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J. F. H. Claiborne at ?Laurel Wood? Plantation, 1853-1870	9
to the government at Richmond by bonds of friendship and sympathy. Yet, despite the existence of such strong reasons for supporting the South, Claiborne took the more difficult course and worked for a Union victory. His reasons for doing so, though perhaps not obvious, weighed more heavily than any possible temptations he might have had to become a Confederate. He was the bearer of a name that had in the past shone in the annals of the Southwest under the old Republic. He took seriously his duties as United States timber agent and could not betray a government he was pledged to support. Always essentially a Jacksonian Democrat, he placed the Union above the states. Claiborne was certainly a theoretical secessionist in 1860, but he never went so far as to want to put his theories into practice.
With the outbreak of hostilities Claiborne sent his wife and daughters to Natchez, but he remained at ?Laurel Wood? to supervise his plantation.32 Three months after the inauguration of President Lincoln Claiborne regretfully resigned his post as timber agent.33 He was commissioned in August, 1861, to administer oaths and to take acknowledgements of deeds and other papers for the Confederate government in southern Mississippi.34 During the war he purchased several thousand dollars worth of Confederate bonds.35
To all casual observers Claiborne appeared to be a loyal supporter of the Confederacy, albeit a passive adherent to the cause. In actuality he was undoubtedly the most active advocate of the Union in southern Mississippi. In the summer of 1862 Claiborne wrote Governor John J. Pettus to deplore the starving condition of the inhabitants of the seaboard
32	Riley, ?Life of Col. J. F. H. Claiborne,? Mississippi Historical Society, Publications, VII, 234.
33	J. F. H. Claiborne, Hancock County, to General N. P. Banks, December 23, 1862, Nathaniel P. Banks Papers (Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts ).
34	Commission dated August, 1861, Claiborne Papers (Library of Congress).
38	Memorandum dated July 4, 1863, ibid.