On August 24, the main body of coal miners set out from Marmet and headed south toward Mingo County. [7][8] Coal operators paid private detectives as well as public law enforcement agents to ensure that union organizers were kept out of the region. UMWA March Commemorates the Battle of Blair Mountain Emily Allen It's been nearly a century since thousands of pro-union miners marched into Logan County, West Virginia, to protest abuses by coal operators in what used… WVPB News. Communities. Blair Mountain is under threat of Mountaintop Removal mining. At one point in the battle, the din also included the sound of falling bombs. Since the late 1800s, the coalfields of the states Mingo, Logan and McDowell Counties had operated under a repressive company town system. The following day, President Warren Harding threatened to send in federal troops and Army Martin MB-1 bombers. The path from Matewan to the mines in Logan County required the miners to pass over Blair Mountain, where they met resistance from state police and other anti-union individuals. 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). It was later estimated that some one million rounds had been fired during the battle. Nov 21, 2020 - Explore Joyce Robertson's board "Blair Mountain", followed by 110 people on Pinterest. Within days, thousands of union supporters had flocked to the outskirts of Marmet, a small town located near the state capital of Charleston. The song is contained on The Miners debut EP also entitled Miners' Rebellion. Battle of Blair Mountain: Topics in Chronicling America In 1921, West Virginia coal miners revolted at Blair Mountain and forced President Harding to intervene. [19] Sid became an immediate legend and hero to the union miners, and became a symbol of hope that the oppression of coal operators and their hired guns could be overthrown. The video below was taken by Pam Brennan (1962-2015) from the top of the Blair Mountain Fire Tower. John Sayles' 1987 film Matewan depicts the Matewan Massacre, a small part of the Blair Mountain story. The so-called “Matewan Massacre” galvanized support for the UMW, which collected new members and organized a strike in the summer of 1920. That in turn led to the UMWA helping organize many better-known unions such as the Steel Workers during the mid-thirties. [11] At the Stone Mountain Coal Company mine near Matewan, every single worker unionized, and was subsequently fired and evicted. Blair Pathways (2011) is a multimedia project, including a CD and maps, tracing the history of the Blair Mountain area and its labor disputes. Sheriff Chafin had chartered three private biplanes and equipped them with teargas and pipe bombs loaded with nuts and bolts for shrapnel. Each side asked the other for a password and received the wrong answer, prompting a shootout that killed three deputies and one miner. … The battle for Blair Mountain lasted four days. The Battle of Blair Mountain covers a profoundly significant but long-neglected slice of American history - the largest armed uprising on American soil since the Civil War. Dates: Aug 25, 1921 – Sep 2, 1921. The Battle of Blair Mountain is the largest armed insurrection in the United States other than the Civil War and is a landmark event in United States history. Share Battle of Blair Mountain In August 1921, armed coal miners from the Kanawha Valley and the southern counties of Boone, Fayette, Mingo, McDowell, and Logan gathered at Marmet in Kanawha County. Coal operators paid private detectives as well as public law enforcement agents to ensure that union organizers were kept out of the region. If the servant leaves your employment, if you discharge him, you ask him to get out of the servants’ quarters. Miners along the Little Coal River were among the first to militarize, and began actions such as patrolling and guarding the area. "Building a Working-Class Archaeology: The Colorado Coal Field War Project". He also claimed to be a member of the notorious Hatfield family of the Hatfield and McCoy feud. The Battle of Blair Mountain is the largest armed insurrection in the United States other than the Civil War and is a landmark event in United States history. It is a story that few Americans know, or were aware of even at the time that the events occurred. But the Battle of Blair Mountain is not over. [20] Throughout the summer and into the fall of 1920, the union gained strength in Mingo County, as did the resistance of the coal operators. The seemingly invincible Baldwin-Felts had been beaten by the miners’ own hero, Sid Hatfield. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the result of inhumane treatment of coal miners in the southern West Virginia coalfields. Led by UMW organizers Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney, they resolved to march on Mingo County to confront the coal companies and free the union men imprisoned in the area. Their legal argument for evictions is best stated by S.B. The Battle of Blair Mountain is the largest armed insurrection in the United States other than the Civil War and is a landmark event in United States history. The state of West Virginia charged Keeney, Mooney and some 20 other union men with treason, and hundreds of others were indicted for murder. Location: Logan County, West Virginia, U.S. Blair Mountain holds a special place in West Virginia and U.S. history. 