The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest organized armed uprising in American labor history and led almost directly to the labor laws currently in effect in the United States of America. For nearly a week in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, between 10,000 and 15,000 coal miners confronted state and federal troops in an effort to unionize the southwestern West Virginia mine counties. Unionization had succeeded elsewhere as part of a demographic boom that was triggered by the extension of the railroad and was characterized by unprecedented immigrant hiring and exploitation in the region. The battle was the final act in a series of violent clashes that have also been termed the Redneck War, from the color of bandannas worn by the miners around their necks for friend-or-foe identification, and the likely impetus of the common usage of the original Scottish term redneck in the vernacular of the United States. Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Logan County is a county located in the state of West Virginia. ... Official language(s) English Capital Charleston Largest city Charleston Largest metro area Charleston metro area Area  Ranked 41st  - Total 24,244 sq mi (62,809 km²)  - Width 130 miles (210 km)  - Length 240 miles (385 km)  - % water 0. ... Wyoming coal mine Coal mining is the mining of coal. ... This article is about a stereotypical description. ...

Background

Though tensions had been simmering for years, the immediate catalyst for the uprising was the unpunished murder of Sid Hatfield, police chief of Matewan, on the steps of the McDowell County courthouse in Welch in July 1921 by agents of the Baldwin-Felts private detective agency. Hatfield had been a long-time supporter of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and their efforts to unionize the mines. Sid Hatfield was sheriff of Matewan, West Virginia during the Battle of Matewan, a shootout that followed a series of evictions carried out by detectives from the Baldwin-Felts agency. ... Aerial view of Matewan, West Virginia A section of the floodwall along the Tug Fork in Matewan, West Virginia, constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, depicts the Hatfield-McCoy feud. ... McDowell County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. ... McDowell County Courthouse Welch is a town in McDowell County, West Virginia, USA. The population was 2,683 at the 2000 census. ... Baldwin-Felts was a private detective agency in the United States, founded in 1900 by William Gibboney Baldwin and Thomas Lafayette Felts and based in Bluefield, West Virginia. ... United Mine Workers of America seal The United Mine Workers (UMW or UMWA) is a United States labor union that represents workers in mining. ...

The battle

At a rally on August 7, Mother Jones called on the miners to march into Logan and Mingo counties and set up the union by force. Armed men began gathering at Lens Creek, near Marmet in Kanawha County on August 20, and by four days later up to 13,000 had gathered and began marching towards Logan County. Meanwhile, the reviled Sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin, had begun to set up defences on Blair Mountain. is the 219th day of the year (220th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Mary Harris Jones (August 1, 1837 – November 30, 1930), better known as Mother Jones, was a prominent American labor and community organizer, and Wobbly. ... Mingo County is a county located in the state of West Virginia. ... Marmet is a city located in Kanawha County, West Virginia. ... Kanawha County is a county located in the state of West Virginia. ... is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The first skirmishes occurred on the morning of August 25. The bulk of the miners were still 15 miles away. The following day, President Warren Harding threatened to send in federal troops, and the miners began to leave. However, mistaken reports came in that Sheriff Chafin's men were deliberately shooting women and children - families had been caught in crossfire during the skirmishes - and the miners turned back towards Blair Mountain, many travelling in stolen and commandeered trains. is the 237th day of the year (238th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 - August 2, 1923) was the 29th (1921-1923) President of the United States and the sixth President to die in office. ...

By August 29, battle was fully joined. Chafin's men, though outnumbered, had the advantage of higher positions and better weaponry. Private planes were hired to drop homemade bombs on the miners, though many of these failed to explode and none are believed to have caused any injuries. 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 counties to the south, Logan and Mingo. Up to 30 deaths were reported on both sides, with many hundreds more injured. By September 2, however, federal troops had arrived. The fledgling United States Army Air Service dropped a few pipe and tear gas bombs as a demonstration meant to overawe the labor organizers. It was the only time in the history of the U.S. that the government ordered military aircraft used against its own people. Realizing he would lose a lot of good miners if the battle continued with the military, Bill Blizzard passed the word for the miners to start heading home the following day. is the 241st day of the year (242nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The United States Army Air Service was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. ...

