Richard Petty

In the summer of 1862 thousands of run-away slaves made their way to the Union army at Memphis. Their status (prior to the Emancipation Proclamation taking effect January 1863) was contraband of war. The slave Richard Petty living at Senatobia, Mississippi 40 miles south of Memphis, TN was one who took advantage of the closeness of the Union lines and ran away from his master.

Richard Petty wasn’t like other contrabands. Richard Petty was white. That is he was a light-skinned, straight haired, blue-eyed, European featured man who had been born into slavery. Under chattel slavery, a person whose mother was a slave, was born a slave. Over several generations of white men impregnating slave women, a wide range of physical appearances occurred in the slave population, including slaves who were completely white European in appearance.

Petty doubtless knew he could “pass for white,” but prior to the Union army’s occupation of Memphis in June 1862, that reality did him little good. In the rural areas and small towns of Mississippi where he lived, the local people would know his status as a slave regardless of his appearance. His speech and accent would also likely mark him as a slave. In July 1862 Richard Petty came under the protection of the Union army and he had a new option that he exercised – be a white person.

In the year and a half since Battery F had been formed, it had lost men due to disease and hardship. Those soldiers had not been completely replaced. John Cheney was prepared to enlist a man from Tennessee or Mississippi who swore loyalty to the Union – and was white. At that time the army had no Colored Troops and army regiments were strictly white. For example, blacks living in Illinois could not join a unit such as Battery F.

Richard Petty did not disguise his status as a former slave. Still John Cheney felt very strongly that Petty’s status as a slave was not to be held against him. Cheney considered Petty to be white by looking at him. As such Petty qualified to be in a white regiment.

While near Memphis, Tennessee on August 1, 1862 Capt. John Cheney enlisted Richard Petty of Mississippi as a private in Battery F. Cheney’s action was not technically legal as Petty’s official status at the time was contraband of war.

In January 1863 Battery F was engaged in guarding the railroad at David Mill, Mississippi, west of Memphis. John Cheney related in his dairy:

… Memorandum. In August last I enrolled as a soldier, a young man named Richard Pattee . It was said and undoubtedly true that he was a fugitive slave and had escaped from slavery and came into our lines. Pattee is as white as I am. His hair is very light colored. His eyes are blue. He is a faithful soldier. Has never been on extra duty, nor has there ever been a complaint against him. He is neat and tidy. But unfortunately he has been a slave. Some of my men are so much afraid that they will be considered no better than a Nigger as they term him, have become uneasy. They have been induced by several gentlemen, whose superior qualifications for offices in the Battery have not been appreciated by the majority of the Battery, to sign a petition to Gen. Denver to investigate the conduct of officers of Cheney’s Battery. On my return from Grand Junction today the following petition was handed to me by Henry Horn who is now under arrest for straggling from camp and staying 24 hours. But to the petition.

James Thompson	Peter Gleason
H. A. Horn	Charles Horen
W. O. Loveland	Edward Martin
John W. Graves	George P. Lane
Reuben Booth	John Minter
Henry Menchin	M. McManas
E. A. O’Brien	Lawrence Snyder
Max Lentz	John Reardon
Ezra Risley	Henry O’Conner
George Conrad	Joseph Losee
John H. Lyle	John H. Singleton
L. A. Sewell	John Ford
E. F. Braley	Jeremiah Lennihan
James Vance	George Gatenley
Thomas Mitts	James Marks
John Mann	William Phillips
Michael Kearns	George Clark
Elijah P. Vance	William Blair
George W. Beardsley	Matthew Callahan
J. W. Bossack	Thomas Shelly
E. N. Haight	J. E. Thornsbury
Lloyd Berninger	Peter Renland
Nathan G. Eades	James Taylor
F. Rheam	Philip Otto
C. N. Moon	H. Overcutter
Joseph Tober	E. L. Loveless
W. M. Kempe	Henry Wittee
Albert Zorings	Fred Holden
C. E. Christiance	Charles Hough
John J Cox	Addison Wagner
John Guyler	George Carey
John Haynes	Rush Shick
James Lahey	Frank Reubendall
Augustus Baker	Walter Little
Edward Murat

45 of the above named have been punished at different times, two have been court-martialed and 6 were and are under arrest, and will be court-martialed. Henry Horn, Corporal Luman A. Sewell, Corporal James Thompson and Privates George P. Lane, Charles Hough, James Lakey are the ones under arrest. I asked Mr. Horn what he wished me to do with the petition and was informed that I was requested to forward it to Gen. Denver. They having presented it to Col. Hicks of the 40th Illinois and he respectfully referred them to me. I informed him that they could select a man from the petitioners to accompany me to Gen. Denver’s headquarters to see that they had fair play. He said they did not wish to send anyone but I insisted. Michael McManas was the one selected.

After looking over the petition I found the signatures were all in one handwriting. I informed the men that I must have the genuine signatures or else no notice would be taken of the petition. I respectfully requested them to call at my quarters and sign the document with their own hands. In a very few minutes I was furnished with the original document and found that it read as follows. The signatures appended by Corporal Luman A. Sewell under arrest.

