R. H. FIFE,
_Sheriff Allegheny county, Pa._:
Have ordered General Pearson to place a regiment on duty to aid you
in suppressing disorder.
JAMES W. LATTA, (Copy.)
_Adjutant General_.
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Hugh Y. Boyce, _sworn with the uplifted hand_:
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. You were a deputy sheriff in July last?
A. Yes.
Q. You reside where?
A. No. 551 Fifth avenue.
Q. State to us what knowledge you have of the disturbance, and when it
commenced--give us a statement of the facts?
A. Coming in on Friday morning, from attending a sale, I met the
sheriff and General Pearson, on Grant street or on Liberty street. I
told the sheriff I was going to the office, and I asked where he was
going, and he said he was going out the Pennsylvania railroad a short
distance. I asked him if he wished me to go along, and he said he did.
Then the sheriff and Mr. Pitcairn and General Pearson and myself went
to Torrens station. The sheriff there addressed the crowd, as also did
General Pearson. They gave some good advice, but they took no notice of
it.
Q. How did you go out?
A. On a locomotive.
Q. How large a crowd was there?
A. Five or six hundred--I couldn't tell.
Q. What class of people were there?
A. A pretty hard class.
Q. Railroad men?
A. Some were railroad men, but they were not all railroad men.
Q. What were they doing?
A. Standing in groups talking, on the railroad track, and by the side
of the railroad track.
Q. Were you interfered with in going out?
A. No; except the crowd hallooed at us as we went along.
Q. How large a crowd was at Twenty-eighth street?
A. I cannot say that--perhaps four or five hundred.
Q. What response did those men make to the sheriff's admonitions?
A. They said they would have bread or blood.
Q. Anything else?
A. Nothing; but they used very bad language.
Q. They refused to disperse, did they?
A. Yes; General Pearson made a neat, handsome little speech to them,
but they paid no attention to it, nor to the sheriff either.
Q. Did you return without any interference?
A. Yes.
Q. What occurred next?
A. The next was on Saturday. In the morning, sometime, the sheriff
called me into the office, and told me to get up some men to report at
the Pennsylvania railroad depot.
Q. Did you go?
A. Yes.
Q. How many were with you?
A. I think about fifteen or sixteen; I am not certain about that.
Q. Tell us what took place?
A. This was on Friday afternoon. We went out that afternoon to the
depot. They wanted some assistance in moving some trains. After I went
there, they concluded not to move any, and I returned to the office;
and on Saturday I went again, with Constable James Richardson, probably
about one o'clock.
Q. With how many men?
A. Seventeen or eighteen men?
Q. Who collected the men?
A. The most of them belonged to the sheriff's office.
Q. Did you try to collect a posse?
A. Yes; but I found it very hard work.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. You say it was hard work. Why?
A. Because the men didn't seem to be willing to give us their
assistance.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. What did they say when they were asked to go?
A. They said they would sooner go out and help the rioters.
Q. Did you get that response from any considerable number?
A. A few would answer in that way; others said that they had enough to
do to attend to their own business.
Q. What class of men did you call on?
A. I called on citizens and on constables.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Did any constables refuse to go?
A. Yes.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. What excuse did they make?
A. They didn't wish to go out to get shot.
Q. What class of men said that they would sooner go out and help the
rioters?
A. Well, laboring men.
Q. You say you called on constables and citizens. Citizens is a very
broad term. Did you call on any professional men?
A. No.
Q. On business men?
A. Yes.
Q. What response did they make?
A. That they had to attend to their own business, and couldn't leave on
account of it--it being a busy day on Saturday.
Q. You got to the depot about one o'clock?
A. I think so.
Q. Was any crowd about Union depot there?
A. Yes; and soldiers, too.
Q. Were there any riotous proceedings around the depot at that time?
A. Not at that time, but a crowd was there, but they didn't appear to
be specially riotous at that time.
Q. Did you move down to Twenty-eighth street with the sheriff, ahead of
the militia?
