Newton Knight (November 1837 – February 16, 1922) was an American farmer, soldier and Southern Unionist, best known as the leader of the Knight Company, a band of Confederate Army deserters that turned against the Confederacy during the Civil War. Knight has long been a controversial figure. This controversy was fueled in part by Knight&#x27;s common-law marriage to a former slave, which effectively established a small mixed-race community in southeastern Mississippi.