‘WE ARE FIGHTING HERE’
April 19, 1861, dawned like any other day in Baltimore. Even at such an early hour, the streets of the nation’s third largest port city bustled. Draymen cracked their whips at weary horses; wagon wheels rattled over cobblestone streets; buyers and wholesalers bargained at the tops of their lungs. At a glance, all suggested business as usual.
A palpable excitement gripped Baltimore, however. Only a week earlier, Rebel batteries had fired on the besieged Federal garrison at Fort Sumter, compelling President Abraham Lincoln on April 15 to call for 75,000 volunteers to thwart the rebellion
