Short Pitch
It is called The Battle of Blair Mountain
It is a historical drama
In the vein of Peterloo
It is like Newsies meets Hatfields & McCoys
It follows educated but aggressive coal miner Frank Keeney
And deliberative, restrained widower Fred Mooney
As they fight for their fellow miners’ justice, human dignity, and constitutional right to unionize.
Problems arise when a sheriff who is a friend of the miners is murdered, a corrupt sheriff begins locking up miners without due process, and an army of 10,000 armed miners marching on Blair Mountain turns into a disorganized mob, the largest civil insurrection since the Civil War.
Together they will use their power of persuasion and patriotism to diffuse a tense situation.
The idea came to me while watching a documentary on The History Channel about hillbillies when I was visiting the Appalachian foothills.
My unique approach would be several different nuanced perspectives as individuals navigate a brutal world set against the beauty of the West Virginia mountains.
A set piece would be when Keeney and Mooney have convinced the marching miners to turn back just 12 miles from Blair Mountain and meet in a ballpark. Guards at the entrances to the park ask for the password. “I come creeping,” reply the miners. Soon, the field, dugouts, and bleachers are full of miners, armed to the teeth, seething with anger, ready to hear what their leaders have to say. Keeney and Mooney stand before them in fancy suits, but their faces and hands are worn and haggard like theirs. “Just over that ridge is Chaifn and Logan County,” says Keeney. He points to the south. Then he points to the northeast. “And coming from that way is the US Army.” There are murmurs in the crowd. “Some of ya’ll fought in France,” says Keeney. “The army you fought with defeated the Hun, a professionally trained army. So, you darn well know you can’t fight it here.” There are a few angry retorts from the field. “ Put it plainly,” says Mooney, motioning for Keeney to step back. “They’ve sent the entire U. S. government and Army to stop us. We are patriotic men who will not fight our government. Go home. There are trains coming, promised to take ya there.” There is silence. Some murmuring. Finally, an old black man stands up from the bleachers. A white beard barely hides an R branded on his cheek. “Boys, he’s right,” he softly says. Men continue to speak, drowning him out. A giant, red-bearded hillbilly next to him stands up. “Shut up! Pappy here is talking!” The old man smiles. “You ain’t foolin’ no more. This is your daddy talkin’. It’s your real Uncle Sam.” Slowly men stand, begin dispersing. Keeney and Mooney smile, relieved.
Target audiences would be men and women 30-90, history buffs, bluegrass, folk, country and western music fans, citizens of Appalachia, coal miners and their communities, and blue-collar workers and their communities.
Audiences would want to see it for its universal themes of standing in the face of adversity, action, adventure, community, fighting for human dignity, liberties, and constitutional rights, the bluegrass soundtrack, honoring the working men and women of America and the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains.
Today’s historical event I would like to pitch as a movie is The Battle of Blair Mountain. Books I consulted for this project are The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story Of America’s Largest Labor Uprising by Robert Shogan, from Basic Books, Thunder In the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War, 1920–21 by Lon Savage, from University of Pittsburgh Press, The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom by James Green, from Grove Press, and “Chapter 9 -Matawan and Blair Mountain” from The Wild East: Gunfights, Massacres and Race Riots Far from America’s Frontier by Ian Hernon, from Amberley Publishing.
This one is a bit longer than usual. The West Virginia Mine Wars contain enough material for a miniseries like Hatfields & McCoys, or a TV show like Hell on Wheels meets Ozarks. But for now, here is a general idea about how I would write a movie about The Battle of Blair Mountain.
Act One
Beginnings – Meeting Frank Keeney, Fred Mooney, Mother Jones, Don Chafin (Pages 1-5)
The film could open with these title cards.
“Between 1890-1917 26,000 miners were killed on the job, many in explosions in the American Coal Industry. Tens of Thousands more are maimed, some crippled for life.”
The next title card encapsulates the history of unionization in the coal fields and how southern West Virginia is “The Final Frontier” of coal mining and unionization. Mountain folk set in their ways are suspicious of outsiders. Other miners are African American sharecroppers from the South who are drawing their first real pay and do not want to cause their new bosses trouble.
The third card explains that mine operators battle hard against the efforts of the United Mine Workers (UMW) to raise miners wages. They need to offset the cost of transporting coal out of the isolated mountainous region along twisting, curving railroads. This helps the companies gain a proportional share of the market against competition from other coal fields that could more easily transport their product to eastern industrial centers.
“Into this powder keg enters The Most Dangerous Woman in America, Mother Jones.”
Born Mary G. Harris in Ireland, she had lost her husband and children to yellow fever after immigrating to America. Now known as Mother Jones, or “The Miners’ Angel,” coal miners are her boys. She had been to the “Black Hole of Ludlow” in the Colorado coal fields where miners’ families had burned to death. She had led miners’ wives carrying mops and beating pans through Pennsylvania. But in “Medieval West Virginia,” where she had stood before machine guns and dared the mine guards to shoot her, is where she finds her sons Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney.
Charles Francis Keeney, called C. F. or Frank, is just another easygoing, joking, ordinary workingman who enjoys hunting, drinking, and shooting pool. His father died when he was two. At ten his mother took him out of school and sent him to work in the mines as a trapper. He learned to read the signs of animals who could sense danger before humans. From the older miners, he acquired a sense of humor.
But Mother Jones sees something special in the “bright-eyed little fellow.” In a screenplay I would present her encounter with him after Keeney gets into a fight with an outsider, probably an Italian or Eastern European immigrant, in a billiard hall that ends when they crash out the front window.
