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In a separate letter of the same date, Elers defended to his father his personal membership in the Citizens Committee: “You said you did not want me to join the company that has been got up by the citizens to put down these robbers that pretend to be acting under Federal Authority. They are robbing citizens upon there <sic> own hook, I have joined the company...and think it no more than every good citizen should do, you think that Charles Moody was a harmless man, but he had stolen a lot of cattle up the county which he owned when he was sentenced to be shot. George Holloman is Captain of our company, he got permission from Col. Hall through Col. Claiborne’s hands, You think them a lot of cowardly murderers [illegible, possibly jackass]. Some of them are but if they should have come and robbed you of every thing you had you would want to shoot them to <sic> ... one of the robbers confirmed before he was shot that they had made a plan to rob every house between Bobichito [probably Hobolochito] and Pearlington in one night.”
Possible hidden activities of Police Court
A curious dynamic is apparent in Elers’ statement. While it was previously observed that the residents, though Mississippians, had sought advice from the Union officers at Fort Pike, it has now become evident that Claiborne’s straddling the line had to be obvious to all parties. Moreover, Elers’s mention of George Holloman as Captain of this company is significant.
Looking back on the study of the Minutes book after some conjecture about the possible connection of the Police Court to something more sinister, I began to contemplate that what I read was really quite vanilla; as Marco would say of soil at a dig, it was “sterile.” Of course, the function of raising funds for destitute was both noble and necessary, but there is so little commentary in the minutes of other important functions.One wonders whether there were other activities, not mentioned in the minutes for whatever reason.
Evidence is clear from the above letters that George Holloman was the man to get Union permission to do the work of the Citizens Committee. That occurred in October o 1864. Just a couple of months later, the Police Court minutes show that he became its president. It should be noted that those documents also make clear that captains and overseers were being appointed regularly. Once more, the Koch letters show relevant information, that being that he was “Captain of our Company.”
The question arises, was the Police Court one and the same with the Citizens Committee. Certainly there are parallels in structure; Holloman obviously served in both, if in fact they were different.
While no such conclusion can be drawn from the minutes, it must be considered that there would have been good reasons not to record in writing about activities of an illegal nature, even during war time, but especially in that advice was sought by an officer of the other side.
Virtual Paralysis of Local Government
A number of other considerations come to mind, as outlined below. In considering these circumstances, one must wonder whether the functions of the community and of the official bureaus of government in Hancock County came to a virtual paralysis.
Starvation and disruption of the social fabric from Cloabome papers In the summer of 1862 Claiborne wrote Governor John J. Pettus to deplore the starving condition of the inhabitants of the seaboard counties, as well as the depredations of Yankee invaders. Affirming his own fidelity, he wrote: “We are now proving our loyalty by starvation - by the tears of our women and the cries of our children for bread!!” and begged permission to import essential foodstuffs from enemy-held New Orleans in order to preserve the lives of loyal supporters of the Confederacy living along the coast.”