Reading Railroad Massacre - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Reading Railroad Massacre, in which ten people lost their lives, was the tragic climax of local events in Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Great railroad strike of 1877

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States and ended some 45 days later after it was put down by local and state militias, and federal troops.-Economic conditions in the 1870s:...

.

Following upon arson and riots against local facilities of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (commonly referred to as the Reading Railroad), units of the Pennsylvania State Militia (comparable to today's National Guard

United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...

) were brought in by train. Near nightfall, one such unit was marched into the Seventh Street Cut, a man-made ravine, three blocks long with thirty-foot walls, to free a train that had been stopped there by rioters.

Bombarded from above with bricks, stones and possibly gunshots (accounts vary), some of the soldiers fired rifle volleys into a crowd at the far end of the Cut. Ten civilian deaths resulted from this gunfire. Most rioting ended that night, and tense quiet prevailed the next day. Ultimately, the arrival of federal troops restored order to Reading.

A coroner's inquest following the Massacre did not blame the militia for the deaths, but pointed to the overall upheaval in the city at the time. Blame was also laid upon the local sheriff for failing to keep the public order.

Further reading