Here’s how it might look in a movie
Then we meet Fred Mooney who also started working in the mines at a young age. He still manages to attend school until he is eighteen Despite his book learning he has the grit and determination to claw his way out of the mines after a cave-in, a character trait he will have in his career in the UMW.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Don Chafin of Logan County is running the place with an iron fist. The mine operators subsidize Chafin’s deputies and, in return, he protects the mine companies from the union and its organizers by brutally keeping them out of the county. When he first runs for sheriff, he promises to remove the private mine guards but keeps that promise only superficially. The mine guards are replaced by Sheriff Chafin and his deputies.
Inciting Incident – Paint Creek–Cabin Creek Strike of 1912 ((Pages 5-10)
Miners along Paint and Cabin creeks work with company tools and equipment, which they are required to lease, with money deducted from their pay. They are paid in company scrip, which only the company businesses accept, which charge exorbitant prices. For more than twenty years the coal companies have controlled their lives, their towns, churches, schools, recreational centers, doctors, teachers, preachers, law officers, and even what silent movies could be shown in company theaters. Those who do not conform are fired. Miners are cheated by a load system that is often rigged to show them bringing in less coal than they have mined, at the judgment of checkweighmen hired by the operators. Those who complain are fired. Miners’ U. S. Constitutional rights are violated by Yellow Dog Contracts, which force them to pledge not to join the union under penalty of losing their jobs and company housing.
Because the theme of southern West Virginians and miners seeking to have their rights as Americans acknowledged is intertwined throughout the Coal Mine Wars, I would start a movie off with Mother Jones giving this speech, criticizing “her boys” who do not go on strike. “Damn you, you are not fit to live under the flag…you stood there like a lot of cowards, robbed by the mine owners…You call yourselves Americans? Let me tell you, America need not feel proud of you!”
The United Mine Workers of America strike on April 18, 1912. Immediately violence known as The Paint Creek-Cabin Creek War starts. Mother Jones inspires so many miners to join the union that the coal companies fire over five hundred. She is arrested by the state police and thrown into prison despite her having pneumonia.
Keeney returns at the beginning of the war better educated and articulated, but still aggressive, quick thinking, and quick to anger. In 1912 he is blacklisted after fighting against the leadership of the local union – District 17 – believing the first settlement during the war was too meager. “Lean Mooney” attacks the original proposal and revolts against the union hierarchy. During this time his wife dies, leaving him to care for his three children.
During The Paint Creek-Cabin Creek War, the Baldwin-Felts agents, private detectives, and hired gunmen, run the Bull Moose Express (or Special), a heavily armored train along the railroad tracks at night and fire into tent colonies housing union miners, strikers, and their families. They kill one man as he shields his wife and child. In revenge the miners attack a mine guard camp, killing sixteen.
In the end over 50 lives are taken by the violence, more by malnourishment and the union gains the right to shop in stores other than the company ones, the right to union checkweighmen, and the elimination of discrimination against union miners.
Second Thoughts – Keeney and Mooney Become Leaders of District 17 (Pages 10-15)
However, many rank-and-file miners are dissatisfied because their two main demands, recognition of the union and an end to the mine guard system, are ignored. Many of the miners feel that their local union leaders have been too willing to the accept governor’s compromise. Frustrated by their lack of national and local support, miners prepare to renew their strike, for which they will need new leadership.
Keeney returns in 1916 to lead a revolt against the District 17’s elders, who he says are “drunkards and crooks.” He leads efforts to form his own local. “Keeny is fire and dynamite,” Mooney says. “He asks for and shows no quarter.”
An investigation by the national union finds that the rulers of the local union are corrupt, using union dues to line their own pockets. Because Keeney led the secession movement, he is elected president. Mooney will be secretary-treasurer. Like crawling out of a collapsed mine shaft, they have clawed their way to the top.
Climax of Act One – World War I and Keeney and Mooney’s Leadership During Coal Strike of 1919 (Pages 15 -25)
During World War I the miners are exempt from the draft. Yet 50,000 still enlist to make the rest of the world “Safe for Democracy.” 3,000 return in coffins. But conditions were dangerous at home. Keeney writes President Wilson that West Virginia miners have a higher death rate than the American Expeditionary Force. In 1918 accidents and explosions claim the lives of 404 miners. Are not their sacrifices worthy of being considered Americans?
During World War I the Union had, to help the war effort, gained some power. In an agreement with the United States Fuel Administration, they promise not to strike and, in exchange, the miners receive a wage increase. The UMW ranks expand to include 500,000 miners out of 700,000 miners nationwide.
However, this is undercut by the worldwide hysteria caused by the Soviet Revolution in Russia. The Bolsheviks did not help things when they called on the workers of the world to rise up and put an end to the bloodshed caused by their capitalist oppressors. Nothing of the sort happens. But even after World War I stopped, Wilson saw a series of labor strikes in 1919 as an attempt to “establish a Soviet form of government in the United States and put into effect the economic theories of the Bolsheviki of Russia.” A series of mail and anarchist bombings and bomb threats did not help matters.
In the midst of this tense atmosphere, John L. Lewis decides to call the UMW Coal Strike of 1919 in response to inflation and skyrocketing mine company profits. Even though coal production continues in West Virginia, it is during this strike that Mooney and Keeney prove their leadership. In a driving rainstorm, Mooney addresses 3,000 miners in Matewan, Mingo County. Obey the law, says Mooney. But that same law should bind the mine operators as well. The Badlwin-Felt agents had no right to assume the authority of law enforcement agents. He fires off a telegraph of protest to U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, who was too busy defending the nation against the Bolshevik menace to pay much attention to southern West Virginia.
Meanwhile, Chafin pursues a black union man into District 17 headquarters and is shot in the chest. It sidelines him only temporarily. However, after hearing rumors of Chafin murdering and beating UMW organizers, 5,000 miners gather to march on Logan County. Governor John J. Cornwell, elected with the help of miner support, rushes to the scene. He promises to do everything to rid the state of the gunmen. Until then, state troops were on the way.
