This guest blog about Stephen D. Lee doesn’t mention the part he played in the southeast Mississippi homeland of the Poore family.
The family had moved from Newton County to a few miles south of the county line into Jasper County in late 1863.
On February 3, 1864, Major General William T. Sherman led 23,519 federal troops out of Vicksburg. The bluecoats struck eastward across the width of Mississippi toward the Piney Woods homeland of the Poore family. The federals headed for the railroad town of Meridian, a major shipping point.
Rebel cavalry Major General Stephen D. Lee had the job of slowing down Union General William T. Sherman’s column long enough to let the Confederate infantry set up a defense line. Lee gathered his horsemen north of Garlandsville, near the Poore family’s Jasper County homestead.
The Yankee invaders entered Newton County on February 12 and Lee’s cavalry made hit-and-run attacks on the 1,000 wagons in the supply train. As it turned out, Lee’s efforts came to nothing. The rebels never made a stand.
Rebel Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk wrongly guessed that the Yanks planned to attack Mobile. Instead of pulling his men together for a defense, Polk scattered the 21,963 troops in the Army of Mississippi across the region, mostly in Alabama.
Mention the surname “Lee” to a Civil War enthusiast or quite possibly any American that sat through a high-school American History class and the name Robert E. Lee is the first one given in reply. Ask that Civil War enthusiast to mention another “Lee” that fought in the Civil War and that person would respond with either Fitzhugh Lee or Rooney Lee, both correct answers.
Yet, there was another “Lee” with no relation to the Lees’ of Virginia who served admirably and faithfully to the Confederate cause too. He even served longer than the three gentlemen officers that shared his same last name. Unlike those Lees he was not a Virginian, but claimed Charleston, South Carolina as his birthplace and hometown.
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Poore Boys In Gray 
From your book, I do remember the part about Sherman and Stephen Lee in Jasper County near the Poores’ home. Was that the time that some Confederates turned into outlaws in the woods, rejecting the war effort? (Sorry if I’m mis-characterizing that.) Certainly I never knew much about Stephen D. Lee, and I am interested to read that he was from Charleston — which is turning out to be the same neck of the woods as the Fraser side of my family (series of recent blogs), who accrued a number of plantations and many slaves. I definitely did not want to find plantations in the family past, but oh well. Thank you for relaying this informative post and connecting it to your book!
Mariann, you remember correctly. Well, I never know what to call the anti-Confederates either and they often seem to be a mixed bag of causes and personalities. Victoria Bynum, who has written most about them, calls them Renegades. Take a look at her blog Renegade South (http://renegadesouth.wordpress.com).