Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
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Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878
Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
Fourteenth regiment on Bedford avenue, and turned them through the
ravine east of the Pest house, explaining the topography of the hill to
the commanding officer, telling him how to deploy his regiment. We then
moved forward in regimental front. We started a few people on the hill,
and they ran down the track. Just as we got to the lower bench of the
hill the battery and the Nineteenth regiment arrived on the ground. The
crossing was occupied and cleared. We then returned to the Union depot
to prepare some provision for the troops. About seven o'clock we
started out, Mr. Pitcairn, General Pearson, myself, and others. At
Twenty-eighth street we halted, and I called General Pearson's
attention to the hill, and the general location. We had some
consultation about it, and General Pearson admitted that it was a
position to be occupied and held. He then went to the other side of the
tank of the engine, and directed somebody to hold the hill and allow
nobody to go on it, and to keep the crossings clear, and to allow
nobody to come on them. We then went on to Torren's station, to Colonel
Guthrie's camp. He gave his orders, and he then said he would return to
the city and await the arrival of the Philadelphia troops. The first
detachment arrived at one o'clock, and the second about half past two
o'clock. They were given a lunch there, and at about four o'clock,
perhaps a little after, we started out the tracks. Sheriff Fife, with a
posse of perhaps twelve or fifteen men, marched ahead of the column
some distance, with warrants for the arrest of certain parties who were
supposed to be ringleaders, and Mr. Pitcairn and myself accompanied the
sheriff to point out these men. When we came opposite the transfer
station, I pointed out a couple of avenues leading in from Liberty
street, and said it might be well to guard them, and we made a detail
to guard that place. The rest of the column then moved on. We saw,
directly, that the hill side, instead of being kept clear was covered
with people, and also the crossings. The troops marched up with the
First regiment--I think the regiment of Colonel Benson--in advance, and
on Twenty-eighth street came into line. Colonel Benson then formed two
sides of a square, making the north and south sides of the square, and
two companies came up in company front and formed the first side of the
square, facing east. The Gatling guns took position in the rear of the
east side of the square. Before this square had been formed, Mr.
Pitcairn and myself went with the sheriff among the crowd, but were
unable to find the parties for whom the sheriff held warrants. We had
some discussion there with the strikers, and General Pearson, I
observed, passed us going up the hill where the Pittsburgh troops
seemed to have been formed. After the square had been formed, we gave
up our discussion with those people, and Mr. Pitcairn and myself sat
down on some plank about the center of the square. General Pearson
passed us and made some remarks.
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