RECKLESS SLAUGHTER AT READING.
The Fourth Pennsylvania Militia at Reading—General Frank Reeder
Undertakes to Restore Order—Bold Rioters Tantalize the Citizen
Soldiery—Without Orders They Fire into a Crowd of Peaceable
Citizens—Thirteen Killed and Twenty-seven Wounded—Not a Rioter
Hurt—A Boy Horribly Mangled—Five Police Officers Victims of the
Bullets—A Lady Shot While Engaged at Her Sewing Machine—Terrible
Anger of the Citizens and Rioters—Threats of the Mob—General
Reeder’s Sworn Statement.
Baltimore and Pittsburgh had not been forgotten. The great strikes
continued. There was still in the minds of men disquieting thoughts.
When would the troubles end? How would the difficulty conclude? What was
to be the result of all the turmoil, the bitterness, the hate aroused?
These were questions present in the minds of men, and for them there
were no answers. Nearly a hundred lives had already been extinguished,
five times a hundred human beings had been maimed and mangled since the
strikes began. Property worth millions of dollars had vanished amid
smoke and flames. The country was in a feverish state of excitement from
Boston to San Francisco; from the Lakes to the Gulf. Men lived, thought,
and acted more in a day, than they ordinarily do in a week. Since the
first European landed on the shores of America, no such scenes as those
transpiring had ever before arrested the attention of the whole people
of the country. It was a time of fear and anxiety. Who would be the next
victim, what city next be given over to devouring flames, and the
rapacity of a lawless mob? Who could tell?
It was on the 23d day of July, 1877—just seven days after the
commencement of the first strike on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at
South Baltimore and Martinsburg. Already momentous events had happened.
Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cumberland had successively attracted the
attention of those who cared to observe the course of the remarkable
movement among the working classes. Hornellsville, Harrisburgh,
Phillipsburg, and Buffalo had been the scene of actions, startling in
their nature. Where would the next center of interest be located? It was
not necessary to wait long for an answer to this question. For some days
there had been trouble on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and
among the miners in that vicinity. Reading was favorably situated to
become the central point of the movement in that region.
At this time Pennsylvania was in arms, from the Delaware to the
Monongehela. There were many militia officers who were anxious to
immortalize themselves by the performance of some heroic action. The
Knight of La Mancha has imitators in this age, and in this land. Up to
the 22nd, no trouble had occurred at Reading. There were some men on a
strike, and trains had been stopped, but the crowds that gathered about
the stations, were citizens drawn to those places to satisfy an idle
curiosity.
But the scene was destined to change. There was in that division of
Pennsylvania a notable military commander, Major-General William J.
Bolton, who commanded the Second Division of the National Guards of
Pennsylvania. To this puissant warrior the railroad authorities
appealed, and he sent one of his trusted Lieutenants, Brigadier-General
Frank Reeder, to Reading, with the Fourth and Sixteenth Regiments. These
warriors, even, according to the sworn statement of their commander,
succeeded in making for themselves an odious record ere they left
Reading—at least, may this be said of the Fourth Regiment, and
particularly of the “Easton Greys.” Reading mourns the folly of the
militia yet.
On account of the unmilitary conduct of some companies of General
Reeder’s regiment, we are compelled to add another story of slaughter to
the bloody records of Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Without one word of
warning, these militia fired upon an assembled crowd of citizens, in the
very heart of the city of Reading, and killed thirteen people, shot five
policemen, and altogether severely wounded twenty-seven persons.
Night had just settled upon the city, and North Seventh street, for two
squares, was lined with people, sitting in the enjoyment of the cool air
of evening, in front of their homes. The main line of the Philadelphia
and Reading Railroad Company’s road passes through the city on Seventh
street. Penn street is the main thoroughfare, running in an opposite
direction from the course of the railroad, and crosses Seventh street at
right angles. From Penn street northward for two squares, two lines of
track are laid, leading to the new depot. These are laid through a deep
cut, with a heavy stone wall, twenty feet high on either side. On this
section of track the bloody work was done. At ten minutes after eight
o’clock the military marched in toward Penn street, through the cut,
from the depot. They were about three hundred and fifty strong, and they
marched, to the tap of a few drums that could not be heard a square
away. Few people were aware of their arrival in the city, and fewer
still knew they were advancing upon the crowd.
