The State of Jones (54 page)

165
“There was no sheriff”:
Interview with J. C. Andrews, in Strickland and Edwards,
Miscellaneous Records of Jones County
, p. 99; M. P. Bush, address to the DAR, February 17, 1912, Lauren Rogers Museum, Laurel, Miss.

166
“at the risk of my life”:
James W. Silver, ed., “The Breakdown of Morale in Central Mississippi in 1864: Letters of Judge Robert S. Hudson,”
Journal of Mississippi History
16 (1954): 99-104; Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, pp. 73-74.

166
across five counties:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 68.

166
a “strong force” to their aid:
Silver, “The Breakdown of Morale in Central Mississippi in 1864,” pp. 99-104; Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, pp. 73-74.

167
Polk labeled them:
Polk coined the descriptive term “Southern Yankees” in a report to Jefferson Davis, March 21, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 662-63.

167
“No time should be lost”:
Polk to Dabney Maury, February 7, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 2, pp. 688-89.

168
“lamentation of distant families”:
McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, p. 744.

168
“these terrible hardships of war”:
William Tecumseh Sherman,
Memoirs
(1875; reprint, New York; London, Ontario: Penguin Books, 2000), p. 495.

169
“for their special benefit”:
Ibid., p. 311.

169
“quicker by such a course”:
Ibid., p. 316; McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, pp. 808-809; Buck T. Foster,
Sherman’s Mississippi Campaign
(Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2006), p. 31.

170
drive south from Memphis:
Sherman,
Memoirs
, p. 422; Sherman’s report, March 7, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 1, pp. 173-79.

170
“a preeminent man”:
Letter from Walter A. Rorer to his cousin Susan, January 28, 1864, Civil War Collection, MHI, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

171
“I could scarcely ride”:
Letter from Walter A. Rorer to his cousin Susan, February 24, 1864, Civil War Collection, MHI, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

171
“neither traitors nor deserters”:
Roberts and Moneyhon,
Portraits of Conflict
, p. 308.

172
“almost starving children”:
Ibid., p. 309.

172
only the dresses on their backs:
“A Woman’s Account of the Doings at Meridian,”
New York Times
, March 27, 1864.

173
“no longer exists”:
Sherman’s report, March 7, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 1, p. 175.

173
“northern mud sills”:
McPherson,
For Cause and Comrades
, p. 155.

173
indiscriminately for firewood:
Foster,
Sherman’s Mississippi Campaign
, p. 109.

174
“10 miles of negroes”:
Sherman to Halleck,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 2, pp. 498-99.

174
seized wagons and vehicles:
“United States,”
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine
28:168 (May 1864): 848; Sherman’s report, March 7, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 1, p. 175; Sherman to Halleck,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 2, pp. 498-99.

174
“for such action as you please”:
“Sherman to Halleck, February 29, 1864,”
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 2, p. 499.

175
“this great game of war”:
Sherman,
Memoirs
, p. 311.

176
up in Lauderdale County:
Foster,
Sherman’s Mississippi Campaign
, p. 103; for a description of the Piney Woods as a destination for fugitives, see Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 68. According to Ethel Knight in
The Echo of the Black Horn
, p. 106, not only did some of Aughey’s associates collaborate with the Jones Scouts, but by the war’s end, blacks and escaped Yankee soldiers also belonged to the company. Although she is the only source for a connection between Aughey and the Knight band, other accounts attest to the itinerant nature of deserter and Unionist bands in interior Mississippi; see especially Aughey’s memoir
Tupelo
and Silver, “The Breakdown of Morale in Central Mississippi in 1864.”

176
address in Columbus, Ohio:
Newton Knight depositions, 1890, 1895, in
Newton Knight, et al. v. United States
, Congressional Case 8013-8464;
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 1, p. 403. Newton and McMillen could not have met during the Meridian campaign, as at the time McMillen was traveling with General William Sooy Smith’s cavalry, which never made it farther south than West Point, Miss., ninety miles to the north. Smith departed late and encountered General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederate cavalry and thus never linked up with Sherman as planned, to the wrath of Sherman, who believed that with cavalry he could have caught and destroyed Polk’s entire army. However, McMillen might have encountered Piney Woods Unionist guerrillas on other assignments. In 1870, an advocate representing Newton in his pension case forwarded McMillen’s name and post office address as a favorable witness and acquaintance of Newton’s: “You will find enclosed the post office address of Genl WL. McMillen you can confer with him he had an interview with Capt. Knight,” wrote Probate Judge B. A. Mathews to Congressman Legrand W. Perce on December 8, 1870. However, McMillen was unreachable; he had moved to Louisiana, where he became a planter and served for a time in the state legislature. See Accompanying Papers, H.R. 1814, Newton Knight file, record group 233, box 16, NARA. For biographical information on McMillen, see Stewart Sifakis,
Who Was Who in the Civil War
(New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1988), pp. 421-22.

177
“11 times with rifle bullets”:
Frost, “The South’s Strangest Army Revealed by Chief”; Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 52.

178
underbrush and reed brakes:
Frost, “The South’s Strangest Army Revealed by Chief”; Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, pp. 31-32; interview with J. C. Andrews, Strickland and Edwards,
Miscellaneous Records of Jones County
, p. 99.

179
“They are becoming very troublesome”:
A. S. Polk, CSA Acting Assistant Inspector General, to Lt. Col. T. F. Sevier, Asst. Inspector General, March 3, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 579-80.

