The Battle of Homestead Site

Visit the site of one of American Labor's bloodiest battles and learn about the events leading to the 1892 Homestead Strike and Lockout.

On July 6th of 1892 at the Pump House in the Homestead Works, 10,000 workers, families and supporters armed with sticks, rocks, and guns rushed to meet the barges coming up the Monongahela River that carried 300 Pinkerton guards who had been sent to break the Homestead Strike and Lockout. After a bitter day of conflict that left 12 strikers and Pinkerton men dead the Pinkerton guards surrendered to the mob and were forced to "run a bloody gauntlet" towards the Homestead railroad station.

Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie's partner, convinced Pennsylvania governor Pattison that Homestead was under "mob rule" and on July 12, 1892 8,000 state militiamen entered Homestead. The strike and lock out continued until November when unskilled laborers asked to be released from their strike pledge. Two days later, the strike ended - the union had been broken. The Battle of Homestead signaled the end of union activity in the steel industry until the 1930s.