There are many reasons given by historians for Newton Knights defection, all of them guesses; he said in an interview in the 1920s it was because of the 20-Slave-Law and the Tax-In-Kind Law, but those can be argued. One family history states he defected to kill his Brother-ln-Law, the only man he feared, for mistreating his wife and family while he was in the Army. And the story goes, when Newt got home he shot that man in the head while the man sat on Newt's porch.

Whatever.

I'm half way through this new book. Almost 200 pages of history about a man, that officially we only know through the census records (apparently this outlaw could hide from every law enforcement official for years but he couldn't evade the census taker), and Confederate Rolls- not one letter, no diary or memoir, all of this from third party stories. At one point these writers compare Newt to Abraham Lincoln, because, it is said, Newt could pick up a 300 lb. hog over his shoulders. Huh? I'm having to lift my pants legs really high on this one.

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David Upton