Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: “Mine Owners Get Setback in West Virginia Treason Cases”-Keeney Trial

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Quote Wm C Blizzard, Nine Miners in Chains Charles Town WV Apr 23, 1922, When Miners March p294—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 14, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Keeney Awaits Ruling Regarding Change of Venue

From The Labor World of November 11, 1922:

WV Miners March Trials, Keeney, LW p1, 2, Nov 11, 1922

Accessory to Murder.

Keeney, Prz UMW D17, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

Keeney had been called to trial on a charge of accessory to a murder-the charge growing out of the attempted march of union miners into Logan county several months ago in protest of the feudal conditions in its coal fields.

Efforts of the prosecution to call William Blizzard to trial on the same charge, after Keeney had been granted a change of venue, brought a ruling from the court that further proceedings would be suspended until after the Court of Appeals of West Virginia has passed upon the action of the court here in granting a new change of venue in a case which was originally removed here from Logan county. This ruling is expected in about fifteen days. While granting the change of venue, the court declined to issue an injunction against the coal interests of the state from participating in the prosecution and putting up the money for conducting the trials.

First Defeat.

Keeney’s victory brings to the coal interests their big defeat in the ef­fort to oust the miners’ union from the state. Incidentally, it exposes in a court of record the activities of the coal interests in using the prosecuting power of the state to fight the miners’ union.

Attorneys for the prosecution bitterly contested the motion of Keeney for a change in venue. It was claimed that one change in venue is all that the law allows, and that Keeney was enjoying that in having his trial removed to Jefferson county from Logan county. It was claimed that the court did not have the power to grant a second change, and maintained that the allegations of prejudice in Jefferson county were unfounded.

About 100 affidavits were offered from residents of Jefferson county, where three convictions had already taken place in the “treason” cases, that no fixed prejudice exists in the county, and that Keeney could “get a fair jury.” The court ruled these affidavits were too general in character to be of value.

Sought to Stop Flood of Money.

Keeney’s motion for a change in venue was quickly followed by an application for an injunction to prohibit the Logan Coal Operators’ Association and 77 coal corporations from contributing money to finance the prosecution of the miners’ union officials. This application was later denied by Judge Woods.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: “Mine Owners Get Setback in West Virginia Treason Cases”-Keeney Trial”

Hellraisers Journal: The West Virginia Treason Trials, Powerful Forces Work to Convict Union Miners in Charles Town

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 9, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Powerful Forces Work to Covict Union Miners

From The Bottle Maker of October 1922:

HdLn WV Treason Trials, Bottle Maker p27, Oct 1922

Newsclip WV Treason Trial, W Allen Convicted, Charles Town Spirit of Jefferson p2, Oct 3, 1922
Charles Town Spirit of Jefferson
October 3, 1922

Charlestown, W. Va., Sept. 5.—Industrial feudalism, allied with and enthroned upon a local aristocracy, and exploiting the naivette of guileless farmers and and unsuspecting rural population, is moving mercilessly and relentlessly in the ancient court house of this town to defeat and destroy organized labor in West Virginia, drive labor unions from the borders of the State, and take a new lease upon control and domination of government in West Virginia.

In this undertaking, industrial oppression and vengence is masquerading behind the law and the prosecuting power of the State, utilizing the executive machinery of the State, and subsidizing newspapers and news dispatches, to accomplish the end sought.

Walter Allen, a young official of the United Mine Workers in West Virginia, is on trial in Charles Town on a charge of treason against the State. Allen is one of twenty-three officials of this union who were indicted in the coal-tainted courts of Logan county last year on the charge of treason. More than 500 others are indicted on charges of conspiracy or murder. These indictments were found after the union miners of Kanawha, Fayette, and Raleigh counties rebelling against the venal industrial conditions of Logan and Mingo counties, and finding that gunmen of the coal operators prevented peaceful union organization, had attempted to right their wrongs by an invasion of those counties directed against company gunmen.

