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A few months later, however, in a memorandum to Banks, Claiborne did not speak kindly of his neighbors: “Few of them can be addressed through their moral sense or convictions of duty. They are essentially animals.... When Civil War broke out they eagerly volunteered.. .with the hope of plunder. But the mortality that has occurred among them.. .has disgusted them with the service. Most of all,
they feel the pressure of want in their families.. .They are now subsisting on sweet potatoes; that crop will be exhausted by 1st Feb.... The Union sentiment is spreading...A vigorous exclusion would bring this whole seaboard to its allegiance in 3 months."
In other correspondence, Claiborne told Banks that he was “confiding in the U.S. military authorities for the protection of my property” and that he had “maintained confidential relations” with Union officers at Fort Pike. Further, he stated that he was “surrounded here by armed men, mostly of desperate character & fortunes, my person in danger and my property liable to be plundered, I have been compelled to be circumspect. But I have neglected no means to further the cause. I have created a strong Union sentiment, which is rapidly developing.”
Spying for the Union
Claiborne must have known that the protection he sought from Banks and the officers at Fort Pike did not come gratis. He reported the twenty wagon loads of salt sent to Confederate General Joe Johnston; he told of fortifications built at Mobile; his information detailed smuggling between New Orleans and Mississippi coastal towns involving the schooners Alice and Venus and other vessels “that regularly bring out contraband.”
He named names: “Arrangements are making to run the blockades to Havana from two points on this coast. The parties engaged in it have all been in or are in the Confederate service. They have two men in New Orleans - a Capt. Dane or Dean & one Asa Weed...employed to give them information about your movements.... Dane and Weed communicate with one of the parties here, by means of a schooner (The Venus) which makes a weekly trip from the city to Toomer’s Mill near Fort Pike, and the information they give is duly sent to Jackson. Weed of Dane, or both of them are soon to visit your camp at Port Hudson.”
Dysfunction among county leaders
Names Claiborne might have mentioned but apparently did not were those of Poitevent, Toulme and Smylie. One month after his report to Banks about Weed and Dane, Major Smylie wrote a letter to J. V. Toulme, mayor of Shieldsboro in 1860.It was dated April 28, 1863, and may have been part of an operation similar to above. It is contained on copy form in Claiborne’s own papers; if he did not report it, perhaps the reason would be that he must have been on very close terms with the addressee, Toulme as well as Poitevent, who was mentioned in the letter. The former was a leading citizen of Shieldsboro, and the latter of the Pearl River area. The letter reads as follows:
“1 have the authority from Richmond to carry our cotton, see Capt. Poitevent and let us go in with him. I think arrangements can be made with some parties on the other side to carry cotton to Havana & from there I care not where it goes. I have full authority to carry our cotton from any port in our possession to any place New Orleans and Memphis excepted. See Capt. Poitevent and let him know what can be done, I am in for it and will be with you. Send a runner up (if we go in) regardless of expense. I will risk all, loose or make something.”
The fact that this letter found its way into Claiborne’s hands suggests that he may have been the instrument of cooperation “with some parties on the other side.”
Within a few days of the above letter, Claiborne was able to obtain a pass from Union Admiral Farragut allowing him to transport cotton through the lines. As he had continued to grow cotton during the war, this included his own production as well as cotton bought from growers along the Pearl. To complete the arrangement, he had become, representing the Confederacy, the purchasing agent for the Belgian consul in New Orleans. This connection, according to Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, was patently