The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-31
BATTERY BOYS JET
 INTO REAL FIGHT ON THE WAY HOME Birmingham and Montgomery Crowds Mix Up and Blood
 Flows Freely MELEE WAS STARTED SOON AFTER THEY LEFT MOBILE Windows in Train Were Broken and Rocks Served as Weapons-Two Local Boys Rather
 Seriously Cut.

Birmingham and Battery B of Montgom- cry mixed in a free-for-all fight on the special Louisville and Nashville train | bringing the national guardsmen back from the Mobile encampment. The fight occurred between Mobile and FIomaton, while there was also an attempt to get together in the Montgomery station when | the Montgomery boys unloaded.
 Hard work on the part of the officers of both batteries was the only thing that prevented serious if not fatal injury to some of the soldiers. The train had seven l passenger coaches, the first three being l occupied by the Montgomery artillery | men, the next three by the Birmingham battery and the seventh by the signal 1 corps.
 ] Reports of the affair as told by the Bir- l mngham boys are that one of the Mont gomery boys had become intoxicated and had gone from the last Montgomery car 1 to the first Birmingham coach. His lan- 1 guage became very abusive, and finally reached the insulting stage. At this point two of the Birmingham boys rushed him | back to his car
 Their arrival in the Montgomery car was met with a voley of oaths. The 1 cursing was interspersed with language descriptive of just how easily the Mont l gomery boys could whip the Birmingham | boys.
 | It cid not require any further proclama- ton of war for the scrap to begin. The l six carloads of soldiers attempted to cen- ter on the platforms of the dividing coaches. Some one pulled the bell cord | and the train came to a stop. The Mont l gomery soldiers piled out of their cars, and picking up the slag out of which the roadbed was built proceeded to rock the | Birmingham coaches, smashing several | windows The Birmingham boys jumped ! from their cars and a general melee ] started.
 The battery boys do not carry rifles. and luckily their small arms had been taken from them before the trip home had begun. Anything, however, served as a weapon The emergency tool boxes l in the coaches, which contain axes. saws, hammers and the like, were broken into and the tools removed and used as weapons.
 Two of the Birmingham boys were bad ly bunged up, though it is not believed they were seriously injured. It is not | known to what extent the casualties were among the Montgomery soldiers. | The Montgomery officers were in the | front part of their train while the Bir- mingham officers were in the seventh coach The fight had lasted for several minutes before they learned of 1t, and before they could reach the middle coaches the train had come to stand still and the rocking of the Birmingham | coaches was in progress.
 The Birmingham battery was command l ed by Captain Torrance while Captain | Todd was in charge of the Montgomery battery. Captain Torrance and his lieu | tenants rushed from the rear of the train while the Montgomery officers were rush. ing from the front They plunged into the fight and ordered the men to desist. So wrought up were the two batteries that if required some little time to get them separated and in some instances the men had to be pulled apart.
 Each battery was lined up and marched | hack into its respective cars, the men,
 however, still glaring at each other and
 muttering threats. In the first rush at each other the guards at the ends of the ooocbes were brushed over. After the men | had eotten back Into the cars the offt- | cars seated themselves in the middle coaches and kept the men apart. | Az Montgomery was reached. It is said, the Birmingham officers requested the Montgomery officers to unload their men in the railroad yards in order to avoid onv conflict in the passenger station. This | +ba Montgomery officers declined to do, ond continued into the station, where they | unloaded.
 The Montgomery boys marched past the
 Birmingham coaches and the bandying of words followed, including some more cursing 1t is said. Some of the Birming- | ham boys jumped out of the windows, while some of the Montgomery boys at | tempted to get at the Birmingham boys | through the windows. The officers were | on the scene in a moment, though, and the fight was quelled before any damage was done
 Blood flowed freely in the first en- l counter, but none of the bruises is regard- | ed as very serious. One of the Birming- ham boys was cut in the arm while an- | other had his face cut. A number of the others carry minor bruises. while some of the officers uniforms show blood
 spots received when they were pulling bloody combatants apart.
 l It Is probable that an investigation into the matter will be held Feeling be-
 tween the two batteries has existed for
 the past three or four years. a little of it being shown last summer when they
 were on strike duty in the Birmingham district. At the annual encampments the
 members of the batteries have hardly been on speaking terms. outside of the officers but this is the first real encoun- ter between them.
 The Birmingham Boys claim that the
 fight was forced upon them; that they
 were cursed horribly and without provo
 cation, and that it was impossible for any man with self-respect not to have fought under the circumstances.