William Blizzard, president of sub-district No. 2 of this union, was another of the twenty-three. Blizzard was acquitted last May after a trial of five weeks, but no such fortune seems to be in prospect for Allen. Every resource at the command of a great and entrenched industrial feudalism in West Virginia-a feudalism that makes governors, elects legislatures, and controls political parties and newspapers—is being brought to bear to convict Allen and all of his associates, and through their confinement in the State prison, break up the miners’ union, and drive unionism as a whole from the State.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part II

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 4, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Miners on Trial for Treason Against the State, Part II

From The North American Review of September 1922:

THE MINERS AND THE LAW OF TREASON

BY JAMES G. RANDALL

[Part II of II]

Billy Blizzard and Family, Lt Dg p14, June 17, 1922

Turning to the case of the miners, we find that the offense for which they (or rather a selected number of them) are held is treason against the State of West Virginia. In the Constitution of the State of West Virginia there is the following provision:

Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. Treason shall be punished, according to the character of the acts committed, by the infliction of one or more of the penalties of death, imprisonment or fine, as may be prescribed by law.

It will be noticed that the provisions in the West Virginia Constitution resemble those of the Federal Constitution in the definition of the offense and the requirements as to evidence sustaining the overt act, but that the State Constitution goes farther than that of the United States in that it specifies the general nature of the punishment. An examination of the West Virginia code shows that the punishment, as further defined by the Legislature, shall be death, or, at the discretion of the jury, confinement in the penitentiary not less than three nor more than ten years and confiscation of the real and personal estate. Withholding knowledge of treason, attempting to justify armed insurrection by written or printed words, or engaging in an unlawful assemblage, are punishable by lesser penalties, thus indicating that these offenses are regarded as distinct from treason itself. As to what constitutes “levying war” against the State, this is largely a matter for interpretation by the court, and it appears that Judge Woods has made considerable use of Federal as well as State decisions in determining his rulings.

The acts for which the miners are on trial took place in connection with the serious outbreak of August, 1921. As a climax of years of growing hostility, during which the United Mine Workers had made repeated efforts to unionize the mine fields of Logan and Mingo counties, several hundred men assembled on August 20 at Marmet, West Virginia, with the intention of making some kind of demonstration or attack, the exact purpose of which is disputed. An important feature of the case is that the Governor had previously proclaimed martial law in Mingo County, and had sent State troops into that county to preserve order. It is the contention of the prosecution that the acts of the miners constituted a defiance of this martial law, and an intention to resist the troops.

An appeal by “Mother Jones”, a well-known leader among the miners, failed to disperse them, and the armed force, picturesquely uniformed in blue overalls and red bandanna handkerchiefs, proceeded on their march. The first violence occurred at Sharples in Boone County, where a small force of State police was resisted by the miners while seeking to serve warrants upon men wanted by the Logan County authorities. Several miners were killed and from this time the march assumed much more alarming proportions. By the time the Boone-Logan county line was reached the invaders numbered about eight thousand. Don Chafin, sheriff of Logan County, raised a defending force of approximately two thousand which he commanded until, after some delay, Governor Morgan commissioned Colonel Eubanks to take charge with State troops. For over a week the opposing “armies” confronted each other over an extended mountainous battle-front in the neighborhood of Blair, and there was considerable detached fighting. On the defending side three deputy sheriffs were killed, and it was for their deaths that the indictments for murder were drawn. Probably more than twenty of the invaders lost their lives.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part I

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 3, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Miners on Trial for Treason Against the State, Part I

From The North American Review of September 1922:

THE MINERS AND THE LAW OF TREASON

BY JAMES G. RANDALL

[Part I of II]

Battle of Blair Mt, WV Today by Bushnell, Guards, Gunthugs, Spies, UMWJ p5, Sept 15, 1921

Once again the quiet village of Charles Town, West Virginia, in the historic Shenandoah valley, has furnished the setting for a memorable State trial. As in 1859, when John Brown went to the gallows for a traitorous assault which was misconceived as a stroke for Abolition, so in the present year the eyes of the nation have been focused upon this same little county seat while hundreds of miners have faced trial on indictments for murder and treason in connection with the “insurrection” of August, 1921. Twenty-four of the miners who were associated with the armed march of several thousand men directed against the coal fields of Logan and Mingo counties have been charged with the grave offense of “treason”, and it is with this phase of the question that the present article proposes to deal. Many circumstances unite to make the trials notable. The long continued efforts of the United Mine Workers to unionize the West Virginia fields, the elaborate litigation which included several federal injunction suits, the huge scale as well as the gravity of the indictments, the intensity of the industrial disputes involved, and the challenge to the State authorities to uphold elemental social order and yet deal fairly with both sides in an unusually bitter struggle-all these factors lift the case above the level of an ordinary criminal proceeding. Without attempting, however, to discuss the industrial phases of the “miners’ war”, the writer proposes to view the cases from a restricted angle and to consider their relation to the history of treason in our legal system.

