The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-07-11

This is the story in brief of the battle
of the Monongahela. As a result of If
about 10 of the women and four of the
Pinkertons are known to have bsep
killed. and scores On both sides were
wounded more or loss seriously The ex-
act extent of the casualties in the ranks
of the Pinkerton men was never certain-
ly known, but 1t always seemed moro
han probable tn at some of the dsaths
were not reported, as the firing from
the river side of the barge was evan mora
severe in point of execution than was The
shooting from the mill yard This ia one
of the details of the fight which was not
made clear at the time The barges were
run aground just above a railroad bridge
which spans the river at about the mid
die of the mill yard. Persons who saw
the fight noticed that there were fire.
| queut flashes from rifles trained on the
barges by men who TODD behind the
girders of this bridge, and it afterward
came out that this firing was being done
by real sharpshooters Some years before
one of the companies of the Pennsylvania
militia was made up of Homestead men,
several of whom were reputed to be
among the best shots In the state. The
lcompany had been disbanded for several
reasons, one of which was that the state
considered it dangerous to sustain a mill
tary company in a community like
Homestead. But many of the old mem
bers of the company were still living in
the town on the day of the fight, and
there are the best of reasons to suspect
that some Of these sharpshooters were
stationed on the railroad bridge. Tt is
even said that some of these men were
armed with Springfield rifles which they
had managed to appropriate when the
company was disbanded. but this was
never clearly shown. Certain it is, how
ever, that several men in the barge were
WOUNDED BY THE FIRE
from the river side and it wa claimed
that a number were shot dead and fell
into the river and that their bodies were
never recovered.
| The impression which got abroad con-
corning this fight, was that its serious
ness was due almost solely to the hatred
of the workmen for Pinkertons, and
there can be no doubt that this feeling
largely expla insd the savageness of the
forces mustered in the mill yard. But
it is practically certain that opposition to
the landing OF the barges had been decid-
ed upon before the men on shore had any
| idea tuat they were dealing with hated
Pinkertons. In fact, many shots had
been fired into the steamer and barges
before it was possible to sea who the oc-
cupants were or what was their intent.
Moreover, the su bsequent attitude of the
workmen toward the militia who fol-
lowed the Pinkertons and to the dep uty
sheriffs who came still later should be
taken into consideration. The vast ma
jority of the strikers always stoutly main
tanned that they were clearly within
their rights as citizens when they resisted
with force the landing Of the Pinksr-
tons. Considering 1.-The intelligence of
many of the men who took part in this
resistance the prevalence of this opinion
was one of the most remarkable features
of the fight.
|
| Ignorant foreign element should have
held or imbibed such ideas. But even
Hugh O'Donnell, the chairman of the
| advisory committee, who had a good
| education. and was far above the average
| intelligence Of men In his class, said,
| few hours after the Pinksrtons had sur
rendered. ''We have won glorious VIC
| tory" This Enthusiastically was the atti-
| tude of the majority of even the most in.
telligent of the skilled workmen. They
believed that they had engaged in holy
war: that they were perfectly justified in
forcing their way into the private prop
erty of the company, and preventing the
| landing of the Pinkertons.
Then, too, there wssFthe attitude of the
strikers toward the militia. When the
| Pinkeruons were routed and driven out
ofSthe town, the company officially noti-
| fed Gov. Pattison that their property
at Homestead was in the hands of a
| mob, and ask for the protection of the
state. 1t was about the time for the state
encampment and after some hesitation
the governor decided to send two bri gades
of the militia, numbering about $500
men, to Homestead. This decision was
hailed with great satisfaction by the
strikers. "We shall be glad to have the
soldiers come here" they said "thsy are
men from our own GLASS, not hired assas-
sins, and they will sympathize with us. -
This was the feeling toward the militia
when on the morning of July 10, just a
week after the fight, the town awoke to
ind itself invested by $500 armed msn.
A committee representing the strikers
at once called on Maj-Gen. Snowden to
welcome him to the town, and then was
enacted one of the most Significant
episodes of the entire struggle. The COM
mittee
FOUND THE MAJOR GENERAL
| in the little schoolhouse on the brow of
the hill, which was already white with
tents. Said the spokesman:
| "We come to offer you the greetings
and the assistance of the advisory com