Seventeen year old Luther Ladd was killed in the Pratt Street Riot in Baltimore on April 19, 1861 and is said to be the first soldier killed in the American Civil War.
This engraving, signed Merrill sc, is the frontispiece of an 1862 pamphlet biography of him “by a citizen of Alexandria” (New Hampshire). The author explains the source of the image:
The likeness on the frontispiece was copied from an ambrotype taken on the morning of the day he took his departure for Washington, and left with his sister in Lowell. His uniform was then on, and the firm decision of his mind can be seen in his countenance.
The ambrotype referred to is at auction at Swann Galleries. Worth an estimated $8,000 - $ 12,000, it is described as a “Contemporary photograph of Luther Ladd, the first Union soldier killed in action.”
The Library of Congress has an albumen print of Luther C. Ladd, which appears to have been made at the same time as the ambrotype. The Library attributes it to Joseph M. Fowler in 1861 and says that the “Photograph shows identified soldier of Co. D, 6th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, who was killed on April 19, 1861, at Baltimore, Maryland, and is referred to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the Civil War.”
Luther C. Ladd, a member of Lowell City Guards, Company D, who was killed in the riot in Baltimore, while marching to the defense of the Capitol, April 19, 1861
As in the ambrotype this is a mirror image. Notice that “U.S.” on Ladd's belt buckle is backwards. The NPS trading card for Luther Crawford Ladd de-mirrors the image:
In April 1861, the Civil War was rapidly heating up. Fort Sumter was bombarded by South Carolina troops on April 12. On the 15th, president Lincoln issued Proclamation 80 calling for 75,000 troops to suppress the incipient southern rebellion. The 6th Massachusetts, the regiment to which Luther Ladd belonged, left for Washington on the 17th. [Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the U.S. army on the 18th, after refusing an offer transmitted by Frances Preston Blair to lead the U. S. Army.]
This engraving from Frank Leslie's The Soldier in Our Civil War shows the 6th Massachusetts passing through New Jersey on their way to Washington:
The Sixth Massachusetts Regiment Leaving Jersey City For Washington,
April 18th 1861.
These would soon give way to the more familiar, and more practical, kepi.
As the 6th moved through Baltimore on April 19, they were attacked by a pro-secession mob. Luther Ladd was struck on the head and shot in the ensuing riot. The engraving below appeared in Harper's Weekly on May 4, 1861.
First Blood - The Sixth Massachusetts Regiment Fighting Their Way Through Baltimore,
April 19, 1861.
Harper's published a picture of Luther Ladd on June 1, 1861.
Luther C. Ladd, A Massachusetts Volunteer,
Killed at Baltimore, April 19, 1861.
The accompanying article is entitled “The First Victim of the War.”
While Luther Ladd might be the first soldier killed in the Civil War, Nick Biddle has a claim to have shed the first blood of the Civil War having been wounded in a riot on April 18th that preceded the Pratt Street Riot. See the entry on Nicholas Biddle in the Portrait Gallery.
This picture identifying Ladd as “The first man who fell in the Union Army” comes from Richard Watson Musgrove's 1904 History of the town of Bristol.
Luther C. Ladd
(The first man who fell in the Union Army)
Ladd is folklorically reputed to have said with his dying breath: “All Hail the Stars and Stripes.” John W. Hanson chaplain of the 6th Massachusetts in his Historical Sketch of the Old 6th Mass Regt, 1866 tells it this way:
While gallantly marching along the streets of Baltimore, he fell bleeding on the pavement; and the last words his comrades heard him utter, were, “ALL HAIL TO THE STARS AND STRIPES.”
Here's Ladd on a patriotic envelope of the sort popular during the Civil War.
Luther C. Ladd, of Alexandria, N. H., was shot in the Baltimore riot, April 19th, 1861, and bled to death the same day. He was only 17 years of age -- Just before he expired, he exclaimed -- “ALL HAIL TO THE STARS AND STRIPES.” (Steve Shook)
Clarence Butler's poem Apocalypse which appeared in The Liberator in July on July 19, 1861 gives us this picture of Ladd's death:
Straight to his heart the bullet crushed,
Down from his breast the red blood gushed,
And o’er his face a glory rushed.
...
Thus, like a king, erect in pride,
Raising his hands to heaven, he cried,
“All hail the Stars and Stripes!” and died.
The folklore surrounding Ladd extends to the man who reputedly shot him. Dewitt Clinton Rench (or Rentch or Wrench) of Williamsport Maryland is said to have boasted of killing a Massachusetts soldier during the Pratt Street Riot. Hanson 1866 has this to say:
The murderer of Ladd was probably a drunken, dissolute wretch, residing in Williamsport, Md., named Wrench. He afterwards often boasted of the deed, and rejoiced in having killed that “boy soldier who shouted for the Stars and Stripes when he fell.”
