User blog:SPARTAN 119/Blair Mountain Rebels VS Black Eagle Rebels

The Blair Mountain Rebels, the armed labor rioters who fought it out with Baldwin-Felts Detectives, police, and the army in the battle for worker’s rights

VS

The Black Eagle Rebels, the Russian peasant rebels who stood against Soviet food confiscations

WHO IS DEADLIEST!?

Blair Mountain Rebel
The events leading up to the Battle of Blair Mountain of 1921 started in the late 19th and early 20th century with the violent tactics used by mine owners to halt unionization of mine workers. In May 1920, a gunfight erupted between Sid Hatfield, the town sheriff of Matewan, WV, along with several deputies and several Baldwin-Felts private detectives involved in violent strikebreaking, including Albert and Lee Felts. A year later, Sid Hatfield was himself assassinated, an act that enraged the local miners. 10,000-15,000 miners took up arms and seized control of the area around Blair Mountain, WV, engaging a week-long battle with police, and eventually U.S Army forces with air support. Over 900 miners were arrested, though only some were convicted. In the end, however, they were paroled in 1925, however, government recognition of labor unions was set back until the 1930s, in part due to the events of Blair Mountain.

Black Eagle Rebel
The Black Eagle Rebels were a group of peasant rebels in the Ufa Governorate (present-day Tatarstan and Bashkortostan), in southwestern Russian formed in February, 1920. The rebels, armed mostly with improvised weapons such as pitchforks and axes, resisted forced food confiscations by the new Soviet Regime. The rebellion started when the peasants overrun and killed a number of Red Army troops sent to seize crops from them. The peasants then assassinated multiple pro-Soviet officials in Menzelinsk and Zainsk, with the uprising eventually spreading to parts of the Kazan and Samara governorates, with rebels forming a cohesive organization under I. Milovanov, declaring themselves in support of the more Consituent Assembly, a more moderate socialist opposition to the Bolsheviks. The rebels numbered over 50,000 men.

In Mid-March, 1920, the Red Army retaliated, crushing the lightly armed peasants with artillery and machine guns, killing 3000 rebels and burning down villages. In spite of their mostly improvised weaponry, the Black Eagle rebels managed to kill 800 Red Army soldiers before they were put down.

‘’’Note: While the Black Eagle Rebels were mostly armed with pitchforks and other improvised weapons, given that they killed over 800 Soviet soldiers, it seems likely that they captured some small arms from their enemies, and will thus have them in this match.’’’

=Weapons=

Pickaxe (Blair)
A pickaxe is a tool for breaking apart soil and rock, however, the two metal points on the heavy head of the tool mean it can be used as an improvised weapon. Pickaxes, much like small shovels, were sometimes used as improvised weapons in the First World War, and pickaxe handles were likewise used as improvised club or batons.

Pitchfork (Black Eagle)
The pitchfork, also known as the garden fork, is a fork-shaped tool used by farmers and gardeners for turning earth, harvest potatoes, pulling up plants, and moving hay. In pop culture, pitchforks are often the weapon by angry mobs since they were easy to aquire, a reputation that is not entirely undeserved, as pitchforks are were sometimes used as improvised spears in peasant uprisings from the Middle Ages onward.

119’s Edge
The Black Eagle’s ‘’’Pitchfork’’’ for its greater length and lethality, capable of delivering sharp force trauma more quickly.

Smith and Wesson No. 3 (Blair)
The Smith & Wesson Model 3 was a single-action, cartridge-firing, top-break revolver produced by Smith & Wesson from circa 1870 to 1915. The weapon saw widespread sales in the late 19th and early 20th century, making it a likely civilian weapon for the period of the Blair Mountain Rebellion. The weapon fired a .44 Smith & Wesson round from a six-round top-break chamber.

Nagant Revolver (Black Eagle)
The Nagant M1895 Revolver is a Russian double-action revolver first designed in 1895. The weapon was unusual as it had a gas seal around the chamber to prevent gases from escaping. These gases instead forced the bullet forward at a greater velocity. This gave the Nagant the unintended side effect of being one of the few revolvers able to use a suppressor. The weapon had a seven-round cylinder chambered for 7.62x38 rounds.

119’s Edge
The Nagant had an extra round in the chamber, but the Smith and Wesson fires a larger, more powerful round. Even.

Springfield M1903 (Blair)
The M1903 Springfield, formally the United States Rifle, Caliber .30-06, Model 1903, is an American clip-loaded, 5-shot, bolt-action service rifle used primarily during the first half of the 20th century. The weapon also had variants produced for the civilian market as a hunting rifle. The M1903 had an effective range of 600 meters.

Mosin-Nagant Rifle (Black Eagle)
The Mosin–Nagant (Russian: Винтовка Мосина, ISO 9: Vintovka Mosina) is a bolt-action, internal magazine-fed, military rifle invented under the government commission by Russian and Belgian inventors, and used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various other nations. It is one of the longest serving bolt action rifles in history, being issued until the 1940s (and up to the 1960s in third world client nations of the USSR). The weapon fired 7.62x53mm rounds from a five round magazine. The rifle had a muzzle velocity of 865 meters per second, and an effective range of 500 meters.

119's Edge
The Springfield M1903 has a longer effective range. While both rifles will have iron sights, not being much use at extreme range, the Blair Mountain Rebels have more experience with firearms and will be able to better make use of that range.

Dynamite (Blair)
Dynamite is an explosive invented by Alfred Nobel in 1867. Dynamite consists of nitrogylcerin stabilized by sawdust or sand. Dynamite is more stable than nitroglycerin, which may explode at the slightest touch, but can still be set off by a blasting cap, or severe shock such as a gunshot. Dynamite nonetheless allowed for a portable explosive much more powerful than gunpowder. While Nobel was a pacifist and intended dynamite for civilian uses such as mining, the explosive nonetheless quickly was used by military forces. Dynamite could be used as a weapon by placing it and detonating it with a remote charge, or even using a hand-lit fuse and possibly nails and other items as shrapnel for use as an improvised grenade.

Model 1914 Grenade (Black Eagle)
The Model 1914 is a Russian concussion grenade used by the Russian and later Soviet Army during World Wars I and II. The weapon was a stick concussion grenade with a picric acid charge and a 4-5 second time delay fuse. The weapon could use an optional fragmentation sheath to turn it into a frag grenade.

119's Edge
The Model 1914 is designed for use as a weapon, giving it the edge.

=X-Factors=

Explanations
In terms of training, some of the rebels might have been veterans of the First World War, but most of them had no military training. In terms of marksmanship, more of the Blair Mountain Rebels would have owned guns and be more familiar with them, while most of the Black Eagle Rebels would not. This also ties into logistics, as the Blair Mountain Rebels hid caches for firearms and ammunition in the mountains, as well as stocked piled arms at their various strongpoints. While they obviously do not score as well as a professional army, they still do better than their adversaries. The Black Eagle Rebels, on the other hand, would have been armed mostly with pitchforks, axes, and other improvised weapons, any firearms and ammunition would probably been taken off fallen Red Army troops, and this would have hand limited ammunition, and given they only killed about 800 Red Army troops, only a small portion of the 50,000 Black Eagle Rebels could have had captured firearms (though, for the purposes of this match, it will feature one of the more well-armed groups of Black Eagle Rebels). The Black Eagle Rebels take an edge in brutality due to the close-in nature of the weapons, which were mostly melee. They also take a slight edge for tenacity given that the Black Eagle Rebels managed to kill 800 Soviet troops in spite of their light arsenal. =Notes= The battle will be five vs five fight.