The Railroad Riots of 1877

I would like to take a moment and look back in time to an event that shook the growing 19th century railroad industry Exactly 140 years ago this week, starting on July 21st, 1877, the height of the Railroad Riots reached its violent peak in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. This strike had a profound effect through the railroad industry and has a legacy of violence and chaos unmatched. 

Pittsburgh PA, circa 1877

By the 1870s, the railroads, which were at the time the second largest employer outside of agriculture, demanded sacrifices of large amounts of capital investment for their construction, and thus entailed massive financial risk. Men of purpose who were part speculator, part gambler, poured large amounts of money into the industry, causing abnormal growth and over-expansion. Many northern banking firms invested a disproportionate share of their depositor's funds in the railroads. In 1873, this finally blew up spectacularly when the offices of Jay Cooke & Company declared bankruptcy. Thus kicking of the Panic of 1873.

The public's emotions behind the big railroads were abundantly clear

In the wake of the Panic of 1873, a terribly bitter antagonism existed between workers and the leaders of industry. Mass immigration from Europe and the existence of thousands of freedom searching able bodied men allowed the railroad companies to drive down wages and easily lay off workers who spoke out. By 1877, 10 percent wage cuts, distrust of capitalists and insane working condition and hours led to workers getting more and more fed up. Management worked to break up such movements, usually with harsh and often violent results. Tensions built up on this powderkeg until the fuse was finally lit.

The Union Depot of Pittsburgh before the riots

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 which was aptly referred to as the Great Upheaval by those who got to enjoy the party, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad sliced wages for the third time in a year. The strike spread like cancer, and soon the whole industry was either striking, on the verge of striking, or joining their neighbors who were striking.

Finally, on July 21st the city 0f Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Railroad snapped.

After being forced to take a reduction in wages, railroad workers awoke on July 19 to find that the company announced that it would implement the practice of double heading (joining two small trains of cars into one large train powered with two engines) for all of their trains moving through Pittsburgh. This screwed over train crews by favoring one crew handling two trains, while increasing the workload of that crew. That very same day double heading was to go into effect, the (no doubt shaking in his boots) superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh issued an order that, according to strikers, effectively doubled the mileage of what was considered a day's work, increasing it from 46 miles to 116, without increasing the size of the crews.

This meant that the company would be able to discharge fully half of their workforce.

One crew, led by Conductor Ryan, put their foot down and gave the railroad the middle finger. The company called for replacements, who when they refused to act were immediately fired. The powder-keg exploded. Freight trains were stopped in the yards, and a crowd of rioters took possession of the company's property at the 28th Street Roundhouse. 

The remains of the roundhouse.

The 18th & 19th regiments of the PA National Guard were ordered to Pittsburgh to protect the company's property. This stirred the rioters to a fiercer anger. The troops arrived on July 21st and were met by the growing mob. The riot act was read, and an attempt was made to arrest the ringleaders.  A cry arose of "Stick to it; give it to them; don't fall back!" and some protesters began to throw rocks and fire pistols at the troops; several men were injured, at least one seriously. The General ordered his men to charge and open fire on the crowd! The troops returned fire and used their bayonets, beginning with a single unordered shot, and continuing in a volley for nearly ten minutes.

Burned locomotives

An estimated 53 rioters were killed (including three children), and 109 injured, although many injured hid their injuries to conceal their involvement in the mob. Eight soldiers were killed in clashes, and another 15 were wounded.The militia then took charge of the Roundhouse. After the rioters captured all of the guns from the local Hutchingson's Battery, they fired several solid shots through the roundhouse in which the militia had taken refuge. The rioters then fell upon the rail yards, set fire to train cars and engines, and prevented any effort at extinguishing them, in some cases at gunpoint. Meanwhile, other rioters set cars

afire, and after saturating a railcar of coke with oil & igniting it, they succeeded in running it into the Roundhouse. As one member of the mob phrased it: "We'll have them out if we have to roast them out."

As one soldier recounted: "It was better to run the risk of being shot down than burned to death, and so we filed out in a compact body ... It was lively times, I tell you, reaching the US Arsenal ... I thought we should all be cut to pieces!"

Later, on July 22, a burning rail car was run into the Union Depot and the building set alight. A grain elevator nearby, the Panhandle Depot on Grant St and a locomotive shop on Quarry St were also burned to the ground, and before sunset, every railroad building & car in Pittsburgh had been destroyed. Looters then turned their attention to the Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad,as well as the steamboat docks, and when the goods there were carried away, it too was set on fire.

Union Depot after the riots...

The strikers exerted such total control over the area that on July 24, when the governor passed through the area, it was only with Robert Ammon of the Trainmen's Union's blessing that he obtained safe travel.

On the morning of July 23, and there was a great anxiety as to whether violence would continue. Many prominent members of the town had set to work organizing a militia, and by this time several thousand had been gathered and were put under the command of General James S. Negley, a veteran of the Civil War.

On July 28, Governor Hartranft arrived in Pittsburgh with fresh militiamen from Philadelphia, in addition to 14 artillery and 2 infantry companies of federal troops. This suppressed the rioters, and two days later the railroads began to resume operation.



Estimated damage was close to $92,000,000 when adjusted for inflation.

One has to wonder about the level of anger throughout an entire community that would cause destruction of this magnitude. Both wide and deep. Today's labor laws and safety centrist world has a lot of blood on the foundation of which it's built. It pays to remember that.