The Culmination—A Sea of Fire—Death-Dealing Volleys—The Spirit of Desolation Lighting the Torch of Destruction—A Horrible Spectacle—A Reign of Terror—The Commune Gains a Brief but Fearful Ascendancy—The City Sacked by a Howling Mob—An end of all Lawful Authority—The Ghouls of Pillage Abroad in the Glare of the Devouring Fires—Millions of Property Resolved into Smoke and Ashes.

The condition of affairs at Pittsburgh had become alarming in the extreme. The concentration of military forces instead of having a tendency to cool down the ardor of the strikers, and overawe the vicious elements of society, seemed to have a contrary effect. The malcontents had increased in numbers with astonishing rapidity. The bands of strikers which numbered no more than a few hundreds at most, the morning of the preceding day, had been re-enforced by a mob of idlers and tramps numbering many thousands. The law-abiding citizens were in a state of alarm and trepidation. To employ the language of Statius: “They stood in silent astonishment and waited for the fall of the yet doubtful thunderbolt.”^[1] But the surging masses of the strikers and the mob were neither silent nor astonished. They were intoxicated by an excitement which prevented reflection. They neither knew when nor cared how the impending bolt would fall. They were ready to rejoice at the havoc it would make. Vast multitudes of men of the lowest character, actuated by the most brutal passions, were assembled for the sole purpose of inaugurating a reign of terror among the people, and to light the torch of destruction in the city.

Clamoring for a redress of grievances which they were unable to formulate, or distinctly specify, the mighty throngs of uneasy spirits who had been called into action in consequence of the railroad strikes, were preparing to commit the most heinous crimes against the peace and order of society. These men had no grievances to be redressed. They were the vagrants of our modern social organization. They prated of the downfall of liberty, when in truth they did not have a comprehension of the meaning of the word. Liberty is a proud spirit; it regards government as the true instrument of human happiness, and resists it when it becomes manifestly prejudicial to happiness. But liberty only flashes out against the government which murders innocent men, and dishonors women. Liberty is force of character, roused by the sense of wrong. But it is consistent with a sense of duty and a willingness to bear just restraint, and uncombined with these it achieves nothing lasting. Then it becomes the ally of turbulence, the enemy of discipline. The elements which had combined against law and order in Pittsburgh were not in rebellion against a government, but against the whole social organization. They had known no oppression; on the contrary they enjoyed a liberty which amounted to license—a license that enabled them to secure a living without labor.

It must be borne in mind that the characters here alluded to, were not the strikers but the vicious idlers, who had taken advantage of the strikes to commit lawless deeds. The lawlessness among the strikers was manifested in another way. They seized the property of their employers, they violated the fundamental law of the right to private property; they said in effect, “we are not receiving sufficient pay to sustain life, we will therefore quit our employment, and will not permit our employers to secure the services of other men to take our places.” This was violation of law, and should be unqualifiedly condemned. But it was not a warfare of destruction. The railroad strikers, as a mass, never had any purpose of destroying anything. They could have destroyed untold millions of dollars worth of property, all along the lines of the railroads which they had seized, and possession of which they retained for many days. Why could they not have burned every car on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad? Why could not the strikers of East St. Louis, during the five days they held possession, and even guarded property worth millions of dollars, have destroyed it? There was nothing to prevent them only their own determination not to destroy. On the contrary, the whole history of the movement shows conclusively that the railroad men on a strike had no disposition to destroy. They were not incendiaries, not thieves, not murderers. They were guardians of the property of their employers. If they had been actuated by a purpose to lay waste and burn, there was no adequate force to prevent their executing that purpose. As a mass, the railroad employes are far more honest than the majority of railroad managers. They indeed violated law, and in a manner that subjected them to punishment. But they were less guilty than the speculators and autocrats, who have plundered the general public to the extent of millions of dollars. There were bad men among the strikers—men who would not hesitate at almost any crime. There are had men in all classes of society. Dangerously bad men are found among those who are leaders in the commercial and financial world. But because some railroad laborers are bad men, shall we therefore stigmatize all railroad laborers as bad? That would be injustice. There were some railroad men, no doubt, among the mob who resisted the military and applied the torch to millions of dollars worth of property. Indeed, we have positive evidence that a few railroad men were active in promoting the riot. But they were no more representative of the whole body of railroad men than was William M. Tweed of the whole body of office-holders in the country.

