OH–100-137

lornajarrettblanchard July 17, 1877

Last edit on 10-26-2023 by Wayne Blanchard for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–100-137 Blanchard tally based on State breakouts below.

— >100 Edwards, H. R. “The Great Strike of 1877.” Railroad Stories, February 1936, p. 5.

— >100 Holbrook. The Story of American Railroads, 1959, p. 250.

— >100 Shelton. “Pages from U.S. Labor History: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877.”

— ~100 McIntosh. “Labor Organization and the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.” Brewminate.

— >100 New York State Library, Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

Summary of Fatalities by State from Breakouts Below:

California ( 3)

Illinois ( 18)

Maryland (10-11)

New York ( 1-8)

Pennsylvania (67-96)

West Virginia( 1)

Total: (100-137)

Breakout of Strike and Rioting-Related Fatalities by State, Alphabetically

(Not in chronological order.)

California: ( 3)

–1 San Francisco.

–1 July 24. Mob burns Chinese laundry and bunkhouse at Greenwich and Devisadero.[1]

–1 July 25. Committee of Safety man dropped his pistol; went off and killed colleague.[2]

–1 July 25. “Shots from the mob on the bluff killed one fireman on a hose cart…”[3]

Illinois ( 18)

–>18 Chicago. Bruce, Robert V. 1877: Year of Violence. 1989, pp. 246-252.[4]

— 3 July 25. Halsted Street clash between police and large mob, p. 246.

–1 Burlington switchman.

–2 Unidentified persons later reported to have died.

—>18 July 26. Halsted St. viaduct area to Sixteenth St. Police fire into and club large mob.

–1 Man’s head crushed by police club. (p.248-250)

–1 Teenage boy “with a pistol in each hand” shot by policeman. (p.249)

–1 Mob leader who “stood his ground with a revolver…” shot by the police.

–1 Cabinet maker at cabinet-maker meeting invaded by police and shot. (p.250)[5]

–1? “Now and then came brief, ugly little scuffles, some of which lengthened the list of dead…”

–1? “At three o’clock the police and cavalry broke up a mob on Canal Street, two or three rioters

being badly, perhaps mortally wounded.” (p. 250)

–1 Joseph Cooley, “shot through the head and killed…” (p.252)

–1 Frank Norbock, leader of Workingman’s Party Bohemian section, shot in head.[6]

–1 Edward Phillips, “aged about 17 years, was shot dead in the morning…”

–1 J. Wallace, “aged about 18, instantly killed…” (p.252)

–1 John Weinert, 19, “shot and instantly killed.” (p. 252)

–1 Unidentified man shot through the lungs and died “almost immediately.”

— 18 Chicago. Holbrook. The Story of American Railroads, 1959, 250.

— 3 July 25 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy roundhouse; police kill protesters.

–12 July 26 Halstead Street viaduct clash – soldiers/police kill mob protesters.

–~3 July 27. Our number based on “There were more street fighting, more dead.”

— 18 Chicago. Sawislak, “Railroad Strike of 1877,” Encyclopedia of Chicago.

— 10 Chicago. Edwards. “The Great Strike of 1877.” Railroad Stories, February 1936, p. 19.

Maryland (10-11)

–13 Baltimore. Holbrook. The Story of American Railroads, 1959, 246.

–11 Baltimore, July 20^th. Bruce, Robert V. 1877: Year of Violence. 1989, pp.105-114.

–1 Thomas V. Byrne, Strassburger’s Clothing Store salesman, walking with his 3 sisters.

–1 Patrick Gill, a bystander; tinner by trade recently from Ireland.

–1 Otto Manecke, fresco painter shot by 6^th Reg. soldiers in front of Dime Restaurant.[7]

–1 Cornelius Murphy, 23, unemployed oyster dredger. “ “

–1 Willie Hourand, 15, newsboy, shot by 6^th Reg. soldiers in front of Dime Restaurant.

–1 John Rinehardt, 16, at stalled streetcar trying to push woman back inside for safety.

–1 Carpenter, 20’s, killed between Holliday and Light Streets by 6^th Regiment soldiers

–1 Cobbler, 20’s, “ “ “ “

–1 Grocery clerk, 20’s “ “ “ “

–1 Messenger boy, 18 “ “ “ “

–11 Baltimore. Wikipedia. “Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.”

