The Baltimore railroad strike of 1877 involved several days of work stoppage and violence in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1877. It formed a part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, during which widespread civil unrest spread nationwide following the global depression and economic downturns of the mid-1870s. Strikes broke out along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on July 16, the same day that 10% wage reductions were scheduled.
Violence erupted in Baltimore on July 20, with police and soldiers of the Maryland National Guard clashing with crowds of thousands gathered throughout the city. In response, President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered federal troops to Baltimore, local officials recruited 500 additional police, and two new national guard regiments were formed. Peace was restored on July 22. Between 10 and 22 were killed, more than 150 were injured, and many more were arrested.
Negotiations between strikers and the B&O were unsuccessful, and most strikers quit rather than return to work at the newly reduced wages. The company easily found enough workers to replace the strikers, and under the protection of the military and police, traffic resumed on July 29. The company promised minor concessions at the time, and eventually enacted select reforms later that year.
The Long Depression and the Great Strikes
+ Growth rates of industrial production (1850s–1913) 1850s–1873 1873–1890 1890–1913 Germany 4.3 2.9 4.1 United Kingdom 3.0 1.7 2.0 United States 6.2 4.7 5.3 France 1.7 1.3 2.5 Italy 0.9 3.0 Sweden 3.1 3.5
The Long Depression, sparked in the United States by the Panic of 1873, had extensive implications for US industry, closing more than a hundred railroads in the first year and cutting construction of new rail lines from of track in 1872 to in 1875. Approximately 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875, production in iron and steel dropped as much as 45 percent, and a million or more lost their jobs. In 1876, 76 railroad companies went bankrupt or entered receivership in the US alone, and the economic impacts rippled throughout many economic sectors throughout the industrialized world.
In mid-1877, tensions erupted in stoppages and civil unrest across the nation in what would become known as the Great Railroad Strike or the Great Strikes. Violence began in Martinsburg, West Virginia and spread along the rail lines through Baltimore and on to several major cities and transportation hubs of the time, including Reading, Scranton and Shamokin, Pennsylvania; a bloodless general strike in St. Louis, Missouri; and a short lived uprising in Chicago, Illinois. In the worst case, rioting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania left 61 dead and 124 injured. Much of the city's center was burned, including more than a thousand rail cars destroyed. What began as the peaceful actions of organized labor attracted the masses of discontented and unemployed workers spawned by the depression, along with others who took opportunistic advantage of the chaos. In total, an estimated 100,000 workers participated nationwide. State and federal troops followed the turmoil as it spread along the rail lines from city to city, beginning in Baltimore, where the movement of troops itself provoked a violent response that ultimately required federal intervention to quell.
Early events
In early July 1877, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) announced it would reduce the wages of all workers by ten percent. One hundred miles would constitute a day's work, and crews would not receive allowances for time spent on delays at stations. Various meetings of railroad employees followed, and a committee was formed to meet with officers of the railroad. They appealed to the vice president, Mr. King, but he declined to meet.
Most workers accepted the reduction in pay, but the firemen and those who ran the freight trains resolved to stop work in protest. The number of unemployed along the line was so great, owing to the ongoing economic problems, that the company had no difficulty replacing the absent strikers. In response, the strikers resolved to occupy portions of the rail line, and to stop trains from passing unless the company rescinded the wage cuts.
July 16–19 On July 16, the day the reduction was to go into effect, about 40 men gathered at Camden Junction, from Baltimore, and stopped traffic. Newspapers reported a meeting held by rail workers who were sympathetic to the strike, which by that day included brakemen and engineers as well as firemen.
That same day in Baltimore, hundreds of manufacturing workers declared a strike, and the box-makers and sawyers walked out, demanding a ten percent increase in wages. Newspaper reports counted 140 of the union's 180 members who went on strike. Tin can makers in the city had already been striking for higher wages for a week at this point, and their number amounted to 800, while not more than 100 can makers in the city remained at work according to reports by The Sun.
At around 2:00am on July 17, the first act of violence in Baltimore emerged. According to the newspaper reports the following day, a westbound train was thrown from the tracks at a switch in a suburb south of the city. The switch had been opened and locked by an unknown person. The engine caught fire, and the engineer and the fireman aboard were severely injured.
That afternoon violence broke out in Martinsburg, West Virginia, between workers and militia guarding a train, prompting the governor of West Virginia to appeal to the President for aid. Strikers occupied stations at Cumberland, Maryland; Grafton, West Virginia; Keyser, West Virginia, and elsewhere, and halted the movement of freight. Newspaper reports counted 400–500 men who had joined the rail strike, and in Martinsburg, 75 trains with 1,200 rail cars sat idle.