Mooney thinks the guard system is so entrenched in the state that it will “take an Oliver Cromwell or Napoleon Bonaparte to remove them.” He and Keeney are strong-willed but not pigheaded. Taking Cornwell at his word, they agree to disband.
They and the governor manage to convince the miners not to take the law into their hands. “There’s no law in West Virginia except the law of the coal operators” some yelled. As the miners depart for home, many fire guns into the air in defiance of the governor’s speech and much to the annoyance of Keeney and Mooney.
Act Two
New Goal and First Obstacle – Logan and Mingo Counties (Pages 25-30)
John L. Lewis’ next target for unionization is Mingo County. It is on the other side of Don Chafin‘s Logan County. An inquiry by Cornwell discovers that Chafin receives payments from the mining company. That does not stop politicians from giving him the power to raise militia in response to “emergencies” in Logan County. Keeney and Mooney begin to wonder if Lewis really understands West Virginia.
Keeney finds an acolyte in Bill Blizzard, who has been active in the union since he was ten. He helps him become the leader of Boone County. This causes some rift between Keeney and Mooney, who sees Blizzard as hotheaded. His suspicions are justified since Blizzard believes the leaders lied to get the miners to turn around from their march on Logan County.
Rising Action – Battle of Matewan (Pages 30-35)
Subplot: Sid Hatfield
It is a different story in neighboring Mingo County where the sheriff of the town of Matewan is Sid Hatfield. A former coal miner himself, he has seen more men killed in the mines in 1898 than were killed in the Spanish-American War. He lives up his thin connection to the Hatfields of the infamous Hatfield-Mcoy feud, becoming known as “The Terror of the Tug.” Carrying more than two pistols, he is more than ready to show his gunfighting skills off like a gunslinger of the Old West. He is friends with Mother Jones and stands guard at union meets.
Hatfield, Mayor Cabell Testerman of Matewan, and the rest of the leadership of the county are a buffer for the miners and union members of Mingo against the power of the coal operators and their hired gunmen, the corrupt and brutal Baldwin-Felts detectives. Because there are no leases for company houses, the argument for evictions is that the tenancy of the miners is dependent on their employment, like a servant-master relationship. The mayor and sheriff do not buy this and will not help in the evictions.
The events leading up to the Battle of Matawan have already been a movie, so I will not go into much detail.
Thirteen Baldwin-Felts, including Lee and Albert Felts, brothers of the agency’s founder, arrive in town in May 1920. On May 19 they begin clearing miners and their families from company private property just outside of town.
They are confronted by Hatfield and Testerman, demanding if they have a written order from the local judge. The detectives try to bribe Hatfield, who turns them down. Mayor Testerman phones the county sheriff in Williamson, and receives word that the evictions are illegal. He then has warrants issued against the detectives, and asks a preacher to gather a dozen “sober-sided men” to be sworn in as deputies to back up Hatfield.
The phone operator is a cousin to Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin. She gets word to Anderson Eugene “Anse” Hatfield, owner of a hotel in Matewan, and friends of the detectives. Anse warns them of the warrants. The thirteen detectives arm themselves with sidearms and almost make it to the train station before Testerman and Hatfield meet them on the tracks. Then, someone, there are still debates about who, fires.
The Battle of Matewan, more like a Wild West shootout, has already been portrayed in John Sayles’ excellent 1987 film Matewan. You can watch dramatized versions here and here.
By the time the fight was over, 100 shots had been fired and 10 men lay dead. Seven, including the brothers Lee and Albert Felts, were detectives. Mayor Testerman and two unarmed, unemployed miners caught in the crossfire, Bob Mullins and Tot Tinsley, were mortally wounded. Half a dozen other people were wounded. One agent escaped by lighting a cigarette and whistling as he walked through town to safety. The surviving Felts brother, Tom, gathers up a posse to avenge his brothers. However, the conductor discerns his plans and drives the train past the Matewan station.
Sid and the miners involved in the battle surrender to the state police after the fight. Eleven days later he and Testerman’s widow, Jessie, are married. Soon his enemies are claiming Sid had conspired to have the mayor killed so he and Jessie could marry. The newlywed widow comes to his defense. The mayor considered the sheriff a good friend and expected him to take care of her in case anything happened to him.
All a sudden the rest of the nation is paying attention to the conditions in southern West Virginia. The ACLU responds to the violence by saying it is the result of the violation of the Bill of Rights. John L. Lewis calls for a congressional investigation to stop the bloodshed. Mother Jones uses the shooting to reinforce the Americanization of the area. “I want to say to the people of Logan that Mother Jones is going in, we are going to clean up West Virginia. I am not going to take any guns. I am going in there with the American flag, that is my banner, and no rotten robber or gunman can meddle with me.”
Violence continues in the Mingo County area. Anse Hatfield, who is to testify at the trial for the Matewan shooting, is mortally wounded while sitting on the front porch of his hotel. Sid Hatfield is charged as an accessory to his murder.
Rising Obstacles – Strike in Mingo (Pages 35-40)
The union demands a 27 percent wage increase. The company gives it, then raises prices in the company store. Miners who complained are pistol-whipped by mine guards. Hundreds of miners in Mingo walk off the job and ask Keeney for one. Keeney tells them to reopen the mines, then they will be welcomed into the union. But as fast as they join the union, the mine companies fire them. Soon Mingo County has fourteen locals and nearly 3,000 union members of its 4,000 miners.
