Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-07-08
FIGHTING BEGUN.
FATAL COMBAT BETWEEN THE STRIKING
WORKMEN AND THE PINKERTON
MEN

Hostilities commenced at the Homestead
mills, the Carnegie works, eight miles from
Pittsburg, ON Tuesday night and did
not end till Wednesday evening, in which
time II workmen and 8 of Pinkerton 8
detectives were killed and some so men of
both sides wounded. The Carnegies had
gotten two barges well fortified with steel
in which some 800 of Pinkertons men
were concealed, and on Tuesday night the
barges were towed up near the works in
order to land the men and put them inside
the works to keep the strikers from retain
inh possession Of a part of the works they
had seized. An account says:
BY o'clock in the morning an effort
was made to land the detectives, but the
strikers met them and fierce battle was
precipitated, both sides exchanging a
heavy volley of shots. The detectives
were all armed with Winchester rifles, but
at the point where the attempt to land was
made there was a steep embankment, and
they were compelled to 60 in single file,and
were soon driven back to the boats by the
steady fire from the shore. The noise of
the battle spread about the borough like
and children thronged to the river bank to
witness the fight in progress. The Pinker-
ton men were determined to land, and they
poured volley after volley into the ranks of
the strikers, many of whom were stricken
down by the bullets, some of them being
fatally injured and others killed outright.
AS the battle progressed Che strikers
took up a position behind breastwork
hastily constructed of steel rails and bill
lets, and from this place of safe refuge
were able to pick off the detectives as they
appeared on the deck of the boats.
THE BARGEs LEFT IN THE LURCH.
En- the meantime Captain Hynd and Su-
perintendent Kline, of the Pinkerton men,
were disabled, and the fire was SO fierce that
the crew of the tow-boat hastily cut loose
from the barges and steamed up the river,
carrying as many of the wounded as they
could reach to Braddoek, from which point
they were sent down to the hospitals for
force were thus cared for, while the strik
ers that fell wounded were carried to theil
homes at Homestead, the dead being taken
to the morgue and the undertaking rooms
in the town.
The news of the riot reached Pittsburg
as early as 6 O'Clock in the morning, and
thousands Of mill-hands, all of whom are
now idle. pending the conference on the
scale, congregated in the streets, while
hundreds of others, armed with guns and
revolvers. and well supplied with ammuni-
ton, took up the line of march to reinforce
the strikers.
CANNON BROUGHT INTO PLAY.
AS soon as day broke the strikers Sc
cured small brass 10-pOunder cannon and
planted it within steel-billet embrasure,
so as to command the barges which were
moored at the bank of the river. At the
same time a force Of more than 1000 men
took up a position on the opposite side of
the river and also planted cannon. which
they protected with breastwork of rail
road iron. A fire from both sides was
kept up, the barges having been pierced
along.the sides. Shortly before 8 O'Clock
the cannOns were trained Oh the boats, and
for several hours an awful hombardment
was kept up. The stout oaken timbers
forming the sides of the boats were splin-
tered, but the steel plates on the inside
prevented the balls from peletratlng to the
interior. Many Of the strikers, however,
were expert marksmen, and they sent shot
after shot into the portfolios in the bows,
and inflicted terrible injury on the i'm
prlsoned men.
BURNING OIL AND DYNAMITE.
When it was found that little impression