Having served over two years in a good, hard-fighting infantry regiment, and being encamped at Newport News, Va., holding the dignified rank of Sergeant, I one day met our little fighting Major John G. Chambers who asked me if I would like a commission in the 1st U. S. Colored Cavalry, then forming at Fort Monroe, to which I made answer that I would, and two or … “He was a Primitive Baptist who didn’t drink, didn’t cuss, doted on children and could reload and fire a double-barreled, muzzle-loading shotgun faster than anyone else around,” said Moulds. There was a phase during early Reconstruction when blacks could vote, and black officials were elected for the first time. Much as Ross wanted to shoot the movie in Jones County, there were irresistible tax incentives to film across the border in Louisiana, and some breathtaking cypress swamps where various cast members were infested with the tiny mites known as chiggers. Through Big Bethel, the scene of one of the I have so much respect for both of them.”, “Absolutely,” says Marsh. All rights reserved), (© 2015 STX Productions, LLC. So I went and did Hunger Games, but always keeping an eye on this. been accomplished, we returned to Williamsburg, arriving there the next Privacy Statement “I can’t be certain, but a 90-year-old man named Odell Holyfield told me this was the place,” says Gavin. Thank God, because that would have sucked.”, Like his grandfather before him, Hosey is a great admirer of Newt Knight. In early 1863, Knight was captured for desertion and possibly tortured. (In 1951, one of them, Ethel Knight, published a vitriolic indictment of Newt as a traitor to the Confederacy.) It’s a very interesting, real and complicated place.”, On the website of Jones County Rosin Heels, the local chapter of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, an announcement warned that the film will portray Newt Knight as a civil rights activist and a hero. They organized themselves into a company called the Jones County Scouts and unanimously elected Knight as their captain. A few years later, there was a vote on it, and the names were changed back. It depicts Jones County as Davis County, and Ellisville as Leesburg. The Rosin Heel commander Doug Jefcoate wasn’t available, so I went instead to the law offices of Carl Ford, a Rosin Heel who had unsuccessfully defended Sam Bowers, the imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in his 1998 trial for the 1966 murder of civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer. Related Stories for GQ Beach Reads Politics Since 1957, GQ has inspired men … Hosey really wanted to take me to Newt Knight’s grave. They were in an earthwork across the Ford and we Jason Bourne Goes Gunning for Star Trek Beyond at the Box Office It doesn’t hurt that he was such a badass.”. “When I hear that word, I think of grits and sweet tea, but mostly I think about slavery and racism, and it pains me. Knight also fathered nine children with his white wife, Serena, and the two families lived in different houses on the same 160-acre farm. Richard Grant is an author and journalist based in Tucson, Arizona. “When you grow up in the South, you hear all the time about your ‘heritage,’ like it’s the greatest thing there is,” he says. Knight was 6-foot-4 with black curly hair and a full beard—“big heavyset man, quick as a cat,” as one of his friends described him. Historical Gazetteer of New Kent County X X Under Construction X X, Skirmish at New Market Bridge December 1861 III- Postscript, New Kent Votes - Presidential Votes 1788-2020 - UPDATED, Roads, Good Government, and Sabbath Fishing- 1922, The 10th Massachusetts from Williamsburg to Bottoms Bridge II, Twelve Days of Christmas in Colonial Virginia, Colonial Churches in the Original Colony of Virginia, The Vestry Book of Saint Peter's, New Kent County, Va. from 1682-1758, Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Out of the Box- blog of the Archives at the Library of Virginia, King and Queen County Courthouse Tavern Museum, Action at Jones' Bridge- Forty-second Cavalry. “They were Union soldiers from principle,” Maj. Joel E. Welborn, their former commanding officer in the Seventh Mississippi, later recalled. Its secessionist candidate received only 24 votes, while the “cooperationist” candidate, John H. Powell, received 374. Victoria Bynum traces the origins and legacy of the Jones County uprising from the American Revolution to the modern civil rights movement. “I’m not that guy.” (Turns out he is Doug Jefcoat, without the “e.”), He laughed uproariously, then settled down and gave me his thoughts. On the night of October 5, Major McLemore was staying at his friend Amos Deason’s mansion in Ellisville, when someone—almost certainly Newt Knight—burst in and shot him to death. 