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10	The	Journal of Mississippi History
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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.36 But at the same time he carried on a voluminous correspondence with Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, the Union commander at New Orleans. To Banks, Claiborne wrote very differently of his neighbors on the seaboard:
Few of them can be addressed through their moral sense or convictions of duty. They are essentially animal. They have but a dim idea of government?none whatever of political principle. 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 the 1st Feb. Want, I repeat is producing in their animal natures, a great re-action. It brings reflection. Reflection brings regret. Regret, repentance. The Union sentiment is spreading. ... A vigorous exclusion would bring this whole seaboard to its allegiance in 3 months.87
Claiborne?s correspondence with the Union commander began late in December, 1862, when he wrote to Banks for ?advice and protection.? Introducing himself as a man who out of his ?own convictions of duty? had ?remained at home, pursuing my usual business, confiding in the U. S. military authorities for the protection of my property,? Claiborne assured the general that he had ?maintained confidential relations? with the Union officers at Fort Pike and had from them ?strong testimonials of the services I have
36	J. F. H. Claiborne, Shieldsboro, to J. J. Pettus, August 4, 1862, and August 15, 1862, Governors? Records, Series E., Vol. 54 (Mississippi Department of Archives and History).
37	[J. F. H. Claiborne], Memorandum to Banks [enclosed with letter of December 23, 1862], Banks Papers.