Coal Creek War
Encyclopedia
The Coal Creek War was an armed labor uprising that took place primarily in Anderson County
, in the American
state of Tennessee
, in the early 1890s. The struggle began in 1891 when coal mine
owners in the Coal Creek watershed attempted to replace free coal miners with convicts leased out
by the state government. Over a period of just over a year, the free miners continuously attacked and burned prison stockades and company buildings, hundreds of convicts were freed, and dozens of miners and militiamen were killed or wounded in small-arms skirmishes. One historian describes the conflict as "one of the most dramatic and significant episodes in all American labor history."
The Coal Creek War was part of a greater struggle across Tennessee against the state's controversial convict-leasing system, which allowed the state to lease its convicts to mining companies to compete with free labor. The outbreak of the conflict touched off a partisan media firestorm between the miners' supporters and detractors, and brought the issue of convict leasing to the public eye. Although the uprising essentially ended with the arrests of hundreds of miners in 1892, the publicity it generated led to the downfall of Governor
John P. Buchanan
, and forced the state to reconsider the convict-leasing system. In 1896, when its convict-lease contracts expired, Tennessee's state government refused to renew them, making it one of the first Southern states
to end the controversial practice.
The Coal Creek War took place on the eastern fringe of the Cumberland Mountains
, where the range gives way to the Tennessee Valley
. Coal Creek, a tributary of the Clinch River
, flows north for several miles from its source in the mountains, slicing a narrow valley between the backbone-like Walden Ridge
on the east and Vowell Mountain to the west before exiting the mountains eastward through a water gap in Walden Ridge. A flank of Vowell Mountain known as "Militia Hill" overlooks this water gap.
Most of the violence centered around two communities— Briceville
, at the upper end of Coal Creek near its source, and the town of Coal Creek, the modern Lake City
, at the lower end of the creek where it emerges from its Walden Ridge water gap. Other key events occurred some 15 miles (24.1 km) south of Coal Creek at Oliver Springs
. A substantial number of sympathetic miners trekked southward from Jellico
, about twenty-five miles north of Coal Creek, and Kentucky
to join the uprising, and a parallel anti-leasing conflict took place in Grundy County and Marion County
, about 100 miles (160.9 km) south of the Coal Creek area, in 1892. Coal Creek was connected to Kentucky and Knoxville by the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, and a spur line connected Coal Creek to Briceville.
, Tennessee, like other Southern states, struggled to find sources of revenue. Post-war railroad construction, meanwhile, had opened up the state's coalfields to major mining operations, creating a large demand for cheap labor. In 1866, the state began leasing its convicts to companies willing to pay for the inmates' housing in exchange for their labor, and began leasing convicts to the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railway Company (TCI), which operated a large coal and coke operation in the Cumberland Plateau area west of Chattanooga, in 1871. TCI in turn subleased most of the convicts to smaller mining companies. While there was some resistance among free miners to the use of convict laborers in the 1870s, the abundance of jobs and companies' preference for the higher-quality production of free labor eased the miners' concerns.
During the same period, the Coal Creek Valley developed into one of the state's most lucrative coal mining regions. The town of Coal Creek expanded rapidly, becoming the largest city in Anderson County with a population of 3,000 by the end of the 1870s. Coal mines sprang up throughout the valley between Coal Creek and Briceville, the latter of which was founded as a mining town in the late 1880s. Most of the mines were established by companies who were leasing land from the Coal Creek Mining & Manufacturing Company, which had been formed by Edward J. Sanford
and several other land speculators after the Civil War. As the mining companies reaped substantial profits, however, the miners themselves often struggled economically, and began to organize themselves in the 1880s. While the mine owners preferred free labor, they threatened to replace free miners with convict labor whenever free miners threatened to unionize. Still, by the late 1880s, only two mining operations in Anderson County— the Knoxville Iron Company
mine at Coal Creek and the Cumberland Coal Company's "Big Mountain" mine at Oliver Springs— were using primarily convict labor.
In 1890, the election of several members of the labor-friendly Tennessee Farmers' Alliance— among them Governor John P. Buchanan— to the state government emboldened miners in the Coal Creek Valley to make several demands. One of the key demands was payment in cash rather than company scrip
, the latter of which could only be spent at a company-owned store where prices were marked up or redeemed for a percentage of its value. The miners also demanded they be allowed to use their own checkweighmen— the specialists who weighed the coal and determined how much a particular miner had earned— rather than checkweighmen hired by the company. Since state laws already barred scrip payment and company-hired checkweighmen, most mine owners accepted the miners' demands, even though they were in the midst of an economic downturn. The Tennessee Coal Mining Company, or TCMC, however, which operated a mine near Briceville, rejected the demands, and on April 1, 1891, shut down operations. Two months later, the company demanded its miners sign an iron-clad contract before returning to work. The miners refused.
On July 5, TCMC reopened its Briceville mine with convicts it had leased from TCI. With tensions already heightened, the company tore down several miners' houses in Briceville to build a stockade
to house the convict laborers. Several miners and local merchants met on the evening of July 14 to determine a course of action and it was rumored that a larger group of convicts would arrive on July 15. Later that night, 300 armed miners— probably led by Knights of Labor
organizers Eugene Merrell, George Irish
, and Marcena Ingraham— surrounded the Briceville stockade. After the stockade's guards surrendered without a fight, the convicts were marched to Coal Creek, where they were loaded onto a train and sent to Knoxville.
After seizing the Briceville stockade, the Coal Creek miners sent a telegram to Governor Buchanan, stating their actions were taken to defend their property and wages, and asked for his intervention. On July 16, Buchanan, escorted by three Tennessee state militia companies, two from Chattanooga and one from Knoxville, led the convicts back to Briceville. At Thistle Switch, a railroad stop near Fraterville
, several hundred angry miners confronted the governor and demanded he address them. Buchanan told the miners he was a champion of labor, but as governor he was obligated to enforce the laws, and pleaded for calm and patience. After the governor's speech, Merrell refuted him, claiming the governor had not bothered to enforce laws regarding scrip or checkweighmen, and called the state government a "disgrace to a civilized country." Later that night, shots were fired at the stockade, startling the governor, who had remained in the area until the following day. The governor left 107 militiamen under Colonel
Granville Sevier, a great-grandson of John Sevier
, to guard the stockade.
On the morning of July 20, an estimated 2,000 miners armed with shotguns, rifles, and pistols again surrounded the Briceville stockade. The miners' ranks had been bolstered by an influx of miners from the border town of Jellico and several hundred miners from Kentucky, some of whom had successfully removed convicts from two Kentucky mines five years earlier. After gaining an assurance that no company property would be damaged, Sevier, seeing the futility of resisting such a large force, surrendered. The miners again marched the convicts to Coal Creek, and put them on a train back to Knoxville. Later that day, the miners marched on the Knoxville Iron Company mine near Coal Creek, which also used convict labor, forced the guards at its stockade to surrender, and likewise sent its convicts to Knoxville.
On July 21, 1891, Governor Buchanan travelled to Knoxville, where he again summoned the militia. Over a four-day period, the governor met with a committee of local figures friendly to the miners' interests, namely attorney J.C.J. Williams, Knoxville Journal editor William Rule
, and United Mine Workers organizer William Webb. On July 23, Williams and Webb went to Coal Creek to address the miners, echoing the governor's plea for patience. Williams assured the miners that the governor supported an end to convict-leasing, but said it would take time to change the law. The miners thus agreed to a 60-day truce after the governor assured them he would call a special session of the Tennessee state legislature and recommend the lease law be repealed. The convict laborers returned on July 25. During the truce, Merrell and Irish travelled around the state, giving speeches to rally support for the miners' cause.
