Show R a merican meff ican d adventurers L by elmo eimo scott tt watson great lakes raider TOURING the civil war david H M dross J ross an 18 year old cadet in the georgia guards was captured and sent to a union prison camp on lake erie he escaped and made his way to canada reporting to capt john beall a confederate agent ross joined beall in a plan to take possession of the philo parsons a lake steamer and with it capture the michigan a union warship use that to attack ft johnson at sandusky and release 1000 confederates there on the morning of Sep september 19 1864 the philo parsons stopp stopped r d at sandwich ont to take on a party of 20 men at malden maiden a few miles farther 20 more came aboard after several more stops the crew and the other passengers found themselves looking into the muzzles of pistols the captain relinquished command and bean beall took over with ross as first mate and then the S S island queen with federal soldiers aboard pulled alongside no one knows why the soldiers permitted it but after firing a few shots beall and ross leaped aboard with a handful of men and captured the crew which was too astonished to resist they sailed on with their union soldiers in tow but the S S michigan commander was ready tor for them seeing the ship coming toward them the philo parsons t turned about and fled docking in the detroit river where the raiders fled to safety ross the 18 year old cadet who had been first mate on the wild voyage managed to get to wilmington N C where he be was made a captain in the secret service general grant during his second presidential administration issued a pardon relieving ross of the charges of piracy 4 0 rebel against debelli rebellion on A A T THE outbreak of the civil war 21 band of about a citizens of jones county mississippi refused to identify themselves with the confederacy under the leadership of one newt knight they took refuge in leaf river swamp where they defied all efforts to make them fight under the stars and bars by 1864 they had complete control of the county and out of that fact grew the story that this rebellion within a rebellion resulted in forming a republic of jones with knight as its head mississippians declare however that there is no official record of any such republic everl ever having laving been launched and they refer to these se ceders from secession as the newt knight band of deserters when the war was over and confederate army veterans returned they induced the legislature to change the name of the county from jones to davis because they said sa 1 d the conduct of knight had made na de its name a badge of ignominy and a term of reproach knight always denied that he was a deserter but tried to get a pension from the federal government he was unsuccessful because the records at washington failed to show his name enrolled in the union army however there was some compensation for him in the tact fact that until his death in 1923 he was widely known as the founder of the republic of jones 0 western newspaper union |