The\nUnusual Case of James Burney, Nathan Best, and Frank Childress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [This essay \u2014 revised for length \u2014 was taken from the article by Susannah J. Ural, In the early 1930s, three aging, impoverished men entered the Jefferson Davis Soldiers\u2019 Home in Biloxi, Mississippi. The facility, commonly known as Beauvoir, was Mississippi\u2019s state home for destitute Confederate veterans and their wives or widows. Two of the men, Frank Childress and Nathan Best, bore clear signs of their wartime injuries. Childress suffered, he reported, from a \u201csore leg caused by a gunshot wound received during service in 1861.\u201d Nathan Best\u2019s empty sleeve spoke to his injury and amputation during the Petersburg Campaign. None of this made these men exceptional cases among Beauvoir residents except for one key factor. All three men \u2014 Childress, Best, and James Burney \u2014 had been enslaved Confederate body servants during the Civil War. This had made them eligible for a Mississippi Confederate pension funded by the state, and it also granted them access, or at the very least, consideration for access, to Beauvoir. They were also exceptional as the only African-American pensioners that the Beauvoir Veteran Project research team has been able to find living as residents <\/em>(not employees) of a Confederate home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their\nadmission was the result of an unusual pension policy that began in Mississippi\nin the late 1880s. When state legislators created the Mississippi\u2019s Confederate\npension policy in 1888, it provided modest financial support to Confederate\nveterans and their widows who had not remarried, as well as \u201cthe servants of\nthe officers, soldiers and sailors of the late Confederate States of America,\nwho enlisted from the State of Mississippi.\u201d[1]<\/a>\nIt was not until the 1920s that five other states passed variations of this\npolicy, joining Mississippi in providing pensions for formerly enslaved Confederate\nmilitary \u201cservants\u201d or, in other states, laborers. Beyond being early, Mississippi\u2019s\npolicy was unique because legislators decided to pay African-American and white\npensioners at the same rate. When Mississippi\u2019s 1890 Constitution\nomitted reference to pensions for \u201cservants,\u201d state legislators took the time\nto clarify in 1896 that formerly enslaved men who had served Confederate\nsoldiers could still receive state support. Legislators then took an even more\nunusual step in the Jim Crow South by insisting that veterans, widows, and\n\u201cservants\u201d would \u201cshare and share alike\u201d from the state\u2019s pension fund.[2]<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\ndid this because in the eyes of white elites, many of whom were former slave\nowners, it allowed them to aid formerly enslaved men who had served the\nConfederate military effort in ways that whites saw as acceptable \u2014 as camp servants\nrather than as armed combatants.[3]<\/a>\n Indeed, if Mississippi failed to do\nthis, they fed the North\u2019s narrative of the war. As one Mississippi editor\nexplained, if Mississippi ignored such service, it \u201cwould mean that while\nnegroes who rendered any military service for the Yankees are handsomely\npensioned, those who served their masters in war adopted an evil policy and\nshould be condemned.\u201d Pensions for Confederate \u201cservants\u201d helped sustain the\nimage of \u201cloyal slaves\u201d and similar aspects the Lost Cause memory of the war. [4]<\/a>\nThis argument swayed leading Mississippians until 1922, when a new generation rejected\nthe idea of equal pensions regardless of race.[5]<\/a>\nBut this state endorsement was sufficient to warrant Frank Childress, James Burney,\nand Nathan Best the opportunity to apply for and gain admission as residents of\nBeauvoir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In August 1930, a Harrison County pension board reviewed James Burney\u2019s claim that he had served as Confederate President Jefferson Davis\u2019s \u201c In August 1932, Frank Childress applied<\/a> for a Confederate pension in Tunica County, Mississippi, where he explained that he had been a body servant to Colonel Mark Childress and suffered an 1861 gunshot wound to his leg. [insert image of Frank Childress pension app] The board approved his application in September 1932, but, like Burney, those funds, reduced on the grounds of race, were not sufficient to sustain Childress. He applied for residency at Beauvoir and arrived at the Jefferson Davis Soldiers\u2019 Home in July 1934. A lack of sources prevents our knowing why Childress moved when he did, but he likely was motivated for the same reasons as many of the residents: at Much more is known about the third African-American resident of Beauvoir, Nathan Best. [9]<\/a> He entered the home with James Burney in August 1932, and later lived with Frank Childress. Childress and Best received the same $2 allowance as other residents, but their clothing allotment was less than that of white residents and their cabin was segregated from the cottage-like dormitories that housed white veterans, wives, and widows. Best explained, in the words of a 1930s Works Progress Administrative (WPA) interviewer, how he lived on this meager support: \u201cI North\nCarolina-born Best was about sixteen years old when the Civil War began. He spent\nhis youth enslaved in Snow Hill, North Carolina on the large Greene County\nplantation of Henry Best.