Steadily they approached, when suddenly three hundred rifles were
discharged in volleys, and five men dropped to the pavements. The report
that the troops had shot blank cartridges, of course, was incorrect.
When the troops fired their first volleys, they were given broadsides of
rocks and stones from the tops of the walls. Quite a number of revolver
shots were returned by parties in the crowd. The troops continued their
firing, and men, women and children fled in fear. They had assembled on
Seventh street to look at the train that had been stopped, and they were
recklessly and indiscriminately shot by the militia. The citizens were
almost universal in their condemnation of these proceedings. In five
minutes the streets were cleared, stores were closed, and hotels and
restaurants were locked up. Business had been proceeding as usual, and
just before the firing, not a single merchant, or business man was aware
of the coming of the military. The streets resembled a small battle
field, and the pavements were stained with many pools of blood. It was
absolutely dangerous for men to come from the alleyways and from behind
the brick walls, to go to the assistance of the dying. The heroic
militia stood to their guns, and were valiantly disposed to shoot down
any citizen who might cross the line of their vision. Finally the
sufferers, groaning and shrieking for water, were carried to the drug
stores to have their wounds dressed.
[Illustration: THE SCENE AFTER THE FIRST VOLLEY.]
Among the policemen who were on duty at Seventh and Penn streets,
keeping the pavements and sidewalks clear, five were shot down, as
follows: Officer Abner Jones, shot through the back, the ball
penetrating through his body; officer Ludwig Rupp, shot twice through
the right leg; officer Orden Weller, shot in the leg; officer Hart, shot
through the thigh; officer Haggerty, shot through the ankle.
These policemen were shot with rifle balls. They received no word, of
whatever kind, warning them of what was to happen. Officer Rupp, one of
the best men in the force, was dangerously hurt and died of his wounds
two days afterwards. The officers had their wounds dressed at the drug
stores and were taken home.
Chief of Police, Peter Cullen, who was on duty near Seventh and Penn
streets, had a rifle ball penetrate his coat, and officer Werdner also
had his coat ripped with a ball.
Officer Culp narrowly escaped death, a minnie ball whistling past his
head, just grazing his ear.
But two of the military were badly hurt, so far as was reported.
Private Stienberger, of the Allen Rifles, of Allentown, was shot in the
left side of the neck.
Private Slatington, of Company F, was struck in the abdomen by a brick
or rock. Both of these men were conveyed to one of the rear apartments
of the Mansion House, where their wounds were attended to.
Several more of the military were struck with stones, but not seriously
hurt. After the firing was over the soldiers formed along Penn street,
with their left resting on Seventh, and subsequently they marched to
Penn Square, and from there proceeded to the depot of the Philadelphia
and Reading Railroad Company, which was strongly garrisoned. That
evening a large number of special police was sworn in and ordered on
duty, armed with seven-shooters, and the depot was transformed into a
military post. Pickets were out and sentinels were guarding all the
train galleries and entrances. On their march through the streets the
militia were followed but by few persons, who jeered and shouted in an
unpleasant manner.
That night the railroadmen, who were at war with the Philadelphia and
Reading Railroad Company, were engaged in taking counsel as to future
movements. Meanwhile all the tramps from a wide range of country had
come into the city on the first intimation of trouble. On the night of
the 24th, it is supposed they burned down the Lebanon Valley Bridge,
which spanned the Schuylkill at Reading, and which was built at a cost
of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Reading’s direct railway
communication with Harrisburg and the West was thus cut off, freight
cars were burned and tracks interfered with. The 24th of July was one of
the most trying periods known in the annals of railroading in
Pennsylvania. All day long Reading was in a state of wild riot and
disorder.