This statement appears necessary because of the efforts which have been made to fix upon the railroad men the direct responsibility for the deeds of violence committed by the Pittsburgh mob of roughs. There were deeds of cruelty perpetrated by soldiers of the Federal and Confederate armies during the late war. But it would be manifestly unjust to charge that all soldiers of the Federal and Confederate armies were inhuman and cruel, and still more repugnant to our sense of fairness, to hold the whole people of the North and the South responsible for the deeds of some of the soldiers who were engaged in the war between the two sections. The violence of the mob, the destruction of property, and the general subversion of the social order in Pittsburgh, were not necessarily even consequences of the strike, but were incidents in a general disturbance. Those railroad men who promoted the violence, doubtless acted upon their own responsibility, and that ought to exonerate those who not only did not actively participate in the extraordinary scenes of that night of terror in Pittsburgh, but who, on the contrary, expressed their disapproval. It is but justice to say this in relation to the crime committed at Pittsburgh, there is no evidence that the railroad strikers, as a mass, were the instigators, or even the abettors of the deeds of that dreadful occasion.

The storm which had been gathering for two days was ready to burst upon the city in all its fury by the morning of the 21st of July. At an early hour of that day, it was apparent that a collision could not be avoided, and might happen at any time. During the morning the infantry forces of Alleghany county, which had been called out for duty before, was re-enforced by two batteries and two troops of cavalry which had been called out. To these forces were added the First Division of the National Guards of Pennsylvania, which had been called out at Philadelphia the preceding night. This force under command of Major-General Brinton, consisting of infantry, artillery and cavalry, began to arrive on the scene in the morning, and before evening the whole number had come up and had been assigned to posts of duty. These preparations on the part of the Government of the State did not seem to deter the strikers and the mob, on the contrary, these expressed the greatest contempt for the military array, and freely mingled with the soldiers, and boasted of their ability to speedily dispose of the whole body of militia which had been concentrated to put them down.

Early in the morning a line of pickets was drawn from Twenty-eighth street to the Union Depot, and civilians of all classes were prohibited from approaching the tracks of the railroad. Meanwhile the civil authorities were taking measures to proceed legally against the ringleaders of the riotous crowds. Judge Ewing of the Court of Common Pleas issued warrants for the arrest of a number of the most prominent of the men among the disturbers. The Sheriff undertook to organize a posse comitatus of one hundred men to serve the warrants. In this he was unsuccessful. About fifteen persons, mostly the regular deputies in the Sheriff’s office, responded to the call. Two hundred and fifty militia-men were ordered to support the civil officers in the discharge of their duty.

About three o’clock in the afternoon the Sheriff heading his posse, and followed by the military command, started out to execute the writs which he held. They were never served on the persons, for whom they were issued, by Sheriff Fife. The web of fate was already being wound around him. He returned no more from that mission on which he had gone in the performance of his official duty.

There are a great many statements in regard to the commencement of the rioting. It is not easy to arrive at the truth in this particular case. Where all was confusion, it was impossible to preserve a correct record of events in the order of occurrence. The account here given is believed to be in strict accordance with the facts, so far as they can be ascertained at this time. The conflict had been expected to take place all the morning. At half-past three o’clock in the afternoon Sheriff Fife, accompanied by a posse of fifteen men, and supported by General Brinton in command of a considerable body of the Philadelphia militia, started for the general rendezvous of the strikers and the mob at the Twenty-eighth street crossing. The plan of procedure agreed upon between the civil and military authorities, was for Sheriff Fife to proceed to the rendezvous, attempt the arrest of the persons named in his warrants, and if, as was anticipated, resistance was offered, to call upon the militia for assistance. The brigade of General Brinton marched out along the tracks, the Sheriff with his men preceding them. The Sheriff arriving at the depot, proceeded to order the crowd to disperse. The mob met this command with a storm of yells, shouts, threats and jeers. He then announced his purpose to arrest the persons whom he named. Meanwhile the military under General Brinton proceeded to clear the tracks. At that point a large number of strikers and an immense crowd of spectators had assembled. Much confusion ensued. The crowd of strikers and the malcontents taunted the militia, and denounced them as “a pack of sneaks and cowards.” However, they kept at a respectful distance from the points of the bayonets which the soldiers presented. By this time it was apparent that the immense throng of rioters could not be dispersed by reading the riot act, or at the behest of the Sheriff. General Brinton, Mr. Pitcairn and Sheriff Fife at this stage held a short consultation. The riot act had been read and disregarded, and it was now determined to proceed to more decisive measures. The Sheriff had warrants for the arrest of fifteen persons among the strikers. General Brinton and Mr. Pitcairn, assistant Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, advised the Sheriff to proceed to make the arrest. At this time the excitement was fearful. The strikers were furious. The vast mob of the evil disposed elements of society were dangerously determined, nor were the immense assemblage of substantial citizen-spectators wholly indifferent as to the result. Their sympathies were with the strikers. The Sheriff went forward to execute his mission. One man, whose name was particularly singled out, was arrested. At that moment another man who was wanted rushed forward, waved his hat aloft, and shouted “At them boys! at them! give them hell!” As to what followed immediately upon this movement accounts differ. But it appears before any actual resistance by act was made, General Brinton ordered his men to fire. This has been denied; but the weight of evidence favors the correctness of the statement first made. Another writer who claims to have been present asserts that the mob made a determined assault upon the soldiers, by hurling a shower of missiles at them under the leadership of George Martin, the man for whose arrest the Sheriff had a warrant. At any rate a terrible fire was opened by the militia on the vast crowd of strikers, the mob acting in concert with them, and the citizens who had collected on the hill overlooking the track. The fire of the soldiers was very destructive, sixteen persons were instantly killed. The intelligence of this collision spread with amazing rapidity throughout the city. The whole population was instantly emptied into the streets.

