The Battle of Blair Mountain was a worker's uprising against the United States in 1921. The US Army and West Virginia National Guard were sent to fight the miners, and leftover bombs from World War I were used.[1] It was the largest armed uprising in the US since the Civil War.[2]
Background
After the end of the First World War, demand for coal dropped. About 3,000 miners who had not been unionized before joined the United Mine Workers (UMWA).
On May 19, 1920, agents from the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency arrived in Matewan in Mingo County, West Virginia. A fight broke out between the detectives and Police Chief Sid Hatfield, a supporter of the UMWA, who had organized miners to ambush the detectives. Two miners, the mayor, and seven detectives were killed. Three thousand people attended Hatfield's funeral and an army of ten thousand miners soon gathered.[3]
References
- ↑ George D. Torok (2004). A guide to historic coal towns of the Big Sandy River Valley (p. 48). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 9781572332829
- ↑ Chuck Kinder (2005). Last Mountain Dancer: Hard-Earned Lessons in Love, Loss, and Honky-Tonk Outlaw Life (p. 149). New York City: Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780786716531
- ↑ "The Battle of Blair Mountain: 100th Anniversary of the Biggest Labor Uprising in the US" (2021-08-29). Politsturm. Archived from the original on 2021-08-29. Retrieved 2022-06-11.