Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
April 15th, 1905
Early this morning, boxcar after boxcar arrived at the elevated station at 36th and Market Street, Philadelphia, offloading droves of brown-coated Soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets.
In response to the growing demonstrations among various labor organizations led by the Klu Klux Klan in protest of the Inter-Racial Championship game to be held at Boeslager Stadium this week, the President of the United States authorized the deployment of the 27th Infantry Regiment, recently returned from the Philippines, to keep the peace.
The provisional military force is commanded by none other than former LBL Secretary and Commissioner Runner-Up Colonel Winfield Scott Garrison, returned to active service by President Roosevelt (who served with Garrison in the Spanish-American War). Nearly 3,500 federal troops are quartering in various parks and fields in the vicinity of Boeslager Stadium and have already dispersed the growing presence of mobs in the district.
In a brief statement earlier this morning, President Roosevelt “thanked Senator Watson for his concern” regarding the security threat to the city at the hands of Klan-spurred mobs, adding that “three and a half thousand of our nation’s toughest and battle-hardened soldiers ought to suffice in opposition to a sheet-coated mob.”
The selection of Colonel Winfield Garrison to command the Regiment can only be interpreted as a slight to Senator Samuel Watson and the Virginia-led faction undermining interracial relations in baseball and politics in general. Garrison, 58, is a decorated veteran of multiple military campaigns who recently lost a narrow vote as LBL Commissioner to dark horse candidate Jacob Parker.
“The disciplined and battle-hardened boys of the 27th are here purely as a protective and peacekeeping bastion to the good and honest people of Philadelphia,” Colonel Garrison told reporters from his hastily-assembled headquarters in Jefferson Square. “If any among the populace wish to raise a hand against his brother in the course of this sporting event, he shall find the bayonets and rifles of the 27th between himself and Boeslager Stadium. You shall know us by our faces and our banners–as we will not be wearing sheets.”