From a JPFO Supporter
THE BATTLE OF ATHENS,
TENNESSEE — FROM MY OWN RESEARCH —
I have done my own research
into the Battle of Athens, Tennessee, 1946, and even
traveled to Athens, Tennessee, for that research. The
following are the pristine examples of a fight for
freedom that I uncovered from my research:
---------------------------------------
SOURCE: The Daily Post-Athenian, Athens, Tenn., August
7, 1946; pages 1, 6.
Mrs. Roosevelt Grasps Local
Facts Better Than Most
Editor's Note — Our attention
has been called to Mrs. Roosevelt's column upon McMinn.
She seems to have grasped the facts and significance
better than any other outside writer:
McMinn A Warning — By Eleanor
Roosevelt
New York, Monday — After any
war, the use of force throughout the world is almost
taken for granted. Men involved in the war have been
trained to use force, and they have discovered that,
when you want something, you can take it. The return to
peacetime methods governed by law and persuasion is
usually difficult.
We in the U.S.A., who have long
boasted that, in our political life, freedom in the use
of the secret ballot made it possible for us to register
the will of the people without the use of force, have
had a rude awakening as we read of conditions in McMinn
County, Tennessee, which brought about the use of force
in the recent primary. If a political machine does not
allow the people free expression, then freedom-loving
people lose their faith in the machinery under which
their government functions.
In this particular case, a
group of young veterans organized to oust the local
machine and elect their own slate in the primary. We may
deplore the use of force but we must also recognize the
lesson which this incident points for us all. When the
majority of the people know what they want, they will
obtain it.
Any local, state or national
government, or any political machine, in order to live,
must give the people assurance that they can express
their will freely and that their votes will be counted.
The most powerful machine cannot exist without the
support of the people. Political bosses and political
machinery can be good, but the minute they cease to
express the will of the people, their days are numbered.
This is a lesson which wise
political leaders learn young, and you can be pretty
sure that, when a boss stays in power, he gives the
majority of the people what they think they want. If he
is bad and indulges in practices which are dishonest, or
if he acts for his own interests alone, the people are
unwilling to condone these practices.
When the people decide that
conditions in their town, county, state or country must
change, they will change them. If the leadership has
been wise, they will be able to do it peacefully through
a secret ballot which is honestly counted, but if the
leader has become inflated and too sure of his own
importance, he may bring about the kind of action which
was taken in Tennessee.
If we want to continue to be a
mature people who, at home and abroad, settle our
difficulties peacefully and not through the use of
force, then we will take to heart this lesson and we
will jealously guard our rights. What goes on before an
election, the threats or persuasion by political
leaders, may be bad but it cannot prevent the people
from really registering their will if they wish to.
The decisive action which has
just occurred in our midst is a warning, and one which
we cannot afford to overlook.
-----------------------------------------
SOURCE: The Daily Post-Athenian, Athens, Tenn., August
21, 1946; Page 1,6.
Lincoln Said It And It Applies Now As Then
BY JOHN PECK
"The government, with its
institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.
Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing
government, they can exercise their constitutional right
of amending it, or their revolutionary right to
dismember or overthrow it." Abraham Lincoln
We have seen the latter part of
the above quotation exercised here in McMinn County. We
now have the opportunity to see the first part of it
carried out.
What Lincoln meant was just
this: The government of any group of people is in the
hands of the people and they must carry on an active
part in maintaining their government unless they want to
abide by the rule of a few unscrupulous persons who find
ways and means of getting the reins of power in
governmental offices. If the people as a whole do not
maintain a vigilant watch over matters of government a
few people, grasping for power and domination find it
easy to undermine all the principles of democracy.
It has been said that the
situation now prevailing in McMinn County puts its
citizens in the best position of any county in the state
and possibly in the nation as to the control and
manipulation of its government.
We are in just that position if
the people as a whole will attend the county-wide mass
meetings tomorrow night and participate in the election
of the representatives of their respective communities
who will serve on the Board of Directors of the Good
government League of McMinn County.
The people who are elected must
have the knowledge that they have the backing of all the
people in their community when they go to the various
meetings of the Board of Directors and vote on the
matters of government that come before that body.
The choice is in your hands; 1.
