Virtual Exhibitions

~ Bridgeport and Civil War ~ Bridgeport War Machine ~ Union Cause Supported ~ End Notes & Bibliography ~

It was on May 22, 1861, however, that the Bridgeport Daily Advertiser and Weekly Farmer published one of the most controversial statements in response to the firing on Fort Sumter.  Editors William Pomeroy and Nathan Morse hailed the South, accusing Northern interest to be rebellious and anti-government.

            "The truth is that it is the South that is resisting a rebellion; one initiated

            by the Abolitionists and Republicans of the North!

            "The Republican doctrine was nothing less than the overthrowing of the

            Supreme Court.  The Court had decided an issue -- the Dred Scott case --

            but the Republicans were determined to overthrow it, and they elected

            a man whose avowed purpose was to fill the Bench with those sworn

            to oppose that decision.  In this the Republicans were in open rebellion

            against the supreme law of the land.  The first overt act of their

            rebellion was committed on Election Day.  The Republican Party

            Convention had asked the people to wrench the Judiciary from its

            proper, independent sphere, and hurl it into the hands of a party majority!

            Last November, the people obeyed the call to do so.  That was rebellion

            and it was conceived and instigated by the North!" (1)

Northern frustrations regarding such attitudes and alliances were increased on Sunday, July 21, 1861, when the Federal and Confederate armies clashed across Bull Run Creek.  Although the Federal army initially maintained a successful stand, they were forced to retreat back to Washington, broken and disorganized.  This first major conflict of the Civil War proved to be disastrous for the Federal army whose casualties and fatalities reached approximately 3,000 of their force of 18,000 men.  Surviving Bridgeport men who returned home from Bull Run were infuriated by the Farmer's editorial, and the devastating impact the war would have on communities all over the north and south was only just beginning.  Response to such opinion as declared in the Farmer ultimately proved vehement.

Organized rallies called "Peace Meetings" were conducted throughout the state to promote peaceful resolutions to the war's end, and white flags were hoisted to symbolize support for non-violent, civil alternatives to Northern aggression.  On August 24th a Peace Meeting was held ten miles north of Bridgeport on the green in Stepney.  Several hundred Peace Democrats congregated to encourage conciliation, in the hopes of gaining anti-war support from the community.  In retaliation to what many considered unpopular Northern opinion, a crowd of approximately a thousand Unionists, including recent veterans of the Battle of Bull Run, came from Bridgeport to demonstrate against Southern sympathies.  Bridgeport's leading citizens, P. T. Barnum and Elias Howe, Jr. anticipated the potentially violent turn of events, and Barnum addressed the crowd as quoted in the Bridgeport Daily Standard;

            "Let us declare, in common with our loyal fellow-citizens, that we hold

            sacred the liberties of our country and we hold dear the peace of the

            glorious old commonwealth of Connecticut.  As good citizens we

            deprecate and utterly condemn these public exhibitions, falsely called

            'peace meetings', that are really Secession demonstrations.  They

            insult our glorious flag and disgrace our country.  In the present crisis

            there are but two parties: Loyal men and Traitors.  There are those who

            either sustain the Union, the Constitution, and the National Government

            and those who do not, whether by open rebellion or by showing sympathy

            for Secession through so-called 'peace meetings'.

            "Let us resolve that, until the complete suppression of this wicked

             rebellion takes place, we will stand by the Stars and Stripes.  We hereby

             pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor to defend them

             to the last." (2)

Although the Peace Meeting in Stepney concluded peacefully with a high pitch of fervor and patriotism, a crowd of almost 8,000 went to Main and Wall streets in downtown Bridgeport that evening celebrating the perceived victory.  The celebration turned to violence when a portion of the crowd directed their furor on the offices of the Bridgeport Daily Advertiser and Weekly Farmer.  Editor Nathan Morse escaped through a third story window as the mob sacked the offices, throwing press equipment and type cases from the windows, smashing them onto the city street. 

Bridgeport Mayor Daniel H. Sterling capably maintained order over the city's Republican government while members of the Common Council as well as P. T. Barnum, Elias Howe, Jr., and other respectable citizens condemned the rampage on the Bridgeport Daily Advertiser and Weekly Farmer as mob violence.  The paper was not published again until the following year with tempered editorial views.

Proceed to End Notes & Bibliography.

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