The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford History of the United States)

by Richard White

On the evening of July 6, the Pinkertons mutinied, hoisted the white flag, and surrendered. What followed was the most widely reported part of the strike. Although the workers had assured them of their safety, and received in return the sheriff’s promise that the Pinkertons would be arrested and tried, neither promise held. The Pinkertons ran a gauntlet of workers, their wives, and children, who beat the disarmed guards bloody and screamed for their deaths. None died, but only an armed guard of union men saved the lives of some of them. The press, following the tropes of the time, relished, sensationalized, and condemned the “savagery” and “barbarity” of the crowd, whom they also likened to a pack of wolves. Once transported to Pittsburgh, the Pinkertons were freed.