people were initially ambivalent about the outbreak of the American Civil War. Some men enlisted in the Confederate States Army, though it unknown whether they were accepted as recognised Native Americans or passed as white. In 1863, Confederate authorities began conscripting the Lumbees for labor along the coast, especially at Fort Fisher. The Lumbees were usually tasked to either construct batteries or grind salt. Most found the work dangerous and monotonous, and the conditions at the labor camps poor. Many consequently fled into the swamps of Robeson County to avoid conscription. Though some Lumbee still sought to serve in the army during this time, by late 1863 most had concluded that the Confederacy was an oppressive regime. This change in attitudes was brought on by their contact with Union prisoner-of-war escapees from the Florence Stockade, away in South Carolina. Lumbees became increasingly willing to help the Union soldiers escape and avoid recapture. As time progressed some of the swamp deserters—including Lumbees, blacks, and Union soldiers—formed bands to raid and steal from area farms, though this was mostly out of a desire to survive and had little to do with challenging the Confederacy. After Union troops led by General William Tecumseh Sherman entered North Carolina, the Union escapees left to join them, and the bands became predominantly Native American. The Lowry family and the Home Guard Murders of James P. Barnes and James Brantly Harris Allen Lowry was a respected, successful Lumbee farmer whose ancestral roots in Robeson County traced to the 1700s. He and his wife, Mary, had twelve children, four of whom hid as a band in the swamps to avoid labor conscription. On at least one occasion they assisted Union escapees. In 1864 wealthy planter and Confederate postmaster James P. Barnes accused some of Lowry's sons of stealing two of his hogs and butchering them to feed Union escapees. He ordered the Lowry family to stay off his land under threat of being shot. It remains unknown whether some of the Lowry sons actually stole the hogs or whether Barnes falsely accused them with ulterior motives. On December 21, 1864, Barnes was ambushed and shot as he made his way to the Clay Valley Post Office. His screams drew the attention of several neighbors and slaves, and shortly before he died he accused William and Henry Berry Lowry, two sons of Allen, of committing the attack. The Native