USA > Pennsylvania > History of the First regiment infantry, National guard of Pennsylvania (Grey Reserves) 1861-1911, pt 1 > Part 24
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Moving from Pittsburg to home, I recollect the boys all singing "Home, Sweet Home," until we got to Harrisburg and were switched off to Seranton, when they changed their tunes, and regretted their fate. On the way from Harrisburg to Scranton we were turned out of the cars, as an advance guard to patrol the tracks in front of the troop trains. We found some cars on the track to wreck our train and captured some men who were all going fish- ing (?) with guns in their hands. It was a tiresome night's march and the writer recolleets a sense of relief when we were ordered into the cars again sharing with Corporal Giller a last drop of the " water " I had in my canteen.
At Scranton we were quartered in the Valley Hotel, and I recollect we all slept on the floor and Big Dick Diamond coming in one evening late, put his foot on Comrade Burroughs face. I recollect, also, "D" Company get- ting a real good supper, hot cakes, etc., one night in the private dining-room of the hotel, and the other companies wondering how we did it.
Quartermaster Sergeant Hogan was a good quartermaster-and I recol- lect being appointed assistant quartermaster-sergeant and going over to see a pretty girl who boiled our coffee for us, and who asked Hogan what I did when I was home, and Hogan saying " I was an instructor of Judges "-re- ferring to my legal occupation, and the girl saying, ",well, he does not look like one anyhow," and I don't believe I did-but I think Comrade Hogan had really been saying something to my detriment-he was an old bird, as I told you before.
I recollect also going up to the Wyoming House with Captain Hastings, who was then a corporal, like myself, for breakfast, and after getting a good one, standing chatting in the hall of the hotel with some of our friends in the First Troop, who were Headquarter's Guard-and suddenly seeing the red sash of the officer of the day-Captain Wiedersheim-and that officer him- self emerge from a side door and ask Hastings and myself what we were doing away from quarters. And I saying I was assistant quartermaster- sergeant and out foraging, and Hastings saying he was helping me; with which we were admonished to get back to quarters as quick as we could- which I did, shortly after, and which Hastings did not, and I recollect well his coming in an hour after with a lot of other captives in the hands of the Guard, and being guyed unmercifully by us all.
And then our homecoming-and being received by the veterans of the Grand Army Post at 3Ist and Chestnut Streets, and being met by the regi- mental band, and a good luncheon, and a street parade-all these things, comrades, are memorie- of the past. 1
I See Appendix for noister-roll.
1877
OFFICIAL REPORT
223
OFFICIAL REPORT OF COL. R. DALE BENSON
HEADQUARTERS FIRST REGIMENT INFANTRY, N. G. P.
Philadelphia, August 24, 1877.
MAJOR W. W. ALLEN, A. A. G.
Ist Brigade, Ist Division, N. G. P.
Sir: In compliance with the verbal instructions of the Brigadier-General commanding Brigade, I have the honor to report that verbal instructions were given the Ist Regiment Infantry to be placed under arms, the evening of July 20th. Being absent from the city, the communciation of the acting Assistant Adj .- General of Division, advising that the troops of this Division were ordered to be held in readiness to proceed to Pittsburg, Pa., did not reach me until 10:27 P. M. that date. I immediately repaired to the armory of my command, and found that Lieut .- Col. Clark and the officers of the regi- mental staff had, with commendable promptness, placed the command in marching order. By verhal orders of the Brigadier-General commanding Bri- gade, the regiment marched from its armory at about 12:45 A. M., fully equipped, numbering 208 total, with 1500 rounds ammunition, and proceeded to depot of the Pennsylvania R. R., 32d and Market Streets; embarked in train there in waiting, leaving depot about 2 o'clock A. M., July 21st. By order of Major-General commanding, ahout one-half my ammunition was distributed to other commands. At Harrisburg ammunition was distributed to my regi- ment, allowing an average of about 20 rounds per man. At Altoona sand- wiches of bread and ham, also coffee, were issued to my regiment. Arrived at Pittsburg about 1:30 P. M., July 21st, when the same rations were issued. Stacked arms in Union Depot until about 3 o'clock P. M .; when ordered under arms, proceeded upon right of Brigade, in column of fours, along the line of Penna. R. R. tracks. The column was constantly halted, owing, I am in- formed, to difficulty in moving battery of Gatling guns. While on march, a party of thirty or forty citizens moved directly in my front. preventing me from observing what should take place; I ordered them to