Qualla: Battle of Matewan https://qualla.com/battle-of-matewan en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/t/w/battle-of-matewan-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Matewan https://qualla.com/battle-of-matewan Battle of Matewan: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-matewan/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Ten people died in roughly ten seconds on Mate Street. It was May 19, 1920, and the Baldwin-Felts detectives had just finished evicting mining families from their company-owned homes on the outskirts of Matewan, West Virginia. They were walking to catch the five o'clock train back to Bluefield when Police Chief Sid Hatfield stepped into their path with arrest warrants. The detectives produced their own warrant for Hatfield. Mayor Cabell Testerman examined it and declared it fraudulent. What the detectives did not know was that armed miners had surrounded them, watching from the windows, doorways, and rooftops of the businesses lining the street. Someone fired the first shot -- accounts still disagree on who -- and in the eruption that followed, seven detectives and three townspeople lay dead, including two Felts brothers and the mayor himself.

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/t/w/battle-of-matewan-wp/dntw-battle-of-matewan-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Matewan: Scrip, Tents, and Desperation https://qualla.com/battle-of-matewan/ Photo credit FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, CC BY-SA 4.0. The coal miners of southern West Virginia in 1920 lived under a system designed to keep them indebted and obedient. The Stone Mountain Coal Company paid wages in coal scrip, currency that could only be spent at the company store. Miners worked long hours in conditions that were b...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/t/w/battle-of-matewan-wp/dntw-battle-of-matewan-scrip-tents-and-desperation.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Matewan: A Town That Refused to Bend https://qualla.com/battle-of-matewan/ Photo credit FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, CC BY-SA 4.0. Matewan, founded in 1895, was a small independent town nestled in the Tug River Valley -- one of the few communities in Mingo County not entirely controlled by the coal operators. Mayor Cabell Testerman and Police Chief Sid Hatfield, a native of the valley, both sided openly with...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/t/w/battle-of-matewan-wp/dntw-battle-of-matewan-a-town-that-refused-to-bend.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Matewan: Gunfire on Mate Street https://qualla.com/battle-of-matewan/ Photo credit FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the morning of May 19, Baldwin-Felts agents arrived on the No. 29 train and carried out several evictions at the Stone Mountain Coal Camp. After eating dinner at the Urias Hotel, they walked toward the depot for the return train. Hatfield intercepted them. Albert Felts produce...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/t/w/battle-of-matewan-wp/dntw-battle-of-matewan-gunfire-on-mate-street.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Matewan: Revenge and the March to Blair Mountain https://qualla.com/battle-of-matewan/ Photo credit FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, CC BY-SA 4.0. Tom Felts, the last surviving Felts brother, sent undercover operatives to build a case against Hatfield. When murder charges against Hatfield and 22 others were dismissed, the Baldwin-Felts agency took its own justice. On August 1, 1921, detectives assassinated Sid Hatfield and ...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/t/w/battle-of-matewan-wp/dntw-battle-of-matewan-revenge-and-the-march-to-blair-mountain.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Matewan: Echoes in the Hollows https://qualla.com/battle-of-matewan/ Photo credit FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Urias Hotel, which served as the Baldwin-Felts headquarters during the events of 1920, was destroyed by fire in December 1992. But the story refused to fade. Director John Sayles brought the battle to the screen in his 1987 film Matewan, and the events have figured in novels,...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/t/w/battle-of-matewan-wp/dntw-battle-of-matewan-echoes-in-the-hollows.mp3 0:06 6 full