Great Railroad Strike, 1877
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 started in response to the cutting of wages by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O). Striking workers would not allow any of the stock to roll until this wage cut was revoked. The governor sent in state militia units to restore train service, but the soldiers refused to use force against the strikers. The strike spread to Cumberland, Maryland, stopping freight and passenger traffic. When Governor Carroll directed the 5th and 6th Regiments of the National Guard to put down the strike, citizens from Baltimore attacked the militia who then killed 10 and wounded 25. In Pittsburgh, militiamen bayoneted and fired on rock-throwing strikers, killing 20 and wounding 30 others. The strikers forced the militiamen to take refuge in a railroad roundhouse, and then set fires that razed 39 buildings and destroyed 104 locomotives and 1,245 freight and passenger cars. After over a month of constant rioting and bloodshed, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops to end the strikes. These troops suppressed strike after strike, until at last, approximately 45 days after it had started, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was over.
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