On August 31, Buchanan called a special session of the state legislature to consider the convict lease issue. One question before the legislature was whether or not the state could terminate the leasing contract it had signed, which didn't expire until December 31, 1895. Another issue was what to do with convicts should the convict-leasing system be terminated. After three weeks of debate, the legislature adjourned on September 21, taking little action other than making it a felony to interfere with the leasing system and authorizing the governor to take any necessary action to protect the system. After this setback, the miners held out hope with the state's court system, which considered a case brought by the Tennessee Commissioner of Labor, George Ford, who claimed the poor conditions in which the inmates worked and lived violated state law. The case moved quickly through the courts, reaching the Tennessee State Supreme Court in October 1891. Chief Justice Peter Turney
, however, ruled against the miners, essentially citing the sanctity of contracts.
On October 28, 1891, the committee representing the Coal Creek miners' interests announced they were resigning, denounced the legislature, and issued a subtle call to arms. Shortly thereafter, on October 31, a group of miners burned the TCMC stockade at Briceville and seized the Knoxville Iron Company stockade at Coal Creek. Several company buildings were destroyed or looted, but the stockade was spared. Over 300 convicts were freed and supplied with fresh food civilian clothes by the insurgents who urged the convicts not to commit any more crimes. On November 2, another group burned the stockade at Oliver Springs, freeing 153 convicts. In response to the outbreak, a second truce was negotiated in which the miners agreed to allow the return of convicts to Coal Creek and Oliver Springs, but not Briceville, TCMC president B.A. Jenkins had grown disgruntled with convict labor. The state dispatched eighty-four militiamen under the command of J. Keller Anderson to guard the convict stockade at Coal Creek and a small force to guard the one at Oliver Springs. Anderson constructed Fort Anderson
atop what came to be known as "Militia Hill", overlooking Coal Creek via the Walden Ridge water gap, which was outfitted with a gatling gun
, and the convicts returned to the Coal Creek Valley on January 31, 1892.
Relations between the militiamen, most of whom were from Middle or West Tennessee, and the people of Coal Creek soured quickly. Merrell wrote to Governor Buchanan complaining of the troops' behavior, and for several months miners and soldiers indiscriminately shot at one another, with both sides blaming the other for provoking it. In the meantime, Merrell and TCMC president Jenkins had made amends, and the two began promoting a new cooperative style of mining operations favorable to both miners and managers. By Summer 1892, dozens of newspapers and magazines nationwide, including the New York Times, the Alabama Sentinel, and Harper's Weekly
, had sent correspondents to the Coal Creek region to cover the conflict. Sentiment was initially pro-miner, although as violent outbreaks continued and militiamen were killed, sentiment began to shift. The Nashville Banner
called the miners "thieves, robbers, ruffians, and outlaws," while the Chattanooga Republican accused the state legislature of being "inhuman." The two Knoxville papers, the Journal and the Tribune, initially praised the miners' decisiveness and derided the government's ineffectiveness, but their sentiments shifted after the stockades were burned in October 1891.
, and on August 15 removed the convicts from the TCI stockade at Innman in Marion County
. These actions reignited resentment in East Tennessee, and on August 17, a group of miners led by John Hatmaker attacked the TCI stockade at Oliver Springs, but were beaten back by the guards. Shortly afterward, a larger group of miners reconvened at the stockade, and its guards finally surrendered. The stockade was burned, and the convicts were put on a train and sent to Nashville. The following day, militia commander Keller Anderson was captured at Coal Creek, and the miners ordered Fort Anderson's second-in-command, Lieutenant
Perry Fyffe, to surrender. After Fyffe refused, the miners charged the fort, killing two militiamen, but failing to capture the position.
In response to this latest uprising, Governor Buchanan dispatched 583 militiamen under the command of General
Samuel T. Carnes to East Tennessee. He also ordered sheriffs of affected counties to form posses. Most county sheriffs— including the Anderson and Morgan sheriffs— ignored this order or made lackluster attempts to execute it, although several dozen volunteers were amassed in the Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville areas. A group of Knoxville volunteers marched to relieve the besieged Fort Anderson, but as they descended Walden Ridge, they were ambushed by a group of miners, killing two of the volunteers and sending the rest fleeing back toward Clinton
. Carnes arrived on August 19, and quickly restored order and obtained Anderson's release. He then initiated a sweep of the region from Coal Creek to Jellico, arresting hundreds of miners deemed assisting in the insurrection. The militia used the Briceville Community Church
as a temporary jail for those it arrested.
