"Matewan" (1987)

[Carl N. Brown]

In 1920 around Matewan, West Virginia, the coal miners tried to unionize and the coal companies brought in the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to crack down. Police Chief Sid Hatfield sided with the miners, deputized all the men in town, told them to go home and get their guns and confronted the detectives, telling them they had no legal authority.

In the climactic shootout, known as the Matewan Massacre or Battle of Matewan, on the town side the mayor and two miners (one who confronted the detectives and one unarmed bystander) were killed with four wounded, and seven of the Baldwin-Felts detectives (including Albert and Lee Felts) were killed, and one detective wounded.

Sid Hatfield, who may or may not have been related to the notorious feud clan, has become a folk hero of sorts. He was known to carry a pair of Smith & Wesson .44 Hand Ejector revolvers from newsreels at the time. I believe they used Colt DA revolvers in the movie "Matewan".

The movie brings up, among other questions, at what point, when justice is denied through all other channels, are people justified in taking up arms?

The movie in a closing narration mentions that when Sid Hatfield was set to stand trial, several Baldwin-Felts detectives ambushed Hatfield on the McDowell County Courthouse steps (in accordance to courthouse rules, Hatfield left his guns at home). That ambush led to the Battle of Blair Mountain.

On the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matewan
and: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093509/
On the massacre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Matewan
From the Logan Coal Operators Association, a different point of view: http://www.wvculture.org/history/labor/matewan04.html

[DRZinn]

Downloading it now.

[johncantiusgarand]

My grandfather was a coal miner in WV, and he used to tell me about his getting beat up once by "Baldwin-Felts thugs" during that time period. He wasn't at Matewan, but there was a lot of this stuff going on in all of the coal fields of West Virginia back then. I've visited the courthouse steps in Welch where Hatfield was murdered. They are very narrow, very steep, and the unarmed Hatfield never had a prayer. Tragically, the decision to leave his revolvers in his hotel was one he made himself after some deliberation. Court rules notwithstanding, few would have blamed him for going armed that day after all of the threats that had been made. But neither he, nor anyone with him dreamed that the killers would have the audacity to gun him down in broad daylight in front of so many witnesses. Saddest of all, they got away with it.

[KodiakBeer]

Like all of history, there are two sides to every story. The union was an offshoot of the "wobblies", a communist organization with support and direction from the Soviet Union. Like most things, there's no black and white, just shades of gray.

The miners cause was righteous beyond a doubt, but they were being manipulated by Lenin and company as part of their international solidarity movement, through Haywood and the wobblies who were dedicated communists. This being the US, the radicals were squeezed out later, but who could say that would happen in 1920 when Matewan was exploding?

Big Bill Haywood was buried near the Kremlin wall in Moscow not far from Lenins tomb and quite near John Read's grave, another American communist. I saw those graves just a few years ago. The remaining Russian communists still leave flowers on Haywood and Read's graves.

[Carl N. Brown]

^ To mash-up a cliche or two, anyone who wasn't a communist before 1930 had no heart; anyone who was a communist after 1930 (and Stalin) had no brains.

A lot of the history of Matewan got written by the "winning" side--the coal companies and Northern syncophants of big money--especially some of the accusations against Sid Hatfield by the Baldwin-Felts.

Two of the stories I read about Sid Hatfield was (a) he was not related to the Hatfield clan as he had claimed, and (b) that he, not Albert Felts, shot and killed mayor Testerman in order to marry his wife.

(a) Sid Hatfield's grandfather, Jeremiah Hatfield, was half-brother of Valentine Hatfield who was grandfather of "Devil Anse" William Anderson Hatfield who was head of the family during the Hatfield-McCoy feud.

(b) During the Battle of Matewan between the Baldwin-Felts detective agents for the coal company and police chief Hatfield, Mayor Cabell Testerman and townsfolk for the miners' union, Albert and Lee Felts were killed, along with five other Baldwin-Felts detectives and Mayor Testerman. Later, brother Thomas Felts and the Baldwin-Felts spy Charles Everett Lively claimed that Hatfield must have shot Testerman since Hatfield married Bessie Testerman soon after.

According to Bessie Testerman, her husband had asked Hatfield to take care of her if he were killed, because he had a premonition of death. According to Hatfield and townfolk, Albert Felts shot Mayor Testerman.

The Baldwin Felts survivors assassinated Sid Hatfield when he went to the courthouse for an appearance. They knew he would be unarmed because the courthouse was a gun-free zone. Lively administered the coup-de-grace. Then they, the survivors, got to defame Hatfield's memory.

[pmeisel]

A good movie and a fascinating piece of history. I need to do some more reading in this area.

I am reminded of the "Battle of the Overpass" at the Rouge and a few of the other colorful automotive strikes.

[armoredman]

Gun-free zone strikes again. Thanks for the bit of history!