That day, The Sun reported the situation in the city:
One by one the shops have become wholly or partly silent, and very many men, especially in South Baltimore, are without work or the means of providing for their families. This state of affairs is confined not alone to railroad shops, but to other workshops, and a great deal of distress exists among the workingmen of all kinds.
On July 18, the railroad strikers in Baltimore printed and circulated a list of their grievances:
They had submitted to three reductions of wages in three years; that they would have acquiesced in a moderate reduction; that they were frequently sent out on a trip to Martinsburg, and there detained four days at the discretion of the company, for which detention they were allowed pay but two days' time; that they were compelled to pay their board during the time they were detained, which was more than the wages they received; that they had nothing left with which to support their families; that it was a question of bread with them; that when times were dull on the road they could not get more than fifteen days' work in a month; that many sober, steady economical men became involved in debt last winter; that honest men had their wages attached because they could not meet their expenses; that by a rule of the company any man who had his wages attached should be discharged; that this was a tyranny to which no rational being should submit, and that it was utterly impossible for a man with a family to support himself and family at the reduced rate of wages.
By the end of July 19, the strike had spread through major cities from Baltimore to Chicago. It involved multiple rail companies, and had grown to include a variety of mechanics, artisans, and other laborers. General violence threatened to break out in Pittsburgh and the city was blockaded.
Numerous meetings and conferences of discontented workers continued across the country. A committee representing the strikers (including engineers, conductors, firemen, and brakemen) departed Baltimore to ensure solidarity along the line in demanding $2 per day. According to the edition of July 20 of The Sun, the city was peaceful, but anxious, as many awaited word of the happenings in Martinsburg, which was seen as the central point of the movement.
The outbreak of violence By Friday, July 20, about 250 trains sat idle in Baltimore as a result of the strike. John W. Garrett, president of the B&O, requested that Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll move state troops from Baltimore to Cumberland, where the situation had deteriorated. At 4:00pm Brigadier General James R. Herbert was ordered by Governor Carroll to muster the troops of the 5th and 6th Regiments, Maryland National Guard, to their respective armories in preparation. With the knowledge that groups of workers had been dispersed along the lines to impede traffic, including the movement of troops, he issued a simultaneous declaration to the people of the state:
I ... by virtue of the authority vested in me, do hereby issue this my proclamation, calling upon all citizens of this State to abstain from acts of lawlessness, and aid lawful authorities in the maintenance of peace and order.
Crowds gathered at four different points in the city, and along the route it was believed the soldiers would take in order to embark on their trains. Mayor Ferdinand Latrobe issued a proclamation, reciting the riot act and ordering the crowds to disperse, but to no effect. He later sent correspondence to the governor, asking that the garrison not be taken from the city given the current state of affairs. Police commissioners ordered the closing of all barrooms and saloons.
At 6:35pm, as many workers in the city were finishing their shifts, the alarm was sounded to gather the troops of the 5th and 6th Regiments. This was the first time such an alarm had been used in the city, and it caused a great deal of excitement, and attracted yet more citizens into the streets to witness events.
The 5th Regiment
Between 135 and 250 men of the 5th Regiment, Maryland National Guard mustered at their armory on the corner of Fifth and Front streets. Each man was equipped with full uniform, a Springfield breech loading rifle, and twenty rounds of ammunition. At 7:00pm the group began its march toward Camden Station, with the intention to board a train to Cumberland.
Onlookers had gathered to watch the procession, and the soldiers were attacked on Eutaw Street by crowds throwing bricks and stones. No serious damage was done, and they continued until again, on Eutaw near Camden Street, they were stopped by the crowd, who injured several with their missiles.
The order was given and the group formed up across the entire street, from curb to curb. They fixed bayonets and advanced. Shots were fired at the troops, but they successfully moved through the crowd and into the station.
The 6th Regiment
Around 6:30pm the soldiers of the 6th Regiment began assembling. Their armory, located on Front Street across from the Phoenix Shot Tower, consisted of the second and third floors of a warehouse, with the only exit being a narrow stairway through which no more than two men could walk abreast.
The men were met with jeers by a crowd of 2,000 to 4,000. This escalated into paving stones thrown through the door and windows of the building. Soldiers who subsequently arrived were beaten and driven away. Additional police were sent for in hopes of clearing the way and relieving the troops of the need to use force against the crowd, but those who arrived were unable to effect any order, and were forced to shelter in the armory along with the soldiers.
Shortly after 8:00pm, Colonel Peters ordered three companies of 120 men of the 6th to move as commanded by the governor and General Herbert to Camden Station. As they exited, they were assaulted by stones from the crowd, believing those of the 6th Regiment were armed only with blank cartridges. The troops returned fire, with live ammunition as they were equipped, and the frightened crowd retreated west across Fayette Street Bridge.