The battle of Athens: Axis War veterans—of African and European heritage—who have returned home from fighting “for a world in which this [n]ation, and all that this [n]ation represents, will be safe for our children,” only to find that their homeland, McMinn County, tennessee, to be taken over by a corrupt political machine, organized a rival political group to “take their government back.”  Sheriff Pat Mansfield orders his deputies to arrest, harass, and beat-up reformist poll watchers.  One of the poll watchers is shot by deputies.  The shooting arouses the veterans, and civilian county residents, against the Sheriff’s department, which takes refuge in the Athens City Jail.  The badly outnumbered veterans, armed with M-1 and British Enfield rifles, and .45 semi-automatic pistols, charge the jail, and arrest Mansfield and his deputies.

       Postscript: The next day, the veterans set up a volunteer police to maintain the peace.  In the general election, the following November, the reformist slate of candidates won, the corrupt machine was defeated, and life returned to normal.

       NOTE: This is one of very few instances in which the members of the army and navy of the United States actually defended the freedom of fellow citizens, but they did not do it on active duty—they did it out of uniform.  This corrupt machine might never have taken hold of McMinn County had these brave men been a little braver and said “No” to the unlawful, foreign Axis War (World War II).

       [updated 9/2/2023] Thanks to Freedom’s Phoenix for this entry.