Part 44

Q. Where were the armories?

A. Our armory is at Mansfield.

Q. Did you go?

A. There was an eleven o'clock train--11.02--which starts for Mansfield. I took that train and went to Mansfield.

Q. How long did you remain there?

A. I remained until Monday.

Q. Called into action again Monday?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Reported, where?

A. I reported at the Central armory, Pittsburgh.

Q. During the day on Saturday, while occupying the hill, you had a view of the track, and the scene of the riot, did you not?

A. Yes, sir; I had.

Q. How large was the crowd during Saturday--and what was their--were they demonstrative or not?

A. Very much so, and the crowd was very large. They seemed to increase after three o'clock.

Q. Was any attempt made by the Fourteenth and Nineteenth regiments during Saturday, to drive the crowd from the tracks?

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 again by some on the other side. My company being small, would, of course, sweep but a small space of the ground.

Q. Tell us in what manner you cleared the crossing.

A. I marched company front across the track towards the river, and then I would wheel from the left to right, and marched back again, asking the crowd to get off the track, which they would do reluctantly, but I had no trouble.

Q. At a charge bayonet?

A. I do not think I came to a charge bayonet at all.

Q. Just simply marched through and back?

A. Yes; at a carry.

Q. In what order was your company drawn up--in two lines?

A. Sometimes in double rank, and sometimes in single rank.

Q. Would you sweep the track the width of your company?

A. There was generally two companies detailed. One would be passing, perhaps east, keeping the crowd towards East Liberty, and the other would face the river.

Q. Were there any other companies of your own regiment there?

A. Where--on the track?

Q. Yes?

A. My regiment was on the hill, with the exceptions----

Q. Was your regiment on there?

A. I believe I said in my testimony, that the Fourteenth regiment marched that way in a circuitous route, while the Nineteenth went out the other way. I reported to my colonel, who was then in command--Colonel Gray.

Q. Was there any resistance to your attempt at clearing the track?

A. There was some little said. They were obstinate, some of them, and considerably mean about it, and would not go away, as we were marched up, but a few words would make them go away, but they would go round, and get on the track again.

Q. Were they stopping trains?

A. No, sir; I did not see them stop any trains there.

By Mr. Larrabee:

Q. During the time while you were not engaged in clearing the crossing, in what position were the companies of the Fourteenth regiment stationed, up on the top of the hill?

A. We were in what I would call line of battle, on the face of the hill.

Q. Was the crowd mingling with the regiment--mixed up with the regiment?

A. With very few exceptions. I mind, during the day, talking to several citizens, but I did not consider them rioters.

Q. While you were stationed in line of battle, on the brow of the hill, where was the Nineteenth regiment stationed?

A. The Nineteenth was to our front and right in advance, on the road that leads up to the hospital.

Q. What position were they in during the day?

A. My recollection is, they were in line the same as we were, with the exception of this: that we were detailed a guard.

Q. There was something said by some of the witnesses about the mob and the troops being mixed up indiscriminately. Did you see anything of that kind?

A. I do not think I would say that.

Q. There seemed to be a friendly feeling?

A. There was no picket line out, to keep it entirely clear. The orders were to keep the crowd away, and not to mingle with the men. Still there was no pickets put out, and no driving them away. I heard some remarks made to the men: "You won't shoot workingmen."

Q. Were there any efforts made that day to form any line, by either of the regiments, or both of them, to form a line, so as to keep the mob off from the tracks? What I mean is, to occupy the vicinity of the track, so as to keep the crowd off from it?

A. I have said, already, that my company----

Q. You were marched down and marched back, and took your position with the regiment again? There was no effort made to keep the track clear at any place, except the crossing?

A. No, sir; because they would go right on the track again.

Q. There was no effort made to string out a line, so as to keep the crowd from the track?

A. Only at the crossing, sir.

Q. Where were you at the time General Brinton's troops came up there?

A. I was a very short distance from that little watch-house at Twenty-eighth street, at the foot of the hill--the base of the hill. Perhaps twenty-five yards from where the company was.

