Jim Harvey's Civil War History 3d · THE INCREDIBLE HOLT COLLIER
Holt Collier was born into slavery and became a freedman, a Confederate soldier, cowboy, big game hunter, and Presidential hunting guide.
He was born about 1847 in Jefferson County, Mississippi. As a young boy, his owner, Howell Hinds, brought him to his plantation, “Plum Ridge,” in Washington County. Hinds was fond of Holt, so he sent him to school with his sons in Bardstown, Kentucky. Holt didn’t care much for school and played hooky most days, shooting squirrels, quail, and an occasional bear. He was given his first rifle at age 10, and after that, he kept meat on the Hind’s family table. By age 14 and the outbreak of the Civil War, Holt was considered an expert equestrian, as well as a marksman.
In his own words, he “begged like a dog” to go off to war with Hinds and his 17-year-old son, Tom, in 1861. Hinds told Collier he was “just too young,” and they left the boy crying like his heart would break. Not to be denied, Holt stowed away on one of the seven ships transporting the Mississippi Volunteers to training bases.
At the age of 14, Collier was given his freedom papers and then followed his former owner, Howell Hinds, to Memphis to join the Confederate Army. He first served as an orderly in a field hospital, then actively fought as a soldier, and served as a spy. The story goes that no less than Nathan Bedford Forrest observed Holt’s skills with a gun and horse. Hinds (whom Holt always called “my Old Colonel”) gave him his freedom to choose what unit he would join. He then joined the 9th Texas Cavalry and served throughout the war. He finished the war as one of Forrest’s most trusted scouts, known as a superb horseman and marksman.
Holt was at the Battle Of Shiloh, where he received a minor ankle wound, and claimed to have seen General Albert Sidney Johnston removed from his” big white horse” and laid under a tree, where he quickly bled to death.
When asked about his Confederate States Army service, he stated, “I was in General Ross’ Brigade, Colonel Dudley Jones’ Regiment, and Captain Perry Evans’ Company I, 9th Texas Cavalry Regiment. My ‘Old Colonel’ (his owner) gave me a horse… one of three fine racehorses he had brought from Plum Ridge. He was a beauty, iron-gray, and named Medock. After leaving Bowling Green, it was a long time until I saw my ‘Old Colonel’ again.”
After the war, Holt returned with his “Old Colonel,” and thus began the difficult days of “reconstruction.” In 1866, Holt was charged, tried, but never convicted of killing an occupying Yankee Officer. Howell Hinds and Union Captain James A. King of Co. B, 49th United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.), had a verbal confrontation that soon came to blows. The much older Hines continually knocked down the much younger man, who grew angrier each time. Finally, the young officer from Iowa drew a knife and started toward Hines. A shot rang out from a distance, and Captain King was no more. Holt never admitted to the killing but never denied it, either. Legend has it he admitted to Theodore Roosevelt, during one of their hunting trips, that he was the shooter.
Soon after the trial, Collier left Mississippi and headed for Texas to lay low and let the controversy of the trial and King’s death blow over. While in Texas, Holt worked as a cowboy for one of the founders of Texas, one of the first Texas Rangers, future Governor, and his former Brigade Commander, Lawrence Sullivan Ross. In 2008, Holt was inducted into the Cowboy Hall Of Fame. After returning to Mississippi, he began to build on his reputation as a guide and hunter. HOLT ON THE BEAR INCIDENT IN SHARKEY COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI. 1902 According to Holt, “The President of the United States was anxious to see a live bear the first day of the hunt. I told him he would see that bear if I had to tie it and bring it to him.” I cornered and tied a black bear to a willow tree. They summoned Roosevelt and suggested that he shoot it. Viewing this as extremely unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear.”
Roosevelt had left his stand before the bear turned and came out where Holt had predicted. According to the story still told today, Holt hit the 250-pound bear over the head with his gun, lassoed it, tied it to a tree, and sent for The President to shoot it. As Holt indicated above, the President refused, stating it would be unsportsmanlike. The resulting news report led to the naming of stuffed toy bears as Teddy bears. This hunt cemented an unlikely friendship between President Theodore Roosevelt and Holt Collier and gave rise to one of the most popular children’s toys ever. And it all happened in Sharkey County, Mississippi. Newspaper reporters were there; as they say, the rest is history and the origin of the “Teddy Bear.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service honored Holt Collier in 2004 by naming a National Wildlife Refuge after him, the only National Wildlife Refuge named for an African American. The Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge consists of 2,849 acres near Darlove, Mississippi, on some of the famous guide’s old hunting grounds. President Roosevelt’s and Holt’s famous Sharkey County Hunt is remembered at the Great Delta Bear Affair in Rolling Fork each year. What began as a Centennial tribute to their 1902 black bear hunt has evolved over the past 16 years into a fantastic multi-dimensional festival hosted annually by the Rolling Fork community. This year, the festival tagline is “The Incredible Holt” in honor of the genuinely incredible Holt Collier.
In the 1930s, at the age of 90, Holt was one of those interviewed for the Federal Government-sponsored “Slave Narratives.” Toward the end of the session, the interviewer, Lottie Armistead, quoting Holt, wrote the following, “I am black, but my associations with my Old Colonel gave me many advantages. I was freer then than I have ever been since, and I loved him better than anybody else in the world. I would have given my life for [him].” According to Armistead, Holt recited these words with tears rolling down his withered cheeks.
