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| 88 officer, and when the number of enlisted men had dwindled down to 175. How the command met the crisis the riots of 1877 is a part of the history of Maryland. Fortunately for the City of Baltimore the senior captain of the regiment upon whom the command of the regiment devolved in the riots, was a veteran soldier who had followed Lee from the outbreak of hostilities to the surrender at Appomattox; who had been in nearly all the great battles of the Civil War. In the work of suppressing the riots he won the esteem of his fellow officers, and after the disorders had subsided he was elected to the colonelcy. In announcing this election to the governor, Brigadier-General Jas. R. Herbert requested that his commission "be dated July 21, for valiant and meritorious conduct." This the governor did, and in forwarding the commission to the colonel, the adjutant-general, by order of the governor, wrote a letter to him recognizing his "gallant and meritorious conduct under the trying circumstances in which your regiment was placed on the evening of July 20." The adjutant-general added, "it gives me great pleasure to communicate to you the high appreciation of the commander-in-chi'ef of the soldierly bearing and efficient service rendered by your command, and to express his belief that the qualities they have shown during this severe trial have given them a further claim to the gratitude of the people whose lives and property they are so willing to protect." Wm, P. Zollinger was born in Harrisburg, Pa., in 1840. Upon the completion of his education he came to Baltimore to live. He became a member of the Maryland Guard, and at the outbreak of the war responded to a call of Captain William H. Murray, went South and enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army. He served in the ranks for two years and then received a commission as second lieutenant. He was in the great battles in which Lee's Army was engaged, and was with his former commander, Captain Murray, when he fell mortally wounded at Gettysburg. After the war Mr. Zollinger returned to Baltimore and was one of the organizers of the Fifth Regiment. |