Sid Hatfield The Hero the Union Didn’t Know They Needed During the mine wars from 1912 to 1921 miners were continuously going on strike and trying to form a union to try and fight for their freedom, figuratively and physically. Sid Hatfield was Matewan’s local chief of police. Hatfield was a hero to the union miners for his part in the Matewan massacre. During this interaction between the Baldwin- Felts boys, Sid Hatfield and a small group of mining men, shots were fired after Hatfield stood up for the union miners against the Felts boys. On August 1, 1921, the greatly admired Sid Hatfield was murdered in cold blood. Sid Hatfield’s murdered threw gas on the flame of the union miner’s anger. On August 24, 1921, the March to Mingo officially …show more content…
“They shot Sid down like a dog on the courthouse steps at Welch!” (Savage 5). The miner’s beloved hero was slayed in front of their wives like animals and the miners were angry, angry that the only person that was brave enough to stand up for them, was now dead. “On to Mingo!” the miners were shouting together while forming angry mobs. Soon they were running to get on the nearby trains to that they could all march to Logan County to avenge Sid Hatfield, fight for their rights and to put an end to the martial law that was forced over the region. The governors of West Virginia had temporarily declared and enforced martial law over the region on three separate occasions because of the constant fighting between the gun thugs, non-union miners and union miners. By August 24th, over 5,000 miners wearing red bandanas on their necks crossed Lens Creek Mountain. On the 28th of August as the march continued, the miners reached the natural barrier between themselves and Logan County, Blair Mountain. Logan County Sheriff, Don Chafin made a small army out of his deputies, mine guards, store clerks and state police. This small army that was now under the command of William Eubank, a colonel from of the National Guard, took positions on the mountain ready to fight as the miners waited below in the town of Blair. The next three days was full of shots being fired, targets being missed and Colonel Eubank sending in planes to drop bombs (Bumgardner Mine