User:Scarysnake/Battle of Matewan

Add more to the summary- This event was a battle for miners' rights and concluded with ten dead (including the mayor at the time, Cable Testerman) and was a success for the Baldwin-Felts Detective agency. Whoever shot first is still unknown and is up for debate to this day.

https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/93000303_text


 * The Headquarters of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency was the Urias hotel and was destroyed in a fire in December of 1992.


 * After the battle, President Woodrow Wilson was eager to send in the National Guard. The trial for the miners who killed the seven agents started January 26, 1921, and ended March 19, 1921, with all defendants being acquitted of all charges.
 * Leading up to the battle Sid Hatfield and Al Felts were trying to arrest each other but Sid Hatfield knew that Al Felts could not arrest him because he was the police chief and had no jurisdiction over Mingo county. Al Felts used force to take down Sid Hatfield and unlawfully arrest him. This led to a confrontation between Mayor Cable Testerman and Al Felts when Mayer Testerman looked over the warrant and announced "This is a bogus warrant."

Conspiracy Theory

In fiction
 * Some people believe that Sid Hatfield fired that first shot that killed Mayor Testerman because he was in love with the mayor's wife Jessie. The belief was strengthened when Sid and Jessie were married twelve days after the May 19 shootout.
 * Sid Hatfield was featured in Smilin' Sid which was a silent movie that portrayed Sid Hatfield as a hero and was shown in union mining camps.

.http://www.wvculture.org/history/archives/minewars.html

Aftermath

On August 1, 1921, Sid Hatfield, who had been acquitted for his role in the Battle of Matewan, was murdered by Baldwin-Felts detectives.

http://www.wvculture.org/history/labor/matewan03.html

Conspiracy Theory

J: Okay. One last question and we will catch the news. What is your reaction to the charge that Sid Hatfield shot Mayor Testerman?.

DA: I don't believe it. I don't believe it. He could've been shot accidentally. It was never proven who shot him. Of course they made a story out of that because he later...later married his wife. And...but, I think, out of sympathy, that he uh... that was all out of sympathy that uh... I can't see that. I can't see Sid Hatfield uh...if he'd have wanted her, he'd have took her right on front of him. Now, he wouldn't had to kill him. He's that type of a man. He wouldn't done that, but he...he might have been, in my opinion, that Testerman was shot accidentally like Tot Tinsley was.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/forgotten-matewan-massacre-was-epicenter-20th-century-mine-wars-180963026/

Within 15 minutes, ten people were dead—seven detectives, two miners and the mayor. Three months later, the conflict in the West Virginia coal town had escalated to the point where martial law was declared and federal troops had to intervene.