Title: The battle of Blair Mountain : the story of America's largest labor uprising /
Authors: Shogan, Robert.
Publisher: Westview Press,
Year: 2004
Subjects: Labor disputes West Virginia History; Coal mines and mining West Virginia History; Insurgency West Virginia History; Blair Mountain, Battle of, W. Va., 1921.
Abstract: "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. In 1921, some 10,000 West Virginia coal miners, outraged over years of brutality and lawless exploitation, picked up their Winchesters and marched against their tormentors, the powerful mine owners who ruled their corrupt state. For ten days the miners fought a pitched battle against an opposing legion of deputies, state police, and makeshift militia. Only the intervention of a federal expeditionary force, spearheaded by a bomber squadron commanded by General Billy Mitchell, ended this undeclared civil war and forced the miners to throw down their arms.
Contents: Matewan station -- "What does labor want?" -- Seeing red -- "A powder keg ready to blow" -- "It's good to have friends" -- "War, insurrection and riot" -- Mr. Hatfield goes to Washington -- "Even the heaves weep" -- "I come creeping" -- Requiem for a rebellion.