3. Meanwhile, Don Chafin had his 3,000 person army dig in along roughly ten miles of the ridge line around Blair Mountain. Infuriated, the miners turned back towards Blair Mountain, many traveling in other stolen and commandeered trains. Up to 100 people were killed, and many more arrested. As of mid-2010, "[s]ubsidiaries of two of the United States' largest coal producers — Arch Coal, Inc., and Massey Energy Company, ... — hold permits to blast and strip-mine huge chunks of the upper slopes and ridge of Blair Mountain, removing much of the mountaintop," the National Geographic reported. The Battle of Blair Mountain In the upper watershed of Dingess Run near the town of Sharples is the site of the largest armed US insurrection since the US Civil War. It lasted four days, led to dozens of deaths, and ended only after President … Chris and Dave from the and join Breht to cover the fascinating and crucially important history of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in American history and the largest armed uprising in America since the Civil War. Battle of Blair Mountain. Many of the marchers were World War I veterans, and they came armed to the teeth with military-issue Springfield rifles and shotguns. For years, Blair Mountain has been under assault by such corporations as Natural Resource Partners L.P. and Arch Coal, Inc.—large absentee conglomerates that own most of … In the end, the miners’ siege of Blair Mountain was only ended by the arrival of federal troops. See more ideas about battle of blair mountain, west virginia, appalachia. VERTICAL NEWSPAPER CLIPPING FILE "1921 Battle of Blair Mountain Resulted in Numerous Killings," Charleston Gazette, 5-9- 1950. Check out Check out A List of Sources: 1. “Thunder In the Mountains” by Lon Savage 2. Along with him traveled a good friend, Ed Chambers, and their two wives. The Battle of Blair Mountain covers a profoundly significant but long-neglected slice of American history - the largest armed uprising on American soil since the Civil War. The Battle of Blair Mountain Was the Largest Labor Uprising in U.S. History OG History is a Teen Vogue series where we unearth history not told through a white, cisheteropatriarchal lens. Albert had already been in the area, and had tried to bribe Mayor Testerman with 500 dollars to place machine guns on roofs in the town, which Testerman refused. The planes dropped the homemade explosives over two of the miners’ strongholds, but failed to inflict any casualties. Over Sally Chambers' protestation, one of the agents ran down the stairs and shot Chambers once more in the back of the head point blank. This decision was contested by the state of West Virginia, and the listing was placed under review. That morning, a detachment of union men assaulted a spot called Craddock Fork with a Gatling gun looted from a coal company store. Battle of Blair Mountain: Topics in Chronicling America In 1921, West Virginia coal miners revolted at Blair Mountain and forced President Harding to intervene. Throughout the 20th century, coal miners attempted to overthrow the system laid out by the coal companies and partake in a number of strikes. Miners from Battle of Blair Mountain giving up their guns. 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? The miners made more progress when the battle was renewed on September 1. “The Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial events will tell both an historical and contemporary story,” the release read. These men provided union organizers an opportunity to gain a foothold, and unionizing accelerated rapidly in the county. Striking miners drawing rations in West Virginia. Reports of casualties ranged from as few as 20 killed to as many as 100, but the actual number has never been confirmed. [32] Morgan summarily rejected these, and the miners became even more restless. In the spring of 1920, private goons hired by the coal companies were sent in to break a strike of coal miners in Matewan, a town in the southwestern part of West Virginia. Posts about Battle of Blair Mountain. “It is time to lay down the bible and take up the rifle,” miner and Baptist reverend John Wilburn declared. In late August 1921, union miners and coal company supporters clashed near Blair Mountain, West Virginia, in what has been called the largest armed uprising since the Civil War. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history and the largest armed uprising since the American Civil War. The first family they evicted was a woman and her children, whose husband was not home at the time. Chafin was supported financially by the Logan County Coal Operators Association, creating the nation's largest private armed force of nearly 2,000. Nearly all were later acquitted, but the legal battles emptied the UMWA’s coffers and hindered its organizing efforts. Sid Hatfield posed and talked to reporters, fanning the flames of his own stature and legend. Within hours of the Madison decision, reports came in that Sheriff Chafin's men were deliberately shooting union sympathizers in the town of Sharples, West Virginia, just north of Blair Mountain—and that families had been caught in crossfire during the skirmishes. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Upon learning of the march, Chafin scraped together a 3,000-strong army of state police, deputies and citizen militiamen and prepared for a fight. [25] The enforcement of martial law was from the beginning decidedly against the striking miners. After catching wind of the detectives’ activities, Matewan Mayor Cabell Testerman and a pro-union sheriff named Sid Hatfield raised a small posse and confronted them near the local train station. 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. For the rest of the day, the hills and hollows echoed with gunfire as the union men repeatedly attacked the defenders’ lines. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the result of years of bitter labor disputes between the miners and coal companies of southern West Virginia. Scores of union men streamed up the mountainside, but despite their superior numbers, they were repeatedly driven back by the defenders, who riddled them with machine gun fire from the high ground. Posts. [35][36] Sporadic gun battles continued for a week, with the miners at one time nearly breaking through to the town of Logan and their target destinations, the non-unionized counties to the south, Logan and Mingo. [37] Currently, preservation efforts are being led by the Blair Mountain Heritage Alliance, which is located in Blair, WV and which runs the Blair Community Center and Museum. Nov 21, 2020 - Explore Joyce Robertson's board "Blair Mountain", followed by 110 people on Pinterest. 50-100 miners were murdered and 985 were arrested for daring to go on strike against anti-union activity. Workers mined using leased tools and were paid low wages in company currency, or “scrip,” which could only be used at company stores. Reopening Of Mine Wars Museum Includes Uncovered History. Albert Felts replied that in fact, he had a warrant for Sid’s arrest. The coal companies responded by bringing in non-union replacement workers, and over the next several months, the two sides engaged in a fierce guerilla war. Companies compelled their workers to sign so-called “yellow dog contracts” pledging not to organize, and they used armies of private detectives to harass striking miners and evict them from their company-owned homes. “Murder by laying in wait and shooting from ambush has become common,” Mingo County’s sheriff wrote in May 1921. The miners’ route to Mingo required them to pass through Logan County, a coal company stronghold ruled by an anti-union sheriff named Don Chafin. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. The battle was only halted when three regiments of federal troops were sent to the area and both sides laid down their arms peaceably. This research paper discusses the events of the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was the largest labor insurrection in American history. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the result of years of bitter labor disputes between the miners and coal companies of southern West Virginia. Miners were said to have fired on Brockus and Martin’s men from the colony, and in response the state police shot and arrested miners, ripped the canvas tents to shreds, and scattered the mining families’ belongings. Thousands of spent and live cartridges have made it into private collections. In the end, 10 men were killed, including Albert and Lee Felts. A combination of events led to this uprising. [9] They would repeat this type of tactic during the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado the next year, with even more disastrous results. Five days in late august and early September of 1921 approximately 12,000 miners confronted an army of police and strikebreakers backed by coal operators in an effort to unionize the southern coal fields of WV. [16] That afternoon, Albert and Lee along with eleven other men set out to the Stone Mountain Coal Company property. In the long-term, the battle raised awareness of the appalling conditions faced by miners in the dangerous West Virginia coalfields, and led directly to a change in union tactics in political battles to get the law on labor's side via confrontations with recalcitrant and abusive managements and thence to the much larger organized labor victory a few years later during the New Deal in 1933. It is a question of master and servant.”[13][14] The UMW set up tent colonies for the homeless miner families, and soon a mass of idle and angry miners was concentrated in a small area along the Tug Fork River. King and the teams initial survey "mapped 15 combat sites and discovered more than a thousand artifacts, from rifle and shotgun shell casings to coins and batteries [and] little sign of disturbance" to the site, challenging earlier surveys conducted by Arch. Blair Mountain, WV: The West Virginia Mine Wars. What would be called the "Battle of Blair Mountain" had begun. In the short term, the battle was an overwhelming victory for management. This trial was in the national spotlight, and it brought much attention to the miners’ cause. 