A. We did.
Q. You formed one of the sheriff's posse?
A. Yes.
Q. There were about sixteen of you?
A. About eighteen. There may have been more.
Q. Were you armed?
A. No; some of them had revolvers. I had one.
Q. You had no weapons in view?
A. No.
Q. What took place at Twenty-eighth street?
A. There was quite a large crowd of people there--rioters.
Q. What were they doing?
A. Talking, and hallooing, and making a great noise.
Q. Had they begun to destroy property in any way?
A. Not when we went there--at least not when I was there.
Q. What did the sheriff do?
A. The sheriff advised them to disperse and go home.
Q. Advised them or commanded them?
A. Commanded them.
Q. What response was made?
A. Nothing but vile language, and throwing stones, and brickbats, &c.
Q. Were those stones thrown at the sheriff's posse or at the militia?
A. Promiscuously--all around in that neighborhood.
Q. Did they hit any of the sheriffs posse?
A. Yes.
Q. Were any of them injured?
A. Not materially.
Q. Were any pistols fired?
A. Yes.
Q. How many shots were fired before the militia fired?
A. There may have been five or six.
Q. To what extent were the missiles thrown?
A. There was quite a shower of stones and brickbats.
Q. Was any command given to the militia to fire?
A. Not that I heard. I heard the command to charge bayonets, but no
command to fire.
Q. Was the command to charge bayonets obeyed?
A. Yes.
Q. Did they drive back the crowd?
A. A very short distance.
Q. Did they drive them as long as they continued to charge?
A. Yes; they cleared the tracks.
Q. And drove them as far as they desired to?
A. I presume so, just at that time. Quite a number of the
crowd--several of them--tried to take the muskets out of the hands of
the soldiers.
Q. How did the firing by the militia commence--was it one shot--one
shot or a volley?
A. One shot, and then another shot, and then two or three shots every
second.
Q. A rattling volley?
A. Yes.
Q. Was it regular?
A. Yes.
Q. What effect did that have on the crowd?
A. It drove them away for the time being.
Q. Where did they assemble afterwards?
A. In different places down below Penn street and up on the hill.
Q. Did the crowd assemble between the depot and where the militia were
then stationed?
A. I don't know.
Q. What became of you?
A. After the firing was over, probably three quarters of an hour, I
came in Penn avenue.
Q. Did the posse remain together?
A. When the firing commenced we were standing immediately in front. It
was too warm to stand there very long.
Q. Did the firing disperse the sheriff's posse, too?
A. Yes; it was a rather peculiar place to stand there.
Q. Do you know how many were killed there that evening?
A. I don't know the exact number now.
Q. Had you any knowledge of any pre-arranged purpose among those men to
strike on that day?
A. I had not--only what you might judge from the crowds gathering there
occasionally, at the corners, and on the railroad tracks, and different
places.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Was there any talk of striking among those men that gathered in
crowds before the strike?
A. Yes; you could hear a great deal of talk about a strike, but nothing
was said as to the time when it was going to take place.
Q. How long before this strike?
A. On Tuesday and Wednesday.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Who was the talk among?
A. Among the laboring classes--among the men that worked in the mills,
and the glass houses, &c., and railroad men.
Q. Did you hear it before the news of the strike on the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad?
A. No.
Q. It was not until after that that you heard talk of striking?
A. No.
Q. Prior to that you had heard nothing that would lead you to believe
there was an organization for the purpose?
A. No.
Q. That was the subject of conversation, I suppose, among all
classes--to some extent?
A. Yes; it was.
* * * * *
Conrad Upperman, _sworn with the uplifted hand_:
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Where do you reside?
A. In Penn avenue, between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets.
Q. What was your occupation?
A. I was night foreman in the round-house.
Q. Were you on duty on Thursday night?
A. I was.
Q. State whether there was any disturbance about the round-house on
that night.
A. There was none about the round-house at all. The only disturbances
there were, took place out on the track, about Twenty-eighth street.
Q. What kind of a disturbance was it?
A. The railroad men and the others were combined--but they were not
doing anything, except standing there in groups.
Q. During the night was the crowd noisy and boisterous?
A. Somewhat.
Q. You were in sight of them?
A. I was among them nearly all the time. On Thursday night, between
eight and nine o'clock, I attempted to get out an engine to haul some
stock, and I thought it was useless to attempt it without first seeing
whether they would allow us to haul it. Mr. Watt told me in the office
that they would allow us to haul the stock; but when I got among them
they didn't seem very favorable to allowing it. So we talked to them
some time, and at last they agreed that we could haul the stock. I
brought the engine out myself; but before I could get her across
Twenty-eighth street four or five hundred called out to me and
hallowed--called out to me to take her back; but I got her across
Twenty-eighth street, and, after talking to them, they got quiet, and
agreed that I could haul the stock, provided a committee could go on
the engine to see that we would not haul anything else. I then got two
engineers, one to fire the engine, and one to run it, and they took the
stock up that night; but a little later in the night a Pan Handle train
came along, and that raised a terrible howl there about the stock, and
they cut the engine loose; but at last they let the stock go as far as
Lawrenceville, and then we got an engine to haul it away. In fact, they
went along on the train.