Q. In full view of what was going on?

A. Yes; Colonel Gray, I heard him get the order from General Brown to send a company down to support Breck's battery. He turned around and ordered me to take my company out, and also ordered another captain to report to me, and we went down the hill and supported the battery.

Q. The battery was near the crossing at that time?

A. Yes; very near the crossing.

Q. What did you see as General Brinton came up the track? Were there any deputies in advance of them?

A. Yes; the sheriff and his posse was there, and General Pearson, I believe.

Q. State the occurrence as you saw it, just immediately preceding and including the firing on the mob?

A. There was a company came up the track--at least one company, I say--there were, perhaps, two. They came up company front. The regiment--the First Pennsylvania regiment, I believe--came up by flank, the sheriff in front. The railroad came this way [indicating] and they met the troops and the sheriff.

Q. Advanced to meet them part way?

A. Yes; they were going out to see. The troops were stopped--the sheriff was--and I saw him talking, but could not state what he said, be cause there was a very loud clamor and talk from the hillside then, about that time. There was quite a crowd accumulated on the hill, immediately in my rear and right and left. The crowd ran that way to see what was going on--men, women, and children--and it became very noisy; they were crying to the mob, as I call it, to hold the fort.

Q. Men, women, and children, that were spectators, crying to the mob to hold the fort?

A. Yes; "Stand to your post, &c.," and they appeared to obey the command, for they stood pretty solidly, and the sheriff appeared to become so mixed up with the crowd that I could not tell where he was. The only front I saw was these Black Hussars, I think they call them, came right up and told them to go back and came to an arms port, and finally to a charge bayonet, and in the meantime Colonel Benson got his regiment to a front about faced his rear rank, and marched out across the railroad with the rear facing my company, and they formed, what some have termed, a hollow square. It was simply the front facing one way and the rank about facing and marching across the railroad, and that cleared the tracks, and the rear was protected by another battalion, and these troops in front tried to come on through--that was their order as I understood it--they were to forward, and it was hard work for them to go forward very fast. Just about that time, demonstrations became very lively, clubs were flying, stones, coal, and pieces of iron ore. There was a difficulty about this time over some soldier, that some man had got the bayonet, or something, and at least one pistol shot was fired from the mob into the troops, and somebody there--some soldier--he was carried away--I do not know whether he was shot or not, but just then there was firing commenced on the right of the third rank of the First regiment.

Q. How far distant from you was that first firing by the troops?

A. It was not very far--I suppose twenty yards.

Q. What order did you hear given by any of the commanding officers there?

A. I heard no order, except this captain commanding the front company to forward.

Q. That is all the orders you heard given?

A. That is all I heard given.

Q. Heard no order to fire?

A. There was not any order to fire, to the best of my knowledge. I was paying strict attention and I could have heard it if the battalion had heard it.

Q. What was the effect of the firing--what was the result?

A. There was a general clearing out of that mob for about ten minutes--five or ten minutes.

Q. They scattered and left that neighborhood?

A. Yes, sir; the firing commenced, and the troops appeared not to understand exactly where their enemies was. They fired too much towards where your humble servant was, I thought, and I undertook to help them to stop the firing, and the companies were fronted down Twenty-eighth street.

Q. The time this firing commenced, was the crowd all about, on each side of this body of troops that were coming up the track--they were each side of them--the crowd was all about on each side of your company?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Were scattered all about there?

A. Yes; they became very thick in a very short time.

Q. Then the crowd scattered after the firing?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Was there any attempt made to prevent their gathering again there by any of the troops?

A. Nothing more. When they would go to come up again they were ordered to right and prepare to fire, and that scattered them. Some of the mob kept on throwing stones and clubs from behind cars until this company wheeled to the left and faced the river, so as they could see behind the cars.