Peter Turney
instead. Buchanan still ran as a third party candidate, but Turney won the election easily, ending Buchanan's political career. Seeing that the state's financial gains from convict-leasing had been erased by having to keep the militia in the field, Turney and the legislature decided to let the TCI contract expire, and enacted legislation to build Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
and purchase land in Morgan County where convicts would mine coal directly for the state, rather than competing with free labor.
Anderson County judge W.R. Hicks oversaw the indictments of nearly 300 miners and other individuals associated with the Coal Creek uprisings. Many, including Eugene Merrell, fled the state before they could be charged or brought to trial. Nearly all who showed up in court were either acquitted or found guilty and fined. Only one trial ended with serious jail time— D.B. Monroe, sentenced to seven years after being vilified in the media as an "outsider" from Chattanooga who had come to Anderson County to spread his "anarchist" philosophy. Monroe was released after serving only two years.
The Coal Creek Watershed Foundation presently works to preserve the legacy of the Coal Creek War and its impact on the area, and has taken the initiative in locating the remains of Fort Anderson and several poorly-marked or unmarked convict graves near the old Knoxville Iron Company mine. Drummond's Trestle, the railroad bridge where miner Richard Drummond was hanged in 1893, still stands near the junction of Highway 116 and Lower Briceville Highway, and is the subject of a local legend regarding Drummond's ghost. Much of the land purchased by the state in 1896 for the construction of Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary is now part of Frozen Head State Park
.
The Coal Creek War provided inspiration for some of the earliest Appalachian coal mining protest music. Songs about the conflict include "Coal Creek Troubles," written in the wake of the conflict and recorded by Jilson Setters in 1937, and a banjo
tune called "Coal Creek March," which was recorded by Kentucky banjoist Pete Steele for the Library of Congress
in 1938 and is still popular among bluegrass
musicians. The song "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line", written and performed by Grand Ole Opry
pioneer Uncle Dave Macon
, was based on the Coal Creek War.
Anderson County, Tennessee
Anderson County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, its population is 75,129. Its county seat is Clinton.It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee, Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
, in the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state of Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, in the early 1890s. The struggle began in 1891 when coal mine
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
owners in the Coal Creek watershed attempted to replace free coal miners with convicts leased out
Convict lease
Convict leasing was a system of penal labor practiced in the Southern United States, beginning with the emancipation of slaves at the end of the American Civil War in 1865, peaking around 1880, and ending in the last state, Alabama, in 1928....
by the state government. Over a period of just over a year, the free miners continuously attacked and burned prison stockades and company buildings, hundreds of convicts were freed, and dozens of miners and militiamen were killed or wounded in small-arms skirmishes. One historian describes the conflict as "one of the most dramatic and significant episodes in all American labor history."
The Coal Creek War was part of a greater struggle across Tennessee against the state's controversial convict-leasing system, which allowed the state to lease its convicts to mining companies to compete with free labor. The outbreak of the conflict touched off a partisan media firestorm between the miners' supporters and detractors, and brought the issue of convict leasing to the public eye. Although the uprising essentially ended with the arrests of hundreds of miners in 1892, the publicity it generated led to the downfall of Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
John P. Buchanan
John P. Buchanan
John Price Buchanan was Governor of the U.S. State of Tennessee from 1891 to 1893. He was a native of Williamson County, Tennessee....
, and forced the state to reconsider the convict-leasing system. In 1896, when its convict-lease contracts expired, Tennessee's state government refused to renew them, making it one of the first Southern states
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
to end the controversial practice.
Geographical setting
Cumberland Mountains
The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in southern West Virginia, western Virginia, eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains...
, where the range gives way to the Tennessee Valley
Tennessee Valley
The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to northwest Georgia and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina...
. Coal Creek, a tributary of the Clinch River
Clinch River
The Clinch River rises in Southwest Virginia near Tazewell, Virginia and flows southwest through the Great Appalachian Valley, gathering various tributaries including the Powell River before joining the Tennessee River in East Tennessee.-Course:...