There were three alarms the night after the fight, and each time the
Fourth Regiment formed under arms. The rioters contented themselves with
tearing up part of the track below Penn street, cutting down a long line
of railroad telegraph poles, and robbing freight cars. Six men,
identified as rioters, got into the depot. They were put under arrest;
three of them were storekeepers in Reading. All were heavily armed and
very audacious.
Before daylight on the morning of the 23d, a locomotive glided into the
depot at Reading. She brought from Auburn six thousand rounds of ball
cartridges. At six o’clock in the morning, five companies of the
Sixteenth Regiment arrived at the break in the track below the city and
were marched up to the depot. They were under Colonel Scholl. These
militia-men declared they would not fire on the rioters, and the crowd
cheered them. Some of these men said, “We will not shoot workingmen,
whatever the Easton Greys may do. They are our brothers, and the only
one we’d like to pour our bullets into is that damned Frank B. Gowen.”
Mr. Gowen is Superintendent of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
The officers denied that their men used this language, but hundreds of
persons in the crowds heard the expressions. At eight o’clock a number
of police who had been wounded were started on a slow local train to get
to Allentown and Easton. Some were very seriously hurt, one mortally.
At half-past eight, the two regiments, marching by the flank, with
General Reeder at their head, started out of the depot and towards the
cut where the conflict of the preceding night took place. The Sixteenth
Regiment had the right, and as it was recognized, the crowd cheered it,
when the Easton Greys and other companies of the Fourth Regiment came
along the air was rent with yells of “Give ’em hell,” “Go for ’em,” etc.
Instead of repeating the last night’s error in going down the cut they
marched in the streets, above and along side it, a movement which
disconcerted the riotous crowd, nevertheless a brisk flight of stones
was kept up by the mob upon the Fourth Regiment. The Easton Greys
suffered most, having Sergeant Hanmann, Corporal Perdoe, Privates Mack
and Vail severely wounded. Young Surtz, of Easton, was sun-struck and
came near dying. No member of the Sixteenth Regiment was hurt. It was
expected the soldiers would cover the restoration of the track by a
working party, but after they had reached the ground the workers did not
appear. After waiting half an hour, they marched through Penn and Fifth
streets back to the depot. Men could not be found to do the dangerous
work proposed. From the mob following the soldiers came a deafening
storm of curses, threats, and insults hurled at the Easton Greys. Many
men carried great stones and bricks wishing to throw them, yet fearing
to get close enough. They regretted loudly that the soldiers had not
come down the track again in the cut, so they might have been stoned
from the ramparts twenty feet above. In the cut one could see the ground
covered with stones, fragments of iron, and bricks, hurled down the
previous evening. As the troops marched along a volley of stones from
the windows on the route fell upon them. From time to time, sudden fear
of retaliation seized the mob, and wheeling they dashed into open doors.
Finding the soldiers did not fire, their assailants grew bolder, and
there was good reason to believe that if the return march had not been
made when it was, another combat must have taken place.
The rioters openly threatened to burn the railroad property,
notwithstanding the presence in the city of nearly one thousand
soldiers. They also threatened to massacre the Easton Greys. The
animosity against that company was greatest because the volley of the
Greys did more deadly execution the previous evening, than all the
regular firing of the other companies.
The terrible effects of the fusilades was now made apparent, thirteen
killed and thirty-seven wounded was the result. The corpse of a boy was
found during the morning, with the abdomen shot wide open. A woman was
shot at her sewing machine, but not seriously hurt. A German came about
the depot crying for vengeance, because, he said, his wife had been
killed by the soldiers.
The town was full of excitement. The rioters congregated in masses on
the street corners, but the excessive heat of the day seemed to prevent
overt acts.
The five companies of the Sixteenth Regiment at Reading were almost all
Irishmen. They slipped away from the depot into the town singly and by
twos and threes, and gave their ammunition to the rioters, by whom they
were everywhere hailed as brethren, and with whom they engaged in
drinking. They were repeatedly heard to swear that not only would they
not fire upon the mob in any event, but that if the Easton Greys did so
they would fire upon them, and help the rioters to clean them out and
burn the railroad property. The rioters were greatly encouraged. The
Fourth Regiment, feeling itself in momentary danger of betrayal, and of
being put between two fires, wanted to go home.
General Frank Reeder telegraphed all the time, and shrouded himself in
mystery. He did not care to show himself to the people of Reading.
Meanwhile the most unsoldierly lack of discipline prevailed among the
military. There were sentries at each entrance to the depot, yet the
platforms were crowded with persons who openly avowed their fixed
purpose to rout the militia and burn the property of the Railroad
Company. They expressed a determination to kill some of the companies of
the Fourth Regiment.
The presence of the military did not curb the spirit of the rioters. On
the contrary they grew bolder and more threatening. For some days after
the fight open attacks on the trains were made.
The strikers mounted a passing loaded coal train, put on the brakes,
stopped the train and pushed back the caboose and several loaded cars,
thus virtually blockading the down track. One of the eight-ton cars was
dumped on the rails. At ten minutes after four o’clock, July 25th, the
down express train came along slowly on the other track. The strikers
were led by a large man wearing a dark shirt and dark pants. His hair
looked as if it had been recently shaved from his head.
Fully two hundred strikers would rush right up squarely to the front of
the approaching locomotive, wave their hands, shake their clenched
fists, and by many devices intimidate and threaten the engine driver and
train employes. An up freight train was compelled to go back, and the
crew made to desert the cars. At one time it was feared they would run
the engine into the river below the city. The up passenger and express
train came through the city at a fearful speed, with the engine
whistling lustily. As she sped through the crowd, Engineer Saracool bent
low in his cab and gave the engine full stroke, in order to successfully
pass the enraged men.
The freight up from Philadelphia and the market train were compelled to
halt and go no further. At this point the passenger train down, was
stopped in the cut, where the fighting took place. The crew were
compelled to desert and the passengers were obliged to leave. These high
handed proceedings continued until about seven o’clock, when nearly all
the strikers left the ground for parts unknown. Not one of the rioters
was either killed or wounded.
The majority, in fact all the unfortunates, were law-abiding, peaceable
citizens, who had assembled at Seventh and Penn streets simply to
gratify their curiosity.
A large body of Coal and Iron Police, from the coal regions, were
quartered at the Company’s mammoth car shops, which works the strikers
threatened to burn. A large crowd of the friends of the railroad men
procured about fifty muskets for the strikers, and there was imminent
danger of a desperate conflict.
The military companies engaged in the fight were the Hamburg Rifles,
Slatington Rifles, Allentown Continentals, Company I, infantry, of
Catasqua, Easton Greys, and a company from Portland, Northampton county.
They arrived at eight o’clock in the evening. A number of the military,
after their bloody work was done, threw down their arms, and asked for
citizens’ clothes.
At a quarter after eleven o’clock, the night of the 25th, the strikers
had torn down the watch boxes at the street corners, and proceeded down
the road to tear up the tracks. They signalized their departure by a
perfect hurricane of yells and cheering, as they proceeded in their
onward march of ruin and destruction. The city had become turbulent
again, and the outlook indicated desperate work. The cry among the men
was, “Wages and revenge.”
The Sheriff issued his proclamation, and Mayor Evans returned home from
Ocean Grove, on a special train, in answer to an urgent telegram. Town
meetings were held to take steps to prevent any repetition of the dark
deeds which had cast a gloom over the whole community at Reading.
Before the militia were withdrawn from Reading, there was a narrow
escape from a bloody scene. It was the night after the horrible
fusilades. Large crowds had gathered at the scene of that conflict, and
about the same time several companies of the Fourth Regiment marched
down Seventh to Penn street. Here they met a company of the Sixteenth
Regiment, and a fight between the military seemed imminent. The crowd
treated the Easton Greys to a shower of stones. This company immediately
levelled their pieces, when they were notified by Colonel Scholl of the
Sixteenth Regiment that no indiscriminate slaughter would be permitted.