It appears that there was no sufficient cause for the fusilades of the soldiers in this instance. If we take this account given of it by one who evidently wrote with a strong bias in favor of the military, still there does not appear to have been sufficient provocation to justify the destructive fire into a crowd of people in which were many women and children. The writer alluded to, says:

“When the line reached the depot they immediately cleared the crossing amid the jeers and hootings of the strikers, who widely scattered through the great crowd, there being not less than five thousand people present. Consultation was then held by the officers in command with Superintendent Pitcairn and the Sheriff, after which the latter proceeded to read the riot act. Having warrants for the arrest of fifteen of the ringleaders, he proceeded to make an arrest. The particular man for whom the warrant was issued approached, waved his hat, and calling to the crowd and strikers said, ‘Give them hell.’ Immediately a shower of boulders was hurled into the troops, and one revolver-shot fired into the ranks. General Brinton then ordered his men to fire, and the word went along the line from platoon to platoon until the left of the line was reached, and then the firing was repeated several times. The crowd fled in dismay, and hid wherever it was possible. Immediately after the firing, crowds of excited people sprang up, as if by magic, from all directions, and the imprecations against the Philadelphia troops, who were blamed by the strikers and the mob as being responsible for the trouble, were very threatening. It was a noteworthy fact that hundreds of people in no way connected with the railroad, expressed their determination to join with the strikers in driving them from the city. These remarks were interspersed with loud and bitter threats that the Company’s shops, depots and buildings should at night be laid in ashes.”

Who “the excited people” were who “sprang up as if by magic, from all directions,” this writer does not inform us. It could not have been the terror stricken crowd which had “fled in dismay and hid wherever it was possible,” but a moment before. Nor is it plain why “hundreds of people in no way connected with the railroad, expressed their determination to join with the strikers” in driving the Philadelphia troops from the city.

The firing was repeated. Platoon after platoon poured showers of bullets into the terror stricken company assembled on the bank overlooking the railroad tracks. By this time the excitement had become dreadful, and extended all over the city. There was a general condemnation of the action of the militia among the citizens. The general impression was that they had acted precipitately, and had needlessly sacrificed the lives of a number of innocent persons. The billows of passion were rolling with fearful sweep over the city. The night was closing in. The scenes presented on the streets were intensely exciting. The experience of the fusilades had produced only a still more dangerous condition of feeling. The whole population seemed to have joined the rioters. Within less than half an hour after the firing, the crowd about the Twenty-eighth street crossing had swelled to fearful proportions. The position of the Philadelphia troops was critical. The expressions of bitterness against them was not confined to the strikers alone. The soldiers were too few to protect the city. At eight o’clock the multitude at Twenty-eighth street numbered not less than twenty thousand. The threats were ominous. No pen can describe the scenes witnessed that evening on the streets of Pittsburgh. The demoniac yells, the loud profanity, the terrible threats, were united to swell the awful volume of angry noises. It seemed as if the infernal regions had been emptied of its myriads of fiends, who were released for the purpose of enacting on earth the orgies of hell. There was little or no drunkenness from the use of liquors, but there was an inebriation of terrible passion in its manifestations. Men, women, old and young, high and low, both sexes, all conditions, all orders, all classes in life, came forth and joined the angry, surging tide of humanity that incessantly ebbed and flowed through the streets of the fated city. Pittsburgh had entered upon its night of woe. The Commune had risen in its dangerous might, and threatened a deluge of blood. In the very center from which a large part of the world’s supply of oil is drawn, the petroleuses were apparently ready to fill their cans and go forth as messengers of destruction.

