The State of Jones (55 page)

192
the letters “U.S.A.”:
“Letter from Mississippi,”
Mobile Advertiser and Register
, May 6, 1864, as reprinted in Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, pp. 98-99. The number of stars on the handmade federal flag—thirty-seven—was rich with symbolism, reflecting the Jones County Scouts’ political sophistication. At the time there were only thirty-five states in the Union. But Nevada had already applied for statehood, and the Scouts knew that Republicans in Washington were rushing the process to help ensure Lincoln’s reelection. The thirty-sixth star anticipated Nevada’s statehood. The thirty-seventh star was probably for Jones County, suggesting that Newton and his men had declared independence from the treasonous governments of Mississippi and the Confederacy. The thirty-seven stars together emphasize that the Scouts refused to dignify rebel states as a separate and distinct nation. Like Lincoln, Grant, and other Republicans, they believed that secession and the founding of the Confederacy constituted treason against the United States, and they were helping to suppress it and preserve the peace. For a photograph of the flag, see Leverett,
Legend of the Free State of Jones
, pp. 69-70.

193
“getting their little banner back again”:
McPherson,
For Cause and Comrades
, p. 85.

193
“bitter, stubborn resistance”:
Letter from Col. William N. Brown to Governor Charles Clark, Comp. 20th Miss. Regt. Knights Mills Jones Co. Miss., Governors’ Papers, record group 27, vol. 56, box 949, MDAH.

193
distributed to the local villages:
April 13, 1864, CSA Colonel Robert Lowry to Col. T. M. Jack, Assistant Adjutant-General,
OR
, series 1, vol. 52, part 2, pp. 657-58.

194
“pure air of liberty”:
Ibid., p. 658.

195
“good and loyal citizens”:
Ibid., pp. 657-58.

195
a corporal badly injured:
Ibid.; see also Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, pp. 98-99.

196
filled with cool water:
B. D. Graves, address to the Hebron Community, June 17, 1926, Lauren Rogers Museum, Laurel, Miss. Graves was the son of the Leaf River farmer who heard the sound of guns in the night.

197
sick to his stomach:
Knight,
The Echo of the Black Horn
, pp. 137-38.

197
cut her brothers down:
Bynum,
The Free State of Jones
, p. 119.

197
“perhaps by mistake”:
“Letter from Mississippi” as quoted in Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, pp. 98-99; May 5, 1864, Letter from Col. William N. Brown to Governor Charles Clark, Comp. 20th Miss. Regt. Knights Mills Jones Co. Miss., Governors’ Papers, record group 27, vol. 56, box 949, MDAH. Some of Ben Knight’s relatives claimed he was legally absent from the 7th Mississippi Battalion because he was officially paroled after Vicksburg. See Bynum,
The Free State of Jones
, pp. 118-20.

198
“Crackers’ Neck”:
Letter from Col. William N. Brown to Governor Charles Clark, Comp. 20th Miss. Regt. Knights Mills Jones Co. Miss., Governors’ Papers, record group 27, vol. 56, box 949, MDAH; letter from Quitman Ross, Knight family attorney, to A. L. Hopkins, Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, December 3, 1963, MDAH, copy in possession of authors.

198
eleven-year-old named George:
Ben Graves, address to the Hebron Community, Lauren Rogers Museum, Laurel, Miss.; interview with Ben Sumrall, August 31, 1936, WPA Collection, Jones County, MDAH; Bynum,
The Free State of Jones
, p. 121n.

198
“no right to hang”:
Frost, “The South’s Strangest Army Revealed by Chief”; Montgomery, “Alleged Secession of Jones County,” pp. 13-23.

198
mostly women, boys, and old men:
Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 99.

198
“He held the father as hostage”:
As quoted in Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 100.

199
men fired after him:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 72.

199
the father was locked up:
Ibid., p. 73.

200
“Big Creek cemetery”:
Thomas et al.,
The Family of John “Jackie” Knight and Keziah Davis Knight.

