Great to hear from you! I have not read Marion Barnwell’s book, but I am very familiar with Rudy Leverett’s Legend of the Free State of Jones, which was recently republished by the University Press of Mississippi.

Dr. Leverett did a great job of exposing all the exaggerated and incorrect tales about the Free State of Jones that have appeared throughout the years. The version that you describe, which appeared in the Natchez Courier before the Civil War was over, is probably the earliest tall tale about the “Republic of Jones.” As you point out, it featured a Major R. Robinson rather than Newt Knight as the leader of this “republic.”

Leverett pointed out that the “Col. Mowry” who appeared in the Courier article appears to be a combination of the two Confederate colonels–Henry Maury and Robert Lowry–who conducted separate raids on Jones County in an effort to put down its insurrection against the Confederacy.

As for the army and navy maintained by this alleged “republic,”–well, that’s an example of how ridiculously inflated the story became. Many, many versions appeared that built on the early Courier story, perpetuating the myth that Jones County actually seceded from the Confederacy.

When I first came upon the story of the Free State of Jones, I began by reading Rudy Leverett’s book, which exposed so many of the untruths passed on over the years.

My own book, The Free State of Jones, basically takes up where Dr. Leverett left off, but he and I came to very different conclusions about the men and families who joined and supported the Knight Company.

Whereas Dr. Leverett believed the band members were mostly bandits and outlaws, I closely researched the family lines of the 55 core members–those listed on Newt Knight’s 1870 roster–and found that they were mostly small farmers who came from interrelated families that had either opposed secession from the start, or came to hate the Confederacy as the war dragged on. Some were Unionists from the get; others were simply war-weary farmers who resented Confederate policies that favored rich slaveholders over the poor farmers.

The story that I seek to tell is that of a community in crisis as a result of a devastating civil war not of their making. Newt Knight was only one member of that community. He played an enormously important role as the leader of the band, but many others played important roles in the Jones County uprising as well.

And I’ll bet almost everyone from Jones County has a least one kinfolk who was a member of the Knight Company!

Vikki

Heard any more on the status of the movie???

Steve