BY PHILIP S. FONER  
“The most extensive and deplorable workingmen’s strike which ever took place in this, or indeed in any other country began a week ago Monday among the freight hands of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Martinsburg, West Virginia, the location of extensive repair-shops and terminus of one of the regular divisions of the road.” So began the story of the Great Strike in the Nation of July 26, 1877.

Actually, “the most extensive…strike ever to take place in this or any other country,” started at Camden Junction, two miles from Baltimore, a critical point through which all trains leaving Baltimore for Washington or the West passed. But it could have started anywhere along the 2,700-mile length of the B & O….

During the preceding three years, workers at these various points had suffered reductions of 50 percent of what they had earned before the panic; as a whole, they had sustained cuts averaging 30 percent more than the general average of reductions in railroad wages throughout the country. They were the lowest-paid men on any railroad in the country, except for the workers on the New York Central line….

The Baltimore Sun conceded that “the story of their struggles to live is very sad,” adding: “Many of them declare they might as well starve without work as starve and work.”

The Sun had helped to light the fuse that was soon to burst into flame by publishing on July 15 the report of President Garrett on the earnings of the B & O. In it, Garrett took occasion to congratulate the board of directors upon the substantial nature of the business done in the previous twelve months….

Then, as if to rub salt into the workers’ wounds, the following day the Sun published the news that the 10 percent reduction in wages had been ordered to take effect immediately, and that President Garrett was confident that everyone, both workers and townspeople all along the line, would “cheerfully recognize” that the reduction was a necessity.

Shortly before noon on Monday, July 16—the day the B & O wage cut was to become effective—the fireman on Engine 32 deserted his train at Camden Junction. Other firemen soon joined him. While company agents quickly hired scabs, the strikers remained in the area to persuade other firemen to leave their trains idle. The railroad immediately called for a large police contingent, and Mayor Ferdinand C. Latrobe, who, together with his family, had long been associated with the B & O, promptly responded and also ordered the arrest of the strike leaders at Camden Junction. Three strikers were arrested for “inciting a riot,” a charge that even the police acknowledged was ridiculous by deferring their trial. Meanwhile, additional police were stationed along the route from Camden Station to Relay, the city limits.  
 
 
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