, flows north for several miles from its source in the mountains, slicing a narrow valley between the backbone-like Walden Ridge
Walden Ridge
Walden Ridge is a mountain ridge and escarpment located in Tennessee, in the United States. It marks the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau and is generally considered part of it. Walden Ridge is about long, running generally north-south...
on the east and Vowell Mountain to the west before exiting the mountains eastward through a water gap in Walden Ridge. A flank of Vowell Mountain known as "Militia Hill" overlooks this water gap.
Most of the violence centered around two communities— Briceville
Briceville, Tennessee
Briceville is an unincorporated community in Anderson County, Tennessee. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The community is named for railroad tycoon and one-term Democratic U.S. Senator Calvin S...
, at the upper end of Coal Creek near its source, and the town of Coal Creek, the modern Lake City
Lake City, Tennessee
Lake City is a town in Anderson and Campbell counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, northwest of Knoxville. The population was 1,888 at the 2000 census...
, at the lower end of the creek where it emerges from its Walden Ridge water gap. Other key events occurred some 15 miles (24.1 km) south of Coal Creek at Oliver Springs
Oliver Springs, Tennessee
Oliver Springs is a town in Anderson, Morgan, and Roane counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its population was 3,303 at the 2000 census. It is included in the "Harriman, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area", which consists of Roane County....
. A substantial number of sympathetic miners trekked southward from Jellico
Jellico, Tennessee
Jellico is a city in Campbell County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,448 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Jellico is located at . The city is situated amidst the Cumberland Mountains in the Elk Creek Valley, which runs perpendicular to the Tennessee-Kentucky state line...
, about twenty-five miles north of Coal Creek, and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
to join the uprising, and a parallel anti-leasing conflict took place in Grundy County and Marion County
Marion County, Tennessee
Marion County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 27,776. Its county seat is Jasper.Marion County is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:According to the U.S...
, about 100 miles (160.9 km) south of the Coal Creek area, in 1892. Coal Creek was connected to Kentucky and Knoxville by the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, and a spur line connected Coal Creek to Briceville.
Background
After the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Tennessee, like other Southern states, struggled to find sources of revenue. Post-war railroad construction, meanwhile, had opened up the state's coalfields to major mining operations, creating a large demand for cheap labor. In 1866, the state began leasing its convicts to companies willing to pay for the inmates' housing in exchange for their labor, and began leasing convicts to the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railway Company (TCI), which operated a large coal and coke operation in the Cumberland Plateau area west of Chattanooga, in 1871. TCI in turn subleased most of the convicts to smaller mining companies. While there was some resistance among free miners to the use of convict laborers in the 1870s, the abundance of jobs and companies' preference for the higher-quality production of free labor eased the miners' concerns.
During the same period, the Coal Creek Valley developed into one of the state's most lucrative coal mining regions. The town of Coal Creek expanded rapidly, becoming the largest city in Anderson County with a population of 3,000 by the end of the 1870s. Coal mines sprang up throughout the valley between Coal Creek and Briceville, the latter of which was founded as a mining town in the late 1880s. Most of the mines were established by companies who were leasing land from the Coal Creek Mining & Manufacturing Company, which had been formed by Edward J. Sanford
Edward J. Sanford
Edward Jackson Sanford was an American manufacturing tycoon and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th century...
and several other land speculators after the Civil War. As the mining companies reaped substantial profits, however, the miners themselves often struggled economically, and began to organize themselves in the 1880s. While the mine owners preferred free labor, they threatened to replace free miners with convict labor whenever free miners threatened to unionize. Still, by the late 1880s, only two mining operations in Anderson County— the Knoxville Iron Company
Knoxville Iron Company
The Knoxville Iron Company was an iron production and coal mining company that operated primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, and its vicinity, in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The company was Knoxville's first major post-Civil War manufacturing firm, and played a key role in bringing heavy...
mine at Coal Creek and the Cumberland Coal Company's "Big Mountain" mine at Oliver Springs— were using primarily convict labor.
