Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877 Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878

A. I was talking to him a few minutes before. The way I came to speak to him, we had gone up to the road above the track, and I had got through the guard. There was a guard acro...

A. As I understood it, they didn't belong to the command that they were with when they got to Altoona. General Brinton was at Harrisburg, and they belonged to his division.

A. I could not see where the shots came from, they came from the gun some place, that I know. We were standing right in front. When these men fired, Johnny Long fell down. I hel...

A. Yes. I was trying to get to General Brinton, to make arrangements about feeding the soldiers. When I found what affection they had for us I would move on again. They wanted e...

A. I suppose he was addressing the crowd when I was going round, but as soon as he gave the command to clear the track, I was walking round to get on the hill.

A. Yes; on Friday. First in the morning--then they stopped it. Then Mr. Garrett, the train master, and me went up and saw them, and he talked to them. There was a big run of sto...

A. My impression is that the rates in 1877 were lower than in 1876. I want to say here, that our shifting engines handling freight on the street had been interfered with two or...

A. The way it came about was this. He came over to Allegheny to the telegraph office, and asked some man outside where Mr. Ammon was, and he said inside the office. He asked if...

A. I cannot say about the community, because I was at my home sick for six weeks before that time. I can only speak of the crowd that was there at the same time I was. So far as...

A. Some went out on a train, and some walked out. I went out with one squad, with Mr. White. We saw Mr. Watt, and he suggested the sending of the men to Torrens station, six or...

A. They were taken to the station-house, and Alderman Butler, I believe, who was in charge--I was not in charge for a week; I had something else to do--I believe they came to th...

A. It was after the middle of the night--between twelve and one o'clock. There was a large crowd of rough people there. But probably I am a little ahead of my story when I speak...

A. While standing there looking at the flames going on, I made a remark to some person: "Ain't they going to try to stop it?" and he said, "no, we don't care anything whether it...

A. They kept back towards Twenty-seventh street. They had a gun there. A man named Stewart I saw carried away from there dead. He was apparently a railroader. He had a watch wit...

A. There was a meeting called. There was a mass meeting, and when that meeting--that meeting adjourned to meet at a mass meeting and take a vote of the committee, and in that se...

A. No, sir; it depended entirely on his business. A new man was treated the same as an old man, so far as going out was concerned, unless he was an extra brakeman. If he was reg...

A. I told you I would have gone off the premises and walked away. If he had told me it was none of my business, I would have told him I would make it my business. If he had told...

A. No, sir; I didn't. I think it was a mistake, a very serious mistake. I knew that the day police of Pittsburgh had been discharged--that is, most of them, and that the mayor w...

A. Field-glass. I came down, just at the time I came from the building, some one said, that the mayor had sent for his posse. I supposed I was one, as I was a special police. W....

A. They seemed to be. The most trouble I had was with young men that claimed to be clerks in the railroad office, who broke through the lines. While I was there, two or three pa...

A. McCall was the only one I arrested. I left about three o'clock. While I was there no other act was committed by any person in the party, and no effort was made by the railroa...

A. I was standing immediately opposite the head of the column, and the sound of that command appeared to come directly opposite to me, down at the head of the column.

A. I went out in the evening about six or seven o'clock, along there. I stayed along Liberty street and was once or twice on the railroad, and saw Marshall, and along Liberty st...

A. I think the majority of them were outside of the railroad employés. Whether they were glass-blowers, or puddlers, or citizens of any other occupation, I could not tell. The P...

A. It was Tuesday, July 24, I think, that our iron company men struck. The strike started in the old mill. A few men run out and shouted, "We have struck!" and blew the big whis...

A. Yes; our trade is peculiar. There are times when the through freight may be heavy, but at points east of Pittsburgh, the coal and other local business may be very light. We w...

A. Not when the sheriff comes to the front. He is the chief peace officer of the county, and has the whole county at his beck and nod. The mayor is simply the city.

A. By the time we had arrived at the private house, in Allegheny, the depot was in flames, and I think also the elevator. So that they answered in a word, that all the mischief...

A. I think twenty-five or fifty men, at the outside, could have stopped that burning on Sunday morning. I say that, because there could have been no mistakes. Because, if they h...

A. They were not under my command. I never knew what orders they had that were detailed. I do not know to-day what their orders were. I know what duty they were performing. I wa...

A. When I first made my way on the upper part of the hill, there was a number of young men lying on the ground under a fence, a tree, or something, and I asked one of them--he a...

A. It appears to me the roughest class of people I ever saw. They appeared to be all strangers to me. I was present when the alarm of fire was struck. I was at the corner of Twe...

A. He did not ask any permission--just as I have reported to you. The words were no more or less than just what I have said. The mere fact of his being there revealed to me that...