200
“take great delight in destroying”:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 52.

200
“look like men’s tracks?”:
Ibid., pp. 53-55.

201
“she would kill him”:
Ibid., p. 53.

201
“They fought men and dogs”:
Letter from B. A. Mathews to L. W. Perce, December 8, 1870, Accompanying Papers, H.R. 1814, Newton Knight file, record group 233, box 16, NARA.

201
“afraid of them old shot guns”:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 41.

202
“we’d better get out of here”:
Frost, “The South’s Strangest Army Revealed by Chief.”

202
“ready to shoot”:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 42.

202
“rolled marbles on his coat tail”:
Ibid., p. 76.

203
revenge for the hangings:
Ibid., p. 26; interview with Ben Sumrall, WPA Collection, Jones County, MDAH.

203
red pepper blistered their snouts:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, pp. 28-29.

203
“God’s power that delivered him”:
Ibid., p. 49.

204
never see some of them again:
Newton Knight muster roll, c. 1870, Ames Family Papers, Smith College, collection number MS-3.

204
Fort Pike, Louisiana:
Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Record Group 92, Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Louisiana, 1st New Orleans Regiment, “Tisdale’s,” microfilm (M396), NARA; Newton Knight muster roll, c. 1870, Ames Family Papers, Smith College, collection number MS-3.

204
felled by dysentery:
The Union pension claims of the families of these men are documented in Jean Strickland and Patricia N. Edwards,
Miscellaneous Records of Jones County
(n.p., Moss Point, Miss., 1992) and Strickland and Edwards,
Records of Jasper Co. Mississippi
, WPA source material, Will Abstracts 1866-1914 (n.p., Moss Point, Miss., 1995). Also, Jones County archivist Kenneth Welch has amassed a formidable collection of pension materials on Jones County Unionists, which he was kind enough to provide copies of to the authors. 204
riddled with bullets:
Newton Knight’s muster roll, c. 1870, Ames Family Papers, Smith College, collection number MS-3. Newton did not list all of the men who served as guerrillas with him on his muster roll, omitting those who he felt did not “hold out faithful” to the Union cause throughout the war, according to his advocate B. A. Mathews. See Letter from B. A. Mathews to Rep. Legrand W. Perce, Ellisville Miss. December 8, 1870, Accompanying Papers, H.R. 1814, Newton Knight file, record group 233, box 16, NARA.

204
“new repeatin’ rifles”:
Frost, “The South’s Strangest Army Revealed by Chief.”

205
captured men in irons:
Letter from B. A. Mathews to Rep. L. W. Perce, December 8, 1870, Accompanying Papers, H.R. 1814, Newton Knight file, record group 233, box 16, NARA.

205
Colonel William N. Brown:
April 13, 1864, Lowry to Jack,
OR
, series 1, vol. 52, part 2, pp. 657-58; May 5, 1864, Letter from Col. William N. Brown to Governor Charles Clark, Comp. 20th Miss. Regt. Knights Mills Jones Co. Miss., Governors’ Papers, record group 27, vol. 56, box 949, MDAH; Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 100. 205
resistance in the Piney Woods:
Allardice,
Confederate Colonels
, pp. 79, 257.

208
“the many complaints we hear every day”:
Letter from Col. William N. Brown to Governor Charles Clark, Comp. 20th Miss. Regt. Knights Mills Jones Co. Miss., Governors’ Papers, record group 27, vol. 56, box 949, MDAH.

208
“try half the army”:
Letter from Walter A. Rorer to his cousin Susan, March 31, 1864, Civil War Collection, MHI, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

209
“bushwhacking”:
Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 18.

209
“these secessionists to order”:
Maury,
Recollections of a Virginian
, p. 246.

210
“knew every creek and footlog”:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 75.