disperse; a citizen, much agitated, since ascertained to be Sheriff Fife, Allegheny County, ap- proached me, stating the body of citizens referred to was a sheriff's posse, the troops were to support them in making arrests, and inquiring " would my men do their duty." I informed him I had received no such orders. my front must he cleared, and it was not his business to inquire whether my command would perform its duty, and he was referred to General Matthews, command- ing Brigade. The order to clear my front was oheyed, and General Matthews afterward, coming to the right, stated that the sheriff's posse were ordered to march in front of the troops, and they were allowed to do so. Proceeding along the line of the railroad, amid the jeers and insults of the mob, that cov- ered the roofs of the cars standing upon the tracks on both flanks, the column was halted at 2Sth Street crossing, in the midst of an immense crowd. My command, being still in column of fours, was. when halted. entirely sur- rounded hy the mob, those composing it standing shoulder to shoulder and breast to breast with my troops. The sheriff's posse being upon my right, I was unable to observe what took place in my immediate front. Upon re- ceipt of the order of General commanding Brigade to clear the railroad tracks the length of my battalion. I informed the mob on my left flank of the order, that I proposed to execute it. and that there was no necessity for violence, placed my battalion in line of battle, faring railroad shops, gave the order
1877
224
HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
"forward," the battalion at "carry arins"; the mob moved slowly and sullenly, addressing vile epithets to the officers; having cleared the tracks to line of cars, battalion was halted and order was given to post a double line of sentinels, two from each company, to hold the line, before moving to the rear to clear the other tracks, when I received the order of Brigadier- General commanding, through a staff officer, directing " my front rank to stand where it was, and with rear rank to clear the other track," to which order I replied that " I must protest; is it not a mistake? " Staff officer replied, "Those are General Matthews's instructions." I replied, "They will then have to be executed." It seemed in my judgment extremely hazardous to ex- pose a single line to the crowd bearing against it in such compact masses. and having but one officer to a company, except in two instances, it left my rear rank without officers to command it, and to remove the crowd from the other tracks, exposed it in the same manner as front rank, and more so, all the files not being filled, to be broken by the pressure of the mob. if not by attack. The order was executed; the crowd not being as heavy on that flank, now my rear, gave way, and the tracks were cleared and held open by my command until relieved; the distance between my two ranks was about 15 or IS paces. Through my ranks I observed other troops were brought for- ward and placed upon my right, covering the space between my ranks. A few moments afterward I saw some of the men in those commands open fire; re- ceiving no order, I gave the order to my battalion " to load," as a matter of military precaution, and awaited the order to " fire," which was not com- municated to me, and which I did not consider I was authorized to give, superior officers being present. Pistol-shots were frequent from the mob, and stones were thrown in large quantities at the troops, two men in my right company were shot, one disabled by a blow in the head from a stone, and some of the muskets of the men were grasped by the mob, before my battalion fired; then file firing commenced in my right company, and I immediately gave the order to "cease firing." The yelling of the mob and the musketry firing prevented my order from being heard through the entire command at once, but, as soon as heard, it was obeyed. The firing, confined almost en- tirely to the right wing, had dispersed the crowd. As to the firing of my command without an order from the commandant of battalion, whether the situation of the troops justified it, or self-defence on the part of the men required it, or whether the order to fire should have been given, probably is not my province to decide or express an opinion officially.
My battalion was then, by order of the Brigadier-General commanding Brigade, moved to the right to more fully cover 28th Street, where the mob was still in large numbers; and, upon the mob refusing to keep back to a line indicated. I brought my three right companies to a " ready," when they scat- tered. By order, a company was thrown across the entrance to the grounds of West Penn Hospital to protect the rear, and my battalion remained in the position last indicated, until about 7 o'clock P. M., several men fainting and others made sick by the extreme heat and want of water.