A. Yes; he was in the telegraph office, which was immediately adjoining the round-house. A building some four or five feet from the round-house. I think they called it the dispa...

A. They are elected by city councils to take care of the fire department, and to elect the force, and to run it, and they have general supervision over the expenditure of the mo...

A. There was no more than one command. The word fire was given by different men in uniform. They were standing not in the rear, but in front of the line of militia that was righ...

A. They ran pell mell, and fell over each other. The troops could have marched down Liberty street and drove them. The mob were cowards when daylight shown on them. They had ple...

A. Scattered in every direction--there was not a man about at all, except one man I saw standing there, and he did not seem to pay any attention at all to us.

A. I got to the round-house, I guess, about eight o'clock; stayed in there awhile. I was reading a dispatch containing an account of the riot in Martinsburg to three or four oth...

A. They received a printed copy. They agreed to give us thirty days' notice. They all agreed to work on in case of a strike, in case of any commotion elsewhere, they agreed to g...

Q. Were arms furnished you for the purpose of resisting the authorities, either the civil or the military, or for the purpose of protecting the railroad property and other prope...

A. No, sir; I would not give it without the mayor's order. He was completely bewildered after this blow breaking his jaw. He was struck three or four other times, and just as so...

A. Yes; and then they turned right around, as near as I can recollect it. When I saw them facing, each man stood right behind the other, and they turned right around and faced.

A. I could not tell how many were there. I know only a small body of them could be got together, and then they began to collect the men who had went home in the morning before w...

A. No, sir; he was one that was with the rioters. He is a Welshman, a very bad character; had but one leg. He was with them, and he was shot through the arm. The ball passed thr...

A. Yes. The firing lasted about a minute--not over that, and the crowd, the moment the firing commenced, or shortly afterwards, dispersed and went in every direction. I gave the...

A. All the officers and employés, except those who got one dollar a day or less, either by the month or day--the track men getting ten cents an hour for ten hours. All above one...

A. There was a meeting held out in the Round woods, and a committee appointed there to confer with the company with regard to their wages, and some time after this meeting was c...

A. I do not know who advised Mr. Pitcairn. The advice was given to me by myself. I was not with Mr. Pitcairn at the time. To my recollection, I think the notice was given to me...

A. My opinion may be different from a great many other military men. I look at it in this way: when troops are officered, it is the duty of the officers to do the thinking. If e...

"C. & P. Shifter wanted to go down to Glendale and back, and take down relief guards and supper to the men. Is it O.K. to run them following 37?

A. There didn't appear to, in a general way, going round the streets--the principal streets. There had been a great deal of talk. Parties gathering, would talk quietly. Some wer...

A. My father went to see the mayor, with Mr. Follensbee. He went early in the day to Mt. Washington, to see a shooting match. We were not aware of any excitement in the city, bu...

A. When I got to Torrens station I found at least twelve hundred men there, composed of strikers, and the crowd and mob--not a mob--lookers on. I had no trouble in getting into...

A. I sent word down to the mayor's office about this difficulty on the lines of the road, and that we feared that some effort might be made to destroy our property, and that, th...

A. The first difficulties, which were brought on by the employés of the company taking possession of the engines and trains, were, so far as I could judge, or saw, exclusively b...

A. I have knowledge of two of the party that I had caused the arrest of. One of them was a railroad man employed by the company, and the other man had nothing at all to do with...

A. Yes; I have. I am a great deal amongst them--factories, mills, and all around the neighborhood. I have a great deal of intercourse with that class of people as a surgeon amon...

A. I would, but I do not think I spoke of taking command of the three regiments, as I had not seen Colonel Gray. I do not know what he would do if he had been dismissed by Gener...

A. I had no conversation on the subject, because I was engaged and busy on Saturday, and was not alarmed in regard to this. Mr. Park's manufacturing establishment was in the imm...

A. Yes; I was, with my company, several times ordered to go down to the track, and clear the crossing at Twenty-eighth street, which I did, and it was immediately filled up agai...

Q. In your testimony heretofore you stated that Brinton made a remark that he would be God damned if he would return to Pittsburgh again. Are you certain he made that remark and...

A. Yes; with the exception of General Brown, who was in citizen's dress, and he was the commander-in-chief. I inquired for General Pearson. I understood he was with the Philadel...

A. I told him we had been in the company's shops all night, and that we were burned out, and that the men were out of ammunition, and that I wanted something to eat, and wanted...

A. They could not have moved a train, because they had not the men to move it, but they could have done there what they did elsewhere. They could have let it exhaust itself. The...

