Civil War

More than 80,000 Mississippians fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War, and casualties were extremely heavy. They believed strongly in states' rights and the institution of slavery and felt that federal interference was placing the Southern economy and their entire way of life in jeopardy. It is estimated that some 500 white Mississippians remained loyal to the U.S. and fought for the Union. As the war progressed, a considerable number of freed or escaped slaves joined the United States Colored Troops and similar black regiments. More than 17,000 black Mississippian slaves and freedmen fought for the Union.

Mississippi was the second southern state to declare its secession from the United States, doing so on January 9, 1861. It joined with six other southern slave-holding states to form the Confederacy on February 4, 1861. Mississippi's location along the lengthy Mississippi River made it strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy; dozens of battles were fought in the state as armies repeatedly clashed near key towns and transportation nodes.

More than 3 million Americans fought in the Civil War, and over 600,000 men—2 percent of the population—died in it.

At least two former residents of the Octagon House in the Raines family and the current owner of the Octagon House, Greene Lee Blythe, actively participated in the War Between the States ...

Dr. William Nathaniel Raines

Dr. William N. Raines, who built the Octagon House, became a volunteer at the pleasure of General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Medical Staff during the Civil War.

Dr. William Raines wife's father died in 1858 and left his land in Raines, TN (now Whitehaven) to her. In 1863, Dr. Williand N. and Anne E. Raines built Cottage Home and moved back to the Eldridge farm.

At the end of the war, the spirit of the conquered South was expressed in a letter left by Dr. William N. Raines. "I have been pecuniarily damaged by the war to the amount of at least $80,000 but if they will only let me alone, and give me a white man's showing, I think we have plenty to serve the family and can come back." Unfortunately, he would die in January 1866, four days short of his 43rd birthday, from rheumatism brought on by exposure in the trenches. His wife, Anne would die less than three years later on July 1st, 1868, leaving six Raines children. *

Below are images of the Cottage Home they built during the war as well as a map of the Raines, Tennessee (now Whitehaven, Tennessee) drawn during the Civil War.

*Dr. Raines and his wife are both buried at New Bethlehem Church Cemetery; the land for this cemetery was originally donated by Dr. William Nathaniel Raines and his brother, Samuel Lucas Raines.

Cottage Home Built in 1863

William Augustus Raines

William Raines was born in the Octagon House on May 3, 1845. William and his younger brother Samuel attended the University of Mississippi at Oxford (which coincidentally was founded in 1844...the same year that the Octagon House was built), When the War Between the States started, William ran off to Florida and joined the Confederate Army. Later his father sent him a negro servant, a horse, and one hundred dollars. William soon rose to become a Captain in the Army and continued there until the War ended.

Most of his classmates did not fare as well ... nearly the entire student body of Ole Miss--135 out 139--enlisted in Company A of the 11th Mississippi. Company A, also known as the "University Greys" suffered 100% casualties in Pickett's Charge.

University of Mississippi - Class of 1863

William A. Raines, Captain C.S.A. - Hernando, MS

Green Lee Blythe

Green L. Blythe, owner of the Octagon House in DeSoto County, was commissioned Major of the First Battalion of Cavalry, State troops (Minute Men) on 25 September, 1862. He was commissioned Colonel of the First Regiment Cavalry, State troops, 29 April, 1863. The companies of his command were to a considerable extent organized under the act of Congress authorizing partisan rangers. The command was sometimes referred to as the Second Regiment, Partisan Rangers. He and his men saw considerable action in the war as can be documented in the War of the Rebellion: Records of the Union and Confederate Armies - Series I. Vol. XVII - Part II. -- Correspondence, Etc., 1887. Click Here to view links to Blythe correspondence during the Civil War.

While many of the people of Horn Lake did not want to give up their slaves, they nevertheless did not want to secede from the United States. However, after Mississippi seceded from the Union, Horn Lake citizens fought in loyalty to their state. Horn Lake was known to have at least two fighting Units in the Confederate Army and Green Lee Blythe led one of them. His unit was called "Blythe's Battalion," also called "The Buttermilk Brigade" because his hungry soldiers often appeared at kitchen doors hoping for a handout from farm wives.

Most people today do not realize that Lake Cormorant was originally known as Blythe, MS in honor of Colonel Green Lee Blythe. In 1905, the community was renamed for the lake near the town which bore the name Cormorant, which is of Indian origin. However, you can still drive down Blythe Road which is on old Hwy 61!

While fighting a war, Colonel Green Lee Blythe and his wife Evaline managed to have two kids: Sterling Price Blythe born in 1863 and Ebbie Blythe born in 1864.

Reconstruction

The Civil War officially ends on April 9, 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at the McLean House in the village of Appomattox Court House. Six days later on April 15, 1865, Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. The 13th Amendment to Abolish Slavery was ratified on December 6, 1865 and became official law.

It would be July 28, 1868 before the 14th Amendment to grant U.S. citizenship to former slaves who had been freed after the Civil War would become law. Likewise, it would be February 3, 1870 before the 15th Amendment to grant African American men the right to vote would be ratified*.

Reconstruction would prove to be a most difficult time in our country's history for all concerned. There was much bitterness in both the North and South. Northerners were angry over the war and the Southerners who lost were disillusioned and the blacks who had just been freed had little opportunity for meaningful jobs to earn food, shelter, an education and a better way of life.

Political dissension can be easily observed by observing the dates that the eleven Southern States were readmitted to the United States (representation in the U.S. House of Representatives): July 1866 - Tennessee; June 1868 - Arkansas and Florida; July 1868 - North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama; January 1870 - Virginia; February 1870 - Mississippi; March 1870 - Texas and July 1870 - Georgia.

Andrew Johnson, from Tennessee, was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not resign his seat upon learning of his state's secession. He was later appointed V.P. to Lincoln, but when he became president after Lincoln's assassination, the Northern Republicans felt he was 'too soft' on the southern states during reconstruction and impeached him on February 24, 1868; however, the Senate failed by ONE vote of the necessary 2/3 vote to remove him from office on May 16, 1868. Ulysses S. Grant would become the 18th president on March 4, 1869.

*Note: It would take us another 50 years before women would earn the Right to Vote in the United States - the 19th Amendment was not ratified until August 1920!

Pictured here is the Actual Pardon Granted to William N. Raines by President Andrew Johnson for his participation against the United States during the Civil War...

Presidential Pardon - William N. Raines - Issued September 21, 1865

Published in The Daily Clarion - Meridian, MS - January 3, 1866

Google Sites

Report abuse