I’m pleased to announce that on September 10, 2015, I’ll be speaking on The Free State of Jones at the Lauren Rogers Museum in Laurel, Mississippi. The talk begins at 5:30 p.m.; open to the public, admission is free. Donations are accepted.
My talk is part of the museum’s exciting new exhibition, Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection (see description below), which will run from September 6 through November 15, 2015. Hope to see you there!
The Lauren Rogers Museum, Laurel, Mississippi
The Origins of the Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection:
Drawn from the Becker Archive’s collection of over 650 works, these first-hand sketches of the era’s leading artist-reporters were originally commissioned for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. The subjects include depictions of Civil War battles and daily camp life.
Joseph Becker (1841-1910) was hired by the Illustrated Press as a sketch artist in 1863. Though Becker lacked formal training, he excelled at his position and in 1875 was promoted to Manager of the paper’s art department. The Collection includes works from Becker and his colleagues, including Edwin Forbes (1839-1895), Arthur Lumley (1837-1912), and Francis H. Schell (1834-1909).
There has been no major exhibition or scholarly survey featuring Civil War drawings since the 1961 centennial, and at that time the Becker Collection had not yet come to light. Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection is the first opportunity for scholars and enthusiasts to see selections from this important and unknown collection and appreciate these national treasures as artworks.
The “first-hand” drawings selected for this exhibition, most of which have never been published, document in lively and specific ways key developments in the history of America as it struggled to establish its national identity.
Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection is curated by Judith Bookbinder and Sheila Gallagher and the traveling exhibition is organized by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions, Pasadena, California. Drawings from the Becker Collection premiered at the McMullen Museum at Boston College in the exhibition First Hand: Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection which was organized by the McMullen Museum and underwritten by Boston College and Patrons of the McMullen Museum.
The movie The Free State of Jones, starring Matthew McConaughey as Newt Knight and Gugu MBatha-Raw as Rachel Knight, is scheduled for release on March 11, 2016.* Almost a year previous to that day of projected release, the following photos were taken on the movie’s set in Covington, Louisiana. You’ll likely recognize the director, Gary Ross, of Hunger Games and Seabiscuit fame.Perhaps you’ll recognize the Confederate officer and nurse too!
BTS: Director Gary Ross with author and historian Victoria Bynum (author of “The Free State of Jones”). Photo courtesy of STX EntertainmentConfederate officer (Gregg Andrews) and hospital nurse (Victoria Bynum). Photo courtesy of STX Entertainment
And for your listening pleasure, I give you “Jones County Jubilee,” a musical version of the Free State of Jones by Doctor G and the Mudcats:
*Note: The release date of Free State of Jones has been changed to June 24, 2016.
Alzada, a poor single woman who made a meager living working the soil, credited her survival of the Civil War to Newt Knight and his guerrilla band, who, she testified to Tom when she was in her late nineties, protected her from Confederate harassment. Knight Band members Jasper Collins and W.W. Sumrall, she reportedly said, were “good men” as well.
I have written about Alzada before. She appears briefly in an earlier Renegade South post entitled “Renegade Women.” Even earlier, quoting from Tom’s Knight’s description of his interview with her, I wrote the following paragraph about Alzada’s wartime experiences in The Free State of Jones:
“She plowed and hoed many a day to make an honest living,” wrote Tom. . . . She once endured the harassment of a cavalryman who demanded to know “where is the man that has been plowing here?” Only after the soldier walked the grounds and inspected her footprints did he accept that she had no man to care for her (p. 109; see also pp. 83, 108, and 138).
Alzada Courtney, middle person of middle row, longest-lived participant in the Free State of Jones, 1926. Alzada died in 1936 at age 108. Photo courtesy of Ralph Kirkland
Now there is more on Alzada! I am pleased to publish here the 1936 obituary of this remarkable woman, thanks to a new series of documents recently published by Cindy DeVall and Sue Coker on behalf of the Deason House restoration project of Ellisville, Mississippi.* Alzada’s obituary is unusually candid, providing wonderful anecdotes and details about her life during and after the war, including the fact that she opposed the Confederacy with all her might.**
Oldest Citizen of Jones County, Mrs. Courtney, is Dead at Age of 108 Years
Death claimed Jones County’s oldest citizen Saturday when Mrs. Alzada Courtney, age 108 years, one month and six days died at10:00 a.m. at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. W. Tucker of Tucker ’s Crossing, where she had been living for a number of years. Although Mrs. Courtney had been blind for 15 years and suffered from the infirmities of age for many months, she was able to sit up in a chair until four weeks ago. The illness which preceded her death was of two weeks duration. Mrs. Courtney was truly a pioneer. She was born in Smith County on August 6, 1828, at old Taylorsville and was member of the Smith family. In her early womanhood she moved to what is now Jones County and established her home in the center of a gallberry patch, which later became the city of Laurel. The house in which Mrs. Courtney lived stood on the present site of the First National Bank and the fields of crops extended to what is now the law around the Eastman-Gardiner and Company’s office.
