Wednesday 13 July 2011

The Redneck War

The internet is truly a wonderful thing, from researching how the unions in Wisconsin are organising themselves against the local governor for work I ended up finding out the largest armed insurrection in the United States since the Civil War, which ended with the employment of Federal troops and the aerial bombing of its own citizens by the Washington government less than 100 years ago in 1921.

The Redneck War, or West Virginia Mine War, and the Battle of Blair Mountain makes for fascinating reading and given the popularity of 1920's pulp wargaming could make for some really interesting skirmish games.



The battle is not widely know outside West Virginia and it is a shame to note that given the continual pressures on the heritage of battlefields across Europe and America, that the local mining companies wish to  employ mountaintop removal techniques to reach the coal underneath, destroying this unique heritage site.

3 comments:

  1. What an incredible story, thanks for that, Steve!

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  2. I remember watching something on the History Channel about this. It's pretty interesting.

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  3. Good topic, Mark Copplestone did talk of making some figures for this a while a go, although there are plenty of suitable figures about now anyway.

    Also see the film "Matewan", about strike breakers, a little wordy has befits the subject, but a cracking film none the less.

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