I will give you a little Alabama history. Winston County, AL did not fight with the Confederacy; in fact, it seceded from AL. ( It's called the Free State of Winston.) Many of its male citizens fought for the Union and others fought for the Confederacy. A Home Guard was organized in Winston Co. by the county's one plantation owner to aid the Confederacy.

Family legend: The Home Guard was a bunch of thugs who took advantage of the fact that the men were gone. Out of seven sons of the Curtis family, the Home Guard murdered four of them. One was pulled out of his house and killed in front of his wife and children. (He was with the Union and had come home to visit his family.)

When one of the brothers returned from fighting at the end of the war, he learned of the fate of his four brothers. He vowed revenge, and all members of the Home Guard and its benefactor met mysterious, violent deaths.

I am a direct descendant of the Curtis family. My great-grandmother was Annie Curtis Cole.