[12]<\/a>\nIn 1863, Nathan Best went to war with his owner\u2019s younger brother, Rufus Best.\nWhile carrying messages during the siege of Petersburg, Nathan Best\u2019s horse\nfell and Best broke his arm so badly that it needed to be amputated. After the\nwar Best returned to North Carolina where he worked as a farm laborer and\nmarried a freedwoman named Hester. He was an engaged voter and active in his\ncommunity, but this enfranchisement ended abruptly when white North Carolinians\n\u201cRedeemed\u201d their state and the Klan threatened black North Carolinians who\nattempted to vote. The years after the war were good, he insisted, until then.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nathan\nBest worked in Greene County until 1880, when he and Hester and their three\nchildren moved to Wilson County, North Carolina, and then south to Georgia\nwhere Best worked in the turpentine industry, as he and his father had before\nthe war. Hester died sometime before\n1910, and Best married a woman named Nancy. By then the couple, and perhaps Best\u2019s\nchildren, were living in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, a coastal town not far\nfrom Beauvoir, where Best made a living plowing small plots of land around\ntown. Although neither could read or write, Nathan and Nancy Best owned their\nown home and clarified to the census enumerator in 1910 and again 1920 that\nthey owned it mortgage free.[14]<\/a>\nBy the early 1930s an aging Nathan Best, now in his nineties and a widower \u2014\nNancy died in the 1920s \u2014 could not earn a sufficient living to sustain himself\non a meager monthly pension.[15]<\/a>\nHe was admitted to Beauvoir and entered the home with James Burney on August 7,\n1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nathan Best and Frank Childress were featured in two newspaper and magazine accounts that emphasized their role as Confederate pensioners and residents, and they participated in ceremonies when prominent Americans \u2014 like Franklin Delano Roosevelt \u2014 visited Beauvoir. Writers highlighted Childress\u2019s capture by Union forces and his admission that he later fought for the Union, but only because, the report claimed, he was forced to do so. A 1936 Mississippi Guide<\/em> article included what was purported to be a direct quote from Childress himself: \u201c In\na 1930s WPA interview conducted at Beauvoir, Nathan Best gave no indication of\nsuch dreams. When he talked about his life as a slave, he characterized his\noriginal owner, Henry Best and later his son, Bob, as \u201cgood\u201d owners, but Best\nalso described being hanged, whipped, and abused by an overseer on multiple\noccasions. If Best dreamed of anything in the future, it was leaving Beauvoir.\nWhile he liked things \u201cpretty well here,\u201d Best said he \u201cwould like it better\nifn dey\u2019d jes\u2019 give me \u2018nough pension, so I could live at home.\u201d[17]<\/a>\nIt appears that Best got his wish in March 1939. He received an honorable\ndischarge from Beauvoir and moved to his daughter\u2019s home in Biloxi, and his Confederate\npension benefits were reinstated one month later. Best died there in January\n1940.[18]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Little\nis known about the experiences of African-American residents of Confederate\nhomes. One scholar has argued that more black pensioners were admitted to\nSouthern homes as Confederate veterans died and the homes\u2019 white populations\ndeclined. It is not clear, however, that this practice extended beyond\nBeauvoir.[19]<\/a> In\n1924, Kentucky\u2019s Confederate home hired William Pete, a formerly enslaved Confederate\nbody servant, rather than admit him as a resident. The board felt compelled to\ndo something for Pete, who had been enslaved to Confederate General Joseph\nWheeler, but they refused to admit him as a resident.[20]<\/a>\nMississippi chose another approach. Nathan Best, James Burney, and Frank Childress\nwere admitted to Beauvoir and received the same resident allowance, but they\nreceived less clothing and lived in segregated quarters. Even in monthly\npayment records and in the Jefferson Davis Soldiers\u2019 Home Register, their names\nappear at the back of the old bound volume.[21]<\/a>\nThe public wrapped the men in the legend of the Lost Cause and blended their\nwartime and postwar experiences into the myth of the happy slave. But James\nBurney, Frank Childress, and Nathan Best \u2014 despite Klan violence, Jim Crow\nbigotry, and reductions in their pensions \u2014 used a complicated Confederate\nmemory to secure shelter at Beauvoir when they had nowhere else to turn. Once there, they challenged residents\u2019 and\nvisitors\u2019 Confederate memories until Childress and Best\u2019s families could help\nthem regain their independence with assistance from a Confederate pension. Notes<\/strong> [1]<\/a> Journal of The Senate of the\nState of Mississippi at a Regular Session Thereof, Convened in the City of\nJackson, January 3, 1888<\/em>. (Jackson,\nMS: R. H. Henry, 1888), 333.