The newspaper article above lays the groundwork for understanding the “Battle of Virden” fifteen months later on October 12, 1898. The article speaks to the plight of the 40,000 coal miners in Illinois – their suffering and destitution – caused by a continuous lessening of the wage paid to them by the coal operators. And it compares the domestic situation to America’s concerns in Cuba – an argument that still resonates in the United States concerning foreign aid and military engagement. 

The “Battle of Virden” was a defining moment in the Illinois coal fields and in the American labor movement. 

In 1897 the largest coal mine in Illinois was in Virden and operated by the Chicago-Virden Coal Company, based there. At the time some four hundred miners worked at 7-foot seam located 300 feet below the surface.

In the 1880s miners were being paid 80 cents per ton. But in 1897 that rate had dropped to 32.5 cents per ton. Against the recalcitrance and greed of the nation’s coal operators the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), which had recently formed in 1890, called a national strike on July 4, 1897 to raise the rate to 55 cents per ton. This why the NYT article above refers to “idle” miners. 

As a result of the strike, coal operators by and large accepted the 40 cents per ton scale wage with a contract that went into effect on April 1, 1898. Indeed, 776 of 800 coal mines accepted the deal. But the C-VCC and 23 other mines refused to comply.

Although the UMWA did not have a large membership, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company mine and the Mt. Olive mine – both in Macoupin county – were union. On April 1, 1898 the C-VCC locked out its miners who refused to work for less than 40 cents per ton. This is an important point. This was not a strike by miners. It was a lock-out by coal operators.

The State of Illinois Arbitration Board ruled in favor of the miners but the decision was not binding. By July 4, 1898 the miners had been out of work for an entire year with no end in sight.

In early Fall 1898 the C-VCC decided to replace its local miners with cheap imported African American labor recruited from Alabama. They would be paid 30 cents per ton. 105 African Americans miners, 100 members of their families, and 75 well-armed guards were put on a train headed for the C-VCC mine. Fred Lukens, the C-VCC mine operator, regarded the African Americans as replacement miners. The local miners, obviously, saw them as scabs. Lukens anticipated trouble from the local miners and wanted Governor Tanner to send in troops to protect the mine. Tanner refused to intervene on behalf of the coal company. But Lukens persisted.

On October 12, 1898 the train headed for the wood stockade the C-VCC had built around its mine operation. Some 1,200 armed local miners waited for its approach. Approximately 200 coal company armed guards were on the train, in the stockade, and positioned on the towers of the stockade, which gave them a direct line of fire toward the local miners outside. It isn’t known who fired the first shot but a 15-minute gun battle ensued. More than a dozen men lay dead or dying. 

Two historic photographs are inserted below.

A commonly discussed issue is the Whites vs. Blacks dynamic in Virden. It is important to know that ten to fifteen African American miners, resident in town, worked alongside White miners at Virden and approximately 20% of the UMWA at this time was African American. The local miners were not shooting at the cowering African Americans on the train, whose recruitment had duped them. The local miners were shooting at the White mine guards who were shooting at them. This was not a race riot and thus it was very different from the almost contemporary racial situation in Pana and Carterville.

Eight miners were killed (four of whom were from Mt. Olive) as well as five mine guards. On both sides there also were non-fatal gun injuries. One month later the C-VCC capitulated to the union wage scale of 40 cents per ton. 

Following the battle, Governor Tanner sent in the National Guard or militia to disarm everyone, send outsiders home, and close the saloons. Martial law was in effect for several weeks with the presence of the state troops. Governor Tanner did not seek re-election and died in 1901. Grateful Virden miners played a significant role in his funeral.

There were multiple significant legacies of the Battle of Virden:
(1) Membership in the UMWA skyrocketed because miners saw what the union could do for them.  Illinois quickly became the best-organized union mining state in the country and the United Mine Workers went on to effectively organize coal mines in other mining states.

Victory in the strike of 1897 brought the United Mine Workers of America to real life. Membership rose from 11,000 in 1897 to 25,000 in 1898, to 54,000 in 1899, and to 91,000 in 1900. The greatest gain took place in Illinois, which John Mitchell, first as vice-president and, after September, 1898, as president of the union, made his special province. There membership jumped from a handful [400] at the time of the strike to 30,000, almost eighty-five per cent of all the men employed in and about the mines of the state, by the end of 1898. (Paul Angle, Bloody Williamson, pages 95-96, University of Illinois Press, 1952)

(2)  The eight-hour day and the six-day week were part of the settlement

(3) The Union Miners Cemetery was created in Mt. Olive and later was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its origin in the dramatic labor battle as well as the notables buried there.

(4) Mother Jones gave the keynote address at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Virden held in the Union Miners Cemetery (and only a few years before her death in 1930). She was so moved she requested to be buried there, near the heroes of the Battle of Virden – and thus the Union Miners Cemetery holds the remains of one of the most iconic figures in the American labor movement. As well, in 1936 the Progressive Miners of America (the breakaway union from the UMWA) erected a huge monument to Mother Jones in the cemetery.

(5) Miners Day, celebrated on October 12, is held every year, the date referring to the Battle of Virden.

CLICK to listen to John Alexander’s presentation about the Battle of Virden, introduced by Professor Helaine Silverman. CLICK to watch John Alexander’s presentation of the Union Miners Cemetery.

WATCH OUR BATTLE OF VIRDEN WEBINAR (recorded December 7, 2023), a collaboration between the Mythic Mississippi Project of the University of Illinois and the Union Miners Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, with the much appreciated assistance of ICOMOS-USA: CLICK HERE

Also watch Joann Condellone speak about the labor heritage of the Battle of Virden in a separate presentation: CLICK

On October 13, 2024 the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Virden was celebrated at the Union Miners Cemetery in Mt. Olive, where a memorial honors the martyrs of that day. During this Miners Day celebration at the cemetery, UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts was the keynote speaker. He, Mother Jones (portrayed by Loretta Williams) and General Bradley (portrayed by Dale Hawkins) laid a wreath at the memorial.