It is impossible to know for certain whether the Battle of Blair Mountain could have been avoided, but several attempts were made to de-escalate tensions before fighting began. Weeks before the battle, labor leaders Fred Mooney and Frank Keeney peacefully presented a list of demands to West Virginia Gov. Ephraim Morgan, whose declaration of martial law had resulted in the arrest of union miners. Morgan rejected their demands. Days before the battle, Brig. Gen. Harry Bandholtz, leader of the federal troops deployed to Blair Mountain, met with Mooney and Keeney to urge them to persuade the miners to stand down. Although those efforts seemed to produce a temporary truce, it collapsed after reports circulated that union miners had been fired upon by Logan county forces.
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