American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Featuring Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana & Historical Documents

Visible 13 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. letterpress broadside (small separations along early folds, panel of toning); framed to 15 1/2 x 18 1/2 in. (not examined out of frame).

A Confederate broadside intended to recruit Marylanders to the secessionist cause in the wake of the Baltimore riots of 1861. Considered the first bloodshed of the war, violence broke out when several state militia units from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts passed through the city en route to Washington D.C. Maryland was a slave state but had not joined the southern states in secession. Baltimore was a divided city with a large population of free African Americans and white abolitionists, but also home to a large contingent of Democratic Copperheads and southern sympathizers.

In the 1860 presidential election, Maryland gave all electoral votes to Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge who earned 42,482 votes (45.9%). John Bell, of the Constitutional Union Party which took a neutral stance on slavery, was a popular candidate in border states and nearly won Maryland, garnering 41,760 votes (45.1%). Lincoln, in contrast, received only 2,294 votes from Marylanders.

By April, several states had seceded from the Union, notably, for Maryland, their neighbors Virginia. Discontent reached a fever pitch when President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to be raised on 15 April 1861. Unrest began in Baltimore on the 18th when several Pennsylvania militia volunteers arrived and began to march to Fort McHenry. A group of southern sympathizers gathered and hurled bricks at the troops, though they were generally well protected by the police force. The next day, tensions were elevated further and the southern sympathizers again formed mobs to stop the progression of Massachusetts militia troops. When they found their way blocked while attacks began upon them, the troops fired into the mob turning it into a full-blown riot resulting in the deaths of 4 soldiers and 12 civilians, with more wounded.

The broadside here was published in the immediate aftermath of the riots, the author writing: "The bloody scenes of Friday, and the commotion of the last two days and nights, show how necessary it is to be prepared. Our people are now a unit. All manner of differences are merged in the deep affection felt for good Old Maryland. "The covenant has been sealed in blood,"...The glorious flag of the Union is a memory of the past. The only flags which now float over our city are the flags of the South and the banner borne by the Maryland Line." The author urges Marylanders to take up arms: "Under all these circumstances, and in view of the depressing necessity, it is suggested that all Citizens who are willing to be of Service and act  concurrently with the Authorities of the City, meet and enrol [sic] their names and report for duty."

RARE: Only one other copy listed at auction; OCLC lists no institutional copies. Not listed in Parrish & Willingham.