The Coal Creek War was an early 1890s armed labor uprising in the southeastern United States that took place primarily in Anderson County, Tennessee.

The outbreak of this labor conflict touched off a partisan media firestorm between the miners' supporters and detractors and brought the issue of convict leasing to the public debate.

Although the Coal Creek War essentially ended with the arrests of hundreds of former company coal miners during 1892, the adverse exposure that this state conflict with private labor generated nationwide led to the downfall of Governor John P. Buchanan and forced the Tennessee General Assembly to reconsider its state convict labor-leasing system.

A substantial number of sympathetic miners trekked southward from Jellico, about twenty-five miles north of Coal Creek, and Kentucky to join the uprising, and a parallel anti-leasing conflict took place in Grundy County and Marion County, about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Coal Creek area, in 1892.

Post-war railroad construction, meanwhile, had opened up the state's coalfields to major mining operations, creating a large demand for cheap labor.

[3][4] In 1890, the election of several members of the labor-friendly Tennessee Farmers' Alliance— among them Governor John P. Buchanan— to the state government emboldened miners in the Coal Creek valley to make several demands.

Since state laws already barred scrip payment and company-hired checkweighmen, most mine owners accepted the demands, though they were in the midst of an economic downturn.

That night about 300 armed miners—probably led by Knights of Labor organizers Eugene Merrell, George Irish, and Marcena Ingraham—surrounded the Briceville stockade.

[6] After seizing the Briceville stockade, the Coal Creek miners sent a telegram to Governor Buchanan, stating their actions were taken to defend their property and wages and asking for his intervention.

On July 16 Buchanan, escorted by three Tennessee state militia companies (two from Chattanooga and one from Knoxville) led the convicts back to Briceville.

[1] Buchanan told the miners he was a champion of labor, but as governor he was obligated to enforce the laws and pleaded for calm and patience.

The miners thus agreed to a 60-day truce after the governor assured them he would call a special session of the Tennessee state legislature and recommend the lease law be repealed.

[7] On October 28, 1891, the committee representing the Coal Creek miners' interests announced they were resigning, denounced the legislature, and issued a subtle call to arms.

In response to the outbreak, a second truce was negotiated in which the miners agreed to allow the return of convicts to Coal Creek and Oliver Springs, but not Briceville, where TCMC president B.A.

Merrell wrote to Buchanan complaining of the troops' behavior, and for several months miners and soldiers indiscriminately shot at one another, with either side blaming the other for provoking it.

[7] In the meantime, Merrell and Jenkins had made amends, and the two began promoting a new cooperative style of mining operations favorable to both miners and managers.

By summer 1892, dozens of newspapers and magazines nationwide, including The New York Times, the Alabama Sentinel, and Harper's Weekly, had sent correspondents to the Coal Creek region to cover the conflict.

[3] The Nashville Banner called the miners "thieves, robbers, ruffians, and outlaws,"[1] while the Chattanooga Republican accused the state legislature of being "inhuman.

"[1] The two Knoxville papers, the Journal and the Tribune, initially praised the miners' decisiveness and derided the government's ineffectiveness, but their sentiments shifted after the stockades were burned in October 1891.

[8] These actions reignited resentment in East Tennessee, and on August 17 a group of miners led by John Hatmaker attacked the TCI stockade at Oliver Springs but were beaten back by the guards.

Most county sheriffs—including the Anderson and Morgan sheriffs—ignored this order or made lackluster attempts to execute it, although several dozen volunteers were amassed in the Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville areas.

Buchanan, attacked by both miners and mine owners alike for his indecisiveness, failed to win his party's nomination for governor in 1892, the Democrats choosing Chief Justice Turney instead.

The song "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line," written and performed by Grand Ole Opry pioneer Uncle Dave Macon, was based on the Coal Creek War.