1 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
There is indeed a
certain childish willfulness in the American mind that insists on chastising
the people of the past for not being like them, or else pretending that they
were. Which is a certain way NOT to learn anything from history. Dr. Clyde Wilson
Recently
I sparred with a (white) neo-abolitionist blogger who had, in his daily rants,
written a tribute to Martin Luther King. Flanking this tribute however were two
“pot-shots” at General Lee, whose birthday comes at about the same time as
King’s, and several pot-shots at the SCV.
I
asked him why it was that he seemed unable to stay in his own little corner and
have a good time celebrating something he sees as important without going over
to someone else’s corner and poking fun at something that someone else considers
important? “What is it”, I asked, “about you people that makes you so inclined
to be pests?”
Needless to say, he did not appreciate my sarcasm. His response
was as follows:
“First of all it is not "your corner" or anyone's corner
for that matter. It's called American history and my blog's theme focuses
on the way in which Americans have chosen to remember their past. In large
part and in reference to the Civil War this has involved highlighting an idealized Confederate past by ignoring
the contributions of African Americans.”
I
didn’t really expect the blogger, a transplanted yankee/liberal teacher now
living in Virginia, to comprehend the philosophy of “live and let live”, so his
failure to comprehend my analogy of staying in his own “corner” didn’t really
surprise me. Besides, “Live and Let Live” has never been the liberal way.
What
is significant however, is his reference to an “idealized Confederate past” and
“ignoring the contributions of African Americans”. Contemporary (liberal)
historians often describe this notion with the phrase, “Civil War Memory”, a
phrase popularized by Amherst
historian/professor David Blight. Blight and those like him maintain that our
“memory” of the war is in error, and that the way Americans “remember” the war
has left the African American out in the cold. Of course, Mr. Blight and
company intend to remedy this situation. Remember the phrase because you’ll be
hearing more and more of it as America draws closer to the 150th
Anniversary of the “Civil War.
The
last 8 months have allowed me plenty of time for research however, and I submit
that there is much in the neo-abolitionist memory that he or she has chosen NOT
to remember, or to simply ignore.
Since
“Black History Month” is once again upon us, I would like to take this time to
reveal some of the history that our neo-abolitionist friends have apparently
forgotten or tried to bury. The stories and excerpts are taken from the Slave
Narratives, the Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1893-1912, the Southern
Historical Society Papers, the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,
and several books, some of which were written back in a time when much of this
stuff was recent history. The stories include tributes to and remembrances of
Black Confederates, not only soldiers and those in the military, but black
southern civilians as well, a more critical look at the USCT, and a hard look
at some of the flights of fancy that contemporary politically correct
historians engage in – i.e. Reconstruction as a Story of Social Progress.
Robert
Penn Warren once wrote – “The Civil War is America’s ‘felt’ history – that is
not to say that all Americans feel it in exactly the same way.” Apparently our
neo-abolitionist friends don’t quite see it that way. It’s their way or the
highway. I’m a believer in “live and let live” and I don’t like to rain on
anyone else’s parade, but if that’s the way they want it, then let the games
begin!
2 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Some Thoughts on The
Slave Narratives:
Some of the colored
fought on one side, and some on the other. They was just like children. The
ones whats got good Mas and Pas wants to stay with them, and the ones whats got
mean ones, wants to leave them. Callie
Washington, Mississippi
Several years ago I asked a professional historian where
I might be able to view or obtain an unedited and complete version of the
Federal Writers’ Project/Slave Narratives. I had heard various stories about
the treatment of the slaves and I wanted to see for myself what the former slaves
themselves said. Rather than answer my
question directly, this “historian” told me that I should not get the complete
Narratives collection because it was not accurate and had many flaws in it.
Instead, he recommended one of many books written on the subject, the name of
which I forget. Of course, like most books about the Narratives written during
the decades of political correctness, this book focused on the “legacy” and the
“brutality” of slavery. I don’t suppose it’s possible that anyone in the Old South
who owned a slave would ever consider treating his or her slaves with anything
resembling humanity? Naaaah!?
Being obstinate by nature, I ignored his advice and
chalked him up to being simply one of the many academic inbreds that history
and social science departments have produced since the 1960s, and I continued
the search. Eventually, I located the complete Slave Narratives collection on
CD Rom at Ancestry.com. I purchased it and began to pore through it. 9 months
later I’d finally completed the project, taking notes and doing a lot of
cutting and pasting along the way.
Historians like the one who gave me the advice not to
pursue my search feel that the narratives are not accurate for several reasons:
- Because many of the interviewers were white, the
black folks who were interviewed might have simply told the interviewers
what they wanted to hear or were afraid to speak their minds.
- Many of the white interviewers were southerners who
had opinions of their own and some were suspected of having edited the
interviews in order to put the best possible face on the treatment that
slaves received.
- Those interviewed were old and their memories may
have been failing
- Many interviewers were not professionals and were
poorly trained in interviewing skills
While there may be some truth in these contentions, it
apparently has not stopped many contemporary historians and others from writing
books on the subject and from using SELECTED interviews from the Slave
Narratives for their own purposes. Of course, if one looks at most of these
contemporary books one usually sees only the interviews which relate
mistreatment. One is left to ask why only those interviews which document
mistreatment are acceptable and those which relate the opposite are not?
Black people didn’t tell the white people everything or
were afraid to speak their minds? It didn’t stop several hundred of those
interviewed and who had been very badly treated from giving quite detailed
accounts of their mistreatment. And am I to assume that every black person I’ve
ever had a conversation with in my life has lied to me or “held out” on me
simply because I’m white? If the memories of these people were failing, why are
instances of recounted mistreatment acceptable and instances of the opposite
not? And what about those white southern interviewers? Did some of them
interject their own sentiments and thoughts into the narratives? Yes, some did.
But again, the logical question arises – who is to say that the northern
interviewers and the black interviewers didn’t do the same thing? In fact, the
evidence is pretty plain that they did – some examples of neo-abolitionist
melodrama:
“Among these few
remaining persons who have lived long enough to tell of some of their
experiences during the reign of "King Slavery" in the United States
is one Mrs. Amanda McDaniel. “
“Her (referring to the
ex-slave being interviewed) reminiscences
are interesting because they depict that humble and contented attitude of
slaves which is so often stressed by fanciful fictionists.”
…."sixteen years
of hell as a slave on a plantation," a story which will convince the
reader that, even though much blood was shed in our Civil War, the war was a
Godsend to the American Nation. This story is told just as given by Mr. Stone.”
“These are the
Memoirs of one who fought the battle. One who knows the galling chain of
bondage and has lived to enjoy freedom”
I
guess white southerners weren’t the only opinionated interviewers in this
project – but it is something that I never hear the current crop of politically
correct experts admit to – and it gives me yet another reason to hold the vast
majority of these “experts” in contempt!
The
Slave Narratives is a compilation of almost 3500 interviews, stories, short
biographies, obituaries, etc. Those interviewed or written about were former
slaves or the children or grandchildren of slaves. Though many of the
interviewers displayed poor interviewing skills, they were nonetheless skilled
enough in many cases, to transcribe the interviews in the exact manner in which
the interviewee spoke. If for example, the person interviewed said the word
“them”, it would many times be pronounced as “dem” and would be written and
spelled as such in the transcription. Initially I found it to be a major pain
in the neck – it seemed as if I had to learn a foreign language. In retrospect
though I’d have to say that it gave a flavor to the work that, if you’re
imaginative enough, almost allows you to hear the voices – it was for me, quite
a thrill!
Oh
yes, about treatment – well it seems that the type of treatment the slaves
received varied from one master to another. There were some basic guidelines
and laws of course, but in large part, American slavery left most decisions and
judgement calls in the hands of the slaveowner. As one old ex-slave said, “Well
suh, et wuz jus’ lak it is t’day – dey wuz gud people an’ dey wuz bad people”.
If you want to write an Uncle Tom’s Cabin novel, there is more than enough
material to help you along in these Narratives. But if you want to write a
“Moonlight and Magnolias” novel, there’s more than enough material there as
well. Life in any time period consists of the good and the bad. Indeed, it
would not be life without both.
From
what I’ve observed, the treatment of the slaves, put of course, within the
context of the early and mid 19th century, reflected what I’ve
always observed to be the breakdown of humanity in general, and which is
similar to what the old slave said – There are some good people in this world,
and there are some bad people in this world. When dealing with others, good
people behave according to their character and bad people behave according to
theirs. And, to no one’s surprise, there are also a lot of people whose
character falls somewhere in between. Most of the people in between are usually
trying to do the right thing, with some being better at it than others. They
too behave according to character, although their behavior could sometimes be
labeled as “dysfunctional” and is not as consistent as the behaviors of the other
two groups.
Simply
put, the Slave Narratives is a story of life – life in another time, of people
in another time. That time, its parameters and the people who lived in it are
as different from us and our time as the sun is from the moon. But they were
people nonetheless, and theirs was life nonetheless. Like us, the people of
that time displayed the same types of behaviors and experienced the same types
of emotions that we do – there was love and hate, loyalty and betrayal, courage
and cowardice, incredible generosity and incredible greed, brutality and
compassion, success and disappointment….there was even humor, for what is life
in any time without humor? For those who read the Narratives and can see only
the brutal side of life I say – you have my sympathies, because you’ve missed
much in the story and you’re probably missing a whole lot in your own life as
well.
My mother and father
told me many interesting stories of slavery and of its joys and sorrows. From
what they told me there was two sides to the picture. One was extremely bad and
the other was good. "These features of slavery were also dependent on the
phases of human attitude and temperment which also was good or bad. If the
master was broadminded, with a love in his heart for his fellowman, his slaves
were at no disadvantage because of their low social standing and their lack of
a voice in the civil affairs of the community, state, and nation. On the other
hand if the master was narrowminded, overbearing and cruel the case was
reversed and the situation the slaves were placed in caused in condition to
exist concerning their general welfare that was bad and the slave was as low
socially as the swine or other animals on the plantation. "Some owners
gave their slaves the same kind of food served on their own tables and allowed
the slaves the same privileges enjoyed by their own children. Other masters fed
their slave children from troughs made very much like those from which the hogs
of the plantation were fed.
Yellerday, Hilliard,
ex-slave, North Carolina
3 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Holt Collier -
Confederate Soldier
The
story of Holt Collier can be found in the pages of many Black American History
books. The focus, most times however, will be on his career as a prolific
hunter and guide, which occurred long after the conclusion of the WBTS and
Reconstruction.
What
is not usually dwelt on is the fact that he was, despite being a slave, a
bonafide, gun-totin’, mustered-in Confederate soldier. His skills as a marksman
impressed many who saw him, including, apparently, General Forrest, and I
cannot help wonder if Daniel Woodrel and Ang Lee were thinking of him when they
created the character “Holt” in “Ride With the Devil”?
The
following is one of several biographical accounts of his life in the Slave
Narratives. Lengthy details about his post war career as a prolific hunter and
guide have been deleted in the interests of brevity, as to publish everything
that was written about him in the Slave Narratives would take up 14 type
written pages! The interviewer seems to have jumped from one time period to
another, making the chronology a bit confusing and frustrating. It is a
fascinating story nonetheless.
Holt Collier, Mississippi (from the Slave Narratives)
Was
born in Greenville
in 1848, died in Greenville
August 1st, 1936,
and he was through almost his entire life a remarkable colored citizen of Washington county. He
was an ex-slave and a Confederate soldier. He did a great deal for the uplift
of his race. He achieved great distinction as a hunter of big game, killing
bear all over the country, some on grounds where Greenville homes and public buildings now
stand. He gained notice by being in the hunting party of President Theodore
Roosevelt, when he came to Washington
county in quest of this sport. Holt Collier in relating this colorful incident
in his life said: "The President of the United States was anxious to see a
live bear the first day of the hunt. I told him he would see that bear if I had
to tie it and bring it to him." Collier made good his word. Before the day
ended the President had seen the gay old bruin. Upon his return to Washington
Mr. Roosevelt sent to Holt a rifle duplicating the one he had used on the hunt,
and which Holt had so admired.
Too
feeble to rise unaided from his stout oak rocking chair, Holt Collier,
nonegenarian, ex-slave and Washington
county's most colorful citizen, sits in his own little home on North Broadway.
For
many years Holt's erect and sturdy figure was a familiar sight on Greenville streets. A
stranger would have noticed his bearing, his dark face with iron gray mustache
and vandyke beard and the broad-brimmed felt hat he always wore. Now, the wide
hat, similar to those worn by officers in the Confederate army, shades his
failing eyes when he sits on the little porch of his home watching the
passersby.
Holt
Collier was born in Jefferson county in 1848; he lived there only a short
while, however, because he was brought by his master, Howell Hinds, son of
General Hinds, to Washington county when he was only a small boy. Holt's
master, to whom he was devoted, traveled back and forth to the old home in Jefferson county; to New Orleans, to Louisville and to Cincinnatti and Holt always
accompanied him in the capacity of juvenile valet. Traveling at that time was
done mostly by boat, and Holt recalls quite a number of the boats that plied
the river in the halcyon days of the steamboat.
At
the age of twelve, Holt was sent with his master's sons to Bardstown, Kentucky.
All the boys were expected to attend school, but
Holt's love of hunting caused him to "play hookey" while the others
studied. He often hid his gun in the spring house, returned for it later
and slipped away to the fields and forest to hunt instead of going to the
school room. Though Mr. Hinds never succeeded in having the boy educated in
books, he, however, trained Holt to be honorable, truthful and trustworthy, and
this training was evident throughout his life.
Holt
tells us that at the time when the Civil War began, he was living on Plum
Ridge, the Hind's plantation, south of the present city of Greenville. Mr. Howell Hinds, later Colonel
Hinds and always spoken of by Holt as "The Old Colonel", and his son,
Tom, were making ready to join the Confederate forces. When
Holt Collier, then only fourteen years of age, learned of his master's
preparations for departing, he asked to go with them. To Holt's great
disappointment, however, his master and Tom agreed that the little colored boy
was too young to enter the army. "I begged like a dog, but they stuck to
it --- 'You are too young'", Holt relates.
In
front of Old Greenville, seven steamboats were waiting to transport the
volunteers from the surrounding country to Memphis; from there they were to be sent to
training camps. During the afternoon the "Old Colonel" and Tom left
for Old Greenville, prepared to join the men already gathered on the river
bank. Night came; the dense forest and the cypress brakes between Plum Ridge
and the little town of Greenville
became very dark. Through this darkness, the young colored boy made his way
toward the river and its flotilla of steamboats. Arriving at the village, he
loitered at the store of a Jewish merchant, Mr. Rose, and at a propitious
moment, he slipped aboard the "Vernon",
climbing up the back of the boat to the kitchen where he hid himself. While
Holt was in hiding, a man entered the kitchen and beckoning him to come near, Holt won the man's sympathy and aid in carrying out his plan
to follow his master to the army. Arrangements were made for Holt to
occupy a small room adjoining the kitchen and the cook, whom Holt had seen on
the "Vicksburg",
proved friendly. "He hid me during the trip and told me when to get off at
Memphis,"
Holt tells. The soldiers from the boat having gone ashore, the cook thought
that the time was ripe for Holt to make his appearance. Leaving the shelter of the "Cook-house", he climbed up the high
banks at the Memphis
landing to find his master standing with a group of officers, among whom were
General Bedford Forrest and General Breckenridge. No more was said of Holt's
youth and he went into training at Camp
Boone; it was in Tennessee. He
served as a soldier and did not go as a body-servant to Colonel Hinds.
After
drilling for a time at Camp
Boone, he was sent with
his company into Kentucky.
His first taste of war came in a fight at a bridge over Green
River and there he met his "Old Colonel" again. During
the four years conflict, he served with the Texas Cowboys, Ross' Brigade and
was under Colonel Dudley Jones at the close of the struggle. After the
surrender, he returned to Washington
county with his master and Tom Hinds.
About
that time he began to achieve distinction as a hunter. He killed bear all over
the county, some of which were killed where Greenville homes and public buildings now
stand. Quail matches were the fashion then and at various times Colonel Hinds
pitted his man, Holt, against such sportsmen as Major Keep of Mayers-ville, Mississippi,
Jeff Brown and Major Lawrence of Louisville.
In a noted match with Mr. Lomax Anderson of Lake Village, Arkansas,
Holt won for Colonel Hinds a purse of one thousand dollars in gold.
When the Carpetbagger regime was in full swing, Holt was involved
in serious trouble connected with the killing of a Yankee soldier. He was arrested on
suspicion and but for the persistent efforts of Colonel W. A. Percy, would most
like have paid the supreme penalty.
To
this day he has never told who killed the Union soldier, but those who are
informed about those troublous times, have their own opinion, which they never
put into words. The trouble arose over a difficulty between the soldier and
Colonel Hinds. During the dispute, the Colonel, though a much older man,
knocked the youngster down several time, each time following the aggression of
the younger man. Finally the thoroughly angered young man drew a knife on his
unarmed opponent, but a by-stander prevented his using it. Such conduct,
especially when the aggressor was a much younger man, was considered an insult
and Holt regarded it as such.
Holt
tells that on one occasion, during Reconstruction days, he, the only negro
among 500 white men, marched up Washington
Avenue under fire, as a protest against the
insults to the white men and women of Greenville.
Several times he was taken to court because of his participation in acts of
this kind.
After
the tragic death of his beloved master, Holt traveled for some time with a
race-horse stable and later worked on the race-horse farm of Captain James
Brown near Fort Worth, Texas. There he met Frank James brother of
the celebrated Jessee James. Thence he traveled into old Mexico and
later hunted "little bear" in Alaska.
Seeing the world did not wean Holt from his old home in the Mississippi Delta
and after a few years of wandering, he returned to Greenville.
……….(Here, an extensive story of Holt’s post war hunting
exploits, has been edited out in the interests of brevity)….
…Since
Holt's death about ten days ago the following material has been given me by
Mrs. T. A. Holcombe, who felt an interest in Holt and from time to time saw
him. From her various conversations she had gathered considerable information
on which she had planned to base a sketch of his life. She talked with him when
he was stronger and better able to give details of his early life than when I
saw him recently. Mrs. Holcombe visited him in the hospital where he spent the
last week or ten days of his life, and was able at times to minister to his
comfort and happiness. Having long been interested in him, he naturally told
her more than he would have told in one interview, especially when one
considers how feeble he was when I saw him last.
In
the interview I am sending in I have incorporated some material which I
remember from tales I heard him tell several years ago and prior to my
undertaking the collecting of historical data. The last interview was not
nearly so full as might have been desired so to make it of much interest.
Therefore I had to add to it from other sources.
When
I last talked with him he was very feeble and was easily overcome by emotion,
especially when talking of his Old Colonel and some very lovely white lady who
lived at Bardstown, Ky in whose charge he was placed when as a boy he was sent
there to go to school.
Enclosed
you will find account of his death as published in the local paper. The
Commercial Appeal also carried a notice of his death last week which was
published again in the Sunday edition.
(Some
Interesting Incidents in Holt Collier's Life as Told to Mrs. T. A. Holcombe)
During
troublous times after Civil War, on one occasion Col. Hinds and a party of
white men were riding about 12 miles north of Greenville when they realized that they had
run into an ambush. Setting spur to their horses they dashed for safety. Col.
Hinds horse stumbled, pitching him off. Holt riding ahead, looked back and Col.
Hinds signalled him to ride on, but he wheeled and dashed back to his old
master's rescue. Col. Hinds was running with his arms elevated above his head
when Holt came abreast of him and without stopping his horse, reached down and
jerked Col. Hinds up onto the horse with him, thus saving his life.
During
the war Holt was in the company with Mr. J. C. Burrus of Bolivar county and on
one occasion the two were in a cane-brake riding toward a slough when suddenly
they realized that they were surrounded by the enemy. Mr. Burrus felt that all
hope of escape was gone, but Holt was more optimistic. Hastily he revealed his
plan of escape and the two made a wild dash through the slough firing two
pistols each and shouting with all their might the "Rebel yell". So
swiftly did they pass through the line and so completely did they deceive the
enemy that they made good their escape.
"I am black, but my associations with my Old Col. gave me many
advantages. I was freer then than I have ever been since and I loved him better
than anybody else in the world. I would have given my life for [him],"
said Holt with tears rolling down his withered cheeks.
"When
my Old Col. left to join the army, he left me sitting on the fence crying and
begging him to let me go with him. He said, 'No, you might get killed. I said
I've got as good a chance as you. He left me sitting there watching him go
across the fields to Old Greenville to catch the boat. That night I ran away
and went to Greenville
where I saw the artillery being loaded on a boat. After dark I slipped aboard.
At Memphis when
we were about half unloaded I marched across the gang-plank to shore. Mr.
Thomas (Hinds) saw me and turned and called, 'Father look yonder.' My Old
Colonel looked at me and took off his hat and smoothed his hair back with his
hand and said, 'Thomas, if we both go to the devil that boy will have to go
along!' I said, 'I got as good a chance as you.' It seemed to me that all the
soldiers in the world were there. There were General Breckenridge, old Gen.
Clark from Jefferson county, Gen. Bragg,
General Wirt Adams and General Bedford Forrest. We were sent to Camp Boone
in Tennessee
and from there to Ky.
One moon-light night we were ordered double
quick to Mulger Hill, to beat Col. Rousseau of the Northern army to that place.
When we reached Bowling Green
my folks shot down the Union flag flying at the top of a hill and Lieut.
Marschalk climbed the pole and cut down the staff. We started on, but the
Unions had torn up the railroad track and we had to stop and fix it before we
could go on. That is why Col. Rousseau beat us to Mulger Hill. We reached Green River Bridge and entrenched on a mountain and
had a skirmish with Col. Rousseau who fell back and we returned to Bowling Green where we
went into winter quarters. The weather was the coldest I ever felt.
Because of
my being an expert with a gun and a horse and my knowledge of the woods, Gen. Forrest talked with Capt. Evans to
whose company I had been assigned when we left Camp Boone,
about my enlisting as a soldier. They asked permission of my Old
Colonel and he called me to him and told me to choose for myself. I said 'I
will go with Capt. Evans' cavalry.' I loved horses and felt at home in the
saddle. I was in Gen. Ross' Brigade, Col. Dudley Jones Regiment and Capt. Perry
Evans co. 9th Texas
Regt. My Old Col. gave me a horse --- one of three fine race horses he had
brought from Plum Ridge. He was a beauty, iron-gray and named Medock. After
leaving Bowling Green it was a long time until I saw my Old Colonel again.
In
the spring the union forces drove us back to Iuka and from there to Chattanooga where we went
into battle. We retreated through Tennessee
into Alabama
fighting every step of the way.
News
that my Old Colonel had been wounded came through the lines to Mr. Thomas
(Lieut. Thomas Hinds). He came to me and said, 'Holt can you go to my father? I
can't go.' I got a pass from Capt. Evans and left that night. Riding night and
day I reached the home of a relative of the Colonel's. I hid my horse in a
cane-brake nearby and slipped up to the house after dark. Miss Eliza, the
Colonel's cousin let me in and showed me where he lay. I went in and when he
saw me he waved his hand for everyone to leave the room. I went over and knelt
down by his bed and put my arms around him and hugged him close. He began to
cry and said, 'Holt, I am badly hurt, but I believe I will pull through.' I
said, 'You must; I can't live if you die.' After awhile the family came in and
we talked until day-break. I was treated like a royal guest by Miss Eliza and
the others. She made me a couch beside the Colonel's bed and I slept there
during my stay. I never left the house and the family were on guard all the time
I was there. The Federals were thick as hops and I began to get uneasy. On the
fourth night I told my Old Colonel good-bye.
My
horse, hearing me coming, nickered which frightened me, but I reached the lines
in safety. I did not see my Old Colonel again until we met on the battle-field
of Shiloh. He said 'Holt, I have worried a
heap about you.' I said, 'Yes sir, I got as good a chance as you.' The soldiers
were falling thick and fast, but I was never hit once. General Albert Sidney
Johnston, in command of the Confederate troops was riding a big white horse
when a bullet struck him in the thigh, severing an artery. I was only a few
yards away at the time. Six soldiers carried him to the shade of a tree where
he died in a short while. We retreated to Corinth
(to protect an important connection with the Trans-Mississippi Division) and
Capt. Evans Company was detailed for scout duty along the Mississippi
River and up near Old Greenville. We did a heap of good too; saved
our folks property and ran the Unions out. During that time I did a great deal
of scout duty. The whole country was a wilderness and if our boys got lost I
could always find the way out. I had been raised in this part of the country
and had hunted in the woods all my life.
"Well
Mam, when the war was over we went to Vicksburg
and were mustered out under General Kirby Smith of Texas."After I came home I had a heap
of trouble. The Federals were garrisoned at Greenville (the new town of that name) and
they arrested me four times. At that time the country was under military rule
and I had to go to Vicksburg
for trial. Col. Percy, my Old Colonel, Judge Trigg and Mr. William L.Nugent
stood by me through thick and thin. I will never forget them, my old white
friends - they are all gone now. Col. Percy and Col. Hinds went with me to Vicksburg for the trial.
Col. Percy told them if they put me in jail he wanted a cot put beside mine for
he was going to jail with me.
Holt Collier from
SOURCE MATERIAL FOR MISSISSIPPI
HISTORY, Washington
County
4 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Black Confederate
“Soldiers?”
Although
many blacks saw service in Confederate armies, including combat in some cases,
there weren’t many who were officially mustered in as soldiers. Further, while
it was not unheard of for black men in confederate armies to pick up guns and
fight, it was usually not considered their duty to do so. It is unclear as to
whether Jeff Harvey’s father qualified as a “soldier” in the sense of being “mustered
in” or not, though it is quite clear that he saw and participated in combat.
There is also a brief mention of 2 uncles, who served with Stonewall Jackson.
As in the case of Mr. Harvey’s father, the exact status of the 2 uncles is
unclear, and it is also not clear as to whether or not they saw combat. It is
clear however, that all 3 men served honorably in Confederate forces- and it is
crystal clear to the reader where the loyalties of all 3 men lay. So much for
liberal historians who claim that all blacks in Confederate armies were forced
to serve or were secretly rooting for the Union.The following excerpts are from
the Jeff Harvey “interview” -
Jeff Charlie Harvey, South Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
"When I was twelve, my father went to the Confederate War. He
joined the Holcombe Legion of Union
County and they went
immediately to Charleston. They drilled near
the village of Santuc in what was then called
Mulligan's Old Field, now owned by Rion Jeter. This was the only mustering
ground in our part of the county. The soldiers drilled once a week, and for the
'general muster, all of the companies from Sedalia and Cross Keys come there once a
month. During the summer time they had what they called general drill for a
week or ten days. Of course on this occasion the soldiers camped over the field
in covered wagons. Some came in buggies. Slaves, called 'wait-men' cared for
the stock and did the cooking and other menial duties for their masters……
…"My own father was shot down for the first time at the Second
Battle of Manassas. Here he got a lick over his left eye that was about the
size of a bullet; but he said that he thought the lick came from a bit of
shell. They
carried him to a temporary make-shift hospital that had been improvised behind
the breastworks. A soldier who was recovering from a wound nursed him as best
he could…..
