Red Strings

The Red Strings (also Heroes of America) were a group in the Southern United States during the American Civil War. They favored peace, an end to the Confederacy, and a return to the Union. They began early in the war as a group of Unionists and Quakers in the Piedmont regions of North Carolina and Virginia where slavery was largely nonexistent and the causes favoring secession were weakest.

Origin
Their name comes from their insignia of red strings worn on their lapels or hung outside of their windows to distinguish themselves from the rebels, a symbol derived from the Biblical story of Rahab. The use of the red string in the coat lapel comes from the Biblical story of the harlot Rahab, who had helped two spies of Israel escape from Jericho with a red cord, and was advised by them to hang a red thread on her window as a recognition symbol and to show her faith. Joshua, Chapter 2, Verses 18, 21, and Chapter 6, verse 23: “..thou shalt bind this line of scarlet in the window which thou didst let us down by... ...and she bound the scarlet line in the window... ...And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had. And she dwellest in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers that Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.”

The organization was completely decentralized, and most knew only one other member for certain; most of their anti-Confederate activities were carried out in secret. Some estimate that by the war's end, as many as 10,000 people belonged to the Red Strings. They were comparably as disruptive to the Southern war effort as the Copperheads were to the Union.

Activities
"The best developed of the peace societies, the Order of the Heroes of America, may have been organized as early as Dec. 1861, though by whom and where is uncertain. Active in North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, and eastern Tennessee, the Heroes protected deserters, aided spies and escaped prisoners, and supplied Federal authorities with information about Confederate troop movements and strength to bring about a Confederate defeat. Brig. Gen. John Echols, who investigated the order in Virginia when it was discovered there in 1864, believed it had been formed at the suggestion of Federal authorities. Union civilian and military officials cooperated with the order by assuring its members safe passage through the lines and by offering them exemption from military service if they deserted, protection for their property, and a share or confiscated Confederate estates after the war. In addition to their signs and passwords, the Heroes identified themselves by wearing a red string on their lapels and thus were nicknamed the Red Strings” and the ‘Red-String Band.'"

In addition to the organized opposition groups such as the Red Strings and Heroes of America, there were other groups that were closer to bandits. Known as “Buffaloes,” these men and some women were a mixture of Confederate deserters, draft-dodgers, pro-Union men, escaped slaves and other men escaping the noose such as barn burners, rapists and murderers. Living in small groups in the swamps of Eastern North Carolina or the woods of central and western NC, they attacked isolated homes, often with impunity, since many of the men were away at war, and there was no protection from their lawlessness. "The correspondents in the war records seem unaware that North Carolina, like all Gaul, was divided into three parts- the Confederate, the Yankee and the Buffalo. It was easier to let the Yankee garrison the strip of coast and keep him there than have the expense of it ourselves, but it is amusing to read of “The Rebels Invading North Carolina.”

The “Red Strings” were also interested in forming blacks into soldiers and having them fight for the Union as well. There are miscellaneous accounts of these black companies being formed during the war, as are mentioned in Elizabeth Lee Battle’s autobiography, “Forget-Me-Nots of the Civil War.”

After the war, they actively opposed the Ku Klux Klan. “One of the main causes for the organization of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina was to combat the influence of the Union League. Governor William Woods Holden was the first president of the League in North Carolina, and James H. Harris, a Negro, was Vice-president. “ Prof. Lefler later recounts: “If there had been no Loyal League in North Carolina, there would have been no Ku Klux Klan, or clubbing together of the white people there… Still the negroes [sic] operate upon each other, so that one dare not depart from the ranks; they are arrayed yet in a solid phalanx…” He later quotes from a Congressional investigation into the origins of the KKK in North Carolina: “It was at a time when the republican party had three secret organizations in operation in the state, the Union League, the Heroes of America, and the Red Strings. They had a paper called the Red String, printed at Greensorough [sic], edited by Mr. Tourgee (Albion W. Tourgée). Our friends thought it proper to organize a secret society for the purpose of counteracting that influence.- Ku Klux reports, North Carolina Testimony, pp. 8, 309-310, 318, 363.”

Red Strings Baseball Team
The term “Red Strings” became popular among different groups after the war. Indeed, during the next generation, there was an exceptional baseball team formed in Yadkin County with the name, “Red Strings.” They only lost three games out of some sixty games that they played in their brief career. Many of the players were trained in Quaker schools, although they denied any relation to the “Red Strings” of the Civil War. “How the name Red Strings originated is not known definitely. Members think Captain Gus Long, organizer and manager, gave the name… Elkin-ites didn’t like the name Red Strings- too much like night riding political group about this time, the Red Shirts, reminiscent of the earlier Ku Klux Klan. They preferred to call them the Longtown boys.”

Red String Conspiracy
It is unknown if an earlier Southern conspiracy with a similar name, also organized by slaves and indentured servants, that took place in Georgia in the 18th century had any influence or association with the later Red Strings. In 1735 and 1736, a conspiracy among indentured servants was quashed in Savannah, Georgia and in South Carolina. The servants would be known "by a red string tied around their right wrist" and they would kill the white masters and escape to join Native Americans, escaped slaves and other runaway indentured servants.

External links and references

 * A site on the Red Strings
 * Another site on the Red Strings
 * Peace societies in the Confederacy