The Fighting Bunch: The Battle of Athens and How World War II Veterans Won the Only Successful Armed Rebellion Since the Revolution by Chris DeRose

At long last, one of the most fascinating, powerful, and inspiring tales of East Tennessee history is told by a best-selling author whose background as an attorney provides an additional qualification to tell the whole story. The Battle of Athens, Tennessee, took place on election day, August 1, 1946. Veterans who had returned from World War II to find the local power structure and elected officials the opposite of the democratic values they had fought for overseas drew up their own non-partisan slate to challenge the local machine. It responded with violent voter suppression techniques and began to stuff the ballot boxes in the country jail. The GIs responded with a successful armed assault on the jail in the middle of the night and permanently expelled the machine. “In a remarkable feat of dogged fresh reporting, historical research and narrative aplomb, DeRose breathes new life into the little-remembered saga of the 1946 Battle of Athens, Tennessee, when a force of angry men, led by