In 1936, the E. H. Crump political machine based in Memphis, which controlled much of Tennessee, extended to McMinn County with the introduction of Paul Cantrell as the Democratic candidate for sheriff.

[1]: 115  Cantrell, who came from a wealthy and influential family in nearby Etowah, tied his campaign closely to the popularity of the Roosevelt administration.

Cantrell rode FDR's coattails to victory over his Republican opponent in what came to be known as the "vote grab of 1936", which delivered McMinn County to Tennessee's Crump Machine.

When asked if the local newspaper, The Daily Post Athenian, supported the GIs, veteran Bill White replied: "No, they didn't help us none."

[5] According to a contemporaneous article by Theodore H. White in Harper's Magazine, one veteran, Ralph Duggan, who had served in the Pacific in the navy and became a leading lawyer postwar, "thought a lot more about McMinn County than he did about the Japs.

When they arrived home and the deputies targeted the returning GIs, one reported: "A lot of boys getting discharged [were] getting the mustering out pay.

Well, deputies running around four or five at a time grapping [sic] up every GI they could find and trying to get that money off of them, they were fee grabbers, they wasn't on a salary back then.

Some of the returning veterans resolved to challenge Cantrell's political control by fielding their own nonpartisan candidates and working for a fraud-free election.

[6][7] A respected and decorated veteran of the North African campaign, Knox Henry, stood as candidate for sheriff in opposition to Cantrell.

[2] Large contributions made by local businessmen to the GIs' campaign ensured that it was well-funded, although many of McMinn County's citizens believed the machine would rig the election.

[4]: 19 [non-primary source needed] Sheriff Mansfield also organized for the upcoming election, hiring 200 deputies, most from neighboring counties, some from out of state, at $50 a day (equivalent to $781 in 2023).

"Windy" Wise, a patrolman, prevented an elderly African-American farmer, Tom Gillespie, from casting his ballot at the Athens Water Works polling place.

[2] Buttram had telegraphed Governor McCord in Nashville and U.S. Attorney General Tom Clark asking for help in ensuring a lawful election, but received no response.

In the commotion that followed, Wise and Karl Nell, the deputies inside the Water Works, took two poll watchers, Charles Scott and Ed Vestal, captive.

A third account argues that when Neal Esminger from the Daily Post-Athenian showed up to get a vote count, his arrival was a distraction that allowed Scott and Vestal to break through a door to escape.

[2][4]: 20 At the twelfth precinct the GI poll watchers were Bob Hairrell and Leslie Doolie, a one-armed veteran of the North African theater.

[1]: 117 In response to foul language and taunts from the deputies, and the actions so far that day, Bill White, leader of the "fighting bunch", told his lieutenant Edsel Underwood to take five or six men and break into the National Guard Armory to steal weapons.

[4]: 21 [non-primary source needed] As the polls closed, and counting began (minus the three boxes taken to the jail), the GI-backed candidates had a three-to-one lead.

[1]: 118 By 9:00 pm, Paul Cantrell, Pat Mansfield, George Woods (Speaker of the State House of Representatives and Secretary of the McMinn County Election Commission), and about 50 deputies were in the jail, allegedly rummaging through the ballot boxes.

[4]: 21 [non-primary source needed] Just as estimates of people involved vary widely, accounts of how the Battle of Athens began and its course of events diverge.

[9] As Lones Selber, author of a 1985 American Heritage magazine article, wrote: "Opinion differs on exactly how the challenge was issued."

[1]: 118 The day after the battle, the New York Times front page reported a sheriff had been killed, and that the shooting had started with a shot through a jail window and with the demand the hostages be released.

[11] Byrum reported the end of the battle thusly: "By 3:30 am, the men holding the jail had been dynamited into submission, and by early morning George Woods was calling Ralph Duggan to ask if he could come to Athens and certify the election of the GI slate.

Bill White reported that "when the GIs broke into the jail, they found some of the tally sheets marked by the machine had been scored fifteen to one for the Cantrell forces."

[4]: 24 In early September the fall of the county political machine was followed by the resignation of Athens' Mayor, Paul Walker, and the town's four aldermen.

[15] Mayor Walker had previously refused a demand to resign made immediately after the gunfight by the McMinn County American Legion and VFW posts.

[16] The "Battle of Athens" was followed by movements of veterans in other Tennessee counties promoting a statewide coalition against corrupt political machines in the upcoming November elections.

Governor McCord countered an attempt to form a "Non-Partisan GI Political League" by directing the Young Democrats Clubs of Tennessee to recruit ex-GIs.

[19] On January 4, 1947, four of the five leaders of the GI Non-Partisan League declared in an open letter: "We abolished one machine only to replace it with another and more powerful one in the making.

[15] Joseph C. Goulden, in his history of immediate post-war America, The Best Years 1945–1950, discussed the Battle of Athens, how it sparked political ex-GI movements in three other Tennessee counties, as well as other boss-ruled Southern states, led to a convention with representatives from several Southern states, and how it raised fears that veterans would resort to further violence.