Most likely he voted against secession, if he voted, and maybe not, we don't know. The returns for Jones county was officially 89 for secession and 166 against. That was well before conditions and attitudes changed and war begun. He, like so many other Jones County men, took the oath and enlisted into the Army of the State of Mississippi and later served in the Confederate Army. He enlisted twice, and on the second enlistment took the $50 dollar bounty. He still could have been a Unionist and been loyal to the Confederacy, many were. Attitudes and people change and for him, army life was not an option after the Battle of Corinth and he deserted. Others from Jones County did the same. Some returned to their units and completed the war with the Confederate Army, others stayed home, others decided to join the Union Army and left the state. He stayed home, apparently, to farm, to produce more children, avoid the army and when they came for him he resisted. If he was a anti-Confederate Unionist I believe he would have joined those Jones County men who went across the river to New Orleans and joined the Union Army OR joined up with Sherman during the Merdian Expedition OR joined up with the 4000 Union cavalry from Baton Rouge during the Buckatoona Expedition (they came within 15 miles of Jones County) in December of 1864.

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David Upton