Since the late 1800s, the coalfields of the state's Mingo , Logan and McDowell Counties had operated under a repressive company town system. Albert Felts replied that in fact, he had a warrant for Sid’s arrest. Matewan’s mayor, Cabell Testerman, was mortally wounded. The miners believed that Hatfield was slain in cold blood, and it soon appeared the assassins would escape punishment. We are instructed by the power elite to worship at approved shrines — plantation estates erected for wealthy slaveholders and land speculators such as George Washington, or the gilded domes of authority in the nation’s capital. “It is freedom or death, and your children will be free,” Mother Jones told the miners. The so-called “Matewan Massacre” galvanized support for the UMW, which collected new members and organized a strike in the summer of 1920. It made visible the insidious relationship between government and big business. … The bulk of the miners were still 15 mi (24 km) away. (Does that really need a spoiler tag?). Standing in their way between Madison and Mingo County was Logan County Sherriff Don Chafin who had begun to set up defenses on Blair Mountain. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired and the United States Army, represented by the West Virginia Army National Guard led by McDowell County native William Eubanks, intervened by presidential A squadron of Army Air Service reconnaissance planes began patrolling the skies on September 1, and by the following day, General Bandholtz had mobilized some 2,100 army troops on the orders of President Warren G. Harding. The song "Red Neck War" by Byzantine is based on the Battle of Blair Mountain and can be found on the group's 2005 album "...And They Shall Take Up Serpents" (Prosthetic Records). This led to dismissal, blacklisting, beating and sometimes death. Talk began to spread of a march on Mingo to free the confined miners, end martial law, and organize the county. By July there was almost no coal coming out of the mines. The miners were outnumbered and out positioned with company detectives having higher ground. The coal miners were rebelling against inhumane conditions in the West Virginia coalfields. During that dispute, agents drove a heavily armored train through a tent colony at night, opening fire on women, men, and children with a machine gun. List of ranks in the fire, police, jail, and corrections services of the Philippines, People of the American Civil War by state, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014, West Virginia articles missing geocoordinate data, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Former National Register of Historic Places, National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia, Funeral Rites Thursday For Colorful Don Chafin, "The United States Army and the Return to Normalcy in Labor Dispute Interventions: The Case of the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars, 1920–1921", http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh50-1.html, "Coal Firms to Strip-Mine Historic Battlefield? Logan forces fought back with a machine gun, but after three hours of heavy fire, their weapon jammed. The gun battle emboldened the miners. Choose authors to follow, bookmark your favorite articles and more. The first family they evicted was a woman and her children, whose husband was not home at the time. All the gains, often paid for with the lives of working men and women, have now been reversed. Too many Hatfields in the hills of West Virginia. Each side asked the other for a password and received the wrong answer, prompting a shootout that killed three deputies and one miner. But directly in the way stood Blair Mountain, Logan County, and Sheriff Don Chafin.[33]. Minders through the area were enraged over Hatfield’s “cold blooded murder” and they began to pour out of the mountain and take arms along the Little Coal River in Boone County. Grim, but absorbing. Hatfield’s stature and mythical status grew as the trial proceeded. It is easy to forget how hard fought labor's progress was in America. To bookmark your favorite articles, please create a user profile. [27] The miners responded with guerrilla tactics and violence against this oppressive state-sanctioned system. The 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain pitted thousands of union miners against machinegun toting coal operators. The miners surged forward and briefly broke the defensive line, only to be repulsed by a fusillade of bullets from a second machine gun nest located further up the ridge. They hired private airplanes to drop homemade explosives on miners encamped on the mountain. The miners proposed to march to Logan and Mingo counties to rescue union miners who had been jailed or mistreated in attempts to unionize the mines. The miners who saw it were furious, and sent word to town. In the short term, the battle was an overwhelming victory for management. After finally finishing the. Striking miners drawing rations in West Virginia. The song "Battle of Blair Mountain" (2010) written by Louise Mosrie and Mike Richardson can be found on Louise Mosrie's album "Home" (Zoe Cat Music/BMI). [citation needed]. The song Black Lung by The Radio Nationals (band) is also based on this conflict. It was fought over the course of five days in 1921 by 10,000 coal miners. Dionne Jr. by In the final analysis, management's success was a pyrrhic victory that helped lead to a much larger and stronger organized labor movement in many other industries and labor union affiliations and umbrella organizations like the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
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