Mitchell, Billy Gen

Some historical context:

Pinkertons became famous for a possibly apocryphal/elaborated story on saving Lincoln from assasination plot on the way to his first term (including dressing him in drag); [Secret Service did not yet exist, and was mostly concerned with counterfeiting initially?  Scary number of asasination plots , jackson smack one down with a can, Teddy was wounded but saved by a thick speech in his breast pockets, "i cannot ,firiends, speek so long or eloquently as I would like, but i have been, as i ramerked before, ben shot...)[AG Bell used the first metal detector to find the bullet in garfield? but thwarted by steel springs in mattress, so the doctors kepts going back in to look for the bullet, killed the poor man slowly by infection].  At its height, the largest private agency in the world, so Ohio outlawed it (though/ b/c Patterson at NCR was a client)[mentor to Watson, who sold IBM machines to the Nazi to track Jews?].

300 "Pinks" called in by Frick for the 1892 Homestead Strike, in a firefight seven goon and nine workers killed.  Also broke coal, iron, railway and lumber strikes.

(It was a rival firm, Baldwin-Felts in Matewan (police chief 27 year old Sid hatfield, a former miner; Albert and Lee Felts with ten men were eviciting women and kids at gunpoint; when Hatfield arrested them, they tried to arrest him on bogus warrant; 7 goon 3 deputies killed; Hatfieldand _, unarmed, were gunned down by BF men in front of the courthouse [Campbell, badly wounded was executed despite his wife's protests; Mother Jones tried to ward off a bloodbath she was sure the miners would lose, but general mobilization; Pres? Harding threatened to send in federal troops and Army bombers; the miners were going home when the Sherriff Chafin wanted to defeat the unions, so began shooting miners, and women and kids were caught in crossfire. The coal company hired planes to drop homemade bombs, as well as surplus WWI gas and explosive bombs; Gen Billy Mitchell ordered bombers to do reconaissance, one crashed killing the crew of three.

{"Sporadic gun battles continued for a week, with the miners at one time nearly breaking through to the town of Logan and their target destinations, the non-unionized counties to the south, Logan and Mingo. Up to 30 deaths were reported by Chafin's side and 50–100 on the union miners' side, with hundreds more injured. By September 2, federal troops had arrived. Realizing he would lose a lot of good miners if the battle continued with the military, union leader Bill Blizzard passed the word for the miners to start heading home the following day. Miners fearing jail and confiscation of their guns found clever ways to hide rifles and hand guns in the woods before leaving Logan County. Collectors and researchers to this day are still finding weapons and ammunition embedded in old trees and in rock crevices. ...

Following the battle, 985 miners were indicted for murder, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder, and treason against the State of West Virginia. Though some were acquitted by sympathetic juries, many were also imprisoned for a number of years, though they were paroled in 1925. It would be Bill Blizzard's trial where the unexploded bomb was used as evidence of the government and companies' brutality, and ultimately resulted in his acquittal.

In the short term, the battle was an overwhelming victory for management. UMW membership plummeted from more than 50,000 miners to approximately 10,000 over the next several years, and it was not until 1935 — following the Great Depression and the beginning of the New Deal under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt — that the UMW fully organized in southern West Virginia."} ...

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Mitchell was dispatched by President Harding to West Virginia to stop the warfare that had broken out between the United Mine Workers, Stone Mountain Coal Company, the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, and other groups after the Matewan Massacre.[30] Miners outraged by the ambush slaying of Matewan Police Chief Sid Hatfield by agents for the coal company marched on Mingo and Logan County leading to the Battle of Blair Mountain, August 25 to September 2, 1921. On August 26, Mitchell commanded Army bombers from Maryland to Charleston, West Virginia. Mitchell told the press that Army bombers alone could end the "Mingo War" by dropping tear gas on the miners. A private army of 3,000 led by Sheriff Don Chafin and financed by the Coal Operators Association engaged in gun battles and used private planes to drop dynamite charges and World War I surplus gas and explosive bombs against an estimated 13,000 miners. Neither side responded to President Harding's August 30 proclamation to cease hostilities. In the last days of the civil disturbance, Mitchell's bombers flew several reconnaissance missions but did not engage in combat; one bomber crashed on a return flight killing three crew members. On September 3, surrounded by 2,000 Army troops, Chafin's force dispersed and most miners went home although some surrendered to the Army. Later, Mitchell cited the "Mingo War" as an example of the potential for air power in civil disturbances.[31]

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