365 fascinating true crime stories. In bridging the gap between the legendary and the real Free State of Jones, she shows how the legend reveals a great deal about the South's transition from slavery to segregation. Driving toward the Jones County line, I passed a sign to Hot Coffee—a town, not a beverage—and drove on through rolling cattle pastures and short, new-growth pine trees. Even the liberals carry handguns.”, He described Jones County as the most conservative place in Mississippi, but he noted that race relations were improving and that you could see it clearly in the changing attitudes toward Newt Knight. “He was a family man all right!” said Marsh. cross the Chickahominy at Jones Ford, sometimes called Jones Bridge, and Newport News, Va., holding the dignified rank of Sergeant, I one day met He was a nightmarish opponent in a backwoods wrestling match, and one of the great unsung guerrilla fighters in American history. Their cousin Davis Knight, who looked white and claimed to be white, was tried for the crime of miscegenation in 1948, after marrying a white woman. Four other Temple members committed murder–suicide in Georgetown at Jones' command. The Jones Bridge is meant to be a memorial to William Jones and the Jones Law, which was enacted by the U.S. Congress earlier in 1916 after a series of vigorous campaigns by Filipino and American statesmen.The law is the first formal declaration of the U.S. to grant independence to the Philippines after a number of years. Plans for a new terminal were conceived in 1989, when the Department of Transportation and Communications commissioned Aéroports de Paris to do a feasibility study to expand capacity. His most recent book is The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi. Although he was against secession, Knight voluntarily enlisted in the Confederate Army once the war began. Reaching higher ground, Gavin points across the swamp to various local landmarks. On November 18, 1978, at the direction of charismatic cult leader Jim Jones, 909 members of the People's Temple died, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in a "revolutionary suicide." enemy’s scouts were against us all night, keeping matters well stirred Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. I found him listed as a veterinarian in Laurel, and called up, saying I was interested in his opinions on Newt Knight. Polk ordered two battle-hardened regiments into southeast Mississippi, under the command of Piney Woods native Col. Robert Lowry. the Fair Knights or Knight Negroes) are descended from Newt and Rachel. Full Cast and Crew; Release Dates; Official Sites; Company Credits; Filming & Production; Technical Specs having been a feint to make the enemy believe that Butler’s Army of the Unable to find marriage partners in the community, they started marrying their white cousins instead, with Newt’s encouragement. The trial was a study in Mississippian absurdity, paradox, contradiction and racial obsessiveness. He wanted to meet me at Jitters Coffeehouse & Bookstore in Laurel, so he could show me an old map on the wall. or This story is a selection from the March issue of Smithsonian magazine. “Newt is what we call trailer trash,” he said in a booming baritone drawl. “In 1875, he accepts a commission in what was essentially an all-black regiment,” says Ross. JONES BRIDGE – The government of Manila recently announced that there will be a temporary road closure of Jones Bridge on Sunday. of men than the infantry regiments had; some being from the North and Army, being at the time the only cavalry he had. The historic William A. Jones Memorial Bridge, more popularly known as the Jones Bridge that spans the Pasig River in Manila and connects it to Binondo, is once again drawing attention as it is beautifully revitalized through Manila’s efforts to bring back its former glory and grandeur befitting its title as the pre-war “Paris of Asia” and “Pearl of the Orient”. Then he started reading, beginning with the five (now six) books about Newton Knight. However Jones’ Bridge is a self-contained camping spot. Providing a documentary history of a Virginia Burned County from the Colonial Era through the early Twentieth Century. After the Civil War, Knight took up with his grandfather’s former slave Rachel; they had five children together. earliest disasters of the war, to Yorktown, memorable for its two sieges The On November 18, 1978, at the direction of charismatic cult leader Jim Jones, 909 members of the People’s Temple died, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in a “revolutionary suicide.” I’m here in Jones County, Mississippi, to breathe in the historical vapors left by Newton Knight, a poor white farmer who led an extraordinary rebellion during the Civil War. There were isolated farmhouses and prim little country churches, and occasional dilapidated trailers with dismembered automobiles in the front yard. Jasper Collins echoed many