Now, (Sid) Hatfield promised to protect miners who joined the union.

On the rainy morning of May 19, 1920, 13 Baldwin-Felts detectives arrived by train in Matewan led by Albert Felts and his brother Lee. Almost immediately, the detectives began evicting families from houses owned by the Stone Mountain Coal Company. Word of the evictions spread quickly.

As the detectives returned to the train depot, they were met by Sid Hatfield and a group of armed miners.

Lon Savage: "Sid approached the Felts brothers, tried to place them under arrest. They tried to place him under arrest. Around them were miners with guns trained, ready to fight."

Dixie Accord: "I was not there when the first shot was fired. My grandmother realized there was gonna be trouble. She sent me home. I had walked up the railroad into my grandmother's home and had put my foot on the first step when there's a thousand shots fired. It sounds like war had begin. And I run through, and my aunt was there, and I said, 'Oh, Vinnie, Matewan has blowed up.' I thought everybody was murdered. And we run to the back, and you could see the back end of Matewan and you could see Tug River in that bend of the road there. Over a hundred people run out of the city of Matewan and swum that river into Kentucky."

Narrator: When the shooting stopped, seven detectives, including both Felts brothers and two miners, lay dead. Also killed was Cabell Testerman, a plump jewelry store owner who was the town's mayor.

As the five o'clock train pulled in, shocked passengers stared at all the bodies. A bloody stream flowed down the street.

Savage: "The story of the Matewan battle was called into the union office in Charleston. And one of the union officers held his own hand and danced around. He was so happy to hear it."

Papers found on Al Felts revealed a plan to bribe Sid Hatfield to turn against the union. Hatfield, whose hat was shot off in the fight, boasted that he had killed all the detectives. When he was charged with murder, Sid said he hadn't shot anyone.