The First Casualties Of The Civil War

Not at Bull Run or Sumter but in a civilian attack on Union forces

Baltimore riots, 1861 (Public domain)

The creation of the Confederate States of America did not happen overnight. The earliest months of the Civil War are usually passed over in a blur but they contain some of the most interesting, and frantic, moments in our nation’s history. South Carolina was the first state to leave the Union and they did so all the way back in December of 1860. The last state to leave the Union was North Carolina which didn’t leave until the latter half of May 1861.

The first casualties of the Civil War happened before the last states even left the Union and they took place against Union troops in a Union city.

The state of the United States during the first half of 1861 was fraught. No one had officially started firing but it was clear that the storm was about to break. Lincoln was desperately trying to keep the so-called Upper South states in the Union while the Lower South was howling for battle. It was against this backdrop that two militia regiments were attacked in Baltimore in April 1861.

Maryland For The North, Baltimore For The South

In response to the crisis at Fort Sumter, Lincoln had put out a call to loyal states for them to raise and send…