The Mitcham War was a bloody conflict that occurred in

Clarke County, Alabama Clarke County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,087. The county seat is Grove Hill. The county's largest city is Jackson. The county was created by the leg ...

in the early 1890s. The conflict was between rural farmers in remote section of Clarke County named Mitcham Beat and merchants in Coffeeville and other towns near the Mitcham Beat. Some accounts characterize the conflict as resulting from the 1892 elections that left rural whites disenfranchised and angry and resulting in racial violence. Around 1890, a group of young rural men formed a secret society called "Hell-at-the-Breech" that believed their local economy was being controlled by a small group. On December 25, 1892, the gang entered Coffeeville and murdered a prominent businessman. Soon a vigilante mob of 500 formed to seek the Hell-at-the-Breech murderers, and eventually killed 5 men. Different sources have the violence continuing until fall of 1893 after the Hell-at-the-breech disbanded or when the mob of Clarke County men publicly shot a prominent member of the Hell-at-the-Breech gang.

In fiction

''Hell at the Breech'' (2003) is a fictional account of the Mitchum War by novelist and Alabama native

Tom Franklin (author) Thomas Gerald Franklin (born July 7, 1963) is an American writer originally from Dickinson, Alabama, United States,. Franklin earned a B.A. at the University of South Alabama, in Mobile, Alabama. He completed his M.F.A. at the University of A ...

References

{{reflist Racially motivated violence in the United States 1890s in the United States Riots and civil disorder in Alabama History of racism in Alabama Clarke County, Alabama

Further reading

In fiction

References