Mississippi College Rifles represent Clinton early in Civil War
By Dr. Walter Howell
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when federal troops surrendered Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor to Confederate forces. In response, President Lincoln called for 200,000 volunteers to enforce federal law in those states that had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Confederates were the law-breakers. Lincoln was the sheriff, and the volunteers were his posse. Everyone expected the conflict to be brief.
In Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus ordered the enrollment of volunteer militia companies to fill the state’s quota for the Confederate army. The Mississippi College Rifles were enrolled on April 20. Three college tutors, John York, Edwin Banks and Judson Thigpen, had organized the company earlier. Johnson Welborn, Clinton merchant and trustee of Mississippi College, was elected captain of the Rifles.
Thirty-one Clinton residents were among the 58 original Rifles. Seventeen other Clintonians enlisted with the Rifles in June of 1861, and five more joined the company during the war.
The Rifles were officially Company E of the Eighteen Mississippi Infantry Regiment. Company E was a Clinton community volunteer militia with a majority of the original members from Clinton. Mississippi College was the catalyst for the unit: 28 of the original 54 were identified with Mississippi College either as students (24), tutors (3) or trustee (1).
Eleven sets of brothers enlisted in the Rifles, including two from Clinton: Thomas and Peyton Moffett, grandsons of Cowles Mead; and Andrew, Calvin (Cuddy) and William Thomas. A third Moffett, Ulysses, joined his brothers on the Virginia front in June of 1862.
Members of the Rifles provided their own uniforms in the beginning. It was later in the war that soldiers received a uniform allotment from the state. Tailors in Clinton were quite busy that spring sewing uniforms for the volunteers. Captain Welborn paid for the uniforms of those who had no money.
A group of Clinton women – Mrs. J. J. Greaves, Mrs. Patrick Lewis (mother of William Lewis, a company officer), Mrs. Jane Criddle (mother-in-law of Lewis) and Mrs. Lucy Banks provided a flag for the company. The flag had three bars of silk — red, white and red — with a white canton bearing eight stars in a circle with gold metallic fringe around the three sides. Lizzie Harris, one of Clinton’s fairest, presented the company flag to Judson Thigpen during a reception at “Moss Hill,” the home of Mrs. Ulysses Moffett, mother of two company soldiers..
On May 27, 1861, the Mississippi College Rifles enthusiastically boarded a train at Clinton’s station for the two-day journey to Corinth, where they would be formally mustered into the Eighteenth Regiment. Seventeen additional Clintonians, plus 29 non-residents, joined the Rifles in Corinth, bringing E Company to full strength.
In July the Rifles moved out by train to join the Army of Virginia, as it was first called. They arrived at a location called Manassas Junction. There the Rifles had their baptism of fire – First Manassas, or the Battle of Bull Run. At that point, everyone thought the war would be over in ninety days.
