[5][6] The conflict occurred in Logan County, West Virginia, as part of the Coal Wars, a series of early-20th-century labor disputes in Appalachia.

For five days from late August to early September 1921, some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers (called the Logan Defenders)[7] who were backed by coal mine operators during the miners' attempt to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields when tensions rose between workers and mine management.

[20] As the agents walked to the train station to leave town, Police Chief Sid Hatfield and a group of deputized miners confronted them and told them they were under arrest.

[22] Chief Sid Hatfield became an immediate legend and hero to the union miners, and a symbol of hope that the oppression by coal operators and their hired guns could be overthrown.

In late June state police under the command of Captain Brockus raided the Lick Creek tent colony near Williamson.

[24] Both sides were bolstering their arms, and Sid Hatfield continued to fuel the resistance, specifically by converting Testerman's jewelry store into a gun shop.

[26] Eighty percent of mines had reopened with imported replacements and ex-strikers who signed yellow-dog contracts to return to work.

[30] In the midst of this tense situation, Hatfield traveled to McDowell County on August 1, 1921, to stand trial on charges of dynamiting a coal tipple.

The miners, angry that Hatfield had been murdered and knowing the assassins would escape punishment,[34] began to take up arms and pour out of their mountain settlements.

[35] On August 7, 1921, the leaders of the United Mine Workers (UMW) District 17, which encompasses much of southern West Virginia, called a rally at the state capitol in Charleston.

[37] At a rally on August 7, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones called on the miners not to march into Logan and Mingo counties and set up the union by force.

Yet, feeling Morgan had lied to them again, armed men began gathering at Lens Creek Mountain, near Marmet in Kanawha County, on August 20.

He was supported financially by the Logan County Coal Operators Association, creating the nation's largest private armed force of nearly 2,000.

After spending days assembling his private army, Chafin would not be denied his battle to end union attempts at organizing Logan County coal mines.

Within hours of the Madison decision, rumors abounded that Chafin's men had shot union sympathizers in the town of Sharples, just north of Blair Mountain—and that families had been caught in crossfire during the skirmishes.

A combination of poison gas and explosive bombs left over from World War I were dropped in several locations near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair.

[39] On August 30, Morgan appointed Colonel William Eubanks of the West Virginia National Guard to command the government and volunteer forces confronting the miners.

Miners fearing jail and confiscation of their guns found clever ways to hide rifles and handguns in the woods before leaving Logan County.

[citation needed] When the National Industrial Recovery Act was passed during FDR’s presidency, workers were given the right to organize and bargain collectively.

[54] In the long term, the battle raised awareness of the appalling conditions miners faced in the dangerous West Virginia coalfields.

[55] It also led to a change in union tactics in political battles to get the law on labor's side, by confronting recalcitrant and abusive management.

In terms of literature, Diane Gilliam Fisher's poetry collection Kettle Bottom explores "the West Virginia mine wars of 1920-21".

King and the team's initial survey "mapped 15 combat sites and discovered more than a thousand artifacts, from rifle and shotgun shell casings to coins and batteries [and] little sign of disturbance" to the site, challenging earlier surveys conducted by Arch Coal Inc., one of two companies that own the mining rights to Blair Mountain.

[57] The site was accepted and added to the NRHP list on March 30, 2009, but clerical errors by the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) failed to notarize all objections, and it was removed.

[59] In October 2012 a federal district judge ruled that a coalition of preservation groups did not have standing to sue to protect the historic site.

[60] On August 26, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2–1 to overturn the ruling and returned the case.

In August of 1921, 7000 striking miners led by Bill Blizzard met at Marmet for a march on Logan to organize the southern coalfields for the UMWA.

UMWA organizing efforts in southern WV were halted until 1933.The marker is on West Virginia 17, about 8 miles (13 km) east of Logan, between Ethel and Blair.