WELCH, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Over a century has passed since the fatal, point-blank shooting of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers in front of the McDowell County Courthouse in an act of retribution which would lead to the most substantial conflict of the West Virginia Mine Wars.
Following a deadly 1920 shootout in the town of Matewan – which would come to be known as the Matewan Massacre – Sheriff Sid Hatfield and Deputy Ed Chambers arrived at the McDowell County Courthouse the following year to address charges, reportedly arriving unarmed and with their wives accompanying them.
Conflict had long been brewing as a result of labor unrest, specifically in the neighboring Mingo County where the Matewan shooting took place a year prior. Hatfield and Chambers found themselves at odds with the mining companies but had garnered support from striking miners pushing for improved working conditions and compensation.
The two men would be shot dead at point-blank range on August 1, 1921, just in front of the McDowell County Courthouse in broad daylight by members of the Baldwin-Felts Detectives Agency. The audacious act of violence would infuriate protestors, who would partake in a subsequent uprising culminating in an armed march on Logan County and eventually the Battle of Blair Mountain.
The battle, which occurred in Logan County, has been cited as the largest labor uprising in U.S. history, and the largest armed uprising in America since the Civil War. Thousands of armed miners would partake in the conflict through which dozens of lives would be lost.
“Hatfield’s and Chambers’ public execution incensed the miners and stoked the fires that led to the Battle of Blair Mountain-the largest armed uprising since the Civil War,” read a commemorative statement from the WV Mine Wars Museum, located in Matewan. “Thousands of union supporters would attend the funerals of Sid and Ed in Matewan, WV.”
For more information on this conflict as well as other historically significant happenings in relation to the West Virgina Mine Wars, visit the WV Mine Wars Museum.