The Baltimore Riot – April 19, 1861

Remembrances of the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War are being marked in various ways in the communities – North and South – that sent tens of thousands of their citizens to participate in this bloodiest of wars. Massachusetts and the Merrimack Valley played an important part in the conflict right from the beginning as the first casualities of the war were men of Lowell and Lawrence. In today’s Sunday edition, the Eagle Tribune announces a nine-day series focused on the men of the Merrimack Valley entitled “The Civil War Remembered.”

More than 3 million men fought in the Civil War and thousands of them were from the Merrimack Valley. They served in some of the most pivotal and notorious battles of the war, from Spotsylvania to Cold Harbor. Lawrence even can claim one of the Civil War’s first casualties, Sumner Needham, who was killed during the Baltimore Riot just a week after the war began.

Over the next week, The Eagle-Tribune will be telling the stories of some of these men — often in their own words via information culled from letters, newspaper articles, and first-person accounts. Local historians and experts help to tell the story.

Read more about this series here at the eagletribune.com.