Hawk1981
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Miners in the Southern Colorado coal fields went on strike in September, 1913. Anticipating that the strikers would be evicted from company towns, the United Mine Workers Union had leased property to erect tent communities to house striking workers and their families along the roads leading to the coal mines where the miners could demonstrate and prevent strike-breakers from reaching the mines.
The largest of the tent communities was built adjacent to the small town of Ludlow, 18 miles north of Trinidad, Colorado. The community consisted of about 900 tents housing 1,200 men, women and children. The tents were equipped with stoves and erected on platforms. Many of the residents dug cellars beneath the platforms for extra space and for protection from the random sniper fire directed at the camp by company guards.
Miners' Families at Ludlow, Colorado
The list of demands requested by the union and rejected by the mining companies were fairly modest, including: Recognition of the union as the bargaining agent; compensation for digging coal at the 2,000 pound US ton rate instead of the 2,200 pound 'long' ton rate; enforcement of Colorado's eight hour work day law; payment of so-called dead work that was incidental to mining, including laying track, timbering mines and handling impurities; election of weight-checkmen by the miners; the right to use non-company stores, doctors and boarding houses; strict enforcement of Colorado's mine safety rules, abolition of company scrip, and an end to the company guard system.
The largest mining company in the area, and the primary target of the strike was the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) owned by the John D. Rockefeller family. Conditions at the mines in Colorado's southern coal field had been especially poor in the years leading up to the strike as noted in this post strike summary by the US House Committee on Mines and Mining, "Colorado has good mining laws and such that ought to afford protection to the miners as to safety in the mine if they were enforced, yet in this state the percentage of fatalities is larger than any other, showing there is undoubtedly something wrong in the management of its coal mines."
Besides being the largest coal mining company, CF&I was known for its harsh management tactics and for employing the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency and its guards with its reputation for aggressive and brutal strike breaking. Guards would routinely shine spotlights into the tent communities at night and fire random shots into the tents which occasionally killed and injured people. The CF&I company built an armored car at their Pueblo, Colorado iron works equipped with a machine gun and used it to patrol the perimeters around the striker's communities. The strikers called the car the "Death Special".
The "Death Special" Armored Car
Confrontations between the strikers and company guards had increased with a few deaths and injuries on both sides causing the Colorado governor to call in the state's National Guard. Welcomed by both sides for calming the situation, the Governor was more sympathetic to the mining companies and this sympathy was reflected in the orders to the militia troops. A CF&I mine manager referred to Colorado's Governor as "our little cowboy governor." Enforcing an uneasy peace through the winter, most of the National Guard units had been sent home by the next spring. Of the two uniformed militia units left patrolling the camps, one was largely made up of Baldwin-Felts men and camp guards under the employ of CF&I, with wages paid by the company.
On the morning of April 20, 1914, a meeting between three Guardsmen and the leaders of the Ludlow camp turned into a confrontation with three of the miners' leaders being murdered. Machine guns were brought into position on the perimeter of the camp and began shooting. Some of the miners fired back and the gunfight continued through the day. Additional company guards joined the fight late in the afternoon. A passing freight train stopped along the tracks between the Ludlow camp and the machine gunners allowed most of the miners and their families to escape to a rocky outcropping on the east side of the camp. In the evening company guards and militia men moved into the camp to loot and set the tents on fire.
Ludlow Camp Following the Fire
The immediate result of the "Ludlow Massacre" was the deaths of at least 19 miners and family members (some accounts claim up to 25), including 11 children, most of whom died in the cellar of a tent that was set on fire. Four company guards were killed.
In the aftermath of the fight at Ludlow, miners armed themselves and attacked company guards and National Guardsmen at mines in the coalfields in the 40 miles between Walsenburg and Trinidad, Colorado, destroying mining company property and mines, resulting in up to 199 deaths in the next ten days. This labor uprising known as the "Colorado Coalfield War" is the deadliest strike in US history.
At the State Capitol building in Denver, 5,000 people protesting the incident at Ludlow demanded that the National Guard troops be charged with murder and the Governor charged as an accessory. Railroad workers in Trinidad refused to move trains carrying militia to Ludlow. Eight-two men in a militia unit in Denver refused to board a train declaring that they would not shoot women and children. Hundreds of workers in Denver and Colorado Springs left their jobs to head south to fight alongside the miners. Garment workers in Denver voted to send nurses to help the miners.
At the request of Colorado's Governor, President Wilson sent federal troops to quell the violence and disarm the striking miners and the company guards. Arrests were made among the strikers and among the militia, but primarily among the strikers. The strike was called off in December, 1914, when the union ran out of funds. None of the strike's objectives were met.