non-slaveholders across the South when he said, “This law...makes it a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.”, Returning home, they found their wives struggling to keep up the farms and feed the children. Having served over two The worst of it comes from within their extended family. The old county seat, and ground zero for the Free State of Jones, is Ellisville, now a pleasant, leafy town of 4,500 people. Carolina. Get the best of Smithsonian magazine by email. “It led me on a deep dive to understand more and more about him and the fact that the South wasn’t monolithic during the Civil War,” says Ross, speaking on the phone from New York. Several of the Knight company were mangled by the dogs, and at least ten were hanged, but Lowry couldn’t catch Knight or the core group. A Lady of the Peninsula - Sheridan on the Chickaho... "They Burn Bottom's bridge"- Sheridan on the Chick... "Out of supplies for my men and animals"- Sheridan... Action at Jones' Bridge(Providence Forge)- The Fi... "The marauders who are in New Kent"- May 1864, Action at Jones' Bridge(Providence Forge)- May 1864. “I guess that’s why he had three of them. Jones Bridge Massacre Details. an order to report to Colonel Garrard for duty as an officer of the new When secession fever swept across the South in 1860, Jones County was largely immune to it. It’s part of the culture here. Newt Knight gives me something in my heritage, as a white Southerner, that I can feel proud about. I We marched out through Hampton, For simplification, she said that there were three basic groups. Some scholars think he was pressed back into service for the Siege of Vicksburg, but there’s no solid evidence that he was there. “They were making an effort to be mustered into the U.S. Service.” Indeed, several of the Jones County Scouts later succeeded in joining the Union Army in New Orleans. “Even as an old man, if someone rubbed him the wrong way, he’d have a knife at their throat in a heartbeat. “We have get-togethers in Jones County, and I imagine we always will,” he says. I’m some Hollywood guy, you know, and he wanted to see if I could do the work.”, Ross worked his way slowly and carefully through the books, and went back with more questions. The William A. Jones Memorial Bridge, commonly known as the Jones Bridge, is an arched girder bridge that spans the Pasig River in the City of Manila, Philippines. ; AFFAIRS AT FORT MONROE. There were several times in Jones County when my head began to swim. It’s not even past.”. is still standing there. maintain their liberty in the swamps of Eastern Virginia and North “Newt didn’t give a damn. I tell people this movie is my academic midlife crisis.”, In Hollywood, he says, the executives were extremely supportive of his research, and the script that he finally wrestled out of it, but they balked at financing the film. A direct descendant of Newt Knight’s grandfather, he was heavily involved in researching the film and ensuring its historical accuracy. California Do Not Sell My Info Jones Bridge Massacre Details. After Reconstruction, with the former Confederates back in charge, the Klan after him, and Jim Crow segregation laws being passed, Knight retreated from public life to his homestead on the Jasper County border, which he shared with Rachel until her death in 1889, and continued to share with her children and grandchildren. “I love the Leaf River and the whole area,” says Ross. 34. Despite being heavily touted as "inspired by a true story," both Tobe Hooper's original 1974 film and the 2003 Marcus Nispel remake are only lightly based on the real-life murderer Ed Gein, who is suspected to have taken several victims between 1954 and 1957. “I remember walking out of his office, across the steps of Columbia library, almost buoyant. and they were a thoroughly efficient and capable corps of officers. This, more than anything, explains its widespread disloyalty to the Confederacy, but there was also a surly, clannish independent spirit, and in Newt Knight, an extraordinarily steadfast and skillful leader. Then former Confederates violently took back control of the state and implemented a kind of second slavery for African-Americans. With two rat terriers trotting at his heels, and a long wooden staff in his hand, J.R. Gavin leads me through the woods to one of the old swamp hide-outs. The Racial Segregation of American Cities Was Anything But Accidental. Jones Bridge Massacre (1989) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb. With the movie coming out, they’re at it harder than ever.”. Once everyone was assembled, Jones spoke to his congregation. They were disgusted and angry about the recently passed “Twenty Negro Law,” which exempted one white male for every 20 slaves owned on a plantation, from serving in the Confederate Army. some being the outlaw negroes who, in slavery times, had been able to So many men tried so hard to kill him that perhaps his most remarkable achievement was to reach old age. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at Port Kaituma, including United States Congressman Leo Ryan, an act that Jones ordered. Directed by Ben Yalung. “What happened in Jones County puts the lie to that, so the Lost Causers have to paint Newt as a common outlaw, and above all else, deny all traces of Unionism. “I wouldn’t have him in my house. Currently undergoing a facelift, the bridge has been given a P20-million budget for its restoration program. “He said they had a gate in the reeds that a man on horseback could ride through. and Williamsburg our infantry who, much to our surprise were marching He was 84 years old. Nevertheless, Ross and McConaughey spent a lot of time in Jones County, persuading many county residents to appear in the film. This little-known, counterintuitive episode in American history has now been brought to the screen in Free State of Jones, directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games) and starring a grimy, scruffed-up Matthew McConaughey as Newton Knight. He looked it over and said in a He gave that single long interview in 1921, revealing a laconic sense of humor and a strong sense of right and wrong, and he died the following year, in February 1922. A lot of people will tell you that Newt was just a renegade, out for himself, but there’s good evidence that he was a man of strong principles who was against secession, against slavery and pro-Union.”. Monroe, to which I made answer that I would, and two or three days In October 1862, after the Confederate defeat at Corinth, Knight and many other Piney Woods men deserted from the Seventh Battalion of Mississippi Infantry. The incident sparked national attention as details of the massacre … James, as it was afterward called, was moving up the Peninsula, having On the county line, I was half-expecting a sign reading “Welcome to the Free State of Jones” or “Home of Newton Knight,” but the Confederacy is now revered by some whites in the area, and the chamber of commerce had opted for a less controversial slogan: “Now This Is Living!” Most of Jones County is rural, low- or modest-income; roughly 70 percent of the population is white. “It was illegal for blacks and whites to be buried in the same cemetery,” says Hosey. flank and soon drove them away from the ford. Joseph Hosey is a Jones County forester and wild mushroom harvester who was hired as an extra for the movie and ended up playing a core member of the Knight Company. Soon afterward, there was a mass meeting of deserters from four Piney Woods counties. Those views were not unusual in Jones County. Thirty years before he stood in front of a vat of poisoned punch and urged his followers to end it all, Jim Jones was a well-liked, respected figure in the progressive community.In the late 1940s and early 1950s He was upset that some of his members had … The following month, Confederate Maj. Amos McLemore arrived in Ellisville and began hunting them down with soldiers and hounds. But the sacred rite of hunting season was underway, and the landowner didn’t want visitors disturbing the deer in the area. Known as the City Beautiful, it was created by Midwestern timber barons who razed the longleaf pine forests and built themselves elegant homes on oak-lined streets and the gorgeous world-class Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. It was, in fact, the normal reaction when they tried to explain their family tree to outsiders. as a brave and efficient Major of the 3d N. Y. Cavalry I had been well The Orangeburg Massacre occurred on the night of February 8, 1968, when a civil rights protest at South Carolina State University (SC State) turned deadly “I’m not a fast reader, nor am I an academic,” he says, “although I guess I’ve become an amateur one.” He apprenticed himself to some of the leading authorities in the field, including Harvard’s John Stauffer and Steven Hahn at the University of Pennsylvania. I really kind of marveled at him.”, The third act of the film takes place in Mississippi after the Civil War. and, coming down on the opposite side of the river, took the enemy in We have to tell our young people, do not date in the Soso area. I ask him what he admires most about Knight. From the New York Times of March 2, 1862 MISCELLANEOUS REBELLION NEWS. Come to the animal hospital tomorrow.”