Initial outbreak
Scrip
Scrip is an American term for any substitute for currency which is not legal tender and is often a form of credit. Scrips were created as company payment of employees and also as a means of payment in times where regular money is unavailable, such as remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long...
, the latter of which could only be spent at a company-owned store where prices were marked up or redeemed for a percentage of its value. The miners also demanded they be allowed to use their own checkweighmen— the specialists who weighed the coal and determined how much a particular miner had earned— rather than checkweighmen hired by the company. Since state laws already barred scrip payment and company-hired checkweighmen, most mine owners accepted the miners' demands, even though they were in the midst of an economic downturn. The Tennessee Coal Mining Company, or TCMC, however, which operated a mine near Briceville, rejected the demands, and on April 1, 1891, shut down operations. Two months later, the company demanded its miners sign an iron-clad contract before returning to work. The miners refused.
On July 5, TCMC reopened its Briceville mine with convicts it had leased from TCI. With tensions already heightened, the company tore down several miners' houses in Briceville to build a stockade
Stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.-Stockade as a security fence:...
to house the convict laborers. Several miners and local merchants met on the evening of July 14 to determine a course of action and it was rumored that a larger group of convicts would arrive on July 15. Later that night, 300 armed miners— probably led by Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...
organizers Eugene Merrell, George Irish
George Irish
James Alfred George Patrick Irish, generally known as George Irish or J. A. George Irish, is a Montserratian academic, community leader and activist....
, and Marcena Ingraham— surrounded the Briceville stockade. After the stockade's guards surrendered without a fight, the convicts were marched to Coal Creek, where they were loaded onto a train and sent to Knoxville.
Governor's response
Fraterville, Tennessee
Fraterville, Tennessee is an unincorporated community located on State Route 116 in Anderson County, Tennessee, between the towns of Lake City and Briceville...
, several hundred angry miners confronted the governor and demanded he address them. Buchanan told the miners he was a champion of labor, but as governor he was obligated to enforce the laws, and pleaded for calm and patience. After the governor's speech, Merrell refuted him, claiming the governor had not bothered to enforce laws regarding scrip or checkweighmen, and called the state government a "disgrace to a civilized country." Later that night, shots were fired at the stockade, startling the governor, who had remained in the area until the following day. The governor left 107 militiamen under Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Granville Sevier, a great-grandson of John Sevier
John Sevier
John Sevier served four years as the only governor of the State of Franklin and twelve years as Governor of Tennessee. As a U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1811 until his death...
, to guard the stockade.
On the morning of July 20, an estimated 2,000 miners armed with shotguns, rifles, and pistols again surrounded the Briceville stockade. The miners' ranks had been bolstered by an influx of miners from the border town of Jellico and several hundred miners from Kentucky, some of whom had successfully removed convicts from two Kentucky mines five years earlier. After gaining an assurance that no company property would be damaged, Sevier, seeing the futility of resisting such a large force, surrendered. The miners again marched the convicts to Coal Creek, and put them on a train back to Knoxville. Later that day, the miners marched on the Knoxville Iron Company mine near Coal Creek, which also used convict labor, forced the guards at its stockade to surrender, and likewise sent its convicts to Knoxville.
Truce and legislative action
William Rule (American editor)
William Rule was an American newspaper editor and politician, best known as the founder of the Knoxville Journal, which was published in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1870 until 1991. A protégé of vitriolic newspaper editor William G...
, and United Mine Workers organizer William Webb. On July 23, Williams and Webb went to Coal Creek to address the miners, echoing the governor's plea for patience. Williams assured the miners that the governor supported an end to convict-leasing, but said it would take time to change the law. The miners thus agreed to a 60-day truce after the governor assured them he would call a special session of the Tennessee state legislature and recommend the lease law be repealed. The convict laborers returned on July 25. During the truce, Merrell and Irish travelled around the state, giving speeches to rally support for the miners' cause.
