Edward Harmon McKnight

Edward Harmon McKnight was born in Adams County, Mississippi, on 4 December 1840 near the town of Washington. Edward Harmon was the eldest son of Virginia-born Thomas and Catherine McKnight. Thomas McKnight loaded up the family and moved to Texas around 1855. By 1860, he had settled them 65 miles northwest of Houston, in the town of Independence in Washington County. Thomas was a fairly well- to-do carpenter with a net worth of $10,000; consisting of $4,000 in land and $6,000 in personal property. This was quite a sum of money in 1860.

Edward was living at home and working as a wagoneer in 1860 but had just begun working as clerk when the War between the States broke out in 1861. Twenty years old, Edward enlisted for the duration of the Civil War with Capt J. C. Rogers' Company of Texas Volunteers on 15 July 1861 in Milam County, Texas. Milam County was the next county west of Washington County.

After enlisting, the Company moved to Houston where Edward was officially mustered into the Confederate States Army as a Private on 29 August 1861.

J. C. Rogers' Company was integrated into the Confederate Army on 1 November 1861 and became Company I, 5th Regiment of the Texas Militia. Company I saw continuous action in the Eastern Theater of Operations and participated in some of the hardest-fought battles of the Civil War. Promoted to Corporal 4th Class, Edward became ill north of Richmond, Virginia, and was left sick on side of the road to Ashland on 25 June 1862.

He recovered just in time to rejoin his company for the August 1862 troop movement to Manassa, Virginia. Now a Corporal 3rd Class, Edward was wounded in action on 30 August during the fighting at Second Manassa (also know as the Second Battle of Bull Run) and then taken prisoner by he Union Army. The 11th Corps of the Army of Potomac paroled McKnight and the other Confederate wounded at Warrenton, Virginia, on 29 September 1862. He was moved to Richmond, Virginia, for treatment and admitted to the Confederate Hospital on 19 Oct 1862. He was then furloughed back to Texas to recover on 22 October 1862.

Returned from convalescing in Texas, McKnight was promoted to Corporal 2nd Class in January 1863 and was back with his unit by the end of February. On 29 March 1863, he was admitted into the Receiving and Wayside Hospital (General Hospital #9), again suffering from a gunshot wound, and transferred first to General Hospital #4 in Richmond and then, on 29 April 1863, to the Texas Hospital in Richmond. He had reported back to duty by 1 June 1863 but was now a Private again instead of a Corporal. He was then assigned duties as a wagoneer while he continued to recover from his wounds. Company I listed Edward as absent for duty from January to February 1864 but this could have been faulty bookkeeping.He also could have been out looking for a horse as on 12 March 1864, he was officially transferred from his infantry company to Company K, 8th Texas Cavalry. This unit is better known as Terry's Texas Rangers and Edward became a scout serving directly under such great men as Generals Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Joe Wheeler. When the War of the Rebellion ended in May 1865, Edward refused to accept a parole from the Union Army and simply went back to Texas.

Once home, Edward moved to Devilla in Milam County, Texas, and married Miss Katherine E. Munford in October, 1865. Their first two daughters, Sallie Rogers and Bettie, were born in Milam County. Sallie Rogers was named Rogers as a tribute to J. C. Rogers, Edward's first company commander during the Civil War. Rogers was a lawyer in the town of Cameron in Milam County. By August 1870, Edward's farm was worth $2,000 and he had another $2,300 worth of personal property. His brother-in-law, Hawkins Munford also lived with them and worked on the farm.

Edward moved his family to Greer County, Texas, on Thanksgiving Day in 1889 and settled near Eldorado. In 1893, Edward moved further west in Greer County and started farming near Duke township. When Oklahoma was created as a territory, the U.S. Congress transferred Greer County from Texas to Oklahoma. The area near Ed Harmon's farm became known as McKnight, Oklahoma, and the new State of Oklahoma created a new county out of the southwestern part of Greer County and named it Harmon.

Converted and baptized early in life into the Baptist Church, Edward served as an ordained deacon of the Church for over forty years. He is credited with building up the Baptist Church in Harmon County. He spent the last part of his life at Hollis, Oklahoma.

His 6 March 1865 scouting mission with General Joe Wheeler and Wheeler's bugler Private James B. Nance of the 4th Tennessee Regiment has been recorded as one of General Wheeler's most famous exploits. After a perilous crossing of the swollen PeeDee River in North Carolina on 6 March 1865, the three were joined on 7 March 1865 by a small detachment of Wheeler's special scouts. They then engaged a squad of Union troops in a running battle that resulted in Union losses of thirty-five men before the scouts ran into the main Union force and were forced to turn back. After reading several other accounts of General Wheeler's crossing of the Peedee River, Edward wrote a personal account of the event that was published in the Confederate Veteran magazine. Following the publication of his article, Edward made the trip from Harmon County, Oklahoma, to Birmingham, Alabama, to attend the United Confederate Veteran's May 1916 Reunion. He may also have attended an earlier reunion in 1908.

Edward and Katherine had eleven children, eight of whom (four sons and four daughters) survived him. There were twenty-three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren at the time of his death on 9 June, 1918, in Hollis, Oklahoma. He also had three brothers living at Roswell, New Mexico, and a host of friends to mourn his departure. The Church lost a good member, the old soldiers a brave comrade, the wife a good husband, and the children a dear father. He was laid to rest in the McKnight Cemetery.

Edward Harmon McKnight was a pioneer in Harmon Country, OK, founded the 1st Baptish Church in Hollis OK, and was an officer of John Adams Camp #1647, Ex-Confederate Veterans. He also applied for a Cross of Honor in 1908. His wife survived him and lived on a Confederate Veteran's Widow's Pension.

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