Report upon the National Guard of Pennsylvania During Its Field Service in July and August, 1892

What it is

This is an official military report written by William J. Volkmar, Assistant Adjutant General of the United States Army, and rendered to the War Department. It is dated Washington, August 30, 1892, and was printed in Harrisburg in 1892. It reports on the field service of the National Guard of Pennsylvania in July and August 1892. The Governor of Pennsylvania, Robert E. Pattison, had asked the Secretary of War for Volkmar's services. The copy students see is a digitized text from the Internet Archive record.

Why it matters

The Guard was sent to Homestead during the strike at Carnegie's steel works, so this report records how the state's armed forces were used in the conflict. Because it was written by a federal officer who was sent to observe the Guard, it offers an official view of events that the union and company accounts describe very differently.

Look closer

• Why was a federal officer assigned to observe a state militia, and what does that suggest about how serious the situation was?
• Which decisions does the report describe as sound, and which does it question?
• Whose experiences in the strike are missing from a military report?