Q. How long before General Brinton's command left the ground there?

A. After the firing; 1 do not think it was over half an hour. I cannot remember the exact time.

Q. After his command left the ground you stayed there some little time--your regiment?

A. My regiment did. I went up on the hill to my regiment.

Q. Was there any effort made by the Fourteenth or Nineteenth regiment, after General Brinton left, to keep the crowd from the crossing?

A. My regiment was not at the crossing at all.

Q. Was any effort made by either of the commands to prevent their gathering there again?

A. Yes; the troops from Philadelphia went that way, and they would go up above, further towards East Liberty, and congregate in the street again--in Twenty-eighth street--immediately after that and would make demonstrations.

By Senator Yutzy:

Q. That is not answering the question. Did the Fourteenth or Nineteenth make any effort?

A. I said no--the Fourteenth regiment did not. I do not know about the Nineteenth. I did not see them. We were not down on the track; we were on the hill.

By Mr. Larrabee:

Q. You kept your position on the hill. After the firing you went back there?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. On Monday you say you came back to the city and reported with your command. Where were you sent then--on what duty?

A. We stayed at the central armory for several days, then we were ordered to the court-house.

Q. There was nothing of any importance occurred?

A. No, sir.

By Senator Yutzy:

Q. Was your company the only company of your regiment at the crossing at Twenty-eighth street and the railroad?

A. No, sir; there were others.

Q. Was the whole regiment there at any one time?

A. No, sir; at no one time.

Q. How many companies were there of your regiment at one time?

A. I think mostly we had two companies at a time.

Q. And the balance of the regiment were up on the hill?

A. Or if there was only one company the cavalry company would support us.

Q. What was the strength of your regiment about that time?

A. I do not remember the figures. There were two or three companies had not yet reported.

Q. Never did report?

A. Yes; they had not yet reported on Saturday. One company had reported, and was still at the Union depot, up the river. Another company was kept up the Allegheny railroad by orders.

Q. Can you form an estimate of the strength of your regiment on Saturday?

A. I did know the figures. I think there were two hundred, perhaps, or one hundred and fifty.

Q. After the firing on the Philadelphia troops, you rejoined your regiment on the hill--your company?

A. Yes; General Brinton relieved me, and told me he would support that battery, and I could be relieved, and I reported to my colonel by my sergeant, and he ordered me up on the hill again.

Q. Bid you take the battery with you?

A. No, sir; General Brinton said he would support the battery. Company C, Captain Nesbitt, was ordered to go down the hill with me.

Q. Did you get any order after this firing, and after the Philadelphia troops had entered the round-house, to clear the tracks with your regiment?

A. No, sir.

Q. There was no effort made?

A. We marched down through the crowd to the transfer station, after the Philadelphia troops left to go to the round-house.

Q. Where is this transfer station?

A. It was two hundred yards or so outside of the round-house. That is my recollection of the distance--perhaps two hundred yards.

By Mr. Lindsey:

Q. From there you went to the Union depot?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Was the track clear down to the Union depot?

A. No, sir; there were parties of men standing along here and there.

Q. They gave way so that you could march through?

A. Yes; they didn't molest us. Some remarks made that we were not the Philadelphians, etc.

By Mr. Means:

Q. Did the mob appear to discriminate between the Philadelphia troops and the Pittsburgh troops.

A. There appeared to be a feeling against the Philadelphia troops.

By Senator Yutzy:

Q. Did there appear to be any feeling on the part of your regiment men against the Philadelphia troops?

A. No, sir; I heard no such remarks made.

Q. That feeling was expressed in the mob?

A. Yes, sir.

By Mr. Means:

Q. The one soldier would respect another?

A. We knew they were soldiers and obeyed orders.

Q. That was our training in the army?

A. Yes, sir.

By Mr. Lindsey:

Q. Were you in the late war, captain?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. What position did you hold there?

A. I was captain of company E, Sixty-first Pennsylvania regiment.

Q. Served how long?

A. Three years.

By Senator Yutzy:

Q. If you had deployed your regiment, or probably both your regiment and the Nineteenth, too, along the line of the railroad forming a line on each side of the track, could you have kept the crowd and mob away from the railroad with the force you had there?