Take an active part in your government, as is your duty
and privilege as a citizen, or 2. The next time you find
that your government has fallen into the hands of
unscrupulous politicians just say, "It's my own
fault, I had a chance to do something about it but slept
through it."
-------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: The Knoxville Journal, August 10, 1946; Page 1,
2.
Arkansas GIs Threat New Riots
Say Athens, Tenn., Outbreak May
Be Mild In Comparison
Little Rock, Ark., Aug. 9 (UP)
— Determined veterans' opposition to entrenched local
political machines flared heatedly in several Arkansas
counties today, and one GI candidate said the Athens,
Tenn., rioting would be "mild in comparison if
there are any irregularities" at the polls.
At Malvern, William Weaver,
veteran and candidate for sheriff in Hot Springs County,
charged his opponent, Ed Deere, was
"custodian" of the ballot boxes and warned
that "what will happen here" would eclipse the
Tennessee GI political revolt.
In Yell County, near the
Oklahoma border, a crowd of 1500 veterans prepared for a
mass meeting tonight to draft an independent ticket to
oppose the machine slate of Chancellor John E. Chambers
in general elections in the "free state of
Yell."
In Hot Spring County, Weaver
and Coyle Collie, veteran of the Battle of the Bulge,
are trying to overthrow the long-entrenched machine of
Sheriff Jack Knight.
GIs at Malvern planned a
meeting tomorrow night. Weaver said "we just want
to get a foot in the door of Knight's 'little Tammany'
machine."
Meanwhile, a five-man committee
of veterans found an 87-vote discrepancy in votes cast
for county treasurer, thus placing Norman Gray,
veterans' candidate, in a runoff with incumbent
Treasurer Ernest Stroud. The first official count
declared Stroud the winner with a majority, but
disgruntled GI forces appointed the committee last night
to examine the ballots.
In Ouachita a hot election
loomed in which veterans are opposing veterans.
Despite a no-political clause
in its constitution, the Arkansas Department of Veterans
of Foreign Wars entered the picture with a statement by
State Commander Bob Ed. Loftin, who charged politicians
were trying to "use" the VFW vote to influence
undecided voters.
In Hot Springs (Garland
County), a final move to defeat the only successful GI
candidate against Mayor Leo McLaughlin's potent local
machine, failed today.
Prosecuting Atty. Curtis
Ridgeway, defeated by ex-Marine Col. Signey McMath,
demanded a recount, but the new totals changed only two
votes.
McMath was the only
veteran-supported candidate to win the recent primary.
----------------------------------
SOURCE: The Chattanooga Daily Times, Thursday, August 8,
1946
Repeat on Athens Narrowly Avoided
Crockett County Just Misses
Election Day Violence
Alamo, Tenn., Aug 7 (AP) — a
Crockett County political leader revealed today that
violence similar to that which marked the Tennessee
election at Athens last week was narrowly avoided here.
J. T. Green, post commander of
the American Legion, disclosed that two mass meetings of
veterans were held to dissipate tension among the
supporters of an air force veteran, John Paul Butler,
26, who ran for state representative.
"Our boys were ready to
go," said Green, "but we didn't want an Athens
job here. We want to see what can be done legally in the
matter."
Butler, whose campaign was
managed by Green, was defeated by former State Sen. W.
H. Stallings of near-by Friendship by 14 votes. Green
said the result would be contested before the state
primary board. "It would have been the same as
Athens here," said Butler, "except that we
quieted our boys down. We talked them out of using
violence."
Butler said his opponent was
supported by "a machine."
------------------------------------------------
The Chronology of The Battle of
Athens
Election Day, August 1, 1946
9:00 am
Voting poles opened. Voter turn
out was heavy.
The First Flare Up — Precinct
1 (Courthouse)
The Jailing of Walter Ellis
Shortly after 10:00 am
Conflicting reports as to when
Walter Ellis, GI election judge was arrested, one
account says 9:30, another says shortly after 10:00 am,
but the overall details are consistent. Ellis was
summarily arrested and hauled off to the county jail. He
was replaced by Fred West. Dispute over who exactly Fred
West was immediately erupted. The sheriff's office
described West as another GI; Jim Buttram, the GI ticket
manager described him as a deputy sheriff and local
bartender.
