Battle of Blair Mountian - David Rovics

I read the book by Lon Savage, Thunder In the Mountains, and wrote this song, about the biggest battle in the West Virginia Coal Mine War of 1920-21.

---


1921 was the year
Seems like yesterday to me
Let me tell you about what happened then
Back in the mine country
We were fightin' hard to build a union
'Cause at forty cents a ton
There was no way to feed a family
When the minin' day was done

The strike had lasted for a year
When they shot down Smilin' Sid
He was a lawman who stood up for us miners
That's the only crime he ever did
A hundred miners locked up with no trial
There in Mingo-town
But the last straw came in Sharples
When the gunned the women down

(Chorus)
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Ten thousand men and countin'
Here in the hills of West Virginia
At the Battle of Blair Mountain

We shouted through the hillsides
In every union hall
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Teach them a lesson, once and all
We commandeered every freight train
To the Kentucky line
Took every car that crossed our path
And all the guns and ammo we could find

The union leaders tried to stop us
Mother Jones told us to turn back
But we had learned ourselves from the gun thugs
There's a time to talk and a time to attack
We had no leader, we didn't need one
We all knew the way through Logan County
And we all knew once we got there
We're gonna hang Sheriff Chapin from a sour apple tree

(Chorus)

For three days and nights we fought them
the front was ten miles wide
All the cops and scabs in West Virginia
Were there on the other side
They dropped explosives from their airplanes
Such a thing you never saw
They shot us with machine guns
It was the operator's law

We dug trenches and wore helmets
That we brought from the Argonne
All the way from France to Logan
We fought from dusk to dawn
President Harding sent in the Army
And we left our line to them
But the hills of West Virginia
Will long remember when

(Chorus)

Created August, 2003
Copyright David Rovics 2003, all rights reserved

Category:

Music

Tags:

• davidrovics
• blairmountian
• union
• miner
• sourappletree

[michelle1688]

this is class. most of working class history is kept hidden from us, but its a fact that back in the day peeps had solidarity and came together in common cause.

as patsyO'Hara said - mama, let the fight go on

[SCODgreenhood]

SCOD channel supports education on this patriotic subject in the name of workers everywhere.

[vikingtyty]

@Wrapped4 What are you talking about..?

[MichaelGor13]

nice

[Sharpleswv]

If you are interested in saving Blair Mountain, please to to petitionbuzz com and search for Blair Mountain, then please sign the petition.

[Anaheimfan]

Michelle, you are right, this is stuff that not a lot of people know about things like this...Blair Mountain, and some other incidents in working class history that people may never learn about.

[Wrapped4]

When someone hates someone else's ideas he claims to know the person, or even that he is the person himself so that he can spread rumours. I't the easiest thing to do.

Hard luck you can't sue a person on the net

[K0oks0n]

go fuck yourself

[bek12]

Fran, wow, it's great to finally hear someone that knew Rocky. I have searched for years online. I knew him a little myself, but I was only about 10 years old. My mom really loved him. And I really loved his music. It makes me sad to read the news.

[glennapeck]

hello, my name is fran peck and rocky peck was my brother in law. it warmed our hearts that you mentioned him. yes he did die in a mining accident. sadly, it was a non union mine. He lost everything trying to stand up for the union, then the union mines turned their back on him and he could not get a job. so he began working for a non union small mine. he was a friendly guy with a great big smile and he took a lot of criticism for his union activity. The "accident" was suspicious.

[westphalianprinz]

In WV, every child is taught about this is in school. Oh, BTW, Arthur Scargill rules!