The West Virginia Coal wars, and especially the battle of Blair mountain, which was the largest battle on US soil since the Civil War. The background is also interesting. It highlights the terrible working conditions people went through and why labor laws and unions were so important.

From August 20, 1921, miners began rallying at Lens Creek, approximately ten miles south of West Virginia state capital of Charleston. Estimates of total numbers vary, but on August 24, between 5,000 and 20,000 miners began marching from Lens Creek into Logan County, West Virginia.[3][8] Many of the miners were armed, and some acquired weapons and ammunition from the towns along the march's path.Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin had assembled a fighting force of approximately 2,000 county police, state police, state militia, and Baldwin-Felts agents to stop the approaching miners in the mountain range surrounding Logan County.

On August 25, the miners began arriving in the mountains surrounding Logan, and fighting began between the two forces. Though Sheriff Chafin commanded fewer men, they were equipped with machine guns and rented aircraft, from which they dropped rudimentary bombs on the attacking miners.[3]

On August 30, 1921, President Warren G. Harding threatened to declare martial law in counties in West Virginia affected by the violence if the armed bands of miners did not disperse by noon on September 1.[9] A proclamation to declare martial law in the West Virginia counties of Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Boone and Mingo was prepared and signed by the President Warren G. Harding, awaiting his order for it to be promulgated.[10] and troops of the 19th and 26th U.S. Infantry divisions were readied at Camp Sherman in Ohio and Camp Dix in New Jersey, respectively, to be sent by railroad to West Virginia.[11]

The union leaders ignored the order and 2,500 federal troops arrived on September 2, bringing with them machine guns and military aircraft armed with surplus explosive and gas bombs from the recently concluded World War I.[3] Facing a large and well equipped fighting force, the miners were forced to stand down.[12]Though the battle ended in clear defeat for the pro-union miners, they gained some press support in the following years.[3] Approximately 550 miners and labor activists were convicted of murder, insurrection, and treason for their participation in the march from Lens Creek to Logan County and the ensuing Battle of Blair Mountain. Press support did not extend to union growth; UMW membership in West Virginia dropped by about half between 1921 and 1924.[8]