The 27th Mississippi was organized in November - December 1861 from volunteer companies assembled at Pensacola, Florida under the overall command of General Braxton Bragg.

"[3] Autry's defiant reply was widely publicized,[4] and the city of Vicksburg held out for another year until its final capture in July, 1863.

[3] In the fall of 1863, on special orders from General Bragg, Major Amos McLemore of the 27th was sent to Jones County, Mississippi to pursue Confederate deserters in the vicinity.

On October 5, McLemore was shot and killed in the Amos Deason Home in Ellisville, most likely by Newton Knight or one of his followers.

[6] The assassination of McLemore was the first major action in a series of battles between Knight's Unionist guerillas and Confederate forces in Jones County and the surrounding areas which would continue until the end of the war.