Devil Anse Hatfield Biography

William Anderson Hatfield was a Confederate soldier and the patriarch of his family during the Hatfield–McCoy feud, which has come to be known as one of the bloodiest family rivalries in the history of America. He was also referred to as Devil Anse Hatfield. A native of the Old South, he grew up deeply believing in the Southern causes and when the American Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the Confederate army, and was commissioned as a First Lieutenant. After the disbandment of his unit, he joined the newly formed 45th Battalion Virginia Infantry as a private. Hatfield garnered a reputation for being efficient and ruthless in the battlefield, and gradually rose through the ranks to become a captain in the unit. Later, he co-founded the infamous Logan Wildcats to wage guerrilla warfare against the Union sympathizers. During this period, he was accused of murdering Asa Harmon McCoy. This set off the almost three-decade-long feud, where both families lost several of their members. Hatfield went on to survive the bloodshed, as did his main rival, the McCoy family patriarch Randolph McCoy, and died at the ripe old age of 81. Their story has since become an important part of American folklore and a metonym for any bitter rivalry.