The Red Strings, also known as the Heroes of America, were a group active primarily in the Southern United States during the American Civil War.
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 not as prevalent and the forces favoring secession were weakest.
The Loyal Order of the Heroes of America was started by several men from North Carolina, possibly including Henderson Adams, later the first elected State Auditor.
The group's leader was John Pool, later a Republican Senator from North Carolina, who spent some time in jail in Richmond, and who traveled through western Virginia in 1864.
[dubious – discuss] According to the Historial Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War: 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.
[4] The Red Strings did not actively fight the Confederacy as guerillas, and many of their members may have been motivated by opposition to conscription as much as, or more than, by their belief in the Union.
Living in small groups in the swamps of eastern North Carolina or the woods of the central and western parts of that state, they attacked isolated homes, often with impunity, since many of the men were away at war, and there was no protection from their lawlessness.
[9]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.