When the Civil War Started – A Vital Civil War Crossroads

Intense excitement prevailed throughout Cecil County 138 years ago this week as Union soldiers tried to reinforce Washington City. Just a week after Southern forces fired on Fort Sumter, and launched the Civil War, the Union’s capital was cut off when rebel sympathizers attacked troops moving through Baltimore.  The railroad north of the city – a vital link to the rest of the Union—was shut down.  As troops poured in from the North, Cecil County founds itself to be a vital military crossroads in helping to save the Union.

At a time when news generally traveled slowly, countians found they could hardly keep pace with the shocking news, it being hard to sort out what was exaggerated and unfounded.   On April 19^th, 1861 at an early hour coaches of two special trains carrying troops rolled through Elkton, North East, and Perryville on the Philadelphia, Wilmington,  and Baltimore (P.W. & B.) Railroad.  These troops, members of the 6^th Massachusetts, were en route to Washington to protect the federal capital from the threatened attack of Jeff Davis, the Cecil Whig informed readers.

This unit was among the first to answer President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to put down the rebellion.  The 6th Massachusetts and other units traveling not too far behind were critical for the protection of the District of Columbia from southern forces just across the Potomac River from the capital.

As Cecil stirred to life on Saturday, April 20th stories whirled about that and the large mob with a Confederate State flag had attacked the troops as they passed through Baltimore.   “Many of this mob was armed and several of the troops were shot” was the story heard in the northeasternmost County of Maryland.

To prevent more northern invaders from coming into the city some reports had it that the P.W. & B. Railroad Bridges into Baltimore had been burned.  Telegraph communications with Baltimore and Washington had been lost — that much was known.

In the next few days as the nation’s daily newspapers published accounts of the fight in Baltimore between the troops and the mob county residents learned that much of what they had heard was true.   “A terrible scene is now going on in Pratt Street” is what an early dispatch in the New York Times said. “Civil War has commenced” exclaimed a bulletin in the Chicago Tribune, reporting the bloody street clash.

Troops Secure the Railroad & Canal

So as the nation stood on the edge of a bloody Civil War, Cecil County found itself astride a critical military line between Philadelphia and Baltimore, one that was important to the survival of the United States government.  On this vital rail link federal troops could be conveyed to Perryville — and no further.  Below the Susquehanna, a squad of city policemen and the Baltimore City Guard burned railroad bridges.  A state of near-anarchy occupied Maryland’s largest city.  However, railroad officials still controlled the line between Philadelphia and Perryville.

Two additional regiments of troops stalled on the tracks North of Baltimore as the mob clashed with soldiers: the 8^th Massachusetts reached the Maryland-Delaware boundary while the seventh New York was stuck in Philadelphia

General Benjamin Butler, the officer in charge of the Massachusetts unit, ordered his command to proceed to the mouth the Susquehanna River.  At Perryville militiaman commandeered the railroad steam ferryboat, Maryland, ordering it to sail for Annapolis.  On the Philadelphia waterfront, the government seized all the propeller steamers that could pass through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.  These commandeered vessels sailed down the Delaware River and passed through the canal, Capt. Phillip Reybold recalled in 1906.     After exiting the C & D, the steamers hurried for Annapolis with the troops onboard or to Perryville to pick up waiting companies.  Once units arrived in Annapolis they secured a railroad line to Washington eventually becoming the first outside aid to arrive in the district since the Baltimore disturbance.

Meanwhile, federal troops took immediate steps to guard its “main military road.”  Strict martial law prevailed all along the route, and a garrison at Perryville was assigned to Perryville to defend the key port.  At every little bridge along the line, a New York Times reporter wrote, the glitter of sentinels bayonets could be seen in the moonlight.  Until Pennsylvania aid arrived county volunteers came out to guard the road.  After receiving a dispatch from Wilmington, Elkton citizens secured the railroad bridge near town.  These local sentinels held their post until relieved in the night by volunteers (soldiers) from Philadelphia.

A correspondent from North East told the Whig that a volunteer military company had organized there and measures were being taken to have the stars and stripes hoisted at most of the prominent points of the village.

Major Thomas West Sherman’s “battery of flying artillery from the regular army” set up camp in Elkton on April 24th, joining Pennsylvania volunteers already at the Depot.  Other companies quartered at North East, Charlestown, and Newark kept a vigilant patrol.

Another means of reinforcing the District of Columbia was right here, too.  Soon more troops and stores rushed southward from Philadelphia through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. To protect the critical waterway a detachment of troops was sent down from Elkton.

By now the streets of Elkton presented a lively appearance. “At all hours of the day, “Uncle Sam’s men in bright uniforms . . . pass to and fro.”    Each night at 8:50 p.m., the bugle from Sherman’s camp “called the straggling soldiers in.”

Still, the need for troops in the nation’s capital was great, the fear being that the federal city would be “ringed  by rebellion.”  So more union troops begin concentrating on the East Bank of the Susquehanna awaiting orders.

Perryville during the Civil War

All once Perryville, a place with “two hotels, two little stores, a shoemaker’s shop and the post office,” said the New York Times, had become a place of a immense importance on the great military road of the North.  Colonel C. P. dare commanded the military Depot with troops arriving daily.   Col. Dare had “1600 Pennsylvania volunteers at Perryville in five good sized propellors of the Ericsson Line with steam up,” the New York Times said in its issue of April 27^th.   He quartered his men in and around the various railroad buildings of town, and his headquarters was at the ticket office.

Batteries of guns at Perryville commanded the River and Bay and protected Havre de Grace, the New York Times noted on May 4th. The Times war correspondent, with the aid of a fisherman’s skiff, crossed the Susquehanna to view Havre de Grace.  It was a better military position than Perryville, he thought, but the occupation of Perryville was a military necessity. The west bank of the River would be occupied soon enough.

On the upper end of the Susquehanna, concern existed over the Conowingo Bridge, for it could serve as an important link between Maryland and the North. A Harford County militia unit received orders to blow up the bridge “if it were found necessary to prevent Pennsylvania troops from crossing,” an old citizen of Harford County recalled at a meeting of that County Historical Society in 1886.  Maryland secessionists, a rumor had it we’re going to go to rob the town bank in nearby Oxford, Pennsylvania. Borough officials Telegraphed Philadelphia for assistance, the public ledger reported.

Finally, with President Lincoln’s troops tightening the grip on Maryland and thousands of blue-coated soldiers pouring into Washington, it was time to reopen the rail line. On May 13th, General Butler moved his troops into Baltimore.  He placed cannon on Federal Hill, a place that controlled the harbor and much of the city.

Next, the government secured the P. W. and B. through Harford County.  Regiments from Perryville  occupied Havre de Grace.  Soldiers then moved to towns on down the line,  guarding important points and structures.  Less than a month had passed since Cecil County had been stunned by the rapidity with which it had found itself on the road to war.  Years of bloody conflict lay ahead, but the County had done its part as a vital and loyal crossroads to save the union capital.

For Additional Information on the Civil War Between Philadelphia and Baltimore

See “This Trying Hour,” The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad in the Civil War by Scott L. Mingus, Sr., and Robert L. Williams.

Civil War Days on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, Window on Cecil County’s Past