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Complete 6 pages APA formatted article: The Battle of Blair Mountain. Most importantly, the company provided houses from which the family could be forcibly evicted in the event of a miner joining unions, being killed or injured. Union activity was monitored by Baldwin-Felts detectives and other coal company agents4. The Mine Wars began in 1912, with the Paint Creek – Cabin Creek strike, demanding company recognition of the UMWA. Further attempts at unionization led to a spate of violence and armed conflict between the miners on one side and state police, mine guards and strikebreakers on the other. The next flashpoint was the Battle of the Tug in Mingo County in May 1920. This exacerbated into a gunfight on May 19 in Matewan between Baldwin-Felts agents on an eviction drive and the town officials led by the mayor and Police Chief Sid Hatfield. The mayor, three townspeople and six detectives were killed. Unionization and company opposition grew increasingly violent, with both sides building up arsenals and engaging in guerilla-like warfare. In retaliation for Matewan, the agency killed Sid Hatfield and his deputy on 1 August, 1920. Hatfield’s murder galvanized the miners and was the direct spark for the Battle of Blair Mountain5. The outraged miners began to gather near Charleston on 7 August. Bill Blizzard, Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney of the District 17 UMWA organized about 600 armed miners for a march though three counties, in order to demonstrate the solidarity of the mine workers and to drive out the company gunmen who continued to harass them. Keeney recruited additional miners over the following two weeks for a 65-mile march to Logan County, the coal company stronghold.