George William Brown - Pratt Street Riot

Pratt Street Riot

Brown played an important role in controlling the Pratt Street Riot on April 19, 1861, at the onset of the American Civil War. After the Pratt Street Riot, some small skirmishes occurred throughout Baltimore between citizens and police for the next month. However, in short time, a sense of normalcy returned to the city. Still, Mayor Brown and Maryland Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks implored President Abraham Lincoln to reroute Union troops around Baltimore city and through Annapolis to avoid further confrontations.

On the evening of April 20, 1861, one day after the Pratt Street Riot, Governor Hicks authorized Mayor Brown to dispatch the Maryland state militia for the purpose of disabling the railroad bridges into the city. This was an act Hicks would later deny. One month later, a Maryland militia captain, John Merryman, was arrested without a writ of habeas corpus. This arrest sparked the case of Ex parte Merryman.

President Lincoln agreed to reroute Union troops through Annapolis. The Maryland capital city was a Southern Democratic town and full of secessionists, but it was still safer than Baltimore. However, once enough Union troops had made it to Washington, D.C., and the national capital city was well defended, Lincoln resolved to end the problems in Baltimore.