The miners begin walking off the job on July 1st. By mid-July production comes to a halt. A baseball game turns into a brawl between union and nonunion sympathizers. Fights between scabs and strikers break out as companies try to bring in new employees. Stat troops are sent to escort hundreds of strikebreakers and coal production continues to rise. A railroad is torpedoed. Guerrilla warfare enflames the Tug River valley, spilling over into Kentucky.
During this time, Sid and several miners are charged with the seven murders and arraigned. The people of Matewan happily pay the $10,000 bonds for each. Jessie posted Sid’s bail.
As winter sets in, only a few of the original union miners remain on in Mingo County, living in tent colonies supplied by the union. The families live off union funds – $5 for a husband, $2 for a wife, and $1 for a child. For a week.
Reporters flocked to the scene to cover the wretched conditions. Anemic and underfed barefoot children play in the snow. Women give birth and children die in tattered tents. Coughing skeleton-like men huddle around little wooden fires.
Above it all floats a tattered American flag. “We are all Americans and good enough to hold out for our rights, even though it’s tough to live this way,” a member of the colony tells reporters.
Then, a moment of humanity
As Christmas nears, soldiers, strikers, and mine operators set aside differences to alleviate the misery. One mine operator invites a union family to occupy his house during the winter. People who have seen the plight of miners in the news send money and food. Train cars filled with candies, nuts, fruits, and toys arrive. Volunteers, including the civilian wives of officers, distribute them. On Christmas Day, mine operators put up a tree in the center of Williamson. The first public meeting is allowed. Strikers, nonunion miners, soldiers, and local citizens gather around the tree to sing carols.
Rising Tenison – Murder Trials (Pages 40-50)
The murder trial for the Matewan Battle, or Massacre, begins on January 26, 1921. The ensuing courtroom scenes are both dramatic and comical. C. H. “Charlie” Lively, a prominent member of the union who ran a restaurant in Matewan, is revealed to be a spy for the mine operators. When a judge calls for “Anse Hatfield,” the prosecutor says he is dead while two other men step forward because they are also named Anse Hatfield. One of the miners who took part in the shootout turns state evidence against Sid Hatfield. The defense calls the witnesses for the prosecution turncoats, oafs, and charlatans. A woman forces her way to get to Hatfield when he is on the witness stand, saying she has always wanted to meet him. Once she gets to the witness stand, she extends her hand and says, “Pleased to meet ye.” Two times cars on the street backfire, and the audience, thinking they are gunshots, stampedes out of the courtroom.
Hatfield has interviews with news reporters. “I reckon you thought I had horns, “ he says. “It’s the limit what I read about myself.” Since the media had taken to calling him “Two Guns Sid,” he accustoms them by posing with two pistols. Since he is always smiling, the media takes to calling him “Smilin’ Sid.” He eats it all up.
The trial ends with all Matewan boys acquitted by the jury. As the train pulls them into Matewan, they are greeted with a cheering, joyful crowd. The union hires a motion picture company to make a movie called Smilin’ Sid.
Lively, expelled from the United Mine Workers, moves away for his safety.
Rising Action / Midpoint – Three Days Battle (Pages 50-55)
As soon as the state militia leaves Mingo County in May 1921 and the state police return, the striking miners plan an all-out attack on nonunion miners. This time the nonunion miners strike back. Snipers fill the hills around Matewan. School is canceled and businesses close as violence spirals out of control and spills over into Kentucky. Sharpshooters fire from the mountaintops across the Tug into the other states, creating a 10-mile front.
The Three Days Battle, as it comes to be known, ends when a deputy sheriff contacts union riflemen saying they will stop shooting if they will stop shooting. Acting on that promise, a prominent physician is sent to the Kentucky side to negotiate with the nonunion fighters in that area. Both governors of West Virginia and Kentucky call on the pro-business President Harding to send troops. The battle slowly comes to an end before a declaration of martial law reaches the Oval Office. The president declines to sign it, seeing the events in West Virginia as local rather than national problems. The state has not yet exhausted its own resources.
Then the miners lose an ally when Republican Ephraim Morgan succeeds Cornwell as governor. Keeney and Mooney make accusations of stolen elections. Miners claim their ballots were counted by the mine guards and disqualified by deputy sheriffs. Other claim ballots are floating in the Tug River. Frank Keeney journeys to Washington to lobby senators. “The Constitution has been kicked into the discard in West Virginia,” he declares, laying the blame at the door of the mine operators’ gunmen.
While Keeney and the UMW are battling with words and art, the shooting war continues. Attacks are coordinated by the blowing of a cow horn. A man who had testified against Sid Hatfield is shot dead.
On May 29, 1921, Governor Morgan declares martial law in Mingo County. The officer in charge of enforcing the declaration is Major Thomas D. Davis. He soon becomes known as “Emperor of the Tug River.” Miners are arrested, jailed, and freed without a warrant or due process. He arrests miners in Kentucky without the benefit of extradition. Soon the Mingo County jail is overflowing with miners and union men arrested by vigilante committees made up of “The Better People of Mingo County.”
He throws union families out of the tent colonies, commandeering the shelters and resettling the new occupants in camps under his control. He leads a raid on the Lick Creek encampment to arrest miners and is met by sniper fire from front porches and behind rocks on the hills.
But Davis is expecting that.
Rising Stakes / Disaster – Senate Hearings (Pages 55-60)
A siren calls vigilantes and police to back up Davis. Some of the miners open fire. One miner named Alex Breedlove is shot and killed. Exaggerated stories of Breedlove having his hands up saying “Lord, have mercy” juxtaposed with photos of women and children peering through bullet holes in the tents inflame passions. As hundreds attend Breedlove’s funeral, stories spread that the militiamen had beaten babies, poisoned milk, torn down the American flag, and even killed Keeney. Keeney travels to Lick Creek to calm the people down by showing them that he is very much alive. The story of Breedlove’s death makes it to Washington and causes the US Senate to investigate with the Kenyon Committee.
