Baltimore Riot Trail: Combat on Pratt Street

History: Among the rioters attacking Captain Albert S. Follansbee's force that headed towards Camden Station, was state militiaman George Wilson Booth, who later wrote: "A soldier, struck by a stone, fell almost at my feet, and as he fell, dropped his musket, which was immediately seized by Edward W. Beatty a port customs officer, who raised it to his shoulder and fired the first shot into the column. As he fired he turned to the crowd and asked if anyone had a cartridge. I gave him one or two and showed him how to reload..." The volley of fire killed 20-year-old William Clark, the first Confederate casualty of the war.
Later, James Ryder Randall, a Marylander teaching in Louisiana, expressed his sympathies in the secessionist poem "My Maryland," the official state song since 1939.

More to Explore: The National Aquarium and Maryland Science Center are favorite places for families and adults to uncover nature's mysteries. Take a walk along the Inner Harbor on the Promenade that connects these two attractions, and enjoy restaurants, shops and more along the way. Check out the massive Barnes & Noble Bookstore inside Baltimore's former Power Plant, a remnant of the Inner Harbor's industrial days. On the opposite side of the harbor is the American Visionary Art Museum, where you can conjure your creative vision while seeing what others have imagined and manifested.

Photo Credits:

1. “The Great strike—the Sixth Maryland Regiment fighting its way through Baltimore. Harpers Weekly coverage of the Baltimore Riot." Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
2. "Albert S. Follansbee." Courtesy of Military History Institute, Carlisle PA.