During the Colorado Coal Strike of 1913 to 1914, one of the greatest losses of life was the Ludlow Massacre, or sometimes referred to as the Battle of Ludlow, April 20, 1914. Colorado was the epicenter of mine-related violence in the West. From 1913 to 1918, the United Mine Workers of America launched a large-scale unionization campaign by sending forty-two organizers to the Trinidad Coal Mine located in Ludlow, Colorado. Ludlow was Colorado's largest tent colony and a major source of tension during the Colorado Coal Strike. The strikers demanded better wages and compensation for “dead labor” (unpaid labor necessary to maintain workable conditions), an eight-hour work day, the right to elect their own checkweighers, the right to choose which resources to buy and use, and the possibility of enforcement of Colorado mining laws. As a result, hundreds of mines On the morning of the Ludlow massacre, around 9 am, the Home Guard detonated and some panic ensued. Women and children ran from their tents to the arroyo outside the city. A firefight began between the strikers and the guards and continued until about 5 a.m., when the guards began ransacking the strikers' tents and setting them on fire. Twenty lives were lost, including the attacker's two wives and eleven children, but only one of these lives belonged to the National Guard. With all this in mind, it can be debated whether or not this event should be considered a battle or a massacre. Some have argued that, due to the attacker's retaliation, the event should be considered a battle, but due to the guards' prior abuse and contempt for who they were shooting at and careless destruction, it should be considered a