![]() ![]() They continued to interfere with the Confederate war efforts, fighting their last battle in early 1865, only months before the Civil War ended. The troops found and executed many members of Knight Company, but not Knight or other leaders who had hidden in the swamps. Nonetheless, their rebellion had come to the attention of Confederate leaders who sent troops to stop it. flag in Ellisville, although whether they actually declared “The Free State of Jones” is uncertain. ![]() ![]() Their insurgent actions included impeding tax collectors, taking Confederate army supplies to redistribute to Jones County’s residents and even killing supporters of the Confederacy.īy early 1864, Knight Company had raised a U.S. They saw themselves as defending the residents of Jones County from the Confederacy. Knight rallied about 125 others-some deserters, some enslaved people-and formed the Knight Company. It is generally believed that Knight killed him. In November 1863, Major Amos McLemore, sent by the Confederacy to capture deserters, was shot and killed in Ellisville, the county seat of Jones County. Knight was captured as a deserter in early 1863, but by later that year, he was back in Jones County. To make matters worse, the Confederacy levied a “tax-in-kind” that allowed the army to take from local residents whatever it needed in the way of supplies. With so many men at war, there were not enough people to do the work. There he discovered that farms were suffering. In late 1862, however, Knight deserted and returned to his Jones County home. Some accounts say that he was coerced by the pro-war passions of the times, others say that he wanted to avoid conscription and some say that he simply liked being a soldier. His reason for doing so, however, is unclear. Shortly after the Civil War began, Knight enlisted in the Confederate Army. The couple would go on to have nine children together. The Knight family grew food crops and raised livestock on their farm, and did not align themselves with the slave-holding class that supported secession and the Civil War. His grandfather had owned a large number of slaves, but his father did not. Newton Knight was born in Jones County, Mississippi in 1837. Knight's descendants formed a biracial community in the segregated South. After deserting from the Confederate army, he led a rebellion against the Confederacy in Jones County, according to lore and declaring it “The Free State of Jones.” After the war, he lived with a woman who had been enslaved. Newton Knight opposed the state seceding from the United States, saying that white farmers like himself did not support slavery. ![]()
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