On April 20th a delegation from Baltimore appeared at the White House
and begged the President that troops for Washington be sent around and
not through Baltimore.
President Lincoln replied, laughingly: “If I grant this concession, you
will be back tomorrow asking that no troops be marched ‘around’ it.”
The President was right. That afternoon, and again on Sunday and Monday,
committees sought him, protesting that Maryland soil should not be
“polluted” by the feet of soldiers marching against the South.
The President had but one reply: “We must have troops, and as they can
neither crawl under Maryland nor fly over it, they must come across it.”