On August 31, Buchanan called a special session of the state legislature to consider the convict lease issue. One question before the legislature was whether or not the state could terminate the leasing contract it had signed, which didn't expire until December 31, 1895. Another issue was what to do with convicts should the convict-leasing system be terminated. After three weeks of debate, the legislature adjourned on September 21, taking little action other than making it a felony to interfere with the leasing system and authorizing the governor to take any necessary action to protect the system. After this setback, the miners held out hope with the state's court system, which considered a case brought by the Tennessee Commissioner of Labor, George Ford, who claimed the poor conditions in which the inmates worked and lived violated state law. The case moved quickly through the courts, reaching the Tennessee State Supreme Court in October 1891. Chief Justice Peter Turney
Peter Turney
Peter Turney was governor of the U.S. state of Tennessee from 1893 to 1897.- Biography :Prior to becoming governor, Turney was a prominent attorney in Winchester, Tennessee, practicing law with his father, and a Confederate colonel in the Civil War...
, however, ruled against the miners, essentially citing the sanctity of contracts.
Burning of stockades and establishment of Fort Anderson
Fort Anderson
Fort Anderson can refer to:*Fort Anderson — A Union fort used in the American Civil War and site of the Battle of Paducah, Kentucky*Fort Anderson — A Confederate fort used in the American Civil War...
atop what came to be known as "Militia Hill", overlooking Coal Creek via the Walden Ridge water gap, which was outfitted with a gatling gun
Gatling gun
The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. It is well known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat...
, and the convicts returned to the Coal Creek Valley on January 31, 1892.
Relations between the militiamen, most of whom were from Middle or West Tennessee, and the people of Coal Creek soured quickly. Merrell wrote to Governor Buchanan complaining of the troops' behavior, and for several months miners and soldiers indiscriminately shot at one another, with both sides blaming the other for provoking it. In the meantime, Merrell and TCMC president Jenkins had made amends, and the two began promoting a new cooperative style of mining operations favorable to both miners and managers. By Summer 1892, dozens of newspapers and magazines nationwide, including the New York Times, the Alabama Sentinel, and Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor...
, had sent correspondents to the Coal Creek region to cover the conflict. Sentiment was initially pro-miner, although as violent outbreaks continued and militiamen were killed, sentiment began to shift. The Nashville Banner
Nashville Banner
The Nashville Banner is a defunct daily newspaper of Nashville, Tennessee, United States, which published from April 10, 1876 until February 20, 1998...
called the miners "thieves, robbers, ruffians, and outlaws," while the Chattanooga Republican accused the state legislature of being "inhuman." The two Knoxville papers, the Journal and the Tribune, initially praised the miners' decisiveness and derided the government's ineffectiveness, but their sentiments shifted after the stockades were burned in October 1891.
Attack on Fort Anderson and the miners' arrests
While the East Tennessee mining companies were moving away from convict labor, the state's primary lessee, TCI, remained stalwartly dedicated to using convict leasing at its south Tennessee mines. When Cumberland Coal balked at using convicts at its Oliver Springs mine, TCI purchased the mine's lease, giving it a direct foothold in the Anderson County coalfields. As the company minimized the work of its free laborers, however, tensions steadily rose. On August 13, 1892, free miners in Grundy County tore down the TCI stockade in Tracy CityTracy City, Tennessee
Tracy City is a town in Grundy County, Tennessee, United States. Incorporated in 1915, the population was 1,481 at the 2010 census. Named after Benjamin Franklin Tracy, the city developed out of railroad and mining interests after coal was found in 1840. Tracy City is also home to the oldest family...
, and on August 15 removed the convicts from the TCI stockade at Innman in Marion County
Marion County, Tennessee
Marion County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 27,776. Its county seat is Jasper.Marion County is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:According to the U.S...
. These actions reignited resentment in East Tennessee, and on August 17, a group of miners led by John Hatmaker attacked the TCI stockade at Oliver Springs, but were beaten back by the guards. Shortly afterward, a larger group of miners reconvened at the stockade, and its guards finally surrendered. The stockade was burned, and the convicts were put on a train and sent to Nashville. The following day, militia commander Keller Anderson was captured at Coal Creek, and the miners ordered Fort Anderson's second-in-command, Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Perry Fyffe, to surrender. After Fyffe refused, the miners charged the fort, killing two militiamen, but failing to capture the position.
