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A West Virginia Town Applied For Soviet Foreign Aid, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan February 21, 2020 33 min

Vulcan - McDowell County — Vulcan miners in 1919. The Sangha Kommune

28. The Battle of Athens

Corrupt McMinn County sheriff deputies in jail. Get Revue

As Sheriff Cantrell and about 200 deputized henchmen barricaded themselves with the ballot boxes in the fortress-like county jail, it was put up or shut up time. The veterans decided to put up. 45 of them seized the local armory and the weapons therein, and headed to the jail for a showdown. Although heavily outnumbered, the veterans had the advantage of military training, and many had recent combat experience. So they seized the tactical advantage by seizing a ridge overlooking the jail. When night fell, gunfire suddenly erupted from the jail, and what came to be known as “The Battle of Athens” commenced.

Former GI and newly elected Sheriff Knox Henry (middle) being congratulated on his victory at the polls after the Battle of Athens. Narratively

The violence escalated when a veteran blew up the jail’s front with dynamite. That was when the goons inside realized that they were faced with a level of violence that their years of bullying defenseless civilians had not prepared them for. White flags were stuck out of the jail’s windows, and the corrupt officials and their henchmen surrendered. The ballot boxes were recaptured, and by sunrise the following morning, they had been counted: The GI Nonpartisan Party won in a landslide.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.