On this day one hundred years ago Governor Ephraim Morgan of West Virginia appointed Colonel William Eubanks of the West Virginia National Guard to command government and volunteer forces as the largest civil uprising since the Civil War was occurring on Blair Mountain in the southern part of the state.
The day before there had been a full-scale battle on the mountain, including the use of private airplanes hired to drop bombs on the miners who were fighting to unionize Logan and Mingo counties. Those bombs were dropped near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair, with one bomb not exploding.
Gun battles continued on the mountain until September 2, when Federal troops arrived. The miners were unwilling to fire on U. S. troop since many of them were veterans of World War I themselves.
985 miners were eventually brought to trial on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and treason against the state of West Virginia. All of those who were convicted were eventually paroled by 1925.
