Blair Mountain

[Bones]

Not many people know about this but I have heard there is a movie about called Matewan


The Battle of Blair Mountain was one of the biggest civil uprisings in the United States history and the largest armed insurrection since the American Civil War.[1] For five days in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, between 10,000 and 15,000 coal miners confronted an army of police and strikebreakers backed by coal operators during a struggle by the miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. Their struggle ended only after approximately one million rounds were fired,[2] and the United States Army intervened by presidential order.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/05/134203550/coal-reignites-a-mighty-battle-of-labor-history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

[Wyobuckaroo]

INTERESTING..............
I really like all kinds of history local to an area.
Have seen a documentary on this incident a couple times on TV. Think they were PBS or National Geographic type documentaries.
They showed the back yard of someones house where one of the bombs from the plane fell. I think it didn't explode and took a long time before it was disposed of.

This situation simmered for a long time. Then one of the things that helped ignite the fighting was the cold blooded killing of a favorite sheriff of the area by mine hired gunmen. This happened right on the court house steps.

One little detail. I think they said both sides ended up with Colt designed and manufactured "potato digger" machine guns from local National Guard armories.

People are still finding empty cartridge cases, and other artifacts in places there.

Thanks for posting
Wyo

[J R Adams]

Rather sad piece of Amerian history.

[cubcadet]

One perspective on this and other civilian disturbances- generations of men up to about 1950-60 were not only mentally but, physically capable of putting up armed resistance to government gone wrong. I think the soldiers that came back home from WWII battlefields were the last generation of Americans with the guts to say no to government effectively, largely because there was no tv and when they went into battle back then, they actually were able to kill their enemy without any hesitation and were fairly certain of who was the enemy.
Our current political infrastructure, with the Multijuristictional Task Forces in place and foreign `peacekeepers`, are just licking their chops and champing at their bits waiting for an armed confrontation with American dissenters.

[Wyobuckaroo]

A couple thoughts on the prospective these events and comments make come to mind.

Agree, the 1940s was the last time the enemies of America were recognizable.
Many feel the new enemies of America are from within.............

I think there was at least one other event like Blair Mtn. in that part of the country somewhere. Believe it was shortly before the 1940s. Sad event, yes. But a valuable lesson to the people that they CAN and SHOULD stand up to the abuse of the political systems at the expense of the individual citizen.

Sadly, the general population seems to have lost the will and spirit to stand up when necessary. At times I'm not sure if it is a case of the public being unaware, or uncaring. Seems it would be hard to be unaware in this age of electronic info. So that leaves a very sad alternative...............

KnowwhatImean
Enough rambling.........
Wyo

[Jeff]

Yeah that was an interesting deal. I saw that on the history channel years ago.

Another little known tangle was the Bonus Army:

17,000 WWI vets marched on Washington. Their war bonus was supposed to be paid to them in 1945, but they wanted it early since it was the depression or something.

So get this, Doug MacArthur gets infantry and cavalry while Geo Patton gets 6 tanks and they go bustin through the WWI guy's camps. Some cops killed two vets and a little baby who was there got injured and later died. That kinda ended the Bonus Army.

Back then, people weren't afraid to get uppity at the government if they didn't agree. Even if they knew it probably wouldn't turn out well for them.

And hats off to them WWI vets of all nations, by the way. Trench warfare, gas, frontal attacks on machine guns, 100,000 dead in a couple days, etc. Tough old guys.