Upper Peninsula miners' strike of 1865
Ore miners working on the
Prelude: 1864
During the United States' Civil War, high demand meant the price of iron had significantly increased. Knowing this, the miners forced the mining companies to raise their wages in 1864. The problem was not solved, as the dockworkers, who were paid significantly less than the miners, struck for higher wages.
Strike: 1865
The wartime demand quickly abated after the war's end in April 1865, and the many returning soldiers increased the labor pool. When combined, this meant that Cleveland and other nearby companies felt justified in announcing a wage cut on Saturday, July 1, 1865. The miners grudgingly accepted the cuts, but the dockworkers refused their wage cut and the companies gave into their demands. This galvanized the miners, and 1500 to 2000 of them marched on the mines and the town of Marquette, looting, burning, and destroying equipment they came across. Two days later, Michigan and its crew arrived in Marquette's harbor as part of a routine sweep of Lake Superior for Confederate activity.[2][A]
The captain of Michigan, Lieutenant Commander
They were told that twenty-four hours, and no more, would be allowed them, and if by that time they were not at work, and the ore loaded in the idle cars, that encampment would be stormed by shot and shell, and no questions would be asked or answered. There must be no more rioting, no more idleness, and no more threats.[5]
After Michigan's departure, the miners struck again and were put back down by a returning Michigan and the 8th Regiment of the Veteran Reserve Corps, brought up by rail from Chicago.[6]
Footnotes
- ^ This fear of Confederate terrorism was not entirely farfetched even though the war had ended in April. Confederate agents captured and destroyed two Great Lakes steamers in 1864, and resistance against the United States only ended in late June with the capture of the commerce raider Shenandoah. Though we know now that Shenandoah had only continued operations because her crew had no firm indication of the war’s end, and clandestine agents in the North would have had news to halt operations, given the context, Northern fears of continued Confederate attacks in the 1865 were justifiable.[3]
Endnotes
- ^ Reynolds and Dawson, Iron Will, 39–40.
- ^ Reynolds and Dawson, Iron Will, 40; Rodgers, "Naval Suppression," 10–12.
- Naval History & Heritage Command; "CSS Shenandoah (1864-1865)," Online Library of Selected Images – Ships of the Confederate States, Naval History & Heritage Command.
- ^ Rodgers, "Naval Suppression," 11–12.
- ^ Francis A. Roe, "The United States Steamer Michigan and the Lake Frontier During the War of the Rebellion," The United Service, A Monthly Review of Military and Naval Affairs, 6 (December 1891), 550, in Rodgers, "Naval Suppression," 11. The quote also appears in Lt. Commander F.A. Roe to Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, Letters Received By the Secretary of the Navy From Officers Below the Rank of Commander 1802–1886, September 14, 1865, Entry 145, Roll 399, M-148, RG-45, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C.
- ^ Reynolds and Dawson, Iron Will, 40; Rodgers, "Naval Suppression," 16–19.
References
- Reynolds, Terry S. and Virginia P. Dawson. Iron Will: Cleveland Cliffs and the Mining of Iron Ore, 1847-2006. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2011.
- Rodgers, Bradley A. "The Naval Suppression of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Mining Strikes of 1865." Extract from master's thesis, East Carolina University, 1990.
Further reading
- Reynolds, Terry S. "Calm or Conflicted: Labor-Management Relations on the Michigan Iron Ranges in the Nineteenth Century." Michigan Historical Review 33, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 1–45.
- Rodgers, Bradley A. Guardian of the Great Lakes: The U.S. Paddle Frigate Michigan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.
- ———. "Deliverance by Sea: Michigan’s Peninsula War of 1865." Michigan History 73, no. 6 (Nov–Dec 1989): 16–21.