180
“they were free”:
The report of the Augusta raid, written by Captain A. F. Ramsey of the 3rd Mississippi to CSA Major J. C. Denis, the regional provost marshal, on March 8, 1864, is quoted from Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 74. Thomas Landrum’s name does not appear on Newton’s roster of men, but he went on to enlist in the 1st New Orleans Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Tisdale, as did a number of other men from the Knight Company, in the late spring of 1864.

180
to help protect it:
Major-General General Dabney Maury to James A. Sed-den, Secretary of War, March 3, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 1, p. 403; Weitz,
More Damning than Slaughter
, pp. 206-8.

180
he would hang on the spot:
March 21, 1864, CSA Lieut-General L. Polk to His Excellency President Davis,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 662-63.

181
yielded few returns:
A cavalry trooper under Maury wrote a description of the expedition to his father, and the letter was reprinted in the
Mobile Advertiser and Register
, March 19, 1864. Leverett reprints it in
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 90.

181
“we had better return to camp”:
Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 90.

181
killed in the exchange:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 38.

181
buckshot for their shotguns:
Frost, “The South’s Strangest Army Revealed by Chief.”

181
holding baskets of provisions above her head:
Bynum,
The Free State of Jones
, p. 109.

182
calling for hogs:
Ibid., p. 122.

183
“from such retreats”:
William L. Nugent to his wife, Nellie, January 22, 1864, in Cash and Howorth,
My Dear Nellie
, p. 154.

183
lasted for generations:
Ethel Knight, no sympathetic portrayer of Newton Knight, acknowledged that “many descendants of these people tell until this day that Newt Knight kept them from starvation, which he did, but nothing is ever mentioned about how he acquired help for these families.” Knight,
The Echo of the Black Horn
, p. 94.

183
“ground’s too poor to sprout them”:
Addie West, “A Brief History of Jones County,” WPA Collection, Jones County, MDAH.

183
“were launched into eternity”:
Interview with J. C. Andrews, Strickland and Edwards,
Miscellaneous Records of Jones County
, p. 99; Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 90.

184
all but 20 or so:
March 12, 1864, from CSA Colonel Henry Maury to Major-General Dabney H. Maury,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 632-33.

185
company would be wiped out:
Ibid.

186
“opposition to the Confederate Government”:
Daniel P. Logan to CSA Maj. J. C. Denis, April 7, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, p. 755.

185
cached it in Devil’s Den:
There are numerous references in official Union and Confederate reports to Honey Island as a haven for deserters (see
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 2, pp. 522-23, and
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 632-33), which make Ethel Knight’s description of Newton transporting arms by flatboat plausible (The
Echo of the Black Horn
, p. 152).

185
hiding out there:
OR
, series 1, vol. 34, part 1, pp. 869-70.

186
fend for themselves:
Jasper Collins interview with Goode Montgomery, as recounted in Montgomery’s essay “Alleged Secession of Jones County,”
Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society
3 (1904): p. 13-23. Montgomery was a local historian and resident of Ellisville. Also see the depositions of Jasper Collins and Newton Knight in
Newton Knight, et al. v. United States
, Congressional Case 8013-8464. There was only one organized foray of Yankee troops into Jones County, and it was not to aid Unionists. It took place in June of 1863, when a detachment of forty-five mounted raiders under Captain Calvin A. Mann was ordered by Grant to tear up bridges and railroads in southern Mississippi. The Yankee raiders destroyed some rail cars at Brookhaven but were ambushed by local Confederates. Four were killed, four wounded, and thirty-seven taken prisoner. The incident suggests that Jones was at the time still very much under the control of Confederate loyalists and that Newton was either not yet home from the Vicksburg area or was home but in deep hiding and not yet effectively resisting. For more on Mann’s raid, see James G. Hollandsworth Jr., “Mann’s Foray: A Grierson-like Raid That Failed,”
The Journal of Mississippi History
(March 2005): p. 29-43.

186
“speak out against them”:
Silver, “The Breakdown of Morale in Central Mississippi in 1864,” p. 104.

187
“resolved not to pay any tax”:
Devall to Governor Charles Clark, March 21, 1864, as quoted in Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 81.

187
“risk of his life and property”:
Letter from James Hamilton, CSA Major and Controlling Quartermaster Tax in Kind for Mississippi and East Louisiana, to Col. T. M. Jack, Assistant Adjutant-General, March 31, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 727-28.

187
“sent there to arrest them”:
As quoted in Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 75.

188
“hearts of stone”:
Silver, “The Breakdown of Morale in Central Mississippi in 1864,” p. 102.

188
“this hellish tide”:
Ibid., pp. 102-4.

188
“disloyal men and women”:
Walter A. Rorer to his cousin Susan, April 8, 1864, Civil War Collection, MHI, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.; Roberts and Moneyhon,
Portraits of Conflict
, p. 301; Silver, “The Breakdown of Morale in Central Mississippi in 1864,” p. 102.

190
“well drilled infantry troops”:
CSA Captain W. Wirt Thomson to Hon.
James A. Seddon, Secretary of War, C.S. Army, March 29, 1864,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 711-13.

190
“all efforts to capture them”:
March 21, 1864, CSA Lieut-General L. Polk to His Excellency President Davis,
OR
, series 1, vol. 32, part 3, pp. 662-63.

190
for deserters:
Weitz,
More Damning than Slaughter
, pp. 203-10.

190
“necessary to correct these evils”:
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.

191
“build a fire under us”:
Frost, “The South’s Strangest Army Revealed by Chief.”