Victoria E. Bynum - The Free State of Jones, Movie Edition: Mississippi’s Longest Civil War

Throughout my journey into Jones Countys colorful past, Gregg Andrews, my husband and colleague, has been my constant companion, and moreover, he proved indispensable to the research and writing of this book. Together we have traversed the South summer after summer, researching his books as well as mine. Greggs social and professional skills have aided me time and again. For example, without his presence and prodding as we searched for the old homesite of Newt Knights parents, I doubt that I would have stopped to ask a farmer working in his field for directions. That chance encounter with local resident Julius Huff led to one of my most memorable excursions into Mississippis past. On hearing that I was a historian, Julius dropped his work and drove us in his truck through swampy dirt roads to the cemetery of John Jackie Knight, Newts grandfather. There he shared with us the stories he had heard all his life as he directed us to the stone marking the mass grave of three members of the Knight Company who were executed in 1864 by Confederate cavalry. After that experience, Gregg and I carried pad and pencil wherever we went, including the momentous day when we drove with another local resident, eighty-nine-year-old Earle Knight, to the Newton Knight cemetery. After landowner Jerry Jones kindly unlocked the gated fence, we were on our way. Over dirt roads strewn with debris and thick with weeds up to the hood of the car, and with thunderclouds gathering overhead, we searched and searchedand finally found the graves of Newt and Rachel.

Early in the adventure, it was clear that I would learn far more about the past from informal visits and conversations with people like Julius and Earle than by conducting formal interviews. Many families in Jones and Covington Counties opened their homes to us upon learning of my research and treated us with wonderful hospitality. In 1993 Carliona Ingram Forsythe prepared us a sumptuous Southern meal and arranged for us to meet with Ethel Knight, author of The Echo of the Black Horn. That same summer DeBoyd Knight and his wife, Robbie, regaled us with stories, photos, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia related to the Free State of Jones. In the summer of 1994 Earle Knight not only arranged for us to visit the Newt Knight cemetery but also shared several meals with us and escorted us to the historic Amos Deason home. I am deeply saddened that neither Earle nor Carliona lived to see this book in print. Sometime after Earles death in 1998, I received a telephone call from his friend and cousin William Pitts, who shared that sadness with me and added his own thoughts about the legacy of Newt Knight.