from the traitors. Butler devised a plan to bypass Baltimore. He led the Eighth Regiment by train to Perryville where it would normally have crossed the Susquehanna River by ferry and then continued by rail to Baltimore. This time, Butler confiscated the ferry and ordered it to sail down the Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis where another rail line ran to Washington. Butler arrived just as Confederate sympathizers were about to seize Annapolis. Using the Eighth Regiment, he was able to open this rail line. The military command in Washington ordered Butler to keep the Eighth Massachusetts in Annapolis to keep the rail line open at all costs. He did that and the Seventh New York, which followed close behind, passed through the Eighth and continued on to Washington where the entire city treated the New Yorkers as liberators. Within ten days, more than 10,000 Northern troops were in Washington and that crisis had passed, thanks to Ben Butler.
“Traitors” rings a harsh–Grant paroled Southern soldiers for good reason, and did not hold them personally responsible for the treasonous ideology of their leaders, and neither should we. For one example, Jacobins exploited such sentiments to propagandize retaliatory prison camp conditions that suit my definition of treason far better than responding to State calls for arms.
Prior to this war, and even in 1865 when writing the
“Traitors” rings a harsh–Grant paroled Southern soldiers for good reason, and did not hold them personally responsible for the treasonous ideology of their leaders, and neither should we. For one example, Jacobins exploited such sentiments to propagandize retaliatory prison camp conditions that suit my definition of treason far better than responding to State calls for arms.
Prior to this war, and even in 1865 when writing the 13th amendment, the accepted convention was to write, say and perceive that “the United States are”. Primary loyalty was to ones home state, not the US of A. Only after the war did we as a country learn to change from plural to singular and write, say and perceive that “the United States is”.
The Southern soldier’s patriotism at face value cannot be dismissed as treason without disregarding the full history of our country, including the institutionalized slavery that was embedded in our founding documents and stood at the time as the standing law of the land. The North of 1861 was just as complicit in this as the South, and our historical perspective remains flawed unless we can comprehend the entire complicated situation.
I should have put the word “traitors” in quotes. At the time, that’s how Butler referred to them and in that line I was channeling him. Whether they could legitimately be called traitors might be a good topic for a future post
Well y’all know that I am Southern. Proud to announce that both great-grandfather’s served in the War of Northern Aggression – so you can guess which side they were on!!!t, One was from Arkansa and one from Alabama. Those 2 were very adept at geting captured and escaping twice each. hahaha On the other hand my great -grandmother was Emily Clementine Averell , half-sister to General William Woods Averell of New York. Guess I am kind of a mutt.
It certainly is a complex history. Before the war and at its beginning, Lincoln hated slavery but felt the Constitution permitted it in states that already had it. Because he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, he did not feel he had the authority to emancipate the slaves. But as the war went on and its cost (in lives, especially) grew, Lincoln changed his mind and saw the war as “a new birth of freedom” for the country. His decision was revolutionary.
As for the label of traitor, when William Mumford pulled down the American flag that had been raised over the Custom House in New Orleans by the recently arrived Northern troops, their commander, Ben Butler, hanged Mumford because that’s what you do with traitors. However we might rationalize the motivations of those who fought for the south, to many of those who fought for the north, those who engaged in armed rebellion against the country were traitors, rebels and insurrectionists.