“I want to say make no settlement until they sign up that every bloody murderer of a guard has got to go.”
This is the story of the largest uprising in the United States since the Civil War.
As unions spread across the Progressive-Era United States, West Virginia mine owners manage to keep them out. They have some good reasons (tough margins) and some less savory ones … like their preference for an oppressive “mine guard system” in “company towns” that effectively removes civil government and private ownership, and reduces the American citizens working in their mines to serfdom. Mother Jones inspires the miners to push back.
Over the course of a decade, that pushback turns bloody – especially in Mingo County. But the worst of it comes just after the Great War, as the miner’s hero, Police Chief Sid “Two Gun” Hatfield, is murdered in cold blood at McDowell County Courthouse. Now, all bets are off. 10,000 miners grab their guns, ready to get revenge and free incarcerated miners. But they’ll have to go through Sheriff Don Chafin’s forces first. The two sides clash at Blair Mountain as the US Army arrives with regiments and aviation squadrons.
____
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78: The Indian Wars (Part 2): The Battle of the Little Bighorn (the Greasy Grass)
77: The Indian Wars (Part 1): The U.S.-Dakota War
76: Reconstruction (Part 4): The Battle of Liberty Place and the Mississippi Plan
75: Reconstruction (Part 3): The Rise of the KKK and the First Black Men in Government
74: Reconstruction (Part 2): The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant
73: Reconstruction (Part 1): The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
72: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
71: Revisiting the Hamilton/Burr Duel: An Affair of Honor
70: Epilogue: The Civil War Comes to a Close
69: Surrender at Appomattox: The Last Days of the Civil War
68: Sherman's March to the Sea and the Thirteenth Amendment
67: Ending 1864: The Battles of the Crater, Mobile Bay, Centralia, and Franklin
66: The Election of 1864: Lincoln's Bid for Reelection
65: Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign & The Free State of Jones
Bonus: A New Sound for HTDS (Farewell to Josh, Hello to Lindsay Graham & Airship)
64: Grant's Overland Campaign: The Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, & Petersburg
Bonus: A Chat about Southern Accents w/ Jeremy Collins from "Podcasts We Listen To"
63: Wounded and Dying: Nurses, Doctors, and Disease in the Civil War
62: The War in Tennessee: Chickamauga and Chattanooga
61: The Louisiana Native Guard, the 54th Massachusetts & On: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
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