Somehow Smithsonian portrays federal troops as relatively neutral. Though many scholars attribute aerial terror’s beginnings to the Spanish Civil War (1936-9),

Somehow Smithsonian portrays federal troops as relatively neutral. Though many scholars attribute aerial terror’s beginnings to the Spanish Civil War (1936-9), the US Army Air Service sent bombers to threaten the United Mine Workers and their supporters. After the UMW forces disregarded his threat, President Warren Harding sent in one of the Air Service’s most capable weapons: The Martin MB-1 bomber. The Martin MB-1 was an American bomber/reconnaissance biplane designed towards the end of World War One and carried a crew of three. Unfortunately for the Air Service, a reconnaissance mission failed when one Martin MB-1 crashed, leaving the crew dead and the bomber destroyed. New developments in battlefield archaeology, however, allowed us to study the crash site. Studying the site provided an opportunity to better understand how the bombers were used within the Battle of Blair Mountain as both a military tool and a symbol of federal power. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/postersatthecapitol/2019/Morehead/10/ https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/postersatthecapitol/2... By August 29 battle was fully joined. Chafin's men, though outnumbered, had the advantage of higher positions and better weaponry. Private planes were hired to drop homemade bombs on the miners. A combination of poison gas and explosive bombs left over from World War I were dropped in several locations near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. At least one did not explode and was recovered by the miners; it was used months later to great effect as evidence for the defense during treason and murder trials. On orders from General Billy Mitchell, Army bombers from Maryland were also used for aerial surveillance. One Martin bomber crashed on its return flight, killing the three crew members. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain