Part 2

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 the cars in the yard from place to place, and orders were given to the engineers to put up their engines. Between eleven and twelve o'clock, P.M., Mr. Watt started for the sheriff's residence, and on his way called at the office of Honorable John Scott, solicitor for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, to have that gentleman go with him. The sheriff was at home, and they called on him for protection for the property of the company, and advised him of all that had taken place up to that time. The sheriff went with them to the outer depot, near Twenty-sixth street, where they found General Pearson, who had come to Mr. Pitcairn's office to ascertain the condition of affairs, so as to report the same to Adjutant General Latta, who had telegraphed him from Philadelphia, making inquiry if he knew anything of the disturbances on the Pennsylvania railroad. Governor Hartranft was at that time out of the State, and somewhere in the West, on his way to California, and before going had given instructions to Adjutant General Latta, that in case of trouble requiring the presence of the military, he must, on the requisition of the proper civil authorities, assume the responsibility, and act as occasion demanded.

A little after midnight the sheriff, together with General Pearson, Mr. Watt, and some fifteen or twenty railroad employés, walked out to Twenty-eighth street, and there getting up on a gondola or flat car so as to be above the crowd, addressed them, advising them to disperse and go to their homes, stating to them his duty in case they refused. The crowd refused to disperse, and hooted and yelled at the sheriff, and fired pistol shots in the air while he was addressing them. They told the sheriff to go home, that they were not going to allow any freight trains to leave until the difficulty between them and the railroad company was settled, that the mayor and policemen were on their side, and that prominent citizens had offered to assist them in provisions and money to carry on the strike. It should be here stated that there is no proof that any such offers of assistance were actually made, except that tradesmen with whom the strikers were dealing offered to trust them until they got work again, and one prominent citizen, whose name was used by the mob, came forward testified that he had never made any such offer. Some of the mob also read messages purporting to come from other places, urging them to hold their ground, and assistance in men and means would be sent them. There is no means of ascertaining whether these messages were really sent as they purported to be, or were only bogus ones, used for the purpose of firing up the mob, and inducing them to hold out in their purpose. They were probably bogus, and they, without doubt, produced the effect intended by their authors. At this time the crowd numbered some two hundred men and boys, and was composed of some railroad men, some discharged men, quite a number of mill men, (that is men from the iron mills, glass factories, &c.,) and some strangers as they were called by the witnesses, repulsive, hard looking men, probably tramps and criminals, who always flock to a scene of disturbance like vultures to the carrion. The sheriff, as he testifies, becoming satisfied that he could not raise force sufficient to control the crowd, made a call on the Governor, by telegraph, for military to suppress the riot. The sheriff at this time had made no effort whatever to raise a posse to disperse the mob, and in view of subsequent developments it is probable that such an effort would have been futile. The copy of the telegram of the sheriff to the Governor is given in the report of the Adjutant General for 1877, as are also copies of all other telegrams sent and received by him during the troubles, and most of them in the evidence taken by your committee, and therefore they need not be copied here.

In view of the absence of the Governor, the telegram was also sent to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and the Adjutant General, the one to the latter reaching him at Lancaster on his way to Harrisburg. General Latta immediately telegraphed General Pearson, who held the rank of major general, and commanded the Sixth division, National Guard, with headquarters at Pittsburgh, to assume charge of the military situation, place one regiment on duty, and if he found one regiment not sufficiently strong, to order out the balance of the division and to report generally. General Pearson immediately ordered out the Eighteenth regiment, Colonel P. N. Guthrie, and this order was soon followed by one ordering out the Fourteenth regiment, Colonel Gray, the Nineteenth regiment, Colonel Howard, and Hutchinson's battery in command of Captain Breck. These orders were responded to very slowly, as it was in the night time, and the men were scattered about the city, and some companies were made up of men at some little towns outside of the city. Colonel Guthrie resides at East Liberty, and received his orders about half past four, A.M., on the 20th. He at once notified his officers, and they notified the men, but as it was too early to be able to get messengers the colonel had to go personally to the officers and it was about twelve o'clock, noon, when the regiment reported at the Union depot hotel two hundred and fifty strong. This regiment was ordered out to Torrens Station to protect property and clear the track at the stock yards, and on its arrival there, at half past one, found a crowd of from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred persons assembled. The regiment had no difficulty in getting into proper position, and Colonel Guthrie then lay in position waiting further orders. It was understood between General Pearson and Colonel Guthrie that the Fourteenth and Nineteenth regiments and the battery should clear the track at Twenty-eighth street, and protect the men on the trains in getting them started, and that Colonel Guthrie should clear the track at Torrens and protect the trains in passing that place. The Fourteenth and Nineteenth regiments assembled very slowly, and it was not until about five P.M., that General Brown, commanding the brigade, got together three or four companies, and these not half full, and marched out to Twenty-eighth street. Before taking a position there, he received orders from General Pearson to return to the Union depot, as he had not force sufficient to accomplish anything, and accordingly he returned with his command.

In the meantime, General Pearson, fearing that the majority of the men in these regiments sympathized with the strikers, telegraphed Adjutant General Latta to that effect, and suggested that troops from Philadelphia should be sent on, and gave it as his opinion that two thousand troops would be needed to disperse the mob, as it was now (six thirty-five, P.M.,) very large (four thousand to five thousand men) and increasing hourly. General Latta at once telegraphed Major General Brinton, commanding the First division of the National Guard, at Philadelphia, to get his command ready to move to Pittsburgh. General Brinton received this order in the evening, and at two o'clock on the morning of the 21st he had six hundred men at the railroad depot ready to start. At Harrisburg, General Brinton received some ammunition and two Gatling guns, and reached Pittsburgh at one, P.M., and reported to General Latta at the Union depot hotel, and there distributed twenty rounds of ammunition to his men. In order to understand the situation of things and the future movements of the troops, a description of the depots, buildings, tracks, and surroundings of the Pennsylvania railroad property at Pittsburgh is here necessary. The Union depot was situated between Seventh and Eighth streets, and from this place the line of the railroad ran eastwardly, at the foot of a steep bluff, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high on the right, and with Liberty street on the left. There were a great number of tracks running side by side out to and some distance beyond Twenty-eighth street, with numerous switches in order that the tracks might be used conveniently, and many of these tracks were filled with cars, passenger and baggage cars near the depot, and freight cars further out. The outer depot, lower round house, machine shops, &c., were situated at and near Twenty-sixth street, about a mile from the Union depot, some other shops were scattered along there to Twenty-eighth street, near which street was what was called the upper round-house. From Twenty-eighth street down to the Union depot the tracks were several feet higher than Liberty street, and a strong wall was built up at the side of Liberty street to support the embankment and keep it from caving into the street. At Twenty-eighth street there was a crossing much used, the bluff not being as steep or as high here as it is further down, and the hill is ascended by a diagonal road or path from the crossing.

About two o'clock, A.M., of the 21st, the Nineteenth regiment and Breck's battery were sent out to Twenty-eighth street, the battery to take a position at the foot of the bluff, near the crossing, and the regiment a position on the side hill, a little above and commanding the crossing. About four, A.M., of the same day, the Fourteenth regiment was sent out, and ordered to take a position higher up the hill, and above the Nineteenth regiment, and the orders given by General Pearson were to hold this position, and keep the Twenty-eighth street crossing and the tracks in the vicinity clear of the crowd. This Twenty-eighth street crossing was the gathering point of the mob, and but very little effort seems to have been made during the day (the 21st) to carry out General Pearson's order. A few times in the forenoon one or two companies were ordered down, across the tracks at the crossing, and back again, and for the time would clear away the crowd in their immediate path, but as no effort was made to hold the crossing, nor to clear the tracks on each side of it, the effort amounted to nothing, and when the soldiers went back to their position on the hill the crowd would again resume possession of the ground cleared. The soldiers also fraternized with the mob. Most of the time their arms were stacked, and they were mingled indiscriminately with the crowd, lying about on the ground talking with them, and when, about four, P.M., the Philadelphia troops were marched out to Twenty-eighth street, a dense crowd filled the Twenty-eighth street crossing and vicinity, and was so mixed up with soldiers that no lines of regiments or companies could be observed, and it was with difficulty that soldiers could be discovered at all. On the morning of the 20th warrants had been issued for the arrest of some fifteen or twenty of the ringleaders of the strikers, and were placed in the hands of police officer McGovern and his men to be executed. His orders were not to attempt to execute the warrants in the crowd, as they were excited, and a collision might be provoked, and if arrests were made at all they must be made quietly. If the opportunity for quiet arrests occurred, it was not taken advantage of, for no arrests were made, and no attempts seem to have been made to spot the men, or ascertain their whereabouts, or to do anything towards executing the warrants while they were in the hands of the officers. On the morning of the 21st, bench warrants for the arrest of the same persons were issued by Judge Ewing, and these were placed in the hands of Constable Richardson, who called on the sheriff for a posse to assist in making the arrests. The sheriff sent out ten of his deputies to raise a posse for the purpose, and the deputies claim they were vigilant and thorough in their efforts to find men willing to serve, but were unable to raise any considerable number of persons. All sorts of excuses were made, and not over ten persons in all responded. No peremptory summons or call, such as it was his right and duty to make, was ever issued by the sheriff, and, as testified by him, when he reached the Union depot with his deputies and posse, a short time before the Philadelphia troops arrived, all but six of his posse had left.

