Description:

UNION OFFICER ON TRAITOROUS BALTIMORE POLICE MARSHALL
Fine content war-date letter of Lt. David W. Low, 8th Ma. Vols., 4pp. 4to., Baltimore, June 28, 1861 to his wife. Low comments on the evidence gathered against Baltimore Marshall of Police GEORGE P. KANE (1817-1878). The letter opens with Low in Baltimore, his men having slept on their arms overnight and marched into a grove. He further notes: '...Yesterday Marshall Kane was arrested and the City placed under Martial Law. ...the City was very quiet...a large seizure of ammunition, muskets, cartridges of all kinds, & etc. found between the walls & underneath the ex-Marshall's office. The Kegs of ammunition & the boxes were directed to Kane from Harpers Ferry, also a Cannonball fired from Fort Sumter directed to him 'with the compliments' of a distinguished secessionist. Enough has been found to prove without doubt his being leagued with the traitors...'. Fine. In February 1861, Detective Allan Pinkerton uncovered what he believed to be a plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln as he journeyed through Baltimore on his way to Washington. Pinkerton presented his findings to Lincoln, which included his belief that Kane, recently appointed Marshal of Police in Baltimore was a 'rabid rebel'. Baltimore at this time was also a hotbed of pro-Southern sympathies. Anti-Union riots in Baltimore brought an Army clampdown on the city, but Kane remained in office as head of the Baltimore City police until June 27, 1861, when he was arrested in the dead of night. He was held in prison for 14 months before moving to Canada. He did all he could to aid the Confederacy, yet remarkably was elected mayor of Baltimore in 1877.

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April 1, 2025 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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