By Vikki Bynum Ed Payne’s current series on Mississippi Piney
Woods Civil War Unionists, “Crossing the Rubicon of Loyalties,”
provides a timely context for a closer look at Oquin C. Martin,
a former Confederate soldier and Piney Woods neighbor to the
infamous Newt Knight. Although Martin joined neither Newt
Knight’s band of deserters nor the Union army, his 1895
deposition,* gathered during Newt Knight’s federal claims
hearing, indicates that were he forced to live the war all over
again, Martin might not have remained loyal to the Confederacy.
When asked whether he had been a “Union man or a secessionist,”
he answered, “I was a right smart of a secessionist until I was
converted.” There was no follow-up question to Martin’s
intriguing statement that he had been “converted.” Clearly, the
government was far more interested in what Martin had to say
about Newt Knight’s loyalty than his own, particularly since he
and Newt had served together in the 7th Battalion Mississippi
Infantry of the Confederate Army. When