In July Keeney, Mooney, Sid Hatfield, miners, mine operators and officers from the state militia testify before the hearings on Capitol Hill. “We propose to stand by and support those men that want to belong to the organization of the United States Mine Workers of America and their only desire is to exercise their constitutional rights,” Kenney tells the Kenyon Committee, pointing to red flag laws in response to the Soviet menace. When asked what rights had been denied, he replies that they were denied “a Republican form of government, we are denied the right of public assemblage, we are denied the right to belong to a labor union.”
Some of the senators are unmoved. When one hears that miners make $400 to $700 a month, he snorts he might resign and become one. Keeney points out that during the war the miners were making $1,066 a year but now only $700. He also testifies that the union has the same right to protect its members as the mines have to protect the Baldwin-Felts agents and their minions.
Charles Lively takes the stand. The senators ask if he thought he was wrong in lying and deceiving people during his spy operations. He feels like he has done no wrong. “Not surprising you’re having trouble in Mingo County,” replies a senator. His testimony brings down condemnation on the mine operators.
Then Sid Hatfield takes the stand. He proves to be a better shooter than orator, having to be asked to speak up. The union lawyer does most of the talking. “A condition obtains in Mingo County that has no parallel, even in Soviet Russia or any land in the world. All civil processes are abolished, and the entire government is in the hands of a single man.”
Sid is out of his element. He admits that he had something to do with the death of Anse Hatfield. The mine operators try to convince the senators that Sid murdered Testerman to marry Jessie. The company lawyer then begins to lay out 125 incidents of violence perpetrated by the union in the valley. Then, while cross-examining him to demonstrate that Sid is of criminal character, the lawyer lets slip that he has been officially indicted with thirty-five other Mingo miners for attacking nonunion miners and blowing up tipples. It is the first that Sid has heard of the indictment, but he does not defend himself against the charges.
The Kenyon Committee adjourns with plans to reconvene in mid-September.
“Smilin’ Sid” had become a symbol of workers nationwide. By freely admitting his violent past, he has done the miners a disservice. His testimony brings the same condemnation on the unions that Charles Lively’s testimony had on the mine operators.
Once again the nation turns its back on southern West Virginia.
Rising Obstacles / Crisis- Sid and Chambers Murdered (Pages 60-65)
Back in West Virginia, Sid travels to Welch, McDowell County to be arranged for the indictment. He decides to leave his guns at home to make him look more civilized. He is accompanied by Jessie, his friend Ed Chambers, and Ed’s wife Allie. They bring a bodyguard, Jim Kilpatrick.
Keeney is concerned about the safety of his friend. He asks the governor to give him special protection, which is refused. His concern is justified. Charles Lively is in town.
Here’s how I might write what happens next in a screenplay
Miners come out of the mines, camps, and hills to line the railroad tracks and meet the train carrying the bodies back to Matewan. 2,000 people join the funeral procession. Still more line the streets. The procession moves in irregular rain from the town, along a railroad trestle, across a swinging wire footbridge over the Tug River, and up a Kentucky hill overlooking the valley. “I’ll never forget you, my sweetheart,” Jessie cries out as she follows the coffins.
“Now abide these three, faith, hope, and charity, but the greatest of these is charity,” reads a preacher as the coffins of Sid and Ed are lowered. Others make elegies about how there can be no peace in West Virginia until the law is removed from the hands of private detectives and sheriffs who were paid by outsider corporations instead of local interest. Many are the “Amens.” In the eyes of the miners and mountain folk, Smiling Sid Hatfield is redeemed from his poor showing at the Congressional hearings.
Throughout the mining camps, around fires, and in union locals there are similar elegies. “They shot down Sid Hatfield like a dog!” “They murdered Sid Hatfield!” We ought to free every man in Mingo County jail!!” “We should kill Major Davis!” ‘Revenge Hatfield!” “We should overthrow the gov’ment of Mingo County!” “On To Mingo!” Miners begin arming themselves and the locals begin organizing.
Climax of Act Two – March on Blair Mountain Begins (Pages 65-80)
But Sheriff Chafin will have none of it and declares: No Armed Mob Will Cross Logan County Line.
He begins organizing a defense atop Blair Mountain, a twin mountain with a pass separating the two sides. A dirt road cuts between the two 1,800-foot-high peaks. It is a direct road to Logan for the miners, but Chafin’s men control the crest. The road turns sharply in front of it at a town called Sharples. Chafin soon has a force of three thousand prominent young men, doctors, farmers, American Legionnaires, accountants, clerks, bankers, lawyers, and other “Better People of Logan County,” as well as nonunion miners fearing the loss of their jobs if they do not join, ready to meet the invasion of 9,000 marching miners and rednecks. They drink moonshine while ladies of the county drive them to Blair in Model-Ts.
The local outsiders, including the national union, are no longer dependable. This is a miner’s fight now. Keeney, Mooney, and Blizzard, under pressure from Mother Jones who is urging calmness, hold a meeting with 500 miners outside the governor’s mansion in Charleston. A list of demands is presented: An eight-hour workday, the election of checkweighmen in the mines, and a joint commission to investigate and mediate disputes. Keeney, Mooney, and Jones have a short conference with the governor. He denies all demands, refusing to acknowledge the ongoing war or even the legal existence of the union. Keeny returns to the miners to say, “We’re going to organize Mingo and Logan counties. Or fill the jails so full they won’t be able to feed them!”
Miners halfway between Charleston and Matewan begin arming themselves. Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin requests the aid of state police, enflaming matters. On August 12th police skirmish with miners and lose in an embarrassing defeat at a town called Clothier.