…"The second time my father was wounded was in Kingston, N.C.
He shot a Yankee from behind a tree and he saw the blood spurt from him as he
fell. Just about that time he saw another Yankee behind a tree leveling a gun
at him. Father threw up his gun but too late, the Yankee shot and tore his arm
all to pieces.
The bullet went through his arm and struck the corner of his mouth knocking out
part of his jaw bone. Then it went under the neck vein and finally it came out
on his back knocking a hole in one of his shoulder blades large enough to lay
your two thumbs in. His gun stock was also cut into. He lay on the battlefield
for a whole day and night; then he was carried to a house where some kind
ladies acting as nurses cared for him for over four months. He was sent home
and dismissed from the army just a mile below Maybinton, S.C.
in dewberry County. Father was unable to do any kind
of work for over two years. The war closed a year after he got home. From that
time on I cared for my mother and father…..
…"I
think Abe Lincoln would have done the South some good if they had let him live.
He had a kind heart and knew what suffering was. Lee would have won the war if
the mighty Stonewall Jackson had lived. Stonewall was ahead of them all. I had two uncles. Jipp and Charlie Clark in Stonewall's
company. They would never talk much about him after his death. It hurts them
too much, for Stonewall's men loved him so much. Jeff Davis was a great man,
too.
4b - The Black
Confederate and Modern Day Yankees
Those
who question the existence of the “Black Confederate” level a variety of
criticisms at the idea, i.e., how could black men fight for those who would
keep them in slavery, or, there is no mention of these men on the muster rolls,
or, the Confederate army would never allow a black man to be a soldier, or,
they weren’t REAL soldiers as they were never officially enrolled as such, or,
at best they were the equivalent of “civilian contractors” today and at worst
they were simply coerced into service, etc. etc. One Yankee blogger even
likened the “search for black confederates” to the “search for UFOs.” Well,
that was sure creative if nothing else!?
One
of the latest complaints against the “Black Confederate” story seems to be
about how the SCV, UDC and others mislabel black men in Confederate armies as
“soldiers.” This attack was perhaps spurred by a number of newspaper stories in
recent years about ceremonies honoring such men – ceremonies, I might add, that
the descendents of those black men actually participated in. According to the
critics, we should not be labeling these men as “soldiers,” but as Confederate
“slaves” who were coerced into serving, because, according to the critics,
there is no way that these men would have done what they did of their own free
will. In fact, some of these critics go so far as to accuse us of promoting
deception insofar as the real stories of these men are concerned. We are
accused, in the words of one Yankee blogger, of “using and abusing the history
of slavery,” apparently for our own nefarious purposes, and indeed, of
“blackwashing” the Confederacy.
With
respect then, to the use of the word “soldier” in reference to “Black
Confederates,” it is true that most of these men were not enrolled as soldiers,
and that their duties normally did not include participation in combat, and
that indeed, the Confederate government (as well as the Union government for
the first two years of the war), technically prohibited their enrollment as
such until 1865. There were a few like Holt Collier, for example, who actually
were enrolled as soldiers, however these instances were rare and constituted no
more than a small handful of men. With this I have no argument. Most black men
in Confederate armies were actually support personnel, i.e., body servants,
cooks, teamsters, musicians, etc. While there are numerous instances of them
taking up arms to participate in combat, and numerous instances as well of them
coming under fire and performing with as much courage as any white soldier, and
numerous instances of these men expressing strong support for the South, the
claim that there were 90,000 gun-toting black men in the Confederate armies who
were functioning as actual soldiers or who were enrolled as such is simply
incorrect.
So
then, where did the use of the word “soldier” to describe these men come from?”
Let me quote a few items from my research notes with respect to the use of that
word as well as other similar words such as “veteran.”
**The
Story of Amos Rucker, a Confederate body servant who “went with his master to
war,” and who actually saw combat, though not officially enrolled as a soldier,
was reported on in the old “Confederate Veteran” magazine, page 496 of the
October 1909 issue. The title of the article reads, “Amos Rucker, the Negro
Veteran,” and it reports that pallbearers at his funeral in 1909, “very
tenderly carried the OLD VETERAN to his grave.”
**Dick
Poplar, a free black man from Petersburg
Virginia, was a chef in the
Bollingbrook Hotel before the war. At the start of the war he joined the 13th
Va. Cavalry.
Other than the fact that he was captured at Gettysburg and spent 19 months as a
POW in Point Lookout, little is known of what his duties were or what his
official status was or what he did in that unit between 1861-63. A reasonable guess, in light of his culinary
reputation, is that he was a cook and not a sword-wielding/pistol packing
trooper. However, when he died, the title of the article in the Petersburg
Index-Appeal, dated May 23,
1886 read, “The Passing of Richard “Dick” Poplar, COLORED
CONFEDERATE SOLDIER.” The article the following day in that same newspaper
which reported on his funeral used the same description, “COLORED CONFEDERATE
SOLDIER.”
**Henry
Warfield, of Mississippi,
one of those interviewed in the “Slave Narratives, was a slave and one of the
many body servants who accompanied their masters to war. When the interviewer
asked him if he went back to farming after the war he replied, “No ma’am, I
didn't go back to de plow any more after de war. I worked alright but my spirit
was broken. When a man is a SOLDIER he ain't fit fur nothing else."
**The
“Confederate Veteran” magazine, March 1903 issue, page 110, reported the passing
of “A Faithful Negro, Frederick Pouncey,” who was a body servant and slave.
While “Faithful Negro” may seem patronizing and condescending to us today, the
article in the magazine nonetheless describes Pouncey as “A Christian and a
SOLDIER.”
**The
“Confederate Veteran” magazine, May 1902 issue, page 199, describes a reunion
which was attended by one Henry Johnson, of Bossier Parish, La. Johnson “went
to war with his master, Joseph Hodges, and into the firing line with him and
when his master was shot down, Johnson carried him on his back for 4 miles to
the rear.” The article says of Henry Johnson, “He is highly respected by his
white friends and proud that he was a Confederate SOLDIER.”
I
could give many more examples but I believe that these few should demonstrate
my point, which is that while most black men serving in Confederate armies were
not officially enrolled as soldiers that they nonetheless, on occasion,
referred to themselves as “soldiers” or “veterans.” And on occasion as well,
their white comrades also referred to them using those words, as did newspapers
that reported on their service or on their passing. I don’t expect that these
men, or their white comrades, or the newspapers that reported on them, ever
envisioned a day when certain people would get bent out of shape over it and
would stand, mightily huffing and puffing, on technicalities and semantics.
Well, the huffers and puffers will just have to deal with it. Use of the terms
“soldier” or “veteran” when describing these men is not “Neo-Confederate”
invention, no one is attempting to mislead anyone, and no one is “blackwashing”
anything. The words in question may not have been technically correct, but
nonetheless, they were, on occasion, used by the actual Confederates
themselves! In short, the loose usage of
the word “soldier” to describe these men is not a Neo-Confederate invention -
it is actually a CONFEDERATE invention!
The
bottom line, (and this is what really irks the critics), is that black men did
not universally look upon the Yankees as their saviors. I suppose the thought
of a black man, especially a slave, lending his support to the Confederacy
while rejecting his alleged rescuers would have to be very upsetting to the
naysayers. Most of these naysayers are Yankees and we all know that Yankees
have never dealt well with rejection. Just look at how they reacted when the
South rejected them and left the Union - they
chastised the South for rejecting “the best government on earth” and then
promptly launched a protracted and bloody invasion. Some things never change –
especially the Yankee psyche. I can therefore, completely understand the
incredulity that a modern day Yankee must feel when he finds that black men of
the past sometimes rejected what he was peddling, or that some of their
descendents today still reject his advances. It must be so painful. Somebody
call Dr. Phil!
Bill
Vallante
Commack NY
Associate
Member, SCV Camp 3000
Associate
Member, SCV Camp 1506
5 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The Line Between Soldier
and Servant
It
is often difficult to distinguish the dividing line between “soldier” and
“servant”, for in many instances the line was blurred by the realities of war,
the needs of the moment and the sentiments of the men who served. The story of
Amos Rucker, of the 33rd Georgia infantry, is one such
example. The term “soldier” when referring to a black man in the confederate
army is often scoffed at by modern day academic inbreds touting contemporary
historical “wisdom”. Perhaps these inbreds would do well to note the use of the
word “soldier” or “veteran” by white confederate veterans when referring to
their black comrades?
AMOS RUCKER, THE
NEGRO VETERAN.
496 Confederate Veteran October 1909.
There
is an underlying note of tenderness in every heart, and it vibrates to the
touch of real pathos, as a violin does to its bow. The story of Amos Rucker,
the old negro veteran of Atlanta,
carries its own moral. Amos belonged to the Rucker family, of Colbert County, Ga.,
belonged in a wider sense than as a mere human chattel that the slaves were
said to be, for every joy or sorrow in "ole Marster's" family touched
its sympathetic chord in his heart. The children he watched grow up were as
dear to him as his own, and "ole Miss" was always the pinnacle of all
that was good in his eyes.
Amos
was a young man at the time of the war, and when "Marse Sandy Rucker"
went to the front, Amos went too, just as proud as was that young soldier of
his "marster's" gray uniform and brass buttons.
In all those long, hard
years the 33d Georgia Regiment bore its part in the bloody struggle, and there
was no braver member than Sandy Rucker, and shoulder to shoulder with him
fought Amos, as though he too was an enlisted man. He took part in every
engagement, and, gun or bayonet in hand, stood ready to "close up"
whenever there was a vacancy in the line. The
cause of the Confederacy was his, because his master had espoused it first,
then it was his from the love he came to bear the flag, and no truer, more
loyal heart beat under the gray than that of Amos Rucker.
He
joined the Camp of W. H. T. Walker, and there was no more loved nor respected
member than the black, whose bowed form and snow white hair showed the passing
of the years so plainly. He attended every meeting till the one before his
death, when he sent word to the Camp that he was too ill to attend, and added:
"Give my love to the boys."
He
went to all the Reunions whenever possible, and here he attracted much
attention. He was very proud to show off a wonderful feat of memory, for he
could call the roll of his old company from A to Z, and he would add in solemn
tones "here" or "dead" as the names left his lips.
The
people who had had his lifetime devotion took care of both the old man and his
wife. As he said: "My folks give me everything I want." At his death
in Atlanta in
August, 1909, there was universal sorrow. His body lay in state, and hundreds
of both white and black stood with bared head to do him honor. Camp
Walker defrayed all
burial expenses, buying a lot in the cemetery especially for him, so that the
old man and his wife could lie side by side. The funeral services were
conducted by Gen. Clement A. Evans, the Commander in Chief of the Veterans, and
his volunteer pallbearers were ex Gov. Allen D. Candler, Gen. A. J. West, ex
Postmaster Amos Fox, F. A. Hilburn, Commander of Camp Walker, J. Sid Holland,
and R. S. Osbourne. Very tenderly they carried the old veteran to his grave,
clothed in his uniform of gray and wrapped in a Confederate flag, a grave made
beautiful by flowers from comrades and friends, among which a large design from
the Daughters of the Confederacy was conspicuous in its red and white.
A
simple monument will be erected to the faithful soldier by the white comrades
of his Camp and from contributions from his many friends in Atlanta
6 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The Confederate Body
Servant – War is Hell:
Conventional
historical “wisdom” has it that the body servant was an uninformed or coerced
bootblack who performed only menial chores, and that unlike his USCT cousin,
his life or well-being was seldom in danger. Yet, in reading the Slave
Narratives, it seemed to me that these black men who spoke about their war
experiences on the confederate side talked about them in much the same way as
any old white soldier would who had experienced war and its attending horrors.
The following are a few of the excerpts from the Slave Narratives which again
demonstrate that conventional historical “wisdom” may not be so wise after all.
Henry Warfield, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
Henry Warfield who claims to be ninety years old says that
"Negroes were used by the Confederates long before they were used by the
Union forces. Even before the war they were used in all kinds of rough work and
a large number of these fought by the side of their masters or made it possible
for the master to fight."
Henry
claims to have been at the battle of Fort Hill and he describes the times as
being terrible. He says, "Yes, I was right dere when Grant cut dat ditch
river canal right thru to one battleground and we couldn't do a thing about
it."
Henry's
mind is rather blank as to what happened on the actual day but he says,
"There was lots of blood, plenty of noise, big fires, and crowds of
strange faces that he had not seen before."
Henry
says his "eatings were scarce in those days prior to July 4, 1862. We et mule meat,
saltless pone bread, and drunk coffee made of oak and hickory bark without
sugar. Often we et raw meat, hogs, calves, or anything that we could plunder
and get and raw meat makes men mean…
….."The
people were not sad when the capture of the city took place as mothers who had
sons still in the army know that the war continued their sons would either be
wounded or slaughtered so they were glad to get over the worst day of all. The
slaves were glad to have the guns cease firing as they didn't know yet what it
meant to their freedom," said Henry……..
…….
But he left the plow in the fields and went with his master to war at the age
of sixteen. When he left, his mistress bade him stick to his master's side. At
first they went to Atlanta,
Georgia and
then to Montgomery, Alabama, then finally back to Vicksburg, Mississippi
and it was at this point that his master was wounded and Henry carries a scar
on his left ankle where a shell grazed him standing by his master's side. It
was to him that a broken master turned for help after the war and altho' he was
free he did not fail him
……..”No maam, I didn't go back
to de plow any more after de war. I worked alright but my spirit was broken.
When a man is a soldier he ain't fit fur nothing else."
Simon Durr, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
When
de war finally broke loose an' kept a gwine on an' on, Marse den he had to go.
Dat was sad news fer all ob us. Things was a lookin' bad 'nuf' wid out dat. De
day come when he had to go, an' he say to me, "Simon I'se a gwine to take
yo' wid me." I was glad an' scart too, but I went
wid him as a servant an' stayed wid him 'till de war ended. I had a heap
o 'sperences durin' dat time. I seed de men a marchin' an' drillin'. I seed 'em
come foot sore an' mos' dead after de battle. I'se seed 'em go hungrey. I'se
seed 'em kilt, an' die from sickness an exposure. Dey
was finally jes' starved out. Dats' what won de war….
….Sometimes dey would camp close to de union Army, one on one side
ob a river an' one on de uder side. At night dey would swim across an' set wid
each other 'round de camp fire, dey would tell jokes, wrestle an' swap tobacco
an' food stuf. Dey would have fun an' joke lak nothin' was wrong, den dey would
swim back across de river knowin' dey would be a killin' each other de nex day.
Jack Atkinson, Georgia,
(The Slave Narratives)
Jack's
father, Tom, the body-servant of Mr. Atkinson, "tuck care of him" during
the four years they were away at war. "Many's the
time I done heard my daddy tell 'bout biting his hands he was so hongry, and
him and Moster drinking water outer the ruts of the road, they was so thirsty,
during the war."
Dosia Harris, Georgia, (The Slave
Narratives)
When
Marse William went to de war, he tuk my pappy wid him. Dey
come back home on one of dem flyloughs, (furloughs) or somepin lak dat, and you
jus' ought to have seed de way us chillun crowded 'round pappy when he got dar.
One of his fingers had done got shot off in de fightin', and us chillun thought
it was one of de funniest lookin' things us had ever seed, a man wid a short
finger. He said dem yankees had done shot it off.
7 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
“The Un-Reconstructed”, “Twarn’t a fair fight, they starved us out!”
:
Remarkably,
though perhaps not surprisingly, accounts of black men who had served in
confederate armies often mirrored the strongest sentiments expressed by some of
the whites who served.These men left absolutely no question as to where their
loyalties lay. Once again, contemporary historical “wisdom”, which usually
asserts that black men served because they had no choice, is happily left with
egg on its face.
“Black Southerners in
Confederate Armies”, Segars and Barrow
“Uncle
Richmond Tells Why the Yankees Won”, Page
153-154
“We
all could er whipped dat fight easy enough”, he said, “ef we jes had the
Yankees demselves ter fight, but when dy went out en picked up Irishmen en
Dutchmen en dingoes en Cubians en all de other nations ter help’em, dey wuz too
many fer us, en das whut I tole Gineral Lee one day”.
Gus Brown, Alabama, (from the Slave Narratives)
"Then
de war came and we all went to fight the Yankees.
I was a body servant to the master, and once a bullet took off his hat. We all
thought he was shot but he wasn't, and I was standin' by his side all the time.
"I remember Stonewall Jackson. He was a big man with long whiskers, and
very brave. We all fought wid him until his death. We wa'n't beaten, we
was starved out! Sometimes we had perched corn to eat and sometimes we didn't
have a bite o' nothin', because the Union mens come and tuk all de food for
theirselves….
Wiley Brewer, Mississippi, (from the Slave Narratives)
"Yas'm, I went to de war. Marster took me wid him, and I fit,
too, I killed a thousand Yankees... You look like you don't believe dat, Miss,
but it's de truth. Mistis always told me to tell the truth, and I ain't never
told nobody no lies. Some ub dem Yankees I shot and some uv 'em I
drowned...
….Marster always told me Yankees was de worst friends I had,
so when dey come round after de war telling me de Government was gonna give us
40 acres and a mule, I knowed it wan't so and went back to Marster. He
let me work for him, part de time as wage hand and part as sharecropper till he
died. I saved my money and bought me a mule, and en about 32 years ago I bought
me a farm. Dat's where me and my wife lives now, just a few miles from Columbus.
Isaac Stier, Mississippi, (from the Slave Narratives)
When
de big war broke out I sho' stuck by my marster. I*fit de Yankees same as he
did. I went in de battles 'long side o' him an' both
fit under Marse Robert E. Lee. I reckon ever'body has heard 'bout him. I
seen more folks dan anybody could count. Heaps of 'em was all tore to pieces
an' cryin' to Cod to let 'em die. I toted water to dem in blue de same as dem
in gray. Folks wouldn' b'lieve de truf if I was to tell all I knows 'bout dem
ongodly times. "Fore de war I never knowed what it was to go empty. My
marster sho' set a fine table an' fed his people de highes'. De hungriest I
ever been was at de Siege o' Vicksburg.
Dat was a time I'd lak to forgit. De folks et up all de cats an' dogs an' den
went to devourin' de mules an' hosses. Even de wimmin an' little chillun was
a-starvin'. Dey stummicks was stickin' to dey backbones. Us Niggers was
sufferin' so us took de sweaty hoss blankets an' soaked 'em in mudholes where
de hosses tromped. Den us wrung 'em out in buckets an' drunk dat dirty water
for pot-likker. It tasted kinda salty an' was strength'nin', lak weak soup…..
…."I tell you, dem Yankees took us by starvation. Twant a fair
fight. Dey called it a vict'ry an' bragged ' bout Vicksburg a-fallin', but hongry folks aint
got no fight lef' in 'em. Us folks was starved into surrenderin'.
Lewis Adams, Mississippi, (from the Slave Narratives)
The
War Between the States, according to Uncle Lewis, was as follows:
"I was wid de South, I loved her ways. My best friends was
Southern boys.
But de hardships and de trubbles, hongry, an' sich, an'so'n - little bit er
grub an' fightin' guns - I says it can't last long. I sits down an' thinks very
sad like, ass my friens' dead er dyin', and I study; Captain Seibe frum ma home
town an' his boy, Jake Seibe, shot thu' de haid; Lieutenant Carl Lindsay killed
in battle; an' I says whut de use er fighting; den
months er hell an' dat fine old man, General Robert E. Lee, say 'Let's quit.'
Doc Quinn, Arkansas
(from
the Slave Narratives)
"I
was born March 15, 1843,
in Monroe County, Mississippi, near Aberdeen, Mah Mahster was Colonel Ogburn, one
ob de bigges' planters in de state of Mississippi.
Manys de time he raised so much cotton dat dem big steamers just couldnt carry
it all down to N'Awlins in one year. But den along came de Civil War an' we
didn't raise nothin' fo' several years. Why? Becase
most uf us jined the Confederate Army in Colonel Ogburn's regiment as servants
and bodyguards. An' let me tell yo' somethin', whitefolks. Dere never
was a war like dis war. Why I 'member dat after de battle of Corinth, Miss., a
five acre field was so thickly covered wid de dead and wounded dat yo' couldn't
touch de ground in walkin' across it. And de onliest way to bury dem was to cut
a deep furrow wid a plow, lay de soldiers head to head, an' plow de dirt back
on dem."
"About
a year after de war started de Mahster got one ob dese A.W.O.L.'s frum de Army
so we could come to Miller County, where he bought de place on Red River now
known as de Adams Farm…
…..Mah
young marster was Joe Ogburn. Me and him growed up togedder an' I was his boddy
guard durin' de wahr. Many's de day I'ze watched de smoke ob battle clear away
an' wait fo' de return ob mah marster. All de time I
felt we was born to win dat wahr, out God knowed bes' an' you know de result.
The Confederate Negro
Page 177, “Black
Southerners in Confederate Armies”, Segars and Barrow
By Joseph A. Mudd,
Hyattsville, Md., for the Confederate Veteran, Vol XXIII, 1905
The
Confederate Negro is the proudest being on the earth. A few weeks ago I was
standing at the counter of the water office, Municipal Building
in Washington
when in came a negro, who, standing near by, began his business with one of the
clerks. He was rather shabbily dressed, but evidently one of the “old stock”,
as black as ink and as ugly as Satan, eyes beaming with intelligence and a
great depth of human sympathy, a countenance one loves to rest one’s gaze upon,
and with a bearing of modest and courteous dignity.
His
business over, I said to him, “Where did you come from”? I could see his chest
swelling, and I knew the answer before it was spoken, “From Ferginny suh.” Were
your people in the war? “Yes suh”, with a smile of enthusiasm and a bow that
bespoke reverence for the memories of the olden days”. They tell me you people
“fit” some. I could almost see the lightening dart from his eyes as he
straightened himself up – “Fit? Why they outfit the world suh. Never did whip
us, suh. If dey hadn’t starved us out, we’d be fightin’ yit”. As he passed me
going ot of the office he said” “I was wid’em foh years suh,. I cahd my young
master off de field once when I din’t think he’d live till I got him to de
doctor, but he’s living yit”. I did not tell him I was a Confederate soldier
and he didn’t seem to care. He knew what he was and that was enough…..
8 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The Confederate Body
Servant and the UCV:
“And to you our
colored friends….we say welcome. We can never forget your faithfulness in the
darkest hours of our lives. We tender to you our hearty respect and love, for
you never faltered in your duty nor betrayed your trust.” - Colonel William
Sanford
(From an address given before the Confederate
Veterans of the 7th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment of Cavalry, Forrest’s
Corps, at the Columbia, Tennessee reunion of September 22, 1876)
In
the post-war era, many black men who had served in the Confederate forces
became members of the United Confederate Veterans. “Jim Crow” nothwithstanding,
their presence was welcomed by their white comrades and their war service
honored.
By
the way, Uncle Divinity’s story makes it clear that a sense of humor is of
great value in any day and age.
Howard Divinity, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
Copiah's
best known ex-slave was Howard Divinity, or "Uncle Divinity," who, since the close of the war until a few years before his
death in 1930, attended practically all of the National Reunions of Confederate
veterans and of World War veterans. Richmond, New York,
Washington,
and many other cities of the nation knew him as a familiar figure when the
veterans gathered there. He always wore the gray uniform of the Confederacy,
the coat being literally covered with reunion medals. Uncle Divinity was born
early in the 1820's and served from 1861 until the close of the war as body
slave and cook with Bob Scott, of Copiah
County, in Company D, of
the Twelfth Mississippi Regiment. While in the
Confederate army, Divinity acquired the reputation of being the champion forager
in the whole Confederate army and was called the chicken provider of the
Confederacy.
In
1926 Uncle Divinity made a speech before the Mississippi Legislature in behalf
of the Confederate soldiers, their widows, and servants He went to the senate
office building and asked to see his senator. When he was admitted to see John
Sharp Williams, the Mississippi
senator asked which he would rather have - five dollars, a toddy, or straight
whiskey; Divinity came away with five dollars. A short while later Uncle
Divinity met up with Congressman Percy E. Quin, representative of the Copiah
District. Mr. Quin gave him a silver dollar. Shortly afterwards, Divinity
remarked to a group of veterans that he had learned the difference between a
senator and a congressman. They asked him what the difference was, and of
course he answered - "Four dollars."
Tuck Spight, Mississippi,
(The Slave Narratives)
Tuck
Spight was one of the most interesting negro characters in Tippah county. He
was owned by Mr & Mrs Jas Spight who gave the negro boy to their son
Thomas. They grew up together with not many years difference in their ages-
when the war began in 1861 Thomas Spight enlisted, Tuck of course wanted to go
look after his Master, he was allowed to go as a servant or body guard, he went
all the way & back with his master Capt. Thomas Spight. After the close of
the war he was always looking after the interest of his master, always tried to
see that he did not want for any thing, would see that he had plenty to eat,
nursed him when sick, wounded and etc.
Tuck was his master in a number of battles, among them were the
Lookout Mountain- Chattanooga, a regiment of confederate soldiers went into
Chattanooga on flat cars before they had time to get off the cars the Yankees
began firing at them so fast they had to work in a hurry, while the officers
were trying to make a quick decision as to how & where to place the cannon,
men and etc. in order to begin the firing as soon as possible, Tuck whispered
to his Master (Thomas Spight) to suggest to the higher officers, that the
quickest way to make ready for a battle would be to turn the cannon around
& let it remain where it was, and they did as Tuck suggested.
At
the close of the civil war Tuck wished to remain with Capt. Spight, and did. He
helped about the place, some time he made share crops. He
remained faithful except during one election, in the reconstruction days. Capt.
Spight said come here Tuck & I'll show you how to vote-Tuck said Mr- (A Big
Republican) he done showed me how, not long after that Tuck got in to some
trouble with some negroes He went immediately and told him about the
trouble and wanted Capt Spight to get him out, the first thought that entered
Capt Spight mind was to send him to the (Big Republican) But Capt. Spight got
him out, and Tuck always felt that he owned his life to his master, for he was
always so good to him.
Tuck was a member of the Confederate Veterans Camp until his death
which occured a few years after his masters, He made a very touching little
talk at his masters funeral, he attended most all the confederate Reunions he
was rather feeble when he attended a reunion at Little Rock Ark.
The
people that he was in care of asked him how it happened that he had more money
when he returned than he did when he left to go to the reunion, he answered
with saying that he made a talk for the people and they gave him some money. He
was not educated but through the contact of his master and other educated
people he could make very sensible talks in public, especially when they were
concerning The Civil War. Tuck was buried in the Ripley cemetery, & through
the effort of Mr L.D. Spight he has a marker placed at his grave by the
Government as a confederate servant.
Isaac Pringle, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
He
has spent his entire life, except for the war period, within five miles of
where he was born, his travels, "all over de world," being to the
extent only of his war experience and attendance at Confederate reunions, which
latter are the high spots in his life.
He
is totally unreconstructed, a true negro of the Old South, and, although
entirely free from any taint of servility or slavishness, still believes firmly
that "'fo' de war" days were best.
"Dey took me for a house boy, an' when
de war started I went all through hit with him. We went to Atlanta an' went in de war in April 1862 an'
come out in April 1865. Perryville,
Kentucky, in August 1862, I was
tied up all day in dat battle.
