11/10/2023 0 Comments Mingo county west virginaFor the next three days, the two sides battled with gatling guns, rifles, and other firearms along the ridge of Blair Mountain. This marked the beginning of the Battle of Blair Mountain. Wilburn responded by shooting Gore in the head, ensuring that he was dead. In the gun battle that ensued, the miners shot and wounded Gore who then shot and killed miner Eli Kemp. During a dawn patrol, Wilburn and four other men encountered three of Chafin’s deputy sheriffs including John Gore, an infamous mine guard in Logan County. ![]() On the night of August 30, John Wilburn, a minister and part-time miner, led a group of 70 miners-including two of his sons-up the mountain. It was on Blair Mountain where the two forces came face-to-face. By the time the armed marchers arrived in Blair, Chafin had assembled his own army of civilian recruits that were protecting positions along the Blair Mountain ridgeline. Their first order of business was to deal with Don Chafin, the notorious sheriff of Logan County whose main job was to protect the coal mine operators’ interests. Blair Mountain forms a long ridgeline that the miners had to cross in order to reach Mingo County. ![]() In late August 1921, the union miners encamped in the town of Blair, just below Blair Mountain in Logan County. To get to Mingo, they first had to cross through Logan County. The participants ultimately sought to free miners in Mingo County who had been arrested and were being held in jail on charges of violating the martial law that the governor had imposed on the county. ![]() The West Virginia mine wars culminated in a massive march of union miners through the coal towns of the southern counties.
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