The battalion, about that hour. was relieved, and with the Brigade pro- ceeded to the "round-house," farthest from 28th Street, formed line and stacked arms; guards were detailed and posted, and the entrances covered by my battalion. as directed. Lieut .- Col. Clark, of this regiment, was detailed as brigade officer of the day.
During the night I was ordered to send a company to the window of the
225
OFFICIAL REPORT
1877
round-house, facing Liberty Street, to support the two companies of the 3d Regiment, as the mob had placed a piece of artillery in position. Company D, Captain Wiedersheim, was detailed for that duty, performing the same in an admirable manner, and remaining on duty until the troops left the building. Later in the morning, being ordered to relieve the detachment of 3d Regi- ment, I ordered Companies F, Captain Huffington, and K, Captain Cromelien, to relieve that command, which was promptly done, they remaining on duty until the brigade moved out of the building. Considerable exchange of shots took place between the troops and the mob during the night, but the mob was unable to fire the piece of artillery, or remove it, owing to the skilful and effective manner in which the men on duty kept it covered, and a num- ber of the mob lost their lives in attempting to gain the piece. Rifle-firing, from the cover of a board yard opposite the round-house, which was accurate nnd constant, was trying to the men, but was ineffective, as they were in- structed to keep themselves covered, and my command lost no men in that building. During the night, hearing volleys of musketry, my command was placed under arms, as a precautionary measure, and perfect discipline was maintained.
.
About 8 o'clock A. M., July 22d, the order was received to move, and the regiment proceeded on the right of the Division, through the carpenter shop to Liberty Street, by direction of the Brigadier-General commanding bri- gade; before leaving building, I detailed twelve men and one sergeant from my right (E) Company, as skirmishers, and upon reaching the street, ordered Lientenant Filley, E Company, to assume command of same. Column marched, without opposition, on the right, out Penn Avenue, and, when near Arsenal Building, firing that had been heard in the rear, increased rapidly, and, being dismounted, before I was aware of it, most of the other corps of the divi- sion came rushing through my column, firing indiscriminately, knocking some of my men down, and for a moment disorganizing my regiment, though there was ample space on both flanks, still being in column of fours. Lieut .- Col. Clark and myself endeavored to drive them from our ranks, threatening to run them through with our swords. The right company and skirmish line, hearing my order to halt, quickly did so, a drummer, beating the long roll, greatly assisted; the battalion was halted, formed to the left, to allow the other troops in full retreat to pass, when the Major-General commanding the division, in person ordered me to take my battalion to the rear of the divi- sion, stating it was a military necessity. I requested permission to march my battalion as my judgment dictated, which was granted. I then formed my right wing in column of fours on one sidewalk, and left wing on the other, leaving the Gatling battery in centre of avenue, between the two wings, and followed the division; iny object being, by that formation the men could see what was occurring in the rear and I should be enabled to enfilade the streets or buildings on either side: my battalion was not attacked after taking the rear. One officer and several men were missing, but have since reported, and will be ordered before a Board of Inquiry, except in cases where exhaustion or sickness had been fully established. Crossing the Sharpsburg bridge. the command procceded to grounds of the Allegheny County Poor- house, about ten miles, over which entire distance my command assisted in hauling the Gatling guns, owing to which fact the details constantly being compelled to relieve cach other, and the necessity that the men should obtain food that they could purchase or obtain from the houses en route, the
15
226
HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
IST7
march being an exceedingly trying one and fatiguing, regular halts were not made and the column was not kept closed up.
Reached AAllegheny County Poorhouse late in the afternoon; toward night coffee and bread were issued, the first ration since 1:30 P. M. on the day previous; encamped for night; took cars at Claremont station early fol- lowing morning, proceeded to Blairsville Junction, and were joined there by detachments of 127 officers and inen. Eneamped there, performing regular camp duty until July 27th; embarked on cars that evening and proceeded to Pittsburg; encamped on grounds of West Penn Hospital, remaining until August Ist. Broke camp at midnight, and proceeded to entrance to grounds of West Penn Hospital, and awaited transportation until daylight; pro- ceeded to Harrisburg and returned to Sunbury, there taking the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg R. R., proceeded to Scranton; during the night I was or- dered to detail two companies to form an advance and march in front of train; Company E, Captain Muldoon, and Company D, Captain Wiedersheim, were detailed for that duty, and they marched about eight miles, between Nanticoke and Plymouth, in that position, taking five or six prisoners.
