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Russell Guerin
A Creole in Mississippi
2010-12-21 15:15:50
New Study: How the Civil War Affected Hancock County
...a follow-up to the Police Court article
In the previous posting, it was noted that an original document was happily found in a private collection, mostly genealogical, that gave some insight into the functioning of official Hancock County during Civil War years.
Now another document has been observed, this being a ledger recording circuit court proceedings. It begins some years before the war, and essentially lists plaintiffs, defendants, and amount of awards. Not much detail is included, but even so, a cursory review proved some important information: nothing was listed for the years 1861 to 1865.
That discovery was not accidental. It had been observed previously that some activity in the community must have been severely curtailed, and that war demands extended to official duties of various organizations.
We may reasonably assume that the Civil War affected many facets of life in the Confederacy. Perhaps a study of primary documents that are already in our purview can give us at least a partial understanding of some of the concerns and changes of operation in Hancock County. Even though the county was never under the total control of Union forces, life of citizens and affairs of government were deeply impacted.
It was decided that a search of evidence, as contained both in our own studies as well as actual available documents, should be made.
The first step was a search of what was already on my computer. All of the quotes that follow are contained in writings by Marco Giardino and myself; mostly, they are posted elsewhere on this site.
It was this investigation that brought to light another possible consideration, that being that there may have been more activity than was meant to be recorded. A particular example of this will be discussed in what follows, but for immediate reflection I will say that it may well tie together the actions of the Police Court with those of a “citizens committee” which functioned as a kind of vigilante group.
Part A: Evidence stored on my computer
History of Andrew Jackson. Jr. in Hancock County.
When I made a study of his presence in the county before the war, it was observed in official records that he was sued by a number of people for non-payment of obligations in the May 1861. This legal action concerned four parcels of real estate within the county,