Ellis was held incommunicado at
the county jail, and Sheriff Mansfield's men flatly
declined to permit either reporters or Buttram to see
him. Magistrate Herman Moses, when asked what charges
had been placed declared Ellis had "attempted to
perpetrate a fraud" by marking ballots in Precinct
1, at the courthouse. Buttram admitted frankly he did
not know what had happened in the voting precinct prior
to Ellis' arrest but said Sheriff Mansfield's men
refused to permit him to make bond for Ellis or to tell
him what charges had been placed against the ex-GI.
The Courthouse (Precinct 1)
11:00 am-2:00 pm
The corridor of the courthouse
was crowded with voters, both men and women. Ellis
already had been removed, but evidently in fear of some
disorder, about 20 deputies, hands on pistols, and
blackjacks ready, pushed through the crowd to the voting
precinct.
This overgrown combat squad was
reinforced by several uniformed and armed city policemen
and a state highway patrolman with his hand fingering a
heavy revolver.
The deputies ranged themselves
around the voting precinct and several, including one
dressed like a character from a western movie, placed
themselves on the steps where they could watch the
entire corridor. Ex-servicemen regard the day's
proceedings with varying attitudes but most of them
displayed a bitterness seldom seen in the fighting
lines. One ex-soldier watching the guarded vote counting
before it was moved to the county jail said: "Over
there we had something to fight back with." Another
remarked, "We just aren't well enough organized and
we haven't got guns. We haven't got a chance with this
gestapo."
"This is causing a lot of
bitterness, and a lot of it will come later today,"
a man remarked.
The Shooting of Tom Gillespie
Precinct 11, Athens Water
Company Building
2:45 pm
Tom Gillespie, a [black] farmer
came into the Athens Water Company building, which was
serving as the 11th Precinct, to vote. It is not clear
which of Cantrell's men positioned himself behind
Gillespie to observe his vote but when he was observed
to be preparing to vote "the wrong way" the
Cantrell man told Gillespie, "You'll have to get
out of here. You're voting in the wrong precinct."
3:00 pm
Gillespie protested to Deputy
Windy Wise, "I've always voted here before."
For this monumental
impertinence, Wise slugged Gillespie with brass knuckles
and shot him with what was said to be a U.S. Army .45 as
he stumbled out the door. Gillespie suffered a flesh
wound in the small of the back and was taken off by
deputy sheriffs for what they said would be treatment.
Just to show that the racial
question didn't enter into this travesty-on-an-election,
the gold starred deputies directed their attention to
the GI election clerks and women who were witnessing the
count.
Apparently, their presence was
embarrassing to the professional election thieves.
Election Judge (and deputy sheriff) Karl Neil, pistol on
hip, ordered Mrs H. A. Vestal and five other women to
leave the polls. "Get out!" said Neil.
The women stood their ground.
"We have a right to watch you count the
ballots," one said.
Go on, get out of here!"
shouted Neil, and the women filed out, protesting.
This wasn't enough. Four GI's
remained to keep the ballot thieves in line. They were
James Edward Vestal (Mrs. Vestal's son), Charles Scott,
Jr., Charley Hyde, and J. P. Cartwright.
The [Cantrell] machine had six
of its bigger bicep boys there, three wearing sidearms.
Deputy Neil then ordered Cartwright and Hyde to "go
up in the front and sit down." They said they
couldn't see the count from there. "Go on up front
and sit down, you don't have to see us count 'em."
snarled a muscular thug.
Cartwright said he wouldn't
stay if he couldn't witness the count, so he and Hyde
left. This left Vestal and Scott as the only GI watchers
for Precinct 11.
When Cartwright and Hyde
emerged, a roar of anger went up from the hundreds of
citizens across the street. The eight or nine deputies
in front of the waterworks office fingered their
weapons. Charles Scott, Sr. sent word in to his son and
Vestal to "come on out. We don't want you boys
alone in there with those gangsters."
GI Judge Bob Hairrell Beaten
3:15 pm
Bob Hairrell, GI judge, beaten
by Minis Wilburn, officer of the election, 12 precinct,
North White Street, Athens.