"Colonel
W. F. Dowd was colonel of de 24th Miss. regiment, ridin' up an' down in front
de lines, an', when de first shells come over, hit scared his horse so bad he
run away straight through de Yankee army an' we never did see him no mo'.
"We
didn't go to Virginia,
jus up to de line. Den we went to Chattanooga
an' fought aroun' till dey wallered everything out aroun' dere, den we went to Atlanta, Georgia.
"All
dem three years of de war I never got to touch a horse. We'd walk all day an' a
good piece of de night. An' dem campfires, wid ten thousand men around, you
never saw anything like it. Hit looked like de whole world was lighted up.
"When
we got word of de surrender, we wasn't mustered out. We all just scattered for
our homes.
"After de war, Mr. Frank went to Florida but I come on back to de old home
place. "Mr. Harper's good to us, an'
I got a little Confederate veteran's pension, four dollars a month, an' we're
makin' out.
"Dese here my badges from de Confederate
reunions. I been to every one, up to 1934, in Chattanooga. I'm de biggest fool in de world
about dem things, an' I love to look at 'em.
9 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Mixed Marriages Don’t
Work – So Don’t Marry a Yankee….
***Rose
Russell, a runaway slave who served as a nurse in the Union Army, and who
tendered distinguished service to that army, made the mistake of marrying
someone from “the other side” when the war was over. While the couple produced
9 children, the long term results were inevitable. They say that “love is blind” and they say
that it can “conquer all” – but a Yank marrying Reb is truly a “Lost Cause”!
Rose Russell, Mississippi
– Union Nurse, (The Slave
Narratives)
On
a wisteria covered porch of a little cottage at 819 Main St. lives a very enteresting
character, by the name of Rose Russell, a Cival War Nurse who is now about
ninty eight years of age, and was a volenteer nurse of the War between the
States.
Rose
has just received and accepted an engraved invitation to the Encampment that is
to be at Gettysburg Pa. on June the 27th and she has made all of
her plans to make the long trip with an attendant. Rose as a slave acted
as nurse, cook, laundress and garden maker until the war and it was in the dark
days just before the seige of Vicksburg
that a scout for the Union Army was looking for nurses to care for wounded soldiers
on the battlefield that Rose as a slave volenteered her services to go. At
first the Officer refused her offer saying she was too small and delicate to
go, but as he had such a hard time getting real able bodied women to go and
nurse, He finally after much pleading on her part he said alright you may go,
and she went and was duly registered in the medical corps as a Volenteer Nurse
in the United States Army. She does not know how long she served but she says
it seemed about a year and a half. She does know that she suffered cold,
hunger, went without sleep and suffered a good deal of fear during that time….
….It was long after the war was over that Rose married Tom Russell, a man
who had been a soldier with his marster and who was still true to the cause of
his marster. Altho nine children were born to this union they never got along
as he would call her a "Yankee" and
she would call him a "Reb" finally
they parted and she does not know where he went to. Now all of her
children are dead except one her youngest Son Lee Russell who lives with her.
Lee is about sixty years old, and it is to him that she has to depend on on to
help her around the house, to carry her for walks and to drive her around in
their little car.
***His
master’s wife, being northern-born, Herndon Bogan’s father apparently had some
difficulty in distinguishing a yankee from someone who was simply born in the
north. And the thought of spending a long war cooped up with a “yankee woman”?
– well, that just wouldn’t fly!?
Herndon Bogan, North Carolina (The Slave Narratives)
"My
daddy wus gived ter de doctor when de doctor wus married an' dey shore loved
each other. One day marster, he comes in an' he sez dat de Yankees am aimin'
ter try ter take his niggers way from him, but dat dey am gwine ter ketch hell
while dey does hit. When he sez dat he starts ter walkin' de flo'. 'I'se gwine
ter leave yore missus in yore keer, Edwin,' he sez.
"But
pa 'lows, 'Wid all respec' fer yore wife sar, she am a Yankee too, an' I'd
ruther go wid you ter de war. Please sar, massa,
let me go wid you ter fight dem Yanks.' "At fust massa 'fuses, den he sez, 'All right,' So off
dey goes ter de war, massa
on a big hoss, an' my pap on a strong mule 'long wid de blankets an' things….
…"Dey
tells me dat ole massa
got shot one night, an' dat pap grabs de gun 'fore hit hits de earth an' lets
de Yanks have hit….
….."I
'members dat dem wus bad days fer South Carolina, we gived all o' de food ter
de soldiers, an' missus, eben do' she has got some Yankee folks in de war.
I'arns ter eat cabbages an' kush an' berries.
10 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Black Confederates
Memorialized
It
has become quite fashionable to poke fun at the slaves who remained loyal, if
one can bring oneself to admit that any were. And it is equally fashionable to
castigate whites who expressed their thanks for that loyalty. It is the result
I suppose, of our belief that we and our times are superior to anything which
has gone before……
Well,
maybe it’s time to come down off our “high horses” – maybe we need to try and
understand. And for that understanding, it may be helpful to stop looking down
our noses and instead turn to an excerpt from an editorial in the Natchez
Mississippi Democrat, dated December 5th, 1923 - and remember what
it was that those men gave, and what it was that was being honored…..
“The basic action of
the legislature of the State of Mississippi in distributing pension to
Confederate soldiers and servants was to honor fidelity to the cause of the
Confederacy by whosoever, regardless of race or color; so as to inscribe in the
history of the state a lasting memorial to the men who fought, bled and
suffered for the cause. Fidelity was the keynote; Fidelity was the watchword – a
principle which has actuated man from the dawn of civilization... It is honored in
every shape and form the world over…. “
P.410 Confederate Veteran September 1912- MASTER
AND HIS FAITHFUL SLAVE.
BY SAMUEL
COLEMAN SIXTH ALABAMA CAVALRY.
Abercrombie
and Tommy Judkins were killed. Bat Smith and the handful of boys close behind
him kept on. In a few seconds Smith felt headlong upon his face and then turned
over on his back. The effect of the enemy's fire was appalling. Not one of that
gallant little band was left standing. The charge was reckless in the extreme,
but it illustrated the spirit and high courage of our soldiers. That feat of
daring was followed by another of the lowliest and humblest: man there present.
A tall, strapping, young negro named Griffin approached
General Clanton and asked:. "General, where is Marse Bat?" The
General pointed down the road and said: "There near the enemy's line
dead." Griffin
at once started down the road. He was called back, but did not heed. He sped on
in the face of that heavy fire, took up the wounded young officer, and carried
him in his arms from the field. He came up the road for a few yards, then
stepped into the woods and came out again on the road just where the General
was standing. "Is he dead, Griffin?" asked
General Clanton. "I don't know, sir," he replied. "Mammy was his
nurse, and I am the older. I promised mammy to take care of him and to bring
him back to her, and I am going to carry him home."
Simple words, but how
much do they convey! An untutored negro slave carrying out his mother's commands
in behalf of her nurseling at the risk of his own life! I have often thought
of that day, and the scene is vivid. I can see the deathly pale face of the
unconscious and sorely wounded young officer as he was being carried to safety
in the arms of his faithful slave. If some of our Northern neighbors could have
witnessed this scene, they might form some conception of the devotion existing
in the old days South between master and servant.
A TRIBUTE TO THE MAN
IN BLACK - P.154 Confederate Veteran May 1896.
……This
revives the memory of a faithful man in black who followed me through from
First Manassas, Leesburg, where he
assisted in capturing the guns we took from Baker, to the Peninsular, the
Seven Days before Ricnmond, Fredericksburg, the bombardment of the city
December 11, and the battle, two days after, at Marye's Heights, to
Chancellorsville, the storming of Harper's Ferry, and the terrible struggle at
Sharpsburg (Antietam now), and last, Gettysburg. Here he lost his life by his
fidelity to me his 'young marster" and companion. We were reared together
on 'de ole plantation" in "Massippi."
I
was wounded in the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg
on the second day. The fourth day found us retreating in a cold, drizzling
rain. George had found an ambulance, in which I, Sergeant Major of the
Seventeenth Mississippi, and Col. Holder of that regiment, still on this side
of the river, and an officer of the Twenty first Mississippi, whose name
escapes me, embarked for the happy land
of Dixie. All day long we
moved slower than any funeral train over the pike, only getting eight miles to
Cashtown. When night camel had to dismount from loss of blood and became a
prisoner in a strange land. On the next day about sundown faithful
George, who still clung lo me, told me that the Yankees were coming down the
road from Gettysburg and were separating the "black folks from dar
marsters," that he didn't want to be separated from me and for me to go on
to prison and he'd slip over the mountains and join the regiment in retreat, and
we'd meet again "ober de ribber," meaning the Potomac. We had
crossed at Williamsport.
I insisted on George
accepting his freedom and joining a settlement of free negroes in the vicinity
of Gettysburg,
which we had passed through in going up to the battle. But he would have none of it, he wanted to stay with me always. I
had him hide my sword, break it off at the hilt and stick it in a crack of the
barn (that yet stands in the village) to the left of the road going away from Gettysburg, where I, with
about thirty other wounded, lay. I can yet see that faithful black face and the
glint of the blade as the dying rays of that day's sun flashed upon them. A
canteen of water and some hard tack was the last token of his kindly care for
me.
In
the spring of 1865, I saw a messmate from whom I was separated on that
battlefield, and he told me the fate of poor, faithful George. He had gotten
through the lines safely and was marching in the rear of our retreating
command, when met by a Northern lady, who had a son in our command, whom
George, by chance, happened to know. He was telling her of her son, who was
safe as a prisoner, when some men in blue came up. George ran and they shot and
killed him. He was dressed in gray and they took him for a combatant. The lady had
him buried and then joined her son in prison. She told my messmate of this and
he told to the boys in camp the fate of the
truest and best friend I ever had. George's prediction will come true. I
feel we will meet again "over the river."
BILL KING, A BLACK
CONFEDERATE - P.294 Confederate Veteran June 1910
Bill
King is dead. Members of the 20th Tennessee
(Battle's)
Regiment will remember him. No more faithful negro ever served a cause than did
Bill King serve the boys of the old 20th. He went into the war as the body
servant of the sons of Mr. Jack King, of Nolensville,
Tenn., but he became the faithful
servant of every member of this regiment. He
went with the brave boys into the heat of battle, he nursed and cared for them
in sickness, and assisted in burying the dead on the battlefields. He was as
true to the cause of the South as any member of that gallant band under the
intrepid leadership of Col. Joel A. Battle. In Shiloh's
bloody affray Colonel Battle was captured, and the leadership fell to young Col.
Thomas Benton Smith.
When one of his young
masters was killed in battle, Bill was one of the escort which tenderly bore
the body back to his mother and father.
Since the war Bill
King had been classed as an unreconstructed Rebel. He was a true and loyal
Confederate until his death. He affiliated with old soldiers, attending every
gathering within his reach. He was a member of Troop A, Confederate Veterans,
Nashville.
He lived on his old master's farm, near Nolensville, but he died in Nashville at Vanderbilt Medical College,
where he underwent a serious surgical operation.
Mr.
William Waller, an undertaker, took the body back to Nolensville for burial.
The body was clad in the Confederate uniform which he had during the past few
years worn on all reunion occasions, according to his request. The funeral
service was conducted in Mount
Olivet Methodist
Church (white) by the
pastor, Rev. H. W. Carter.
Bill
King was seventy three years old, and leaves a wife and ten or eleven children.
He was a Baptist, but as there is no church of this denomination near his home,
his friends decided to have the funeral in the Methodist church. He was buried
in the Nolensville
Cemetery,
11 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The Black Confederate
Civilian:
Once
again, contemporary historical wisdom has it that black southern civilians
either waited patiently for their union army rescuers to arrive, or
participated in the sabotage of the southern war effort. Any attempt to dispute
this obligatory mantra will be met with contempt and scorn from modern day
academicians, the Civil Rights industry, the media, and the Hollyweirdos. Early
in the movie “Gods and Generals”, the Confederate army marches off to war
amidst the cheers of southern civilians - black and white civilians. Quite
noticeable was a large black man in a slouch hat who cheers passionately for
the rebs while waving that hat frantically! The liberal movie critics saw this
and of course howled in pain! Here’s a few excerpts from the Slave Narratives
to make’em howl some more. Let’s roll the historical videotape!!
J.W. Washington, Mississippi,
(The Slave Narratives)
There
is still living today an old Negro, now ninety-six years old, J. W. Washington, who nursed the Confederate soldiers
wounded in our County in the War Between the States. This old Negro did
reside at 129 Church Street,
Jackson, Mississippi,
but is now in Washington, D.C. with his daughter. He was a former
slave of the Perkins family in this County and was freed by his master. As a
freedman he served the Hull
family here, the father of Emmett Hull, prominent Architect of Jackson. Not
only did J. W. Washington
nurse the wounded Confederate soldiers, but he was one of the most devoted and
valued nurses of yellow fever in this County. He was especially relied upon by
the Howard Association during the frightful epidemic of 1878
Martin Marvel, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
Martin
Marvel --- Of revered memory among Greenville's
old colored citizens was Martin Marvel. He was a slave belonging to Mr. Andrew
Carson. Mr. Carson was sheriff of Washington
county when the War Between The States took place. When Mr. Carson joined the
army, he entrusted to his slave Martin Marvel, all the county records. When a Union detachment invaded and burned old Greenville (then five
miles down the river) "Uncle Martin" escaped from Greenville with all the county records, in a
covered wagon, and hid them in a canebrake. Martin Marvel left no
children, but there is a niece of his living in Greenville, and she will take some part in
the program when the monument is unveiled. A portrait of Martin Marvel, negro
Civil war hero of Washington County, will be unveiled Sunday, June 19, 1938 at
2:30 P. M., in the Martin Marvel Library for negroes, on North Broadway. The
portrait is an enlargement of the head and shoulders of a full length picture
post card size which was found in a scrap book that belonged to Professor E. E.
Bass, deceased, former Superintendent of the City schools. Mr. A. B. Sauer, of
Sauer Studio made the enlargement gratis and also contributed the frame
Spencer Taylor, Alabama, (The Slave Narratives)
Asked
about his early life, he said: "My marster was as rich as a man ever got
to be in that age of the world, and he was so good to his slaves the Lord
oughter taken him to rest, even if he hadn't prayed none. I started to work
when I was just a yearlin' and when the war broke out they sent me to Mobile to work on the
boats. Later, when the yankees came jes' lak bees out
of a gum, they tried to get me to leave my white folks, but I stayed right
there."
Fanny Randolph, Georgia, (The Slave Narratives)
"Bye an' bye de war come on, an' all de men folks had ter go
an' fight de Yankees, so us wimmen folks an' chillun had er hard time den caze
us all had ter look atter de stock an' wuk in de fiel's. Den us 'ud hear all
'bout how de Yankees was goin' eroun' an' skeerin' de wimmen folks mos' ter
death goin' in dey houses an' making de folks cook 'em stuff ter eat, den
tearin' up an' messin' up dey houses an' den marchin' on off."……"Den when ole
Mistis 'ud hear de Yankees was comin' she'd call us niggers en us 'ud take all
de china, silver, and de joolry whut b' longed ter ole Miss an' her family an'
dig deep holes out b'hind de smoke-house er under de big house, en bury h'it all
'tell de Yankees 'ud git by."
Ester King Casey, Alabama , (The Slave Narratives)
…..
"Then Captain King left with the other soldiers. Papa stayed and took care
of the 'white lady' and the house. After awhile my
brother ran away and joined the troops to fight for Captain King. He came home
after the war, but Captain King did not.
Thomas McAlpin, Alabama, (The Slave Narratives)
"But Boss, dere ain't never been nobody afightin' lak our
'Federates done, but dey ain't never had a chance. Dere was jes' too many of
dem blue coats for us to lick. I seen our 'Federates go off laughin' an' gay; full of
life an' health. Dey was big an' strong, asingin' Dixie
an' dey jus knowed dey was agoin" to win. An' boss, I seen 'em come back
skin an' bone, dere eyes all sad an' hollow, an' dere clothes all ragged, Boss,
dey was all lookin' sick. De sperrit dey lef' wid jus' been done whupped outten
dem, but it tuk dem Yankees a long time to do it. Our 'Federates was de bes'
fightin' men dat over were. Dere warn't nobody lak our 'Federates.
Jessie Rice, South Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
Den
de Confederate soldiers started coming across Broad River.
Befo' dey got home, word had done got round dat our
folks had surrendered; but dem Yankees never fit (fought) us out -- dey starved
us out. If things had been equal us would
a-been fighting dem till dis day, dat us sho would. I can still see dem
soldiers or ours coming across Broad River,
all dirty, filthy and lousy. Dey was most starved, and so poor and lanky. And
deir hosses was in de same fix. Men and hosses had know'd plenty till dat Sherman come along, but
most of dem never know'd plenty no more. De men got over it better dan de
hosses. Women folks cared for de men. Dey brewed tea from sage leaves,
sassafras root and other herb teas. Nobody never had no money to fetch no
medicine from de towns wid, so dey made liniments and salves from de things dat
grow'd around about in de woods and gardens. "I told you 'bout how small I
was, out my brother. Jim Rice, went to Charleston
and helped to make dem breastworks down dar. I has never see'd dem, but dem dat
has says dat dey is still standing in good conditions. Cose de Yankees tore up
all dat dey could when dey got dar.
Lorenza Ezell, Texas, (The Slave Narratives)
"All
four my young massas go to de war, all but Elias. He too old. Smith, he kilt at Manassas Junction. Nathan, he git he finger
shot at de first round at Fort
Sumter. But when Billy
was wounded at Howard Gap in North Carolina and dey brung him home with he jaw
split open, I so mad I could have kilt all de Yankees. I say I be happy iffen I
could kill me jes' one Yankee. I hated dem 'cause dey hurt my white people.
Billy was disfigure awful when he jaw split and he teeth all shine through he
cheek.
12 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
A Black Confederate
Civilian’s Story:
One
of the most entertaining of the southern civilian slave narratives comes from
“Praise de Lawd” Rilla Patterson. It’s a bit on the lengthy side and like many
of the Slave Narratives, the words in the passages are spelled exactly as Ms.
Patterson pronounced them, making reading difficult at best. But you’ve got to
read this to believe it! You might just find yourself yelling - “YOU GO GIRL!”
Here is her complete “narrative”.
“Praise
de Lawd” Rilla Patterson
Jones, North Carolina,
(The Slave Narratives)
"Yes'm,
I 'members 'bout de war, I 'members kaze I was one of dese here praise niggers.
I was a praise nigger kaze I rode a mule named Bob slap through de Yankee lines
wid a paper for Marse Frank an' de blue coats never got me. Dat paper tole
Marse Frank de Yankees was gwine to charge an' for him to get ready to meet
dem. Dat's why I'se named Praise De Lawd Rilla Patterson Jones.
I
was 'bout four hands high in de war. Mis' Cynthy an' Marse Frank Patterson was
my white folks. When Marse Frank went off to fight dey wasn' nobody left at
home 'cept Mis' Cynthy an' her two little chillun, little Mis' Rose an' young
Marse Frank. He was a baby. Dey was Ole Marse Patterson, Marse Frank's pappy,
but he was so ole he wasn' much good, but he kept Mis' Cynthy from bein' too
skeered.
Mis'
Cynthy was little an' soft. She had long black hair dat when she let it down it
touched de floor at her feets; it was so long dat Mammy had to brush an' plait
it for her, den she wound it 'round Mis' Cynthy's head like a crown, an' when
she pin a pink rose behin' her ear she looked like a fancy picture. Mammy loved
Mis' Cynthy an' dem chillun. She loved dem so good she wouldn' allow nobody to
wait on dem 'cept herse'f. My mammy was Magnolia Patterson an' my pappy was
Ruba Patterson. After Marse Frank went to de war pappy worked 'round de house
too. He was sort of a body guard wid de other airedales on de place. My pappy say he
could smell a Yankee a mile away, an' he could near 'bout do it.
One
day a passel of Yankees come to de house. Dey was six of dem. Dey rode big
hosses wid fancy bridles an' dey had finer gold braid an' buttons on dey
clothes den de Yankees dat done come befo'. Pappy say dey was head mens in de
army. Dese sojers rode up to de house an' flung de reins to de niggers an' tole
dem to take de hosses to de stable an' feed dem, den de mens come to de house.
'Twas 'bout sundown an' sort of cold an' dey was fires burnin' in de big
fireplaces an' candles burnin' on de mantel shelf. De talles' Yankee come in
first. He stop in de hall an' look 'round, den he rub his hands like he mighty
pleased. 'Bout dat time he seed Mis' Cynthy standin' in de dinin' room door. He
put his hand to his cap an' make a bow. 'Sorry to 'sturb you, Madam,' he say,
'but it's cold an' frosty outside so we's come in to supper an' to spend de
night.'
Mis'
Cynthy showed him respect. She knew 'twouldn' do no good to do nothin' else.
She tole him to take his mens an' go in de parlor room by de fire while she had
de niggers to fix supper. Time de chickens was picked an' cooked, de coffee
made an' de biscuits browned, 'twas near 'bout nine o'clock. Den Mis' Cynthy tole Channy an' Mozella to
put de things on de table an' tole Pappy to wait on de mens, to show dem dey
rooms an' such as dat, den she took Mammy an' went up stairs to her room an'
shut de door.
Many
said 'twas 'bout daylight when Pappy come tappin' on Mis' Cynthy's door. She
an' Mis' Cynthy done been settin' up all night. Dey was skeered to go to bed
wid dem Yankees in de house. When Pappy come in his eyes was near 'bout bustin'
out of his head. He come tip-toein' 'cross de room an' his voice won't no
louder den a breath of wind. He tole Mis' Cynthy dat after dem Yankees done eat
dey supper an' he done serve dem a bottle of dram, dat dey forgot all 'bout him
an' 'gun to tawk 'mong deyse'fs. Pappy say dem sojers was spies dat been
scoutin' 'round lookin' for de Federate lines; dat dey done found de 13th
infantry camped 'bout ten miles down de Fish Dam road, an' dat dese mens what
done eat at her table was on de way back to Hillsboro to get more sojers to
'tack de Federates.
Mis'
Cynthy lissen to Pappy an' her face got white as picked cotton. 'Dat's Marse
Frank's infantry dey gwine 'tack,' Ruba, she whisper. 'What we gwine do; how's
we gwine warn him?' Pappy shook his head. Mis' Cynthy got up an' 'gun to walk
de floor. 'Twon' do to send you, Ruba,' she say, 'kaze dey's Yankees in de
woods to de east an' de west, an' if dey catch you dey'll search you from head
to foot, den dey'll shoot you for totin' a warnin'. I can't send none of de
niggers an' dey ain't nobody else to send.' She 'gun to cry, den Mammy got up
an' went over to de cradle an' looked at little Marse Frank suckin' his thumb,
den she went back to Mis' Cynthy. 'You can send Rilla, Mistis,' she say jus'
like dat.
'Rilla!'
Mis' Cynthy stop in her walk an' look at mammy like she done gone crazy.
'Magnolia,' she say, 'is you done lost your mind? How can Rilla take a note to
Marse Frank? He am ten miles away from here, 'sides, I done tole you de woods
am full of Yankees.' She 'gun to cry an' laugh together, so Mammy poured out a
strong dram an' made her drink it, den she tole her what was on her mind.
'Rilla's gwine take dat note to Marse Frank,' she say, 'she gwine get on ole
Bob mule an' go dat ten miles. She can go dare befo' dem Yankee spies does kaze
dey got to go to Hillsboro
to get more sojers an' 'nition, den come back an' catch Marse Frank's mens.
Time dey does dat Rilla can go to de camp an' be on de way back home, but she
got to start right now.'
But
Mis' Cynthy shook her head. 'I can't do dat, Magnolia. Dey's Yankee pickets in
de woods an' I'se skeered for Rilla.'
'Dem
Yankees ain't gwine hurt no nigger chile,' Mammy look at Mis' Cynthy. 'Dey mout
search her but dey won't find nothin'. I'se gwine see to dat.'But Mis' Cynthy
wouldn' agree. 'Twon't ''til Mammy pointed to de cradle an' said 'You want dat
chile to have a pappy, don't you, Honey? I'se tellin' you now if sumpin' ain't
done he liable to never know he had a pappy a tall.' Den Mis' Cynthy give in.
It
was jus' daylight when Mammy woke me up. She took me down to Mis' Cynthy an'
tole me what I had to do; dat I had to ride Bob mule to Marse Frank's camp an'
give him a note but nobody mustn' know nothin' 'bout it. If anybody stopped me
an' ax me whare I was from an' whare I was gwine, I must say I was from Marse
Gabe Johnson' plantation an' dat I was gwine to Marse Luther Hayes wid some
resberry wine for his wife who was sick wid dysentary. When Mammy finish
tellin' me Mis' Cynthy 'gun to wring her hands an' say, 'She can't do it,
Magnolia, I tell you she can't do it; she too little, she'll get skeered an'
tell everything she knows.'
'What,
Rilla tell?' Mammy was gettin' mad. 'Dat chile ain't gwine tell nothin' I tells
her not to tell, she knows better.' An' I sho did know better. Dem Yankees mout
of drug my tongue out an' I wouldn' tole dem nothin.
Mammy
mixed up some sulpher an' tar an' spread it 'tween my fingers an' toes, den she
got a dirty, greasy rag smellin' wid sulpher, tar, an' tu'pentine an' wrapped
it 'round my leg, an' hid in dat rag was de note Mis' Cynthy done wrote Marse
Frank tellin' him 'bout de spies. Den Mammy look at me hard an' say, 'Member,
Rilla, if anybody ax you 'bout dat leg, you's got de itch, hear, de high black
ball itch.' I nodded kaze I knew if I didn' say de itch dat I would be itchin'
all over when I got back home an' Mammy got done wid me. Dey set me on Bob
mule. Dey wasn' no saddle but dey was a blanket. Pappy give me de rains an'
Mis' Cunthy give me a covered basket wid two bottles of rasberry wine wrapped
up in a linen napkin, an' I rode off down de drive an' through de big gates.
It
was cold kaze de sun hadn' come up, an' dat ole Bob mule wouldn' go out of a
walk. Dat de stubbornes' mule I ever seed, all my kickin' didn' do no good, so
I jus' set an' let him take his time. 'Twuzn' way yonder near 'bout dinner time
an' I done eat de 'lasses biscuit Mammy give me, dat I seed any Yankees. I
looked way down de road an' seed two of dem standin' at de edge of de woods. I
was skeered kaze I couldn' make ole Bob mule run, but I jus' kept mozin' 'long.
When I got close up one of de sojers stepped out in de road an' say, 'Halt, but
I kept right on. Den he say 'Halt' again, but I kept on kaze I didn' know what
he was talkin' 'bout. Den he grabbed Bob's bridle an' pulled him up. 'Who's
you, Nigger, an' whar's you's gwine nohow?' he say.
Ah
tole him I was Rilla from over here at Marse Gabe Johnson's place; dat I was on
my way to Marse Luther Hayes house wid some rasberry wine for Mis' Carry Hayes
kaze she was sick. She got de dysentary I tole him.