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [2]<\/a> Laws of the State of Mississippi Passed at Regular Session of the\nMississippi Legislature Held in the City of Jackson, Commencing January 7,\n1896, and Ending March 24, 1896<\/em> (Jackson, MS: Clarion-Ledger Company, 1896), 65; See also Foster,\n\u201c\u2018To Mississippi, Alone,\u2019\u201d 34-37; Hollandsworth, Jr., \u201cLooking For Bob,\u201d 305;\nDale Kretz, \u201cPensions and Protest: Former Slaves and the Reconstructed American\nState,\u201d The Journal of the Civil War Era<\/em>,\n7: 3 (September 2017), 425-445.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [3]<\/a> Mississippi only awarded pensions\nto formerly enslaved Confederate body servants. While some applicants referenced\ncarrying dispatches or being wounded in pension applications, the state did not\nrecognize them as combat soldiers. For a detailed analysis of this pension\npolicy, see Hollandsworth \u201cLooking For Bob.\u201d For more on the Black Confederates\ndebate, see Kevin Levin, \u201cMyth of Black Confederates Won\u2019t Go Away,\u201d The Post and Courier <\/em>(Charleston, South\nCarolina), October 11, 2017; Levin, \u201cWhat Black Confederates Really Did During\nthe Civil War\u201d The Atlantic<\/em>, February\n21, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [4]<\/a> The Lexington Progress Advertiser<\/em> quoted in Jackson Daily News<\/em> (Jackson, Mississippi), February 12, 1904; see a\nsimilar argument in Yazoo Herald<\/em>\n(Yazoo, Mississippi), February 21, 1908.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [5]<\/a> House Bill 382, Laws of the State of Mississippi Passed at\nRegular Session of the Mississippi Legislature Held in the City of Jackson,\nCommencing January 3, 1922, and Ending April 8, 1922<\/em> (Jackson, MS: Clarion-Ledger Company, 1896), 213-215. See\nexamples of protest against this change see Natchez\nDemocrat<\/em> (Natchez, Mississippi), February 10, 1922 and February 14, 1922.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [6]<\/a> Hollandsworth, \u201cLooking for Bob,\u201d\n310-312.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [7]<\/a> James Burney Pension Application,\nSeptember 1, 1930 states that Burney worked for President Davis during the war\nas a body guard from April 4, 1863 through 1865. There is a letter supporting\nthis claim from Sam Burney, for whom James Burney worked after the war. Burney\u2019s\nAugust 1930 pension application makes the same claim. Beauvoir Veteran Project\nresearchers investigated each resident in the sample to verify any reference to\nmilitary service in the home register or in pension applications. To date no\ndocumenting evidence has been found in the Jefferson Davis papers or through\ninquiries to the National Civil War Museum to confirm or reject Burney\u2019s\ntestimony that he served as Jefferson Davis\u2019s body guard. James Burney Pension\nApplication, Harrison County, Mississippi. Mississippi Office of the State\nAuditor, Series 1201: Confederate Pension Applications, 1889-1932, Mississippi\nDepartment of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi; JDSH Register, 360.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [8]<\/a> Frank Childress Pension\nApplication, Tunica County, Mississippi. Mississippi Office of the State\nAuditor, Series 1201: Confederate Pension Applications, 1889-1932, Mississippi\nDepartment of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi; JDSH Register, 360. It\nis unknown if Childress returned to the care of family or was able to support\nhimself. His daughter, Leloa Smith of Clarksdale, Mississippi, is listed as\nfamily in the Beauvoir Register, but the only notation about his departure is\nthat Childress received an honorable discharge on December 28, 1936.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [9]<\/a> Nathan Best\u2019s name sometimes\nappears as Nathan Bess. \u201cBess\u201d appears on one of his pension applications\n(March 1939), in the Biloxi City Directory in 1931, in the Beauvoir home\nregister, in Beauvoir payroll records, and on the death certificate issued by\nthe state of Mississippi. \u201cBest\u201d appears in his July 1930 pension application,\nin Harrison County Chancery Court records, in newspaper articles, in a WPA\ninterview, and in correspondence from Beauvoir. I am using \u201cBest\u201d because the\nuse of \u201cBess\u201d in the home may have started with a misunderstanding or error\nduring Best\u2019s admission which throughout his time at the home and because this\nis the version of his surname recognized by a descendant and by historians. Special\nthanks to Jane Shambra, Charles Sullivan, and Deanne Stephens for helping me to\nunravel this mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [10]<\/a> Laws of the State of Mississippi Appropriations, General Legislation,\nand