At the beginning of 1863, Knight is seized for desertion and possibly tortured

Specific scholars think he was pressed to provider to the Siege from Vicksburg, but there’s zero good proof which he was there. Just scruff after Vicksburg fell, from inside the July 1863, you will find a mass exodus out-of deserters regarding the Confederate Army, and of several from Jones together with nearby areas. Next month, Confederate Maj. Amos McLemore arrived in Ellisville and you can first started hunting them down having soldiers and you will hounds. Of the October, he’d caught over 100 deserters, and you will traded harmful messages having Newt Knight, who had been straight back towards his ruined farm to the Jasper State edging.

To the night of os Deason’s residence during the Ellisville, when someone-almost certainly Newt Knight-burst inside the and you can try him to help you passing. Soon after ward, there clearly was a bulk appointment away from deserters regarding five Piney Trees counties. They organized on their own with the a company known as Jones County Scouts and unanimously decided on Knight since their master. It vowed to withstand need, defy taxation collectors, guard for each other’s land and you may farms, and you will do what they you’ll to assist the fresh new Commitment.

Neo-Confederate historians features refuted the Scouts’ respect for the Connection upwards and you can off, however it try recognized by local Confederates at that time. “These were Connection soldiers from principle,” Maj. Joel Age. Welborn, their former ruling administrator throughout the Seventh Mississippi, later on appreciated. Continue Reading