Profs & Pints Baltimore: When the Civil War Came to “Mobtown”

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “When the Civil War Came to ‘Mobtown’,” on the infamous Baltimore incident known as the Pratt Street Riot, with Anne Sarah Rubin, a professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County who teaches courses on Southern and Civil War history.

Although the American Civil War began in Charleston, South Carolina, it’s Baltimore that has the dubious distinction of being the site where the war’s first blood was shed. The deaths came not as the result of military combat, but rather because ordinary Baltimoreans attacked troops from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts passing through the city.

Gain an in-depth understanding of this clash and its impact on the course of the Civil War in Maryland and elsewhere with the help of Anne Sarah Rubin, author of books such as Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and American Memory and A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868.

To help set up the story, Professor Rubin will discuss how as of the 1850s Baltimore had earned the nickname of “Mobtown” due to the presence of white, working-class gangs that fought over race, jobs, and politics. Many of the city’s residents found themselves sympathizing with the South—or at least opposed to war with it—when the Civil War began in mid-April 1861 with the fall of Fort Sumter in the face of bombardment by South Carolina’s militia.

President Abraham Lincoln called up troops in response to Sumter’s surrender, and on April 19, 1861, those passing through Baltimore on their way to Washington D.C. were attacked by a foe they had not expected: an angry Baltimore mob. Some troops opened fire in self-defense and by the end of the day at least 16 people were dead and more than 100 were wounded.

The riot’s impact on Baltimore lasted much more than one violent day. The city was placed under martial law, with the cannons on Federal Hill being turned around toward the city rather than out towards the harbor. Southern sympathizers were arrested and held in Fort McHenry, despite a federal court finding that such detentions were unconstitutional. The harsh treatment of them was memorialized in the poem “Maryland, My Maryland,” the state song until 2021.

Dr. Rubin will trace the course of the riots and examine their impact on civil liberties during the war and the future of the city thereafter. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)