Resolutions Passed at the Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature \u2026\n1932<\/em> (Meridian, Mississippi: Interstate Printers, Inc, 1932), 53-54; Laws of the State of Mississippi\nAppropriations, General Legislation, and Resolutions Passed at the Regular\nSession of the Mississippi Legislature \u2026 1934<\/em> (Jackson, Mississippi: Tucker\nPrinting House, 1934), 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [11]<\/a> \u201cInterview with Frank Childress\nand Nathan Best,\u201d Folder: Interviews, War Related, Box 10700, Series 447, RG\n60: Work Projects Administration, Mississippi Department of Archives and\nHistory, Jackson, Mississippi. Very few Beauvoir records exist for the 1930s \u2013\nBoard Meeting Minutes or Biennial Reports would have likely touched on any\nchanges to allowances, but those records from the 1930s have not been found. A\nledger listing what each resident was provided between 1930 and 1934 has been\nlocated, and verifies that Frank Childress and Nathan Best were provided\nnotably fewer items than white residents. See untitled ledger listing items\nprovided to residents, 1930-1934, Jefferson Davis Presidential Library, Biloxi,\nMississippi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [12]<\/a> Henry Best died in 1860. His\nwidow, Mariah Best\u2019s, combined real and personal estate in 1860 was $100,000.\nSee 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Tysons\nMarsh, Greene, North Carolina; Roll: M653_899; Page: 321;\nFamily History Library Film: 803899;\n1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules. Digitized online, Provo, UT,\nUSA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Original source: United States of\nAmerica, Bureau of the Census. Eighth\nCensus of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives\nand Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [13]<\/a> See Nathan Best in 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Snow Hill, Greene,\nNorth Carolina; Roll: M593_1140;\nPage: 497AB; Family\nHistory Library Film: 552639.\nRufus Best lists his combined personal and real wealth at $15,000 in the 1870\nU.S. Federal Census, Olds, Greene, North Carolina; Roll: M593_1140;\nPage: 470B; Family History Library Film: 552639. Mariah Best has not\nbeen found in the 1870 Census, but by 1880 she was still listed as the head of her\nhousehold. 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Snow Hill, Greene, North Carolina;\nRoll: 965; Family History Film: 1254965; Page: 67B; Enumeration\nDistrict: 065; \u201cInterview with Frank Childress and Nathan Best,\u201d\nFolder: Interviews, War Related, Box 10700, Series 447, RG 60: Work Projects\nAdministration, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson,\nMississippi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [14]<\/a> 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Beat\n4, Jackson County, Mississippi; Roll: T624_744; Page: 3A;\nEnumeration District: 0064;\nFHL microfilm: 1374757; 1920 U.S.\nFederal Census, Beat 5, Jackson County, Mississippi; Roll: T625_879;\nPage: 2B; Enumeration District: 70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [15]<\/a> Best\u2019s age listed in the register\nwhen he entered the home in 1932 is 90. His death certificate indicates,\nhowever, that he was born in 1849, which would have made him 83. JDSH Register,\n360. \u201cResidents-Black Inmates\u201d folder, Beauvoir, Soldiers Home Reports,\nJefferson Davis Presidential Library, Biloxi, Mississippi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [16]<\/a> \u201cTwo Colored Veterans at Beauvoir\nOne of Whom Served North as Well,\u201d The\nMississippi Guide<\/em>, November 13, 1936. Transcription in Folder 12, Box 1,\n\u201cBeauvoir,\u201d Stevens Collection, McCain Archives, University of Southern\nMississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [17]<\/a> Nathan Best interview, The Guide<\/em>, November 13, 1936, Box 128J,\nFolder: \u201cRacial Groups,\u201d WPA Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and\nHistory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [18]<\/a> Nathan Best, Confederate Pension,\nForm No. 5, Servant, Harrison County, Mississippi. Mississippi Office of the\nState Auditor, Series 1201: Confederate Pension Applications, 1889-1932, MDAH; Biloxi Daily Herald<\/em>, January 18, 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [19]<\/a> Rosenburg, Living Monuments<\/em>, 136.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [20]<\/a> Williams, My Confederate Home<\/em>,242.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/beauvoirveteranproject.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/childressbestbeauvoir-693x1024.jpg\")
athan Best and Frank Childress, former Confederate body servants, Confederate pensioners, and residents of Beauvoir. Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Dixie Press Collection <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/beauvoirveteranproject.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/1932-1934-Items-Given-to-Inmates-p.60-Childress-Frank-1024x806.jpg\")
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