A. The first knowledge I had of them was on the morning of Friday, which was the 20th, I guess. I received two dispatches, brought by the same boy at the same time, one from Gov...

A. I never saw any civil authorities of the city of Pittsburgh, except the mayor, for about ten or twelve minutes, and then I sent for him to come, during all the time I was there.

A. On the fast line, that came in about twelve o'clock Friday night--may be a few minutes later. General Latta was advised of the proposed movement, and was particular in his in...

A. It was increased upwards of one hundred men, by the order of the committee of public safety, and after I got about one hundred, their orders were that I should increase the f...

A. Yes, I did. It is no idle thing to come out here and shoot down twenty-two people that were innocent. If they had been rioters or strikers, if they had had any part or lot in...

Q. I would like to ask you one question. The committee would like to know, or I would, at least, if you put Allegheny City into the hands of this man Ammon, and if so, what you...

A. Some from sidewalks, houses, and doorways and cellars, from down street, in our rear, men from the corners of the streets we had just passed from behind projecting signs, in...

A. I didn't take any. I had nothing to take any means with. There were six gentlemen in citizens' clothes--most of them civilians--all civilians I think. The next day when I fir...

A. It was very difficult to tell whether they despised the Pennsylvania Railroad Company or the Philadelphia troops most; but they certainly hated both of them. They were very a...

A. In this way. In the morning when we heard that General Brinton had escaped from the round-house, Captain Aull was there, and an order was given to him to convey to General Br...

A. I cannot answer that. I have given you about the purport of the messages. Probably if General Pearson shall be called he might recollect the purport a little distincter than...

A. Yes, sir; we were consulting together, of course, about the most feasible means or measures--what to do with this exigency there. If you remember, we were but a handful of me...

A. No; occasionally there would be a man that didn't have any experience in the field, as there will always be men who will shirk their duty. Once in a while there would be a ma...

A. When I heard I was to be subpoenaed here, I wrote down what I know about it, and perhaps that would be the quickest way of telling. My first knowledge of the riot was on the...

Q. If you will go on and get at the facts, probably it will be as easy as any other way to come at a statement of the facts that came within your knowledge?

Q. State, if prior to the strike that occurred in July last, you had any information that such a strike was to take place, or had any reason to apprehend a strike?

A. No; there was a great many boys, but the most of them were men. I think the great majority of them were men. I stayed there until about twelve o'clock at night, about half pa...

A. The general remarks of these men then were that they had nothing to do with this riot. Some of them said they ought to have the ten per cent. put back, but all deprecated thi...

I will state that General Osborne has command of forces of the division that belongs here in this section, and my committee were of the opinion that that force would be of no be...

A. I only visited Pittsburgh once during the riot, and that was that Sunday afternoon, and made a statement to the citizens that the railroad men had agreed to protect the prope...

A. We brought them down in the morning, in the "black maria," to the Central station, but Deputy Mayor Butler, I believe, discharged most of them, and fined some of them.

A. We had heard that the men had organized the Trainmen's Union, as they call it, and that a strike was threatened; but on looking at the thing as carefully as we could, we came...

A. I learned, after the firing, that a great deal of excitement prevailed. I might as well state now, that the fact of the firing upon the mob did not make any difference, wheth...

A. My testimony will bear entirely on the restoration of order and closing scenes of the riot. I will state that on Saturday, the day the riot broke out, I left my office here,...

A. Struck him with his fist. I got the fellow by the shoulder and quickly pushed him towards the sheriff. Says I, "Here is a fellow that will make trouble; take charge of this m...

A. In case of their striking, they simply proposed quitting work themselves--standing still or going to their homes, or wherever they wished to go. I never heard of any arrangem...

A. He did not feel disposed to do anything. They said they would get arms and ammunition, and everything that was necessary, to put it down, if he would give his consent, which,...

A. When I came to Allegheny there was a large number of citizens--a committee in fact. They had telegraphed to me before I arrived. The names in the dispatch were John Kirkpatri...

A. Yes; the paid specials I wanted to put on for the protection of the company's property, whom I placed for the purpose of relieving the city from any legal liability, after ha...

A. No, sir; he came in Saturday morning, I think, just after daylight--just about daylight, probably. He was at the Monongahela. We had telegraphed him to meet us at the Mononga...

On leaving, General Pearson gave General Brinton orders to hold the position until he returned, which he thought would be within an hour. On reaching Union depot General Pearson...

Q. Was the question of the expediency of ordering the troops out, for the purpose of stopping the destruction of property and driving the rioters from the ground--from the railr...

A. Well, I was stationed just above the flag-house--I suppose you know where that is--and I had received an order a short time before the First division arrived on the ground to...

