Captain Tuttle at the outbreak of the war was forty-seven
years old and by reason of age, exempt from military duty, but
when the call came, although at the spring of the year and all
his cares so pressing yet when the call came there was but one
decision: that to go.
The call came on the fifteenth of April and on the next morning,
by great effort in getting his scattered men together, reported
before seven o'clock at Lowell ready for duty.
The following is the history of the Sixth
at Baltimore, Md.
Says the historian of the Old Sixth Regiment
as Baltimore was reached on the 19th of April, 1861.
It was the North Bridge of division between the
contending sections of the land. The City overflowed with bitterness
and cursing against the Union and the men who came to defend her.
On this morning the streets were filled with
a sowling angry mob….As the cars, eleven in all, containing
the Sixth Mass. Regiment rolled into town, the cars were drawn
by horses across the city from R.R. to another. As they penetrated
farther into the city the crowd became more dense, the faces grew
blacker with hate.
Stones, brick bats and all kind of missiles were
thrown through the windows of the cars.
At first the soldiers bore it patiently and without
resistance until all but two of the cars reached the station.
Those two separated from the others and were
surrounded by a yelling crowd that opposed their passage.
The officers consulted and concluded to disembark
the men and march them in solid column to the station. The brave
fellows went on through a shower of bricks and scattering shots.
At last just before they reached the station,
the Colonel gave orders to fire. The soldiers discharged their
guns among the crowd and several of the mob fell dead or wounded.
The troops reached the station and took cars. The scene that ensued
was terrific. Taunts, clothed in the most offensive language were
hurled at the troops by the panting crowd who breathless from
running, pressed to the windows presenting knives and revolvers
and cursing up into our faces (or rather in the faces of the soldiers).
Amid such a scene, the Mass. 6th passed out of
the city, hurting bad, four of their men killed, and thirty-six
wounded.
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