Concerning the conflict at Twenty-eighth street which had taken place between five and six o’clock, and which was one of the factors in, if not the immediate cause of the terrible excitement which seized upon all classes of the people, it is but proper to present the statements of both sides in regard to the commencement. Lieutenant James P. Elliot, Acting Adjutant General on the staff of General Matthews, commanding the First Brigade of the First Division, who was a participant and eye witness of what occurred, gives the following account of the first encounter between the soldiery and the mob:

“The division under command of General Brinton, landed in Pittsburgh at 1:45 P. M. on Saturday, six hundred strong, the men each furnished with thirty rounds of ammunition, accompanied by two Gatling guns obtained in Harrisburg, in charge of the Keystone Battery. When the troops issued from the cars in the Union Depot, they were met by a large number of people, who appeared to be in perfect good humor, and even greeted them with cheers. That the bloodshed that afterwards followed would take place was, therefore, the last thing that entered the minds of the soldiers. After luncheon of sandwiches and coffee had been served, the troops remained in the depot until about half-past three o’clock, when the First Brigade composed of the First Regiment, Companies B and C of the Third, the Washington Greys and Weccacoe Legion, marched down the track as far as Twenty-eighth street, accompanied by Vice President Cassatt, Mr. Pitcairn, Superintendent of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Sheriff Fife and forty-five deputies, armed with writs for the arrest of prominent strikers. At Twenty-eighth street the head of the column composed of the Weccacoe Legion and the Washington Greys, found themselves confronted by a mob about two thousand strong, while on the hill some four hundred feet high that faced the right of the column, there were ranged an immense multitude at least ten thousand strong. On the brow of the hill were stationed detachments of the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Pennsylvania Regiments (Pittsburgh troops), and immediately above the railroad two pieces of Hutchinson’s Pittsburgh Battery. Sheriff Fife after in vain endeavoring to serve his writs, read the riot act, at which the mob jeered and laughed, whereupon the Sheriff and his deputies and Mr. Cassatt and Mr. Pitcairn retired in profound disgust.

The troops were then deployed for the purpose of sweeping the mob from the tracks, the Greys and Weccacoe Legion facing the two thousand or more strikers that occupied the tracks. At the back of the command was a train of coal cars, behind which there were about two hundred of the strikers. In order to force the principal mob back, the soldiers of the Greys and the Legion crossed their muskets, their intention being to avoid doing the strikers injury. The crowd laughed and jeered and finally attempted to wrest the muskets from the soldiers, who then came to a charge bayonet, and in the melee that necessarily followed, one of the strikers was wounded by a bayonet thrust. The cry arose from the mob: ‘Stick to it; give it to them; don’t fall back!’ and the men behind the coal cars began discharging pistols at the soldiers from under and between the cars, while the crowd in front began heaving rocks, with which a number of the soldiers were hit, and Sergeant Bernard of the Weccacoe Legion seriously wounded. The firing by the troops then began. There was no order given for it. It began with the discharge of a single musket, and was immediately followed by an almost simultaneous discharge from front and rear, right and left of the brigade. The firing lasted about ten minutes, men continually dropping in the fast-retreating mob. It was at this time that the Pittsburgh troops threw down their arms and fraternized with the strikers, Hutchinson’s Battery and a cavalry company alone excepted. Within five minutes after the firing ceased the mob was back again, but refrained for a while from further assaults upon the Philadelphians, and therefore there was no firing upon them. ‘It was the most persistent mob,’ said Lieutenant Elliot, ‘I ever saw.’ The brigade remained on the field of battle until six o’clock, when they were ordered by General Pearson back to the roundhouse, adjoining which is a building in which was stationed the second brigade.

The occurrence of an event such as that described above, could not fail to arouse the people. The killing of several members of the Pittsburgh militia by the Philadelphia troops, had the effect of intensifying the feelings of animosity against them. The crowds gathering in that part of the city were every moment becoming more demonstrative. The threats against the troops were calculated to cause even veterans to feel uneasy as to the result. The mob now outnumbered the soldiers at least seven to one. The militia remained on the field of conflict for a time. Then General Pearson fearing they would be surrounded and massacred by a merciless mob, ordered a retreat to the roundhouse of the Pennsylvania Company, and there prepared to resist the terrible mob of infuriated workingmen and vagrants.

