A well-to-do planter and slave owner in Chickasaw County,
Mississippi, Levi Holloway Naron was an unlikely supporter of the
Union. And yet, at the outbreak of war in 1861, his agitation
against the Confederacy so outraged his fellow Mississippians that
they drove him from his home. Bent on retaliation, Naron headed
North, contacted the Union army, and was ushered into the presence
of General William T. Sherman, who quickly saw the possibilities
for employing such a man. Thus began Levi Naron's career as
"Chickasaw," Federal scout, spy, and raider.
Dictated in 1865, when his memory of events was still fresh --
as was his passion -- Naron's memoir offers a rare and remarkably
vivid firsthand account of a southerner loyal to the Union,
operating behind Confederate lines. Active primarily in northern
Mississippi and western Tennessee, Naron proved invaluable to
Federal commanders in the West, not only Sherman but William
Rosecrans, John Pope, Grenville Dodge, Benjamin Grierson, and
others -- leaders whose official testimony to that effect is
included in an appendix here. Naron stood before Rebel commanders
as well -- Sterling Price, James Chalmers, and John C. Breckinridge
-- having bedeviled their security forces and intelligence agents.
In these pages, he tells how he maneuvered under their noses,
burning bridges and railcars full of supplies intended for Nathan
Bedford Forrest and John Bell Hood, recruiting for the Union while
clad in a Confederate uniform, chasing down Union deserters and
Rebel spies, and, for diversion, suppressing guerrillas and
bushwhackers.
This long-forgotten historical document, newly edited and
annotated, provides indispensable information about Confederate as
well as Union espionage and counter-espionage activity. Naron's
adventures illuminate this clandestine war in the West while
allowing readers to experience with startling immediacy the agony,
frustrations, and convictions of a pro-Union southerner trapped
inside the Confederate States.
General
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