Redneck Blood Feud In the Appalachians: The Hatfields Vs. The McCoys

     Blood feuds occur in areas of the world with little government oversight and a weak or non-existent police force. Taking the life of a member from a rival family in exchange for a murder might be the only type of justice available when crimes are committed in regions isolated from the law. Such a region is the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River that separates West Virginia from Kentucky. At the end of the Civil War, the Hatfield family occupied some farmland on the West Virginia side and the McCoy’s lived across the tributary on the Kentucky side. Both families sent soldiers to fight with the Confederate army and they lived peacefully near each other, sometimes doing business together and socializing as well. By the end of the Civil War, that peace no longer held.

     One member of the McCoy family, however, chose to fight with the Union. This was Asa Harmon McCoy who joined the 45^th Kentucky Infantry in 1863. This Union soldier may or may not have been the first casualty in the Hatfield – McCoy conflict that elevated to a war a few years later. One reason he may not have been the first casualty in the feud is because Devil Anse Hatfield, the patriarch of the Hatfields, claimed he shot William McCoy, Asa Harmon’s brother and Union soldier, sometime earlier in the Civil War. This has never been verified.

     William McCoy was the head of a Scotch-Irish extended family that immigrated to America in the earlier part of the century. They settled in the wilderness of the Appalachians and began farming and making moonshine. Devil Anse and the Hatfields had settled on the opposite bank of the Tug Fork; they too made their living by agriculture and illegal liquor. The Hatfields were more prosperous and had some loose connections with the government. Those connections were not strong enough to prevent the bloody conflict that would later ensue.

     Towards the end of the Civil War, Asa Harmon McCoy got shot in the chest and died in a hospital. Legends were later told that Devil Anse Hatfield was the one who put the bullet in Asa Harmon’s heart. The story is apocryphal. Hospital records state that he was shot during a skirmish with a band of rebel guerillas but Devil Anse Hatfield was, according to documents, laying in a hospital bed at the time of that fight after getting shot in the leg during a previous attack.

     But the death of Asa Harmon McCoy is neither here nor there in regards to the Hatfield – McCoy Feud even though some people say it was the first murder of the families’ conflict. During times of war, soldiers shoot and kill members of the opposing force without knowing who they are as individuals. That is just the way it goes. But still the legend persists that Devil Anse Hatfield’s friend Mose Christian Cline was shot by Asa Harmon McCoy in retaliation for the killing of William McCoy. Some also say that Jim Vance, another friend of Devil Anse Hatfield probably murdered Asa Harmon McCoy to get revenge for the shooting of Mose Chrsitian Cline. Maybe the full truth will never be known.

     After the Civil War ended. The two families had no problems. Then passions got riled up in 1878 during a dispute over a stray pig. To make their domestic animals easy to identify, the McCoys cut notches into the right ears of all the animals they owned. A hog with a notched ear was discovered by Randolph McCoy to be in the care of Floyd Hatfield, a cousin of Devil Anse’s. The two farmers could not resolve the argument on their own so they took the case to court. The Justice Of the Peace for the trial was Anderson “Preacher Anse” Hatfield, another member of the Hatfield family. Bill Staton, a relative of both families, acted as the star witness and his testimony made Preacher Anse Hatfield rule in favor of his own family. Floyd Hatfield took the pig back to his property.

     Two years later, when Bill Staton was walking in the woods, he encountered Sam and Parris McCoy who were also out for a hike. They began arguing about the trial. Guns were drawn. Shots were fired. Bill Staton died. The two McCoys got away with the murder on the grounds of self defense.

     Matters heated up more when Johnse Hatfield, the son of Devil Anse, began sneaking out at night and meeting up with Rosanna McCoy for a little moonlight romance on the banks of the Tug Fork. Soon she was pregnant and for a short time, Roseanna lived with Johnse on the West Virginia side. She was welcomed warmly by the Hatfield family but the McCoys were not pleased. Losing a pig to the Hatfields was one thing but losing a daughter to them was just a little too much. They convinced the daughter to return but she missed Johnse and went back to West Virginia to begin the relationship again. One day when Johnse crossed the tributary to the Kentucky side, the McCoys alerted the police to his presence. Johnse Hatfield had a warrant out for his arrest in Kentucky due to illegal moonshine sales. They took him to jail. Roseanna escaped in the night and alerted Devil Anse of Johnse’s arrest. Devil Anse called up a posse of armed family members who went over to Kentucky, surrounded the jail and broke Johnse out. They took him back to West Virginia but he dumped Roseanna shortly after. Despite all she had done for him, Johnse started having an affair with her sister Nancy who he married in 1881.

     Tensions between the families got a lot worse on a Kentucky election day in 1882. A cabin on the road to Pikeville was used as a polling station. In those days, elections drew crowds of people from all across the region who came to sell food and meet up with old friends. Ellison Hatfield, the brother of Devil Anse, crossed the river with a jug of moonshine. He spent the day getting drunk with three McCoy brothers, Tolbert, Phamer, and Bud. By the time evening came, the four men were drunk, rowdy, and belligerent. The friendly conversations of the day turned mean and they began arguing. Soon fists were flying and the McCoy brothers pulled out their knives and stabbed him 26 times. Then one of them shot Ellison and left him for dead. The police quickly came and arrested the three McCoys. Somebody carried Ellison Hatfield to a nearby cabin to attend to his wounds.

