Great Railroad Strike, 1877 #2
by Photo Researchers
Title
Great Railroad Strike, 1877 #2
Artist
Photo Researchers
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 started on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in response to the cutting of wages for the second time in a year by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O). Striking workers would not allow any of the stock to roll until this second wage cut was revoked. The governor sent in state militia units to restore train service, but the soldiers refused to use force against the strikers and the governor called for federal troops. The strike spread to Cumberland, Maryland, stopping freight and passenger traffic. When Governor John Carroll of Maryland directed the 5th and 6th Regiments of the National Guard to put down the strike, citizens from Baltimore attacked the militia who then killed 10 and wounded 25. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became the site of the worst violence. Militiamen bayoneted and fired on rock-throwing strikers, killing 20 and wounding 30 others. The infuriated strikers then forced the militiamen to take refuge in a railroad roundhouse, and then set fires that razed 39 buildings and destroyed 104 locomotives and 1,245 freight and passenger cars. On July 22, the militiamen mounted an assault on the strikers, shooting their way out of the roundhouse and killing 20 more people on their way out of the city. After over a month of constant rioting and bloodshed, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops to end the strikes. These troops suppressed strike after strike, until at last, approximately 45 days after it had started, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was over. Illustration originally captioned The start of the Great Railroad strike with the blockade of engines at Martinsburg, West Virginia, July 16, 1877. Harper's Weekly.
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July 7th, 2014
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