"Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the Nation surive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, AND THE WAR CAME." Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
In 1861, Baltimore was a southern city in a northern nation. Confederate sentiment was strong here. Abraham Lincoln received only 1,100 out of 30,000 votes for President in 1860. A plot to assassinate the President, an uprising against Federal troops, and threats to join the Confederacy led President Lincoln to declare martial law within the city, imprison its municipal and state leaders without habeas corpus, and garrison thousands of Union troops throughout the city. Baltimore spent an uneasy war, cannons were aimed (from the overlooking Federal Hill) upon the city with the orders destroy the fourth largest city in America if the citizens ever again rebelled against their nation or its soldiers.
The first event was a foiled assassination plot on Lincoln as he traveled from Springfield to Washington D.C. prior to his inauguration. The President’s security team got wind of the plot and sent Lincoln in secret through Baltimore in the middle of the night. Needing to transfer trains, and walk to Camden Street Station, the President traversed the city’s streets in a disguise (he traded his top hat for a Scottish tam and draped a coat over his shoulders to make him look shorter). Seen as a cowardly act and bringing his opponents much joy as national newspaper cartoons lampooned the President as a fearful grandma dressed in women’s clothing to escape the murderous mobs in Baltimore.
The second event was a mob incited riot that shed the first blood of the Civil War. On April 19, 1861 (a week after the fall of Fort Sumter) as soldiers from Massachusetts were transiting south to Washington and transferring trains in Baltimore they were attacked by an angry secessionist’s mob. The soldiers had to march from the President Street Station to the Camden Station through the rioting crowd and they were pelted with bottles, bricks, and cobblestones. A shot rang out and wounded a Union Soldier. The troops opened fire on the crowd and thus began two hours of fighting. Accounts differ but after order was restored at least 10 soldiers and as many civilians were killed in the Civil War’s first battle that came to be known as “The Lexington of 1861” or the “Massacre at Baltimore”. This riot gave the city its nickname of “Mob-town”.
Thirdly the geographical location of Baltimore (40 miles north of D.C. but south of the Mason Dixon Line) and its importance as a railway and communications hub was vital to the success of the Union. It could not fall into Confederate hands, at any cost. If Baltimore and more importantly Maryland were to become part of the CSA, it would have cut Washington D.C. from the rest of the nation and the capital would have been moved to a more northern location. To prevent Maryland’s secession from the Union, local and state officials who had southern sympathies as well as those who were known to be outright secessionists were ordered to be imprisoned in Fort McHenry; thus keeping the Old Line State in the Union. In the months following the riot, there would be over 50,000 troops stationed in Baltimore. Each of its city parks became encampments forcing the citizens to comply with Federal orders.
The hatred of Lincoln and the Union never died in Baltimore through the course of the war, and one of its residents (a young Shakespearian actor named John Wilkes Booth) would eventually fire the shot that would bring the president’s flag draped coffin back to the Camden Street Station as his funeral train passed through the city on its way home to Springfield.
1 a. What is the number at Camden Station? _____
1 b. What is the number at Light and Pratt Streets? _____
2 a. What is the number at the World Trade Center? _____
2 b. What is the number where Pratt Street crosses the Jones Falls? _____ (since this one may be missing, for now I'm giving the number... 8)
3 a. What is the number at Fawn and President Streets? _____
3 b. What is the number at the President Street Station? _____
If you don't spot the cache in the museum's gift shop area ask the clerk for the cache. When you open the lock, I have initially stocked the cache with civil war related swag and books. And there is an unactivated geocoin as the first to find prize. You can trade anything, item doesn't have to be civil war related; but please be fair in your trading.
P.S. If you collect National Park Passport Stamps, bring your Passport Book - There are four NPS Stamps in the museum.
Update: 8/16/2015: The cache container is currently located on the counter of the museum (where the staff sits). It sometimes gets buried in the paperwork. It is a wooden box with a lock on it.
Update: 9/24/2022: Since one of the signs may be missing, until I can get on site and check myself, I've given the number above. When he moved out of the area, I adopted several of USN_Radio_Chief's caches. Unfortunately he was killed in a car crash a few months ago. I will try to keep this cache going as long as I can.
You might want to call the museum to see if the hours or days have changed as they have been known to change things before. (443) 220-0290