Tensions between the two sides exploded into violence on May 19, when 13 Baldwin-Felts detectives arrived in Matewan to evict union miners from houses owned by the Stone Mountain Coal Company. Matewan chief of police Sid Hatfield intervened on behalf of the evicted families.

The verbal altercation turned violent when someone began shooting. By the end of the shootout, Testerman, seven Baldwin-Felts guards (including Albert and Lee Felts), and two other townspeople were dead. The Matewan Massacre, as it became known, only added fuel to the fire of the regional labor struggle. Then a year later Sid Hatfield and Ed chambers murders led to the infamous battle on Blair mountain.