En route to Washington, D.C, the troops boarded a train at Camden Station in Baltimore, Maryland – the largest city of that Slave state. In a prelude to the Baltimore Riot of 1861 that occurred a day later, they were met with an angry mob of pro-South sympathizers who threw bricks and stones at them. Many of the men received serious wounds as a result of the confrontation. Among them was sixty-five-year-old Nicholas Biddle of the Washington Artillerists who is believed to be one of the first men to shed blood in the American Civil War. As an African American in uniform, Biddle likely stood out as an easy target to the Southerners and suffered a head wound which was serious enough to expose his bone.