Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1877 — GREAT RAILWAY STRIKE. [ARTICLE]

GREAT RAILWAY STRIKE.

Collision Between the Strikers and a Body of Militia at Pittsburgh. A Large Number of People Killed and Wounded. Great Destruction of Property—Uuparalleled Scenes of Violence.

From the Pittsburgh papers we glean the following particulars of the tenable deeds of violence, growing out of the great railroad strike, enacted in that city on Saturday and Sunday, July 21 and 22 : Nearly 2,000 troops arrived in Pittsburgh from Philadelphia at 3 o’clock on the afternoon of Sunday, the 21st, and a few minutes later they left the Union Depot for the scene of disturbance on the Twenty-eighth street crossing, marching out along the track, and preceded by the Sheriff and his posse comitatus. The Sheriff and his posse reached Twenty-eighth street shortly after 4 o’clock, by which time an immense crowd had congregated at that point. The hillside was literally black with people, a vast majority of whom had been attracted to the spot by mere curiosity. No demonstration was made until the Black Hussars, of Philadelphia-. who were dismounted, were ordered to clear the Twenty-eighth street crossing of tho crowds. The moment the Hussars attempted to execute the order they wero assailed by the crowd on the hillside, who sent a shower of stones with the force of meteorites upon the soldiers. A number of the latter were seriously injured, and their companions, goaded to desperation, commenced firing. The first shots were aimed above the heads of the crowd, which hadjiow become a mob, but the shower of stones continued. Then some of the mob drew their revolvers and fired at the military, but their shooting was wild, and was much less effective than tho missiles which had been hurled. The military then fired directly into the crowd, and the volley proved to be most disastrous to the assailants. The excitement at this moment was simply indescribable, and it was not until after some moments that the effect of the firing was made known. It was soon ascertained that fourteen persons had been killed and the same number wounded. The crowd, however, soon rallied, and so vigorous was their onset that the military were forced to retire from their position. Then the strikers retreated, and started in the direction of the arsenal for the avowed purpose of seeming arms and ammunition. Three of the lulled were women, and of the wounded a large proportion were women and children who were among the spectators on the hillside. Very few of the strikers were among the killed or injured. Owing to their sympathy for tho strikers fully ono-lialf of the Pittsburgh militia stacked their arms and dispersed. The strikers and their sympathizers were incensed beyond all measure at the killing of their comrades. To the number of several thousand they made a raid into the city, the puny police offering no resistance, marched into a number of gun-shops and relieved them of their arms and ammunition. A battery was also taken from the arsenal. Thus armed and equipped, the rioters hastened back toward the round-house, bent upon avenging tho death of tlicir comrades, and uttering the most terrible threats against the “insolent Philadelphia mi lilia.” The latter, meantime, had taken refuge in the round-house. Upon the approach of the rioters three of them endeavored to steal out of tho building, but, being discovered by the mob, they were riddled with bullets and instantly killed. In a short time the roundhouse, with its 400 besieged militiamen, was closely invested by the mob, and all egress cut off. They were surrounded by at least 10,000 desperate men crying aloud for their blood, and vowing that not one- should escape alive. The excitement was terrible to behold. No such scene was ever witnessed in this country befpre. To add to the horror, of the scene, the rioters applied the totch to a large oil train, and the light from the flames lit up the entire city. The fire Communicated to other cars, and soon 200 or 300 ojj, them were roduceu <.O ashes. Many of these trains were laden with valuable goods, and the loss from this source is estimated at $2,000,000. Many of the cars burned were loaded with grain and general merchandise. Thieves plied their vocation during the night with untiring industry. Trunks containing fine clothing, silks, laces and other goods were Pi rst open, and their contents appropriated. Flour, hams, fruit and other eatables were carried off in immense quantities. Scarcely a soul in tho whole town slept during the niglit. Such excitement has never been known in this part of the country, and old army officers say that the howling crowd and the peculiarities of the situation conspired to present an aspect never rivaled by the horrors of war. The streets were filled with women -wringing their hands in despair and shrieking piteously for their husbands,, sous or fathers, who were in the riot. The crowd itself was largely composed of women who, in then - frenzied fear for their relatives, made the horrible night hideous with their lamentations and wailings. Among the killed outright by the militia were a number of women, over whose bloody bodies friends knelt in the very agony of despair, sometimes calling upon them for a word, and again urging the crowd to seek double vengeance for the outrage, as they term it Tho mangled bodies of children shot down while clinging to the garments of their crazed mothers marked, too, the terrors of the night, and wrought the crowd to a pitch untamable and indescribable. It should not be inferred that the rioters were all railroad men or strikers. Iron-work-ers, stevedores, miners, thieves, thugs from Baltimore, and tramps from the surrounding country, poured in to swell the 1110 b, generally leaving the lighting to railroad men and devoting their own attention to plunder. The hills overlooking the track and tho nowfamous round-house were jammed with people, maddened by the excitement of the night and clamoring for vengeance for the friends they had lost under the murderous fire of the soldiery. Men with pallid, distorted faces rushed hither and thither, their hands clenched and their teeth set. The strike was not thought of. A passionate hatred for the men who had opposed them, and a hellish desire to root out the soldiers, had taken possession of the original strikers, and, reckless of any and all consequences, they struggled only to work some terrible damage to their opponents. This feeling was aided by the disaffection of the local militia, and the manifest sympathy on the part of citizens generally lor the men who claim to have been interrupted by foreign intervention while fighting for their rights. But to return to the siege of the j roundhouse. The mob, at about 8 o’clock in the evening, commenced firing into the building. The miiitiamen returned the fire with fatai effect. At each volley from the besieged building some of the rioters fell, and a scream of rage went up, and the anger of the crowd knew no bounds. A constant fusilade was kept up between the militia and a portion of the strikers until far into the small hours of the morning. The main efforts of the crowd, however, from midnight Saturday until 5 o’clock Sunday morning, were directed to firing the building's and cars, hut about half an horn- later the mob which had been besieging the military left for some unexplained reason. This afforded the troops, wild were in actual danger of being roasted alive, an opportunity to emerge from the building, and they succeeded in reaching Liberty street in a very few moments. They quietly formed iu line and marched up to Thirty-third street, and thence to Pennsylvania avenue and Butler street. Their objective point was tho United States arsenal on Butler street, where they expected to obtain shelter. While turning into Butler street, however, the leaders of the mob bad discovered . tlicir retreat, and fully 1,000 men, fully armed and supplied with ammunition, followed in pursuit. Some of the troops fired at the citizens, either accidentally or intentionally, as they moved along, and this added fury to the cry for revenge. When they