'You
mighty little to be ridin' 'round by yo'se'f,' he say. I tole him yes, suh, I
sholly was, but dey wasn' nobody else to send. 'Bout dat time de other sojer
come up an' look at me mean. 'What you got in dat basket, winch?' he say. Den
he snatched de basket an' lift de lid an' grab out de wine. He hold de bottle
up to de light an' sniff at it, den he smack his mouf. 'Dis am wine, George,'
he say to de sojer holdin Bob's bridle, 'Befo' God, 'tis. How 'bout er swig?'
I
'gun to holler. Don't drink dat wine, Mistah Yankee, I yell, dat wine's for a
sick lady, an' she gwine die if she don't get dat ferment. De big sojer holdin' de mule turn loose de bridle an grab me
'round de let. 'Shut your black mouf, Nigger, befo' I breaks your neck.'
He look 'round like he skeered somebody gwine hear me, an' I shut up kaze I was
so skeered I near 'bout fell off Dat Yankee was holdin' my leg right over de
rag Mammy done tied 'round it. I was skeered he was gwine feel de note dat was
folded inside dat rag. He held my leg so tight dat I swinged.
'What's
de matter wid your leg?' he say, holdin' me tighter.I'se got de itch. I tole
him, de high black ball itch. See dat sulpher an' tar 'tween my toes? It's on
my hands too. I held out my hands an' spread out my fingers so he could see an'
smell dat nasty sticky mess.
Dat
Yankee drap my leg like it was a blazin' coal. 'Get out here, you stinkin'
lepper,' he say, den he hit ole Bob mule so hard on his rump dat befo' he
thought he went off down de road in a trot. 'Twasn' 'til I got way down other
side of de hill dat I 'membered dat dems sojers done kept de wine, but I didn' care
kaze 'twuzn' long befo' I seed Marse Frank's camp. When I tole Marse Frank
'bout de note in de tied 'round my leg he had a 'niption fit. He say, 'Rilla,
you mean to tell me you done rode ole Bob mule by dem Yankee pickets an' got
here wid dis letter?' I tole him I sho had.
Marse
Frank wrote a letter to Mis' Cynthy an' tied it up in de rag 'round my leg
again, den he took me in a tent an' give my some hard tack an' beef, an' all de
sojers come 'round laughin' kaze I tole dat Yankee I had de itch. When Marse
Frank sent me home he sent me through de woods by de foot path so I would miss
de road. Jus' give ole Bob de reins he say an' he'll take you de right way.
When
I got back to de big house 'twas near 'bout dark. Mis' Cynthy was walkin' up
an' down de front porch wid her red shawl wrapped 'bout her, an' Mammy was
settin' on de steps. Dey run out an' took me off Ole Bob mule an' toted me in
de house; dey toted me in de parlor room an' set my by de fire in de big red
velvet chair. When she got de letter out of de rag an' read it, Mis' Cunthy
'gun to laugh an' cry both. 'You done save Marse Frank, Rilla, you sholey have.
Dey's no tellin' how many 'Federates you done saved. Kaze now when dem Yankees
charge de 13th infantry's gwine to be enfo'ced wid more regiments.'
Mammy
hold up her hands an' say, 'Praise de Lawd.' After dat I was called Praise De
Lawd Rilla.""
13 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
It’s My “Heritage”!
Say
the word “Heritage” to most Americans who have been raised in parts of the
country other than the South and what you’ll usually get is a blank stare. To
an outsider I suppose, it isn’t easy to understand. It appears though that
Allen Price had a good understanding of its importance. But then, Allen was a
Southerner!
Allen Price, Texas, (The Slave Narratives)
"Dese
things am handed down to me by de Price family and my granddaddy. De Price
family done fight for de Confed'racy all de way down de line of de family, to
my own pappy, who went with he master when dey calls for volunteers to stop de
blockade of Galveston.
"My master
think he gwine 'scape de worst of de war when he come to Texas and dey am livin' peaceable de year
I'm born, raisin' cotton. Dey had a gin what my pappy worked in, and makes dey
own clothes, too, when de Yankees has de Texas ports blockade so de ships can't
git in. When dey blockades Galveston,
our old master done take my pappy for bodyguard and volunteers to help. Fin'ly
Gen. Magruder takes Galveston
from de Yankees with two old cotton steamers what have cotton bales on de decks
for breastworks.
"De
last battle Master Price and my pappy was in, was de battle of Sabine Pass,
and de Yankee general, Banks, done send 'bout five thousand troops on
transports with gunboats, to force a landin'. Capt. Dick Dowling had
forty-seven men to 'fend dat
Pass and my pappy helped
build breastworks when dem Yankees firin'. Capt. Dowling done run dem Yankees
off and takes de steamer Clinton and 'bout three hundred and fifty prisoners.
My pappy told me some de Captain's men didn't have real guns, dey have wood
guns, what dey call cam'flage nowadays.
"My
pappy helped at de hospital after dat battle, and dey has it in a hotel and
makes bandages out of sheets and pillow cases and underwear, and uses de rugs
and carpets for quilts. "I
'member dis song, what dey sing all de time after de war:
"O,
I'm a good old Rebel, and dat's jus' what I am, And for dis land of freedom, I
do not give a damn; I'm glad we fought again 'em, and only wish we'd won, And I
ain't asked no pardon for anything I've done. "I won't be reconstructed,
I'm better dan dey am, And for a carpetbagger. I do not give a damn. So I'm off
to de frontier, soon as I can go - I'll fix me up a weapon and start for Mexico! "I
can't get my musket and fight dem now no more, But I'm not goin' to love dem.
dat am certain sho'- I don't want no pardon for what I was or am, I won't be
reconstructed, and I don't give a damn.
"I has mighty
little to say 'bout myself. I's only a poor Baptist preacher. De her'tage
handed down to me am de proudes' thing I knows. De Prices was brave and no
matter what side, dey done fight for dey 'lief in de right.
14 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
“Blood in the Fight”
As
in the case of the word“Heritage”, I suppose you’ve got to be southern to
understand the meaning of this phrase. Come to think of it, the only folks I’ve
ever heard use it are Southerners!? Nelson Taylor Densen’s very colorful
narrative epitomizes “Blood in the Fight”. His words give a good picture of the
sentiment – as well as some of his interesting views about life in general. Oh,
and by the way, Nelson was a Southerner!
Nelson Taylor Densen,
Texas, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
was fourteen years old w'en Texas seceded, an w'en dey went ter de war my
Master Mr. Felix Grundy went ter fight de Yankees, He was in General Hardemans
Brigade an was in two or three battles den he cums back ter Texas on a
fourlough an w'en dat is out an he goes back I goes with him as his body guard.
De first firing he was in New Mexico,
den he was transferred ter Louisiana
an I was wid him.
"I
was sixteen years old by dat time an I kin remember de way hit all was at de
battle ob Mansfield,
April 9, 1863. We was camped on de Sabine rivers, on de Texas side,
an de Yankees on de other side up a little ways, I kin remember de night befo'
how de camp fires looked, hit was a quiet night an de whipperwills er callin'
in de weeds, we was expectin de attack an ter keep us cheerfull we sing,
"Tenting Ter Night on de Old Camp Groun'," an' den we sing, "Just
befo' de battle, Mother, I am thinking most of you, While upon de fiel' we're
watchin' Wid de enemy in view. Comrades brave are roun' me lying, Filled wid
thoughts of home an' God, For well dey know dat on de morrow, Some will sleep
beneath de sod.
"We
could see across de river de Yankees, an could hear dem, de night so still. In
de hush befo' de battle every man was thinking of his mother, wife and fambly.
W'en de bugle sounded taps, every head was bowed in prayer, I kin best describe
de attack wid de last verse of song I has jes told yer dey sing. "Hark, I hear de
bugles soundin', 'Tis de signal fer de fight, Now, may God protect you, Mother,
As he ever does de right, Hear de "Battle Cry of Freedom." How hit
swells upon de air, Oh, Yes w'ell rally roun' de standard, Or we'll perish
nobly there.
De
Yankees sung de Battle Cry of Freedom, as dey charged on us an we could hear de
band er playin' hit as dey cum, but hit jes made our boys fight de hardest, den
we sing dis song, "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, de boys are marchin'. Cheer up
comrades dey will cum, And beneath de starry flag, We shall breathe de air
again, In de freedom of our own beloved home.
"Dey cum on an' on, an dey fights. Lord how dey fight's! I is
a stayin' close ter my Master. I is jes as
wild as any fer our boys ter win, yer can hear de clash of
de bayonet w'en dey git gray uniforms as dey stood dey groun' an dey went down
befo' dey would retreat, "In
de battle front dey stood, W'en de fiercest charges was made, An' dey swept us off a
hundred men an more, But befo' we reached dey lines, Dey was beaten back
dismayed, An' we heard de cry of victory o'er an O'er.
"De
rebels, our boys in de grey, win's an captures 'bout er thousan' Yankees, after
dis de Yankees was mos' of dem taken ter help General Grand at Richmon' an
General Sherman on his march ter de sea.
"De
Captain of de company we was in at de battle of Pleasant Hill (near Mansfield),
was John Dick Morris, dis company was organized near Marlin, Texas, was called
Company B. General J. G. Walker was de District Division Commander, dey was
made up in dis company from de town of Marlin an de country, among dem Captain
Carter of Cameron was wounded in de battle we was in. "At Yellow Bayou de
commanding officer of de brigade we was in was General Banks. Tom Green was
killed at Blairs Landin' on Red River an General Hardeman took Tom Green's
place.
"Bout
de last of de war de Yankees commenced ter use de nigger's dat had run away ter
dey lines fer soljers. I don't know much 'bout dat, but I does know dat de
slaves dat was left at home ter look after de wimmen an chillun dat mos of dem
stayed an' kept de work on de place in de crops up an helped ter take keer of
de ole men an de wimmen an chillun, dat dey was a whole lot more dat helped ter
dis day dey was dat run away ter de Yankees.
"De most of de slaves was happy on de plantations, an dey
looked on de war like dis, dat de white man was er fightin' fer his principles,
at least de ones dat understood did. I has seen so much in my long life dat I
feels dat God is more an more de Great Ruler, an dat hit all works out fer de
best…..
"I knows dat de old order has changed. Men now must be
rich, it seems ter be powerful, once hit was not so. Once men held themselves
more dearly dan dey held dey possessions. In de days of Ante-Bellum de attitude
was fine an bright an glorious, folks believed in de virtues of truth,
chastity, an' chivalry. Dey seem new ter be old fashioned words, whar is de
chivalry dat dey lived in de days which yer is writin' about? Does dey help ter
protect de wimmen like dey did in de days of old? No, dey worl' of finance will
take away er womans home jes de same as er man's. Whar is de demand fer virtue?
In de ole days de ole time southern gentlemen demands dat his wife be virtues
er he would not marry her, does dey de dis now? No, sad ter say hit looks as if
de loose wimmen are de ones dat is preferred.
"Whar
would dey grandmothers say ter dem smokin? Yes, de ole fashion way is out ob
date, de curtain of smoke swept away, hit seems, de beauty of de past, de sound
of de spinning wheel was lost in de machinery of a later day, jes as de stately
minuet was lost in de jass dances of dese day's.
"I
hopes dat in de great windup dat in de words of de ole song hit will be dat
"His truth will go Marchin' on." "Mine eyes have seen de glory
of de cumin' of de Lord, He is tramplin' out de vintage whar de grapes of wrath
are stored, He Hath loosed de fateful lightnin' of His terrible swift sword,
His truth is marchin' on.
15 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The Story of Ephraim
Robinson
There
is something quite poignant about Ephraim Robinson’s story but for the life of
me I just can’t put down into words why I get a lump in my throat whenever I
read it. Despite being thankful that he was free when the war was over, his
heart was with the South and he had showed no regrets about his service to her.
I guess life’s choices aren’t all that simple?
(note
– the term “Federal” early in the narrative, is an obvious mistake on the part
of the interviewer, most likely resulting from either a typo of sorts, or,
misunderstanding the person being interviewed. Many black southerners
pronounced the word “Confederate” as “Federate”, which might have led the interviewer
to believe that he was saying “Federal” – the pronunciation of the word fooled
me as well when I first began reading the “Narratives”).
Ephraim Robinson, Mississippi, (The Slave
Narratives)
His young
"Marster", Captain Allen Morrison of the Federal Army, had carried a young Negro slave as his
body-servant to Virginia,
and he did not behave so well. So when a friend of the soldier was coming home
on furlough, Captain Morrison sent him back home to his father and asked him to
send him the boy, Ephriam, to be his waiting boy. Ephriam was anxious to go as
he wanted to see things, so his mammy, who was a home-servant, dyed some
dove-gray homespun, and his mistress cut out and made him a suit. He remembers
the pants having a stripe on the legs.
He
remembers changing trains some place in Alabama
and riding on the train for many days with the friend of his captain. He also
recalls that, at the end of the journey, they were met in a covered cart with
two wheels drawn by a red mule and carried into the wilderness to the camp. He was very tired
after his trip, and it was many days before he was able to be of any service to
his "Marster." But, after that, he did all of his errands, kept his
boots shined, and pulled up his boots at night with the aid of a bootjack.
Ephriam
claims to have seen the result of two battles, and he says that he saw soldiers
in blue piled up, killed in enemy position, and so the same was true of the
soldiers in gray. He remembers helping to load carts of arms and legs that army
surgeons had removed at the hospitals in order to save lives. These legs and
arms were later buried by colored helpers. When asked if he wished to see the Union Army win, he said,
no, and that he did not believe they
could win wich such men as his "Marsters" fighting them.
At
the time of the surrender he was in Culpepper,
Virginia.
He said that the Southern soldiers cried
like babies, and that he cried, too. Later,
however, he realized that he and his parents were free, and when he got back
home he was glad. His parents stayed right on, as the family had
always been kind to them, but as he got older he went off to make money for
himself. That was why he came to the city of Vicksburg. He does not know what year he came
here, but he says it was not long after the war.
16 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Dem’ “Uppity”/“White
Trash” Yankees
Once
again, popular historical wisdom holds that all slaves welcomed the Yankees and
that the Yankees, being of course an army of blue-coated warm and fuzzy types,
responded with love and affection. Let’s go to the historical videotape and
toss a few eggs at contemporary historical “wisdom”.
Amanda Mccray, Florida, (The Slave Narratives)
….
She was a grownup during the Civil War when she was
commandered by Union soldiers invading the country and employed as a cook.
Her owner, one Redding Pamell, possessed a hundred or more slaves and was,
according to her statement very kind to them.
Walter Legget, Texas, (The Slave Narratives)
Well now one thing I remember plain is the trashy, bad actin'
yankees.
They come in bunches down by the place and they are the most outlandish,
triflin, smart-actin', slummerin' folks ever you see. I wouldn't vise nobody to
have truck with 'em.
Rose Thomas, Texas,
(The Slave Narratives)
"Our
men all went to the war. Marster went and Ben, a fine colored man, went with
him. They both came back, but marster was sick and didn't live very long and
Uncle Ben seemed all at once like an old man……
…..
"We never heard of no slaves being mistreated. We lived a lot better then
than we have since, even if the government does give me a pension."……
…"Yes, the Yankee soldiers came around. At first they were
just smart alecks in their fine blue suits with brass buttons, but later they
stole things, horses and silver and the like.
William Watkins, Texas, (The Slave Narratives)
"Den
de war come and de Yankees come down thick as leaves. Dey burns de big house
and de slave houses and ev'ryting. Dey turns us loose. We
ain't got no home nor nuthin' to eat, 'cause dey tells us we's free.
Mandy Leslie, Alabama,
(The Slave Narratives)
Us
live dar 'til I was grown woman, and Mr. Biles sho' was a good man to live wid
and he treat us right every year……
.."Yassum,
I 'members de war, but I don't lak no wars. Dey give folks trouble and dey's
full of evil doings. When de Yankees come through
here, dey took my mammy off in a wagon, and lef' me right side de road, and
when she try to git out de wagon to fetch me, dey hit her on de head and she
fell back in de wagon and didn't holler no more. Dey jes' drive off up
de big road wid Mammy lying down in de wagon - she done been dead, 'cause I
ain't never seed her no mo'.
Hannah Irwin, Alabama, (The Slave Narratives)
"Well,
what about the Yankees?" he was asked. "Did you ever see any Yankees;
and what did you think of the ones that came through your place? Were you glad
that they set you free?"
"I suppose dem Yankees was all right in dere place," she
continued, "but dey neber belong in de South. Why, Miss, one of 'em axe me what
am dem white flowers in de fiel'? You'd think dat a gentnen wid all dem
decorations on hisself woulda knowed a fiel' of cotton. An' as for dey a-settin' me free! Miss, us niggers on de Bennett place
was free as soon as we was bawn. I always been free."
Everett Ingram,
Alabama, (The Slave Narratives)
"De Yankees comed
through de yard in May an' tol' us: 'You's free.' De
Yankees wasn't so good. Dey hung my mammy up in de smokehouse by her thumbs;
tips of her toes jest touchin' de floor, 'ca'se she wouldn't 'gree to give up
her older chilluns. She never did, neither.
Hattie Clayton, Alabama, (The Slave Narratives)
Yankee raiders whipped a slave to get him to tell where the
valuables were
Betty Curlett, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
Grandma
Becky said when the Yankees came to Mrs. Moores house and to Judge Rieds place
they demanded money but they told them they didn't have none. They stole and
wasted all the food clothes; beds. Just tore up what they didn't carry with
then and burned it in a pile. They tock two legs of
the chickens and tore them apart and threw them down on the ground, leaving
piles of them to waste
Sponcer Eornett, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
Old
mistress cried more on one time. The Yankees starved
out more black faces than white at their stealing. After that war it was
hard for the slaves to have a shelter and enough eatin' that winter. They died
in piles bout after that August I tole you bout. Joe Innes was our overseer
when the house burned.
Rachel Fairley, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"When the Yanks came through, they took everything. Made the
niggers all leave. My mother said they just came in droves, riding horses,
killing everything, even the babies
17 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Join the Union Army and
See the World! – err, well, sort of?!
Once
again, contemporary historical wisdom has it that all of the slaves ran away to
join the union army or to follow it. As one neo-abolitionist historian recently
put it, “The Slaves set themselves free!!” Sounds like the kind of
pie-in-the-sky melodrama you’d expect from a limosine liberal. In reading the
Slave Narratives, I noted that over half of all accounts of union military
service suggested ambivalence or involuntary service. It would appear that the
popular myth of the USCT being an army of enthusiastic “freedom fighters” is
only half-true, if that. Did the slaves overwhelmingly favor one side over the
other? That’s hard to say. There were nearly 4 million slaves and no one took a
poll. I suppose the safest thing to say is that they did not all behave, nor
should they have been expected to behave, in exactly the same way. Let’s look
at a few examples:
Henry Henderson, Oklahoma – (Captured
Body Servant), (The Slave Narratives)
I use to be a fighting man and a strong Southern soldier, until the
Yank's captured me and made me fight with them. I don't know what the year was, but
there was some Southern Indians took in the same battle and they fought with
the North too. There was whole regiments deserted from
the South, but I was captured; never figured on running away from my own people.
Some of the Cherokee Indians who fought with the North were Bob Crittenden,
Zeke Proctor and Luke Six Killer. Luke's father was with the South and got
killed; some of the folks said young Luke killed his own father in the war.
William H. Harrison, Arkansas – (Captured
Body Servant), (The Slave Narratives)
The
son was Gummal L. Harrison. I went with him to war. I was his servant in the
battle-field till we fought at Gettysburg
and Manassas Gap. Then I was captured at Bulls Gap and brought to Knoxville, Tennessee
and made a soldier. I was in the War three and one half years…
…"I
was with my young master till my capture. That was my part in freedom. I was forced to fight by the Yankees then in the Union army.
Liney Chambers, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
What
the Yankees didn't take they wasted and set fire to it. They set fire to the
rail fences so the stock would get out all they didn't kill and take off. Both
sides was mean. But it seemed like cause they was fightin' down here on the
Souths ground it was the wurst here. Now that's just the way I sees it. They done one more
thing too. They put any colored man in the front where he would get killed
first and they stayed sorter behind in the back lines……
….. When
they come along they try to get the colored men to go with them and that's the
way they got treated.
George Greene, Arkansas , (The Slave Narratives)
My
father's name was Nathan Greene. I reckon he went by that name, I can't swear
to it. I wasn't with him when he died. I was up in Mississippi on the Mississippi
River and didn't get the news in time to get there till after he
was dead. He was an old soldier. When the Yankees got
down in Mississippi,
they grabbed up every nigger that was able to fight.
Rebecca Brown Hill, Arkansas , (The Slave Narratives)
I
had two brothers sent to Louisiana
as refugees. The place they was sent to was taken by
the Yankees and they was taken and the Yankees made soldiers out of them.
Elizabeth Hines, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
My
father never told me what his master was to him, whether he was good or mean.
He got free early because he was in the army. He didn't run away. The soldiers came and got him and carried him off and
trained him.
Charlie Rigger, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
recollect the soldiers come by in July 1863 or 1864 and back in Decamber. I
heard talk so long 'fore they got there I knowed who they was. They took my oldest brother. He didn't want to go. We
never heard from him. He never come back.
Ous Williams,- Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
was born in Chatham County,
Georgia--Savannah is de county
seat. My marster's name was Jim Williams. Never seen
my daddy cause de Yankees carried him away durin' de War, took him away to de
North. Old marster was good to his slaves, I was told, but don't
ricollect anything about em. Of course I was too young
Soldier Williams, - Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
was sway to Louisville
to j'ine the Yankees one day. I was seared to death all the time. They put us
in front to shield themselves. They said they was fighting for us--for our
freedom. Piles of them was killed. I got a flesh wound. I'm scarred up some. We
got plenty to eat. I was in two or three hot battles. I
wanted to quit but they would catch them and shoot them if they left.
Annie Little, Texas, (The Slave Narratives)
"Dem
de good old days, but dey didn't last, for de war am over to sot de slaves free
and old massa
ask if we'll stay or go. My folks jes' stays till I's a growed gal and gits
married and has a home of my own. Den my old man tell
me how de Yankees stoled him from de fields. Dey some cavalry sojers and
dey make him take care of de hosses. He's 'bout twict as old as me, and he say
he was in de Bull Bun Battle.
He's capture in one battle and run 'way and 'scape by de help of a Southern
regiment and fin'ly come back to Mississip'.
Matilda Miller, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
Mamma said the Yankees told the Negroes when they got em freed
they'd give em a mule and a farm or maybe a part of the plantation they'd been
working on for their white folks. She thought they just told em that to make
them dissatisfied and to get more of them 'to join up with em' and they were dressed
in pretty blue clothes and had nice horses and that made lots of the Negro men
go with them. None of em ever got anything but what their white folks give em,
and just lots and lots of em never come back after the war cause the Yankees
put them in front where the shooting was and they was killed
Maggie Snow And
Charlie Snow, Arkansas,
(The Slave Narratives)
"Papa said the Yankees made all the slaves fight they could
run across.
Some kept hid in the woods. Seem like from way he told bout it they wanted
freedom but they didn't want to go to war.
William Sherman, Florida, (The Slave Narratives)
Many
of the slaves were joining the Union army. Those
slaves who joined were trained about two days and then sent to the front; due
to lack of training they were soon killed
Martha Organ, North Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
'members 'specially what mammy said 'bout when de Mankees come. She said dat it
was on a Thursday an' dat de ole master was sick in de bed an' had sent some
slaves ter de mill wid grain. When dese men started back frum de mill de
Yankees overtook 'em an' dey killed de oxes in de harness, cut off de quarters
an' rid ten de house wid dat beef hangin' all over de horses. Dey throwed what
dey ain't wanted away, but of course dey took de meal an' de grain.
"De
ole master had hyard dat dem Yankees was comin' an' he had buried de silverware
in a san' bar, but Lawd dem Yankees foun' hit jist lak it were on top o' de
groun'. Dey stold eber' thing dat dey git dere han' s on, 'specially de meat
frum de smoke house. Dey went down inter de cellar an' dey drunk up master's
brandy an' dey got so drunk dat dey ain't got no sense atall. When dey left dey carried my bruther off wid 'em, an' nobody
ever hyard frum him ag'in.
18 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Da’ Year ob Jubilo? –
err, not exactly!?
Continuing
on - here’s a look at the yanks through the eyes of some of the slaves who were
civilians and who were “fortunate” enough not to be conscripted into the union
army - though some were indeed “carried away”. Makes you wonder how many of
those slaves following Sherman’s
army were there of their own accord? “The slaves set themselves free”?
Sarah Virgil, Georgia, (The Slave Narratives)
Speaking
of the Yankees, who came to Hawkinsville after the close of the war, the old
woman "allowed": "I surely did hate
them things."
Amanda Styles, Georgia, (The Slave Narratives)
The
only event during slavery that impresssd itself on Mrs. Styles was the fact
that when the Yanks came to their farm they carried
off her mother and she was never heard of again.
Charlie Tye Smith, Georgia, (The Slave Narratives)
Charlie
Tye recalls vividly when the Yankees passed through and graphically related the
following incident. "The Yankees passed through and caught "ole
Marse" Jim and made him pull off his boots and run bare-footed through a
cane brake with half a bushel of potatoes tied around his neck; then they made
him put his boots back on and carried him down to the mill and tied him to the
water post. They were getting ready to break his neck
when one of Master's slaves, "ole Peter Smith", asked them if they
intended to kill Marse Jim, and when they said "Yes", Peter choked up
and said, "Well, please, suh, let me die wid ole Marse!" Well,
dem Yankees let ole Marse loose and left! Yes, Missy, dat's de truf 'case I've
heered my daddy tell it many's the time!"
Lucindy Allison, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"When
the 'Old War' come on and the Yankees come they took everything and the black
men folks too. They come by right often. They would drive up at mealtime and
come in and rake up every blessed thing was cooked. Have to go work scrape
about and find something else to eat. What they keer 'bout you being white or
black? Thing they was after was filling theirselves up. They done white folks
worse than that. They burned their cribs and fences up and their houses too
about if they got mad. Things didn't suit then. If
they wanted a colored man to go in camp with them and he didn't go, they would
shoot you down like a dog. Ma told about some folks she knowd got shot in the
yard of his own quarters
Josephine Ann Barnett,
Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"The slaves hated the Yanksee. They treated them mean. They was having a
big time. They didn't like the slaves. They steal from the slaves too. Some
poor folks didn't have slaves.
Belle Buntin, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
……"Master Alex was a legislator. He had to leave when the
Yankees come through. They killed all the legislators. I loved him. He run a
store and we three children went to the store to see him nearly every day. He
took us all three on his knees at the same time. I loved him
Betty Curlett, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
Grandma
Becky said when the Yankees came to Mrs. Moores house and to Judge Rieds place
they demanded money but they told them they didn't have none. They stole and wasted all the food clothes; beds. Just
tore up what they didn't carry with then and burned it in a pile. They
tock two legs of the chickens and tore them apart and threw them down on the
ground, leaving piles of them to waste
Sponcer Eornett, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
Old
mistress cried more on one time. The Yankees starved
out more black faces than white at their stealing. After that war it was
hard for the slaves to have a shelter and enough eatin' that winter. They died
in piles bout after that August I tole you bout. Joe Innes was our overseer
when the house burned.
