Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
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.[4] Knight was elected "captain" of the company, which included many of his relatives and neighbors. The company's main hideout, known as "Devils 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.[1]:112
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.[1]:107 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.[1]:112 The company harassed Confederate officials, with numerous tax collectors, conscript officers, and other officials being reported killed in early 1864.[3] In March 1864, the Jones County court clerk notified the governor that deserters had made tax collections in the county all but impossible.[1]:112
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.[3] 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.[3] In July 1864, the Natchez Courier erroneously reported that Jones County had seceded from the Confederacy.
Soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln as United States president in November 1860, slave-owning planters led Mississippi to join South Carolina and secede from the Union in January 1861. Other southern states would follow suit. Mississippis Declaration of Secession reflected the planters interests in the first sentence: Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery . However, the yeoman farmers and cattle herders of Jones County had little use for a war over a states right to maintain the institution of slavery. By 1860, slaves made up only 12 percent of the total population in Jones County, the smallest percentage of any county in the state.
