They left Marmet on the morning of Aug. 24, 1921.
A Gazette-documented armed column started south out of Kanawha County. WV land. WV money. Who owned the southern coalfields.
Charleston Gazette, Aug. 24 1921, via the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum: Marmet mayor W.A. Miller watched them gather. All day and into the evening, 5,000 union miners came down Cabin Creek on freight trains. The mines sat idle. They joined about 2,000 already camped on the hillsides. Six physicians. Eight nurses. Miller said they were orderly. The next day they moved out.
WVPB: they started southeast from Marmet to end martial law in Mingo and break the mine-guard system in Logan and Mingo. Exact numbers will never be known. It's believed more than 15,000 miners joined.
e-WV (Corbin, revised July 30, 2026): Sid Hatfield had been shot Aug. 1 at the Welch courthouse. Aug. 7, 5,000 miners took demands to Governor Morgan. Bill Blizzard was field commander. WWI veterans organized the column like an army — sentries, patrols, codes, doctors, food tents. On August 24 the march began.
The estimates stay estimates. e-WV: more than 15,000 coal miners opposed by more than 5,000 mine guards, deputies, and state police, plus 2,500 U.S. soldiers and 14 bombing planes. WVPB uses the same pairing. Nobody has a fake precise headcount.
They were not rebelling against the United States. NPS: they laid down their guns when federal troops arrived because the fight was with local and state governments that catered to the operators. Blair Mountain is on the National Register.
This is the morning they left Marmet. Montani Semper Liberi.
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