During the Great War, miners had been exempt from the draft. America needed all the coal she could get to fire the boilers of troop carriers and battleships, the forges of steel mills and gun factories. Still, tens of thousands of mining men volunteered, same as her grandboy had. West Virginia had more volunteers per person than any state in the union. Shooting at Baldwins was one thing—the miners weren’t about to shoot at American troops.