Upon arriving near Scranton, I was ordered to disembark my battalion and advance into the town, which was done without interference. The regi- ment was quartered in the Valley Hotel, a vacant building; guards were posted, all the duties of a post carried out, including battalion and company drills, dress parades and guard mount. The regiment took train at 10 o'clock P. M., August 4th; reached Philadelphia about 8 o'clock A. M., August 5th, and after a short mareh was relieved from duty, and proceeding to its armory, was dismissed.
Throughout the tour of duty the details from my command were very heavy, and the men much taxed; the rations, a large portion of the time, inadequate for the needs of the men, they frequently being compelled to pur- chase atual necessary rations; limited means of preparing these rations were received, but no tents, yet their duty was faithfully and uncomplainingly performed, with great credit to themselves comparatively.
There was but little siekness in my command. I have no hesitation in saying that both offieers and men are deserving of the highest commendation for the discipline maintained throughout the tour of duty, and for the manner in which every duty assigned them was performed, often under trying circumstances.
The casualties in this battalion all occurred at 28th Street, Pittsburg, July 2Ist, were four: One man shot in ealf of leg, one in head, and two wounded by stones. all of E Company.
Private E. M. Baker, E Company, shot in head and wounded with stone. remained on duty the entire time. and the ball was extracted upon return to Philadelphia, and he is deserving of special mention for gallantry. Four hundred and fifty-four officers and men of this regiment were actually on duty, not including those who failed to reach the regiment by loss of trans- portation, and who started from Philadelphia and failed to join from various causes.
Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,
R. DALE BENSON,
Colonel 1st Regiment Inf., N. G. P.
1877
ARTICLES IN " SCRIBNER'S "
227
From Mr. James Ford Rhodes's Article in Scribner's for July, 1911, on " The Railroad Riots of 1817":
By 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, July 21st, 650 Philadelphia soldiers under the Command of Brinton, a Civil War veteran, arrived at the Union Station. They were a brave body of men; many had seen service in the Civil War and some of the companies were composed of the elite of the city. But they had little relish for the fight before them, for they were hungry. Owing to bad management, they had been on short rations, although their journey lay within the prosperous and fertile State of Pennsylvania. Leaving Philadelphia at about two in the morning, they had once had coffee and sandwiches on the way and the same again on their arrival at the Union Station, but nothing else. . .
. About dusk Brinton withdrew his troops for rest and food to the lower round-house at Twenty-sixth Street, supposing that the upper round- house at Twenty-eighth Street would be occupied by the Pittsburgh Militia. But this was not to be. So the affair simmered down to a contest between the mob and the Philadelphia soldiers. ' The exasperation of the bloodshed of the afternoon was increased by the report, which may have been true, that some of the killed were innocent spectators: for the neighbor- ing hill had been covered with people and the firing had been high. A report that women and children were among the killed aggravated the wrath of the people and when the mob reassembled at Twenty-eighth Street crossing on the tracks in the railroad yard. they were bent on revenge, took the offensive. and laid siege to the Philadelphia troops in the round-house. These were without food. Provisions were sent to them from the Union Station, a mile away, in express wagons, which, being unguarded, were intercepted by the rioters. Possessed of fire-arms from having broken into a number of gun- shops, the rioters with some attempt at military order, marched to the round-house and poured volley after volley into the windows, eliciting no response from the Philadelphia soldiers who were under orders not to fire unless absolutely necessary for self-protection. But after a proper warning they did fire at men attempting to use a field piece captured from a Pitts- burgh Battery and killed perhaps two or three. Failing to overpower their enemy by assault the rioters tried fire. They applied the torch to the upper round-house and neighboring buildings. Breaking in the heads of barrels of oil, taken from the detained freight, they saturated cars of coke with it, ignited them and pushed the cars toward the lower round-house in the attempt to roast out the beleaguered soldiers, who by means of the fire apparatus managed for a while to stay the fire. It was a terrible ordeal they were passing through: "Tired, hungry, and worn out, surrounded by a mob of infuriated men, yelling like demons, fire on nearly all sides of them, suffocated and blinded by smoke. with no chance to rest and with little knowledge of what efforts were being made for their relief, with orders not to fire on the mob unless in necessary self-defence, the wonder is that they were not totally demoralized, but the evidence of all the officers is that the men behaved like veterans." (Quotation from report of Pennsylvania Legis- lature appointed to investigate railroad riots of 1877.)
