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
History
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
campaign, to render any service that lay in their power to make the men
comfortable.
The destruction of the railroad property by the mob had been continued
all night, the cars and goods contained in them that could not be
carried off being burned as fast as they could be broken open, the
goods thrown out and the cars set on fire. Crowds of men, women, and
children were engaged in the work of pillage, and everything portable,
of any value, was seized as fast as thrown from the cars, and carried
away and secreted. One feature of the mob at Pittsburgh is new in this
country. A large number of women were in the crowd at Twenty-eighth
street, on Saturday, the 21st instant, and according to testimony, they
talked to the sheriff, and others who tried to get the crowd to
disperse, worse than the men, used viler epithets, and more indecent
language, and did everything in their power to influence and excite the
mob to resistance. They also, during Saturday night and Sunday, brought
out tea and coffee for the men engaged in the destruction of property,
and were the most active in carrying away the goods taken from the
cars. This work of pillage and destruction continued all day Sunday,
and the actual destruction was participated in by only thirty to fifty
men, the citizens in the meantime standing looking helplessly on, and
no effort made to stay the damage by the bystanders. There was a very
large crowd in the vicinity of the burning, who were supposed to be in
sympathy with the destruction, and this probably deterred anyone from
interfering to put a stop to it. The police, on Sunday, arrested some
seventy-five persons who were carrying off goods, the arrests being
made some distance from the place where the articles were taken. Those
arrested were taken before Deputy Mayor Butler, and most of them were
by him discharged. This seems to be all that the police did to restrain
the rioting that day, and it is in evidence that one policeman in
uniform got into one of the cars and threw goods out to the mob.
On Saturday morning, General Latta had sent written orders by Captain
Aull to General Brinton, for the latter to make a junction with Colonel
Guthrie, at Torrens, and with the whole force to march to Pittsburgh,
and fearing that Captain Aull might fail to reach General Brinton, the
order was read to Colonel Norris, who volunteered to go in search of
General Brinton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account