The First Poll Closing
(Illegally)
12th Precinct, Dixie Café
3:55 pm
The first closing come at the
12th Precinct, back of the Dixie Café and next to the
county jail. The legal closing time was 4 pm. The door
was locked and Sheriff Mansfield's men lifted an
automobile to the sidewalk, placed it directly in front
of the precinct door. Two other cars were placed across
the narrow alley to block access to the area of the
voting place, and sheriff's deputies, hands on their
pistols, guard against entry into the area.
4:15 pm?
While GIs watched with a scowl
Sheriff Mansfield and a dozen of his deputies piled into
two cars and drove off to the 11th Precinct at the Water
Commission office. There, deputies, with guns ready,
kept all observers away from the sidewalk in front of
the office, and a throng of several hundred watched
silently from across the street.
Vote Counting
11th Precinct, Water Commission
Office
4:20 pm?
Inside, according to stories
the GIs told later, Charles Scott, Jr., and James Howard
Vestal, watchers for the GI ticket, were ordered to take
seats in front of the room, while the vote counting, by
Cantrell men, went on at the rear. Vestal and Scott
demanded that they either be permitted to see the
ballots or be allowed to leave the area. The sheriff's
men refused and ordered them to, "Sit down, you're
staying right here." They sat down. A few minutes
later, Scott told the machine politicians again that
they were leaving. At this, the machine men barricaded
the ex-GIs behind a counter and locked the door.
4:45 pm.
"We jumped on the counter,
climbed over it and tried to get out. The door was
locked," Vestal said "and Charlie hit it with
his shoulder. They were right at us and trying to slug
us with knuckles and their guns. He broke the glass and
we stumbled through. Charlie was cut around the
shoulders. I got cut a little too, and fell down coming
through the door." The door was a plate glass set
in a wood frame.
A Sickening Sight
Then over a thousand people
witnessed a sickening sight. Vestal who was until
January of this year a first lieutenant in the army
engineers corps and twice wounded in the Pacific,
scrambled to his feet, blood dripping from a gash in his
left hand. Scott too, picked himself up. Through the
broken glass, immediately on their heels squirmed Deputy
Sheriff Wendy Wise, a shiny .38 revolver poked out in
front of his nose. He shouted something which was lost
in the moan which went through the crowd. Women
screamed; one shouted, "Oh, god, here it
comes." From a long line of ex-soldiers on the
sidewalk across the street came gasp's, then cries
"let's go get 'em!"; "No, we got no guns,
stay away from them .45s." Vestal and Scott,
whether heeding Wise's orders or through quick instinct,
threw their hands high above their heads and walked
slowly and alone across the empty street to the refuge
of the crowd. Wise leveled his revolver at their backs,
then whirled with the instinct of the gunman to one side
and then the other to insure against a potshot at
himself from the crowd — then aimed again at the backs
of the veterans. George Spurling, another deputy, popped
up at Wise's side and slowly brought his pistol down in
the direction of the retreating boys, aiming either at
them or some of the jeering GIs on the sidewalk to which
they were going. He and Wise for a few seconds gave
every appearance of being trigger happy. It seemed to
us, standing just across the street, that Spurling was
in the act of pressing his trigger when another deputy
half grabbed his arm, gave him a half-dozen swift slaps
in the ribs as a signal not to fire. As Vestal and Scott
completed their long, measured march, their GI comrades,
boiling mad by now, cried to Wise and other deputies,
"Throw down your guns and come out in the street
and we'll fight you man for man.
4:50 pm
Wise ducked back into the Water
Commission Office.
4:55 pm
But further activity was
forestalled when Chief Deputy Boe Dunn drove up in a
blue sedan, with two ex-soldiers, Felix Harrod, election
clerk, and Tom Dooley, election judge, for the all GI
ticket were, being forcibly held and transported by
Dunn's group, as six men piled out. The deputies formed
a cordon from the precinct to the car and Dunn himself
went in and stole the ballot box. At least 15 pistols
were trained on the citizens of Athens as the deputies
rolled away with the ballot box. They went straight to
the county jail. Several citizens broke from the crowd,
shouting, "Get your guns, boys, get your
guns!"
