Newton Knight - Civil War

Civil War

Knight, like many Jones Countians, was opposed to secession. The county elected John H. Powell, the "cooperation" (anti-secession) candidate, to represent them at Mississippi's secession convention in January 1861. Powell voted against secession on the first ballot, but, under pressure, switched his vote on the second ballot, joining the majority in voting to secede from the Union. In an interview many years later, Knight suggested many Jones Countians felt betrayed by Powell.

In spite of his opposition to secession, Knight enlisted in the Confederate Army in July 1861. He was given a discharge in January 1862, however, to return home and tend to his ailing father. In May 1862, Knight, along with a number of friends and neighbors, enlisted in Company F of the 7th Battalion, as they preferred to serve together in the same company, rather than with strangers.

Throughout the summer and fall of 1862, a number of factors prompted desertions by Jones Countians serving in the Confederate Army. One factor was the lack of food and supplies in the aftermath of the Siege of Corinth. Another involved reports of poor conditions back home, as small farms deteriorated from neglect. Knight was enraged when he received word that Confederate authorities had seized his family's horse. He was also outraged when the Confederate government passed the Twenty Negro Law, which allowed wealthy slaveowners and planters to avoid military service. Knight had also received word that his brother-in-law, Bill Morgan, who had become the head of the family in Knight's absence, was abusing his children.

Knight was reported AWOL in October 1862. He later defended his desertion, arguing, "if they had a right to conscript me when I didn't want to fight the Union, I had a right to quit when I got ready." After returning home, Knight, according to relatives, shot and killed Morgan. In early 1863, Knight was arrested and jailed, and possibly tortured, by Confederate authorities for desertion. His homestead and farm were destroyed, leaving his family destitute. In May 1863, he escaped.

As the ranks of deserters swelled in the aftermath of the Siege of Vicksburg, Confederate authorities began receiving reports that deserters in the Jones County area were looting houses. General Braxton Bragg dispatched Colonel Amos McLemore to Jones County to investigate and round up deserters and stragglers. On October 5, 1863, McLemore was shot and killed in the Ellisville home of Amos Deason, and Knight was believed to have pulled the trigger.

On October 13, 1863, the Knight Company, a band of deserters from Jones County and the adjacent counties of Jasper, Covington, Perry and Smith, was organized to protect the area from Confederate authorities. Knight was elected "captain" of the company, which included many of his relatives and neighbors. The company's main hideout, known as "Deserters' Den," was located along the Leaf River at the Jones-Covington county line. Local women and slaves provided food and other aid to the deserters. Women blew cattlehorns to signal the approach of Confederate authorities.

From late 1863 to early 1865, the Knight Company fought fourteen skirmishes with Confederate forces. One skirmish took place on December 23, 1863, at the home of Sally Parker, a Knight Company supporter, leaving one Confederate soldier dead and two badly wounded. During this same period, Knight led a raid into Paulding, where he and his men captured five wagonloads of corn, which they distributed among the local population. The company harassed Confederate officials, with numerous tax collectors, conscript officers, and other officials being reported killed in early 1864. In March 1864, the Jones County court clerk notified the governor that deserters had made tax collections in the county all but impossible.

While there is no direct evidence that Jones County officially seceded from the Confederacy, by the spring of 1864, the Confederate government in the county had been effectively overthrown. The American flag had been raised over the courthouse in Ellisville, and General William T. Sherman had received a letter from a local group declaring its independence from the Confederacy. In July 1864, the Natchez Courier erroneously reported that Jones County had seceded from the Confederacy.

General Leonidas Polk initially responded to the actions of the Knight Company by sending a contingent under Colonel Henry Maury into the area in February 1864. Maury reported he had cleared the area, but noted the deserters had threatened to obtain "Yankee aid" and return. Shortly afterward, Polk dispatched a veteran contingent of soldiers led by Colonel Robert Lowry, a future governor who would later describe Knight as an "ignorant and uneducated man." Using bloodhounds to track down deserters in the swamps, Lowry rounded up and executed ten members of the Knight Company, including Newton's cousins, Benjamin Franklin Knight and Sil Coleman. Newton Knight, however, evaded capture. He later stated his company had unsuccessfully attempted to break through Confederate lines to join the Union Army.