On August 20th, miners gather at Marmet, Boone County. They have guns ranging from shotguns to Springfields they used in World War I. Some have hand grenades. Reporters are escorted from the scene. Ed Reynolds, president of Local 44, leads a force of three hundred miners in red neckerchiefs and blue bib overalls. He hijacks a train, pressing his rifle against the engineer’s ribs. He leads his “outlaw train” through the mountain passes, picking up miners and union members, as they sing to the tune of “John Browns Body,” “We’ll Hang Don Chafin to a Sour Apple Tree.”
Things quickly turned into a disorganized mob in which random violence occurs. Chickens and vegetables begin disappearing from nearby coops and gardens. Telegraph wires are cut. An airplane flying overhead is fired upon by several miners, a bullet almost hitting the pilot. Miners accidentally fire into the cars of nonpartisans. Other miners are reluctant to join. A miner named Chris Petry, age 20, is sent to a company store to buy guns. When he returns empty-handed, there is a burst of fire. He falls with five bullets in him. His body is dropped off on the front porch of a funeral home with the message “Take this damn scab.” More men die under mysterious circumstances or of “knowing too much.”
Despite the anarchy, miners soon begin to organize into an army. Veterans, dressed in their Doughboy uniforms from the Great War, begin drilling. Sentinels are posted. Union leaders register truckloads of provisions and hand out rations, and guns, answer questions, assign men to battalions, and send others forward on scouting missions. Doctors are given passes to treat the wounded.
But a new obstacle presents itself: Mother Jones
Act Three
Falling Action – The Battle of Blair Mountain (Pages 80-110)
Skirmishing around Blair Mountain begins on August 25th, 1921. It is the largest civil insurrection in America since the Civil War.
Even though Keeney and Mooney are organizing things, they return to the state capitol to make it appear that the march is organic and out of their control. They leave Bill Blizzard in charge. Meanwhile, the state governor wires Washington, begging President Harding to declare martial law. To investigate matters, the president sends Major General Harry Hill Bandholtz.
Bandholtz is a soldier’s soldier. A West Point graduate, he served in Cuba, the Philippines, World War I, and the post-war turmoil of Eastern Europe. He will “carry out the instructions of my movement as I understood as an officer and a gentleman.” But that does not mean blindly going into battle guns a-blazing. When he arrives in Charleston, he tries to arrange a meeting between the labor leaders and the governor. The governor refuses. Keeney and Mooney are called from their beds to meet with Bandholtz. If martial law is declared, they and their union will be held accountable. He urges them to save their men by turning them back and reminds them that with several million unemployed in the country at the time, the unrest in West Virginia could spiral out of control. The miners’ march must be stopped and they are the ones to do it. Keeney and Mooney agree but remembering the Mother Jones fiasco ask Bandholtz to accompany them. The general refuses but sends a memo with his signature. (Note: Green in The Devil Is In These Hills says he went with them)
They set out by taxi at 5:50 AM. It takes them hours as they pass thousands of miners. They travel fifty miles in six hours. At Madison, hundreds of miners mill about. The Logan County line is twelve miles away. They are ready to march. A column has already started marching.
Keeney suddenly decides that they will have a meeting in the ballpark after telling the column to turn back. After making arrangements for word of the meeting to be spread, the taxi races to the column on the road and swings around at the head of the marchers. At first, the miners will not stop. Keeney finally convinces them to turn back to Madison.
While the miners gathered in the park, Keeney and Mooney grabbed lunch. Guards maintain the entrances to the ballpark with the password, “I come creeping.” Keeney and Mooney tell them that unless the march ends the entire U. S. Government and Army will be used to stop it. They are patriotic men who will not fight their government. “Go home. There are trains promised to take you.”
There is silence. Some murmuring. Finally, an old black man stands up. “Boys, he’s right,” he says. “You ain’t foolin’ no more. This is your daddy talkin’. It’s your real Uncle Sam.”
Slowly the ballpark empties. Men head home or wait for the trains. Mooney and Keeney check into a hotel where Keeney gets a shave. Meanwhile, an informant sends Chafin the news via telegram. A local newspaper runs the headline “Attempted Invasion Fails.”
Keeney and Bill Blizzard returned to the capitol on Saturday morning to report that the insurrection is finished. Bandholz has heard different reports from Blair. He will go to the front and investigate. Blizzard accompanies him. They are followed by a caravan of other army and government officials. Miners smile, wave, and salute as the general drives past them. They come upon an army of steel helmets and bayonets. Bandholz gets out of the car and walks among them. He respects their military service and encourages them to let law and order take its course. “We wouldn’t revolt against the national gov’ment, buddy,” the miners say. They start heading home. The general is convinced that this is no army of radical anarchists influenced by Soviet Russia, but plain honest Americans driven to extremes. He returns to Washington.
Not every miner is willing to oblige this image. Ed Reynolds, standing in the shadows outside of Madison, is by no means ready to call the march off. Like Blizzard, he long believed that the District 17 leaders lied to stop the march in 1919. He believes Keeney delivered his speech to satisfy Bandholtz. The speech was fake, like Mother Jones, he declares. He later claims to have heard Keeney tell the miners to do as they please. He leads a group of three hundred miners toward the Logan County Line to avenge Sid’s death. “By Gawd, we’re going through!”
Word is slow in spreading. “Bad Lewis” White is one of the most belligerent miners, brutalizing those who do not cooperate, and impressing nonpartisans into making “donations” for ammunition. Mooney and Keeney had always been skeptical about him since his brother worked for Chafin. When he hears that the march is called off, he crashes into a pool hall and takes the train engineer hostage, forcing him to drive the train to Blair, stopping at every town to spread rumors about atrocities. “Chafin’s deputies are killing women and children,” he yells. “All you fellows that have high-power rifles, come get on this train!” When confronted by Mooney and Keeney, he replies, “Oh, Hell, what you two need is a bullet between each of your eyes.” By the time he makes it to Blair, he has around 300 men under his command.
