A short history of Pittsburgh : 1758-1908Church, Samuel Harden
History
A short history of Pittsburgh : 1758-1908
Church, Samuel Harden
Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- History
The eastern troops left Philadelphia on Friday night and arrived at the
Union Depot on Saturday afternoon, tired and hungry. After a scant and
hasty lunch they were placed out along the tracks to the roundhouse
where the great bulk of the mob was assembled. In order to secure and
protect the building and tracks it was necessary that the crowd should
be forced back. When the troops undertook this movement some stones were
thrown and a few soldiers were hit. Then one of the subordinate officers
gave an order to fire, and about twenty persons were killed and thirty
wounded, three of whom were children.
When the rioters beheld their associates attacked, their rage passed all
control, and the troops were closed in upon and driven into the
roundhouse. Encouraged by this retreat, the mob took steps to burn them
out. Many cars loaded with whisky and petroleum were set on fire and
sent down the track against the building, and fire was opened on it with
a cannon which the crowd had seized from a local armory. General Brinton
came personally to one of the windows of the roundhouse and appealed to
the mob to desist, warning them that if they did not he must and would
fire. The rioters paid no attention to his appeal, but continued their
assaults, whereupon General Brinton gave orders to his men to fire at
those who were handling the cannon, and several of them were killed and
wounded. Incendiarism, having been inaugurated, went on through the
night, whole trains being robbed and then burned. The troops held their
position until Sunday morning, and then retreated out Penn Avenue to
Sharpsburg, where they went into camp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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