reached the arsenal the commandant refused to admit them. He said he had but ten men, and would be powerless to hold the place if the mob should attack it. He consented to take care of the wounded, and they wore accordingly carried into the hospitals. The main body of the troops continued their march out Butler street, a fusilade being kept up on them by the mob as they moved forward. The shots fired killed one of the soldiers before they reached the arsenal, and nearly opposite the cemetery gate, fully a mile above the arsenal, two others were killed and were left lying on the sidewalk. They continued their flight and crossed over to the north side of the Allegheny river, 011 the Sharpsburg bridge, the mob following them as rapidly as possible. After reaching the north side the troops scattered, and in this way the mob was divided into very Rmall bodies. , One man of the mob followed the PhiladelE hians, took the gun of one of them, and, eeping up the trail, shot and killed seven men. It is said thirteen of the militiamen wero killed during the retreat. In the meantime the city was in a state of anarchy. Thousands who had not joined in the pursuit of the fleeing troops gathered about the burning buildings and trains, and assisted in spreading the flames w herever they had not been applied. By 7 o’clock p. m. the fire had extended from Milevale station to Twentieth sireet and enveloped hundreds of cars, 125 locomotives, the extensive machine shops, two round-houses, the depots and offices of the Union Transfer Company, blacksmith shops, store-houses, and numerous buildings making up the terminal facilities of this mammoth corporation. The torch was applied to the large Union Depot, and the building reduced to ashes. All the Pan-Handle trains in the yard and depot buildings, together with the bridgesover Washington street, and tho immense elevator at tho Union Depot, were next fired, and wero soon a mass of ashes. There were no fire engines, no police, and no military to interfere and prevent this terrible work of destruction. The mob wore in undisputed possession of everything, no one daring to interpose even a remonstrance, and quickly and thoroughly was the work of desolation planned and executed. The total destruction of the property of the Pennsylvania railroad and freight left in its charge, and also that of the Pan-Handle railroad, including the 125 locomotives, cannot be less than $8,000,000. A low estimate of the value of the locomotives at the present time would place them at $2,000,000, though they originally must have cost over $3,000,000. The Union Depot and hotel destroyed, owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, cost in the neighborhood of $600,000. The grain elevator cost over $1,000,000, and was owned jointly by the corporations of the Pennsylvania Company, though ostensibly it was run under the title of another corporation. The freightsheds of the Pan-Handlo railroad wore very complete, and they were filled with valuable freight, all of which was either stolen hv the mob or destroyed by the fire-demou. The dispatcher’s office on Washington street was destroyed, and in its wake followed several small dwellings located near the brick-yard. On Sunday evening the citizens of Pittsburgh took decision to protect tho city from the total destruction which was threatened by tho mob, and, organizing themselves in large numbers into a vigilance committee, proceeded to tho scenes of arson and plunder, where they were successful in staying the hands of the thieves and incendiaries. A compromise was effected by tho Fort Wayne Railroad Company, whereby the latter concede to the strikers the wages paid previous to the last reduction ; tho strikers thereupon returned to their places and assisted in getting the rolling-stock in motion. The loss of life during the thirty-six hours’ reign of lawlessness in Pittsburgh is unknown at this writing, but it will certainly reach forty, and perhaps fifty, killed outright. A large number were wounded, some of whom cannot recover.