     Word got out to Devil Anse and soon he was riding through the woods of Kentucky with a gang of armed family members and friends. As the night grew darker, they intercepted the police who were taking their three captives to the nearby Pikeville jail. The lawmen were sympathetic to the Hatfields, and outnumbered too, so they turned the three brothers over to the vigilante gang. Devil Anse commanded one man to stand guard at the cabin with Ellison and come find them if anything tragic occurred. The three McCoys were tied together and taken on horseback over the Tug Fork to the West Virginia side. In the forest, they were bound to a tree while the group of armed and angry looking men stood patiently around.

     Early in the morning, Ellison’s watchman approached and told them the Hatfield brother had died. Some said the rapid sounds of shotgun fire could be heard clear across the water in Kentucky. The next day, people searching for the McCoy boys found the three dead bodies still tied to the tree. Their bodies were mutilated with bullets. One of the brothers had the top of his head blown off; chunks of blood and brains were hanging from the branches. Another’s face was so bloody he could not be immediately identified. The third looked as if he had raised his hand in fear of being shot; the bullet went straight through his hand and hit him between the eyes.

     Warrants were obtained for the arrest of twenty members of the Hatfield family but none were captured or tried in court. The police in that region were a small and weak force. When the need for a larger party arose, members of the public had to be temporarily deputized to build up a group big enough to handle a problem. The Hatfields were considered to be too dangerous and they were never apprehended. They moved to a new plot of land, farther from the river, and continued to live as farmers and moonshiners, even venturing into the timber business while the statute of limitations went into effect.

     Things were still tense in 1886. The husband of Martha McCoy, named Perry Cline, put up a bounty for the capture of members of the Hatfield family as well as Devil Anse himself. That same year, Jeff McCoy shot and killed a mailman. Policeman Cap Hatfield, Devil Anse’s son, and another deputy named Tom Wallace were assigned to arrest Jeff McCoy but the wanted man escaped into the woods. Running along the river, Cap and Tom Wallace shot and killed Jeff McCoy. Tom Wallace was later found murdered in retaliation for that death.

     On New Year’s Eve of 1987/1988, the Hatfields decided to finally win the war. Devil Anse laid out plans to ambush the McCoy’s family cabin on their farm across the river. He put Cap Hatfield in charge of the team which included Ellison Mounts, a man said to be mentally disabled and not too bright. The patriarch Randolph McCoy slept with his family while the Hatfield gang crossed the water and crept up the hill. They set fire to the small cabin, hoping to drive Randolph out but he escaped without them noticing. The two children got shot while trying to escape; their mother fell out a window and the Hatfield gang beat her until she nearly died. Unable to find Randolph McCoy, they left and went back to West Virginia.

     A few days after the New Year’s Massacre, Deputy Sheriff Frank Phillips of Pike County gathered a group of armed men to hunt down and arrest the members of the Hatfield raiding party. Two sons of Randolph McCoy went with them. The posse cornered Devil Anse’s old friend Jim Vance in the woods. He refused to surrender so they opened fire until he died. They began raiding the homes of Hatfield family members and their supporters. Many of them were chased to Grapevine Creek where Devil Anse and a small army of his followers were waiting. A firefight began between the two gangs but eventually the Hatfields surrendered. Nine were arrested and taken to Pikeville to stand trial for the murder of Alifair McCoy, the daughter of Randolph McCoy who died during the New Year’s Massacre. Devil Anse and the others escaped.

     They held the trial in Pikeville. All of the eight prisoners were found guilty. Seven were sent to prison for life sentences. The mentally disabled Ellison Mounts was sentenced to death by hanging. Apparently one more person had to die, possibly for symbolic reasons, so they chose the one least likely to defend himself. Two thousand people showed up to watch the execution. The war between the two families ended when Mounts dangled from the rope.

     Devil Anse lived on into old age in his home with his family. Years later when Randolph McCoy died, he attended his funeral and expressed regret that the whole war had ever happened. The Hatfields and McCoys made peace and their ancestors get along well with each other to this day.

By the time the feud ended and the trial began, the outside world had begun to take notice of the obscure Appalachian region of the Tug Fork tributary. Businessmen from the logging and mining industries began arriving. With them came the railroads and the electric companies. Along with these industries came the journalists who saw a great story in the Hatfield and McCoy Feud. They sent their news stories of gun toting hillbillies with bare feet, long beards, and tattered clothes back to the big cities to be printed and distributed across the nation. Some scoops were more accurate than others. Some were entirely made up. What mattered most was not truth but the sale of newspapers and the feud was a story that kept the media in business. Without journalism, this little war would have been forgotten like so many others that had happened all over the USA around that time; many of those were bigger and bloodier and racked up a much higher body count. Those have mostly been forgotten.

References

Alther, Lisa. Blood Feud: The Hatfields & the McCoys: The Epic Story of Muder and Vengeance. Lyons Press, Guilford: 2012

Jones, Virgil Carrington. The Hatfields and the McCoys. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill: 1948.