Q. At different times?
A. At different times.
Q. Several in small squads?
A. Yes; no more than five. I did not see more than five at one time. They came from the upper end of this county. They were coming here to report.
Q. Did they surrender, because they were in sympathy, or would it have been folly for them to have resisted?
A. It would have been folly to resist, if there was any determination on the part of the men who were in the crowd to enforce the demand. I may say here, that at this time there was not much exhibition of violence. The trains were running, that is the commencement of it. They stopped none but freight trains and local passenger trains; the other trains, more especially the mail trains, were permitted to run through, and there was no violence by anybody. Everybody seemed to stand and look on, and when a train arrived, the engine and tender would immediately be boarded by about four fifths boys, and some two or three men, and the coupling would be drawn, and they would take the engine to the round-house. Shifter was allowed to run, and they would move the cars away. I may say, just here, that on inquiry, many men who were connected with the railroad shops here, men that I knew, that always said they had orders that there was a general strike pending, and they were to stop any local or freight trains, and that other trains with the mails, were to go on, and that they had no disposition to give any trouble, and frequently I was appealed to, that we should use our influence to keep the military away; that if the troops were brought on there would be violence.
Q. What class of men undertook to influence you in that direction?
A. They were men who were employés of the railroad.
Q. Railroad?
A. Railroad and other places. Our other shops were not in the matter that I know of.