Indictments were brought against 332 striking miners for murder, but in the end, the only conviction was overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Among the National Guardsmen, there were twenty-two court-martialed, with only one conviction for assault, and that penalty being a reprimand.
The largest of the tent communities was built adjacent to the small town of Ludlow, 18 miles north of Trinidad, Colorado. The community consisted of about 900 tents housing 1,200 men, women and children. The tents were equipped with stoves and erected on platforms. Many of the residents dug cellars beneath the platforms for extra space and for protection from the random sniper fire directed at the camp by company guards.
Miners' Families at Ludlow, Colorado
The list of demands requested by the union and rejected by the mining companies were fairly modest, including: Recognition of the union as the bargaining agent; compensation for digging coal at the 2,000 pound US ton rate instead of the 2,200 pound 'long' ton rate; enforcement of Colorado's eight hour work day law; payment of so-called dead work that was incidental to mining, including laying track, timbering mines and handling impurities; election of weight-checkmen by the miners; the right to use non-company stores, doctors and boarding houses; strict enforcement of Colorado's mine safety rules, abolition of company scrip, and an end to the company guard system.
The largest mining company in the area, and the primary target of the strike was the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) owned by the John D. Rockefeller family. Conditions at the mines in Colorado's southern coal field had been especially poor in the years leading up to the strike as noted in this post strike summary by the US House Committee on Mines and Mining, "Colorado has good mining laws and such that ought to afford protection to the miners as to safety in the mine if they were enforced, yet in this state the percentage of fatalities is larger than any other, showing there is undoubtedly something wrong in the management of its coal mines."
Besides being the largest coal mining company, CF&I was known for its harsh management tactics and for employing the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency and its guards with its reputation for aggressive and brutal strike breaking. Guards would routinely shine spotlights into the tent communities at night and fire random shots into the tents which occasionally killed and injured people. The CF&I company built an armored car at their Pueblo, Colorado iron works equipped with a machine gun and used it to patrol the perimeters around the striker's communities. The strikers called the car the "Death Special".
The "Death Special" Armored Car
Confrontations between the strikers and company guards had increased with a few deaths and injuries on both sides causing the Colorado governor to call in the state's National Guard. Welcomed by both sides for calming the situation, the Governor was more sympathetic to the mining companies and this sympathy was reflected in the orders to the militia troops. A CF&I mine manager referred to Colorado's Governor as "our little cowboy governor." Enforcing an uneasy peace through the winter, most of the National Guard units had been sent home by the next spring. Of the two uniformed militia units left patrolling the camps, one was largely made up of Baldwin-Felts men and camp guards under the employ of CF&I, with wages paid by the company.
On the morning of April 20, 1914, a meeting between three Guardsmen and the leaders of the Ludlow camp turned into a confrontation with three of the miners' leaders being murdered. Machine guns were brought into position on the perimeter of the camp and began shooting. Some of the miners fired back and the gunfight continued through the day. Additional company guards joined the fight late in the afternoon. A passing freight train stopped along the tracks between the Ludlow camp and the machine gunners allowed most of the miners and their families to escape to a rocky outcropping on the east side of the camp. In the evening company guards and militia men moved into the camp to loot and set the tents on fire.
Ludlow Camp Following the Fire
The immediate result of the "Ludlow Massacre" was the deaths of at least 19 miners and family members (some accounts claim up to 25), including 11 children, most of whom died in the cellar of a tent that was set on fire. Four company guards were killed.
In the aftermath of the fight at Ludlow, miners armed themselves and attacked company guards and National Guardsmen at mines in the coalfields in the 40 miles between Walsenburg and Trinidad, Colorado, destroying mining company property and mines, resulting in up to 199 deaths in the next ten days. This labor uprising known as the "Colorado Coalfield War" is the deadliest strike in US history.
At the State Capitol building in Denver, 5,000 people protesting the incident at Ludlow demanded that the National Guard troops be charged with murder and the Governor charged as an accessory. Railroad workers in Trinidad refused to move trains carrying militia to Ludlow. Eight-two men in a militia unit in Denver refused to board a train declaring that they would not shoot women and children. Hundreds of workers in Denver and Colorado Springs left their jobs to head south to fight alongside the miners. Garment workers in Denver voted to send nurses to help the miners.
At the request of Colorado's Governor, President Wilson sent federal troops to quell the violence and disarm the striking miners and the company guards. Arrests were made among the strikers and among the militia, but primarily among the strikers. The strike was called off in December, 1914, when the union ran out of funds. None of the strike's objectives were met.
Indictments were brought against 332 striking miners for murder, but in the end, the only conviction was overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Among the National Guardsmen, there were twenty-two court-martialed, with only one conviction for assault, and that penalty being a reprimand.
