Washington, D.C., April 21 – This city is virtually cut off from the rest of the Union tonight.  President Lincoln’s call for troops last week has enraged the South.  Word from Richmond tells of Confederate “regiments arriving hourly” in that city.  Union troops which have occupied Arlington Heights across the river from Washington report “much activity to the south”.

Federal soldiers are bivouacked tonight on the White House grounds.  Leroy P. Walker, Secretary of Ware in the newly formed Rebel government in Montgomery, AL announced that “the flag of the Southern Confederacy” will float in splendor over the capitol at Washington before the first day of May.

All this plus the seizing of the Federal arsenal in Fayetteville, NC and the U.S. Mint in Charlotte, NC, the capture of Ft. Smith, AR, by Rebel troops and the surrender of U.S. steamship Catawba in New Orleans has left the nation’s capital a tense and anxious city.

But an even greater threat came to Washington this week from the north.  Maryland, one of the states torn by inner conflict in this struggle  between North and South, openly defied the Federal government last Friday when mobs in Baltimore attacked troops enroute to Washington.  The 60th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the first units to answer Lincoln’s call for volunteers, arrived in Baltimore Friday morning by train.  They were an ill-clad outfit, many without uniforms or weapons.  It was expected they would be outfitted and armed on arrival here.

During the transfer from the Philadelphia station to the Washington station it is necessary for the cars of the train to be horse drawn through the streets of Baltimore.  It was at this part of the journey that the regiment was attacked.

A street mob, estimated at 7000, swarmed over the last two cars of the train as they were being drawn along Pratt Street.  The regiment attempted to form in the street but was battered and stoned by the mob.  Several of the troops lost their rifles in the melee and an open gun battle threatened between troops and rioters.

Capt. John Dike, of Stoneham, Mass., managed to form a line of troops who, with fixed bayonets, fought their way through the mob. During the street fighting Dike was shot down, more than a score of the soldiers were wounded and two privates – Luther Ladd and A.O. Whitney – were killed.  “Seven of the rioters were killed and many more wounded,” sain an eye-witness who arrived here today.

Tonight, all communications between Washington and the outside world have been severed.  Telegraph lines between here and Baltimore have been cut and there has been no liaison to the south since Virginia joined the growing list of Confederate states last Wednesday.

Lincoln Calls 75,000

Washington, D.C., April 14 – Word was received just prior to press time that President Lincoln will issue a call tomorrow for 75,000 troops to “restore the Union.” He reiterated a portion of his last month’s inaugural address to the people of the South.  Lincoln said: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine is the momentous issue of civil war.”