In response to this latest uprising, Governor Buchanan dispatched 583 militiamen under the command of General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Samuel T. Carnes to East Tennessee. He also ordered sheriffs of affected counties to form posses. Most county sheriffs— including the Anderson and Morgan sheriffs— ignored this order or made lackluster attempts to execute it, although several dozen volunteers were amassed in the Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville areas. A group of Knoxville volunteers marched to relieve the besieged Fort Anderson, but as they descended Walden Ridge, they were ambushed by a group of miners, killing two of the volunteers and sending the rest fleeing back toward Clinton
Clinton, Tennessee
Clinton is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 9,409 at the United States Census, 2000. It is the county seat of Anderson County. Clinton is included in the "Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area".-Geography:...
. Carnes arrived on August 19, and quickly restored order and obtained Anderson's release. He then initiated a sweep of the region from Coal Creek to Jellico, arresting hundreds of miners deemed assisting in the insurrection. The militia used the Briceville Community Church
Briceville Community Church
The Briceville Community Church is a nondenominational church located in Briceville, Tennessee, USA. Built in 1887, the church served as a center of social life and community affairs for the Coal Creek Valley during the valley's coal mining boom period in the late-19th and early-20th centuries...
as a temporary jail for those it arrested.
Aftermath
Carnes' sweep of the Coal Creek Valley largely ended the Coal Creek War, although a failed attack on the TCI stockade at Tracy City in April 1893 and the militia's hanging of miner Richard Drummond, who had killed a soldier in a brawl, from a railroad bridge near Briceville in August 1893 threatened to reignite the violence. Governor Buchanan, attacked by both miners and mine owners alike for his indecisiveness, failed to win his party's nomination for governor in 1892, the state's Democrats choosing Chief JusticeChief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
Peter Turney
Peter Turney
Peter Turney was governor of the U.S. state of Tennessee from 1893 to 1897.- Biography :Prior to becoming governor, Turney was a prominent attorney in Winchester, Tennessee, practicing law with his father, and a Confederate colonel in the Civil War...
instead. Buchanan still ran as a third party candidate, but Turney won the election easily, ending Buchanan's political career. Seeing that the state's financial gains from convict-leasing had been erased by having to keep the militia in the field, Turney and the legislature decided to let the TCI contract expire, and enacted legislation to build Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary last named Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex was a large maximum-security prison near the town of Petros in Morgan County, Tennessee, operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction...
and purchase land in Morgan County where convicts would mine coal directly for the state, rather than competing with free labor.
Anderson County judge W.R. Hicks oversaw the indictments of nearly 300 miners and other individuals associated with the Coal Creek uprisings. Many, including Eugene Merrell, fled the state before they could be charged or brought to trial. Nearly all who showed up in court were either acquitted or found guilty and fined. Only one trial ended with serious jail time— D.B. Monroe, sentenced to seven years after being vilified in the media as an "outsider" from Chattanooga who had come to Anderson County to spread his "anarchist" philosophy. Monroe was released after serving only two years.
Legacy
Frozen Head State Park
Frozen Head State Park and Natural Area is a state park in Morgan County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park, situated in the Crab Orchard Mountains between the city of Wartburg and the community of Petros, contains some of the highest mountains in Tennessee west of the Blue...
.
The Coal Creek War provided inspiration for some of the earliest Appalachian coal mining protest music. Songs about the conflict include "Coal Creek Troubles," written in the wake of the conflict and recorded by Jilson Setters in 1937, and a banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
tune called "Coal Creek March," which was recorded by Kentucky banjoist Pete Steele for the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in 1938 and is still popular among bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
musicians. The song "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line", written and performed by Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
pioneer Uncle Dave Macon
Uncle Dave Macon
Uncle Dave Macon , born David Harrison Macon—also known as "The Dixie Dewdrop"—was an American banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian...
, was based on the Coal Creek War.
External links
- Coal Creek Watershed Foundation
- Coal Creek Troubles — lyrics to the folk song inspired by the Coal Creek War