Showing posts with label Ferry Boats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ferry Boats. Show all posts

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Brigadier-General Benjamin F. Butler to Governor John A. Andrew, April 20, 1861

PHILADELPHIA, April 20th, 1861

Memorial of plan and reasons for proceeding to Annapolis

His Excellency, GOVERNOR ANDREW

I have detailed Capt. Devereaux and Capt. Briggs with their commands supplied with one day’s rations and 20 rounds of ammunition to take possession of the Ferry Boat at Havre de Grace for the benefit of this expedition. This I have done with the concurrence of the President and Master of Transportation of the Road. Thus the 8th Regiment will remain at quarters that they may get a little solid rest after their fatiguing march. I have sent to know if the 7th Regiment (New York) will go with me. I propose to march myself at the hour of 7 in the morning to take the regular 8 o’clock train to Havre de Grace.

The citizens of Baltimore at a large meeting this evening denounced the passage of Northern Troops; they have exacted a promise from the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad not to send troops over that road through Baltimore, so that any attempt to throw troops into Baltimore entails a march of forty miles and an attack upon a city of two hundred thousand (200,000) inhabitants at the beginning of the march. The only way, therefore, of getting communication with Washington for troops from the North is over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, or marching from the west. Commodore Du Pont at the Navy Yard has given me instructions of facts in accordance with these general statements upon which I rely. I have therefore thought that I could rely upon these statements as to time it will take to proceed by marching from Havre de Grace to Washington. My proposition is to join with Col. Lefferts of the 7th Regiment of New York. I propose to take the Fifteen Hundred Troops to Annapolis, arriving there to-morrow about 4 o’clock, and occupy the Capital of Maryland, and thus call the state to account for the death of Massachusetts men, my friends and neighbors.

If Col. Lefferts thinks it more in accordance with the tenor of his instructions to wait rather than go through Baltimore, I still propose to march with this regiment, I propose to occupy the town, and hold it open as a means of communication. I have then but to advance by a forced march of thirty miles to reach the Capital in accordance with the orders I at first received, but which subsequent events, in my judgment, vary in their execution. Believing from the Telegraphs that there will be others in great numbers to aid me, being accompanied by officers of more experience who will be able to direct the affair, I think it will be accomplished.

We have no light Batteries. I have therefore telegraphed you to have the Boston Light Battery put on shipboard at once to-night to help me in marching on Washington. In pursuance of this plan I have detailed Capts. Devereaux and Briggs with their commands to hold the boat at Havre de Grace.

11 A.M. Col. Lefferts has refused to march with me. I go alone at 3 o'clock P.M. to execute this imperfectly written plan. If I succeed, success will justify me; if I fail, purity of intention will excuse want of judgment or rashness.

B. F. BUTLER

SOURCE: Jessie Ames Marshall, Editor, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, Volume 1: April 1860 – June 1862, p. 18-20