–10 Baltimore. United Electrical. UE News, June 2002.

— 8 Baltimore July 20^th Logan 1887, p. 34.[8]

New York ( 1-8)

–1-9 Buffalo, July 23. Lakeshore train with Westfield militia Co. stoppage and fight. (Bruce.)[9]

— 8 Buffalo. Strikers/sympathizers shot by soldiers. Holbrook. Story of American Railroads, 249.

–7-8 Buffalo. New York Times. “The Blockade at Buffalo.” 7-25-1877, p. 1.[10]

— ~3? Buffalo. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “The Situation To-day.” 7-24-1877, p. 4.[11]

— 1 Buffalo. Striker shot on 23^rd, dies following morning.[12]

Pennsylvania (67-96)

— 67-96 Blanchard estimated death-toll range from locality breakouts below.

–52-61 Pittsburgh

–10-30 Reading

— 3 Scranton

— 2 Shamokin

— 52-61 Pittsburgh. Blanchard estimate.[13]

–16-20 July 21. 1^st engagement – civilians shot by deputies and Philly militia.

–10-13 July 22. Mob members trying to fire cannon at railroad roundhouse.

–20-24 July 22. Civilians killed by Philly militia on march from roundhouse.[14]

— 6-8 July 22. Soldiers.

— 61 Pittsburgh. Edwards 1936, p. 18.

—>53 Protesters/rioters.

–16 1^st engagement; protesters shot by deputies/PA National Guard from Philly.

–13 2^nd engagement; protesters trying to fire cannon at soldiers in roundhouse.

–24? Unstated number of protesters/rioters killed by soldiers leaving the roundhouse.[15]

— 8 Soldiers.

— 61 Pittsburgh. Wikipedia. “1877 St. Louis general strike.” 9-19-2023 edit.

— 46 Pittsburgh. Holbrook. The Story of American Railroads, 1959, 248.

–20 Strikers killed on or near Liberty Street by militia shipped in from Philadelphia.

— 3 Militia attempting to flee from burning Pennsylvania rail roundhouse.

–20 Strikers/protesters shot by militia fleeing burning PA RR roundhouse.

— 3 Militia from the roundhouse mass exodus.

— 45 Pittsburgh. July 21. Krift 2008.

–~30-42 Pittsburgh. Bruce, Robert V. 1877: Year of Violence. 1959 and 1989.

–10-20 July 21. Twenty-eighth Streat area clash.[16] (Edwards has the number as 16.)

–1 Boy, 16, missing ten days later and presumed dead.

–1 Pittsburgh militiaman, 18, died of bullet wounds on the hospital grounds.

–1 Girl, 4, on hillside overlooking soldiers, shot; died after leg was amputated.

–0 Philadelphia troops.

–~20-22 July 22. (Blanchard estimate from reading of Bruce’s account.)

— 11 2am. Rioters trying to fire a cannon at the roundhouse. Dead and wounded.[17]

— 1 Philly soldier killed at 33^rd St. during 10am move from roundhouse to Arsenal.[18]

— 1 Railway man going home after work shot by troops at Thirty-seventh Street.[19]

— 1 Saloon keeper standing in his doorway at Butler Street, shot by troops.[20]

— 3 Philadelphia militiamen two blocks from the arsenal.[21]

–2-3 Civilians near arsenal killed or wounded by Philly troops using Gatling gun.[22]

— 1 Lt. J. Dorsey Ash, Philly militia. died in US arsenal two days after being wounded.

— 2 Railway workers, names not noted. (Making a total of three RR workers.)

— 1 Blacksmith, 58, leaving behind wife and four children. (p.181)

— 40 Wikipedia. “Great Railroad Strike of 1877.” 9-27-2023 edit accessed 10-25-2023.[23]

— 24 Pittsburgh Coroner’s report for Saturday and Sunday, July 21-22. (Bruce 1959, p. 180)

–10-30 Reading. Blanchard recording of the range of deaths reported by sources below.

— 30 Reading, July 23. Logan 1887, p.39.[24] [Not used; number out of keeping with other sources.]

–11-17 Reading, July 23. Wikipedia. “Reading RR Massacre.”

