AP Was There: Covering the Battle for Blair Mountain in 1921

LOGAN, W.Va. (AP) — When a mine industry conflict a hundred years ago sparked the largest armed uprising in the United States since the Civil War, The Associated Press was there, sending multiple bulletins each day to update the nation’s newspapers on each development.

Thousands of coal miners had marched to unionize, fed up with poor wages and living conditions and angered by killings of their supporters. Defying martial law, they gathered weapons and were met on Blair Mountain by forces mustered by the anti-union Logan County sheriff.

At least 16 men died in the 12-day battle, which included planes dropping bombs on the miners' camps. They finally surrendered to federal troops sent by President Warren G. Harding on Sept. 3, 1921.

Another dozen years would pass before workers were guaranteed the right to collectively bargain in 1933 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. West Virginia coal miners then joined the United Mine Workers by the thousands.

As descendants of those miners march this Labor Day weekend to remember the sacrifices that enabled the working conditions most Americans now enjoy, the AP is retransmitting a selection of the bulletins that moved that pivotal day:

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400 MINERS GIVE UP TO FEDERAL TROOPS; OTHERS DISARMED

Fighting Resumed with Machine Gun Along Crooked Creek;

Bombs Dropped by Airplanes in Mine War Do No Damage;

Belligerent Marchers Reported to Be Disposed to Go Home;

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BULLETIN

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 3 — A message received at the war department late today from Brig. Gen. H.H. Bandholtz in West Virginia, said:

“About 400 insurgents surrendered this afternoon at Sharples and Madison, turning in about eighty firearms. They were immediately sent out of the disturbed area by...