Though the charge against the miners is the rara avis of treason against a State, the analogy of this crime with treason against the United States is very close, and it may therefore be useful to recall some of the outstanding points in the history of national treason. Treason is the only crime which the Federal Constitution undertakes to define. It consists “only in levying war against the United States or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort”. To prove treason, the commission of an overt act must be established by at least two witnesses, unless there is a confession in open court. Congress has no authority to fix the nature of the crime, and can neither enlarge nor restrict the offense beyond the constitutional definition. Congress may, however, fix the punishment, and among the acts passed by the first Congress ever assembled under the Constitution was the Treason Law of 1790, which established the penalty of death for this highest of crimes.

In the course of time a well recognized body of principles has grown up around the law of treason. Thus it is recognized that “constructive treason” has no place in our legal system. There must be an actual levying of war. A mere plotting, gathering of arms, or assemblage of men is not treason, in case no overt act is committed. The “levying war”, however, has been rather broadly defined by our courts. Besides formal or declared war, it includes an insurrection or combination which forcibly opposes the Government or resists the execution of its laws. Engaging in an insurrection to prevent the execution of a law is treason, because this act amounts to levying war. The mere uttering of words of treasonable import does not constitute the crime, nor is mere sympathy with the enemy sufficient to warrant conviction.

Treason differs from other crimes in that there are no accessories. All are principals, including those whose acts would, in the case of felonies, make them accessories. Those who take part in the conspiracy which culminates in treason are principals, even though absent when the overt act is committed.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part I”

Hellraisers Journal: The Literary Digest: Treason, Reason, and the Acquittal of Blizzard at Charles Town, West Virginia

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 18, 1922
Nations Newspapers Opine on Acquittal of William Blizzard

From The Literary Digest of June 17, 1922:

“TREASON” AND REASON

Billy Blizzard and Family, Lt Dg p14, June 17, 1922

THE NAME OF WILLIAM BLIZZARD, West Virginia miner, has been added to the few who have been tried in the United States for treason. Like most of the others, he was acquitted, yet, notes the Washington Herald, “there is plenty of reason to fear that if the case had been tried in Logan County he would have been found guilty and given the severest sentence possible on the treason charge.” That any fair-minded jury must acquit the youthful official of the United Mine Workers of America was obvious from the first to The Herald, the New York Times, and other papers, and why the indictment for treason was brought is more than The Times can understand. “Attorneys for Blizzard,” caustically observes the New York Evening World, “might have claimed that the crime charged was impossible, because no Government existed in West Virginia against which treason was possible.” “In fact,” agrees the New York Herald, “Government in West Virginia had broken down, and its power had passed in part to the mine operators.” The leaders of the union miners who marched against Logan and Mingo counties, last August, according to this paper, were manifestly trying to take the law into their own hands, “which the non-union coal operators, controlling the local government in the two counties, already had done.”

In the opinion of the conservative New York Times:

Whatever their offenses, the unionist miners and their leaders were not trying to subvert the Government of West Virginia in whole or in part. Logan County can scarcely be said to have been under the rule of law or to have had a republican form of government. Private war was answered by private war. Some constitutional guaranties appear to have been suspended by conspiracy of non-union operators. If there was any “treason,” it was on both sides; but there was no excuse for charging the leaders of the misguided invaders of Logan County with the highest of crimes.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Literary Digest: Treason, Reason, and the Acquittal of Blizzard at Charles Town, West Virginia”

Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Coal Operators of Logan County Fail to Convict William Blizzard

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 17, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – William Blizzard Found Not Guilty of Treason

From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 15, 1922:

After a trial that lasted five weeks, a jury at Charles Town, West Virginia, returned a verdict of not guilty in the case against William Blizzard, who was charged by the Logan county coal operators with treason against the state of West Virginia. The jury reported its verdict at 9:30 Saturday night, May 27. The court room was crowded at the time, and when the verdict was read and it was learned that Blizzard was free the crowd broke out with cheers that shook the building. There was a wild demonstration. Friends lifted Blizzard from the floor and carried him on their shoulders, while hundreds of people shouted and cheered. The demonstration continued for fully an hour. Charles Town people joined with the miners who were present for the trial in marching up and down the streets of the town in celebration of the failure of the Logan county coal operators to carry out their purpose to send Blizzard and many other members of the United Mine Workers of America to the penitentiary.