Rachel Fairley, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"When
the Yanks came through, they took everything. Made the
niggers all leave. My mother said they just came in droves, riding horses,
killing everything, even the babies
Robert Farmer, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
The Yankees used to come in blue uniforms and come right on in
without asking anything.
They would take your horse and ask nothing. They would go into the smokehouse
and take out shoulders, home, and side meat, and they would take all the wine
and brandy that was there.
Neely Gray, Arkansas,
(The Slave Narratives)
"I was scared of the Yankees 'cause they always p'inted a gun
at me to see me run.
They'd come in the yard and take anything they wanted, too.
Elmira Hill, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"When
we heard the Yankees was comin' we went out at night and hid the silver spoons
and silver in the toilet and buried the meat. After the war was over and the
Yankees had gone home and the jayhawkers had went in - then we got the silver
and the meat. Yes, honey, we seed a time - we seed a time. I ain't grumblin' -
I tell em I'm havin' a wusser time now than I ever had.
"Yankees used to call me a 'know nothin' cause I wouldn't tell
where things was hid.
Molly Horn, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
could walk when I first seed the Yankees. I run out to see em good. Then I run
back and told Miss Becky. I said, 'What is they?' She told ma to put all us
under the bed to hide us from the soldiers. One big Yankee stepped inside and
says to Miss Becky, 'You own any niggers?' She say, 'No.' Here I come outen
under the bed and ask her fer bread. Then the Yankee
lieutenant cursed her. He made the other four come outen under the bed. They
all commenced to cryin' and I commenced to cry. We never seed nobody lack him
fore. We was scared to deaf of him. He talked so loud and bad. He loaded us in
a wagon. Mama too went wid him straight to Helena. He put us in a camp and kept us. Mama
cooked fer the Yankees six or seven months. She heard em -- the white soldiers
-- whisperin' round bout freedom. She told em, 'You ain't goiner keep me here
no longer.' She took us walkin' back to her old master and ax him for us a
home.
George Key, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"One
thing I can tell you she told me so often. The Yankees come by and called her
out of the cabin at the quarters. She was a brown girl. They was going out on a
scout trip---to hunt and ravage over the country. They
told her to get up her clothes, they would be by for her. She was grandma's and grandpa's owners' nurse girl. She told them
and they sent her on to tell the white folks. They sent her clear off. She
didn't want to leave. She said her master was plumb good to her and them
all. They kept her hid out. The Yankees come slipping back to tole her off.
They couldn't find her nowhere. They didn't ax about her. They was stealing her
for a cook she thought. She couldn't cook to do no good she said. She wasn't
married for a long time after then. She said she was scared nearly to death
till they took her off and hid her.
19 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Still more Year ob’
Jubilo….
Despite
editing out many of the excerpts about “yankee behavior”, it became necessary
to divide this account into two parts due to its length. If you need more proof
that not all the slaves welcomed the union army or were well-treated by that army,
here they are some more examples that you won’t find in the modern day history
texts.
Josie Martin, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
used to run from the Yankees. I've seen them go in droves along the road. They
found old colored couple, went out, took their hog and made them barbecue it.
They drove up a stob, nailed a piece to a tres and stacked their guns. They
rested around till everything was ready.
They
et at one o'clock at night
and after the feast drove on. They wasn't so good to
Negroes. They was good to their own feelings. They et up all that old
couple had to eat in their house and the pig they raised. I reckon their owners
give them more to eat. They lived off alone and the soldiers stopped there and
worked the old man and woman nearly to death.
Alice Baugh, North Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
"All
de slaves hate de Yankees an' when de southern soldiers comed by late in de
night all de niggers got cut of de bed an' holdin' torches high dey march
behin' de soldiers, all of dem singin', We'll Hang Abe Lincoln on de Sour Annie
Tree. Yes mam, dey was sorry dat dey was free, an' dey ain't got no reason tu
be glad, case dey was happier den dan now.
"I'se
hyard mammy tell 'bout how de niggers would sing as dey picked de cotton, but
yo' ain't hyard none uv dat now. Den dey ain't had to worry 'bout nothin; now
dey has ter study so much dat dey ain't happy nuff ter sing no mo'"!.....
….."Does yo' know de cause of de war?" Aunt Alice want to
a supboard and returned holding out a book. "Well hyar's de cause, dis
Uncle Tom's Cabin was de cause of it all; an' its' de biggest lie what ever
been gived ter de public."
Uncle David Blourt, North Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
"De
massa frees Jim
dat night; but he stays on a long time atter de war, an' tell de day he died he
hated de Yankees for killing Nassa Tom. In fact we all
hated de Yankees, 'specally atter we near 'bout starve dat first winte.
I tried ter make a libin' fer me an' Johnnie but it was bad goin'; den I comes
ter Raleigh an' I gits 'long better. Atter I gits settled I brings Johnnie, an'
so we done putty good.
Julia Casey, Tennessee, (The Slave Narratives)
Mah
Missis was good ter us. I'se bin w'll tuk keer ob, plenty ter eat en warm
clothes ter w'ar. Right now I'se got on long underw'ar en mah chemise…….
.…..Mah
mammy died fust y'ar ob freedum. Dey tuk her 'way in a two-hoss waggin, 'bout four o'clock one evenin'. Dere was no
hurses er caskets den. W'en mah mammy d'ed, I still stayed wid Missis Jennie.
She raised me. Dat's why folks say I'se so peculiar. De
Yankee soldiers tuk mah sistah en two br'ers 'way durin' de war. I ez de
mammy ob seven chilluns. All d'ed now but one….
…..In
slavery days you didn't hab ter worry 'bout yo clothes en rations but dese days
you hab ter worry 'bout eve'ything.
Ida Rigley, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"The
Civil War was terrible. One morning before we was all out of bed the Yankees
come. It was about daylight. He and the three boys were there. They didn't burn
any houses and they didn't hesitate but they took everything. They took all
Miss Betty's nice silverware. They took fine quilts and feather beds. That was
in the fall of the year. They drove off a line of our
slaves (a block long) fer as from me to that railroad. Made them go.
They walked fast in front of the cavalrymen. They took
mama and my sisters. She got away from them with her girls and found her way
back to papa at Lynchburg.
(Mammy Dink), Georgia, (The Slave Narratives)
When the Yankee raiders came through in '65, Mammy Dink was badly frightened
by them.
She was also highly infuriated with them for "stealin' de white folks'
things," burning their gins, cotton, and barns, and conducting themselves
generally as bandits and perverts.
Blount Baker, North Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
Dey talk mean ter us an' one of dem says dat we niggers am de cause
of de war. 'Sir,' I sez, 'folks what am a wantin' a war can always find a
cause'. He kicks me in de seat of de pants fer dat, so I hushes……
Johanna Isom, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
"Yas'm, dem good-fer-nuthin white trash rode up to our house
and tuk Miss Sallie's best home-spun blankets and put dem on dey hosses for
saddle blankets; some o' dem wropped dem round dey laigs and den dey tuk her
fine silk dresses and put dem on wid hoops and all, hopped on de hosses and
galloped away singing:", 'Yankee Doodle Dandy, Buttermilk and brandy'
Hammett Dell, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"Then
when they started to leave, one old Yankee set the corner of the house on fire.
We all got busy then, white folks and darkies both
carryin' water ter put it out.
Mattie Fritz, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"Master Jack Tyler hid out. The Yankees come at night and
caught him there and shot him. His wife lived about two more years. She grieved about
him. They took everything and searched the house. My pa was hid under the
house. They rumbled down in the cellar and pretty nigh seen him once.
Lidia Jones, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"Yankees
burned his house and gin house too and set fire to the cotton. Oh Lord, I don't like to talk about it. Them Yankees was
rough…
Frank Larkin, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"And
they'd get up in a tree with a spyglass and find where old boss had his cotton
hid, come down and go straight and burn it and the corn crib and take what meat
they wanted and then burn the smoke house. Yes'm, I remember all that. I tell you them Yankees was mean. Used to shake old mistress
and try to make her tell where the money was hid. If you had a fat cow, just
shoot her down and cook what they wanted.
Rosa Lindsey, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
think the Yankees took Columbus,
Georgia on a
Sunday morning. I know they just come through there
and tore up things and did as they pleased.
Mrs. Mary Jane
(Mattie) Mooreman, Arkansas, (The
Slave Narratives)
Once
the Yankees come by the place. It was at night. They went out to the quarters
and they tried to get 'em to rise up. Told 'em to come on in the big house and
take what they wanted. Told 'em to take anything they wanted to take, take
Master's silver spoons and Miss' silk dress. "If
they don't like it, we'll shot their brains out," they said. Next
morning they told Master. He got scared and moved. At that time we was living
at Cloverport.
Wylie Nealy, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
I
saw 'em fight all the time. Saw the light and heard the roaring of de guns
miles away. It looked like a storm where the army want along. They tramped the
wheat and oats and cotton down and turned the horses in on the corn. The slaves show did hate to see the Yankees waste
everything.
20 - “Forced into
Glory?” From the “Official Records” and other Sources
Look
at any monument or any story for that matter regarding the United States
Colored Troops (USCT) and you cannot help but come away with the impression
that 200,000 black men went willingly into the Union army to fight for their
freedom. Several years ago the History Channel ran a program on “The Battle of
the Crater” which focused on USCT involvement in that battle. One of the
“experts” tapped for the program was a black National Park Service guide who
worked at the Petersburg Virginia battlefield. I suppose that
objectivity on the event would have been a bit much to ask from either him or
the History Channel. He went on and on about how “different” the men of the
USCT were from their opponents – to use his words, they were “freedom
fighters!”
About
the time the series first ran, I had just concluded reading “The Slave
Narratives.” That experience left me with a number of surprises, one of which
was that it appeared that not everyone in the USCT was a willing participant.
Some had joined because as runaways, they simply had no place to go, and the
army at least provided food, money and the necessities of life. Others had been
forcibly conscripted, some under threat of death. Still others showed no
emotion or volunteered no additional information at all when questioned about
their wartime experiences, i.e. simply “I was in the army…” A number of those
interviewed with military experience not only failed to describe what their
duties were, i.e., support personnel or soldier, but even failed to mention
which army they were in. To put it bluntly, what I read in the Narratives
didn’t quite match up with the picture the Park Service guide was painting.
It
has become fashionable among many contemporary historians and their students
these days, to question the motivations of the Confederate soldiers and
civilians. Much is made, for example, of Southern unionists fighting for the
North, of Southern desertions and a lack of will to fight, of a dispirited
civilian population, and of slaves either running off to join the Union army,
or working feverishly to sabotage the Southern war effort to help their Yankee
rescuers. After listening to all these stories, one has to wonder how it was
that the war lasted 4 years instead of 2 weeks, and how it was that 360,000
Yankees came to “lay stiff in Southern dust?!”
No
one ever ask such questions about the USCT though. The discussion as to why
this is could fill an entire book, so I’ll have to take a pass for now.
However, the following references, garnered from sources other than “The Slave
Narratives,” should provide some realistic insight into the matter. “Freedom
Fighters?” Not all of them, definitely not all of them! My money says no more
than half of them at best. At the very least, these sources should provide a
not-often-talked-about and eye-opening look at Yankee recruiting tactics.
****James
Seddon, Confederate Secretary of War, had something to say about Yankee methods
for “recruiting” slaves for their armies……
O.R.--SERIES
IV--VOLUME II [S# 128]
Correspondence,
Orders, Reports, And Returns Of The Confederate Authorities,
July 1, 1862-December 31, 1863
“…………They
have already formed numerous regiments of the slaves they have seduced or
forced from their masters, and the statement has been boastfully made in their
public prints that they have already some 30,000 negro troops in arms. It is
now an ascertained fact that as they overrun any portion of our territory they
draw off, often by compulsion, the most efficient male slaves and place them in
their negro regiments; and when they have established anywhere a temporary
occupation, they practice a regular system of compulsory recruiting from the
slaves within their reach………..”
Respectfully
submitted.
JAMES
A. SEDDON,
Secretary
of War
****Jefferson
Davis also reiterates Seddon’s contention about taking slaves off by force, and
adds a postscript about how Union “hero” Dalgrhen executed his black “guide” in
his 1864 raid on Richmond.
O.R.--SERIES
IV--VOLUME III [S# 129]
CONFEDERATE
STATES OF AMERICA,
WAR DEPARTMENT,
Richmond, Va.,
April 28, 1864.
His
Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,
President Confederate States
of America:
“…….
Various raids of the enemy have been made by cavalry, generally in indefensible
portions of the Confederacy, and for the most part for purposes of mere rapine
and destruction. They have been conducted with a precipitation most wasteful to
their men and animals, and indicative of constant apprehension, but have been
marked by a malignant spirit and practices of infamy and barbarity that would
have disgraced brigands or savages. Their warfare has been almost exclusively
on peaceful citizens, and their avowed object has been the destruction of private
property; the taking off of the slaves, even by force; the waste of stores and
the means of subsistence; the destruction of animals and implements of
husbandry, and the privation of all means of future production and support to
the whole people…….. Dahlgren marked his course to the river, unimpeded by any
hostile force, only by ravage and incendiarism, but failed wholly to effect a
crossing, and sought to cover the timidity that shrank from trying a doubtful
ford by an act of savage vengeance on his negro guide….
****And
if you have some doubt about the veracity of the reports from Seddon and Davis,
Union General Rufus Saxton will certainly back up those reports by describing
the same type of thing happening in his neck of the woods.
O.R.--SERIES III--VOLUME
IV [S# 125]
BEAUFORT, S.C., December 30, 1864.
Hon.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:
……..The
order spread universal confusion and terror. The negroes fled to the woods and
swamps, visiting their cabins only by stealth and in darkness. They were hunted
to their hiding places by armed parties of their own people, and, if found,
compelled to enlist. This conscription order is still in force. Men have been
seized and forced to enlist who had large families of young children dependent
upon them for support and fine crops of cotton and corn nearly ready for
harvest, without an opportunity of making provision for the one or securing the
other…..
I
am sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,
R. SAXTON, Brigadier-General of Volunteers.
****Another
dispatch from the “OR’s” from Union General Foster would appear to indicate
that not only were slaves conscripted, but that slaves of “loyal citizens” were
exempt from conscription. Apparently, it was ok to own slaves as long as you
were loyal to “Father Abraham.”
O.R.--SERIES
III--VOLUME IV [S# 125]
GENERAL
ORDERS No. 6.
HDQRS.
DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO,
Knoxville, Tenn., January 6, 1864.
“All
able-bodied colored men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five within our
lines, except those employed in the several staff departments, officers'
servants, and those servants of loyal citizens who prefer remaining with their
masters, will be sent forthwith to Knoxville, Loudon, or Kingston, Tenn., to be
enrolled, under the direction of Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson, chief of artillery,
with a view to the formation of a regiment of artillery, to be composed of
troops of African descent. The commanding officers of divisions and posts are
charged with the execution of this order.”
By
command of Major-General Foster:
HENRY
CURTIS, JR.,
****Of
course, we can always rely on Uncle Willie (Sherman), to chime in with his two cents
“War Crimes Against
Southern Civilians,” by Walter Brian Cisco, P. 173
“I
won’t trust niggers to fight yet,” wrote William T. Sherman in the spring of
1863, but I don’t object to the Government taking them from the enemy and
making such use of them as experience may suggest.”
****And
from a Confederate Soldier writing in the Southern Historical Society Papers,
we have this observation, obtained by him in conversations with captured black
Union soldiers after the 54th’ Massachusetts’ assault on Battery
Wagner…..
Southern Historical
Society Papers. Volume XII.
Richmond, Va.,
March, 1884. No. 3., Letters from Fort Sumter
in 1862 and 1863.
By Lieut. Iredell
Jones, First Regiment S.C. Regulars. No. 2. Fort Sumter,
July 20, 1863.
….
The negroes were as fine looking set as I ever saw -- large, strong, muscular
fellows. They were splendidly uniformed; but they do not know what they are
fighting for. They say they were forced into it. I learned from prisoners that
they are held in contempt by the white soldiers, and not only so, but that the
white officers who command them are despised also. They are made to do all the
drudgery of the army.
****Bell
Wiley, a Southern historian who wrote in the 1930s and 40s, but who was not a
“Lost Cause” advocate by any stretch of the imagination, had something to say
about the lack of enthusiasm among slaves for joining the Union army.
“Southern Negroes
1861 – 1865,” By Bell
Irvin Wiley, Page 309
“In
the military departments of the South, [the Carolina Coast]
the Gulf, and the West Mississippi, the
commanding generals ultimately resorted to an open conscription of all
able-bodied Negro men within specified age limits. Under authority of these
conscription orders, and in many instances without the authority of such
orders, recruiting squads scoured the country forcing Negroes into the army.
{General David Hunter] Hunter resorted to such practices to fill the ranks of his
abortive regiment of South Carolina
“Volunteers” in 1862. When General Saxton succeeded Hunter he gave “earnest and
repeated assurances” that forced enlistments would not again be used. But when
General Foster assumed command of the Department of the South in 1863, he
ignored Saxton’s assurances and ordered an indiscriminate draft.
****A
conundrum often presented itself to the newly “liberated” slave – join and
leave your wife and kids to fend for themselves, or, have the Yanks stand you
up against the wall and shoot you.
Special thanks to Bernard Thuersam of the “Cape Fear Historical
Institute” http://www.cfhi.net/, who
apparently shares my love of research, and from whose research I have taken the
next two recounts:
“Jacksonville’s
Ordeal by Fire,” Martin & Schafer
Florida Publishing
Company, 1984, P 145
“….On
March 16, after fighting an exhausting series of skirmishes with Yankee troops,
[Winston] Stephens wrote to warn his wife of the black troops in Jacksonville,
and of the grave danger that Yankee raiders might come upriver to Welaka. “Get
the slaves ready to run to the woods on a moment’s notice,” he wrote his wife,
adding that “the Negroes in arms will promise them fair prospects, but they
will suffer the same fate those did in town that we killed, and the Yankees say
they will hang them if they don’t fight.”
“After Slavery, The
Negro in South Carolina
During Reconstruction“
Joel Williamson, UNC
Press, 1965, pp. 17- 20
“…On
March 10, he (Union Abolitionist Colonel James Montgomery) landed in
Jacksonville (Florida) along with Higginson’s command and led a foray
seventy-five miles inland, returning laden with booty and a large number of
potential soldiers---lately slaves. In May and June, raids up the Ashepoo and Combahee rivers in South
Carolina and an attack on the village of Darien,
Georgia supplied more recruits. Meanwhile, Hunter issued an order drafting all
able-bodied Negro men remaining on the plantations. Others were seized in the
night by squads of Negro soldiers. On one plantation on St.
Helena, Betsey’s husband was thus taken, leaving her with ten
children and a “heart most broke.”
Those
who attempted to evade the draft were roughly treated. Josh, who had fled to
the marshes, was tracked to his hiding place and when he again tried to elude
his pursuers was shot down and captured. Negro civilians suffered under the
draft and resented the manner of its enforcement… ”the draft is either taking
or frightening off most of the men,” lamented one of the (Northern missionary)
superintendents at the end of March, 1863. During (the) early history (of Negro
impressments), the new regiments were plagued by desertions which were freely
excused on the ground of ignorance…Private William Span, having been recaptured
on his eighth or ninth defection, was brought before the colonel in his tent. Montgomery asked Span if
he wished to offer an excuse. Span said no. “Then,” declared the colonel, “you
will be shot at half-past nine this morning.”
****What
today’s history books carefully conceal in the USCT story, is that refusal to
submit to conscription in this organization, could mean the loss of one’s
freedom, and indeed, the loss of one’s life. You won’t find these examples (and
there are many more than the few listed here), in any National Park Service
Presentation. Perhaps if the NAACP and like-minded organizations want to pursue
“reparations,” for past wrongs they should start here.
“War Crimes Against
Southern Civilians,” Walter Brian Cisco, Pages 173 -174
“When
Federals came through the neighborhoods of Guntown and Saltillo Mississippi,
they committed the usual theft and destruction of property. But they were
particularly zealous to take all the slaves they could, presumably needing
their labor. Rev. James Agnew wrote in his journal that “the Yankees shot two
of Thomas Burris’ negroes down in the yard because they would not go with
them.”
****Apparently,
even “Father Abraham,” whose pursuit of victory in this war knew no boundaries
or limits, was appalled by Union conscription methods:
“Southern Negroes
1861 – 1865,” By Bell
Irvin Wiley, Page 310
“…Complaint
is made to me that you are forcing Negroes into the military service, and even
torturing them, riding them on rails and the like to extort their consent…The
like must not be done…Answer me on this.”
(Lincoln to a recruiting officer in Kentucky, February 1865)
****The
Confederate army wasn’t the only army to use black men as servants and support
personnel. Not all black men in Union armies were soldiers, but other than not
having to worry about being shot at, their lot, insofar as treatment goes,
wasn’t any better. I wonder if the Petersburg battlefield
guide would call these men “freedom fighters?” Moreover, I wonder what these
men would call the Petersburg
battlefield park guide?
“A City Laid Waste,”
William Gilmore Simms, Page 64
The
negroes accompanying them were not numerous, and seemed almost to act as
drudges and body servants. They groomed horses, waited, carried burden and in
almost every instance under our eyes, appeared in a purely servile, and not a
military, capacity. The men of the West treated them generally with scorn or
indifference, sometimes harshly, and not unfrequently with blows. Most of those
escaping from them since their departure – and they have been numerous, express
themselves sufficiently satisfied with their brief taste of Yankee fraternity.
***Did
the slaves really “rally ‘round the flag?” (the Union flag)…. A few of them did
of course, And a few of them rallied ‘round the “Stars and Bars” as well. My
money says that most felt the way Maria Sutton Clemments did….
Clemments, Maria
Sutton, Arkansas
(The Slave Narratives)
I
don't know that there was ever a thought made bout freedom till they was
fightin. Said that was what it was about. That was a white mans war cept they
stuck a few niggers in front ob the Yankee lines. And some ob the man carried
off some man or boy to wait on him. He so used to bein waited on. I ain't takin
sides wid neither one of dem I tell you.
21 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Five Short Excerpts: The
Loyal – and the Not-So Loyal
Its
4 in favor and one against – Send these stories to your liberal friends –
along
with some paper bags for when they start to hyperventilate.
301 Confederate
Veteran September 1896.
OLD CONFEDERATE DAYS.
-In
regard to the loyalty of the slaves, be it said to their eternal credit, no
race was ever more loyal and helpful than they, during those four years of bloody
strife. They took special pride in the feeling that they were the only
protectors of the mistress at home during the absence of her natural protector
and guardian.
-A
certain lady was told that her negroes were holding nightly meetings in her
kitchen, and it was suspected that they were making arrangements to desert the
enemy. One night, a low, earnest sound was heard from that locality. Creeping
softly along to hear what the conspiracy might be, the mistress found the
entire group of negroes on their knees, while one of them was offering up an
earnest petition to the "Fader in Hebben," and praying Him to
"bress missis and de chillun, an pertickler de youngmasters in de
wah."
-A
ten dollar Confederate bill is now kept as a memento of an old nurse who, after
the war, brought it to her mistress to "he'p 'er ter git along."
-An
old negro man who had been his master's body servant, brought a store of
provisions and laying it before his former owner, said: "Marster, it mos'
breaks my heart to see yo' an' ole miss in dis yere shanty, but 'would break
'tirely to know yo' was hongry an' couldn't git nuffin to eat."
His
master, brushingthe tears from his eyes, said: "Tom, I can't take these
things from. you and leave you and your children to starve."The faithful old
man replied: "No danger o' dat, Marster, Tom is used to he] pin' hisself,
but you an' ole miss nebber could do dat." The master, greatly touched by
this show of affectionate gratitude, said: "Tom, we have fallen upon evil
days, but perhaps I may live to repay you for your kindness."Lord,
Marster, replied the old man, "You's done dat time an' agin fur all dese
years, an' I'se sho' it's my time to tek keer o' yo' an' ole miss."
-The
negresses would sell any of their home products for finery. A veil with these
dusky dames would bring any amount in butter, eggs or chickens, the blacker the
skin, the more ardent the desire to "dress like de white folks."When
the Federal Army was leaving Columbia,
a number of the negroes followed, some of them going in their Masters'
carriages. One old dame thus seated, dressed in all the finery she could lay
her hands on including a white lace veil and fanning herself vigorously with a
huge palmetto fan, although it was February, was met by an acquaintance, who
hailed her after this fashion, "Hello. Aunt Sallie, whar yo'
gwine?"Nodding her head with a patronizing air, she answered, "Lor',
honey, I'se gwine back inter de Union."
And she got there. In less than six months afterwards, word came back to
Columbia that
she was "doing time in a prison for pilfering from her Northern
mistress."
22 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
A Letter……
…..which
our neo-abolitionist “friends” probably prefer not to remember.
SLAVES AND MASTERS.
40 Confederate Veteran January 1903.
W.
H. Councill, colored, an Alabama
teacher of an industrial school near Huntsville,
writes to J. M. Falkner, Esq., the chief benefactor of the Confederate Home for
Alabama, in
which he makes a generous offer and some remarkable statements. The letter is
as follows:
Dear
Sir: In writing to you the other day in reference to the philanthropic work at
Mountain Creek for the Confederate Veterans, I neglected to say that we should
be proud to assist you in your laudable enterprise if you should desire us. We
can furnish you at any time ten or fifteen carpenters, painters, blacksmiths,
and others who might be useful in building up your soldiers' home. We should be
glad to work a week or ten days without money and without price. Our shoe
department will be glad to furnish you with at least a dozen pairs of shoes a
year for those grand old men who followed Lee's tattered banners down to Appomattox, leaving their
bloody footprints over the snow covered hills of Virginia.
Although
I came up from the other side of the flood and drank of the dregs of the cup of
slavery, still I honor those gray haired veterans, and I feel that, when they
pass away and when their old slaves have passed away, in a measure the power of
the balance wheel of Southern society will be gone. The propriety of this offer
on my part may be called into question by those who do not measure slavery as I
do. I feel that the slaves got more out of slavery than did their masters, in
that the slaves were helped from the lowest state of barbarism to Christian
citizenship of the greatest government the world ever knew.
23 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The White Limosine
Liberal - A plague now and a plague then.
The white liberals, who have been posing as our friends, have failed us.
Once we see that all these other sources to which we've turned have failed, we
stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self-help program, a do
it yourself philosophy, a do it right now philosophy, an it's already too late
philosophy. This is what you and I need to get with – Malcom X
Why
am I quoting Malcom X? Because it’s the one thing he ever said that I am in
complete philosophical agreement with! The title of this piece speaks for
itself. The Limosine Liberal is nothing new. He or she has always been around
to stir up the pot. What does the white liberal have to do with Black History?
A lot unfortunately – Here’s a few examples from the Reconstruction era. They
say that some things never change – and they’re right. Thing of it is, these
excerpts have an eerily familiar modern-day ring to them….
-“It’s
no harm for a hungry colored man to make a raid on a chicken coop or corn
pile”, thus spoke carpetbagger Crockett in King William Country Virginia , June
1896, in the Walker-Wells campaign at a meeting opened with a prayer by Rev.