All the troops then passed down Penn and out Fifth street, followed by
the mob, who fairly threw insults in the teeth of the soldiery.
The Morristown company of the Sixteenth Regiment subsequently stacked
their arms, and refused absolutely to operate against the rioters. Some
of them threw their guns away, and distributed the cartridges among the
crowd. The company left for home shortly afterwards, as did all the
militia engaged in the firing on the citizens. Mayor Evans issued a
proclamation, calling for one thousand volunteers to do patrol duty in
the city, until quiet and order was restored. A special force of
policemen were sworn in, and other measures taken to preserve order in
the city.
On the day after the fight, Coroner Goodhart, of Reading, summoned a
jury of inquest, and proceeded to investigate the circumstances
attending the shooting of peaceable, unarmed citizens. A summons was
issued for General Frank Reeder, who had disappeared from Reading, in
obedience to orders, and had established his headquarters at Allentown,
to which place the Coroner sent a notification to him. On the 30th,
seven days after the fusilades, General Reeder submitted the following
sworn statement, in relation to the affair:
HEADQUARTERS FIFTH BRIGADE, }
SECOND DIVISION, N. G. P., }
ALLENTOWN, Pa., July 30. }
_Geo. S. Goodhart, Reading, Pa._
DEAR SIR: Your notification, dated July 27, covering certain inquiries
to which you desire replies, was duly received by me. While I do not for
one moment concede your right to demand such replies from me at this
time, while I know perfectly well that my official report of the
occurrences at Reading, on the 23d inst., to my superior officers, is
the only account which I can at this time be required to make. I am,
nevertheless, quite willing to furnish you with whatever information is
in my possession; calculated to throw light upon the subject matter now
under official investigation by you. To that end I reply categorically
to your questions, as follows:
Q. Who ordered your command to this place? A. I was ordered to Reading
with the Fourth Regiment of my brigade, by Major-General William J.
Bolton, commanding Second Division, National Guards of Pennsylvania.
Q. Who gave you orders to march through the cut to Seventh and Penn
streets? A. I received no orders to march through the cut, but I was
requested to march into the cut to liberate a train in the possession of
the rioters, by an official of the Reading Railroad Company.
Q. Who ordered you to fire upon the crowd? A. No person ordered me to
fire, neither did I fire, nor direct any other person to fire upon the
crowd.
Q. Which of the companies discharged their guns, and how often? A. All
the companies did firing, but no living creature can give the further
information desired.
Q. Did you acquaint the High Sheriff of this county with your coming and
presence in the city? If not, why not? A. I did not; it was not my duty
to acquaint him with my coming, and it was while I was proceeding in the
direction of the High Sheriff’s house that my command was attacked by
the mob; upon receiving orders to repair to Reading, I took cars with my
command at Allentown, and proceeded without incident to Temple, where
the train was boarded by Messrs. Eltz and Paxon, Railroad officials;
these gentlemen informed me that the Reading depot was in possession of
a mob, numbering from two to three thousand; I desired them to stop the
train just outside of sight of the depot, which being done, I
disembarked the troops, and, having formed, we marched to the depot,
finding it in the hands and under the protection of the Coal and Iron
Police; I was then requested to release a train from the hands of the
strikers, and was informed that this cut was the direct road to the Penn
street crossing, which it was necessary to clear to permit the running
of trains. I moved my command in the direction of the cut, but before
reaching it we were met by a large body of men, whose violent gestures,
coarse insults, unspoken threats, and general bearing, suggested the
idea of halting the regiment, loading the pieces, and moving the
musicians to the rear. Before entering the cut we were saluted by the
crowd with a volley of stones and some pistol shots. We moved down the
cut, stoned, at every step, by a yelling mob, without firing a shot, or
speaking a word in reply to the shouts which almost deafened us, until
we reached the second bridge. During this march I, seconded by all the
other officers of the command, constantly cautioned the men not to fire,
