Narrator: The murders sent shock waves through the coalfields. Violence and wildcat strikes spread.

Governor Ephraim Morgan declared martial law, ordered the arrest of union organizers, and dispatched all one hundred members of the State Police to Mingo County.

Three weeks later, 5,000 miners, including veterans of Paint Creek, assembled near the northern border of Logan County. Many carried hunting rifles and hand grenades left over from World War I. The miners planned to march to Mingo County, where they would free those in jail and establish union headquarters.

Standing between the miners and Mingo was Don Chafin, a tough, belligerent lawman, known as the "King of Logan." To stop the miners' march, Chafin recruited 3,000 volunteers, including lawyers, bankers and doctors.

Lon Savage: "When the call went out to Bluefield, it was, 'Get your raincoats and machine guns, and come on.' A lot of the townspeople turned out at the train station. The troops marched through as if going off to war. The crowd parted. The men marched onto the train, and the train pulled out as the people waved goodbye and cheered. And this was going off to war. And this was the other side of West Virginia responding to the miners' march."

Narrator: Chafin positioned his amateur army in trenches atop Blair Mountain on the road to Mingo. Meanwhile, the miners had begun to move. They commandeered automobiles at gunpoint, took over trains, and raided farms for food. The march grew to 15,000, forming a line 20 miles long.

"The time has come," said John Wilburn, a miner and Baptist minister, "for me to lay down my Bible, pick up my rifle."

To the tune of "John Brown's Body," miners sang, "We'll Hang Don Chafin From a Sour Apple Tree." Many wore red bandanas and were soon known as "rednecks."