Attorneys for the coal operators announced later that they would next try Rev. J. [E.] Wilburn on a charge of murder in connection with the march in August of last year, and his trial was set for Monday, June 12. They also said they would try President C. F. Keeney and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Mooney, also, on treason charge, but no date was fixed for their trials.

The coal operators failed miserably in their attempt to convict Blizzard, who is president of Sub-District 2, of District 17. They placed about 150 witnesses on the stand, but even with all of that array of help they were unable to convince the jury of level-headed and fair- minded citizens of Jefferson county that Blizzard was guilty of the high crime of treason. The fact is that as the trial progressed it was not so much Blizzard who was on trial as the coal operators themselves and their Logan county methods. The defense succeeded in bringing out before the jury a large amount of evidence showing how the coal operators run Logan county with the aid of their hired gunmen and thugs.

One of the bits of testimony that caused much resentment among those who heard it was given by an aviator. He was not connected with the army nor with any other military force, but was a private flyer. He testified that he flew his airplane over the miners’ camps in Logan county and that he dropped bombs on them. Some of these bombs were explosive and were filled with scraps of iron. Others were gas bombs. This aviator testified that he worked at this job four days and that the Logan county coal operators paid him $100 a day. Another witness testified that one of the gas bombs landed near his house, and that the gas sickened his wife and children, killed two pigs in his lot and withered the vegetation.

Attorneys for the coal operators decided to try Blizzard first because they believed they had a stronger case against him than any of the other defendants. If that was true, they have little chance to convict any one else.

It was evident that the coal operators failed to make much of a hit with the jury or with the people of Charles Town by permitting their witnesses to testify in regard to the activities of the armed guards and gunmen and the methods employed by Sheriff Don Chafin and his deputies in their handling of the mining situation in Logan county. Chafin was a witness for the prosecution, but even his evidence failed to convict Blizzard.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Coal Operators of Logan County Fail to Convict William Blizzard”

Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: Photograph of Miners’ Baseball Team at Charles Town, West Virginia

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Quote West Virginia Miner re Gunthugs, LW p1, Sept 24, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 4, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – U. M. W. A. Baseball Team, Bill Blizzard with Bat

From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1922:

WV Treason Trial Baseball Team w Blizzard, UMWJ p17, June 1, 1922

From the Duluth Labor World of June 3, 1922:

COSSACKS ACT JUST LIKE
PRUSSIAN OFFICERS DID

West Virginia state police, known as the Cossacks, have made a mess of things since their arrival at Charles Town to attend the miners’ trial. They do not realize that they are not in Logan county where the coal barons rule by force and might.

The Cossacks have clashed with Charles Town police officials and have assumed the attitude of a Prussian army officer toward private citizens.

The miners insist that there would be no trouble in Logan and other counties but for the Cossacks, who are now sustaining the miners’ claim.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Blizzard Acquitted of Treason against the State of West Virginia, Given Wild Ovation by Supporters

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 29, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Billy Blizzard Acquitted of Treason

From The Washington Times of May 28, 1922:

HdLn Blizzard Acquitted of Treason, WDC Tx p1, May 28, 1922

HdLn Juroros Free Blizzard, WDC Tx p1, May 28, 1922

By WARREN W. WHEATON.
International News Service Staff Correspondent.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va., May 27.-William Blizzard, alleged generalissimo of the miners’ army which marched upon Logan county last summer and fought with deputy sheriffs until Federal troops were called out, was acquitted by a jury in circuit court here tonight of treason against the State of West Virginia.

Verdict is Popular.

The jury was given the case at 3:27 o’clock this afternoon. Six hours and ten minutes was consumed in attempting to arrive at a verdict, two hours of which was taken out for dinner.

Peaceful Charles Town broke into a riot of noise. The pandemonium which answered the verdict: “We find for the defendant,” extended outside the court room.

Blizzard was given a wonderful reception as he emerged from the little red court house, scene of a similar trial sixty-three years ago.

The jurors as they left the scene of their labors which extended over a month, were likewise cheered.

The little red courthouse is the identical spot where John Brown, famous abolitionist, was convicted of treason sixty-three years ago. Residents of peaceful Charles Town, which has been conspicuous in history since colonial days, flooded the courthouse tonight to await the second treason trial verdict ever returned in calm, quiet Jefferson county.

After the jury had once reported its inability to reach a verdict and court was recessed for dinner, a report emanating from official sources had the jury ten to two for acquittal.