notwithstanding the fact that every step was being marked by the blood
of the men, and that many of the troops had been knocked down by the
flying stones. Near the second bridge a single shot, fired without
orders, was the signal for a dropping fire, which, while doing little or
no damage to the mob of rioters, served to check the fast-falling shower
of stones. Pressing on, the command reached Penn street, and was
confronted by a large crowd of persons, who met us by hurling stones and
firing pistols at the regiment, which was only stopped by what I have
since learned was a very effective volley, which entirely dispersed
them. Not a single shot was fired by us on Penn street, either up or
down, nor was there a single shot fired after the last halt was made by
us on Seventh street. Of all the five cart-loads of stones, which I
heard next day were collected in the cut, very few were thrown after the
first shot was fired. Most of the stones were of such size and weight
that it is almost certain strong arms were employed in the work; upon
reaching Penn Square, I inquired for the Mayor, and was told he was at
the seashore; I also inquired for the High Sheriff, but could learn no
tidings of his whereabouts; I thereupon returned to the depot, which I
had been asked to protect from the mob. Later in the night, the Mayor
having returned to the city, I was requested by him to send a company of
troops into the cut to drive off the mob, then alleged to be engaged in
tearing up the railroad track. This I declined to do, principally
because I was short of ammunition, having had but fifteen hundred
rounds.
I am led to supplement this narrative with a word or two in defense of
the military propriety of moving into the cut by the strictures which
your District Attorney and one of your daily papers have been pleased to
make upon me for having selected that route for my advance into the
town. Raw recruits run greater risks from having their formation
destroyed and the confusion incident upon broken alignments than from
any other cause. Had the mob succeeded in breaking its formation, the
Fourth Regiment might itself have degenerated into a mob, and would have
been completely at the mercy of the rioters. This might have been
accomplished had we been on a wide street where the mob could press upon
our flanks, but in the cut it was impossible, as our flanks were clear,
our formation was preserved and the men had room to use their rifles
with reasonable effect, and we emerged from the cut without the loss of
a single soldier. I think I can safely rely upon the result of the
battle with the mob as the most unanswerable argument against the theory
of a military blunder.
In accordance with your request I send this letter as a sworn statement.
(Signed) FRANK REEDER,
Brigadier-General.
The admission of General Frank Reeder in the remarkable statement given
above, is sufficient evidence that the destruction of life at Reading
was a reckless and wanton sacrifice. Even admitting that his men had
been badly treated by a mob of roughs, that they had suffered from the
vigorous attack of a mass of men armed with stones and pieces of iron,
and other missiles, the fact that not a single rioter was either killed
or wounded, goes far to reflect upon the indiscretion of the soldiers,
in firing into a company of innocent people, for it shows, what was
true, that the mob of rioters, who had stoned the marching militia in
the railway cut, had already vanished. The feeling against the Fourth
Regiment both among law-abiding citizens and the rioters, was intensely
bitter. The result of the Coroner’s inquiry into the circumstances
served to increase the animosity, and there is no doubt that at one time
the members of the Easton Greys were in actual danger of being massacred
in a mass by the enraged populace. Some of them obtained citizens
clothes, disposed of their guns and accoutrements in some manner, and
quietly stole away.
The Fourth Regiment received orders to depart from Reading with lively
satisfaction. The Sixteenth Regiment was composed of workingmen, and
sympathized with the strikers, and for that reason were withdrawn. A
detachment of United States regulars subsequently came to Reading, but
their services were not called into requisition. They did not fire on
crowds of citizens because of “unspoken threats,” hence there was no
further trouble. Then the Mayor and Sheriff undertook to restore and
preserve order, and they accomplished it. In a few days Reading had
become the same quiet, plodding town it had been before.