[Gen. Denver had gone to Ohio and Col. McDowell was in command of the division. Cheney submitter the matter to him, and requested a court of inquiry be ordered, which was done. Cheney’s diary continues:]

I do not know when the court will sit or what its decision may be in the case of Richard Pattee, but here is my record. A man is a man who behaves himself properly. Let his nationality be what it may. Let him be slave or free. If a slave so much more sympathy for him. If I am to be punished for any crime I prefer that it be for trying to build up and encourage than to crush any one of God’s creatures in His own image. I say also that if Richard Pattee is forced to leave the service of the United States, I will also leave the service if I can honorably get out.

The court of inquiry formed to investigate the charges met once and questioned some of the signers of the petition. The commission was going to meet again when one of its members became sick and the meeting was postponed. By the time that person recovered the division was on the move and the matter was dropped without further meetings. Note Cheney’s men were charging him with “having there feelings outraged;” a frivolous charge. Cheney was not being charged by his superiors for admitting a contraband to the battery; an action that was infact illegal.

I discussing the admission of a white contraband into the battery some people express skepticism that it happened as Cheney described it. Therefore I did some further research on Petty and the notion of white slaves

Richard Petty’s pension file provides information on his date and place of birth and marriage. A Grundy County Illinois history includes a biography on him. That biography appears to be the source for similar information in Petty’s obituary. None of those sources report his status as a former slave. Quoting form the Grundy County biography:

… He was born in Limestone County, Ala., August 10, 1842, son of Abner and Kittie (Carrington) Petty, the former born in England and the latter in Virginia. The father died when his son Richard was a child, but prior to his death made a number of changes moving from Alabama to Mississippi when Richard was eighteen months old, and later to Arkansas where he bought a farm, but within a year returned to Mississippi. Richard Petty grew up in the rural districts of Mississippi…

The 1850 Census has two Abner Petty’s in Mississippi – one in the northern division of DeSoto County and one in the southern division of Carroll County. The enlisted men of Battery F stated that Richard Petty was from Senatobia, MS which is in the northern division of DeSoto so that Abner is a logical choice. There is nothing obvious to connect Richard with the Carroll County Abner Petty.

The DeSoto County Mississippi Abner Petty household shows Abner born about 1797, wife Elizabeth born about 1807 and children George 1820, Reuben 1831 and John 1833. All in the household are listed as born in Alabama. Following the notion that Abner was Richard’s owner as well as his father, neither Richard nor Richard’s mother Kittie, i.e., both slaves, would be listed as part of Abner Petty’s family.

This Abner Petty is not shown in the Census as being born in England, i.e., that point does not agree with the Grundy County biography on Richard Petty. However place of birth is often in error in census data. In this case the Alabama listing is likely wrong. The Mississippi Territory (Mississippi and Alabama) was not opened for settlement until 1798. This Abner Petty was born about 1797, making it improbable he was in fact born in Alabama. The census information may hint that he came to Mississippi from Alabama which would be consistent with Richard Petty’s biography.

Abner Petty of Desoto County owned 16 slaves in 1850. Slave census schedules don’t list the slave’s name but do list age, sex and a designation of color as black or mulatto. Mulatto in this context does not have its current meaning (half white, half black). Rather it was an inexact indication of light skinned as opposed to dark skinned. An apparently white slave would have been rated mulatto.

The 1850 Census Slave Schedule shows that one of Abner Petty’s 16 slaves was a 9-year-old mulatto boy. This census was taken September 19, 1850 at which time Richard Petty was age 9.

Abner Petty died in DeSoto County, MS. His will was recorded on May 2, 1853. At that date Richard Petty was 10 years old, i.e., the date qualifies for Richard’s father to have died when “Richard was a child” as mentioned in the Grundy biography.

It is not known for sure that this Desoto County Abner Petty was the father and owner of Richard Petty, but he seems a reasonable match.

… “in the spring of 1861 enlisted in the Fiftieth Mississippi Volunteer Infantry, but after a year of service was detailed to take back a number of sick. He then enlisted in Battery F First Illinois Artillery.”

On the face of it that story does not hold. There never was a 50th Mississippi regiment. While the biography may simply contain an error in the regiment number, there were no Union Mississippi regiments at the time indicated. A Mississippi regiment in the spring of 1861 would have been Confederate. It seems odd that Petty would relate in his biographical sketch a story that implies a seemingly casual change in loyalties, although instances of soldiers switching sides did occur.

I have not located Richard Petty’s name in any lists of soldiers from DeSoto County or in Confederate units that drew soldiers from DeSoto. It is possible a record exists that I have not found. The logical explanation is that as a slave Petty would not have been enrolled in a Confederate unit at that time.

One speculative scenario is that in the spring of 1861 Richard’s owner enlisted in a Confederate Mississippi regiment – possibly the Fifteenth rather than Fiftieth. That soldier could have taken his slave Richard, age 19, along as a personal servant. That soldier could have returned home sick with Richard in the spring of 1862. Then in the summer of 1862 Richard ran away.

Back to Home Page