A Loyalty Oath

[Blue Mississippian]

I've never seen one of these either until just now!

This is a great forum! There's lots of documented history and great discussions.


Question: did every former confederate have to sign one of these or were they just for "special people"?

 

[Patrick H]

Patrick, I thought of the women in Mary Carroll's story that you directed me to (and many thanks for showing me this story, by the way). If I didn't get my dates mixed up, this is in the summer of 1863 in Pilot Grove, Missouri. Mary, a girl on the Confederate side, is at this time fashioning an iron key to break her brother out of jail.

"About this time the federal authorities issued another order that all of the women of Cooper County take the oath of allegiance to the federal government. My mother, sister, and myself all went to the office of Col. Catherwood to take the oath. Before I would take this oath, I asked him if anything I might do to assist my imprisoned brother would be considered a violation of that oath. He said, "No." We took the oath. Mother and sister returned home and I returned to my work on the key."

She didn't mention why the federal gov't had them take the oath at that particular time, but anyway that's the story.

I had forgotten that Mary wrote about taking the oath. She was a crafty young woman, to say the least. I'm sure the Colonel envisioned her bringing food to her brother or maybe some blankets and things of that nature. I can just imagine her looking him in the eye when she asked if helping her brother would be a violation of the oath. The thought of her going back home and resuming work on the jail key is really pretty funny.

 

[Patrick H]

I'm still curious about the date of the oath in my original post: May of 1865. I know that oaths (and often bonds) were being required of citizens in my county much earlier in the war. But these bank directors signed their oath very late. I don't understand that. Can anyone offer a possible explanation?