Q. You were marched down and marched back, and took your position with
the regiment again? There was no effort made to keep the track clear at
any place, except the crossing?
A. No, sir; because they would go right on the track again.
Q. There was no effort made to string out a line, so as to keep the
crowd from the track?
A. Only at the crossing, sir.
Q. Where were you at the time General Brinton's troops came up there?
A. I was a very short distance from that little watch-house at
Twenty-eighth street, at the foot of the hill--the base of the hill.
Perhaps twenty-five yards from where the company was.
Q. In full view of what was going on?
A. Yes; Colonel Gray, I heard him get the order from General Brown to
send a company down to support Breck's battery. He turned around and
ordered me to take my company out, and also ordered another captain to
report to me, and we went down the hill and supported the battery.
Q. The battery was near the crossing at that time?
A. Yes; very near the crossing.
Q. What did you see as General Brinton came up the track? Were there
any deputies in advance of them?
A. Yes; the sheriff and his posse was there, and General Pearson, I
believe.
Q. State the occurrence as you saw it, just immediately preceding and
including the firing on the mob?
A. There was a company came up the track--at least one company, I
say--there were, perhaps, two. They came up company front. The
regiment--the First Pennsylvania regiment, I believe--came up by flank,
the sheriff in front. The railroad came this way [indicating] and they
met the troops and the sheriff.
Q. Advanced to meet them part way?
A. Yes; they were going out to see. The troops were stopped--the
sheriff was--and I saw him talking, but could not state what he said,
be cause there was a very loud clamor and talk from the hillside then,
about that time. There was quite a crowd accumulated on the hill,
immediately in my rear and right and left. The crowd ran that way to
see what was going on--men, women, and children--and it became very
noisy; they were crying to the mob, as I call it, to hold the fort.
Q. Men, women, and children, that were spectators, crying to the mob to
hold the fort?
A. Yes; "Stand to your post, &c.," and they appeared to obey the
command, for they stood pretty solidly, and the sheriff appeared to
become so mixed up with the crowd that I could not tell where he was.
The only front I saw was these Black Hussars, I think they call them,
came right up and told them to go back and came to an arms port, and
finally to a charge bayonet, and in the meantime Colonel Benson got his
regiment to a front about faced his rear rank, and marched out across
the railroad with the rear facing my company, and they formed, what
some have termed, a hollow square. It was simply the front facing one
way and the rank about facing and marching across the railroad, and
that cleared the tracks, and the rear was protected by another
battalion, and these troops in front tried to come on through--that was
their order as I understood it--they were to forward, and it was hard
work for them to go forward very fast. Just about that time,
demonstrations became very lively, clubs were flying, stones, coal, and
pieces of iron ore. There was a difficulty about this time over some
soldier, that some man had got the bayonet, or something, and at least
one pistol shot was fired from the mob into the troops, and somebody
there--some soldier--he was carried away--I do not know whether he was
shot or not, but just then there was firing commenced on the right of
the third rank of the First regiment.
Q. How far distant from you was that first firing by the troops?
A. It was not very far--I suppose twenty yards.
Q. What order did you hear given by any of the commanding officers
there?
A. I heard no order, except this captain commanding the front company
to forward.
Q. That is all the orders you heard given?
A. That is all I heard given.
Q. Heard no order to fire?
A. There was not any order to fire, to the best of my knowledge. I was
paying strict attention and I could have heard it if the battalion had
heard it.
Q. What was the effect of the firing--what was the result?
A. There was a general clearing out of that mob for about ten
minutes--five or ten minutes.
Q. They scattered and left that neighborhood?
A. Yes, sir; the firing commenced, and the troops appeared not to
understand exactly where their enemies was. They fired too much towards
where your humble servant was, I thought, and I undertook to help them
to stop the firing, and the companies were fronted down Twenty-eighth
street.
Q. The time this firing commenced, was the crowd all about, on each
side of this body of troops that were coming up the track--they were
each side of them--the crowd was all about on each side of your
company?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were scattered all about there?
A. Yes; they became very thick in a very short time.
Q. Then the crowd scattered after the firing?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was there any attempt made to prevent their gathering again there by
any of the troops?
A. Nothing more. When they would go to come up again they were ordered
to right and prepare to fire, and that scattered them. Some of the mob
kept on throwing stones and clubs from behind cars until this company
wheeled to the left and faced the river, so as they could see behind
the cars.
