Chickasaw, a Mississippi Scout for the Union: The Civil War Memoir of Levi H. Naron, as Recounted by R. W. Surby

Preface

PREFACE one fascinating area of Civil War historiography that remains sparsely studied is the elusive world of espionage. Compared with published works in other subject areas of the war, the number of volumes on spies and spying is slim, though a surge in the last decade of the twentieth century produced several quality studies.1 Research on espionage in the Western Theater of the war has lagged behind, predictably, because of most historians’ continued preoccupation with events in the east. Recent exceptions include Warren E. Grabau’s study of the Vicksburg Campaign, wherein he briefly discusses U. S. Grant’s use of local spies, mostly contrabands. William B. Feis has produced a 1. A sampling of such works includes Alan Axelrod, The War between the Spies: A History of Espionage during the American Civil War (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992); Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War (Boston: Houghton Mi±in, 1996); Donald E. Markle, Spies and Spymasters of the Civil War (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1994); Thomas Goodrich, Black flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861–1865 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995). detailed work on Grant’s intelligence network that greatly enhances our understanding of civilian operatives in the west. A volume published in 1990 reveals how a Southern woman named Belle Edmondson operated as a Confederate spy in Memphis and other areas of Tennessee as well as in Mississippi.2 Yet there is one aspect of this topic that remains barely touched by Civil War historians. How many white Southerners operated in the South as spies for the Union cause? We may never know for sure, since anyone who chose to take such a risk had to be very cautious in order to survive. One such spy did not seem to mind letting the world know, though he had several narrow escapes. Levi Holloway Naron of Chickasaw County, Mississippi, vehemently pro-Union, made up his mind quickly at the outbreak of war in 1861 that he not only would not fight for the Confederacy, but would do all that he could do to ensure its downfall. He proved to be quite effective as a scout and spy for Federal generals and armies operating in North Mississippi and West Tennessee. He knew and worked for many prominent Union generals, including Grant, x Preface 2. Warren E. Grabau, Ninety-Eight Days: A Geographer’s View of the Vicksburg Campaign (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2000), 507–10; William B. Feis, Grant’s Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002); Loretta and William Galbraith, eds., A Lost Heroine of the Confederacy: The Diaries and Letters of Belle Edmondson (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990). William T. Sherman, William Rosecrans, John Pope, Grenville Dodge, and Benjamin Grierson. His choice cost him property and the loss of many friends and family members, but he remained dedicated to the preservation of the Union. In 1865, Naron’s story was published in Chicago as a portion of a book entitled Grierson Raids, and Hatch’s Sixty-four Days March, with Biographical Sketches, Also, The Life and Adventures of Chickasaw the Scout. An Illinois cavalryman named Richard Surby, who served in Mississippi and Tennessee, wrote the book. He claimed that Naron dictated the section of the book concerning the tales of Chickasaw (Naron’s code name). Naron is mentioned, rarely, by both his given name and his operative name in pertinent volumes of the War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the O∞cial Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington , DC, 1880–1901).3 Despite the publication of his war memoir, Naron has been mostly ignored in Civil War espionage historiography . In his dated work Spies of the Confederacy , John Bakeless briefly mentions Naron but mistakenly gives Naron’s home state as Alabama rather than Mississippi. We trust that the separate publication of Levi Naron’s story of sacrifice and dedication to the cause he believed in will both give him his proper place in the story of the war and fuel further Preface xi 3. Feis, Grant’s Secret Service, 286n, identifies Naron records in the National Archives. research into Unionism and espionage within the Confederacy.4 There are several possible reasons why Surby’s book fell through the cracks of Western Theater historiography . The...