Battle of Matewan

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State historical marker commemorating the Battle of Matewan, in Matewan, West Virginia
State historical marker commemorating the Battle of Matewan, in Matewan, West Virginia

The Battle of Matewan (also called the Matewan Massacre) was a shootout in the coal company town of Matewan, West Virginia on May 19, 1920. Prior to the battle, the coal miners had begun to organize themselves into a union. The Stone Mountain Coal Company heavily resisted this effort from the coal miners by hiring agents from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to evict them from their company-owned houses.[1] Matewan Police Chief Sid Hatfield argued over these illegal evictions carried out by the Baldwin-Felts detectives. After the argument, Hatfield obtained warrants for the arrest of the detectives and confronted them at the town train depot accompanied by a large group of armed miners some of whom had been temporarily deputized. When Hatfield presented his warrant, the detectives presented him with a false warrant for his own arrest. As the altercation over the two warrants escalated, one of the miners in the crowd summoned Matewan mayor Cabell Testerman to settle the dispute. Testerman declared the warrant for Hatfield's arrest a forgery and within moments, the first shot was fired. Although it is not clear who fired first, Mayor Testerman and Albert Felts of the Baldwin-Felts agency were the first men to be shot. After the initial shots, the surrounding area erupted with gunfire from both sides.

The battle resulted in the deaths of seven Baldwin-Felts "detectives" [2]as well as two miners and Mayor Testerman[3]. The battle quickly became famous among miners who celebrated the heavy casualties inflicted on the Baldwin-Felts detectives and viewed Sid Hatfield as a hero.

The surviving agents of the Baldwin-Felts agency and its leader, Tom Felts, vowed revenge on Sid Hatfield. On August 1, 1921, Baldwin-Felts detectives assassinated Sid Hatfield as well as one of Sid's friends Ed Chambers, outside the McDowell County, West Virginia courthouse in Welch, West Virginia. The Baldwin-Felts detectives were never arrested or charged for the crime.

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[edit] Aftermath of The Battle of Matewan

Shortly after the Battle of Matewan and the assassination of Sid Hatfield, coal miners from across West Virginia gathered in Charleston, West Virginia. Determined to organize the southern coalfields, they began a march to Logan County. Thousands of miners joined them along the way in what became the largest armed insurrection in the United States since the American Civil War, the Battle of Blair Mountain. This two year "Coal war" resulted in a reported 50 deaths-including the deaths of 3 members of the West Virginia State Police. See [4]

Section of Matewan's flood wall commemorating the Battle of Matewan
Section of Matewan's flood wall commemorating the Battle of Matewan

The Battle of Matewan and subsequent events later became the subject of the 1987 film Matewan and the play Terror of The Tug.

In northern Minnesota where iron miners faced a parallel struggle in the 1920's, a river was named the Matewan River in honor of the dead and as a reminder of the struggles faced by miners and the necessity for unions. It is located southwest of Ely, Minnesota.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Brit Hume, Death and the Mines: Rebellion and Murder in the United Mine Workers. (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1971) 113
  2. ^ The Roanoker Magazine...Coalmining War in 1912
  3. ^ http://www.livelyroots.com/things/celively.htm
  4. ^ Private Ernest Ripley, West Virginia State Police

[edit] See also

[edit] External links