–10-16 Civilians killed by PA State Militia.

— 1 Reading police officer who died later from injuries.

— 13 Reading. Childs 1886, p. 242.

— 13 Reading. Edwards 1936, p. 13.

— 12 Reading. The Daily Argus, Middletown, NY. “The Great Strike…” 7-24-1877, p. 2.

— 11 Reading. Men shot by Easton Grays militia on their march on Seventh Street. Bruce.[25]

–1 Fireman, formerly employed on the Reading Railroad.

–1 Engineer, formerly employed on the Reading Railroad.

–1 Carpenter

–1 Huckster (Person who sells small items door-to-door or from a stall.)

–1 Rolling mill worker (two blocks away from the Grays walking uptown).

–1 Laborer, Lewis Alexander Eisenhower, bled to death two hours after being shot.

–2 Unidentified men who died from wounds “some days later.”

— 10 Reading. Holbrook. The Story of American Railroads, p249. Civilians killed by soldiers.

— 10 Reading. Martin 1877, p. 177. Civilians killed by 4^th Reg., PA militia from Allentown.

— 3 Scranton. Strikers/sympathetic miners killed. Edwards 1936, p. 19.

— 2 Shamokin. Smith. “130^th Anniversary…Great…” News Item of Shamokin, 7-25-2007.

West Virginia ( 1)

–1 Martinsburg, July 17. Striker William P. Vandegriff shot by Berkeley Light Guards, died nine days later.[26]

Narrative Information

Edwards: “The determination of Baltimore & Ohio officials to cut the wages of train and engine men in freight service on July 16^th, 1877, at a time when flour was high and bread was scarce, led to the biggest railroad labor demonstration in American history.

“It led to a walkout which tied up almost every road in fourteen states in that vast area from the Hudson River to the Mississippi and from Canada to Virginia. It led to mob rule which cost more than a hundred lives and the burning of property worth millions of dollars – an orgy of blood and fire which was stamped out by regular troops of the United States army in five of the fourteen states….

“The railroad labor leaders were appalled at the destruction of property by mobs and at the terrible loss of life caused by the rifles of militia men and soldiers of the regular army. As troops occupied the great railroad centers, one after another, they put down the rioting without mercy and thus enforced the operation of trains. Labor leaders had no heart for fighting the United States army. Gradually the strike died down, without attaining its object.

“The railroad officials, aghast at such a display of force, were quick to offer the olive branch at the first signs of weakening of the strike. On the Pennsy, for instance, Superintendent Pitcairn announced at Pittsburgh that the striking engineers and firemen could have their own engines again if they returned to duty at once….” (Edwards, H. R. “The Great Strike of 1877.” Railroad Stories, Feb 1936, pp. 5-20.)

Holbrook, The Story of American Railroads, 1947: “The seventies was a jungle period for railroad workers. Employed by corporations which in large part had been making huge profits from actual operation of the lines, and even greater profits from the popular custom of watering their stocks, any pinch in business that affected ever so slightly the income from operation and from stocks and bonds was made up for, if possible, by shoddy operating practices, shoddy equipment, shoddy and murderous bridges and trestles, and the reduction of wages.” (p. 244.)

“There was a little, but wholly insufficient, organized opposition to the cuts. This came from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which had been organized in 1863 as the Brotherhood of the Footboard. In April [1877], the Engineers had protested the coming wage cut with small strikes on the Boston & Albany and the Philadelphia & Reading. Both had been quickly abortive. And Franklin Benjamin Gowen, president of the Reading, who only recently had ably prosecuted and adequately hanged the leaders of the Molly McGuire terrorists, issued an order calling on all Reading engineers to drop their membership in the Brotherhood, or be discharged. The other two rail Brotherhoods of the time, the Conductors and the Firemen & Enginemen, were weak and almost wholly devoted to the ritualism of a fraternal order. They did not protest the pay cuts.

“Although it was the Pennsylvania road that first announced a wage reduction in 1877, what proved to be spark for the tinder was struck by the management of the Baltimore & Ohio. It merely announced a 10-percent wage cut, effective July 16^th, on all wages of more than $1 a day. The B&O could have foreseen no difficulties; similar cuts had been announced, or put into effect, on most of the larger lines. The B&O firemen and brakemen, however, immediately presented a protest to the company. The company was polite enough, yet firm, and the cut went into force on the 16^th. On the morning of that day some forty firemen and brakemen on B&O freight trains being prepared to leave Baltimore refused to work. Their places were promptly filled from the large reservoir of the jobless.

