Mr. Patrick W Dentry

We were all free rangers back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and we Corbett boys ranged from Monkton to Glencoe in the rolling hills of Maryland playing Civil War soldiers. Proud rebels we were—members of Mosby's Rangers with our imaginary horses and Army Colts as we swept through our territory fighting battles amongst old Civil War mansions, forests, and the Gunpowder Falls. But on a trip to Massachusetts as a ten year old boy, my aunt and I came across a small family graveyard that held the last resting place of a soldier from the 6th Massachusetts Volunteers. His tombstone said he was killed in the Second Battle of Baltimore, something that I, a Civil War aficionado and proud Baltimore boy, knew nothing about. The earth shook beneath me as I stood at his grave forlorn and confused, for although I could name at least twenty generals and all the battles they ever fought, I had no idea of the heroics of these brave Union soldiers.

After serving as a U.S. Naval officer and a long career as a Physical Therapist, I decided to look into the story more carefully, and the earth shook again when I learned the true tale of the brave men of the Fighting 6th. My story contests the writings of Mayor George Brown who said the Pratt Street riots were, "a sudden uprising of popular fury," which we’ve been taught in our Maryland schools for a hundred and sixty-five years. But when the Baltimore mayor rewrote history to suit the Lost Cause, he stole the honor and glory of the brave two hundred and twenty-eight men who fought their way across the Monumental City against ten thousand insurrectionists with Old Glory flying high.

I invite you to read Redbeard the Magnificent A Yankee in the Court of the Russian Tsar and see for yourself who the true heroes of the Second Battle of Baltimore were.

Patrick W Dentry