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Sid Hatfield (1893–1921) was Police Chief of Matewan, West Virginia during the Battle of Matewan, a shootout that followed a series of evictions carried out by detectives from the Baldwin-Felts agency. Hatfield had intervened on behalf of the evictees, all miners. While Hatfield was held in high regard by the United Mine Workers of America for his actions, the Baldwin-Felts agency targeted Hatfield.
Hatfield was indicted on murder charges stemming from the shootout but was later acquitted by the impartial jury. He was sent to stand trial with Ed Chambers on conspiracy charges for an unrelated incident and was set to stand trial in Welch, West Virginia. Hatfield was unarmed when several Baldwin-Felts men shot and killed him on the McDowell County Courthouse steps. Reports from that time say that the unarmed Hatfield had seventeen bullets in him. None of the Baldwin-Felts detectives was ever charged in Hatfield's assassination. This caused an outpouring of grief for the fallen local hero at the funeral. It was one of the causes of the stem of outrage that led to the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Sid Hatfield in 1632[]
According to the persisting rumors in Grantville, Police Chief Dan Frost was related to Sid Hatfield. Frost was skeptical as he practically knew everyone claimed to be related to the Hatfield clan, the West Virginia half of the famous Hatfield–McCoy feud.
During the Croat raid on Grantville, Frost reminisced about Sid Hatfield and compared the present situation to the Battle of Matewan. Frost accepted Hatfield as an ancestral spirit while facing the raiders.