“At Martinsburg, West Virginia, on the morning of the 16^th, the B&O firemen at this important junction climbed down from their cabs and refused to work unless the wage cut was restored. Arrested by the mayor and police, the firemen were quickly freed by a large crowd of fellow citizens who also prevented new men from taking their places. While this was going on, B&O freight brakemen at Martinsburg had been discussing matters. They joined the striking firemen. Passenger trains were not molested, but no freight was permitted to roll through the town. The strikers stopped them. Two days later, seventy trains totaling 1,200 freight cars, many of them loaded, blocked the tracks at Martinsburg.

“These events were indeed shocking to B&O officials in Baltimore, but they were prepared to act; they sent a request to Governor Matthews of West Virginia, asking him to call out the militia. The governor mustered the two companies stationed in Martinsburg. The B&O sent its transportation boss, a Colonel Sharp, to the seat of trouble.

“In the Martinsburg militia were many relatives and friends of the strikers. They refused to shoot or even to interfere. Governor Matthews, a man of low boiling point, called out the Wheeling militia, took his place at the head of the column, and away they marched toward the seething Martinsburg. The whole region was beginning to boil, and at Grafton, hardly halfway to the scene, the governor changed his mind about being in command and left his troops. Everywhere along the route, he had learned, a great majority of the people were on the side of the strikers.

“The trouble now spread swiftly. Out came the B&O employees in Grafton, then in Keyser, then in Wheeling itself. Urged by the B&O management, Governor Matthews petitioned Rutherford Hayes, President of the United States, to send federal troops. So on the 19^th part of a regiment of regulars arrived at Martinsburg. Scabbing employees of the B&O proceeded to make up two trains, one to run east, the other west; and managed to complete the job while the troops drove off the strikers with bayonets and finally arrested one of their leaders, Dick Zepp.

[As an aside, not only did President Hayes send federal troops, according to Logan (1887, p. 34) “The President called his Cabinet together, discussed the situation, and weighed the question of declaring military law in some of the States, where the more threatening aspects became apparent. The War Department of the National Government became the scene of great energy and activity.”]

“Running through towns and a countryside now fully aroused and in almost complete sympathy with the strikers, the two trains, guarded from locomotive to last car by regular soldiers, reached their destinations to the echo of jeers, bricks, stones, and stovewood. On the next day the company and the troops moved a total of thirteen trains out of Martinsburg. The strikers held a meeting at Grafton, swore to stick out the strike, and offered to negotiate with the company. The B&O refused to meet the strikers’ committee, but saw fit to announce that all faithful B&O employees would be rewarded by having their names placed first on the list for promotion and, what was more and what must have seemed arrogantly preposterous to men striking for a subsistence wage, each faithful employee would be presented with a fine medal….

“As the strike continued to spread along the line of the B&O, the company demanded more troops. Governor John Carroll of Maryland called out the Fifth Regiment of the Maryland National Guard, and a part of the Sixth, both of Baltimore, and sent them marching to get aboard a train at Camden Junction, on the outskirts of the city. The Fifth made it to the train, although followed every step by a hostile crowd which, on arrival at Camden Junction, drove the engine crew from the waiting train and left the regiment stranded.

“Three companies of the Sixth Regiment started for the Junction but immediately ran into serious trouble. A mob of some 2,000 people turned suddenly into savages, in the manner mobs have a way of doing, and started to club the marching men, while those who could not get near enough for clubbing heaved missiles. The hard-pressed soldiers fired into the mob, killing ten and wounding nigh forty more. They reached the Junction with no serious casualties of their own but on arrival there were unable to go farther because an immense crowd blocked the tracks solidly. Federal troops now came from Washington and for the next several days artillery, Gatling guns, and infantry stood guard at Camden Junction. Already, thirteen citizens were dead, and the hospitals filled with more than a hundred wounded men.

