Lowry War
The Lowry War or Lowrie War was a conflict that took place in and around Robeson County, North Carolina, United States, from 1864 to 1874 between a group of mostly Native American outlaws and civil local, state, and federal authorities. The conflict is named for Henry Berry Lowry, a Lumbee who led a gang which robbed area farms and killed public officials who pursued them.
Banditry in Robeson County emerged during the later stages of the American Civil War, as free people of color hid in local swamps to avoid being conscripted for labor to support the war effort and stole food to survive. In 1864 and 1865 local Confederate officials came into conflict with the prominent Lumbee Lowry family, and two of the former were murdered. A Confederate Home Guard detachment subsequently executed two Lowrys for alleged possession of stolen goods and arrested Henry Berry Lowry on murder charges. He later broke out of jail and avoided the authorities by hiding in swamps with a group of associates which became known as the Lowry Gang. The gang was a somewhat fluid group of American Indian, white, and black men, but many of its predominant members had kinship ties to Lowry. New public officials brought in during Reconstruction initially sought a peaceful solution to the problem, but this ended after the gang killed a former sheriff during a robbery in 1868.
Over the following years the gang committed robberies, often targeting plantations. Declared outlaws by the state government, they were pursued by posses and county militiamen, typically eluding them in swamps and killing some of their pursuers. Some gang members were captured but escaped detention. The state ultimately placed large bounties on the core gang members, with a reward of $12,000 being offered for the capture or killing of Lowry. Elements of the 4th Regiment U.S. Artillery were dispatched on several occasions to assist the local authorities. Following a major robbery in Lumberton in February 1872, Lowry disappeared, and over the next two years bounty hunters tracked down the remaining active gang members. Over the course of the conflict, the Lowry Gang was implicated in the deaths of 22 people, while one of its members was arrested and executed and several others killed. The affair attracted significant regional and national media attention. His fate still unknown, Lowry became a folk hero for the Lumbee people.
Background
The Lumbee people in southeastern North Carolina originated from various Native American groups. Their identity was rooted in kinship and shared location. Through intermarriage, they acquired some white and black ancestry. Not viewed as Native Americans by North Carolina until the 1880s, they were generally dubbed "mulattos" by locals and in federal documents throughout the mid-1800s.In 1835 the Constitution of North Carolina classified the eastern Carolina Native Americans as "free persons of color". While having previously enjoyed the same political rights as white people, the Lumbees were disenfranchised by the new constitution. In 1840 the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law prohibiting free nonwhites from bearing arms without a license from the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in their county. In 1853 the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the legality of the law in its ruling for State v. Noel Locklear, involving the case of a man convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm. White farmers in Robeson County also sought ways to obtain Lumbees' land or labor. According to Lumbee oral tradition, the "tied mule" incidents were emblematic of this. In these scenarios, a farmer would tie his mule on a Lumbee's land and release some of his cattle there, before bringing local authorities to the scene to accuse the Lumbee landowner of theft. Doubtful of a fair trial in the courts, a Lumbee would settle with the farmer by either offering him a portion of land or free labor. The legal discrimination and exploitative practices heightened racial tensions in the area.
The Lumbee people were initially ambivalent about the outbreak of the American Civil War. Some men enlisted in the Confederate States Army, though it is 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.
Lowry family and the Home Guard
Murders of James P. Barnes and James Brantly Harris
Allen Lowry was a respected, successful Lumbee farmer. 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 Americans' aid to the Union escapees, their attempts to dodge labor conscription, and the murder of Barnes drew the attention of the Confederate Home Guard, a paramilitary force tasked with maintaining law and order in the South during the war. One prominent officer of the Home Guard in Robeson County was James Brantly Harris. He was a white man who had sold liquor to Native Americans before the war but upon its outbreak was tasked by the Home Guard with tracking down deserters, escapees, and maintaining order in Scuffletown, the center of the Native American community in Robeson County. Lumbee oral histories portray him as hot-tempered and brutal. During the war he became attracted to a young Lumbee woman, provoking the ire of her boyfriend. The boyfriend stated he would kill Harris if he interacted with his girlfriend again, leading Harris to try to kill the man in a night ambush. He ended up shooting and killing the man's brother, Jarman, a nephew of Allen Lowry.
Though local authorities ignored the killing, Harris became fearful that members of the Lowry family might attempt to attack him in revenge for the death of Jarman. Two of Jarman's brothers were working at Fort Fisher but, several weeks after the killing, they were granted leave and returned to Robeson County to visit their parents. To preempt any attempts at vengeance, Harris led a Home Guard unit in arresting the brothers on charges of desertion and said he would transport them to the Moss Neck rail depot where they could be taken by train back to Fort Fisher. On the way he dismissed his fellow guardsmen, telling them he could manage the two handcuffed prisoners by himself. Once they were alone, Harris beat them to death, later claiming that they had attacked him and that he acted in self-defense. An inquest was conducted and a warrant for Harris' arrest was issued. On January 15, 1865, he was shot and killed while riding his buggy, and his body disposed of either in a nearby well or an unmarked grave. Henry Berry Lowry and some of his associates were suspected of the killing.
Executions of Allen and William Lowry
Fearing Harris' death would lead to retaliation from the Home Guard, local Lumbees began preparing for violence. Short on food and weapons, they began stealing from white-owned farms and plantations. Firearms and ammunition intended for the guard was stolen from the courthouse in Lumberton. White citizens were infuriated by the decline in law and order, and the Home Guard suspected that the Lowry family was largely responsible. On March 3, a detachment of the Home Guard under Captain Hugh McGreggor arrested Allen and Mary Lowry, three of their sons—William, Calvin, and Sinclair—some female relatives, and their Lumbee neighbor, George Dial. They also seized some of Allen's belongings. They brought them to the property of Robert McKenzie. The women were locked in the smokehouse while the men were interrogated outside facing accusations of "highway robbery", aiding Confederate deserters and Union escapees, stockpiling weapons, and having dodged labor conscription. The men denied the accusations and Williams was wounded after trying to escape. The guardsmen then moved them into the smokehouse and held a kangaroo court to determine their culpability in the alleged crimes, selecting a jury from among their own ranks.The tribunal found Allen and William guilty of possessing stolen goods on their farm and ruled that William had been positively identified during a robbery. They were taken back to their farm and executed by firing squad. According to one account, Henry Berry hid in the woods nearby and witnessed this execution. The next day the guardsmen forced Calvin Lowry and Dial to show them where Union soldiers were hiding. Dial led them to a small cave, but, to the guardsmen's frustration, the two men largely did not know where to find escapees. Dial and the Lowry family members were released the following day under the threat that they would be punished for any "mischief" that occurred in the area. On March 9 Union troops entered Robeson County and looted, but quickly moved on. The Home Guard was briefly disrupted by this incursion, but thereafter resumed investigating the Lowry family. In April a Home Guard detachment searched Sinclair's farm for an alleged stockpile of weapons and interrogated Mary Lowry, but found nothing.
The situation in Robeson County calmed with the Union victory at the end of the Civil War, as locals focused on rebuilding their livelihoods. Local government in Robeson mostly continued as it had during the war, with rich white men of prominence dominating public offices, especially the justices of the peace who constituted the county court. The Home Guard was formally dissolved but was replaced by a similar institution, the Police Guard. An investigation into the executions of Allen and William was later conducted in 1867 at the impetus of Freedmen's Bureau agent William Birnie, but no charges were brought against the Home Guard.