On Saturday it is the custom for the different mills and shops at Pittsburgh and vicinity to shut down about noon, or soon after; and on that eventful Saturday, July 21st, those in the neighborhood of the Twenty-eighth street crossing saw the crowd at that point suddenly and largely increased soon after the hour for shutting down the mills. A prominent manufacturer of Pittsburgh was at the Union depot on Saturday, about the time of the arrival of the Philadelphia troops, and had a talk with Mr. A. J. Cassatt, third vice president of the Pennsylvania railroad, and, in this conversation, told him that Saturday was an idle day with their workmen in Pittsburgh, and that it would be great wisdom in him to wait until Monday, when the laboring men would be at their work, before attempting to open their road; that it was natural that their home troops should sympathize with the strikers, and they could not be fully depended on in case of a riot. Mr. Cassatt refused to give any directions to delay the movements of the military, saying they had already lost a great deal of time, and it was the duty of the government to put them in possession of their property at once. General Brinton, with his command, arrived at Pittsburgh at three, P.M., and, after being furnished with coffee and sandwiches at the Union depot, were formed and marched out along the tracks to the Twenty-eighth street crossing. Before starting from the depot, General Brinton gave orders that the mob must not be fired upon, even if they spat in the soldiers' faces, but if they were attacked, however, they must defend themselves.

The plan adopted for the afternoon's operations was for a portion of the Philadelphia troops to take possession of the premises of the railroad company at and in the vicinity of Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth streets, where the freight trains that had been prepared to send out stood, and clear this portion of the tracks from the crowd, so that when the tracks and switches at Twenty-eighth street were cleared and put in possession of the company, the trains could at once be moved, as the engineers and men were said to be ready to start with the trains. The balance of the Philadelphia troops were to move up to Twenty-eighth street and coöperate with the Pittsburg troops in clearing the tracks at that point, and when this was done the trains were to be started, and after a few trains had been run out it was believed that the strike would be broken up; that the strikers would see the futility of trying to resist the law when backed up by the military, and would give up the contest.

The sheriff and his deputies (he had no posse to speak of) started from the Union depot towards Twenty-eighth street, to execute the warrants in the hands of Constable Richardson, a little in advance of the Philadelphia troops, but were delayed on the way out, somewhat, by looking after men, and before arriving at Twenty-eighth street, were overtaken by the troops, but no arrests were made by them. The second division, in command of Brigadier General E. De. C. Loud, was left on Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth streets, with orders to disperse the crowd at that point and protect the employés in starting the trains. The order was promptly executed by throwing out skirmish lines and clearing the tracks in the vicinity of the trains. The first division brigade, under the command of General E. W. Mathews, and the battery of Gatling guns, all under command of General Brinton, marched out to near the Twenty-eighth street crossing. The command marched out by column far into the crowd as far as possible, and then General Brinton gave the command to wheel into line by the right flank, which brought one line lengthwise of the tracks, below the Twenty-eighth street crossing, facing Liberty street, and another line was formed parallel with the first, on the opposite side of the tracks facing the hill. The crowd was ordered to disperse by the sheriff, and he was answered by hoots, jeers, and rough language. The move made by the troops had cleared the tracks between the two lines, and the crowd now began forcing itself down from Twenty-eighth street, between the lines formed each side of the tracks. General Brinton ordered two companies to form across the tracks at right angles with the two lines already formed, and between them, facing Twenty-eighth street, and to march up and press the crowd back and clear the crossing. The sheriff and his deputies had been in front up to this time, but they now took a position in rear of the two companies. General Pearson had been with the command until this time, when, seeing the size of the crowd, and its determination, he went back to Mr. Pitcairn's office to telegraph General Latta, for the purpose of having more troops ordered to the place. The two companies, in carrying out their orders, marched up against the crowd, with their pieces "arms port," and endeavored to press them back in this way, but no impression could be made on them. General Mathews, at this juncture, seeing, as he said, that the mob was firm and determined, and would not bear temporizing with, gave his men orders to load.