His actions play right into Chafin’s hands. On August 26th the sheriff returns to Blair Mountain with about 800 men. Among them are police officers who have had former dealings with Bad Lewis and are seeking revenge for the embarrassing skirmish at Clothier. “We’ve come after you miners,” one officer declares. They advance to the small town of Sharples, arresting miners and the shooting starts. Some miners are killed, including one whose eviction started the Battle of Matawan. Some deputies retreat while others are taken prisoner. They are turned over to Bad Lewis, who surprisingly, or suspiciously, treats them decently.
The skirmish causes more miners and their families to stream back toward the marchers who are returning home. Rumors of women and children being killed spread like methane gas in a mine shaft. Men who had put their guns away take them out again. Boys of thirteen and fourteen come forth to fight beside their fathers. Miners search homes for weapons, demand food at gunpoint, hijack cars, hold train conductors at gunpoint, and demand service for Mingo as they ride cowcatchers, roofs, engine cabs, flat and boxcars. Black miners push into Jim Crow restaurants and demand service. The miners are so enraged that when cars break down in the caravan, they simply push them off the road and down the mountainside. Men are forced to join the minors with the threat, “fight, guard, or die.” An Indiana pianist named Jim Brickman is one of the impressed. Reverend J. E. Wilburn declares “The time has come for me to lay down my Bible and pick up my rifle and fight for my rights.”
By August 29th the battle erupts into hot warfare. Fully ten thousand men along a ten-mile front exchange gunfire. Reynold shares command with other union leaders, some say Blizzard, as they make pincher movements on the mountain. Red Thompson, a black man, leads a group of seventy-five miners up the slope.
Here’s an example of the tens of thousands of human experiences that occurred on Blair Mountain
These actions play right into the governor’s hands. At midnight the governor wires the secretary of war, asking for martial law. Bandholtz, who was being praised for his work with Keeney and Mooney is sent back to southern West Virginia. This time President Harding sends him with a proclamation that all persons engaging in insurrection “disperse and retire” by noon, Thursday, September 1st. He, Keeney, and Mooney send messages about the proclamation to the miners, but they all declare that it is a fake like the Mother Jones telegraph. Miners refuse to go home and threaten to blow up the trains.
Some claim that Bill Blizzard is in charge, but the reality is the battalions are led by local district leaders. Many make up their own minds about when to advance, retreat, attack, and halt. Men command the miners’ army by their personalities and abilities. Leadership waxes and wanes according to their abilities and circumstances. The men who have survived the trenches of France know that a frontal assault against Blair will be futile. Instead, they outflank the mountain, creeping up steep slopes through thick underbrush. Heavy fire drives them back. At one spot a machinegun used by the police jams and the miners advance to within four miles of Logan. Word spreads that the “rednecks” have breached the defense. “The Better Men of Logan County” rush forward to fill in the gap. Townspeople begin panicking at the sound of gunshots. It turns out there is no breach.
In Logan County, women prepare food for up to 500 volunteers at a time. Trucks loaded with provisions are sent to the men on the frontline. Schoolhouses and company stores are turned into supply depots. On the miners’ side, women dressed in nurses’ uniforms adorned with UMW logos march beside the men, ready to take care of the wounded. Schoolhouses are converted into hospitals.
Chafin sends biplanes out for reconnaissance. On August 31 they drop copies of President Harding’s proclamation. The miners believe it is fake. On September 1st, the planes drop tear gas and bombs, twenty-four-inch pipes, four inches across, filled with TNT, that explode when they hit the ground. Some contain nuts and bolts to act as projectiles. They land near women and children, leaving deep craters. Fortunately, no one is killed or seriously injured.
Bandholtz still tries to work through local and peaceful means. He sends the national UMW to talk with the fighters at Blair Mountain. They tell them to stay out of their business. Noon September 1st arrives and the battle at Blair Mountain continues. Bandholtz waits until 2:00 A. M in the morning, twelve hours after the deadline. The miners have still not turned back. He calls in the troops but orders them not to fire on the miners. He also asks for twenty-one aircraft to scout. But under no circumstances are they to drop bombs. Most crash or are forced to crash land due to weather conditions or technical problems. Four men are killed during one accident.
The battle at Blair continues. Miners head up the mountain in small groups of five or ten, fifty or sixty, some several hundred. Men make up for their inaccurate fire by the quantity of ammunition they shoot. Reynolds’ men move up the mountain with a Gatling gun. Many veterans compared the fighting to their experiences in the Argonne Forest in France. Men shoot at anything that moves in the thick underbrush. Both sides are in more danger of being shot in the back by their own green horn allies.
When the U. S. Army troops arrive, Morgan sends out word to all state officials to obey Bandholtz and his aids. Bandholz declares an immediate cease-fire on Saturday, September 3, and sends out his troops in enveloping movements to surround both armies at Blair Mountain. He reiterates his command, “You are under no circumstances…to fire any machine guns or do anything to unnecessarily excite the invaders [the miners].”
Keeney and Mooney receive news that they have been indicted in Mingo County for complicity in the killings of the Three Days Battle. On August 31st a carload of miners come to Mooney’s home and tell him that they will march toward Logan no matter what he or Keeney or Bandholtz tells them. “Best thing for you two to do is clear out and stay out until we get through to Chafin,” they warn him. Then they drive to Keeney’s house and deliver the same message (Green in Devil is Here says that Mooney went and warned him). The two men flee the state and are hidden by the UMW in Ohio. They leave Blizzard in charge, a resolution to their earlier conflict over him.
