THE PRESENTATION DISCUSSION GROUP AT OF TO Wikipedia The Baltimore riot of 1861 (also called the "Pratt Street Riots" and the "Pratt Street Massacre") was a civil conflict which occurred on Friday, April 19, 1861, on Pratt Street, in Baltimore, Maryland, between antiwar "Copperhead" Democrats (the largest party in Maryland) and with BRING AN ITEM a significant number of other sympathizers to the AND AND Southern/Confederate cause on one side and members of the primarily Massachusetts and some SHARE ITS STORY Pennsylvania state militia regiments en route to the national capital at Washington called up for federal OF THE service on the other. Fghting began at President Street Station, then spread throughout President Street and subsequently to Howard Street, where it ended at the Camden Street Railroad Station. The riot produced the first deaths by hostile action in the American Civil War and is nicknamed the "First Bloodshed of the Civil War". CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 THE Each surgeon was paired with an assistant, We can only fill up the vacancies. After DEADLIEST GROUND usually a paroled Union prisoner, which brought knowing what the number to be admitted OF THE the hospital staffing to a minimum 30 person to the hospital is, I have only to select CIVIL WAR- medical team. According to Dr. Howell, each that number from the sickest cases, make surgeon was assigned to examine around 500 an entry of it by writing private or not prisoners each, per day. They were only (the grade). I have a clerk do the writing. (He) gives each case, as the prisoners call AT allowed to admit roughly 200 prisoners to the it, a label, and I have them be sent to the hospital every day, leaving hospital staff to turn hospital. I forgot to mention that the away many who desperately needed medical entry has the diagnosis and the word attention. The hospital itself was haphazardly NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CIVIL WAR MEDICINE hospital written on a line corresponding divided into wards with each one filled past to the date of admission. I now prescribe Nearly 30,000 prisoners occupied the prison at capacity. Those who were admitted into the for the other cases, my clerk writing the Andersonville, Georgia in July 1864 when Dr. hospital were the sickest of the sick and their prescriptions. I am usually engaged from 8 John M. Howell arrived. Born and raised in next destination was often the prison cemetery. to 12.” nearby Houston County, Georgia, Dr. Howell enlisted as a surgeon in the Confederate Army The medical staff at Andersonville never in April 1862 and served until the end of the caught a break during the month of August, war. By mid-summer 1864 he had been briefly which was the deadliest time at the prison with reassigned to the Union hospital at the nearly 3,000 Union soldiers dying in that infamous Camp Sumter Military Prison. The month alone. newly constructed prison opened on February General William Sherman unexpectedly 24, 1864, and by the end of July it had claimed brought relief to the prison hospital when he the lives of 4,576 Union soldiers. As Dr. captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. Howell approached his newly assigned post, Hospital Ward at Andersonville Courtesy of the Library of Congress the sweltering summer heat inflamed the Evacuation orders were issued on September smells and cries coming from the stockade- The number of prisoners turned away from 7th, relieving the prison of over three-fourths styled prison pen. He quickly took note of the being admitted to the hospital devastated morale of its population in just two months, thus “hundreds of blue coats making their way inside the prison stockade. In some cases, minimizing the number of patients in the through two lines of guards to the prison gates, prisoners who were miserable with their inflicted hospital. Several physicians at Andersonville, and described the prison as illness would speed up the process of dying by including Dr. Howell, were critical of their taking their own life. Others, like the case of superiors. Some accused Dr. White of “the most uninviting place of which a Griggs Holbrook, held on to hope until their last withholding medical supplies and others Yankee knows anything about.” moments. Suffering from chronic diarrhea, complained they were unsure of who was Holbrook focused his attention on his comrade really in charge of the hospital, Dr. Isiah White Dr. Howell served as Acting Assistant Surgeon Jones Sherwood – both of the 76th New York or Captain Henry Wirz. ata Andersonville, and was a member of a small Infantry. Holbrook cared for Sherwood who was 15 person medical staff, with Dr. Isiah White at also rapidly growing sicker each