Minor skirmishes continue to mark the month of April, such as today’s Battle of Salyersville. The Kentucky town, like many in that state and in Magoffin County in particular, is by now used to the tug-of-war between Union and Confederate forces. The town’s citizenry is comprised, to a significant degree, of former Virginians. Not particularly…
Confederate leaders’ mounting fears of insurrection find evidence in the activities of Newton (“Newt”) Knight (1837-1922), Primitive Baptist and Unionist in Mississippi. Knight is leader of the Knight Company, a group of Confederate Army deserters and Confederate dis-loyalists who banded together in late 1863 to form the “Free State of Jones” in the Mississippi counties…
Early spring has arrived, and with it the promise of the large-scale resumption of battles. Today’s minor military happenings merely serve as preludes to the great clashes which are surely to come. Among the day’s developments are the capture of a Confederate outpost at Cherry Grove, Virginia and skirmishes in Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri. The…