Twist and Resolution – Patriotic Miners Believe They Have Won (Pages 110-115)
Bandholtz is unable to contact Mooney or Keeney. He sends two officers with a message for miners still battling it out on Blair. At first the miners say it is fake. Then in an unbelievable coincidence one of the strike leaders, Harvy Dillion, who had served with Bandholtz in the Philippines, recognizes his signature. “Boys,” he says to the miners. “We can’t fight Uncle Sam; you know that as well as I do.” This portion of the miners stopped fighting.
Because there were so many leaders, word had a hard time getting around. Reynolds attacked the day after the cease-fire but was pinned down by the machinegun nests. Realizing that federal troops were on the way, some miners make one more attack. They try to burn a bridge to keep reinforcements from coming to Chafin’s aid, but a sentry finds their dynamite. The miners make a feint and then attack. Their attack nearly carries the hill. The lawmen abandon the lower trenches. Once the miners occupy these trenches, hidden machine guns rake their positions, nearly driving them back.
The last shots are fired on Saturday night, accidentally wounding a reporter in the underbrush. The Logan County defenders of Blair Mountain are replaced on Sunday morning by the military. By that afternoon the war is over. All week-long miners surrender to the U. S. Army.
Blizzard influences many miners into laying down their arms. However, he asks for an Army escort as he calls miners out of the hills. When he arrives in Madison, an army captain asks if he is the commander of “This army of miners?” “What army,” Blizzard asks, with a grin. The captain asks him, searches, and finds a pistol. Blizzard produces a permit, and the gun is returned. Few miners obey the command to turn their guns over, but they listen to Blizzard. Even miners who had hidden their weapons in the mountains go back and return with their firearms. Blizzard tells the army officers the miners will still have to deal with the Baldwin-Felts once the military is gone. This convinces the Army to let the miners keep their weapons.
Bandholz is pleased that no shots were fired, no arrests were made, and no bombs dropped by the forces under his command. President Harding signed a second proclamation of martial law but left the promulgating of it up to Bandholz. He refuses to arrest any of the miners since they had violated state laws, not national laws, the only one US troops could enforce. He decides that martial law will not be necessary.
Bandholtz played his cards well, pleasing both sides. His reward was both the union leaders and miners seeing the presence of federal authorities as a vindication of their cause. They never thought about overthrowing the national government, so treason was a harder charge to stick to the miners. Many of the miners did not see themselves as fighting against the government but the mine operators, the Baldwin-Felts, tugs, and sheriffs in the pay of the mine operators.
When Bandholtz arrives in Charleston, it is like a July Fourth celebration as miners, union members and their families celebrate what they see as their victory at Blair Mountain. Miners wave at the soldiers as they pass on trains. “It was Uncle Sam did it,” the miners yell as they wave American flags.
At last, the nation had listened to them.
At last, they were Americans too.
Epilogue – Closing Credits (Pages 115-120)
An estimated 50 to 100 miners were killed at Blair Mountain while Chafin’s army lost somewhere between 10 and 30.
In the aftermath of the battle, 1,217 persons were indicted, including 325 for murder and 24 for treason. Blizzard was tried for treason in the same courthouse as John Brown. Unlike Brown, he was found not guilty. This is because in a dramatic courtroom scene, the miners brought one of Chafin’s unexploded bombs into the room. Reverend J. E. Wilburn and his son, John, were tried for the murder of John Gore, found guilty, and sentenced. Both were pardoned after three years. Keeney and Mooney turned themselves in on September 18 and were tried on numerous charges including treason, but the charges were dismissed by a judge. Afterward, the mine operators realized that the juries would be sympathetic to the miners and dismissed the rest of the charges.
The men involved in the gunfight at Welch were freed by hung juries. Lively was tried for the murders of Hatfield and Chambers but was acquitted. Sheriff Chafin would serve two years in the penitentiary for violating Prohibition laws unrelated to the West Virginia Mine Wars.
The strike continued until the United Mines Workers declared defeat in October 1922. District 17 declared bankruptcy and the leaders resigned. Many members moved away to other coal fields to find work. Union membership in West Virginia dropped from 50,000 in 1920 to a few hundred in 1929. Nationally the UMW lost 500,000 of its 600,000 members. It was only during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt presidency that unionism took hold in the southern part of the Mountain State.
Mooney was forced out of the union by John L. Lewis and spent the rest of his life working as a parking lot attendant in Charleston. Keeney was forced to resign and eventually found work as a superintendent in the mines. He committed suicide in 1952.
Final Thoughts
Well, folks, that was a bit longer than usual. If I gave you all my thoughts about who should direct, who should play which historical figures, why the story is relevant, my love of bluegrass music, my fascination with the Progressive Era, the labor movement, the history of the coal mining industry and Appalachia, and all the great movies that could be mined, pun intended, form that time and era, well, that would be another blog post of 3000 plus words.
But I will say this. There’s a trend on the internet to portray The Battle of Blair Mountain as some sort of socialist uprising to smash capitalism. It was not. The miners were middle-of-the-road, average working Joes simply fighting for their God-given rights guaranteed them under the Constitution as citizens of the American Republic. Their words and actions prove this. The mine operators were in the wrong in this case, acting more like Communist dictators than along the principles of the free market that made this nation great and prosperous. And for those of ya’ll who want to inject the modern politics about unionism and their well-documented abuses and corruptions, the unions in southern West Virginia in 1921, in that time and place, were right. And for that, they should be honored.
But ultimately the Battle of Blair Mountain is not about the unions, the mine bosses, socialism, or the free market, but the average, hardworking American men and women who have kept this country running for nearly 275 years.
To honor the average working men and women of America who have kept this great nation running is why The Battle of Blair Mountain Should Be A Movie.