83–95. The tipping point in the “Mine War” finally came on August 1, 1921, when Sheriff Sid Hatfield was shot dead by Baldwin-Felts agents as he entered the McDowell County Courthouse. The hostilities only ramped up in 1920, when the UMW finally started to organize workers in Mingo County. The murder served as a catalyst for an uprising of unionized miners and an August 1921 confrontation between unionized miners and mine guards in West Virginia, a conflict that became known as the Battle of Blair Mountain. Up to 30 deaths were reported by Chafin’s side and 50–100 on the union miners' side, with hundreds more injured. At least one person was wounded, and another, a prohibition officer, was killed. In a short time, the conflict had consumed the entire Tug River Valley. It exposed the dark and murderous intentions of corporations. [27] The miners responded with guerrilla tactics and violence against this oppressive state-sanctioned system. They forced them out at gunpoint, and threw their belongings in the road under a light but steady rain. Continue reading. The Battle of Blair Mountain is now cited as a pivotal chapter in American labor history, but in the short term, it proved to be a crushing defeat for the miners. But directly in the way stood Blair Mountain, Logan County, and Sheriff Don Chafin.[33]. That same day, the main army of miners commenced a two-pronged assault on Chafin’s trenches and breastworks. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest organized armed uprising in United States labor history and led almost directly to the labor laws currently in effect today. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Impatient to get to the fighting, miners near St. Albans, in West Virginia's Kanawha County, commandeered a Chesapeake and Ohio freight train, renamed by the miners as the 'Blue Steel Special', to meet up with the advanced column of marchers at Danville in Boone County on their way to Bloody Mingo. 24.5m members. Scattered fighting continued between the miners and the Logan Defenders until September 4, but most of the men welcomed the government intervention and laid down their weapons. [4], The Battle of Blair Mountain was the result of economic exploitation of workers during a period of social transformation in the southern West Virginia coalfields. Visit. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the result of inhumane treatment of coal miners in the southern West Virginia coalfields. card classic compact. Home; Important Players; The Battle of Blair Mountain; Mining Conditions; Further Resources ; About the Author Hello, I am Marilyn Creager and the creator of this … Chafin and his supporters had soon constructed a network of machine gun nests and trenches around Blair Mountain, a 2,000-foot peak that stood directly in the miners’ path. 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. Workers mined using leased tools and were paid low wages in company currency, or scrip, which could only be used at company stores. Yet, feeling they had been lied to again by West Virginia's Governor Morgan, armed men began gathering at Lens Creek Mountain, near Marmet in Kanawha County on August 20, where four days later up to 13,000 had gathered and began marching towards Logan County. Sheriff Don Chafin sent Logan County troopers to Little Coal River area, with the end result the troopers were apprehended, disarmed, and sent fleeing by the miners. Posts. In October 2012, a federal judge ruled against a coalition of preservation groups, and in favor of the coal companies that want to mine the historic site.[39]. Battle of Blair Mountain. r/todayilearned. By Forest McDermott, May 23, 2008. An understanding of this incident, which is widely acknowledged to be “the most brutal confrontation in the history of the American labor movement ”, requires the study of the background of the coal mining industry in America. 28.2k members. Miners fearing jail and confiscation of their guns found clever ways to hide rifles and hand guns in the woods before leaving Logan County. card classic compact. Talk began to spread of a march on Mingo to free the confined miners, end martial law, and organize the county. At least one did not explode and was recovered by the miners; it was used months later to great effect during treason and murder trials following the battle. The Battle of Blair Mountain covers a profoundly significant but long-neglected slice of American history - the largest armed uprising on American soil since the Civil War. The three-day Battle of Blair Mountain was the climax of a war that had rocked West Virginia since the early years of the twentieth century when the United Mine Workers, led by Mother Jones, tried repeatedly to penetrate tightly controlled company coal towns. One of their primary tactics of combating the union was firing union sympathizers, blacklisting them, and evicting them from their homes. The Battle of Blair Mountain involved the first attempt of the nascent US Air Force to drop bombs on people, and it didn’t go well for them. card. Throughout the 20th century, coal miners attempted to overthrow the system laid out by the coal companies and partake in a number of strikes. You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? The armed march and the Battle of Blair Mountain resulted in little or no gain for union miners, but the hostilities created by labor strife from the early 1900s to the 1920s color labor relations in West Virginia to the present. Topic on Reddit. Silent film taken right after the Battle of Blair Mountain. Teaching Activities (Free) Coal, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Mountaintop Removal. “We will commemorate the significance of … Keeney and Mooney made a last-minute attempt to call off the march after meeting with the War Department’s General Harry Bandholtz, who warned that any violence would prove disastrous for the union, but the proposed ceasefire collapsed when two miners died in a skirmish with Chafin’s forces. Credits. 