The Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921

Striking miners surrender their rifles to federal troops after the Battle of Blair Mountain, August 1921. Photograph from 1921, via Wikimedia Commons.

The West Virginia mine wars reached their climax in a huge march of union miners through the coal towns of the state's southern counties. Their aim was to free miners jailed in Mingo County on charges of breaking the martial law the governor had imposed there. To reach Mingo, they had to go through Logan County.

Face to face on the ridge

In late August 1921 the marchers camped in the town of Blair, below Blair Mountain in Logan County, a long ridge they had to cross. First they had to deal with Don Chafin, the county's notorious sheriff, whose main job was protecting the coal operators' interests. By the time the armed miners reached Blair, Chafin had raised his own army of civilian recruits and posted them along the ridgeline.

On the night of August 30, John Wilburn, a minister and part-time miner, led about 70 miners, two of his sons among them, up the mountain. On a dawn patrol, Wilburn and four others ran into three of Chafin's deputies, including John Gore, a notorious Logan County mine guard. In the gunfight, the miners wounded Gore, who shot and killed miner Eli Kemp; Wilburn then shot Gore in the head and killed him. The Battle of Blair Mountain had begun.

For three days the two sides fought along the ridge with Gatling guns, rifles and other firearms. On the second day Chafin sent airplanes over the miners' camp to drop two bombs of nausea gas and two packed with gunpowder, nuts and bolts. Historian James Green has pointed out how remarkable this was: American citizens bombed from the air on American soil.

Striking miners man a machine gun in a shallow trench during the battle, August 1921. Photograph from 1921, via Wikimedia Commons.

Surrender and legacy

After several days of heavy fighting, as the miners were about to push into Logan County, the federal government sent troops, planes and munitions. The miners surrendered to the soldiers willingly: their fight was not against the federal government but against local and state governments that served the mining companies so faithfully that citizens were denied their constitutional rights. Many miners even saw the intervention as a victory, a sign that the rule of law would return — though they never freed the jailed men in Mingo or rid Logan County of its corrupt sheriff.

The mine wars' fighting officially ended on September 4, 1921. Because of its size, length and violence, the brief battle looms large in American labor history and remains a symbol of workers' struggles, many of which still resonate.

The Blair Mountain Battle site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of places worthy of preservation, created under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The National Park Service keeps a list of resources on the West Virginia mine wars.

Sources

• National Park Service: "The Battle of Blair Mountain," part of the series West Virginia Mine Wars, citing James Green, The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom. Green's words are paraphrased.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.