2. Asa Harmon McCoy was murdered after leaving the Union Army
Asa Harmon McCoy was the brother of Randolph McCoy (considered the patriarch of the branch of the family involved most deeply in the feud). Asa served in the Union Army, and was mustered out after recovering from a broken leg in 1865. Irregular supporters of the South considered Asa and those like him as traitors to country and family. From Logan County, on the West Virginia side of the river, a group of self-appointed home guards known as the Logan Wildcats patrolled the roads and settlements on both sides of the river, enforcing their views of the law with violence and intimidation. Several Hatfields were members of the vigilante group, including Anse Hatfield, who held considerable authority since he also employed many of the men in his timber operations.
Asa Harmon McCoy was near his home in 1865, returning from the war, when he was accosted by the Logan Wildcats on January 7, 1865, near his home. He had been discharged from the army only 13 days earlier. Asa was killed in the confrontation with the group, which was clearly a murder, but there was a little investigation by authorities and nobody was ever charged with the killing. One of Anse Hatfield’s uncles, James Vance, known to the family as Uncle Jim, was widely believed to have been the murderer, and tradition regarding the feud continues to point to him as the culprit. The murder was not the beginning of the feud, but bad blood between the clans and their associates began during the war, and simmered for a decade after.