Told Tales of War Members of the family repeat stories told by Mrs. Courtney of her life during the Civil War. She told them of trips she made on the back of a mule to the water mill where she carried her corn to be ground. Mrs. Courtney said that it was not unusual for her to be stopped and have her meal taken from her by members of the cavalry who were in the county fighting Newt Knight and his band of men. Mrs. Courtney was living at home with her grandmother and she told of encounters she had with soldiers. She never tried to shoot one but defended her home with a fence rail whenever the soldiers came snooping around. After the town of Laurel became established, Mrs. Courtney moved about two and one-half miles further east, where she homesteaded a place across Tallahala Creek. She spent the remainder of her life in that section and died about a mile and a half from the old homestead which is still in the family and occupied by Mrs. Robert Manning.
**Noted, August 5, 2015: The obituary does not mince words about Alzada’s support for “Newt Knight and his band of men.” But notice that the above references to the “cavalry” that came to the county to fight Newt Knight, and to the “soldiers” that Alzada had “encounters” with, do not identify them as either Confederate or Union forces. I have a theory about this omission, and it centers on the year the obituary was written: 1936. Thanks in large part to Tom Knight’s 1935 manuscript, Newt Knight had achieved hero status for his Civil War adventures during this decade (Ethel Knight’s book would not appear for another fifteen years.) On the other hand, the Myth of the Lost Cause, with its glorification of the Confederacy and its denial that slavery had anything to do with the Civil War, had also taken hold in America—in 1936, we’re only three years away from Gone With the Wind.
And so, it seems, the author of the obituary played it both ways by mentioning Newt Knight by name, but not identifying the cavalry as Confederate. It may be just such omissions that eventually created another popular myth: that Newt Knight and his men supported neither the Confederacy nor the Union, and just wanted to be “left alone.” Make no mistake, the Knight Band fought against the Confederacy, and so did the women who loved them. The proof for that is as solid as documentation that slaveholders orchestrated secession as a means to protecting slavery.
And so we see something of the twist and turns in our historical understanding of the Free State of Jones in Alzada Courtney’s obituary, which continues on a more personal note, below.
Never on Train Although the tree railroads which traverse this county have been constructed since Mrs. Courtney moved here, she had never ridden on a train. She saw the rights of way surveyed for each line, but she had never seen the inside of a passenger coach. During her life she had very few rides in an automobile, but in her earlier life she rode in a small boat to cross Tallahala Creek when she attended services at Hickory Grove Baptist Church, where she was a member all her life. Mrs. Courtney had many sterling qualities, among them was thrift. She could not bear to see anything wasted or any land to stand idle. She did not believe in flowers. She thought the land should be used to grow something to eat or wear. She was loved and respected by all who knew her and her passing will leave a vacant place in the community which will be felt for a long time.
Funeral Held Sunday The funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at 1:30 at the family home in Tuckers Crossing and interment was in Mt. Ora Cemetery with Rev. J. W. Fagan officiating. Survivors are a son, Joe Courtney, Mt. Ora community; and a daughter, Mrs. J. W. Tucker of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Matthew Tucker, Ellisville; Martin Tucker, Ellisville; Robert Tucker, Laurel; Onnie Tucker, New Orleans, Louisiana; Mrs. Ed Bush, Richton; Mrs. Viola Sumrall, Gulfport; Mrs. Neomia Perryman, Wilmer, Alabama; Mrs. Nola Mitchell, Gulfport; Mrs. Maud Long, Laurel; Mrs. Walter Landrum, Holly Bluff, Mississippi; Mrs. Joe Sumerall, Holly Bluff, Mississippi; Mrs. George Strahan, Laurel; Miss Anice Tucker, Laurel; Miss Carrie Tucker, Pensacola, Florida; George Courtney, Laurel; Mrs. Jim McDaniel, Cohay; Mrs. Beulah Jackson, Mississippi; 60 great grandchildren and 6 great great grandchildren also survive. Pallbearers were her grandsons Robert Morris, Matthew Tucker, Marvin Long, and great grandson, Thurman Bush.
Laurel Leader-Call September 14, 1936
*Obituary published in vol 1 of the 3-volume set, Ellisville Mississippi: A Testament to our Ancestors, compiled by Cynthia DeVall and Sue Thomas Coker. For information on how to purchase, visit Ralph Kirkland’s Free State of Jones page on Facebook, or contact the Deason Home Restoration Fund, p.o. box 643, Ellisville, Mississippi, 39437, or contact me in the comments section.
Renegade South 