James, George and Calvin Knight's Civil War Experiences
Contributed by Jackie Nichols
The 9th Battalion Partisan Rangers 1862/63
became 3rd Wingfield's Cavalry in 1864. The unit was organized as a regiment of
Partisan Rangers in May, 1862 at Camp Moore and was made up of men from the
Washington Parish area of Louisiana. Their primary assignment was picket duty,
keeping the Yankees out of an area from the Amite River and the north shore of
Lake Pontchatrain to the Mississippi River, though they did range frequently
into Mississippi. They occupied Baton Rouge when the Federals evacuated it on
August 21, 1862. Early in 1863 the Confederate War Department sent orders to
disband the unit; many men went back to their homes; but all who could ride
were called again to duty by General Franklin Gardner and ordered to Port
Hudson. From March to May 1863, the battalion skirmished with federal cavalry
raiders as they made their way from Mississippi toward Baton Rouge. So many
horses were lost that the unit dismounted and acted as infantry, taking cover
in a formidable natural earthwork occupied by Rhodes and Shelby's Mississippi
companies, a total of 60 men with six field pieces. They became part of the
Siege of Port Hudson. Around 7 pm on May 27th that section of outwork was
attached by the First Louisiana Native Guards, the unit of Confederate free
Negroes of French extraction that defected to join the Federal Army and another
unit made up of former slaves. "From the bluff behind the lower ridge, the
field artillery now opened with shrapnel and shell upon the Negro troops as
they floundered across the creek and up the opposite bank. Some of the Negroes
held their ground and attempted to swim across a pool of backwater from the
river to the base of the bluff. The few who made it were mowed down by the
riflemen. All attempts to halt the frightened demoralized troops failed. They
thrashed wildly across the creek and fled to the sugarhouse beyond the north
bank where they were finally halted." The Siege of Port Hudson lasted from
May 23 to July 8th, 1863, ending in the Confederate surrender, 6,340 prisoners
of war to Banks. General Gardener's men were starving, dying from disease and
long exposure; they were paroled and allowed to go home.
The following information was taken from James, Calvin and George Knight's pension applications:
James was the oldest of the three Knight brothers who
joined Wingfield's Cavalry. He was age 34 in 1863. The first year Confederates
could file for a pension, 1898, James filed. By then he was a widower; he had
10 living children, 8 boys and 2 girls. "I used to farm, but now owning to
old age and infirmities, have not been able to work and must depend on others
for my suppport." His pension was approved and he received $12.72.
Calvin Knight was the baby, age 26 in 1862. His pension application was filed
in 1908. He, too, listed 10 children, 4 boys and 6 girls. Because his name was
not on the final 1865 parole roster in Gainesville, AL, more proof was needed
and the pension was at first denied. Six years went by, and in 1914 it took a
notarized letter from his brother, James (then 85) and a letter from the War
Department to record his service. In his statement, James remembers that Calvin
had an injury in 1862. He relates that the entire company was sent home after a
battle at Mixon's Mill in Tangipohoa Parish to find more horses. James starts for home with Calvin, who was sick again. To aggravate his condition, on their way home Calvin's horse throws him against a tree and he suffers a serious head wound. "Calvin was never afterward able to rejoin his command and never recovered from his injury and
prostrations." He was still able to father 10 children. The pension was
approved June 18, 1914.
George Knight, the middle brother, also served in Wingfield's Cavalry and was
on the Prisoner of War list of those paroled from the Siege of Port Hudson in
1863. He died at home in 1903, and his widow Martha filed for a pension in
1913, which was refused. She tried again in 1914, adding a letter from Judge A.
C. Allen of Franklinton, LA. He says "I have made an investigation by
interviewing old soldiers of the same command, including my father, who
surrendered at Gainesville, and I find that George Knight was a faithful
soldier and left the army only when being stricken down with typhoid fever in
the early part of 1864. He was carried home on a sick furlough and was confined
to his bed for many months and never fully recovered until long after the
surrender. His widow is in dire need of assistance." Martha also included
a sworn letter by her brother-in-law, James, still alive in November 1914 at
the age of 86. It states that George was stricken with the typhoid fever at the
Siege of Port Hudson and was always afflicted up to the time of his death.
Martha received $24.00.
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