210
threatened impressment agents:
H. C. Kelley to T. H. Taylor, July 30, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 39, part 2, pp. 736-37; other information in this paragraph comes from
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 2, pp. 688-89; and
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 579-80, 580-81, 711-13, 727-28. 210
“commit the same to the flames”:
June 14, 1864, Letter from B. C. Duckworth to Governor Charles Clark, Governors’ Papers, record group 27, vol. 56, box 949, MDAH.

210
“defied the Colonel and his forces”:
“The Republic of Jones,”
Natchez Courier
, July 12, 1864.

211
“pulled a quantity of green corn”:
H. C. Kelley to T. H. Taylor, July 30, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 39, part 2, pp. 736-37; Weitz,
More Damning than Slaughter
, pp. 208-232.

211
liberated from plantations:
OR
, series 1, vol. 39, part 2, pp. 568, 570, 571, 777;
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 755, 820-21.

212
“defeating their object?”:
OR
, series 1, vol. 39, part 2, p. 777.

212
“mere skirmishing”:
Knight,
The Echo of the Black Horn
, pp. 204-205; Mallard, “I Had No Comfort to Give the People,” p. 81; Ella Lonn,
Desertion During the Civil War
(1928; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), pp. 62, 68, 70-72, 75-76.

212
impressed back into uniform:
Newton Knight, et al. v. United States
, Congressional Case 8013-8464; War Department Collection of Confederate Records, RG 109, Compiled Service Records, 7th Battalion, Mississippi Infantry, microfilm (M269), NARA.

213
the will of his opponents:
McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, p. 722; Foote,
The Civil War
, vol. 3, p. 319.

213
“determined to fight it out”:
Foote,
The Civil War
, vol. 3, p. 323.

213
“after the fall elections”:
McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, pp. 718-21, 803.

213
“against their war resources”:
Ibid.

215
“lifeless corpses”:
Letters from Columbus Sykes to his wife, Pauline, April 23, 1864, April 30, 1864, Civil War Collection, MHI, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

215
“brought to close quarters”:
Cash and Howorth,
My Dear Nellie
, p. 203.

215
“no comb for your hair”:
Ibid., p. 182.

215
“his spirit escaped”:
Clement A. Evans, ed.,
Confederate Military History
, vol. 1, p. 665.

216
“a kind of morning dash”:
Albert Castel, “The Life of a Rising Son, Part III, the Conqueror,”
Civil War Times Illustrated
18:6 (October 1979): 13.

216
winter-spring of 1865:
Depositions in
Newton Knight, et al. v. United States
, Congressional Case 8013-8464; Bynum,
The Free State of Jones
, p. 125.

217
“to fight on open ground”:
Grant,
Personal Memoirs
, p. 363; McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, pp. 753-54.

217
what he had done to his own body:
Foote,
The Civil War
, vol. 3, p. 330; McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, p. 753.

217
“no army at all”:
Cash and Howorth,
My Dear Nellie
, p. 189.

218
no merciful truce:
McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, pp. 774, 804-6.

218
“the city of Savannah”:
Ibid., pp. 804-6.

219
Riding in a cavalry force:
James Lee McDonough and Thomas L. Connelly,
Five Tragic Hours: The Battle of Franklin
(Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1983), appendix. There were thirty-three Mississippi infantry regiments and five Mississippi cavalry regiments at Franklin.

219
feet of the men in gray:
McDonough and Connelly,
Five Tragic Hours
, pp. 104-6, 146-49; Wiley Sword,
Embrace an Angry Wind, The Confederacy’s Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville
(New York: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 246.

220
“supreme fear and terror”:
Sword,
Embrace an Angry Wind
, p. 267. 220
flame searing their faces:
Ibid., pp. 226-27, 246.

220
commanders among the casualties:
McDonough and Connelly,
Five Tragic Hours
, p. 154.

221
shuddered from cold:
Sword,
Embrace an Angry Wind
, p. 279.