Originally published in 2003 as a novella in "Before the creeks ran red" (HarperCollins).

Cover design by Diane Mossholder.

Ages 10+

On April 19, 1861, a train carrying a Union Regiment traveling to Washington, D.C. had to make a connection in Baltimore. At the time, train coaches traveling from Wilmington to Washington had to be drawn by horse between two stations, taking a route along Pratt Street. As the coaches carrying Union soldiers proceeded down the street, they were blocked. The Union men began marching down Pratt Street. They were attacked by secessionists and other Southern sympathizers who hurled bricks and paving stones at them. Finally several soldiers fired into the crowd and violence escalated. In the riot, variously called the Baltimore riot of 1861, the Pratt Street Riot, or the Pratt Street Massacre, 4 soldiers and 12 civilians were killed, the first blood shed in the War Between the States.