“On the 26^th, a committee of the strikers called on Governor Carroll of Maryland with an offer of arbitration. The B&O management refused to discuss the matter and, with steadily increasing numbers of federal troops, began to break the strike, division by division. By the first day of August, the strike on the B&) had been thoroughly broken.” (Holbrook. The Story of American Railroads, 1959, 244.)

Childs: “The most serious and extensive labor strikes in the history of the country occurred this summer. A reduction of ten per cent in the wages of employees on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was followed July 14th by a strike on the several branches of this road. A few days later the workmen of the Pennsylvania, Erie, and New York Central, and their Western connections, including the Missouri Pacific and a few other shorter lines west of the Mississippi, also struck, either because of some less recent reduction of pay or other grievance. The operatives were aware that the railway managers were hostile to trades-unions, which may have aggravated the trouble.

“The rich and influential Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, numbering fifty thousand members in the United States, and holding several millions of dollars in its treasuries, took the initiative in this strike; but the firemen, brakemen, and other railroad hands, and miners and iron-workers employed by the railroad companies, also participated.

“The refusal of the men to work, or to allow others to work in their places, stopped all operations on the roads. Freight rapidly accumulated, and there was a general blockade. Shipping agents were obliged to decline freight that was offered for transportation. The employers called upon the various State authorities for militia to protect new employees in moving trains; but in most cases the inexperience or faint-heartedness of the militia made it necessary to call for United States troops. A detachment of two hundred or three hundred of these went to Martinsburg, W. Va., on the 19th to assist the local authorities in opening traffic. The President in the meantime ordered those persons combining to interfere with lawful business to disperse. In Baltimore the strikers resisted an effort to clear them from the streets, and a riot ensued July 20th, in which nine were killed and more than twenty wounded.

“The situation was even worse in Pittsburg, where the strikers offered violent resistance to an effort to start a train under military protection.” (Childs 1877, 242)

Krift: “When the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. called upon local National Guard troops to control the crowd on July 20, the militia didn’t respond. They sympathized with their neighbors. Railroad company President Thomas A. Scott asked for militia from Pittsburgh’s rival city, Philadelphia, to give what he called “a rifle diet for a few days.” About 600 bayonet-wielding troops arrived July 21….Trying to move the crowd off the tracks, a number of Philadelphia militia men charged and stabbed several people…The crowd threw rocks in retaliation. The militia fired their weapons. Twenty died, including one woman and three children, and 30 more were wounded.” (Krift, 2008)

Childs writes that the effect was “…only to increase the rage and opposition of the throng. The military were obliged to take refuge in a round house of the railroad company; there they were besieged. Oil cars were lighted and rolled up against the building. When the firemen arrived they were not allowed to extinguish the flame. Indeed, the incendiary torch was now applied to machine-shops and other buildings; and two thousand freight cars were either pillaged or burned. The wildest excesses were indulged in by the frenzied rioters. Barrels of liquor were stolen from the cars, and broached for the crowd; clothing, furniture, and all sorts of goods were stolen from the blockaded shipments, and taken to thousands of houses in town. Women shared in this general thievery. This work was largely Conducted and incited by a lawless, communistic element entirely distinct from the genuine labor classes. The losses involved in this affair were estimated at nearly or quite ten millions of dollars.” (Childs 1886, 242)

“In Buffalo, Columbus, Ohio, and elsewhere, there were other disturbances; in Reading, Pa., thirteen were killed, and forty-three wounded by a collision between the military and a mob. Another riot in Chicago, July 26th, resulted in the killing of nineteen persons. Here the police were assisted by United States cavalry in charging the crowd.

[Sidebar from Bruce: “Monday, July 23, had brought disturbing news: slaughter at Reading, riot and the surrender of militia at Harrisburg, mods and arson at Cincinnati and Philadelphia, menace to Federal troops at Jersey City, attacks on militia at Buffalo, an imminent strike on the New York Central at Albany, general strike movements at McKeesport, Harrisburg, Zanesville and Columbus. And the end was not in sight. By Tuesday noon, when the Hayes Cabinet met for the third time in as many days, the Gret Strike had spread through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois into Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa.” (Bruce. 1877: Year of Violence. 1959, p. 222.)]