Vestal and Scott Taken To The
Hospital
Vestal's wounds were treated by
Dr. C.O. Foree in the physician's clinic. Two stitches
were required to close the slash on his ankle. He also
suffered a cut hand. Vestal was a first lieutenant in
the 3rd Combat Engineers, 24th Division. He was overseas
30 months, was hit by a Jap hand grenade once and
wounded by artillery fire once. "How did today
compare to fighting overseas?" he was asked. He was
quiet for a moment. "Well, today it made you madder
than it did over there. And it was closer range."
First Violent Incident in
McMinn County
Kennedy's Essankay Tire Company
5:10 pm
W. O. Kennedy, Republican
election commissioner and crowd of veterans walked to
Kennedy's garage and tire shop near the center of town.
Two deputies, with badges and sidearms walked toward the
crowd. This was a mistake as this was most assuredly
seen in the abstract a representation of a decade of
tyranny and oppression of a despotic government, the
Cantrell political machine. The crowd was quickly
inflamed at the arrogance of the two deputies and
suddenly there were yells of "Kill them, kill
them" sounded in the streets. The deputies drew
their guns and prepared to shoot down anyone who came
near.
It is the trained and
instinctive nature of veterans of war to react
offensively at such an oppressive act committed by the
deputies. Otto Kennedy and his civilian task force
accepted the challenge. They rushed across the street
and overwhelmed the two deputies before the pair could
choose a target for their fire.
W. O. Kennedy, his two brothers
and several other furious vets attacked the deputies
with a proper assault and battery upon their faces and
ripping their clothes.
The crowds packing the main
square heard of an impending attack by the sheriff's
force and rushed to the scene.
First False Alarm
Cries of "here they
come" sent the onlookers scattering wildly for
shelter but the garage garrison stood firm and waited
for the assault. When no more gunmen appeared alter five
minutes the crowd came out from the hedges, homes and
parked cars.
By now there were literally
thousands of people — mostly men — strung along a
three-block area. They were frightened people, and
people who were ashamed of their town's politics, but
something in the attitude of these embattled veterans
held them.
Second Alarm Netted Two More
Deputies
The veterans waited. The mob
huddled back against the store as soon as the shot came.
Another thunderous warning, "Here they come,"
emptied the streets. It was an anti-climax. There were
no onrush carloads of deputies. Only two deputies
appeared.
They had guns of course. But
the group at the garage had two guns now. Kennedy's
rangers made short work of them as they had the first
two. The second pair were marched into the garage to
join the first pair. Chattanooga Times reporter Richard
Rogers attempted to mingle among the crowd when he was
spotted as an unrecognizable intruder by a veteran and
that veteran challenged him for his business being
there. The reporter identified himself and was promptly
escorted into the garage were the captured deputies
were. In any act of revolt there is the human nature to
extract the same king of punishment upon the tyrannical
proponents that they had inflicted upon the citizenry.
The veteran guards over the four deputies, in using
intimidation and humiliation tactics common in any war
goaded any one or all the deputies to attempt anything
to give justification in the veteran's desire to shoot
them, saying "Go ahead, you sons of --------. I'd
love to kill every --------- one of you. The reporter's
escort pushed him closer to the deputies quite possibly
to provide the reporter the opportunity to interview the
prisoners, saying to the deputies, "Here's a
reporter."
Third Alarm Nets Three More
Deputies
This interview arrangement was
interrupted with another alarm warning from outside.
"Here they come!" The reporter's escort spun
around, and ran outside again. One guard ran after him.
This left the four deputies with one veteran guard and
the reporter. The lone guard threatened the prisoners
saying, "If those guys get in here and get me, I'll
kill you first." Another yell bellowed from the
street. A veteran stuck his head through the door and
shouted "Watch out! They're going to rush us."
The reporter ducked behind a stack of tires.
Just then there came the
loudest most frightening, skin crawling roar of voices
those people could emit. The reporter saw the lone guard
waving one gun in his direction and upon seeing its
muzzle, comparing it to the size of Chattanooga's
Braided Tunnel, he jumped through the window which was
behind him and the stack of tires.
Now out on the street the
reporter had seen that the crowd had grown and saw one
carrying a 12-gauge shotgun and another had a repeating
rifle. Unexpectedly, three deputies appeared on the
street. Two were overcome immediately. The third was
overpowered by Otto Kennedy, throwing himself upon the
larger man, shoved his own .45 against the fellow's face
and the fight went out of the deputy. That was the last
capture of the engagement.