At last the lower round-house took fire, and the Philadelphia troops were forced to abandon it and retreat. Unable as they were to cope with the mob. their only thought was self-preservation. At about 8 o'clock on Sunday
228
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
morning they marched out in good order. Their progress was not opposed, but after passing they were fired upon from street corners, alleyways, windows, and housetops. Shots were fired from a city street-car and from the sidewalk in front of a police station, where a number of police were standing. The troops turned and used, with some effect, their rifles and a Gatling gun, which they had brought with them in their retreat. Finally they reached the United States arsenal and asked for shelter and protection, which the commandant, fearing that he could not defend the place against an attack of the mob, refused. Leaving their wounded, the Philadelphia troops, no longer hindered by the mob, marched on, crossed the Allegheny River to Sharpsburg and encamped near the work-house, where they were given bread and coffee, the first food since the snacks of the previous afternoon. . . . On Sunday the 22d, the rioting with arson and pillage went on, and in the after- noon the Union Station and Railroad Hotel and an elevator nearby were burned. Then as the mob was satiated and too drunk to be longer dangerous, the riot died out: it was not checked. The following incident illustrates the general alarm of that day. The State authorities driven from the Union Depot Hotel took refuge in the Monongahela House, the leading hotel in Pittsburgh, where they wrote their names in the usual manner on the hotel register: but these were scratched out by the hotel people and fictitious names put in their place. On Monday through the action of the authorities. sup- ported by armed bands of law-abiding citizens and some faithful companies of the Pittsburgh Militia, order was restored.
Moral support should have been forthcoming for these brave militiamen who had been precipitately ordered forward to attempt an impossible task, but the Pittsburgh public generally regarded their act as murderous.
In the graphic account of the operations of the First Divi- sion from its departure to its arrival at Blairsville Intersection, given by Major Silas W. Pettit, Judge Advocate, in his semi- official communication to Major 1. D. Fell, acting assistant adjutant-general, there is an incident so concisely and compre- hensively told (confirming and emphasizing, as it does, Colonel Benson's report of the same incident ) of one of the many assaults made on the round-house, that it is of value as a typical illustra- tion of the desperation, daring, and violence of the mob every- where manifested so long as the rioters were able to maintain their sway:
The individual courage [said Major Pettit] of some of the rioters was remarkable, and there were many exhibitions of reckless daring that we could not refrain from admiring. On one side of the round-house, where there was but little danger of an assault, no order to fire was given, and the mob, after pelting it with stones and pistol-shots, probably thinking from our silence that we were not guarding the point, deliberately hauled up one of their cannon and trained it to make a breach in the walls of the office building, covering the movement by surrounding it with a large crowd.
Our watch was too strict, however. to allow such a movement to escape us. When they were about ready to fire it off, we drove them away by a
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1877
volley of musketry ( which they probably mistook for a Gatling gun and gave rise to the ridiculous story that we had had occasion to use it during the night), but after that, and while several of their number lay dead around the piece, no less than five men deliberately advanced from behind a pile of boards to fire it off, and in utter disregard of three distinct warnings, per- sisted in their attempts until shot down. Indeed, so determined were they to fire the cannon into us, that having asked permission to take off their dead which lay around it, they endeavored to again to pull the lanyard, and would have succeeded but for the rapidity and accuracy of our fire.
The regiment, it will be recalled, had the advance in the deli- cate manœuvre of the withdrawal from the round-house, and later on, at a critical moment on the march, relieved the troops on the left, already heavily punished and still sorely pressed. Both those incidents received conspicuous mention in the official report of Maj .- Gen. Robert M. Brinton, commanding the First Division, in the adjutant-general's report of 1877 (pp. 87, 89) :
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