“Inflammatory harangues were being made all this time at labor and socialist meetings in various parts of the country. In Tompkins Square, New York, on the 25th, John Swinton and other prominent communists addressed a vast assemblage. At the height of the strike, six thousand or seven thousand miles of railroad in the country between New England and the Missouri River were kept from being operated; and over one hundred thousand laborers took part in the movement. The utmost alarm prevailed over the whole country, and no one knew to what extent the outbreak might yet go. The worst of it was over, however, before the close of the month. A reaction set in about the 27th, when many of the laborers returned to work; and by the 30th nearly all of the roads, especially east of Buffalo, were in operation again. Considerable political excitement grew out of these events; and various agitators tried to make capital and votes out of the feeling thus aroused.” (Childs 1886, 242)

United Electrical: As one worker put it, “We were shot back to work.” (UE News 6/02)

Bruce: “Some Eastern cities – Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Reading – had passed their crises. Chicago’s was yet to come. But taken as a whole, the Great Strike reached its climax on Wednesday July 25, 1877. By then all but two regions of the United States had succumbed to the strange contagion. One of the two immunes was New England. Only at New York City and Albany did New England’s roads touch the fever….The other largely exempted area was the South. After that region’s late ordeal under military rule, its smugness was pardonable.” (p. 261)

“So we can only say that of the nation’s 75,000 miles of track, about two-thirds lay in areas affected directly by the strike; and that on these roads, most freight trains and some passenger trains had stopped running.” (p.271)

“As soon as the unparalleled intensity, speed and scope of the Great Strike became manifest, people had begun searching for explanations. What was at the bottom of it all? In the perspective of history, the answer seems manifold: endemic violence, cruel economic distress, employer arrogance or lack of understanding, the birth pangs of a new age, the organizational nuclei provided by local divisions of the brotherhoods and the Trainmen’s Union, the precipitant of idle men and boys, the spreading of excitement by rail and by sensational news stories.” (p. 223)

Sources

Buffalo. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “The Situation To-day.” 7-24-1877, p. 4. Accessed 10-26-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/brooklyn-daily-eagle-jul-24-1877-p-4/

Bruce, Robert V. 1877: Year of Violence. Chicago: Ivan R Dee, Inc., 1959; Elephant Paperbacks, 1989.

Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized. Accessed 9-4-2017: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Edwards, H. R. “The Great Strike of 1877.” Railroad Stories, February 1936, pp. 5-20.

Holbrook, Stewart H. The Story of American Railroads (5^th printing). New York: Crown Publishers, 1947.

Krift, F. A. “Scale of Destruction in 1877 Railroad Strike ‘Mind-Boggling’.” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 27, 2008. Accessed at: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_579635.html

Martin, Edward Winslow. The History of the Great Riots, Being a Full and Authentic Account of the Strikes and Riots on the various Railroads of the United States and in the Mining Regions. Philadelphia: The National Publishing Company, 1877. Accessed 10-24-2023 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=auNCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

McIntosh, Matthew A. “Labor Organization and the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.” Brewminate – A Bold Blend of News & Ideas, 3-23-2021. Accessed 10-23-2023 at: https://brewminate.com/labor-organization-and-the-great-railroad-strike-of-1877/

New York Times. “The Blockade at Buffalo.” 7-25-1877, p. 1. Accessed 10-25-2023 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1877/07/25/80655877.html?pageNumber=1

Shelton, Josh. “Pages from U.S. Labor History: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877.” Socialist Appeal. At http://www.socialistappeal.org/uslaborhistory/great_railroad_strike_of_1877.htm

Smith, Hal. “130^th Anniversary of the 1887 Shamokin Uprising and the Great Railroad Strike.” News Item of Shamokin; reprinted July 25, 2007 in Baltimore IMC (Independent Media Center at: http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7571/index.php

The Daily Argus, Middletown, NY. “The Great Strike – More Violence and Bloodshed.” 7-24-1877, p. 2. Accessed 10-26-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/middletown-daily-argus-jul-24-1877-p-2/

The Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, NY. “Riot and Bloodshed….Latest Dispatches.” 7-24-1877, p. 1. Accessed 10-26-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/port-jervis-evening-gazette-jul-24-1877-p-1/

United Electrical. “The Great Strike of 1877,” UE News, June 2002. Accessed at: http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/uen_1877.html

Wikipedia. “1877 St. Louis general strike.” 9-19-2023 edit. Accessed 10-24-2023 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1877_St._Louis_general_strike

Wikipedia. “Baltimore and Ohio Railroad” (Westward by merger). Accessed at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_and_Ohio_Railroad

Wikipedia. “Great Railroad Strike of 1877.” 9-27-2023 edit accessed 10-25-2023 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877

Wikipedia. “Reading RR Massacre.” 9-19-2023 edit. Accessed 10-24-2023 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Railroad_Massacre

[1] Bruce. 1877: The Year of Violence. 1959, p. 269.