Transport Seven Captured
Deputies Out of Town
5:30 p.m.
The crowd remained in the
streets. The veterans pleaded for volunteers to haul the
deputies out of town, and one by one, citizens came
forward with automobiles.
One of these was an aged
gentleman who operates a hardware store near the
Essankay garage. He introduced himself as Emmett
Johnson. "Do you live in Athens, sir?"
"I do. And today I'm
ashamed of my home. These gangsters have disgraced us.
If the boys want my car they can have it. They can have
anything. They should have started cleaning up on those
crooks a long time ago." As the deputies lives were
in grave danger they were put into cars and driven out
of town. Then the crowd was told to scatter. The crowd
reluctantly dispersed.
W. O. Kennedy Interviewed By
Five Chattanooga Times Staff Reporters Kennedy agreed to
an interview with the Chattanooga Times. Five of the
Times staff drove a mile into the country to Kennedy's
home. At the Kennedy home were Otto Kennedy introducing
his brothers J.P. and C.O.; J.B. Adams, his son-in-law,
and Frank McCracken.
Otto Kennedy revealed the
deputies were out-of-towners. And one claimed he got
arrested this morning on a traffic charge and instead of
paying the fine they made him a deputy and gave him a
gun.
Second Ballot Box Taken To Jail
6:35 pm
The sheriff's men, assisted by
state highway patrolmen and city policemen removed the
automobile from in front of Precinct 12 (Dixie Café)
and carried the ballot box into the McMinn County
bastille, where presumably, Ellis and several other GIs
still were being held incommunicado. As the sheriff's
men carried the box across the jailhouse lawn, they were
preceded by two men armed with shotguns and followed by
four more equipped with heavy-gauge shotguns and
high-powered rifles. Apparently pistols, of which
several hundred were on display, were not longer
considered to handle the occasion.
GI's Gather At GI Headquarters
7:30 p.m.
GI's Converge On The Jail
8:45 p.m.
A crowd of about 500 armed with
pistols and light rifles moved on the jail.
Battle Begins
9:00 pm
Ralph Duggan, a former Navy
lieutenant commander and a leader of the ex-GI's said
the crowd was "met by gun fire" and because
they had "promised that the ballots would be
counted as cast," they had "no choice but to
meet fire with fire." Violence flared anew with GIs
reported firing on the county jail. Shooting began
around 9:00 pm for the first time. Sheriff Pat Mansfield
Interviewed By Chattanooga Daily Times Via Telephone
10:00 pm
Sheriff Pat Mansfield breaks
off telephone conversations to Chattanooga Daily Times,
stating "I can't talk anymore — there's mob
violence at the County Jail right now. Things are too
hot here now. I haven't got time to talk to you — I'm
standing in front of the door." he said hurriedly
as he hung up the telephone.
Sheriff Pat Mansfield and
Deputies Threaten Hostages
11:00 pm
Sheriff Pan Mansfield and
deputies threatened to kill three GI hostages held
within the jailhouse. The three GI hostages are Felix
Harrod, Tom Dooley and Walter Ellis.
Thousands of Rounds Exchanged
11:35 pm-12:40 am
Thousands of rounds of shots
were exchanged between ex-GIs and an estimated 75
deputies barricaded in the McMinn County jail. No state
guardsman had arrived at 12:40. Former soldiers were
pouring lead into every opening in the brick jail. The
officers' returning fire was weakening. Some GIs were
firing from ground level across White Street. Others
were on roofs on the Power Company Building and other
near-by structures.
Tennessee State Guard
Mobilized?
12:00 am (midnight)
State Adj.-Gen. Hilton Butler
announced that he was mobilizing the Sixth Regiment of
the State Guard in connection with election violence in
McMinn County. This report was later proven untrue.
GIs Cut Telephone Lines To The
Jail
1:00 am
GIs cut telephone lines to the
jail. The officers, inside the jail, were out of
ammunition or running extremely low. Firing of the GIs
included rapid bursts of 10 or more shots. Apparently
they were using some automatic rifles.
Last Warning! Deputies Threaten
Hostages' Lives
2:00 am
Deputies sent out last warning
that they would kill three GI hostages within the jail
immediately if the firing did not end.