Mr. Collins, northern missionary.
Dixie
After the War, Myrta Lockett Avary, page 316,
-A
garrulous negress, was entertaining of the (northern) women with hair raising
accounts of cruelties practiced upon her by whites when, as a slave, she cooked
for them. The schoolmarm asked, “Why didn’t you black people poison all the
whites and get your freedom that way? You’re the most patient people on earth
or you would have done so.” A “mammy”, who overheard administered a stinging
rebuke: “Dat would ha’ been a sin even ef our white folks wuz ez mean ez Sukey
Ann ‘been tellin’. Mine wuz good to me. Sukey Ann jes been tellin’ you dem
tales tuh see how she kin wuk you up.” Dixie After the War, Myrta Lockett
Avary, page 314
-NO
matter how outrageous an act committed by a black, many southerners felt the
root cause lay in the North. “The poor negroes don’t do us any harm except when
they re put up to it.”, rationalized one southern woman. “Even when they
murdered that white man and quartered him, I believe pernicious teachings were
responsible.”, Spencer Bidwell King Jr., “A Wartime Journal of a Georgia Girl”,
P. 344
-…Similarly,
northern missionaries were viewed as the long arm of radical Republicans, whose
object is simply to disease the whites of this section by exalting the blacks.
…
*
“Now children”, began the daily chant of a yankee teacher In Louisville to a class of black students, “you
don’t think white people are any better than you because they have straight
hair and white faces?,
*
“No sir”
*
“no, they are no better, but they are different”, continued the instructor.
“They possess great power. They control this vast country. Now what makes them
different from you?”
*“
MONEY!
*“
Yes, but how did they get money?”
*“
Got it off us. Stole it off we all!”
“Nobody
Knows the Trouble They Seen – Black People Tell the Story of Reconstruction”,
Dorothy
Sterling, P 28
24 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Reconstuction – That Warm
and Fuzzy Story of Social Progress!?
“The South
Carolina government is the worst in the world”, said
the NY Journal of Commerce in commenting on the taxpayers’ gatherings. Not only
were land owners and businessmen bearing the burden of bad government, but the
“humblest blacks and whites suffer from the wolves of Columbia, and should be glad to join forces
with the taxpayer to exterminate them politically”
Wade
Hampton, Confederate Warrior, Conservative Statesman, Walter Brian Cisco, P.
211
I
was born, raised and educated in the north, but when I went to school, one word
always found in association with any narrative about the Reconstruction period
was - CORRUPTION! How odd that the word seems to have DISAPPEARED from the
modern day academic’s vocabulary?!
According
to neo-abolitionist historians, “Reconstruction” is now a warm and fuzzy story
of social progress, snuffed out by the evils of white supremacy. Blacks held
office in record numbers, according to one such historian, and were active in
politics, voting and giving “stump speeches”.
The
question begs, for those with enough courage to ask it aloud:
How
do a people who were slaves not more than 2 years ago, acquire the knowledge
necessary to be able to do such things and do them COMPETENTLY – and on such a
grand scale?? Moreover, “freedom” also
entails the responsibility for supporting oneself, something I would think
would be a major undertaking for the inexperienced Freedman. So where did the
Freedman find the free time to participate so heavily in politics? Finally, who
the hell put him up to it? (See the story about “Limosine Liberals” for the
answer to that one)
One
Freedman’s Bureau official declared that blacks “must be allowed their civil rights to sue and be sued and to testify
in court, but 19 in 20 are no more fit for the political responsibilities and
duties of a citizen than my horse”.- Wade
Hampton, Confederate Warrior, Conservative Statesman, Brian Cisco, Page 178,
With
200 black trial justices, South
Carolina had more than her share of funny happenings,
as of tragic. A gentlemen who had to appear before some tribunal wrote us, “Whom
do you suppose I found in the seat of law? Pete, my erstwhile stable-boy! He
does not know A from Z, had not the faintest idea of what was to be done”.
- “Mars Charles, you jes fix ‘tup,
please suh. You jes write down whut you think orter be wroted an’ I’ll put my
mark anywhar you tell me” - Dixie After the War, Myrta Lockett Avary, Page 192
Into
a store in Wilmington
sauntered a sable alderman whom the merchant had known from boyhood as “Sam”.
Merchant:
What’s the matter Sam? (as Sam walked out of the store)
Sam:
(stalking back into the store) Suh, you didn’ treat me wid proper respecks.
Merchant:
How Sam?
Sam:
You called me Sam, which my name is Mr. Gary.
Merchant:
You’re a damned fool! There’s the door!
-
Gary had the
merchant up in the mayor’s court.
Mayor:
What’s the trouble?
Sam:
Dis man consulted me.
Mayor:
You ought to feel flattered. What did he do to you?
Sam:
He called me Sam, suh.
Mayor:
Ain’t that your name?
Sam:
My name’s Mr. Gary.
Mayor:
Ain’t it Sam too?
Sam:
yessuh, but –
Mayor:
Well, there ain’t any law to compel a man to call another “Mister”. Case
dismissed.
Sam:
(muttering) Dar gwi be a law ‘bout dat.
Dixie After the War, Myrta
Lockett Avary, Page 193
A
Regimental Chaplain of the 128th US colored troops, stationed in Beaufort SC,
stated that “the more intelligent of his men believed there should be a
literacy qualification for voting, as “you ought never to undertake a job
unless you know how to do it.- ” Wade Hampton, Confederate Warrior,
Conservative Statesman, Brian Cisco
Among
extraneous resolutions adopted by delegates, one recommended that laws
eventually be passed banning terms like “negro”, “nigger” or “yankee”. The
exercise went on for 53 days and cost the taxpayer $110,000. (The Charleston
Convention, January 14, 1868), Wade Hampton, Confederate Warrior, Conservative
Statesman, Brian Cisco, pp. 178, 191-192,
General
Sherman said, “We all felt sympathy for the negroes, but of a different kind
from that of Mr. Stanton, which was not of pure humanity, but of politics….I
did not dream that the former slaves, without preparation, would be
manufactured into voters…I doubted the wisdom of at once clothing them with the
elective franchise….and realized the national loss in the death of Mr. Lincoln,
who had long pondered over the difficult questions involved.” - Dixie After the War, Myrta Lockett Avary, Page 281-282
Hamp, Simmons, Mississippi,
(The Slave Narratives)
"The Yankees promised niggers a gray mule and forty acres when
they were freed, but the niggers ought to have known that wasn't so, because
there wern't that many gray mules in the United States."
Henri Necaise, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
It was dem Carpetbaggers dat 'stroyed de country. Dey went an'
turned us loose, jas' lak a passel o' cattle, an' didn' show us nothin' or giv'
us nothin'. Dey was acres an' acres o' lan' not in use, an' lots o' timber in
die country.
Henry, Garry, Alabama Henri, (The Slave Narratives)
Seems lak dar warn't no trouble 'mongst de whites an' blacks ''til
atter de wah. Some white mens come down from de Norf' an' mess up wid de nigger……….."Git rid of de
carpetbaggers? Oh, Yassah, dey vote 'em out.
25 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
More Reconstuction – the
Warm and Fuzzy Story of Social Progress!?
Robert E. Lee – “But this opposition springs from no feeling
of enmity, but from a deep seated conviction that at present, the negroes have
neither the intelligence nor the other qualifications which are necessary to
make them safe depositories of political power. They would inevitably become
the victims of demagogues, who, for selfish purposes, would mislead them to the
serious injury of the public.”
When
you look at Lee’s comments and consider what transpired afterward, you’d have
to wonder if he was making a prediction when he made that statement – one that
unfortunately came true! When you can’t read, when you can’t write, when you’ve
never had any more practical experience in this life other than tilling a field
or picking cotton, it goes without saying that you’re not going to be a very
good legislator. The ramblings of Virginia Representative Lewis Lindsay below
seems hilarious, until you realize that he was actually an “elected” public
official! Despite his ignorance, he is observant enough to notice that the
limosine liberals, like their modern counterparts, often do not “walk the
walk”, even though they “talk the talk”.
The
following excerpts and accounts can be found in Myrta Lockett Avary’s “Dixie
After the War”, on pages 253-260:
-The
Black and Tan Conventions met December
3, 1867 in our venerable and historic Capitol to frame a new
constitution for the Old Dominion. In this body were members from New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Maryland, District of
Columbia, Ireland, Scotland, Nova Scotia, Canada, England, scalawags or
turncoats by Southerners most hated of all: 24 negroes and 35 white Virginians
in a total of 105, chaired by John. C. Underwood of New York. -
-Visitors
went to the Capitol as to a monkey or minstrel show. Most of these darkeys,
fresh from tobacco lots and corn and cotton fields, were as innocent as babes
of any knowledge of reading and writing. They were equally guileless in other
directions. Before the body was organized, an enthusiastic delegate bounced up
to say something, but the Chair nipped him untimely in the bud: “No motion is
in order until the roll is called. Gentlemen will please remember parliamentary
usage.” The member sank limp into his seat asking in awed whisper of his
neighbor: “Whut id de worl’ is dat?” Perplexity was great when a member rose to
“make an inquiry”. “What dat he gwi make?” was whispered round, the question
being settled summarily: “Well, it don’ make no diffunce”. We ain’ gwi let him
do it nohow case he ain’ no Radicule”.
(Radicule, the bastardization of the word “Radical”, i.e., the Radical
wing of the republican party which pushed the punitive Reconstruction Acts and
posed as a friend to the southern black)
-Black,
white, and yellow paiges flew around, waiting on members; the blacker the
dignitary, the whiter the page he summoned to bring pens, ink, paper, apples,
ginger-cakes, goober-peas. And newspapers! No sooner did darkeys observe that
whites sent out and got newspapers than they did likewise; and sat there
reading them upside down!
-The
Gallery of colored men and women come to see the show were almost as diverting
as the lawmakers. Great were the flutterings over the seating of John
Morrissey, the “wild Irishmean”, mistaken for his namesake, the New York
Pugilist. “Dat ain’t de man dat fit Tom Higher? I tell you it am! Sho’ got
muscle! He cum tuh fit dem Preservatives
over dar”. According to the happy darkey knack of saying the wrong thing in
the right place, a significant version of “Conservative”
was thus applied to the little handful of representative white Virginians.
-Curiosity
was on tip-toe when motion was made that a stenographer be appointed. “Snographer?
What’s dat?? Maybe it’s de pusson whut takes down de speeches befo’ dee’s
spoken”, explained a wise one.
-…this
occasion for eloquence was not to be ignored by the Honourable Lewis Lindsay,
representing Richmond.
“Mistah Preisdet, I hopes in dis late hour dat Ole Fuhginny am imperilated, dat
no free-thinkin’ man kin suppose fuh one minute dat we ‘sires tuh misrippersint
de idée dat we ain’ qualify de sability uh de sternogrhy uh dis convention. I
hopes, suh, dat we kin den be able tuh superhen’ de principles uh de
supposition”
-(The
Honourable Lewis Lindsay Again) – on the subject of mixed race schools -
“Mistah Presidet, de real flatform suh. I’ll sw’ar tuh high heaven. Yes, I’ll
sw’ar higher dan dat. I’ll go down an’ de uth shall crumble intuh dus’ befo’
dee shall amalgamise my rights! ‘Bout dis question uh cyapret-bags. Ef you
cyapret-baggers does go back on us, woes be unto you! You better take yo’
cyarpet-bags an’ quit, and de quicker you git up an’ git de better! I do not
abdicate de superstition tuh des strange frien’s, lately so-called citizens of
fuhginny. Ef dee don’ gimme my rights, I’ll suffer dis country tuh be lak
Sarah. I’ll suffer desterlation fus! When I blows my horn, dee’ll hear it! When
de big cannons was thund’in an’ de missions uh death was flyin’ thu de a’r, dee
holldreed: {“come, Mr Nigguh, come! And he done come! I’se here tuh qualify my
constituents. I’ll sing tuh Rome
an’ tuh Engla’ and tuh de uttermos’ parts u de uth”
-That
clause against mixed schools was a rock upon which the Radical Party split,
white members with children voting for separate education of races; most
darkeys “didn’t want no sech claw in de law”.
-….Lindsay
took occasion to wither white “Radicules” on the color distribution in the
gallery. “Whar is de white Radicule members’ wives and chillun?” - waving his hands towards the white section.
“When dee comes here, dee mos’ly set dar se’ves on dat side de House, whilst I
brings mine on dis side…”
-….They
voted themselves per diem salaries and used up $70000 of the $100,000 that was
available in the state treasury. … General Schofield, military governor, spoke
to the convention and scolded them on their extravagance, and on their
resolutions excluding white Virginians. They ignored him. The Convention eventually
adjourned because someone said the Ku Klux Klan was on the way.
26 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Still More Reconstuction
– the Warm and Fuzzy Story of Social Progress!?
“You are free – free to seek your own happiness – free
to do the best you can for yourselves – free to work and free to starve if you
do not work. Freedom has its duties as well as its pleasures. And the first
duty of every free man is to support himself and his family.” Wade Hampton to an audience of Freedmen, 1866
Neo-Abolitionist
historians whine about the way that veterans of the north and the south
supposedly forgot America’s
responsibilities to the Freedman.The reason that the south’s veterans would
have preferred to forget about the disaster of Reconstruction is obvious.
But,
as the liberal historians claim, the north also wanted to forget! Why would the
north rather forget Reconstruction? Let’s ask a reformed carpetbagger named
Chamberlain, (not the guy on Little Round Top), who was the Republican
Reconstruction Governor of South
Carolina until 1876.
(From
an article in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine of 1901.)
Republican Governor
Daniel Chamberlain’s Reflections
Chamberlain
blamed Republican politicians for putting the white south under the heel of the
black south. “Lust for power was their motivation. If this is a hard saying,
let any one now ask himself, or ask the public, if it is possibly credible that
the reconstruction acts would have passed if the negro vote had been believed to
be democratic?”
To
this feast of reconstruction, this dance of reunion, rushed hundreds, even
thousands of white and colored men from the North, who had almost as little
experience of public affairs as the negroes of the south….and who were not
morally the equals of the negroes of the south. Some of these carpetbaggers may
have been “unselfish doctrinaires, humanitarians and idealists but most were
simply opportunists. The result was inevitable.
In
the mass of 78000 colored voters in South
Carolina in 1867, what elements or forces could have
existed that made for good government? Ought it not to have been as clear then
as it is now that good government, or even tolerable administration, could not
be had from such an aggregation of ignorance and inexperience and incapacity?
The
quick sure result was of course, misgovernment. Let a few statistics tell the
tale:
Before
the war, the average expense of the annual session of the legislature in South Carolina did not
exceed $20000. For the 6 years
following reconstruction, the average annual expense was over $320000, the expense of the session of
1871 alone being $671000! The total
legislative expenses for the 6 years was $2,339,000!
The
state’s debt soared to $17,500,000, but without a single public improvement to
show for it!
No
such result could be possible, except where public and private virtue was
well-nigh extinct….Public offices were objects of vulgar, commonplace bargain
and sale. Justice in the lower and higher courts was bought and sold….State militia
on a vast scale was organized and equipped in 1870 and 1871 solely from the
negroes, arms and legal organization being denied to the democrats.
The
writer remembered one black county school commissioner who was unable to read
or even to write his own name. He was corrupt, too, as he was ignorant. No
northern state would have tolerated such an official. One morning he was found
dead, shot by the famous and infamous Ku Klux Klan. Their brutal and murderous
actions were without excuse. Yet, it was symptomatic of a dreadful disease –
the gangrene of incapacity, dishonesty and corruption in public office.
27 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Demagoguery and
Corruption - “Radicule Style”
“You complain of the
disfranchisement of the Negro in the southern states, while you would not give
them the right of suffrage today.” -
(President Andrew Johnson to an Ohio
audience)
Thaddeus Stevens,
leader of the party forcing these measures, (black suffrage), said of negro
suffrage: “If it be a punishment to rebels, they deserve it - Thaddeus Stevens’
A
silver-tongued demagogue captivates his gullible audience during
Reconstruction:
*The Young
Carpetbagger makes a Speech and the Crowd Comments:
Carpetbagger:
Dear friends, I rejoice to find myself in this noble company of patriots. I see
before me men and women who are bulwarks of the nation; ready to give their
money, to work, to die, if need be, for freedom. Freedom, my friends, is
another name for the great Republican Party.
Crowd
Comments and Behavior: Hise you’ mouf tellin’ dat truf! Dat’s so! Halleluia!
Glory be tuh Gawd!
Carpetbagger: The Republican Party gave you freedom and
will preserve it inviolate!
Crowd
Comments: (Applause; whispers) What dat he spoken ‘bout?? Sho’ use big words!
Dat man got sense. He know what he takin’ ‘bout ef we don’t?
Carpetbagger:
That party was unknown in this grand old state until a few months ago. It has
been rotten-egged!....
Crowd
Comments and Behavior: Now ain’t dat a shame!
Carpetbagger:
….although its speakers have only advocated the teachings of the Holy Bible
Crowd
Comments and Behavior: Glory Halleluia! Glory to de Labm! Jesus, my Marster!
Carpetbagger:
The Republican Party is your friend that has led you out of the wilderness into
the Promised Land!
Crowd
Comments and Behavior: (Glories and halleluias reached climax in which two
sisters were carried out shouting) Disshere getting’ too much lak er ‘ligious
meetin’ tuh suit me (a sinner observed)
Carpetbagger:
You do not need me to tell you never to vote for one of these white traitors
and rebels who held you as slaves.
Crowd
Comments and Behavior: Dat we ain’t! We’ll see ‘em in hell fust!
Carpetbagger:
We have fought for you on the field of battle. Now you must organize and fight
for yourselves.
Crowd
Comments and Behavior: We gwi do it too! Dat we is! We gwi fight!
Carpetbagger:
We gave given you freedom. We intend to
give you property. We, the Republican Party, propose to confiscate the land of
these white rebels and traitors and give it to you, to whom it justly belongs –
forty acres and a mule and $100 to every one of you! (the Chairman exhausted
himself seeking to subdue enthusiasm.) The Republican Party cannot do this
unless you give it your support. If the white men carry the elections, they
will put you back into slavery.
Dixe
After the War, Myrta Lockett Avary
***Were
the radical Republicans really concerned about black civil rights? Judge for
yourself.
When
the war ended there were but five states, all in New
England, and all having minuscule black populations – that
permitted equal voting rights. Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Connecticut, Ohio and Kansas, each rejected
black suffrage when that issue was raised after the war. An 1865 referendum in
the District of Columbia
found 35 voters willing to allow the freedman the right to vote and 6951
opposed. - Wade Hampton, Confederate
General, Conservative Statesman, Brian Cisco, P 177
28 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The Persecution of the
Black Conservative
Whether
it’s someone saying that Chief Justice Clarence Thomas isn’t really black, or
that Candy Rice’s hair is “funny” looking, or that Walter Williams is a
“neo-confederate”, black conservatives generally take it on the chin from those
in the black community who make their living through race baiting, and from
those in the white community for whom white WHINE is their beverage of choice!
The thing of it is that not all that much has changed since post-war WBTS
America. In fact, it’s an old story.
Blacks
who openly sided with (Wade) Hampton
often found themselves persecuted. Some were expelled from their churches,
shunned by family, or abandoned by wives. The Republican press denounced black
democrats as “jail birds” or “lackeys”. Physical threats were common. In Marion County,
two black democrats were fired on. Their assailants, also black, were quickly
released. Hampton
supporter, Tom Elsey, was badly injured by buckshot in a night ambush. His
attackers were never arrested. Another black Democrat, William Black of
Yorkville, left his horse at a local stable while he traveled to a political
meeting. He returned to find the animal strangled with a rope. White friends
collected money to buy a replacement. In upper Orangeburg, County, a black
democrat was beaten severely and his home burned. - Wade Hampton, Confederate
Warrior, Conservative Statesman, Brian Cisco, P. 233
“Kill him, Kill him!”, cried negroes when at
Hudson Station, Virginia, a negro cast a Conservative Ticket. ………….Even the
negroes wanting to vote with us dared not. One of my old servants, who
sincerely desired to follow my advice and example in the casting of the ballot,
came to me on the even of the election and sadly told me he could not. He said
he was told he would be drummed out of his church if he did…..”A negro preacher
said “Mars Clay, dee’ll take away my license tuh preach ef I votes de white
folks’ ticket…..I did not cease to reproach myself for inducing one negro to
vote with me when I learned that on the death of his child soon afterward, his
people showed no sympathy, gave no help, and that he had to make the coffin and
dig the grave himself. I would have helped him myself had I known, but he was
too terrorized to come to me….” - Dixie After the War, Myrta Lockett Avary,
Page 285
…I
knows myse’f dat dis way we niggers is a-doin an a-votin’ ain’ de bes’ way fu
de country – anybody kin see dat. But den I got tuh vote de ‘Publican tickewt,
suh. We all has. Las’ ‘lection I voted
de Democrack ticket an’ dee killed my cow. Abum, he vote de Democrack ticket;
dee killed his colt.’ …………Monday counted off the negroes who had voted the
“Democrack” ticket and every one had been punished. One had been bombarded in
his cabin, another’s rice crop had been taken – even the ground swept up and
every grain carried off, leaving him utterly destitute………. “”I knows myse’f dat
dis way we niggers is a-doin an a-votin’ ain’ de bes’ way fuh de country,
anybody kin see dat. But den I got tuh vote de ‘Publican ticket suh. We all
has. Las ‘lection I voted de Democrack ticket an’ dee killed my cow. Abum, he
vote de Democrack ticket; dee killed his colt………..Monday counted off the
negroes who had voted the “Democrack” ticket, and every one of them had been
punished. One had been bombarded in his cabin; another’s rice crop had been
taken – even the ground swept up and every grain carried off, leaving him
utterly desititute. “I tell you, suh”, said Monday, “I got tuh do it on my
‘count, an’ on you’ ‘count. You make me fo’man and ‘ef I didn’t vote de
‘Publican ticket, I could’ make dese niggers wuk. I coul’ do nothin’ ‘tall wid
‘em”. - Dixie After the War, Myrta Lockett
Avary, P. 347
.
….Complaints against black troops alleged not only mistreatment of whites but
harassment of fellow blacks as well. A freedwoman in Norfolk, considered to be a violent and
“bitter Rebel”, was put to work sweeping the streets, more for humiliation than
for legitimate punishment. - The Day Dixie
Died, Thomas and Debra Goodrich, Page 155
29 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The Union League vs
Southern Civilians… and a “Black Confederate”
The
following story illustrates the helplessness of the South in the face of a
conqueror. It does however, have an ending that is both happy and
surprising.
The Union League
Crimes – Dixie After the War, Myrta Lockett
Avary, Pages 265-267
In
a South Carolina
mansion, Mrs. Vincent and her daughter lived alone except for a few faithful
ex-slaves. A cabin on the edge of the plantation was rented to Wash, a negro member of
the Loyal League, whose organizer was Captain Johnson, commander of a small
garrison in a nearby town. The captain was fond of imposing fines upon whites
against whom negroes entered complaint. There seemed nice adjustment between
fines and defendants’ available cash.
One
day, Wash,
pushing past Lucy’s maid into the Vincent parlor, said to Lucy’s mother, “I’se
come to cote Miss Lucy” “Leave the house!” “I ain’ gwi leave no suchy a thing!
I’se gwi marry Lucy an’ live here wid you.” Lucy appeared. “I’se come to ax you
to have me. I’se de ve’y man fuh you to hitch up wid. Dis here place b’long to
me. You b’long to me.” She whipped out a pistol and covered him. “Run! Run for
your life!” He ran. When he was out of pistol-shot, he turned and yelled: “You
damned white she-cat! I’ll make you know!” She caught up a musket and fired.
Balls whistled past his head; he renewed his flight.
Next
morning, as the ladies, paled and miserable, sat at breakfast, a squad of
soldiers filed in, took seats, helped themselves, and ordered the butler
around. The ladies rose and were arrested. A wagon was at the door. “Please,
marsters”, said black Jerry humbly, “lemme hitch up de kerridge and kyar
Misstiss and “Miss Lucy in it. ‘Taint fitten fuh ‘em to ride in a waggin- an
wid strange mens.”. His request was refused.
The
ladies were arraigned before Captain Johnson on a charge that they had used
insulting language to Mr. Washington Singleton Pettigru; and that Lucy, “in
defiance of law an morals and actuated by the devil”, had, “without
provocation”, fired on him with intent to kill. A fine of $1000 or 6 months in
jail was imposed. “I have no such money”, cried Mrs. Vincent. “Jail may change
your mind” replied Captain Johnson.
Lawyers
flocked to their defense; the captain would hear none. Toward nightfall, the
town filled with white men wearing set faces. The captain sent for one of the
lawyers. The lawyer said: “Unless you release those ladies from the jail, no
one can tell what may happen. But this I believe; you, nor a member of your
garrison will be alive tomorrow.”
They
were released, fine remitted; the captain left in haste. An officer came from Columbia to investigate
“disorder in the district”. He condemned Johnson’s course and tried to reassure
the community. It came out that Johnson had received information that Mrs.
Vincent held a large, redeemable note; he had incited Wash to “set up” to Miss
Lucy, urging that by marrying her he would become the plantation’s owner; “Call
in your best duds and ask for her to marry you. If she refuses, we will find a
way to punish her.” Wash,
it was thought, had fled the country. The negro body servant of Lucy’s dead
brother had felt that the duty of avenger devolved upon him and in his own way
he had slain Wash
and covered up the deed.
30 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
“Massa Robert Toombs”
The
following short narrative was given by a woman who was a slave of General
Robert Toombs. Toombs, one of the defenders of slavery as an institution,
appears to have treated his charges in as good a manner as could have been
expected of anyone living in his time and in his situation, at least according
to Alonza Toombs. In any case, it would appear that not everyone who owned a
slave had horns growing out of his or her head.
Toombs,
Alonza Fantroy
(Alabama, Gertha Couric,
John Morgan Smith)
Missy,"
said Alonza Fantroy Toombs, "I'se de proudest nigger in de worl', 'caze I
was a slave belonging to Marse Robert Toombs of Georgia; de grandest man dat
ever lived, next to Jesus Christ. He was de bes' stump speaker in de State, an'
he had mo' frien's dan a graveyard has ghosts. He was sho a kin' man, an' dere
warn't no one livin' who loved his wife an' home mo' dan Marse Bob.
"Lissy," Uncle Lon continued, "he was near 'bout de greates' man
dat eber come outen de South. He were a good business man; he were straight as
dey make 'em, am he sho enjoy playin' a good joke on someone. I useta see him a
walkin' down de road in de early mornin' an' I knowed it were him f'um a
long distance, 'caze he was so tall. I
guess you knowed all 'bout his livin' in de State legislature an' in de United
States Congress an' a bein' a gen'l in de war an' him bein' de secretary of
State in de confederacy.
"I
was bawn on Marse Bob's plantation in de Double Grade Quartes. My pappy's name
was Sam Fantroy Toombs an' my mammy was Isabella Toombs. In de slabery times I
was too young to work in de fiel's, my job was to hunt an' fish an' feed de
stock in de evenin'. My pappy was a preacher an' Marse Bob learnt him to read
and write, an' would let him go f'um plantation to plantation on de Sabbath Day
a-. preachin de gospel. He was Marse Bob's carriage driver.
