You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Saturday April 25, 1914
From The Lincoln Star: Armed Strikers Ready for Battle Against Colorado Guards
Armed Strikers at Camp Beshoar, Near Trinidad
A report from last evening's edition of
The Lincoln Star:
THOUSAND MINERS AWAITING TROOPS
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Scene of Recent Civil War Finds Both Sides Preparing for Fighting
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Trinidad, Colo., April 24.-General John Chase, who reached Walsenburg with the first train bearing troops into the strike zone shortly after 1 o'clock this morning, later abandoned his plan of detraining there and marching into the strike zone. With soldiers posted on top of the box cars the special train, consisting of eight box cars, a baggage car, ten coaches and a caboose moved slowly south at 7 o'clock in the direction of the rugged hills near Munson and Rugby, where an armed force, estimated at 1,000, is believed to be massed waiting to open an attack.
The entire force will be kept together, General Chase said on leaving Walsenburg, until the disturbed district is reached. Developments will determine their distribution.
Provisions are running low among the strikers, and leaders say if it becomes necessary in order to secure food for their men, they will take provisions from company stores at Aguilar and vicinity.
While the fighting was raging at the mines all about Aguilar, no disturbances of any sort occurred in the town. The strikers of the Aguilar district are now believed to have moved north in the direction of Rugby where another large body is said to be stationed in the hills today.
At 3 o'clock the strikers were roused by the clanging of a bell. An outpost had seen a light which he supposed to be the headlight of the engine on the troop train. All preparations for an attack had been completed when it was learned that a mistake had been made.
A series of signal shots in the hills shortly after 4 o'clock indicate that the armed men have taken up a position over an area extending from Munson south to Rugby station, a distance of over five miles.
At 9 o'clock it was reported here that the troop train had halted near Munson and the troops were detraining. Cavalrymen were said to be scouting.
Fourteen Are Buried.
Fifteen hundred silent, grim visaged men, sobbing women and awe-stricken children crowded in front of the Holy Trinity church today while open air funeral services were held for fourteen victims of the Ludlow fire. Two heavy trucks draped in black conveyed the flower laden caskets from the morgue to the church and Catholic cemetery.
The
Star fails to mention that General Chase could not detrain in Trinidad, nor occupy his usual headquarters in Trinidad, for that town is now in complete control of the miners who have established their military headquarters at "Camp Beshoar" on the grounds of the San Rafael Hospital which not long ago served as a "Military Bastille" for that most famous prisoner, Mother Jones. The strikers also control much of the countryside around Ludlow and Walsenburg, and part of the town of Walsenburg.
The militia now has control of the area around Ludlow-trapped there, one might say. The militia also controls the area north of Ludlow along the railroad line into Walsenburg.
Hellraisers will cover the funerals of the Martyrs of Ludlow in more detail in tomorrow's edition.
SOURCES
The Lincoln Star
(Lincoln, Nebraska)
-of Apr 24, 1914
-evening newspaper
Blood Passion
The Ludlow Massacre and Class War
In the American West
-Scott Martelle
Rutgers U Press, 2008
Photo: Armed Miners at Camp Beshoar
http://www.du.edu/...
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Hold the Fort-One of Labor's Oldest Songs
We meet today in Freedom's Cause,
And raise our voices high;
We'll join our hands in union strong,
To battle or to die.
Hold the fort for we are coming-
Union men, be strong.
Side by side we battle onward,
Victory will come.
Look, my Comrades, see the union
Banners waving high.
Reinforcements now appearing,
Victory is nigh.
See our numbers still increasing;
Hear the bugle blow.
By our union we shall triumph
Over every foe.
Fierce and long the battle rages,
But we will not fear.
Help will come when'er it's needed,
Cheer, my Comrades, cheer.
Hold the fort for we are coming-
Union men, be strong.
Side by side we battle onward,
Victory will come.
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