Battle of Blair Mountain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

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.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 and anti coal union Sheriff of Logan County, [Don Chafin]{1887-1954}, had begun to set up defenses on Blair Mountain . {Chafin was supported by the Logan County Coal Operators Association}.

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 traveling in stolen and commandeered trains.

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.

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 approximately 10,000 in the next several years. Not until 1935 was UAW in southern West Virginia was organized after the election of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt.

[edit] 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.

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). The Battle of Blair Mountain was an important part of the labor movement that has resulted in the near universal eight-hour workday, workers compensation insurance, paid vacation and medical benefits now enjoyed by most full-time American workers.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. "When Miners March," was turned into an audiobook by Ross Ballard of MountainWhispers.com. He released an entire CD of new music with a coal mining theme that was used on making the audiobook with original songs by Hazel Dickens, John Lilly, T. Paige Dalporto (www.tpaige.com), Mike Morningstar, Elaine Purkey, Michael Delalla, and many others.

[edit] 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
  • Blizzard, William C. When Miners March Gay, WV,: Appalachian Community Press, 2005. ISBN 0976470608

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Armed Conflicts involving the United States
International World War I · World War II · Korean War · Vietnam War · Gulf War · Somali Civil War · Bosnian War · Kosovo War · War in Afghanistan · Iraq War
External Indian Wars · Quasi-War · First Barbary War · War of 1812 · Second Barbary War · Mexican-American War · Spanish-American War · Philippine-American War · Banana Wars · Invasion of Grenada · Invasion of Panama
Internal Revolutionary War · Shays' Rebellion · Whiskey Rebellion · Seminole Wars · Toledo War · Mormon War · Honey War · Bleeding Kansas · Utah War · Civil War · Brooks-Baxter War · Battle of Blair Mountain · Battle of Athens
Related articles List of conflicts in USA · List of wars involving USA · List of US military history events · Overseas expansion of the United States


Organized Labour Portal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain"
Personal tools