Dewitt Clinton Rench
It speaks to the tenor of the times that Rench was killed by a pro-union mob at Williamsport on June 5, 1861. (The Baltimore Sun, June 7, 1861). An historical marker in Williamsport tells the story.
On June 5, 1861 Dewitt Clinton Rench came to Williamsport on business for his father, a local farmer. Angered at the presence of a Confederate sympathizer, a crowd of men demanded that he leave town. Rench refused until a prominent citizen advised him to leave. As he mounted his horse, Rench called those assembled “a set of damn cut-throats” and drew his pistol. Shots were fired and Rench was killed. His body was taken to the nearby Globe Hotel where he succumbed to his wounds.
Henry Kyd Douglas tells it this way:
While in this camp [overlooking Williamsport] DeWitt Clinton Rench, a roommate at college and the most intimate friend I then had, was foully murdered in Williamsport. He had sent me word that he was coming over the river to enlist with me as a private in my company. The day before his intended departure, he was sent into that town on business for his father. When mounting his horse to return home, he was set upon by a mob, and turning upon them to resent their cowardice, he was shot and left dead upon the ground. No attempt was made to arrest the murderers. A large body of my regiment were wild for revenge he had been among them several weeks before and had it not been for the vigilance of officers, the gun and torch would have visited the town of Williamsport to demand the murderers of Clinton Rench or wreak a cruel vengeance. -- Page 7, I Rode With Stonewall.
See also Life on the Civil War Research Trail.
Governor Andrew of Massachusetts wrote to the Mayor of Baltimore:
I pray you to cause the bodies of our Massachusetts soldiers dead in Baltimore to be immediately laid out, preserved in ice, and tenderly sent forward by express to me. All expenses will be paid by this Commonwealth. (NYT, April 21, 1861)
Charles Taylor had joined the 6th Mass. just as it was leaving for Washington and so did not get a uniform. He was buried somewhere in Baltimore. In 1910 the New York Times reported that the body had been found in the old Methodist Cemetery at Fayette Street and Loney's Lane. They identify Taylor as the “First Victim of the Civil War.”
The other three bodies were taken by rail to Boston and placed in the the Vassall tomb beneath King's Chapel on May 6 1861. Needham was sent to Lawrence for burial and Whitney and Ladd were shipped on to Lowell.
Ladd's body was taken to Alexandria N.H. for a funeral where as Warren S. Brown reports:
High on the wall above the platform were placed in large letters these words “All Hail the Stars and Stripes” which were said to be the last used by the patriotic young man, after he was mortally wounded.
After Ladd's body was returned to Lowell both Ladd and Whitney were buried in the local cemetery.
The Ladd and Whitney Monument was dedicated on June 17th, 1865. See Harper's Weekly, July 8, 1865.
Dedication of the Monument in Memory of Ladd and Whitney, Lowell, Massachusetts, June 17, 1865
—[Sketched by William H. Hard.]
Ladd and Whitney's bodies were dis-interred and re-interred under the Monument. Kenneth C. Zirkel took this 2018 photo of the monument (Wikipedia).
The inscription carved in the granite reads:
“Addison O. Whitney,
born in Waldo, Me., Oct. 30, 1839;
Luther C. Ladd,
born in Alexandria, N. H., Dec. 22, 1843;
Marched from Lowell in the 6th M.V.M. to the defense of the National Capital, and fell mortally wounded in the attack on their regiment while passing through Baltimore, April 19th, 1861. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Lowell dedicate this monument to their memory.”
L. C. Ladd
In 1908 a plaque was added to the Ladd and Whitney monument commemorating Charles A. Taylor. It refers to Taylor as “The First to Fall in Defence of the Union” and quotes Milton's Samson Agonistes.
Charles A. TaylorCo. D 6th M.V.M.The First to Fall in Defence of the UnionBaltimore, April 19, 1861“Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wailOr knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,Dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair,And what may quiet us in a death so noble.”
It did not go unnoticed that April 19 the date of the Pratt Street Riot marking the beginning of the the War of the Rebellion in 1861 was the anniversary of the the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775. Governor Andrew of Massachusetts wrote:
Cordially and deeply sympathizing with the families of the bereaved by the loss of the brave men fallen in this heroic expedition, the Governor recognizes the parallel, the day and event suggested with the 19th of April, 1775, and the immortal memories which cluster around the men of Lexington and Concord. (NYT, April 21 1861.)
A medal given to the Massachusetts Minutemen of 1861:
Minute Men of Massachusetts 1861
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
To theMembers of theMassachusettsVolunteer Militiawho were musteredinto the United Statesservice in response toPresident Lincoln'sfirst call forTroops
April 15, 1861.
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