GNMP Winter Lecture- First in '61 Nicholas Nick Biddle and Pennsylvania's Forgotten First Defenders- February 11, 2023

John Hoptak, Gettysburg National Military Park

On the evening of April 18, 1861, less than 72 hours after the surrender of Fort Sumter and President Abraham Lincoln's subsequent call-to-arms, the very first Northern volunteer soldiers arrived in the nation's beleaguered capital. Although long overshadowed in history by the more famous 6th Massachusetts Infantry, these soldiers composed the ranks of five companies of Pennsylvania militia who later became known as the "First Defenders." Attacked by a pro-secessionist/pro-Confederate mob in Baltimore on their journey south to Washington, these First Defenders shed some of the very first blood of what would become the country's bloodiest conflict. Included among those injured was Nicholas "Nick" Biddle, a sixty-five-year-old African American man who may have had escaped from slavery, and who now wore the uniform of one of the Pennsylvania companies. Join John Hoptak for a look at the fascinating life and story of Biddle, and the history of these lesser-known companies, their prompt response, and their place in American Civil War history.

 

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