"Mass'm.
white folks, Marse Bob was a good provider, too. Us niggers et at home on
Sundays, an' us had fried chicken, pot pies, beef, pork, an' hot coffee. On de
udder days, our meals was fixed for us so dat de time us got for res' could be
spent dat way. On Sadday us stopped work at noon an' would come wid our vessels to git flour, sugar,
lard an' udder supplies. My mammy's pots an' pans was so bright dat dey looked
like silver, an' she was one on de bes' cooks in de lan'. She useta cook fine
milk yeast bread an' cracklin' bread. All us slaves on Marse Bob's place was
cared for lak de white folks. We had de white folks doctor to treat us when we
was sick. We had good clothes, good food an' we was treated fair. Dere warn't
no mean peoples on our plantation.
"White
lady, I 'members Marse Bob's smoke house mos' of all. It had everything in it
f'um 'possum to deer; an' de wine cellar! Don't say nothin'! Dat was de place I
longed to roam. But marse Bob, he drink too much. Dat was his only fault. He
hit de bottle too hard. I couldn't understand it neither, caze he lef' off
smokin' in later years when he thought it warn't good for him; but he keppa
drinkin'!
"I
been ma'ied twice, Mistis, De fus' time to Ida Walker. She died at childbirth;
de little fella died too. Den I ma'ied Alice James, an' she's been gone nigh on
to twenty year now. My pappy, Rev. Sam Fantroy ma'ied me both times.
"Atter
de S'render, nary a slave lef' Marse Bob. He gib eve'y nigger over twenty-one a
mule, some lan' an' a house to start off wid. Yassum, Mistis, I kin read an'
write; my pappy learnt me how. I'm eighty-six year old now an' still goin'
strong, ceptin' 'bout six years ago I had a stroke. But I cone out all right. I
lives here wid my sister an' she's good to me. De only thing lef' for me to do
is to wish dat when I cross dat ribber I can slip back to de ole place to see
some of my frien's."
(Wash. Copy, 6/2/37, L. H.)
31 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
Another side to the
Story of Reconstruction
While
it would appear that at least initially, most Freedmen sided with the Radical
Republicans during Reconstruction, there were some who refused to run with the
herd. While some modern day readers might find it uncomfortable to read some of
their thoughts on what they experienced, their words and stories do deserve to
be heard and considered.
*Note
– “Red Shirts” is a reference to the paramilitary rifle clubs used by Wade
Hampton during his run for governor of South
Carolina in 1876. The “clubs” were used to counter
the tendency on the part of the Radical Republicans to use the (primarily
black) state militia to enforce its will. There were also a number of black
“Red Shirt Rifle Clubs”.
Beaufort
South Carolina
– 90% black. Hampton
met at the station by a Red Shirt escort that included a contingent of blacks.
Among these black Red Shirts may have been “the mounted black cadre”, a group
that traveled to Join Hampton at some of his campaign stops around the state.
Several in the cadre were black Confederate veterans. - Wade Hampton, Confederate Warrior,
Conservative Statesman, Brian Cisco, P. 239
Ed Barber, South Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
"It's
been a long time since I see you. Maybe you has forgot but I ain't forgot de
fust time I put dese lookers on you, in '76. Does you 'members dat day? It was
in a piece of pines beyond de Presbyterian Church, in Winnsboro, S. C. Us both had red shirts.
Martha Lowery, South Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
"My
parents were free Negroes and were considered in comfortable circumstances when
I was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1853," said Martha
Lowery.
"By
that time the government, a so called carpet bag government, backed by troops
had a backing known as Freedmen's aid and government was by ex-slaves and white
men, mostly from the North. I have always thought that
if the ex-slaves had been advised at that time and lead by South Carolina white
men a great deal of the reconstruction confusion would have been avoided. As it
was there was too much graft in it, and far too little interest.
"The 1876 campaign was between General Hampton and Governor
Chamberlin, a so called carpetbagger, who ruled by the federal bayonet right,
and the carpetbag outfit made a tremendous effort to poll all the black vote,
but Negroes generally know much more than they were given credit for and they
refused to be lead as sheep to the slaughter, and a vast majority of them voted
for their friend, General Hampton. At that time there was plenty signs that
the leadership of the South intended to make full citizens of the Negroes and
live in accord with them.
Henry Green, Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"Well,
Boss Man, yo done ax me en I sho gwine ter tell yo de truf. Yes sir, I sho is voted, on I 'members do time well dat do niggers in
do cotehouse on de Red Shirts hab ter git 'em out. Dat was do bes' thing dat
dey eber do when dey git de niggers outen de cotehouse en quit 'em frum holdin'
de offices, kase er nigger not fit ter be no leader….
D. Davis, Arkansas,
(The Slave Narratives)
"Atter
de war dey hed de carpet-baggers en de Klu Klux bofe, en de white folks dey
didn't lak de carpet-baggers tolerable well, dat dey didn't. I don't know who
de carpet-baggers was but dey was powful mean, so de white folks say. You know
sum way er udder de Yankees er de carpet-baggers er sum ob de crowd, dey put de
niggers in de office at de cote house, en er makein de laws at de statehouse in
Jackson. Dat was de craziest bizness dat dey eber cud er done, er
puttin dem ignorant niggers whut cudn't read er write in dem places. I
tell yo, Capn, den whut put doss niggers in de office dey mus not had es much
since es de niggers, kase dey mought know dat hit wudn't wuk, en hit sho didn't
auk long. Dey hed de niggers messed up in sum kind er
clubs whut dey swaded dem to jine, en gib em all er drum ter beat, en dey all
go marchin er roun er beatin de drums en goin ter de club meetins. Den ignorant
niggers wud sell out fer er seegar er a stick er candy.
Campbell Armstrong,
Arkansas, (The Slave Narratives)
"I
knew Jerry Lawson, who was Justice of Peace. He was a nigger. a low-down devil.
Man, then niggers done more dirt in this city. The Republicans had this city
and state. I went to the polls and there was very few white folks there. I knew several of them niggers---Mack Armstrong, he was
Justice of Peace. I can't call the rest of them. Nothing but old thieves. …..
Aaron Ray, Texas, (The Slave Narratives)
"De
day dat Marse tolt de slave dat dey was free, dem niggers jes' nacherly went
wild. Dey shouted, danced, sang an' was more dan happy. Dey jes' was drunk wid
de joy. Some ob dem ran off in de woods er shoutin' 'I kin run whar I wanter
now, ain't no dogs ner no patty roller eber gwine git me agin'.' Some ob 'em
jes' run clar off an' I don' know whar, case dey didn't cum back eber. But de mos' ob de oldes' ones, dey calmed down 'bout de nex'
mawnin' an' den dey begin ter ask 'Whar us gwine stay, an' how us gwine eat?
Dar ain't no Yankee mans cum ter gib us noddin'.' No'm dey didn't gib us
noddin' much, case all de w'ite folks hab lef' atter de war, was jes' de lan'
dey lib on……
…….Dar
sho' was some 'citin' times har 'bout 1871. Dat year dey had a special
'lection. An' stid ob hit bein' one day lak now, dey had hit fer four whole
days an' eberyboddy from all ober de county had ter come right here to Waco to vote. Dey had hit
f'om October 3 to de 6th. An' dar was two 'Publicans an' two Democrats dat helt
dis here 'lection. Dem Democrat men wore pistols in er holster under dere arms
an' dey didn't know but what dey git shot eny minnit. De Davis militia was all
'roun de court house, an a lot ob nigger who was jes'
crazy ober gittin' freed an' so swole up wid 'portance dey lak er bus'. Ebery
time a Southern man 'ud come to vote, dese soljers an' de cullud police 'ud
jeer an' take on an' 'sult dem. Dey made dese Southerners walk one atter de
odder on a plank lane between de Yankees soljers an' dese negro police ter git
ter de place ter vote. De 'lection was at de ole Court House on de
Square.
Joshua, Rivers, South Carolina, (The Slave Narratives)
"This
ended de fightin', daddy say, but it defeated Governor Chamberlain, 'cause he
say de white vote turn its back on Chamberlain, and vote for General Hampton.
And some of de niggers, too, vote for General Hampton, so he was 'lected, and
when Governor Chamberlain leave Columbia,
de nigger power was over. I has thought 'bout it a good deal over de years, and
I think it was providential for de white folks to win. I can see that de
nigger, which had just gained his freedom, was not fit to govern de
State."
Hamp Simmons, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
"The Yankees promised niggers a gray mule and forty acres when
they were freed, but the niggers ought to have known that wasn't so, because
there wern't that many gray mules in the United States." (1)
Henri Necaise, Mississippi, (The Slave Narratives)
……It was dem Carpetbaggers dat 'stroyed de country. Dey went
an' turned us loose, jas' lak a passel o' cattle, an' didn' show us nothin' or
giv' us nothin'. Dey was acres an' acres o' lan' not in use, an' lots o' timber
in die country. Dey should-a give each one o' us a little farm an' let
us git out timber an' build houses. Dey ought to put a white Marster over us,
to show us an' make us work, only let us be free 'stead o' slaves. I think dat
would-a been better'n turnin' us loose lak dey done.
Matilda Pugh Daniel, Alabama,
(The Slave Narratives)
"Durin' de war us warn't bothered much, but atter de
surrender, some po' white trash tried to make us take some lan'. Some of 'em come to
de slave quarters, an' talk to us. Dey say 'Niggers, you is jus' as good as de
white folks. You is 'titled to vote in de 'lections an' to have money same as
dey,' but most of us didn't pay no 'tention to 'em.
Joe Oliver, Texas,
Slave Narratives
"After
freedom my daddy went to political conventions at Austin in de days of
reconstruction, an' helped to pass de laws, but de Yankees sent so many rascals
down here to run things dat de Texas men would not stand for dis. Dey was
called de carpet baggers, dey took de vote away from de very men dat had freed
Texas from Mexico, kase dey had fought for de rebels, den dey put de nigger
troops over at Tyler, kase hit was de headquarters for de Yankees. Dey put two
niggers troops here, an' so dey did'nt have any better sence den to think dey
could run de town, de men an women bof' was not safe to go anywhar at night for
fear of dese soldiers, w'en all of a sudden dey was de Ku-Klux a ridin' up an'
down de streets at night, dey was robed in w'ite, an' not a sound did dey make
but dey horse hoofs a poundin' de pavements, an' in de road dat led into de
city."De next mornin' dey would be de bodies of de soljers a hangin' to de
trees, sometimes dey would be out in de cemeteries. Dey put de soljers guards
from de nigger troops to guard de roads dat led into de town but de guards body
would be found hangin' jes de same as de soljers. De soljers called dem
"de w'ite devils", but pretty soon dey commenced to behave demselves,
an' let de w'ite folks go 'bout dey business, an' so de troops had enough of de
Ku-Klux an' was soon sent some other place.
32- Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
The USCT in Combat
To
listen to modern day historians, one would think that the Confederate army had
a take-no-prisoners policy when it came to black union soldiers and that the
always courageous/always well-behaved USCT won the war for the Union. We are bombarded about stories of confederate atrocities
perpetrated against United States Colored Troops, but we seldom hear anything
about the behavior of the USCT themselves. We are left with the impression that
the USCT were brave and well behaved and of course, were cruelly discriminated
against by their opponents simply because of their color. While it is common
these days for neo-abolitionist historians these days to criticize our “Civil
War Memory”, it would appear that they have some memory deficits of their own.
The
following are excerpts from the old Confederate Veteran Magazine about the
action at Tishomingo Creek, which was part of the sprawling battle of Brice’s
Crossroads. The first story was written by a soldier whose home was in the path
of Sturgis’ advance. It appears that the behavior of the USCT there was
anything but angelic. It also appears that the USCT was unaware that once you
raise the Black Flag, there is no taking it down and you will inevitably
receive what you asked for!! Once again, let’s roll the historical videotape!
401 Confederate Veteran September 1900.
BATTLE OF TISHOMINGO CREEK.
…When
I saw these things I knew that Forrest had gained a great victory, but my heart
sank at the prospect of our own losses. The Yankees had taken every grain of
corn and every ounce of meat, leaving us nothing to eat. The family had not
eaten anything since the previous morning, and the house had been plundered.
Everything was turned upside down, and much was missing. Dead and wounded, men
were lying in the house, upstairs and downstairs. Bullets had penetrated the
walls in various places. Negroes and white men had both plundered our
dwelling. Nothing could move their pity, but with vandal hands they rifled
trunks and bureaus, entering every room. Destruction seemed to be their aim. They even entered the negro cabins, and
robbed them of their clothing. They cut the rope, and let the bucket into
the well. As they went back, panting with heat and suffering with thirst, they
were glad to drink such dirty slop as they could find…..
…The negro troops were specially insolent.
As they passed down they would shake their fists at the ladies and say that
they were going to show Forrest that they were his rulers. As they returned,
their tune was changed. With tears in
their eyes, some of them came to my mother and asked her what they must do,
would Mr. Forrest kill them? On the retreat Sturgis was in the front, going
at a trot….
..The
pursuit was continued beyond Salem.
On Monday, the 13th, many soldiers returned from the pursuit. Eight hundred
prisoners were marched down the road that day. Some officers were among them,
and they were nice looking men. It is
certain that a great many negroes were killed. They wore the badge,
"Remember Fort
Pillow," and it was
said that they carried a black flag. This incensed the Southern soldiers,
and they relentlessly shot them down….
153 Confederate Veteran April 1901
STORY OF OUR GREAT
WAR.
BY THE LATE MERCER
OTEY, OF SAN FRANCISCO.
[Continued from the
March number, 1901.]
……Immediately orders were issued to the three
brigades to retrace their steps, and we started to find the enemy. Couriers
were constantly arriving from Gen. (Stephen) Lee, uring all possible haste, as
the column was devastating the country and committing outrages of the most
fiendish kind. Women and children alone were encountered, all the men being in
the ranks, and these noncombatants were made to feel the heavy hand of the
spoilers. The larger part of the Federal troops were negroes that had been
enlisted in Memphis,
and now sent out on this raid as mounted infantry. They came breathing death
and destruction, proclaiming "no quarter" to Forrest and his whole
command. Their battle cry was: "Remember Fort Pillow!"
A forced march brought us in front of the column at
Tishomingo Creek on the morning of January 10, and we immediately attacked,
though our men and horses were badly jaded by the constant ten days in the
saddle, through heavy rains and miry roads. The fight took place at Guntown,
a small country post office, sometimes called Bryce's Cross Roads. It was a hot
and stubborn one, but out men were maddened to fury by the news of the
atrocities perpetrated by the negroes all along the line of their march from
Memphis, and as the enemy had declared themselves for extermination, but little
attention was given to capturing prisoners
They
say that there are two sides to every story and that both sides need to be
heard. Someone forgot to tell that to the “State”, the corporate-owned
Pravda-like rag which masquerades as a South
Carolina newspaper. Last year they published an
article about Harriet Tubman’s “Combahee Raid”, glorifying the raid as an act
which freed slaves, etc etc. Here’s the other side to the Combahee Raid from
the perspective of a Confederate officer. Again, it appears that not all the slaves
thought or behaved in exactly the same way. Since there are two sides to every
story, this one needs to be examined and considered. Of course, “the State”
simply ignored me when I sent them a copy of this report. I wonder why?
O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XXVIII/2 [S# 47]
Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating
To Operations On The Coasts Of South Carolina And Georgia, And In Middle And
East Florida, From June 12 To December 31, 1863. CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.--#5
HDQRS. FOURTH
BRIGADE, SOUTH CAROLINA
MILITIA,
Charleston,
August 3, 1863.
Brig. Gen. THOMAS JORDAN,
Chief of Staff:
SIR: I beg leave to
submit to you, for your consideration, the following extract from a letter just
received from one of Brig. Gen. W. S. Walker's staff, dated McPhersonville, August 2, 1803:
A recent raid was
made, by order of General Walker, on Barnwell
Island by some of our
troops, under command of Capt. M. J. Kirk. Thirty-one negroes were captured, 4
of whom are men, the rest women and children. Three of the men had been drafted
for the Second
South Carolina Regiment, but had run away; 2 of them were there a
week and 1 three weeks. They represent
many of the negroes as being very unwilling to be made soldiers of, but say
they are forced to be, and are even hunted down in the woods and marshes to be
taken. Several have been shot in the effort to take them. They say the
Fernandina negroes are active soldiers, and are used against them. Some of our
own negroes volunteer. Most of the
negroes are left on the plantations, and plant provisions under a white
superintendent. The task they do is about the same they did for us. One-half of
the produce goes to the Yankees, the rest to the negroes. They are not
clothed or fed by the United States Government. Most of them have, they say,
the clothes their owners gave them, except what they have purchased for
themselves. They make a little money by selling eggs, chickens, watermelons,
&c. They represent that many of the
negroes would be very willing to come back to their owners if they could, but
that their boats have all been taken, and they are told if they come to us we
will shoot them. Others are perfectly content to remain.
The negroes from the Combahee raid
were all carried to Beaufort. The infirm men, women, and children were left
there, and the prime men, without being allowed to go on shore, were carried to
Hilton Head, and from there to Folly
Island, to work on the
batteries. Most of them objected to be made soldiers of or work on the
intrenchments, but were forced off.
I have the honor to
be, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
WILMOT G. DE SAUSSURE,
Brigadier-General, Comdg. Fourth Brig. S.C.
Militia.
33 - The USCT at The
Crater – “No Quarter to the Rebels?”
A couple of years ago I attended a meeting of the
local Civil War Round Table here on Long Island which on that particular night
featured a talk by an author who had written a book about “Italians in Blue and
Gray.” Naturally, being a “neo-confederate,” as I am sometimes called, and
being of Italian extraction, I was hoping he’d speak about the Italians who
wore the gray, but that was not to be. He focused instead on the Garibaldi
Brigade out of NY City, and on General Taliaferro, who commanded the United
States Colored Troops division in the army of the Potomac.
As most WBTS fans are aware, this particular division played a major part in
the July 1864 Battle
of the Crater at the siege of Petersburg.
During the speaker’s talk, he made reference to the “awful massacre of African
Americans at the Crater by the Confederates.” Maybe he was practicing for an
appearance on Oprah or maybe not, but almost looked like he was about to shed
(crocodile?) tears when he said it. Steaming, I decided to let the first comment
pass. His big mistake was in making the same comment a second time, as if to
drive the point home. This time I opted not to take a pass and instead raised
my hand during the question and answer period. My question to him was as
follows:
“Regarding your comment about Confederates
massacring African Americans at the Crater, are you aware that the United
States Colored Troops yelled “NO QUARTER TO THE REBELS” as they charged, and do
you not think that they, in effect, got what they asked for - since, when you
yell “NO QUARTER” at your opponent, you have to expect him to act in kind
toward you?”
Of course, a few people in the audience gasped.
Then, our distinguished speaker squinted at me, eyes somewhat glazed, like he
had been hit over the head with a hammer, and began to shake his head ever so
slightly and mumbling unintelligibly. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was simply
stunned by my question, or if he simply had no answer, or if he was denying
that such a thing ever took place? This continued for a few seconds. Since I
wasn’t getting an answer, I asked “Are you going to try and tell me that this
never happened?” He continued to squint and shake his head ever so slightly
with no answer coming out of his mouth.
At that point the moderator stepped in and diffused what seemed to be an
uncomfortable situation and the group moved on to the next question. I never
did get an answer. Afterward however, and somewhat surprisingly, several people
came up to me to show support.
The incident in question is indeed documented in the
writings of Confederate veterans of that particular battle who faced the USCT.
I have no reason to believe that their claims are any less valid or true than
anyone else’s. Yet, I never hear “No Quarter to the Rebels” mentioned in any
account of the battle. All I hear is that those werry werry bad confederates
hatefully beat up on the black men, and I am fast growing weary of this
one-sided treatment.
That said, here are a few accounts of the battle
that you won’t find many contemporary historians willing to admit or even
discuss. You can determine for yourself whether the USCT got what they asked
for or not….
“BATTLE OF THE CRATER.” BY W. A. DAY,
SHERRILL'S FORD, N. C.
“The Confederate Veteran,” August 1903, P. 355
“….
By that time it was light enough to see a considerable distance, and our men
could be seen running rapidly to the rear, and the whole field in front full of
Yankees and negroes charging up to the crater.
The great burly negroes in their ill fitting uniforms, half drunk it was said,
were shouting at the top of their voices, "No quarter to the Rebels! No
quarter to the Rebels!" and butchering every man they found alive in the
works. The soldiers who fought in that battle will never forget it. That
dreadful shout, "No quarter!" from the negro troops rang in our ears
for days afterwards. We plainly saw the position we were in. To be captured by
the negro troops meant death not only to ourselves but, it appeared, to the
helpless women and children in Petersburg…..”
“WILCOX'S ALABAMIANS
IN VIRGINIA,”
BY B. F. PHILLIPS, ASHER, OKLA
“The Confederate
Veteran,” November 1907, P. 490
“…
About two o'clock in the
afternoon a detail was made to send for water, and while waiting for its return
General Mahone walked in front of the line and told us that the negroes in the
Crater had holloed: "Remember Fort
Pillow! No quarters!"
…. The slaughter was terrible. The soldiers were excited,
they were reckless, they burst the negroes' skulls with the butts of their guns
like eggshells. The officers tried to prevent it, but they were powerless. It was "No
quarter for the Rebels" that morning, and it is no quarter for them now.
The fight was soon ended.”
“CARNAGE AT "THE CRATER NEAR PETERSBURG”
”The Confederate Veteran,” February 1893, P. 41
“Lieut.
Col. William H. Stewart, of the Sixty first Virginia, Mahone's old brigade,
gives a thrilling account of the battle of "The Crater," from which
the following extracts are made……
Ay,
boys, you have hot work ahead they are negroes, and show no quarter." This
was the first intimation that we had to fight negro troops, and it seemed to
infuse the little band with impetuous daring, as they pressed onward to the
fray. Our comrades had been slaughtered in a most inhuman and brutal manner,
and slaves were trampling over their mangled and bleeding corpses. Revenge must
have fired every heart and strung every arm with nerves of steel for the
herculean task of blood….”
Southern Historical
Society Papers. Vol. XXIII. Richmond,
Va., January-December. 1895.
By Judge THOMAS R.
ROULHAC, late First Lieutenant Company D.,
Forty-Ninth North Carolina Infantry.
“A
large excavation was made, and in the smoke and confusion, amid the flying
debris and mangled men, the enemy charged in great force, effecting a lodgement
in our lines, and a large number of flags of Burnside's Corps floated on our
works. Reinforcements poured to their support and a vigorous assault was made
on our line on both sides of the crater. In the van were negro soldiers crying,
"No quarter to the rebels." “
Southern Historical
Society Papers, Vol. XXXIII. Richmond,
Va., January-December. 1905
”Graphic Account Of Battle
Of Crater, STORY OF A PARTICIPANT.
Charge of Wilcox's
Old Brigade Under General Saunders, of Mahone's Division.”
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 22, 1905
“…..
In the fort the enemy were crowded, but; undaunted by numbers, our boys
commenced scaling the sides of the fort. The enemy kept up such a fire that it
seemed like a second Vesuvius belching forth its fire. Then came the "tug of
war" The enemy have shouted: "No quarters!" We then gave them
what they justly deserved. There we were on one side of the walls of the fort
and the Yankees on the other. The fight was the bloodiest of the war
considering the numbers engaged. We fought with muskets, with bayonets, with
rocks, and even with clods of dirt. The fight lasted in this manner for near
half an hour, when they called for quarters, and we being sickened by the
slaughter as well as awfully tired of the fight, granted them quarters. All
that we had not killed surrendered, and I must say we took some of the Negroes
prisoners.”
34 - The USCT as Prison
Guards
A
google search of “USCT [United States Colored Troops] and Prison Guards”
yielded over 3000 hits. Of the first 10, one “hit” made brief mention of the
behavior of African American guards at Point Lookout, claiming that it was
sometimes “brutal” but also sometimes “kind.” Another hit stressed the
‘important’ part the USCT guards played in the war effort. i.e., “they prevented
captured Confederates from rejoining the war,” which I have to admit is one of
the most creative attempts I’ve ever seen at turning a mundane task into a
war-winning feat of incredible achievement. It gets even better though, because
still another “hit” praised the 200 black guards at Elmira for guarding over 12000 Confederates!
I wonder if any of them got the Congressional Medal of Honor for pinning down
12000 unarmed, emaciated, freezing men? Any more embellishment and the story
would have been easily confused with 200 men holding off thousands at the Alamo. And in another hit, there is actually a mention of
a Confederate being shot by a guard at Point Lookout, but according to the
writer, the prisoner was being “unprofessional” because he shouted “racial
slurs.” What can I say? It is impossible to argue with “logic” such as this!
Now,
a reality check - The United States Colored Troops displayed the same human
failings as the white troops on either side. They were not mythic, they were
not “angels” in blue, and they were not “boy scouts.” I am a firm believer in
“equal time,” and quite simply, it is “time” for a little of that here. It
seems that no one else is willing to look objectively at the down side of their
behavior and performance, so allow me. Here is a quick look at them in their
roles as prison guards. My purpose is less to issue a general condemnation of
them, and more to provide a little balance among the stories that are currently
being told.
“Southern Historical
Society Papers,” Vol 1. Richmond,
Virginia, April, 1876. No. 4
”The Treatment Of Prisoners During The
War Between The States.”
“The
affidavit of Thomas E. Gilkerson states that negro soldiers were promoted to
corporals for shooting white prisoners at Point Lookout, where he was a
prisoner…..…That negroes were placed on guard. That while on guard, a negro
called a prisoner over the dead line, which the prisoner did not recognize as
such, and the negro shot him dead, and went unpunished…..That shooting
prisoners without cause or provocation, was of frequent occurrence by the negro
guards.”
“Southern Historical
Society Papers,” Vol. VII. Richmond, Virginia. August 1879.
No. 8. “Prison Experience.” By James T. Wells, Sgt. Co. A, 2ndSouth Carolina Infantry.
“…A
guard of negroes was sent through the camp to search for it, and the manner in
which they performed that duty was observable in the number of bleeding heads
among the prisoners. They had beat them over the head in order to compel them
to tell who did it. For this conduct, their officers praised them, and told
them to shoot whenever they felt like doing so, and right well did they obey
this order, as will be shown hereafter. Matters were thus proceeding from bad
to worse. The shooting of a prisoner was looked upon as an every day affair,
especially when said shooting was done by a negro. The colored troops came on
guard only once in three days, and the day of their coming was always dreaded
by the prisoners”
“Southern Historical
Society Papers,”Vol. XVIII. Richmond,
Va., January-December. 1890.
”Prison-Pens North” [From The Dispatch, June 21, 1891.] by Hon. A. M. Keiley. -
“The
negro guard would, almost without warning, fire among the prisoners, and this
at last culminated in the murder of a poor, feeble old man named Potts, a
prisoner, one of the most harmless creatures in the pen. He was hailed by one
of the guard while approaching his ward, ordered to stop, and shot dead while
standing still.”
