Exhibition Label
In response to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 state militia in the wake of the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia arrived by train in Baltimore on April 19, 1861, en route to Washington for its defense. Their unannounced presence in the city drew the ire of southern sympathizers, and a riot ensued, leaving four soldiers and twelve civilians dead. As the regiment marched along Pratt Street to board railroad cars for Washington, one soldier recalled being “immediately assailed with stones, clubs and missiles” from the angry mob. Volck depicted the melee in this lithograph, in which the central figure has drawn a sword from a cane and is ready to strike.
Artist: Adalbert John Volck, 14 Apr 1828 – 26 Mar 1912
Date: 1864
Type: Print
Medium: Transfer lithograph on paper
Dimensions
Image: 11.1 × 18.6 cm (4 3/8 × 7 5/16″)
Sheet: 24 × 30.7 cm (9 7/16 × 12 1/16″)
Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Data Source: National Portrait Gallery
Retrieved from: https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.79.95.K April 18, 2021