Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 29, 1913 Denver, Colorado – Governor Declares Martial Law in Southern Coalfields
From The Denver Post of October 27, 1913:
Officers of the United Mine Workers of America in conference with Governor Ammons regarding the strike situation in the Southern coal fields. Left to right are Governor Ammons, John McLennan, district president of the United Mine Workers of America and president of the Colorado State Federation of Labor; Vice President Frank J. Hayes and President John P. White of the United Mine Workers of America.
From The Rocky Mountain News of October 28, 1913:
News from Colorado Coalfield Strike:
Sunday October 26, 1913
Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado – Miners Defend Colony from Deputized Gunthugs
The miners of the Ludlow Tent Colony lined up yesterday at the union’s office tent and waited their turn as John Lawson and Louie Tikas handed out the strike-pay. At about 1:30 p. m., a call came from Adolph Germer in Walsenburg to warn the striking miners that a train full of deputized gunthugs was headed south toward the tent colony. John Lawson sent several Greek miners north to defend the colony. Fighting soon broke out between the Greeks and the gunthugs, and continued throughout the night.
The woman and children took shelter in cellars under the tents, which were dug for that purpose after the last attack on the colony. Lawson also moved many of the women and children to to a tent down in a deep arroyo located behind the camp.
Karl Linderfelt, a Lieutenant in the Colorado National Guard, working as a mine guard, has now also been deputized. He was apparently leading some forty guards on this latest attack on the Ludlow Tent Colony. At about 2 a. m. this morning, about twenty guards retreated up the canyon, and twenty guards were pinned down in the power house trying to keep warm as it started to snow. These guards eventually escaped from the power house and also made their way up the canyon. Two deputized mine guards have been killed in the battle, John Nimmo and Tom Whitney.
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Monday October 27, 1913
Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado – Fighting Continues as Miners Defend Their Families
After the deputized gunthugs led by Linderfelt were forced to retreated yesterday morning, word came that another train was on the way from Trinidad full of mine guards who had been deputized by Sheriff Grisham of Las Animas County. These guards were heavily armed and the train was equipped with mounted machine guns. As it turns out, union men had refused to operate the train, and thus, the Baldwin-Felts Detectives were forced to operate the locomotive themselves.
As the train approached Ludlow this morning, it was met by 500 miners, with red bandannas tied around their necks. They were hidden on Water Tank Hill near the Green ranch. Louie Tikas was in command of the Greek miners, many of whom have seen military service back home. They opened fire on the train as it approached, and forced the Baldwin thugs to stop the train and back it up all the way to Forbes Junction. A blizzard is blowing in, and the fighting may be over for the day. There is no word on injuries at this time.
The Denver Post October 27, 1913
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Tuesday October 28, 1913
Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado – Fighting Continues as Blizzard Buries Tent Colony
The let-up in the fighting was only a brief one as the blizzard blew in yesterday morning.300 strikers made their way out of the camp during the blizzard, determined to put an end, once and for all, to the attacks against the colony from the coal operators’ deputized gunthugs. The strikers attacked the mining camps at Berwind and Hastings, cut telephone and telegraph wires, and blew up the railroad tracks upon which the Baldwin thugs had transported the mounted machine guns aimed at their families in the Ludlow Tent Colony. The mining camp at Tabasco was also attacked.
There are no reports of injuries on the union side, but there are reports of mine guards wounded and possibly killed.
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Wednesday October 29, 1913
Denver, Colorado – Governor Ammons Orders Troops into the Southern Coalfields
Governor Ammons called up the state militia early yesterday morning, and troops began arriving today in Huerfano and Las Animas counties where fighting between deputized mine guards and strikers has continued over the past few days. In total, fourteen infantry companies, three troops of cavalry and two batteries of field artillery are being sent into the strike zone. Sheriff J. S. Grisham has reported that the Greek strikers, in particular, have attacked the mining camps at Tobasco, Berwind, Hastings and Delagua, and that he can no longer contain the fighting.
The Governor has ordered Adjutant-General Chase into the strike zone with the entire Colorado National Guard under his command. The Governor made this statement:
I have no other recourse. Yesterday [Monday, October 27th] the situation got away from everybody. I am compelled to act. For forty-eight hours I had been trying to arrange a settlement, but the agreement to keep the peace during the negotiations was violated and the events of Monday showed that the leaders had not enough authority to prevent outbreaks. Any one who wants to work will be given protection to go and come in peace, but I will not allow the importation of strike breakers. I mean to be fair to both sides, while enforcing peace and protecting life and property.
It is unfortunate, that the Governor did not show more interest in “protecting life and property” when it was the lives and the the property of the strikers under assault by the deputized company gunthugs. Now that the miners have risen up, determined to protect their families and their tent villages, the Governor is suddenly interested in “protecting life and property.”
Red Bandannas: A characteristic of the miners in the Coal War of 1920-21 was the red bandanna that was worn around his neck; it was a part of the revolting miner’s “uniform.” Not only was it used to identify one insurgent from the next, but it also helped unify the group. Paisley on cotton and wool in the 19th Century was major and by the beginning of the 20th century the paisley pattern was being printed, rather than woven, onto other textiles, including cotton squares which were the precursors of the modern bandanna. Being able to purchase printed paisley rather than woven paisley brought the price of the costly pattern down and added to its popularity. Avoid modern “railroad” paisley patterns or modern bandannas, these are not correct for the era.
Historians of the Colorado Coalfield Strike/War of 1913-14 also mention the miners of Colorado wearing the red bandanna as they went into battle. Beshoar quotes John Lawson after the murder of Brother Luca Vahernick at the Forbes Tent Colony: https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/74/mode/1up?q=bandanna
“Let every miner wear his red bandanna around his neck,” Lawson said. “It is our uniform.” He had already set an example by knotting his own bandanna around his neck. A .45 caliber revolver was strapped to his waist.
More on the deputized company gunthugs:
An important facet of a [coal] company’s security system was employment of no-nonsense personnel. But to assure that security employees were lawfully ordained, the company found it necessary to gain such employees incontestable deputy commissions. The closed camp system needed security that at any level couldn’t be questioned. In the eyes of turn-of-the-century law, the local sheriff could do little wrong. Whomever he deputized, gained authority both within and beyond the confines of the law.
Companies were quick to take advantage of such a liberal system. The deputy commissions afforded to company employees allowed CFI [Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company], for instance, to employ the services of Bob Lee, who prior to his death, was considered one of the company’s most incompassionate bullies. The same system allowed for the services of Billy Reno, and eventually, those of Baldwin-Felts agents George Belcher and Walter Belk, who like Lee and Reno, were well known for their willingness to employ unsolicited roughhouse tactics.
Many observers hoped and believed Ammons’ decision to send the militia into the strike zone would negate the effectiveness of such hardened characters, and simultaneously, discourage local sheriffs from handing out large numbers of commissions. Others correctly surmised this wouldn’t be the case, knowing beyond doubt that Ammons’ decision would have little effect on the privileges the law afforded the local sheriff and his commissioned deputies.
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