"General" Bill Blizzard, president of Sub-district 2 of UMW District 17, was generally regarded by the miners as their leader, but the men were too disorganized and strung out to respond effectively to his orders. One miner said, "If the union had only organized and concentrated its forces it could have broken through easily."
The miners almost pushed through to Crooked Creek once during the week, but were driven back at the last moment.

The citizens of Logan panicked, and the Banner published Tennyson's poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," to urge on the defenders.
President Harding's proclamation was dropped to the miners by airplane. When his deadline to cease fighting came and passed unheeded, he called for troops to be sent in from Kentucky, Ohio, and New Jersey. Also, a squadron of army planes was dispatched from Langley Field, Virginia. The planes were armed with gas bombs and machine guns, but were not used. One crashed in Nicholas County and got as much front page coverage in the Gazette as did the battle.
When the federal troops arrived in Charleston, they found the streets decorated with flags and lined with cheering crowds. The men were loaded into boxcars and rushed off in the direction of Logan. Another group of soldiers was dispatched toward Logan by way of Huntington and Guyandotte River.
The troops arrived in Madison at night and were met by Bill Blizzard, who introduced himself. He was ordered to call a cease fire and send the miners homeward. He disappeared into the night and by the next morning, September 3, when troops arrived at Sharples, the miners were coming out of the hills without guns or red scarves. They were simply a group of dirty, unshaven men trying to get home.
Their guns were hidden all over the Mountain; in caves, under leaves, and behind fences. Cush Garrett of Lake, who was a boy at the time, remembers a friend finding a large number of rifles wrapped in a blanket behind a fence. It is reported that rifles are still occasionally found in the area of Blair.
The army set up camps up and down the little Coal River to preserve the peace, but the fight was over and the union had suffered a crushing defeat.
A grand jury was convened in Logan County and indictments were handed down against Frank Keeney, Fred Mooney, Bill Blizzard, and 982 others, charging them with "murder, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder, and treason against the State of West Virginia."
Immediately the round-up of prisoners began in the surrounding counties. Hundreds were arrested and taken to Logan where every attempt was made to obtain confessions. The trial for treason was moved to the courthouse in Jefferson County, where John Brown had been convicted of treason in 1859. An appeal was sent out across the nation to raise money for the miners' defense fund and over $50,000 was donated.
The major union leaders who had participated in the march were acquitted through lack of evidence and a friendly jury. It was for the lesser figures in the drama to be found guilty and sentenced. One such pair was the mountain preacher and minister J. W. Wilburn and his son John, of Boone County. They had joined the miners' cause only at the last minute, declaring, "It is time to lay down the Bible and take up the rifle." For their minor part they were sentenced to 11 years in the penitentiary. Others were also sentenced to similar prison terms. Governor Morgan paroled them in 1925.
The coal companies had won the battle but would lose the war. After Blair Mountain, the union disappeared in southern West Virginia, not to return until 1933, when New Deal legislation guaranteed the right to organize. But the spectacular Battle of Blair Mountain provoked inquiries into conditions in the coalfields, probing that would go on quietly after the shooting stopped.
Congress investigated, and the outside press took an interest. An article in the Washington Star identified Sheriff Don Chafin and his tactics as the main cause of the uprising. Public opinion was shifting, and the marching miners- or their children and grandchildren-would win in the end.



Colorful General Billy Mitchell brought the army planes from Langley Field. Courtesy West Virginia Archives





Encampment of Federal Troops near the Blair Mountain battlefield, September 1921. The soldiers' mission took on the air of a holiday outing, as they encountered no resistance from the miners. Photographer unknown.





Angry miners pass near Boone-Logan border on a hijacked train. Photographer unknown, 1921.

Resource: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/red.html

My Grandparents' Role in the Mine Wars

My grandparents lived in Logan County until the 1940's. Not until I started researching information concerning the mine wars did I realize the significance of what my grandmother, Minnie Aliff, told me years ago. I did not know that most of the mine workers' uprising occurred in Logan County where she and my grandfather, George Aliff, lived. I wish I could go back in time before she died to get the answers to the questions I have about my grandparents' participation in this historic event. 

One summer shortly after my grandfather had died, I was visiting my grandmother and  witnessed her target practicing using her pistol. Her having a gun and knowing how to use it surprised me because it did not fit the persona that I had of her. My grandmother was a reserved,  God-fearing, Christian woman. Guns and hiding them from law enforcement just did not fit the picture that I had of her. 

Maw-Maw always was a strong-willed, honest woman. This was evident in the way she lived her Christianity--never trying to force it on others but living it. One of her biggest influences on me is that I never heard her speak negatively of others. Because she was a doer of her faith and not just a talker, I was drawn to what she had in her life. The Lord used her life to draw me to Him.

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Date this page was last updated: 03/06/2003