Summary
It started on July 17 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had cut wages for the second time in one year. Protesters started to form and didn't let any trains move until the pay cut was restored. Military units were sent by the government to restore the train service, but the soldiers refused to use force against the workers. Then Baltimore started striking and were triggering bloody street battles. The soldiers were firing into a crowd of people and killed ten people. In Pittsburgh strikers began and soldiers refused to fire at them. By then, sympathy strikers spread in every direction from line to line from city to city. In Chicago strikers came ranged to twenty thousand people. In St. Louis strikers have been standing there for over a week and still not backing down. In towns throughout citys there were battles, arrests, injuries and deaths. Then Federal troops went from city to city, putting down strike after strike until after a few weeks the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was over.