First Casualties Of The Civil War April 19, 2012 by Bob
Livingston The Civil War’s first casualties from hostile fire
came not on soil in a Confederate State, but in Baltimore, Md.,
on April 19, 1861. (A gun explosion during Ft. Sumter surrender
ceremonies had killed two Union soldiers.) Maryland was a border
State that was divided over its loyalty to the Union or the
Southern cause. President Abraham Lincoln had received just 2
percent of Baltimore’s vote for President, with most of the
votes going to Southern Democratic candidate John Breckinridge.
Most of the State’s western counties also went for Breckinridge.
On Feb. 18, 1861, the Maryland legislature called a secession
convention. The session ended — but did not adjourn — the next
day without a decision. On April 19, Union troops making up the
6th Massachusetts Regiment marched through Baltimore en route to
Washington. They were surrounded by local citizens who began
jeering them. Events escalated until finally the troops opened
fire and fighting began