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
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Will you tell us what you did in your own city--tell us how you
managed the trouble there?
A. The authorities of Allegheny managed the strikers differently--in a
different way from that pursued in Pittsburgh. Several days prior to
the burning in Pittsburgh, the strikers took possession of the railroad
tracks, and the workshops of the Pennsylvania company operating the
Pittsburgh, Port Wayne and Chicago railroad. They threw up
breast-works, and held armed possession of the railroad property, and
even took possession of, and regulated the running of passenger trains
and the United States mail trains. At all interviews, they insisted
that it was not their intention to destroy property, but to protect the
railroad property, and that they wouldn't commit any overt act in
violation of law, as they understood it. Many of them believed they
were not violating any law, and assumed that they had a right to
accomplish the object they had in view, by the method they then were
pursuing. The authorities and the citizens of Allegheny City knew that
they were dealing with a powerful, intelligent, and well organized body
of men, who were determined and resolute in their purposes. To have
attempted to force those men from their position, would have
precipitated the same troubles that culminated in Pittsburgh a few days
subsequently. So the citizens appealed to the better judgment of those
strikers, they reasoned with them, and instead of irritating them, or
attempting to force them, they permitted them to have their own way,
believing that the railroad officials and their employés, would, in a
few days, adjust all differences. This policy, under the circumstances,
proved to be a wise one, as when danger came, and when the mob were
burning and destroying in Pittsburgh, the strikers in Allegheny
actually removed all the rolling stock out of the way of danger, and
volunteered to assist the organized citizens in protecting the depots
and workshops, and all other railroad property in the city of
Allegheny. Had the same policy been pursued in Pittsburgh, there would
have been no destruction of property.
Q. You were in the army. What position in the army did you hold during
the late war?
A. In 1861--in May, 1861--1 enlisted as a soldier, and was elected
lieutenant of my company, and went out as a member of the Second
Virginia regiment, as lieutenant, and afterwards became captain of my
company.
Q. Was it a Union regiment?
A. Yes. We went to Wheeling to protect the people, and our services
were accepted by the people of West Virginia. On the 19th of February,
1862, I was appointed commissary assistant by the Secretary of War, and
that position I held until about the 1st day of September, 1862, when I
was assigned to duty as chief commissary of the Twelfth army corps.
About the 15th of March, 1863, I was assigned to duty as chief
commissary of the Fifth army corps, with the rank of lieutenant
colonel, on General Meade's staff.
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