By the summer of 1864, rumors had begun to circulate that these deserters and draft evaders, as well as Confederate sympathizers, had built a fort with cannons on North Mountain, not far from the headwaters of Fishing Creek.

For the next week, they searched the northern portion of Columbia County for deserters and draft evaders.

Professional historians began to do significant study on the confederacy in 1941, and it was mentioned in academic writings as late as 2009.

In the early 1860s, many counties in Pennsylvania were staunch supporters of the Democratic Party, while the newly elected president of the United States was the Republican Abraham Lincoln.

[5] In response to the draft law, meetings in Stillwater and Jerseytown resolved that "A war carried on contrary to the rules and provisions of [the Constitution], whether it be a crusade against slavery, or any other fanatical or delusory scheme, never can and never will receive our support.

[9] In late July 1864, Lieutenant James Stewart Robinson, Solomon Taylor, and six other Republicans from near Harveyville gathered together to search for Democratic deserters.

This group, consisting mostly of veterans of the American Civil War, was deemed the "Lincoln Midnight Riders" by The Columbia Democrat.

Finally they attempted to find a man named Thomas Smith, living in Benton Township near Raven Creek.

When the deserters fled the scene the Lincoln Midnight Riders chased them approximately a quarter mile before turning back.

Colonel John Gosse Freeze delivered a message to the northern part of Columbia County, stating that any draft evaders who reported to Bloomsburg by August 20 would be pardoned.

[13] By August 21, there were a thousand soldiers in Columbia County, and they began marching up Fishing Creek to search for the alleged fort.

Many argued against it, but approximately 75 men declared they were prepared to resist any military occupation of their part of Columbia County.

[8][14] According to an account by Edward McHenry, the other members of the resistance were told to remain at home until news arrived from Bloomsburg.

[8] The morning after the arrests the soldiers continued marching north, proceeding 10 miles (16 kilometers) further to the headwaters of Fishing Creek and the base of the mountains in northern Columbia County.

The soldiers extensively searched the mountains of northern Columbia County for half a day, going as far north as the headwaters of East Branch Fishing Creek in southern Sullivan County, where they climbed to the top of North Mountain in three groups.

[3] Eventually, unable to find any evidence of a fort in the area, the soldiers went back down Fishing Creek to Bloomsburg.

[9] Dissatisfied with their findings, the soldiers conducted a search of several unfortified homes in northern Columbia County.

As late as November 2, the newspaper Star of the North reported that deserters were still being arrested, although there were fewer prisoners.

According to two local newspaper editors named Tate and Jacoby, the soldiers were positioned there to stop Democrats from voting.

Wooden tubs for gathering sap from sugar maples seen from a distance were likely mistaken for the fort's cannons.

This editor, as well as J.R. Cornelius of the Union County Star and Lewisburg Chronicle both blamed the events of the Fishing Creek Confederacy on biased stories in Democrat newspapers.

For instance, Truman Purdy, editor of the Northumberland County Democrat stated that Bloomsburg's abolitionists sent for military forces to arrest unarmed farmers due to having believed exaggerated stories of the shooting on July 30.

[22] At one point Republican newspapers such as the Harrisburg Telegraph ran stories that connected Charles R. Buckalew with the events of the Fishing Creek Confederacy.

In January 1950, William M. Scnure mentioned the event at a meeting of the Northumberland County Historical Society, and the fort on North Mountain was said to exist in an article written by Myrtle Magargel in 1955.

In 2009 the book Deserter Country: Civil War Opposition in the Pennsylvania Appalachians was written by Robert M. Sandlow as an extension of his doctoral dissertation.