The Battle of Blair Mountain.
History Test
Question: What was the largest armed civil conflict in the United States since the Civil War.
Answer: The Battle of Blair Mountain in September 1921. Lasting for five days, between 10,000 and 15,000 coal miners confronted an army of police and strike breakers backed by coal operators during a struggle by the miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. It ended only after about one million rounds were fired, and the President of the United States called in United States Army.
So. How’d you do on the test?
I’m not surprised. They don’t exactly teach about Blair Mountain in most U.S. History classes.
John Sayles told some of the background to the Battle of Blair Mountain in his wonderful movie, Matewan.
Last week, over 1,000 marchers returned to Blair Mountain to protest mountain top removal coal mining and the