Q. How long before General Brinton's command left the ground there?
A. After the firing; 1 do not think it was over half an hour. I cannot
remember the exact time.
Q. After his command left the ground you stayed there some little
time--your regiment?
A. My regiment did. I went up on the hill to my regiment.
Q. Was there any effort made by the Fourteenth or Nineteenth regiment,
after General Brinton left, to keep the crowd from the crossing?
A. My regiment was not at the crossing at all.
Q. Was any effort made by either of the commands to prevent their
gathering there again?
A. Yes; the troops from Philadelphia went that way, and they would go
up above, further towards East Liberty, and congregate in the street
again--in Twenty-eighth street--immediately after that and would make
demonstrations.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. That is not answering the question. Did the Fourteenth or Nineteenth
make any effort?
A. I said no--the Fourteenth regiment did not. I do not know about the
Nineteenth. I did not see them. We were not down on the track; we were
on the hill.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. You kept your position on the hill. After the firing you went back
there?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. On Monday you say you came back to the city and reported with your
command. Where were you sent then--on what duty?
A. We stayed at the central armory for several days, then we were
ordered to the court-house.
Q. There was nothing of any importance occurred?
A. No, sir.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Was your company the only company of your regiment at the crossing
at Twenty-eighth street and the railroad?
A. No, sir; there were others.
Q. Was the whole regiment there at any one time?
A. No, sir; at no one time.
Q. How many companies were there of your regiment at one time?
A. I think mostly we had two companies at a time.
Q. And the balance of the regiment were up on the hill?
A. Or if there was only one company the cavalry company would support
us.
Q. What was the strength of your regiment about that time?
A. I do not remember the figures. There were two or three companies had
not yet reported.
Q. Never did report?
A. Yes; they had not yet reported on Saturday. One company had
reported, and was still at the Union depot, up the river. Another
company was kept up the Allegheny railroad by orders.
Q. Can you form an estimate of the strength of your regiment on
Saturday?
A. I did know the figures. I think there were two hundred, perhaps, or
one hundred and fifty.
Q. After the firing on the Philadelphia troops, you rejoined your
regiment on the hill--your company?
A. Yes; General Brinton relieved me, and told me he would support that
battery, and I could be relieved, and I reported to my colonel by my
sergeant, and he ordered me up on the hill again.
Q. Bid you take the battery with you?
A. No, sir; General Brinton said he would support the battery. Company
C, Captain Nesbitt, was ordered to go down the hill with me.
Q. Did you get any order after this firing, and after the Philadelphia
troops had entered the round-house, to clear the tracks with your
regiment?
A. No, sir.
Q. There was no effort made?
A. We marched down through the crowd to the transfer station, after the
Philadelphia troops left to go to the round-house.
Q. Where is this transfer station?
A. It was two hundred yards or so outside of the round-house. That is
my recollection of the distance--perhaps two hundred yards.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. From there you went to the Union depot?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was the track clear down to the Union depot?
A. No, sir; there were parties of men standing along here and there.
Q. They gave way so that you could march through?
A. Yes; they didn't molest us. Some remarks made that we were not the
Philadelphians, etc.
By Mr. Means:
Q. Did the mob appear to discriminate between the Philadelphia troops
and the Pittsburgh troops.
A. There appeared to be a feeling against the Philadelphia troops.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Did there appear to be any feeling on the part of your regiment men
against the Philadelphia troops?
A. No, sir; I heard no such remarks made.
Q. That feeling was expressed in the mob?
A. Yes, sir.
By Mr. Means:
Q. The one soldier would respect another?
A. We knew they were soldiers and obeyed orders.
Q. That was our training in the army?
A. Yes, sir.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Were you in the late war, captain?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What position did you hold there?
A. I was captain of company E, Sixty-first Pennsylvania regiment.
Q. Served how long?
A. Three years.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. If you had deployed your regiment, or probably both your regiment
and the Nineteenth, too, along the line of the railroad forming a line
on each side of the track, could you have kept the crowd and mob away
from the railroad with the force you had there?
A. If I had been ordered to do so, I think so, certainly. We would have
tried hard anyway.
* * * * *
General Joseph Brown, being duly _sworn_, testified as follows:
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Where do you reside?
A. Pittsburgh.
Q. What is your business?
A. Hardware merchant.
Q. A member of the National Guard?
A. No, sir; not a member of it now. My time expired on November 1st or
2d.