Deposition of Confederate major Joel E. Welborn in the case of Newton Knight, et al. v. The United States, March 6, 1895

Q: How long did Newton Knight serve in the 7th Mississippi Battalion of Infantry. And what was he doing in the latter years of the war.

A: He served but a short time … I could hear of him and others raising a company to resist the confederate forces. In August of 1863 there was a company of Confederate cavalry sent here to arrest all the deserters and carry them back to their Commands. At that time Newton Knight and his band, or company, or whatever it was, was becoming a terror to the country; in November following Newton Knight and his crowd had a little fight with this cavalry up here about four miles above Ellisville in the Tallahola [sic] swamp. The Confederates retreated and came back to town, pressed me to go with them and a team to the battleground to bring in one of their number that they knew was killed and I subsequently learned that one or two of Knights party was wounded. The night after the battle they pressed me and the sheriff here, Divall, to go with them up the Paulding road which runs up the east side of the Tallahola creek to see if they could not be approached from the east side of the creek but whenever we reached the point opposite where the battle was, we discovered that they had left there and took up their camp somewhere else. After that they had various skirmishes. About Christmas 1863 Knight and some of his crowd, supposed to be them of course, approached the confederate camp at Ellisville and fired on them and wounded one or two, and they had these skirmishes all until the end of the war.

Q: Did it ever come to your knowledge or understanding in any way that Knight and his men were banded together for the purpose of entering into the service of the U.S. government, or was it their object simply to protect themselves from being arrested and taken back into the Confederate Army at the front.

A: My understanding was that they were Union soldiers from principle. I was inclined to believe and think this from my acquaintance with several of his men, from intimate neighborship, from men who were regarded as men of honest conviction; and Gentlemen. It was currently reported and generally believed that they were making an effort to be mustered into the U.S. service.