A. As to that I cannot speak from personal knowledge. What has been told to me was, in substance, this: That when the sheriff first met the gathering at Twenty-eighth street, th...

A. You have got most of the facts that I am conversant with, I expect, Mr. Chairman. During the week preceding the Sunday of the riots, I had learned, through the papers and by...

A. That is a copy of the extra. The regular edition--I couldn't get a copy for the file. It ran out early in the day. That has all that pertains to the riot in it.

There seemed at this time to be an epidemic of strikes running through the country, not only among the railroad men, but among all classes of laborers, and this helped to precip...

A. I think the mayor was, but the sheriff was not. The sheriff happened to be away. I think, if my recollection serves me, he was either at Atlantic City or Philadelphia at the...

A. Said to be eleven, those that were killed, and fifty odd were wounded. When I was there they had torn up the track. I saw that. They had torn up a rail or two out of the trac...

A. On that subject I have no personal knowledge. Any differences, if they did exist, between the employés and the company were known to the operating officers of the company, ov...

This determination on the part of the civil authorities, backed by the citizens, broke the spirit of the mob, and they did not again assemble in any great number, or commit any...

A. Yes; quite a crowd of the transfer clerks, and some of our engineers, and oil men, and repair men were on the tops of the cars, who claimed to be employés, and had business t...

General Latta, after directing General Pearson, at Pittsburgh, to order out one regiment, and to take command of the military situation, reported what had occurred, and his orde...

The crowd had so increased at the Twenty-eighth street crossing that they had full possession of the railroad tracks there, and the yard engines could not be moved to transfer t...

A. Colonel Guthrie has stated that he sent me in for a personal conversation with General Latta, and I just state here that in passing Twenty-sixth street, I think it was, that...

Q. I would like to ask you another question or two in relation to this citizens' meeting in Allegheny City. Were the people generally in Allegheny City unwilling to respond, or...

A. The case was scrutinized by me. It didn't go up any higher than myself, because I thought that the officer was justified under the circumstances. He merely followed the direc...

"Of course, as you say, the capitalists.... Many of the unemployed would be glad to get work as soldiers or extra policemen. The farmers, too, might turn out to preserve your 'l...

A. I am not certain whether it was General Matthews or not. I heard General Matthews give the order to load, but I could not say whether it was General Matthews or a company off...

A. Yes; the firm of Evans, Dalzell & Co. I think the first man that gave me any information of any firing was Mr. Cassatt--that is a positive assurance that the firing had taken...

A. I judged them to be miners and mill hands, attracted here from outlying counties--attracted by news of the riot; in fact, in conversation with some, they informed me they had...

"_Resolved_, That a committee consisting of five members of the House of Representatives and three Senators, none of whom shall be from any of the counties in which said riots o...

A. No, sir; I think when we saw him he was out of his buggy. His buggy was a short distance away from him--at least I thought it was his buggy. I don't know whether it was or no...

A. My knowledge of the occurrences is confined first to the strike and calling out of the military. I was there on the Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday preceding this bloo...

A. I found the city under a great deal of excitement. The trains, I was informed, had been stopped from running, and I immediately went to my counsel, Mr. Wise, for instructions...

A. So far as I observed, and judging by appearance, it was about the class of men you see going backwards and forwards on the railroads and thoroughfares, known as tramps.

"The behavior of the Pittsburgh troops, in a military sense, is without excuse; but was it any worse than the defection of officers and men in the regular army, who, in 1861, de...

It has been estimated, by a competent person, that the damage, including loss of property and loss of business, consequent upon the interruption of business, which was inflicted...

A. I was going out on the last trip, at eleven-forty. I told him I was hauling an accommodation train. He told me I could go on, and he got down off the engine.

A. When I got there there was nothing special going on, for everything was quiet. I didn't remain there but a short time--came back to Twenty-eighth street, and when I was there...

A. Early in the spring of the year, as early as March, at least, we had reason to believe that the society called the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers was arranging to make s...

A. I had not. The first time I heard of it I came in in the evening at nine-twenty, Friday evening. I heard that they were stopping the trains from coming out.

A. I suppose in the neighborhood of twelve o'clock in the night. When we arrived in the neighborhood of Twenty-eighth street, several shots were fired--not at us, however. They...

A. On the Sunday afternoon General Brinton came to the building, about two o'clock, I guess, him and another gentleman from Philadelphia came there in a buggy, and wanted to kno...

A. At the corner of Lackawanna and Washington. The first time these men shot, he hit my gun, and knocked a piece of the wood off. I have the gun yet. The next time he took me ab...

A. I arrived at Rochester probably about two o'clock on Sunday morning. Fortunately on the train I met Mr. Layng, general manager of the Fort Wayne road. He was in a private car...