Following the battle, 985 miners were indicted for "murder, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder, and treason against the State of West Virginia." Though some were acquitted by sympathetic juries, many were also imprisoned for a number of years, though they were paroled in 1925. In Bill Blizzard's trial, an unexploded pipe bomb was used as evidence of the government and companies' brutality, and ultimately resulted in his acquittal. Short term, the battle seemed to be an overwhelming victory for management, and UMWA membership plummeted from more than 50,000 miners to circa 10,000 the next several years. United Mine Workers of America seal The United Mine Workers (UMW or UMWA) is a United States labor union that represents workers in mining. ...

Legacy in retrospect

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 into political battles to get the law on labor's side vice 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. That in turn led to the UMWA helping organize many better-known unions such as the Steel workers and Teamster's during the mid-thirties. The New Deal was the title President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to the series of programs he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of providing relief, recovery, and reform (3 Rs) to the people and economy of the United States during the Great Depression. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In the final analysis, management's success was a Pyrrhic victory that led eventually to a much larger and stronger organized labor movement in many industries, not only mining, and labor union affiliations and umbrella organizations like the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and their successor the AFL-CIO. Hence, part of the legacy of this battle is the near universal eight-hour workday, workers compensation insurance, paid vacation and medical benefits now enjoyed by most full-time American workers. A Pyrrhic victory is a victory with devastating cost to the victor. ... The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. ... The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, was a federation of unions that organized industrial workers in the United States and Canada in 1935-1955. ... American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL-CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 54 national and international unions (including Canadian), together representing more than 10 million workers. ...

In fiction

The Blair Mountain march, as well as the events leading up to it and those immediately following it, are depicted in the novels Storming Heaven (Denise Giardina, 1987) and Blair Mountain (Jonathan Lynn, 2006). John Sayles' 1987 film Matewan depicts the so-called Matewan Massacre, a small part of the Blair Mountain story. Diane Gilliam Fisher's poetry collection, Kettle Bottom, published by Perugia Press, also focuses on the events of the Battle of Blair Mountain, from the perspective of the miners' families. For other uses, see Storming Heaven (disambiguation). ... Denise Giardina is an award-winning novelist. ... Jonathan Lynn (born April 3, 1943), is a British actor and comedy writer. ... Photo of John Sayles by Robert Birnbaum John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an independent American film director and writer who frequently takes a small part in his own and other indie films. ... Matewan is a 1987 drama by John Sayles, illustrating the events of a coal mine-workers strike and attempt to unionize in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia. ... The Matewan massacre was the stand-off that resulted from the attempt of coal miners to unionize in Matewan, West Virginia on May 19, 1920. ...

In music

Battle of Blair Mountain (2004) is a song by the popular left-wing folk singer David Rovics and can be found on his album Songs for Mahmud. The song Red Neck War by Byzantine is based on the Battle of Blair Mountain. Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... David Rovics sings at the A16 rally in Washington DC in early 2005. ... Byzantine is a thrash/groove metal band hailing from Chareleston, WV, who also have a few Meshuggah influences. ...

References

• Corbin, David, ed. The West Virginia Mine Wars: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Martinsburg, W.Va.: Appalachian Editions, 1998. ISBN 0962748609
• Lee, Howard B. Bloodletting in Appalachia: The Story of West Virginia's Four Major Mine Wars and Other Thrilling Incidents of Its Coal Fields. Morgantown, W.Va.: West Virginia University Press, 1969. ISBN 0870120417
• Savage, Lon. Thunder in the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War, 1920-21. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990. ISBN 0822936348
• Shogan, Robert. The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Union Uprising. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2004. ISBN 0813340969

External links

• "The Red Neck War of 1921." Accessed February 28, 2006.