After every exertion on the part of myself and staff, since four
o'clock this A.M., I have but two hundred and thirty men on hand.
There are not less than four or five thousand strikers, and
increasing in large numbers hourly. The sympathy of the various
companies is with them, and I have no hesitation in saying, that to
avert bloodshed, we should have not less than two thousand troops.
While I can scatter the crowd, it will be only for the time being,
and at fearful loss of life. I suggest that two thousand men be
sent to-night.
A. L. PEARSON,
_Major General_.
Q. What hour is that dispatch dated?
A. That dispatch is dated six-thirty-five, P.M., Pittsburgh, July 20,
1877, and I got it at McVeytown tower, east of Huntingdon. I
immediately ordered the divisions of Generals Brinton, Gallagher,
Huidekoper, and White, and the Fifth regiment of General Beaver's
division under arms, and advised General Pearson of this by telegram.
In view of this fact of sympathetic tendencies on the part of the
strikers with the rioters, after I got Pearson's dispatch, in another
answer to Colonel Scott, I said I didn't deem it advisable to take any
action with the troops just then, until we found out exactly how the
troops felt. If the troops were going to be in this condition all over
the State, we better study a little before making further movements,
and I telegraphed Brinton a private and confidential dispatch,
inquiring what the sentiment was there. He telegraphed back, assuring
me his people were right, and I might use them on any emergency
whatever. Immediately after that I put Brinton in the field, and
ordered him to move the whole division to Pittsburgh. I directed
Brinton to supply himself with ammunition, such as he had in
Philadelphia. I had forty-five thousand rounds prepared for him, and
handed to him as he passed through, with instructions to issue it to
his troops, not less than ten rounds a man, before they went any
further, and I also put in his charge two Gatling guns, which we had at
the Harrisburg arsenal, leaving their heavy guns behind them. I pursued
my individual movement to Pittsburgh, and, I think I got there some
time about one or two o'clock in the morning of Saturday. I do not
recollect exactly the time. I found excitement, and things conditioned
during the night as I supposed I would find them, from what reports I
had. Found these two regiments, the Fourteenth and the Nineteenth,
partially gotten together in cars. Pearson was about to execute a
movement to carry them out by some strategic plan, about daylight, to
Twenty-eighth street, and there hold the crossing with these two
regiments and a battery, the object being entirely to avoid bloodshed,
that being the tenor of all the dispatches I received. From what I
could learn, I thought the movement of that battery and the necessity
for two thousand men was rather an unwise one, and I advised against
it; but the battery was taken out, and the measure was successfully
accomplished. I discovered, much to my surprise, that public sentiment
and the press were in pretty strong sympathy and accord with the people
who were defying the law. No sheriff, no mayor, that I saw at all.
Matters went on until two o'clock, I think, without any change worthy
of comment, when Brinton arrived with about six hundred and fifty men.
I then asked Pearson distinctly whether he was satisfied, or had enough
troops to master the situation, and he said he was satisfied with them,
and the movement commenced. I remained at the Union Depot hotel, to say
nothing of the transaction at Twenty-fifth street. The firing was first
announced to me in a dispatch, which was given in my report. It might
be stated, in this connection, that the whole forty-five rounds of
ammunition were brought to Pittsburgh, and it was a pretty serious
embarrassment in future operations. These facts are all set forth in my
report, and the troops were supplied with twenty rounds per man, and
the guns with two thousand rounds each--the Gatling.
Q. Before they started from the Union depot?
A. Before they started from the Union depot. We had a vast amount of it
lying there. If we had only got it issued, it might have made some
change in circumstances. The dispatch announcing the fire, I received
at the Union depot, five-twenty P.M.
Q. What page is that on?
A. Page 5.