day, and noted the helm responsible for caring for a prison in his diary, population that ranged from 28,000 to 33,000. “After carrying Jones over to the During his tenure at the ill-reputed prison, Dr. hospital several times – [I] finally succeeded in getting him in.” Three weeks later Howell wrote letters to his wife describing his Sherwood was laid to rest in the red Georgia duties, the conditions of the prisoners, and soil. Holbrook, who stayed positive through his difficulties the medical staff encountered. His diary, joined Sherwood in the prison cemetery writings allow a unique opportunity to observe later that month. hospital organization at the deadliest ground of the Civil War. Upon his arrival, Dr. Howell As summer progressed, the prison population described the dilapidated conditions he found: peaked at 33,006 on August 9, 1864. By the Another hospital scene from Andersonville Courtesy of the Library of Congress end of the month, the medical team at “I met up with Dr. Crodille, raised in Andersonville had decreased by three while the Greene, who asked me to walk with him to Overall, Dr. Howell’s letters combined with death rate at the prison steadily rose. Dr. the Yankee hospital. I did so, and such testimonies from the trial of Henry Wirz gives objects in the way of men I never saw Howell had a daily routine in play within a month us just a glimpse into the commotion outside before. Sick and emaciated, naked, ragged after arriving. His wife wrote him a letter the stockade among Confederate staff. and dirty – some on straw with a blanket expressing curiosity about what he did on a day- Working at the most crowded and deadliest under them – some without either – some to-day basis, to which on August 29, 1864 he ground of the Civil War was no easy feat for that will die tomorrow, some today – some replied: “In the first place I go to the chief any member of the staff, and like the prisoners dying with another whose face is turned surgeon’s Hd Qtrs about 8 A.M. There I locked inside the stockade walls they were toward him breathing his last. I saw too ascertain the number of sick to be admitted eager to get home. some awful cases of gangrene – cases to the hospital. This number, divided by where the flesh has been destroyed to the twelve, which is the number of physicians Signing off on his last preserved letter, Dr. bone. But before you can imagine such now on duty at the stockade, which is the Howell wrote, “I want to see you all very pictures, you must first see some sufferings amount each one is to admit. The number to much and hope the time is not too far like these. I can give you no idea of them. be admitted depends upon the capacity of distant when I might be allowed that In comparison an ordinary death is the hospital the day previous. privilege.” pleasant to contemplate.” FROM PAGE 1 On Thursday, April 18, 460 newly-mustered but march with your faces to the front, THE Pennsylvania state militia volunteers (generally and pay no attention to the mob, even if from the Pottsville, Pennsylvania area) arrived they throw stones, bricks, or other BALTIMORE RIOTS missiles; but if you are fired upon and Background from the state capital at Harrisburg on the Northern Central Railway at its Bolton Street any one of you is hit, your officers will order you to fire. Do not fire into any Station (off present-day North Howard Street — In 1861, most Baltimoreans were anti-war promiscuous crowds, but select, any and did not support a violent conflict with across the street from the present site of the man whom you may see aiming at you, their southern neighbors, however, there Fifth Regiment Armory of the Maryland National and be sure you drop him” were many who sympathized passionately Guard, built 1900). They were joined by several . regiments of regular United States Army troops with the Southern cause but many Indeed, as the militia regiment transferred under John C. Pemberton. They split off from sympathized passionately with the Southern between stations, a mob of anti-war supporters Howard Street in downtown Baltimore and cause. and Southern sympathizers attacked the train marched east along the waterfront to Fort cars and blocked the route. In the previous year's presidential election, McHenry and reported for duty there. Abraham Lincoln had received only 1,100 of When it became apparent that they could travel more than 30,000 votes cast in the city. Seven hundred "National Volunteers" of by horse no further, the four companies, about Lincoln's opponents were infuriated (and Southern sympathizers rallied at the Washington 240 soldiers, got out of the cars and marched in supporters disappointed) when the Monument and traveled to the station to confront formation through the city.