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Raeford Liles
Fictional Character
The Guns of the South
POD: January 17, 1864
Type of Appearance: Direct
Nationality: Confederate States (born in United States)
Date of Birth: Early 19th century
Occupation: Shopkeeper, postmaster

Raeford Liles owned the general store of Nashville, North Carolina, and served as the town's postmaster as part of this job. He had a warm, easy going relationship with his frequent customer Nate Caudell, despite their occasional heated arguments about certain topics, and gently teased Caudell about his mysterious lady friend Mollie Bean. Liles favored Nathan Bedford Forrest to become the second CS President (though he distrusted the Rivington Men), while Caudell favored Robert E. Lee. Liles later admitted that Lee was a fine choice for the job.

Liles had never become rich enough to buy slaves, and but his need to have someone else assist him in running his store drove him to make several unsuccessful bids at Josiah A. Beard's auction. He ultimately gave up entirely, complaining to Caudell that as the Rivington men seemed to have unlimited funds and always paid their bills in gold, they were driving the price of slaves so high that nobody but the richest citizens would be able to afford them.

Frustrated with the impossibility of buying a slave, Liles looked at other options. At one point he hired a free, literate Negro man named Israel as a clerk. However, Liles' racist attitude towards Negroes soon drove Israel away to work for farmer Henry Pleasants, a much more enlightened employer. Liles fussed when Israel left, but reluctantly accepted that since Israel was a free man and could work where he liked, Liles himself had no say in the matter.

Gradually, in conversations with Nate Caudell, Liles conceded that times were very likely changing and that the old racial order in the now-independent Southern states would not be able to last. He added that things had been simpler when he was a boy, a sentiment Caudell privately thought could be echoed by every generation ever born. Liles was later proudly in attendance at Caudell's wedding to Mollie Bean.

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