A. If I had been ordered to do so, I think so, certainly. We would have tried hard anyway.

* * * * *

General Joseph Brown, being duly _sworn_, testified as follows:

By Mr. Lindsey:

Q. Where do you reside?

A. Pittsburgh.

Q. What is your business?

A. Hardware merchant.

Q. A member of the National Guard?

A. No, sir; not a member of it now. My time expired on November 1st or 2d.

Q. 1877?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Were you in July, 1877?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And what position did you hold?

A. Brigadier General.

Q. What regiments were under your command?

A. The Fourteenth and the Nineteenth.

Q. Did you receive any orders, and if so, what were they in relation to the riots of July?

A. Yes; on the Friday morning I came to the city, about ten o'clock, I presume, and passing by the city hall, I saw the troops.

Q. Friday morning, the 20th?

A. Yes. I went into the city hall, and found that the Eighteenth regiment, of my brigade--one of the regiments of my brigade--had received orders to go out to the depot, that there was trouble there. I went up with them, as far as the depot, and they went out to the end from there. General Pearson ordered me to get out my other two regiments, and I did so as quickly as possible.

Q. What regiments were they?

A. The Fourteenth and the Nineteenth. About three o'clock I got about one hundred men--I do not remember now which companies they were--which regiments--but I started to go to the outer depot with a battery of two guns, and after I started, about three squares, or two squares, I suppose, I got orders to return, that the force was not strong enough.

Q. From whom?

A. From General Pearson. I returned and saw General Pearson. The idea was to get more troops before they could do anything. We were ordered to lay by until during the morning of the next day, and go out to the outer depot--to this place where the rioters were supposed to be.

By Senator Yutzy:

Q. What time was this?

A. This was along in the evening about five o'clock.

Q. What hour did you get the orders to remain at rest until morning?

A. About that same time--about four o'clock. We considered which would be the best way to get the upper hand of the rioters. I supposed they were in full force. About four o'clock, I suppose, I went out with the Fourth regiment, up through the city.

Q. About four o'clock in the evening?

A. Four o'clock in the morning--Saturday morning--and we occupied the ground immediately back of the depot.

Q. Of the Union depot?

A. No, sir; at this outer Twenty-eighth street crossing. We there met General Pearson, with Hutchinson's battery and the Nineteenth regiment, and I deployed them--placed the battery fronting on Twenty-eighth street and the regiment up on the side of the hill, in front of the Fourteenth regiment.

Q. Define fully the position of the battery--was it on the railroad track?

A. The battery was right at the railroad track, on a space probably as wide as this room.

Q. At the side of the track?

A. Yes; and pointing down toward the depot--towards the other depot.

Q. How many pieces?

A. Two pieces. I placed two companies on the crossing at Twenty-eighth street there, and kept them there for an hour at a time, I believe, to keep the track clear--to keep everything in order.

Q. You had one company to relieve the other?

A. Two companies to relieve each other from each regiment--two companies from each regiment.

By Mr. Larrabee:

Q. Alternately from each regiment?

A. Yes; alternately from each regiment.

By Senator Yutzy:

Q. Well?

A. We cleared the ground every time that there was any gathering, apparently, upon the track. There might be a few persons--fifteen or twenty persons, probably--on the track at that time. The companies would move across--probably there might be more--they would move across the track and clear it off entirely. At about the time the Philadelphia troops came through, I had the place cleared off thoroughly, and had Doctor Donnelly make a speech to the people there, and tried to tell them about the trouble that they were getting into. He made a few remarks there, and while he was making the speech I cleared the whole place off thoroughly. Then I remained about there. I was in my citizen's clothes all this time.

Q. You were in citizen's clothes?

A. Yes. I came up to the city--I live about a mile and a half below the city--my uniform was at home. I was in citizen's clothes and, of course, they did not know me so well--the men who were about me. I suppose there was one hundred and fifty to two hundred men.

