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To: mac_truck
The troops you refer to were the 6th Massachusetts Regiment, one of the first to respond to President Lincoln's call to arms. They were on their way to Washington to defend the capitol. There was no direct rail line through Baltimore, so the troops had to de-rail and move through town to board another train to take them to DC.

I believe both the governor of Maryland and the Mayor of Baltimore were aware of this when they ordered the railroad bridges, and telegraph links to Washington, destroyed.

What was it exactly that you believe the governor and mayor were aware of? That the troops involved in the earlier riots were the 6th Massachusetts? That the troops had to de-rail and reboard another train because the train lines didn't connect. That the troops had been going to Washington to defend the capitol?

These were all things known to everyone in the city. How is it that the governor and mayor could not have been aware of them?

739 posted on 02/04/2003 4:18:59 PM PST by rustbucket
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To: rustbucket
From your 709: from the the Mayor and Governor to Lincoln:

Sir:-A collision between the citizens and the Northern troops has taken place in Baltimore, and the excitement is fearful. Send no troops here. We will endeavor to prevent all bloodshed. A public meeting of citizens has been called, and the troops of the State have been called out to preserve the peace. They will be enough.

This communication makes it sound as if the federal troops coming into Baltimore were not in transit to Washington to defend the capitol, but being sent to keep the peace in Maryland. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Rather than helping preserve the Union, the treasonous government of Maryland was actively working against it.

Merryman and the Governor should have been shot for treason. That would have made habeus corpus an easy proposition.

745 posted on 02/04/2003 7:47:44 PM PST by mac_truck
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