GIs Replied With Ultimatum Of
Their Own
2:20 am
GIs issued an ultimatum to the
deputies to come out with hands upraised or the crowd
would rush the jail.
GIs Escalate The Fight With Use
of Dynamite
2:59 am
The ex-GIs went into action
with demolition charges — home made, but effective.
After a fourth blast had rocked the jail one of the
deputies leaned from the building and shouted "Stop
that blasting. We'll give up — we're dying in here.
Firing continued a few moments then stopped.
The Deputies Surrendered
3:02-3:30 a.m.
The officers began filing out
of the battered building. They were searched, and
roughly, by the attackers and marched back into the
building to be locked in cells under guard of the
ex-GIs. When Wyse came out, several in the crowd surged
forward and mauled him with fists and elbows before he
could be returned to comparative safety of the bullet
scarred jail.
Riots & Destruction Begin
3:45 a.m.
Automobiles belonging to deputy
sheriffs overturned in streets, smashed and burned.
4:00 a.m. Sunrise.
Battle over. The veterans armed
with rifles were patrolling the streets to maintain
order by sunrise.
George Woods Concedes
5:00 a.m.
By telephone George Woods
concedes GI victory.
Paul Cantrell Concedes Defeat
7:05 am
Frank Cantrell, Mayor of Etowah
issued the following statement: "In behalf of my
brother Paul Cantrell, I wish to concede the election to
the G.I. candidates in order to prevent further
shooting. (Signed) Frank Cantrell.
Deputies Released From Jail
9:00 a.m.
GIs Disperse 10:00 a.m.
Three-man Commission Elected
4:00 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 3
Three man commission chosen as
governing body by mass meeting at Court House.
Volunteers by hundreds offer assistance in setting up
government framework.
Cleansing & Restoration
4:00 p.m. Friday to 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 3
Curious crowds mill streets as
the new government cleans up "hot-spots." Beer
sales banned. Town is orderly.
Rumored Biggs-Mansfield
Invasion Sets GIs On Alert
9:00 p.m. Saturday
Rumor and newspaper story from
Knoxville sets off high strung nerves with the report
that Biggs and Mansfield will attempt to storm Athens.
1,500 Citizens Converge On
Athens
9:00 pm
Fifteen hundred citizens pour
into Athens with firearms to back the new government.
Telephone calls from neighboring cities pledge aid if
needed in defense of the town.
GIs on Patrol
7:00 p.m. Saturday Aug. 3 to
Sunrise Sunday, Aug. 4
Athens is patrolled by GIs and
citizens.
George Woods Returns to McMinn
County Under GI Escort
4:00 p.m. Sunday, August 4
G-I CLAIM ELECTION TO OFFICE
— ISSUE STATEMENT
This special announcement was
hand to the Daily Post-Athenian and Radio Station WLAR
at 3:02 A.M. by the Non-Partisan Candidates for
immediate release shortly before the exodus of
imprisoned officials in the county jail:
"The G-I election
officials went to the polls unarmed to have a fair
election, as Pat Mansfield promised. They were met with
black-jacks and pistols.
"Several G-I officials
were beaten and the ballot boxes were moved to the jail.
The G-I supporters went to the jail to get these ballot
boxes and were met by gunfire.
"The G-I candidates had
promised that the votes would be counted as cast. They
had no choice but to meet fire with fire.
"In the precincts where
the G-I candidates were allowed watchers they led by
three to one majorities.
"THE G-Is ARE ELECTED AND
WILL SERVE AS YOUR COUNTY OFFICIALS BEGINNING SEPT. 1st,
1946."
The G-I Candidates, thus
claiming election to officer are:
Knox Henry — Sheriff
Frank Carmichael — Trustee
Bill Hamby — Circuit Court Clerk
Charlie Pickle — Register of Deeds
Campaign Mgr for the G-Is was Jim Buttram.
George Woods returns to McMinn
County under protection by the GI-Citizens Government.
Sheriff Mansfield Resigned
5:00 p.m. Sunday
Word is received from Nashville
that Mansfield had resigned as sheriff.
George Woods Declares GI's
Elected
10:00 a.m. Monday, August 5
George Woods signs election
certificate declaring GIs officially McMinn County
Officers.
