Vaughan, Manley Warren (P1, C3, L19)

Private Manley W. Vaughan of Lawrence County, Kentucky, Troop C, 53rd Machine Gun Squadron, Cavalry, Louisa, Kentucky, was killed near Borderland West Virginia, on 25 May 1921. Kentucky National Guard soldiers from Louisa, Morehead and London were on state active duty from 14 May to 4 June 1921 along the Kentucky – West Virginia Border in connection with a coal strike in the Tug River District.

At approximately 10 p.m. on 25 May 1921, a West Virginal State Policeman reported some sixty shots fired on the Kentucky shore of the Tug River below Nolan, West Virginia. Lieutenant Fred See of the Kentucky National Guard was stationed nearby in Pike County and was asked by the West Virginia State Police to reconnoiter and try to end the disruption. There was a coal strike in progress in the area and martial law was in effect and the shots were apparently fired across the river in the direction of the Big Splint mining camp in West Virginia where the United Mine Workers Union had erected a tent camp to house the striking miners.

Lieutenant See and seven men, including Vaughn, set out to investigate. They crossed the river at Borderland into West Virginia due to heavy rains making roads nearly impassable, he planned to follow the railroad track and cross back to the Kentucky side below Nolan to get to the site of the disturbance. At Nolan he was joined by an unknown number of West Virginia State Police and they proceeded down the track. Hearing a group of men coming up the track, Lieutenant See and his men advanced and stopped four men. When ordered to put up their hands, two men cooperated. Soldiers were searching the individuals for weapons when Vaughan and a West Virginia State Police Officer, Charles M. Kackley were shot in the head from behind. Both were killed. One of the union miners in the group escaped in the darkness but was recaptured the next day.

The body of Private Vaughan body was brought to his home in Lawrence County, Kentucky, and buried in the Vaughan Family Cemetery.