For the sake of this post I'll borrow the term "Home Guard" to apply to any military command raised under state authority for local service. My own study of Home Guards came about quite by accident. On a slow news day, the Birmingham News ran a front-page article about Senator Richard Shelby attending a family reunion in Jemison AL. The Senator explained his family always met on the 3rd of June at the home place of an ancestor who was killed just after the Civil War ended. Senator Shelby's ancestor, a former Confederate captain, had been taken from his home and hung by neighbors on that date in 1865. The men who hung Captain Cobb were charactized as deserters and outlaws, or words to that effect.

Knowing that my mother-in-law grew up near Jemison, I wanted her comments about the incident. She read the article and became angry. It didn't happen as described in the news article. From childhood she had been told that Captain Cobb belonged to a "Home Guard" unit that terrorized people, killed one of her family, and when the war was over (if I can recall her words), he "got his come-uppance". As a girl (born November 1913) she had been told, "Have nothing to do with those black Cobbs". When I asked for an explanation, she explained that the Cobbs had Indian blood and typically had a 'swarthy' skin complexion.

At this point there was no question about my next research project. For several months I examined every scrap of paper containing anything that might shed light on what had happened during the war in this community. To date it remains one of the most fascinating stories about the Civil War that I've ever heard. That being said, had my wife's family known that I'm related to the Shelby family (and thereby connected to Capt Cobb), objections might have been raised to our marriage.

Along those lines, I learned that two Alabama families that had moved to Texas met during the 1950s and were pleased to learn that both came from the same county. That is, until further inquiries revealed that one family descended from a Shelby County Home Guard member. They never spoke again.

Captain James A Cobb of Shelby County was one of the leading citizens of his neighborhood, known in 1860 as Lower Yellow Leaf. He raised a company for Confederate service, resigned a few months later, and joined West's "Home Guard" in September 1864. West's company included men from across the county, but Captain Cobb was the only member I could identify from Lower Yellow Leaf. They seemed to be men of substance who contributed to development of the community. They supported churches and schools; encouraged education and development of their own children, and stood for law and order.

For example, one former member was exempt due to his involvement in the growing coal mining industry in Shelby County. His autobiography described how frustrating the pursuit of deserters and conscripts could be. The deserters knew the country around their homes and tended to work in groups. Family members brought food and clothing to their hideouts, and misled Home Guards who came looking for them. Sometimes deserters robbed farms where men were away in the army or dead. The Home Guards understood what was happening, but found that trying to catch a deserter could be as frustrating as a snipe hunt. Family members who aided deserters were easier to observe, and Home Guards blamed them for the trouble involved as much as the deserters.

The Home Guards had a difficult job to do as many of the deserters were armed and operated in groups. From their perspective, civilians who provided aid and comfort to deserters were clearly in the wrong. Loose papers in the Shelby County Courthouse included warrants for arrest of at least one of my wife's relative who was charged with assisting deserters. He was later killed on his farm under circumstances that have been reported at least two different ways.

Based on letters found in the papers of Governor Watts, the situation described above existed in many different counties across the state. Maybe one day someone will research them and publish their findings.