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). r/todayilearned. [citation needed]. This is a rough draft version of a longer documentary on Blair Mountain. Though some were acquitted by sympathetic juries, many were also imprisoned for a number of years, though they were paroled in 1925. The first part of The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart (Glenn Taylor, 2008) concerns the relationship between the book's main character and Sid Hastings, his involvement in the Matewan massacre and the ensuing battle. Safety conditions were often deplorable, yet despite the efforts of groups such as the United Mine Workers (UMW), the mine operators had kept unions out of the region through intimidation and violence. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history and the largest armed uprising since the American Civil War. The Battle of Blair Mountain is the largest armed insurrection in the United States other than the Civil War and is a landmark event in United States history. T ensions continued building through the warmer months. Battle of Blair Mountain (2004) is a song by folk singer David Rovics and can be found on his album Songs for Mahmud. July 31, 1958: Labor Leader Bill Blizzard Dies at 65. It shines a bright light on the struggle of the United Mine Workers to organize mine workers in West Virginia, in the face of opposition from an ownership concerned only with maximizing their profits. After World War I, as the coal industry began to collapse, union mining was no longer financially sustainable. Certain aspects of Mingo made it more attractive to union leaders than neighboring Logan County, which was under the control of the vehemently anti-union Sheriff Don Chafin and his deputized army. They soon became known as the “Red Neck Army.”. The tensions between the union and the coal companies that led up to the famous Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest open and armed rebellion in United States history, are described in detail, as are its aftermath and legacy. “The Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial events will tell both an historical and contemporary story,” the release read. Folk punk band My Life in Black and White released the song Bombs on Blair Mountain on their 2009 album Hold the Line. The gunfight marked the beginning of what became known as the Battle of Blair Mountain. [9], On May 19, 1920, 12 Baldwin-Felts agents arrived in Matewan, including Lee Felts, and promptly met up with Albert Felts who was already in the area. Beginning in 1870–1880, coal operators had established the company town system. The resulting fight, which history records as the Battle of Blair Mountain, was the nation’s single largest armed uprising since the Civil War and its most violent labor insurrection. Realizing he would lose a lot of good miners if the battle continued with the military, union leader Bill Blizzard passed the word for the miners to start heading home the following day. [30], Hatfield’s death enraged the miners, and they began to pour out of the mountains to take arms. Apr 18, 2017 - Explore MT Randolph's board "Battle of Blair Mountain", followed by 290 people on Pinterest. It exposed the dark and murderous intentions of corporations. Blair Mountain 1992 – before Mountaintop Removal. See more ideas about battle of blair mountain, west virginia, appalachia. By August 28, some 10,000 union men had massed near the border of Logan County and begun trading gunfire with company supporters. See more ideas about battle of blair mountain, west virginia, battle. Photo taken looking south on Route 17, from a different perspective that the other distance photo. In April 2008, Blair Mountain was chosen for the list of protected places on the National Register of Historic Places. [18], This gunfight became known as the Matewan Massacre, and its symbolic significance was enormous for the miners. The Battle of Blair Mountain tells one story in the long history of American labor unions. Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here. Mob will cross the Logan County by August 28, some 10,000 union men had massed near the of. Responded with guerrilla tactics and violence against this oppressive state-sanctioned system were by... 24 km ) away Chambers ' bullet-riddled body rolled to the bottom the... And begun trading gunfire with company supporters state-sanctioned system on January 26, 1921 – Sep 2, 1921 Sep... 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