Q. You mean of the mob--the crowd?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. You say you cleared the track completely, before the Philadelphia troops arrived at the crossing--by what means or disposition of your troops did you do so?

A. The two companies of one of the regiments.

Q. Tell me how you did that?

A. By forming in line and moving them back down the street, back of the crossing.

Q. Threw your companies across the street, and across the railroad track, and drawing them down Twenty-eighth street?

A. Yes; across over the railroad track, and passed on back to where these brick houses came up. Part of the column was there, the other was across the other way. Therefore we had them all on this side, except what was on the hill.

Q. In your efforts to keep the crossing clear, what course did you pursue?

A. Just merely to march--whenever I would see a few men on the track, I would move these troops across there.

Q. March across company front?

A. Yes; division front, and clear the track off.

Q. Then march back?

A. March the other side of the track again--up on the track all the time. They were on the track next to the hill--they were in line from this brick building across all the way, and whenever they would get in the rear of the soldiers they would fall back.

Q. During this time, the balance of your regiment reserved, was up on the hill--how far from the crossing?

A. Probably seventy-five yards.

Q. The whole brigade?

A. The two regiments.

Q. Not over seventy-five yards away from the crossing?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. They were not on the brow of the hill?

A. The Fourteenth regiment was up on the brow of the hill, probably seventy-five or eighty yards from the railroad track, and the Nineteenth regiment was down on the road, within twenty yards of the track. At about half past one to two o'clock, I went into the Union depot to see General Pearson, what he was going to do. The Philadelphia troops were in there lunching at the time. I thought that they were so long in there, I would go in to see what was going on, and make calculations what I should do. I saw General Pearson, and he told me we would do nothing at all, except to go out on two trains, that they were there ready for us to go out on.

Q. He said you were not to do anything at all, except to go out with those trains?

A. Yes, sir.

By Mr. Lindsey:

Q. What time was this?

A. It was, I suppose, one or two o'clock. I cannot tell the time. While I was in there, he told me this was all he had to do--to get on these two trains to go out there.

By Senator Yutzy:

Q. Did you make any further effort to keep the track clear?

A. Yes; the track was kept clear, until the Philadelphia troops came out, and there was such a rush of people, and gathering when they arrived at the depot, that it was utterly impossible to keep them from surrounding.

Q. Did you understand, from what Pearson said to you then, that he had countermanded the order to keep the track clear?

A. Oh, no; the track was being kept clear.

Q. To do nothing but that--to take out these trains?

A. To take out these trains.

Q. Were you in the immediate vicinity, when the firing took place?

A. Yes; I suppose twenty or thirty yards--well I was at the guns at the time--five or ten yards away from them.

Q. Was General Pearson there?

A. I did not see him.

Q. Who was in command of the troops that came up--the Philadelphia troops--at that time?

A. General Pearson, I thought, was in command of the troops--he was in command.

Q. Was he present?

A. That I could not say.

Q. Was Brinton present?

A. Yes; all I know is--I was watching everything as close as I could--the general outline of thousands of people at the time, and I was trying to watch it as much as I could, to see how the thing was going to get on, and the first things I saw was the firing, when the stones were thrown.

Q. The first thing you saw was the firing after the stones were thrown?

A. Yes; after the stones were thrown.

Q. Did you see the sheriff in front of the military?

A. I saw him there.

Q. With a posse?

A. Yes; with twelve or fifteen men.

Q. Were they assaulted by the mob?

A. Not that I saw.

Q. Any stones or missiles thrown at them?

A. Oh, no; they were thrown at them--the stones were thrown at the military.

Q. Were any of the military injured before the firing took place?

A. There might have been. I do not know. They say there was. I do not know.

Q. Did you hear any command given to fire?

A. No, sir; the first I heard was the firing.

Q. Were you in a position where you could have heard the command to fire if there had been one given?

A. I guess the noise was so great, the hooting and yelling was so great, I could not have heard.

Q. What was the effect of the firing?

A. The people all ran.

Q. Scattered?