[2] Bruce. 1877: The Year of Violence. 1959, p. 270.

[3] Bruce. 1877: The Year of Violence. 1959, p. 270.

[4] It is not crystal clear that the statement of “at least eighteen men and boys, some of them mere onlookers, were dead” is exclusive to the 26^th or includes the 25^th as well.

[5] “….the police drove the crowd back until it merged with a smaller crowd standing outside the Vorwarts Turner Hall on Twelve Street. Inside the hall, 200 or 300 members of the Harmonia Association of Joiners, a cabinetmakers’ society, had gathered peaceably to discuss the eight-hour question. The uproar outside broke into their discussion. Suddenly a number of frightened men ran up the stairs and into the hall, closely pursued by club-swinging police. The proprietor of the hall tried to keep the intruders out, but was laid low by a well-aimed club. Without making any effort to learn the nature of the meeting, the cursing police attacked everyone in sight. A few in the hall tried to fight back with chairs and table legs; but this only incited the police to open up with pistol fire, wounding many of the cabinet-makers and killing at least one. Most of those who fled were hurt in jumping from windows or clubbed by waiting police who lined the stairs….Outside Sergeant Brennan fired his pistol indiscriminately as passers-by and at men emerging from the hall.” (p.250) A judge later fined Brennan six cents.

[6] Location was corner of Sixteenth and Canal the morning of July 26. (p.252)

[7] Married with five children. (p. 108)

[8] “On the afternoon of July 20^th the Sixth Maryland Regiment began its march from Baltimore, for the relief of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway at Cumberland, and was attacked by the mob in the streets of that city. They fired upon this mob of from five to six thousand…killing eight and wounding many more, and thus the bloodshed began.”

[9] “Towle [Capt. J. H, of Westfield militia] and his men felt sure that at least half a dozen lay dead about the car. One militiaman later declared he ‘saw nine dead men, counted the,, and felt some of them with his foot; of these four were at the front of the car, three on the right hand side, and two at the rear, one of these lying on the platform, the other hanging over the platform railing.’….A militia detachment sent from Buffalo found the site of the engagement unoccupied even by corpses. The only verified death was that of a striker, eighteen-year-old Michael Lyons, who died of wounds next morning….” (Bruce. 1877: The Year of Violence. 1959, p. 200.)

[10] “….The Westfield company, Capt. Towle, which had a fight with rioters last night, arrived in the Central depot at 10 a.m., eight members were wounded in this skirmish, but none fatally. The company claim that they shot and killed seven or eight rioters. Michael Lyons, aged 18, an Erie striker, died at 4 a.m.”

[11] “….The most serious disturbances occurred at Reading and Buffalo…At Buffalo several collisions occurred between the troops and an overwhelming force of rioters, causing the killing and wounding of several of the latter.”

[12] The Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, NY. “Riot and Bloodshed….Latest Dispatches.” 7-24-1877, p. 1.

[13] We attempt to tally a low and high range from the variously reported encounters. This exercise results in a range of 52-65. However, we choose to use the number 61 as the high end of our death toll range in that we do not wish to record a number higher by four than the highest number of deaths reported for Pittsburg by two sources – 61.

[14] A Gatling gun was resorted to at one point by the Philadelphia militia into pursuing crowd.

[15] Edwards does not provide a number but if the numbers he does provide for other engagements is subtracted from his total of 61, then 24 deaths would be the result.

[16] “How many died in those few seconds cannot be determined. The Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette estimated a day or two later that about twenty were killed in the Twenty-eighth Street area. Ten deaths are certain. Some of the wounded, carried away by friends and not reported, may have died later on from their injuries….Of the positively known dead whose occupations were listed, only one or two were railroaders, but all were workingmen.”

