Lexington's Grandsons: The Northern Response to the Pratt Street Riot

This thesis adds a new take to the extensive historiography on the Pratt Street Riot, an early Civil War event in which one of the first Northern regiments sent to defend the capital was attacked by a mob in Baltimore as it marched through the city on April 19, 1861. The focus is not on the Pratt Street Riot as it related to the people and events in Baltimore, but instead on how the riot affected Northern public opinion as it related both to Baltimore and the Massachusetts regiment that was attacked. The Sixth Massachusetts is at the center of this narrative, and its status in the public before, during, and after the riot is used to show how seminal events in history like the outbreak of Civil War can affect public memory of a random volunteer state militia regiment or any other institution. The controversy over how the Pratt Street Riot should be remembered in the days, years, and decades after April 19, 1861 is also used to show how public memory is contested and can remain static or change dramatically over time. Newspaper articles, letters, and unit histories were used along with secondary sources to build the argument of this thesis