Q. What complaints did the men make in your conversations with them?
A. They complained about the double-headers; that they would take a
great many of them off; that it would take their work away at any rate,
and they thought they might as well fight it.
Q. Were you in the round-house on Saturday night?
A. I was.
Q. Were you present when the firing occurred on Saturday afternoon?
A. No; I went home at six o'clock in the morning to take some sleep. I
then went to the round-house between seven and eight o'clock. When I
got there the soldiers were just entering. After they had got
themselves stationed there, it was not long until the outside parties
commenced firing into the round-house.
Q. With what?
A. With musketry.
Q. The rioters?
A. Yes; between eleven and twelve o'clock that night. There was a board
pile between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh streets, and a good many
of them got in behind that, and they just rattled volley after volley
into the round-house. I was standing there; but I thought it was too
hot, and went to the other side. I then remained in the round-house
until about twelve o'clock, and then told an officer that I would go
out. He said I had better see General Brinton first, that I might do
him some good. I saw General Brinton; but he had nothing to say, and I
said nothing to him. I started to go out the back way of the carpenter
shop; but there was a lot of rioters there, and we thought that it
would not be safe, so we came on back to where the superintendent's
office stood, and he proposed that I might go out the gate at
Twenty-sixth street, and that he would tell his soldiers not to fire on
me. The firing was going on at Twenty-sixth street. I got out then and
went on home.
Q. Were you molested by the rioters?
A. Not then; but on Friday night or Saturday morning, between twelve
and one o'clock, we were getting out two passenger engines to go east.
It was not my business to know what the engines were going to haul. I
got orders to get them out, and I went out in the street then and got
two engineers and firemen, but a man came in and gave us to understand
that the engines couldn't go, and I knew it was no use to argue the
point with them, because there were four or five hundred of them there
on Twenty-eighth street.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Was that man a railroader?
A. Not at that time. I believe he had been suspended. He is in the
work-house now. Then we had two engines coming west on the fast line
that same night, and we cut one engine off and took the accommodation
engine at Wall's, and let the accommodation engine bring the train in,
and let the other engine go back to Altoona; but we found they had her
blocked. I went to Twenty-eighth street, and they were pretty noisy at
that time. Some of them came to me, and asked what kind of a hand I was
taking in the matter. I told them I was not taking any more hand in it
than I ought to, and they told me if I didn't get out right quick they
would shoot me so full of holes that I couldn't get away. I found it
was pretty hot, and I got away. On Friday morning, when the troops came
there, there was not over twenty or thirty men at Twenty-eighth street.
They seemed to go away, but after that, of course, they commenced
gathering in groups, and I noticed the troops were not there very long
until they were among them themselves. I noticed that morning, before I
went home, that they were walking together in the street, our own men
and the soldiers. I thought there was no use for those soldiers there.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. What morning was that?
A. Saturday morning.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. What troops were those?
A. The Pittsburgh troops. I was there Thursday night and Friday night
and Saturday night until one o'clock.
Q. At Twenty-eighth street, were the same men there all the time from
Thursday until Saturday--until the firing of the troops?
A. Yes; they were nearly about the same crowd. Of course, the crowd
increased. On Friday night four or five thousand of them were there,
but the crowd was orderly, and I never saw them molest anybody unless
you wanted to do something--then they would drive you back.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. Would it have been possible for the police to have made any arrests
at that time?
A. I went out and looked at the crowd. I looked over the crowd and I
thought if there were any police there they could have arrested the
whole of them.
Q. Could a force of fifty good police have dispersed the mob?
A. They could on Thursday afternoon, when the first double-header was
stopped. I think only about from twenty to twenty-five men were
interfering with that train at all. It was just this way: I stood and
looked on, but I had nothing to do with it. It was daylight, and I was
on at night. There were four police on each engine, and a road foreman
was on an engine, and the engineers and firemen, but they didn't seem
to pull her out. I didn't see anybody with anything in their hands, but
was informed that there were parties with links and pins in their
hands, ready to throw in case they did start.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Do you know of any engineers or firemen being driven off their
engines when there were policemen with them on the train?
A. I cannot say that I do. They got off, though.
Q. Did the police get off too?
A. They did, yes.
Q. You didn't see them driven off?
A. No, they hooted and hallooed a good bit.
Q. They got off--no links were thrown and no assaults were made?
A. Not when I was looking.
Q. How many police were on the engines?
A. Four on the first, and I think four on the second.
Q. They got off on account of the threats?
A. That is the only reason I would know for their getting off.
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