The two companies were then ordered to charge bayonets; many of their guns were seized and some of the bayonets nearly twisted off, but no impression was made on the crowd. While these movements were being made, the mob was becoming more and more noisy, defiant, and boisterous, and were throwing stones and other missiles at the troops, several of the latter having been hit, and one or two seriously injured. Several pistol shots were also fired by the crowd, and immediately after the pistol shots the troops commenced firing on the mob. The firing was scattering, commencing at a point near where the pistol firing took place, and running along the line in a desultory manner, until it became almost a volley for a moment. The officers ordered the firing to cease, and stopped it very soon. There is a conflict in the evidence as to whether or not an order was given the troops to fire, but the great weight of the testimony is that no such order was given. The most of those who testify that such an order was given, say it was given by General Pearson, but General Pearson was not present when the firing took place, but was at the superintendent's office. Every person, however, from General Pearson down, who have given an opinion on the subject, say that an order to fire was justified and should have been given, and the officers in command say that the order would have been given very soon. The firing had the effect to disperse the crowd at once, they scattering in all directions, and leaving the troops in full possession of the Twenty-eighth street crossing and the tracks in the vicinity. Several persons were killed and wounded, and as is usually the case, a number of innocent people suffered. The coroner held inquests on the bodies of twenty-two persons in all, the most of whom were killed by the soldiers at this time at Twenty-eighth street, but a few were killed the following night and Sunday morning at or near Twenty-sixth street. The number cannot be ascertained with any certainty, but several were seriously injured. It is believed, by those best situated to know the facts, that a number of the mob were secretly disposed of or taken care of by their friends, and whose names have never been given. If men had been ready and willing to man the trains, they could have been sent out after the dispersal of the crowd, but the occurrence at Twenty-eighth street seems to have thrown everybody into confusion, and, as usual, the engineers and train men were glad to find some excuse for not going. No attempt seems to have been made to move the trains, which were supposed to be ready at Twenty-sixth street, and the cars remained there until they and their contents were burned. The troops remained on the ground from the time of the firing about five, P M., until about dusk, when they were ordered, by General Pearson, to move into the lower round-house and machine-shop, near Twenty-sixth street, and remain for the night, as all attempts to move trains had been abandoned, and the troops needed rest and food.

The crowd had come together again gradually, in the vicinity of the Twenty-eighth street crossing, but whenever the troops made any move towards them, they would scatter, and when the troops marched into the lower round house and machine shop, the mob took possession of, and had full sway again at the crossing. General Pearson had ordered the Fourteenth and Nineteenth regiments to go down and take possession of the transfer depot as it was called, about two hundred yards below the lower round house, and these regiments marched down there about the time that General Brinton's command went into the round house and machine shop. Colonel Gray, at request of Colonel Howard, assumed command at the transfer depot, and held possession until about ten P.M., when General Brown came and told Colonel Gray that the place was untenable, and could not be held; that he had information which made it necessary for them to get out, and ordered the command to go to the Union depot. Colonel Gray had been disgusted at the order to leave the side hill above the Twenty-eighth street crossing, thinking it a great mistake, and was also disgusted at the order to move down to the Union depot. Colonel Gray, received orders from General Brown to disband his command, and at once called around him his officers, and protested against it. Said it was a disgrace to do so, with the mob in force in the vicinity, and a disgrace to desert the Philadelphia troops, but the order was obeyed, and the men dispersed to their homes, carrying their guns with them; about eleven P.M., General Brown testified, that leading citizens and military men advised him that it was best to disband these troops, that their being kept under arms aggravated and exasperated the mob, and that this advice coincided with his opinion, and therefore the order was given. About two hundred men were present at the time they were disbanded, nearly as many more having left from time to time, during the day and evening, and it is General Brown's opinion, that they were absent on account of their sympathy with the strikers, and not on account of fear. When these troops marched down to the transfer depot, the mob did not jeer or rail at them, as they did at all times at the Philadelphia troops, and it does not seem from the evidence, that anything had been done by them to aggravate or exasperate the mob in the least. General Pearson entered the round house with General Brinton's command, and left them about half past eight, to see about getting provisions for the men, who had received no regular meal since leaving Philadelphia. They had been furnished with coffee and sandwiches at Altoona, and the same at Pittsburgh.