Burning of Barges during Homestead Strike.
The Carnegie Steel Works. Showing the shield used by the strikers when firing the cannon and watching the Pinkerton men. Homestead strike.
This bloodshed was not wholly in vain. Congress made the private militia system, the evil consequences of which were so manifest in these tragedies, a subject of investigation, while public sentiment more strongly than ever reprobated, on the one hand, violence by strikers or strike sympathizers, and, on the other, the employment of armed men, not officers of the law, to defend property.
That, however, other causes than these might endanger the peace was shown about the same time at certain Tennessee mines where prevailed the bad system of farming out convicts to compete with citizen-miners. Business being slack, deserving workmen were put on short time. Resenting this, miners at Tracy City, Inman, and Oliver Springs summarily removed convicts from the mines, several of these escaping. At Coal Creek the rioters were resisted by Colonel Anderson and a small force. They raised a flag of truce, answering which in person, Colonel Anderson was commanded, on threat of death, to order a surrender. He refused. A larger force soon arrived, routed the rioters, and rescued the colonel.
Inciting miners to attack Fort Anderson.
The grove between Briceville and Coal Creek.
State troops and miners at Briceville, Tenn.