-were loyal to the United States during the Civil War
-had supplies officially taken by or furnished to the U.S. Army in the war (or vast amounts of property, i.e. cotton)
In the following Pineywoods Counties of Mississippi, home to the deserters and "unionist" written about in recently published "history" works about Newt Knight and the "Free State of Jones" we have the following...
Jasper County- 2 filed claimants- John M. Cole and Samuel Lindsey
Jones County- 1 filed claimant- Martha C. Caker
Greene County- 1 filed claimant- Norman McLeod
Simpson County- 1 filed claimant- William Hays
Smith County- 1 filed claimant- Hugh Devaney
Wayne County- 2 filed claimants- Seaborn J. Brown and Thomas Landrum
Perry County- 0
Pearl River County - 0
Lincoln County*- 11 claimants- Allbritton, Buie, Chandler, Coffey, Gill, Hackelton, McLenden, Martin, Perkins, Stern, Turner
Copiah County*- 11 claimants- Cocke, Coleman, Gordon, Harper, Harvey, Henington, Hyland, McEwee, Mitchell, Morrow, Mortimer
Harrison County*- 3 claimants- Bourgeois, Moran, Poitevent
Jackson County*- 7 claimants- Boudreau, Davis, Dees, Dodson, Mavinovich, Pol, Pons
Clark County*- 50 claimants- 1 disallowed -(names upon request)
Marion County- 15 claimants- Brakfield, Carley, Fenn, Ford, Fortinberry, Foxworth, Graham, Lane, Lowe, McKinzey, Morris, Ponder Rankin, Regan, Willoughby
Lawrence County- 0
Pike- 0
Covington County- 0
Perry County - 0
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I included counties on the *fringe of the Pineywoods; Lincoln, Copiah, Harrison, Jackson, and Clark. None of the surnames mentioned were well known deserters. To give a reference, Warren County, Mississippi, home to the siege of Vicksburg, had over 350 claimants. Many counties had hundreds of claimants. So the explanation of why so little was claimed in the heart of the Pineywoods would be the lack of military action is these counties; although, there were raids into this area in 1863, 1864 and 1865 from Union forces--no property was molested, or, loyality to the United States was harder to prove by these people. I kind of think it was the latter, being that I know how much my people like to take advantage of any monies being given away by the Federal Government.
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David Upton