. way across at Jones Ford. Then he started into Reconstruction. If you point out that Newt distributed food to starving people, and was known as the Robin Hood of the Piney Woods, they’ll tell you he married a black, like that trumps everything. “The third act is what makes this story feel so alive,” says McConaughey. Continue thereafter I received an order, mustering me out of the service and also There seemed no point in arguing with him, and it was almost impossible to get a word in, so I sat there scribbling as he launched into a long monologue that defended slavery and the first incarnation of the Klan, burrowed deep into obscure Civil War battle minutiae, denied all charges of racism, and kept circling back to denounce Newt Knight and the simpering fools who tried to project their liberal agendas on him. Powell stayed away from Jones County for a while after that, and he was burned in effigy in Ellisville. I stood there for a few long minutes, with a shiny steel table and, on the wall, a Bible quotation. Steamers were lying at the wharf in front of The White Negro line was complicated further by Georgeanne, Rachel’s daughter by another white man. “We’ve come to terms with who we are,” says Blaylock. Foner answered none of them, just gave him another reading list. William Widmer is a New Orleans based photographer whose work appears in The New York Times and in feature stories on the American South. Advertising Notice made it have the manner and bearing of soldiers. “Or they’ll be nice to us in private, and pretend they don’t know us in public,” added Marsh, who lived in Washington, D.C. for decades. (Newt’s son Mat, for instance, married one of Rachel’s daughters by another man, and Newt’s daughter Molly married one of Rachel’s sons by another man.) “I didn’t realize it was going to be two years of research before I began writing the screenplay.”. The receptionist led me into a small examining room and closed both its doors. Then Jefcoate walked in, a middle-aged man with sandy hair, glasses and a faraway smile. regiment was soon filled, mounted and equipped, and constant drill soon Jones tried and failed to use his local political influence to kill the story. And like all poor, white, ignorant trash, he was in it for himself. Ford wasn’t there, but he’d arranged for John Cox, a friend, colleague and fellow Rosin Heel, to set me straight about Newt Knight. It made me really wish my grandfather was still alive, because we were always saying someone should make a movie about Newt.” Hosey and the other actors in the Knight Company bonded closely during the shoot and still refer to themselves as the Knight Company. This regiment, being the “If someone—no matter what their color—was being mistreated or being used, if a poor person was being used by someone to get rich, that was a simple wrong that needed to be righted in Newt’s eyes....He did so deliberately, and to the hell with the consequences.” McConaughey sums him up as a “shining light through the middle of this country’s bloodiest fight. Over 700 pages of pure true crime history. |, (© 2015 STX Productions, LLC. ), (From the collection of Earle Knight / Courtesy of Victoria Bynum), (Herman Welborn Collection / Courtesy of Martha Doris Welborn). Wirt Thompson reported that they were now a thousand strong and flying the U.S. flag over the Jones County courthouse—“they boast of fighting for the Union,” he added. . He lived the self-sufficient life of a yeoman Piney Woods farmer, doted on his swelling ranks of children and grandchildren, and withdrew completely from white society. the old Westover mansion, and, going on board, we were soon thereafter I don’t know how much of that is true, but one of these days I’ll come here with a metal detector and see what I can find.”. In the film, Marsh and Blaylock appear briefly in a courthouse scene. “A lot of people find it easier to forgive Newt for fighting Confederates than mixing blood.”. But we’re all fine. regiment. “It was like Newt himself was standing right there in front of me. Modern Ellisville is dominated by the sprawling campus of Jones County Junior College, where a semiretired history professor named Wyatt Moulds was waiting for me in the entrance hall. 16... Roster of Co. F., 3rd Virginia Cavalry, The New Kent Cavalry (Dragoons) Under Construction, Roster of Co. B., 53rd Virginia Infantry, The Barhamsville Greys (Grays)-- Under Construction. Meet the Irish Elk, Egyptian Archaeologists Accidentally Discover 250 Ancient, Rock-Cut Tombs, Why Ecologists Are Haunted by the Rapid Growth of Ghost Forests, An Estimated 50 Billion Birds Populate Earth, but Four Species Reign Supreme, Rarely Seen Portrait of Renaissance Queen Catherine de' Medici to Go on View, Contrary to Popular Lore, Ancient Greek Armies Relied on Foreign Mercenaries, The True Story of Amazon's 'Underground Railroad', Rare Owl With Bright Orange Eyes Seen for the First Time in More Than 125 Years, Dogs Do It, Birds Do It, and Dolphins Do It, Too.
Picture Of A Bruin, Ncaa Hockey Tournament 2021 Selection, Zeljeznicar Vs Sarajevo Prediction, Peterborough United Fa Cup History, East St Louis Football Championships, Bruno Meaning In Malayalam, British Midland Flight 92 Victims, Lars Lungi Sörensen, Spain Youth League U19 Table, Blackjack: The Jackie Ryan Story,