When the jurymen filed out, an over-crowded courtroom in which women predominated, immediately broke into a buzz of conversation. Blizzard seemed least concerned of the big assemblage. He had in his lap his five-year old son, asleep most of the first hour of the jury’s deliberations.

Blizzard Is Calm.

His wife, her little girl clasped close to her, frequently lifted a dampened handkerchief to her reddened eyes in which the tears constantly welled.

Next to Mrs. Blizzard, sat Blizzard’s sixty-year-old mother, a thin, spectacled little woman, a wisp of gray creeping through her once blond hair which stood out conspicuously against the background of black clothing. Mrs. Blizzard’s mother completed the family circle.

As time wore on with no report from the jury, Blizzard went to an ante-room and conversed with friends. His little boy and girl playfully edged their way about the crowd which filled every available nook.

After an hour had elapsed a ripple of excitement spread through the courtroom. A verdict was expected, but the jury asked for a copy of Judge Woods’ instructions, which would shape the verdict and which they neglected to get before retiring.

Kisses His Wife.

Blizzard was among the calmest of the excited throng in the court room when the foreman of the jury announced the verdict. For a moment he seemed dazed and then as the full import of the finding was grasped he leaned over and kissed his wife, who was standing near. Then he shook the hands of his counsel and waved a greeting to the congratulations expressed by scores who have attended every session of the long trial.

Blizzard was given a wild ovation as soon as the jury was discharged by Judge Woods.

Billy Blizzard w Family, WDC Tx p3, May 28, 1922, w quote

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Blizzard Acquitted of Treason against the State of West Virginia, Given Wild Ovation by Supporters”

Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: No Evidence of Treason in Trial of West Virginia Miners at Charles Town

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 17, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – No Evidence of Treason at Trial of Miners

From the United Mine Workers Journal of May 15, 1922:

HdLn re WV Treason Trial, UMWJ p3, May 15, 1922

WV Treason Trial Crowd at Courthouse, UMWJ p3, May 15, 1922

At the time that this article was written the trial of William Blizzard, at Charles Town, W. Va., on a charge of treason against the state of West Virginia had been in progress for two weeks, and there appeared to be no end in sight, Judging form the number of witnesses that had been summoned by both sides. Up to end of the second week there had been no evidence of any treasonable intent on the part of Blizzard or any of the other officers and members of the United Mine Workers of Ameria who are under indictment with him.

[…..]

The trial is attracting nation-wide attention. Many of the largest newspapers of the country have special correspondents in attendance, and all of the press associations also are represented. Citizens of Charles Town and vicinity have treated the indicted miners and the witnesses with every courtesy and kindness. The hotels in Charles Town were unable to care for all of the visitors, and practically every home in the town was thrown open to them. Scores of miners are rooming in many of the best homes in Charles Town. A fraternal feeling has sprung up between the miners and local people.

One of the interesting events was a baseball game between a team composed of miners and the local Charles Town team, which resulted in a victory for the miners. New uniforms were provided for the members of the miners team, and they were every inch a ball team. A large crowd attended the game, and the proceeds were given to the Charles Town hospital…

[Emphasis added.]

JL Lewis at WV Treason Trial, UMWJ p5, May 15, 1922—–Treason in WV, UMWJ p4, May 15, 1922

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: No Evidence of Treason in Trial of West Virginia Miners at Charles Town”

Hellraisers Journal: Accused Union Miners Play Ball with Home Team at Charles Town, West Virginia, to Benefit Hospital

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 16, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Accused Union Miners Play Ball with Home Team

From the Duluth Labor World of May 13, 1922:

ACCUSED MINERS PLAY BALL
WITH HOME TEAM
———-

WV Miners Trials, Blizzard at Bat Close Up, NY Dly Ns p24, May 4, 1922

CHARLES TOWN, W. Va., May 11.—Town folk “rooted” for the miners’ baseball team in its game with the local champions for the benefit of a hospital fund controlled by the citizens. The miners won by the score of 7 to 3.

All of the miners are charged with treason or murder. William Blizzard, the first miner to face trial, played right field for his team.

The miners have secured baseball uniforms’with the initials “U.” M. W. of A.” across their breasts. As they walked the diamond, they, were given a rousing cheer by Charles Town citizens, who show their admiration for the accused on every occasion.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Accused Union Miners Play Ball with Home Team at Charles Town, West Virginia, to Benefit Hospital”