[17] “At about two o’clock Sunday morning General Brinton’s [at the roundhouse] attention was called to a dark object at Liberty and Twenty-seventh. Presently a cloud passed away, and moonlight glinted from a brass fieldpiece – captured, it later transpired, from the Pittsburgh militia. The gun was aimed at the machine shop, where a number of troops were ensconced. Brinton had fifty men cover the gun with their rifles. As a rioter took the lanyard in his hand, Brinton gave the command to fire. When the smoke cleared away, eleven me lay dead or wounded in the street….not once did the besiegers manage to fire their little cannon.” Edwards has the number as thirteen.

[18] “A little past Twenty-sixth Street, a tall middle-aged man, either in shirtsleeves or wearing a white linen coat, had begun to follow the retreating troops with a breech-loading rifle. From a white belt around his waist hung a black cartridge box. The lone attacker fired cooly and deliberately, now and then stepping into a doorway or alley to reload. One spectator claimed afterward to have overheard him muttering something about revenge for the shedding of his friends’ blood. Occasionally his shots took effect. A soldier fell dead at Thirty-third Street.” (p, 166)

[19] “For a time the troops held their fire on obedience to orders, though pistols blazed at them out of doorways and windows, from behind corners, projecting signs, crates and boxes, from cellars and other sheltered places. A gang of assailants followed along parallel streets, sallying out of cross streets and firing from corners. Most of the shots came from the rear, the waiting crowds standing quiet until the troops had passed, then opening fire. At last, when the mob began sing rifles, the Philadelphians shot back. Near Thirty-seventh Street a railroad man, just going home from servicing engines at the Allegheny Valley Railroad roundhouse, got a bullet in his ankle. His leg was amputated a day or two later, and shortly after that he died.” (p. 166)

[20] After the railway man was shot at Thirty-seventh Street, “Another bullet slammed into a saloonkeeper standing in his doorway at Butler Street; after breaking his left arm, the slug passed on through his body, touching his heart on the way and stopping it.” (pp.166-167)

[21] “A couple of blocks from the arsenal, the troops passed a row of two-story houses. A fusillade of shots poured from the windows down into the ranks of the rear brigade. Two men were killed and several wounded, one mortally.” (p.167)

[22] Nearing the arsenal “Rifle fire erupted from the crowd. The troops divided and one of the Gatlings opened up. Within seconds the street to the rear of the troops lay empty, except for a dead horse, some smashed signs and two or three dead or wounded Pittsburghers.” (p.167)

[23] A different Wikipedia article (“1877 St. Louis general strike.”) notes 61 deaths.

[24] “On the same day [July 23], a portion of the [PA] National Guard was marched to Reading to protect the city and the railway property. The soldiers were abut poorly trained, and seem to have been worse handled. They were marched into a deep railroad cut, where they could do little to protect themselves They were attacked by the mob on both sides in a furious onset, in which thirty lives were lost; and the whole city was smitten with terror.”

[25] “At the request of a railroad official, Brigadier General Frank Reeder moved out of the depot with the Easton Grays to clear an obstructing car from the tracks. The car stood in a deep ‘cut’ which ran along Seventh Street. The people of that shabby neighborhood, some of them jobless, the rest ill-paid, jammed the sidewalks over-looking the cut on either side….Reeder halted his men for a moment, moved the musicians to the rear, ordered muskets loaded and then advanced into the gloomy defile to the cadence of drum taps…..Brickbats rocks, even boulders, waited in heaps along the sidewalks. Stones now began to rain down on the Grays….‘Don’t fire, men, quicken your pace,’ shouted an officer. ‘Kill them! Kill them!’ yelled the crowd….One man fired a pistol several times. Miraculously none of the troops were killed; but twenty were wounded by pistol shots and missiles, at least three seriously. ‘Don’t shoot,’ the officers begged their men vainly. A solitary rifle shot rang out, then an uneven volley, not up toward the stone throwers, but forward through the cut toward the Penn Street crossing….the final death toll [rose] to eleven. Few, if any, of the dead or wounded had been active rioters.” (Bruce. 1877: Year of Violence. Pp. 192-193.)

[26] Bruce. 1877: Year of Violence. 1959, p. 78.