The dangerous propensities of the mob continued to develop. Before nine o’clock had arrived, the law-abiding citizens of Pittsburgh were fully sensible of the impending peril. The strikers were resolute and determined. But the chief danger was in the presence of an immense number of vagrants and tramps, idle miners, and roughs of every character. Strange to say, there was a large element in the population of Pittsburgh, who had the reputation of being respectable people—tradesmen, householders, well-to-do mechanics and such, who were witnesses of the progress of the turbulent mob, who not only did not protest against their proceedings, but openly mingled with them, and encouraged them to commit further deeds of violence.

About 9:15 o’clock, a large band of the rioters, started on a mission of plunder. There were in the city a number of gun stores, and a number of hardware dealers who kept guns and ammunition as a part of their stock in trade. The location of these places of business, were well known to the leaders of the predatory mob. They proceeded first to a large gun and ammunition store, forced open the doors, and took from the premises some four hundred guns of all classes, many of them being Winchester and Henry rifles, such as obtained ready sale in the region adjacent to the Upper Missouri river. A large amount of fixed ammunition was also taken. Some five hundred repeating pistols with cartridges, were also taken away by the rioters. The crowd then went successively to every gun and hardware store in the city. More than two thousand guns of improved pattern were taken, while the number of pistols, swords and knives, thus taken could not be estimated. More than a hundred thousand dollars worth of arms and ammunition, had thus come into the hands of the mob.

Meanwhile the troops had sought shelter and protection in the roundhouse, where they were advised of the preparations of the mob to take the offensive, and awaited the expected assault with many misgivings as to their ability to resist the overwhelming force of the rioters.

By eleven o’clock, the work of plundering the gun stores had been completed, and a mob numbering not less than four thousand men, and organized into something like military order, formed in line and marched in two columns, one proceeding up Pennsylvania avenue, and the other taking Liberty street to Twenty-eighth street. Here at least thirty thousand people had assembled.

The scene presented at this time was truly awe-inspiring. The vast, surging masses of people, including men, women and children, the fearful tumult of a great multitude excited by angry passions, the shouts, taunts, jeers, execrations, and passionate appeals to an already enraged populace, the shrill screams of women, the cries of children, and the curses of men, altogether, were calculated to produce a sensation of alarm and terror, even in the breasts of the bravest.

On arriving at the scene of the late fusilades, at Twenty-eighth street, the armed mob at once proceeded to attack the troops quartered in the roundhouse. Volley after volley was poured into the windows, but elicited no response from the soldiers within. The mob threatened to massacre the whole division of the troops which had taken refuge there. The numbers and determination of the armed mob indicated that this expressed purpose was not merely an idle threat.

It was an hour fraught with momentous events. A city containing a population of more one hundred and twenty thousand souls was without law, in the complete possession of a vast mob, armed, vindictive, cruel, destructive. Immense amounts of valuable property, arrested in transit, filled long lines of freight cars on the railway tracks. Splendid stores and luxuriously appointed mansions, were all placed at the mercy of a mob which had set all law at defiance, a furious throng that acknowledged responsibility to no authority. Municipal government was at an end, police authority despised, even the Government of a great State was set at naught. Three thousand armed militia, infantry, artillery, and cavalry, the police force of some hundreds, the constabulary, all were powerless in presence of the armed and enraged multitude of many thousands. General Pearson and General Brinton, would most certainly have been murdered if they could have been found. Murders of straggling soldiers were being committed by the mob, whenever an opportunity occurred. Sheriff Fife went out to the outer depot to endeavor to stay the tide of lawlessness in that direction. But he was fated to return no more alive. His dead body was brought in at a late hour from the place where he had been shot.

The situation of the besieged militia was dangerous in the extreme. The now thoroughly infuriated mob was making loud threats of an intention to massacre the whole body of men. A committee of citizens proceeded to the roundhouse where they were shut up, and begged them to depart from a city they could not protect, while their presence only served to further exasperate an angry populace.

Threats of burning and destroying had been freely indulged in by the bad elements which composed the greater part of the howling mob that now frantically assailed the military. These threats were the earnest of a purpose. Midnight came. But there was no peace in the troubled city. Then one o’clock, and then the fire-bells rang. The alarm came from Twenty-eighth street. Everybody knew the dreadful significance of that. Pittsburgh soon presented a scene terribly grand.