“Southern Historical
Society Papers.” Vol. XVIII. Richmond,
Va., January-December. 1890.
Point Lookout - Address before Pickett Camp Confederate Veterans, October 10, 1890.
BY PAST COMMANDER
CHARLES T. LOEHR., [Richmond
(Va.) Times, October 11, 1890.]
“Next
our guards. As already stated, they were negroes who took particular delight in
showing their former masters that "the bottom rail was on top." On
one occasion one of the North
Carolina men, who have a habit, which is shared by
our Virginia
country cousins, in whittling every wooden object they come across, was
enjoying this sport on the prison gate, when one of the colored soldiers shot
him down, nearly blowing his head off. This created some little excitement, but
what the result was I never learned. During the day we had access to the sink
built on piles in the bay, but at night the gates were closed, and boxes were
placed in the lower part of the camp, to which the men were allowed to go at
all hours of the night. There were hundreds of sick in camp, cases of violent
diarrhœa, reducing the men to skeletons. As these men were compelled to
frequent these boxes, the negroes would often compel them at the point of the
bayonet to march around in double quick time, to carry them on their backs, to
kneel and pray for Abe Lincoln, and forced them to submit to a variety of their
brutal jokes, some of which decency would not permit me to mention…”
“Southern Historical
Society Papers,” Vol. XXV. Richmond,
Va., January-December. 1897. [From
the Richmond, Va.. Times, August 22,
1897.],
Stories of Captain F.
C. Barnes and Captain R. E. Frayser.
“We
were guarded by negro troops commanded by Colonel Hallowell, who was a
heartless man, and under him the most cruel treatment was experienced. We were
not allowed any privileges, and often fired into by the guards for the most
trivial offence and several men were wounded.”
****Special
thanks to Bernard Thuersam of the “Cape Fear Historical Institute” http://www.cfhi.net/, for the following
reference:
“Rock Island Dungeon”
“When
we arrived [as Confederate prisoners] at Rock
Island, early in December 1863, Col. Rust was in
command with a detachment of the Fourth Invalid Corps. He was a kind-hearted
old fellow and just to the prisoners; but unfortunately for us the old Colonel
was soon removed, and in his place came as inhuman a brute as ever disgraced
the uniform of any country, one A.J. Johnson, with his regiment of Negroes for
guard duty, leaving the Fourth Invalid men…for light fatigue duty.
Men
were brutally punished upon the slightest pretext. I saw prisoners tied up to
the fence by their thumbs, their toes barely touching the ground in the hot,
broiling sun until they would faint, and when cut down by the guards, fall limp
and unconscious. While none of us dared approach for they were next to the
fence, over the dead line and grinning Negro sentinels stood just above them
with ready guns in hand. …..”
(Forty
Hours In A Dungeon At Rock Island,”
B.M. Hord, Nashville, TN. Confederate Veteran Magazine,
August 1904, page 385
35 - The
USCT – Yankees Behaving as Yankees often do – Badly!
A google search of “USCT AND atrocities” yielded a handful of
pages among the first 50 hits which had nothing whatsoever to do with the civil
war itself. Two of the first 50 hits, one belonging to a Southron blogger, and
another to an SCV camp, dealt with atrocities committed by the USCT. The
remaining pages all dealt with Confederate atrocities perpetrated on the USCT.
What’s missing here? The answer is - an awful lot of history! Does anyone other
than me feel that the presentation is a bit one-sided?
One of the pages I found maintained that the USCT massacre of
Confederate soldiers at Fort
Blakely in 1865 was at
least exaggerated, if not fabricated. Another essentially said that the rebs
got what they deserved because they used the the “N” word. Sorry folks, once
again, I cannot refute such rationale. It is simply too painful for me to try
to think on this guy’s level.
As I said in the Prison Guard story, it’s time for a little equal
time and to bring the history books back into balance. There are two sides to
every story, and this is the other side that rarely gets told. Hold onto your
hats and let’s roll the historical videotape:
****The affair at Fort
Blakely is something that
I’ve known about for a very long time. What amazed me when I searched for it
was the number of “hits” which either denied that atrocities took place or
which attempted to minimize them. While atrocity accusations against
Confederates these days abound, any similar accusation made against black union
troops seems to bring out a small army of historians with their little scrub
brushes and spray bottles, hurriedly rushing to clean up the USCT’s reputation.
The words quoted below, by the way, were the last words of Lt. Joshua Lazarus Moses,
who was commanding an artillery battery at the defense of Fort Blakely,
Mobile Alabama,
April 9, 1865, and
whose command was overrun by USCT soldiers. The USCT did not spare Lt.
Moses.
Fort Blakely, April 9, 1865 – “For God’s sake, spare my men, they have
surrendered!”
O.R.--
SERIES I--VOLUME XXXV/1 [S# 65] - JANUARY 1-NOVEMBER 13, 1864.--Operations in
Charleston Harbor and Vicinity, S.C. No. 32.--Reports of Brig. Gen. Beverly H.
Robertson, C. S. Army, commanding Second and Sixth Military Districts, of
operations July 7-10. HDQRS. SECOND AND SIXTH MILITARY DISTRICTS, July 14, 1864.
“…..For the information of the major-general commanding I desire
to state that negro prisoners assert that Colonel Silliman, commanding
Twenty-sixth Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, in the presence of Brig. Gen. R.
Saxton (who has always commanded negroes), gave orders to show no quarter;
also, that on Thursday, when the right of our line was temporarily pressed
back, Private Cooper, Company B, Second South Carolina Cavalry, who was
wounded, fell into the enemy's hands. When we recovered the ground it was
discovered that he had been bayoneted in six or seven different places. I
respectfully recommend that the Yankee General Foster be held to a strict
accountability for such violation of civilized warfare….”
B. H. ROBERTSON, Brigadier-General, Commanding
“Dixie After the War, Myrta Lockett Avary,” Pages 141-142
“Newberry South Carolina,
Calvin S. Crozier – confederate soldier, released from prison, on his way home,
September 8, 1865.
At Orangeburg, S.C., a gentleman placed 2 young ladies
under his care. To Crozier, the trust was sacred. At Newberry, the train was
derailed by obstructions placed on the tracks by negro soldiers of the 33rd
U.S. Regiment, which, under the command of Colonel Trowbridge, white, was on
its way from Anderson to Columbia. Crozier got out with the others to see what
was the matter. Returning, he found the coach invaded by two half-drink negro
soldiers, cursing and using indecent language. He called upon them to desist,
directing their attention to the presence of ladies. They replied that they
“didn’t care a damn”. One attempted gross familiarities with one of the ladies.
Crozier ejected him’ the second negro interfered, there was a struggle in the
dark’ one negro fled unhurt’ the other, with a slight cut, ran toward camp
yelling, “I’m cut by a damned rebel!” Black soldiers came in a mob.
The narrative as told on the monument, concludes, “the infuriated
soldiers seized a citizen of Newberry upon whom they were about to execute
savage revenge, when Crozier came promptly forward and avowed his own
responsibility. He was hurried in the night time to the bivouac of the regiment
to which the soldiers belonged, was kept under guard all night, was not allowed
communication with any citizen, was condemned to die without even the form of a
trial, and was shot to death about daylight the following morning, and his body
mutilated.
He had been ordered to dig his own grave, but refused. A hole had
been dug, he was made to keel on its brink, the column fired upon him and he
tumbled into it, and then the black troops jumped on it laughing, dancing,
stamping.”
****. Opportunities to commit atrocities on the battlefield didn’t
present themselves to the USCT very often, but what they were unable to do on
the battlefield, they seemed to make up for off the battlefield, especially
when it came to dealing with unarmed, white Southern civilians, thus, equaling
and sometimes surpassing the behavior of their white blue-clad “comrades.”
O.R.--SERIES
I--VOLUME XL/3 [S# 82]
CONFEDERATE
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN SOUTHEASTERN
VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, FROM JULY 5, 1864, TO JULY 31, 1864.--#1,
RICHMOND, VA., July 5, 1864.
Maj. T. O. CHESTNEY,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters:
MAJOR: I have the honor to report that about the 13th of June last
a regiment of negroes, commanded by Colonel Draper, of Massachusetts, arrived
at Pope's Creek, in Westmoreland County, Va., accompanied by about fifty
regular U.S. Cavalry.(*) They marched to Union Wharf Richmond County, in
divided commands, taking negroes, horses, cattle, bacon, wagons, farming
utensils, &c., all of which were either carried away or burned. About the
14th, at a place called Hutt's Store, near the center of Westmoreland County,
some of the negro troops went to the house of Private George, of Ninth Virginia
Cavalry, and committed a rape upon his wife, who had just been confined with a
babe only six weeks old. She is now almost a maniac, and begs that some one
will kill her. This atrocious crime can be verified by a number of witnesses
who are personally cognizant of the fact. In Warsaw, Richmond County,
the negro troops attempted to ravish white ladies, but were foiled by the
assistance of the female slaves of the households. In the case of Mrs.
Belfield, she escaped by flight to the woods. Many other instances could be
mentioned of like atrocities if desired……..
JNO. S. BRAXTON, , Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.
O.R.--SERIES
I--VOLUME XXXIX/2 [S# 78]
UNION
CORRESPONDENCE…., U.S.
S. MOOSE, Smithland, Ky., June 11, 1864.
Rear-Admiral
DAVID D. PORTER,
Commanding Mississippi
Squadron:
SIR: ….. I am told, in consequence of some gross outrages that was
said to have been committed in that neighborhood by a Colonel Cunningham, from Paducah. It is reported
that he went up in that section of country with a lot of negro soldiers, and
sent them on shore to conscript every negro they could find. These negroes, it
is reported, were sent on shore armed and without an officer with them, entered
private houses, broke open the doors, and entered ladies' bedrooms before they
were up, insulted women, and plundered and searched generally. If this be as
bad as reported, it is certainly a gross outrage and disgrace to our cause. I
will, on my way up, stop and see if I can ascertain the truth of the matter. It
was said that gun-boat convoyed them up. None of our gun-boats convoyed them or
would countenance such disgraceful proceedings; on the contrary, they would
have forced respect to women. On my way down I found the people so frightened
and excited that to set them aright I thought it only justice to ourselves to
send them a communication, of which the inclosed is a copy.(*)
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
LE ROY FITCH, Lieutenant-Commander.
“The Day Dixie Died, Southern Occupation,” By Thomas and Debra
Goodrich
Page
155 - “Maj. J.R.
Cook and his family lived about seven miles from Vicksburg, not far from the railroad line.
Despite numerous murders in their community, the Cooks felt some sense of
security. General Grant himself had guaranteed that Hardtimes Plantation would
not be subject to further searches or depredations, The family had retired for
the retired for the evening when a party of 25 black soldiers, armed with
muskets and carbines, burst into the house. During the confrontation, gunfire
erupted and Minerva was struck in the chest. When the major rushed to her aid,
he too was shot. Before leaving, the intruders plundered the house and grounds,
taking not only valuables, but also every chicken on the farm.”
Page 226
- Near Chattanooga,
black troops entered the home of an old man, robbed him, beat him nearly to
death, then raped his wife and daughter.
Page 155
- “A company of black soldiers drove off the family’s hogs, Eudora
Inez Moore reported from Texas,
and when her father tried to stop them, the troops picked up sticks and
threatened to “beat his brains out” if he came any closer. ….”
Pages
226–227 - In Augusta,
a regular battle ensued when black soldiers were chased from a woman’s home by
her son, who wielded a pistol. More troops returned, broke down the door, and
stormed upstairs. When it was over, and an officer had finally forced them out,
four blacks were dead. (footnote 17)
Pages
226–227 - In Beaufort North Carolina,
a squad of black soldiers entered a home near the fort and, reported a Charlotte editor, “while
the man of the house and his wife were held, they ravished their daughter, a
girl of 15 year of age. ………..“Another squad went to another house and attempted
a rape on a child of 10 years of age” At almost the same time, 4 black troops
from fort Macon were brought to Raleigh in chains on charges of raping a 13
year old. In Texas,
a band of several hundred black soldiers went on a rampage, raiding, robbing
and raping…
“Dixie After the War,” Myrta Lockett Avary
Page 22 –
“In Raymond Mississippi,
Negro troops strung a flag across the street and drove the white children under
it.”
Page 273
– “In the hill country of South
Carolina, a one-armed ex-confederate, a “poor white”,
made a scanty living for his large family by hauling. Once, on a lonely road,
when his load was whiskey, he was surrounded by negro soldiers, who killed him,
took possession of the whiskey and drank it. Ring leaders were arrested and
lodged in jail; some were spirited away to Columbia and released; a plan was afoot to
set the rest free, among them, the negro captain who had boasted of his crime,
and flouted the whites with their powerlessness to punish him….
Page 267
– “A congregation in another county church was thrown into a panic
by balls crashing through the boards and windows; a girl of 14 was killed –
negro soldiers marched by.”
Page 267
– “Into a dwelling a squad of black soldiers marched, bound the
owner, a prominent aged citizen, pillaged his house, and then before his eyes,
bound his maiden daughter and proceeded to fight among themselves for her
possession. “Though”, related my informant, “her neck and face had been
slobbered over, she stood quietly watching the conflict. At last, the victor
came to her, caught her in his arms and started into an adjoining room, when he
wavered and fell and she with him. She had driven a knife, of which she had in
some way possessed herself, into his heart. The others rushed in and beat her
until she too was lifeless. There was no redress.”
“The
Coming of the Glory,” By John S. Tilley
Page 171 - “…Even
so, the soldiers’ favorite activity of looting at length reached such excesses
as to provoke open condemnation from Northern editors and clergymen, among the
latter being Henry Ward Beecher.” (from
the Tuskaloosa Monitor, copied in Montgomery
Weekly Mail, May 6, 1868)
Page 213
- “The crowning humiliation came with the arrival of Colonel Shaw’s
negro regiment from Massachusetts,
a group which went to great pains to vent its wrath upon the despised
slave-holders. A careful student of the period tersely records that the colored
soldiers were “lawless, brutish and in not a few instances, murderers.” They
swash-buckled through the streets, elbowed men and women alike off the
sidewalks, flaunted their authority in the faces of the helpless whites,
threatened with their guns, any show of opposition.”
“The
Tragic Era,” By Claude G. Bowers, P. 53
From every quarter appeals reached Washington for their [the USCT occupying
forces in South Carolina
during Reconstruction] removal, for the fears of the whites were not of the
imagination. Thus, at Chester
they clubbed and bayoneted an old man, at Abbeville white men were ordered from
the sidewalks, in Charleston
they forced their way into a house, ordered food, and, after partaking, felled
the mistress of the household….
“Jefferson
Davis, Private Letters 1823 – 1889”, by Hudson
Strode, Page 218
….I thank God on my knees for the cloud which directed me the day
I sent my poor little boys away from danger. A quarrel with a negro child
caused by the negro snatching a toy from its hand which the white child’s
father reclaimed from the negro, brought to the rescue two negro soldiers, who,
finding that the white man had help, desisted, but came back with 20 more at
night and were only prevented from murdering him by his barring his doors and
sending secretly for the police…. (a letter from Varina Davis to Jefferson
Davis, December 25, 1865)
“DAILY
CONSTITUTIONALIST” [AUGUSTA,
GA], July 22, 1864, p. 4, c. 1
”Mrs. Mary Beckham, in a letter published in the Atlanta
Appeal, furnishes a lengthy narrative of the treatment of her family by Lincoln ’s murderers….
"On
Tuesday morning about 9 o’clock, August 4th, 1863, twelve armed negro soldiers
came to the house, there being no one there except my husband, father-in-law,
Benjamin Beckham, and four of my children, and some of our family negroes. They
rushed on my husband and tied him, took off his watch and pin, and rifled his
pockets. They then tied my father-in-law, and dragged them to the river, (it
being about thirty yards.) They killed my husband on top of the bank by
shooting him in the head. They then cut off his shoulder-blade and rolled his
body into the river, his clothes looked as if there had been a great struggle.
They
then took the old gentleman, stabbed him three times, once in the heart, and
cut one of his ears off. After throwing his body into the river, they proceeded
back to the house, where two of them had been guarding my dear little children.
They spoke to my eldest daughter, Laura, aged fourteen years, telling her to
get up and follow her old daddy, at the same time presenting a pistol to her
temple. The children then were driven to the waters edge, where their father
and grandfather had been murdered, and then they were put to death in the most
cruel manner.
The
youngest, Richard aged two and a half years, was thrown into the water alive.
Laura jumped in and attempted to rescue him, and whilst in the water, waist deep,
begging for mercy, she was knocked on the head by the butt end of a gun,
entirely separating her forehead, and then stabbed in the side. Kate Ida,
eleven years of age, was then disposed of. She was beaten with guns until her
head and shoulders were perfectly soft; her body was bruised all over.
Caroline, seven years of age was shot through the head, and so disfigured that
she did not look like a human. After they had murdered them all and thrown
their bodies into the river, they returned to the house, taking everything
valuable and all the clothing they could carry."”
36 - Prisoner Exchange and the USCT
There
are many stories circulating around these days which claim that the South
refused to treat black union soldiers as prisoners of war, that they killed
them outright, or sold them into slavery, and that the North, in an effort to
hold the moral high ground, suspended the prisoner exchange cartel in 1864 in a
noble effort to get the South to recognize black civil rights.
****George
Christian, writing in the Southern Historical Society Papers, essentially lays
out the real issues and the problem as it concerned black union prisoners of
war and General Richard Taylor confirms Christian’s contentions in the
following source.
Essentially,
if a black union prisoner was recognized as being a runaway slave, he was to be
returned to his former owner. Until the owner was found, he was put to work
repairing or building military fortifications or projects. Free men of color
went to a prison camp along with the white prisoners. There was no policy on
the part of the Confederate government which ordered the execution of black
union prisoners.
Southern Historical
Society Papers, Vol. XXX. Richmond,
Va., January-December. 1902
By Hon. GEO. L.
CHRISTIAN, Chairman., Read at Wytheville,
Va., October 23rd, 1902.
“…..
The Federal authorities contended that where slaves were captured by them, or
when they deserted and came to them and enlisted in their armies, they thereby
became free, and should be placed on the same footing with their white
soldiers, in respect to exchanges, as well as in all other respects. The
Confederates, on the contrary, contended that whatever might be the effect on
the status of the slave by going to the Federals and enlisting in their armies,
yet should they be recaptured by the Confederates, that restored them to their
former status as slaves, and they should then be returned to their masters or
put to work by the Confederates, and their masters compensated for their labor.
In those cases where the masters did not reside in the Confederacy, or could
not be ascertained, such Negroes were to be exchanged as other prisoners.”
“Destruction and
Reconstruction,” by Richard Taylor, Page 215
“The
Confederate Congress had enacted that negro troops, captured, should be
restored to their owners. We had several hundreds of such, taken by Forrest in Tennessee, whose owners
could not be reached; and they were put to work on the fortifications at Mobile, rather for the
purpose of giving them healthy employment than for the value of the work. I
made it a point to visit their camps and inspect the quantity and quality of
their food, always found to be satisfactory…..”
****Jefferson
Davis, not one for lying, remarked that he had never been told the reason for the
North’s suspension of the prisoner exchange, which leaves one wondering about
the claim of contemporary historians that the reason the North suspended
prisoner exchange was because the Confederates would not treat black prisoners
who were runaway slaves as “prisoners of war.” Looking at Davis’ quote, we are left to wonder how it
was that the North could uspend the cartel, allegedly over injustice directed
at the black man, but forget to notify the Confederate government of this? The
matter is more clearly laid out in the source following Davis’, written by a former Confederate
officer in the January 1896 edition of the “Confederate Veteran”:
Jefferson Davis to
Congress of the Confederate States, Richmond,
2. May 1864.
“On
the subject of the exchange of prisoners, I greatly regret to be unable to give
you satisfactory information. The government of the United States, while persisting in
failure to execute the terms of the cartel, make occasional deliveries of
prisoners and then suspend action without apparent cause. I confess my
inability to comprehend their policy or purpose.”
From The Papers of
Jefferson Davis, Volume 10, pp. 378-87. Transcribed from a signed copy in the
National Archives, RG109, Documents in the Official Records, Series 4, Volume
3, pp. 365-68.
JOHN SHIRLEY WARD, Los Angeles, Cal.,
P. 10 Confederate Veteran January 1896.
“…This
fact led the Southern Government to decline to recognize negroes as prisoners
of war who had been decoyed from their homes by promises of large bounties for
enlistment against their old masters, and it was intended by the Cartel that it
should include the exchange of only free soldiers. This was not a question of
color, for the South was willing to regard as prisoners free negroes who had
been captured in the Union Army.”
****I’ve
been reading about the Civil War for over 50 years. The way I always understood
it, the prisoner exchange was suspended by the North in 1864 as part of a war
of attrition against the South. Quite simply, the South could not replace its killed,
wounded or captured, while the North could, due to its much larger population.
The North then had nothing to gain by engaging in a prisoner exchange and chose
therefore, to forego it, and bleed the South dry, thus bringing the war to a
speedier conclusion. Today we are often told that the North suspended the
cartel because it was enraged over the South’s failure to give black prisoners
of war their civil rights. If anyone believes that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I dearly would love to sell you.
I
also have to believe that had Lincoln
announced to the white northern population that their husbands, brothers and
sons would have to languish in Southern prison camps to promote black civil
rights that he either would have had mass riots on his hands, or, he would have
been clobbered in the election of 1864.
The
following two sources give another, and perhaps more truthful side to the
story. The first is written by a Confederate officer in the July 1911 edition
of the Confederate Veteran, and the second is from a Union POW who was part of
a delegation of Andersonville prisoners that
was sent to Washington
in 1864, to help try and negotiate the re-instituting of the prisoner exchange
cartel.
EXCHANGE OF CIVIL WAR
PRISONERS., BY JOHN BROADUS MITCHELL.
342 Confederate Veteran July 1911
“Stanton's
words are well known: "We will not exchange able bodied men for skeletons.
We do not propose to reinforce the Rebel army by exchanging prisoners."
It is claimed with some weight that the talk
after the war of negroes having affected the exchange of prisoners was not
founded on fact, since at the time the Northern authorities abandoned the
cartel there were no negro prisoners. The difference, however, did affect
conditions.
The attitude of Secretary of War Stanton and
of General Grant that no exchange so long as the North held the excess of prisoners
was a necessity of war is best seen in their own communications on the subject.
On August 8, 1864,
Grant sent the following telegram to General Butler: "On the subject of
exchange of prisoners, however, I differ with General Hitchcock. It is hard on
our men held in Southern prisons not to release them, but it is humanity to
those left in the ranks to fight our battles. To commence a system of exchange
now, which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the
whole South is exterminated. If we hold those already caught, they amount to no
more than so many dead men. At this particular time to release Rebel prisoners
would insure Sherman's
defeat and compromise our safety here." Grant says in his
"Memoirs" that the exchanged Confederate was equal on the defensive
to three Union soldiers attacking.”
“Andersonville,
The Southern Perspective,” by Joe Henry Segars
Google Books, page
76, (This from union Pvt. Edward Wellington Boate)
”….General Winder remarked to us before we quitted Andersonville,
that the object of our government in refusing to exchange was that they felt it
hard to give soldiers for civilians. "The time," added he, "of
thousands of those unhappy men in that stockade is out many months; thousand of
others are rendered worthless for soldiers through long confinements, disease
and privations - for I will admit that we have not the resources to treat your
men as we would wish."
Since I returned to the North, Winder's words were confirmed, for it was
semi-officially stated to me that, "It might look very hard that we
refused to exchange; but we could not afford to do so. We would have to give a
number of strong; well fed, available soldiers for a number of men broken down
from campaigning, disease, and out of the service by the expiration of their
term."
A policy like this is the quintessence of inhumanity, a disgrace to the
Administration which carried it out, and a blot upon the county. You rulers who
make the charge that the rebels intentionally killed of or men, when I can
honestly swear they were doing everything in their power to sustain us, do not
lay this flattering unction to your souls. You abandoned your brave men in the
hour of their cruelest need. They fought for the Union,
and you reached no hand out to save the old faithful, loyal, and devoted
servants of the country. You may try to shift the blame from your own
shoulders, but posterity will saddle the responsibility where it justly belongs.”
****The
claim is often made that the official Confederate policy toward black union
soldiers was to take no prisoners, or to execute them after capture. While such
things did occur, as well as the reverse I might add, the truth is that there
was no official policy to that effect. After an incident of this type at
Saltville Virginia
in 1864, the commanding in that area, General J.C. Breckinridge, irate over the
behavior of some of his troops, reported the incident to Robert E. Lee. Lee
wrote the following letter back to Breckinridge..
Robert E. Lee's
dispatch concerning the murders of POW's at Saltville, VA
(October 2, 1864)
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
October 21, 1864.
Maj. Gen. J. C. BRECKINRIDGE,
Commanding,
&c., Wytheville:
GENERAL:
General Lee directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th
instant, and to repeat the gratification the handsome success at Saltville
afforded him, and his satisfaction with the arrange meats and dispositions made
by you. He hopes your efforts to promote the efficiency of the troops in your
department will be soon attended with the success they deserve. He is much
pained to hear of the treatment the negro prisoners are reported to have
received, and agrees with you in entirely condemning it. That a general officer
should have been guilty of the crime you mention meets with his unqualified
reprobation. He directs that if the officer is still in your department you
prefer charges against him and bring him to trial. Should he have left your
department you will forward the charges to be transmitted to the Department, in
order that such action may be taken as the case calls for.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CHARLES MARSHALL,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide.de. Camp.
37 - The Worst Place to
be? Perhaps the USCT!
In
earlier articles, I attempted to reduce the USCT to more believable historical
levels. Their contribution was not critical to the union’s success or failure,
their performance was often not nearly as spectacular as portrayed in the
movies, like their white counterparts, they were also subject to compulsory
military duty, many didn’t even want to be there, and there was no shortage of
them who were willing to engage in their own brand of atrocities.
Once
again, it’s time to bring the historical books into balance, and to do it this
time, within my own series of articles. What kinds of conditions did USCT
soldiers operate under?
Someone
once asked me, “who would you have like to have been if you were alive during
the civil war?” Can’t say that I have an answer for that question, but at least
I do know who I would not have wanted to be – a USCT line soldier! Why? Well,
if I were a USCT soldier, here’s how I would describe the conditions that I operate
under:
The
Confederate soldier views me as his worst nightmare come to life. Ever since
40000 whites were slaughtered by the former slaves in Haiti back in
1804, the phrase “servile insurrection” has haunted white Americans, especially
in the South where slavery as an institution took root. The white Southerner
believes (with some justification perhaps), that the Northern government is
turning to servile war in its effort to crush him, and that I am a part of that
effort. My fellow northern (white) soldier sees me as a joke at best and an
insult to the uniform at worst. I sometimes run as much of a risk of being
fired on by him as I do the men in gray. Many of my white officers rip the
“USCT” patches off their jackets when captured and deny that they never saw me
before in their lives! The Northern public either belittles me or sees me as a
warm body with which to fill a uniform that would otherwise be filled with a
white man. Many in the north say that I will never make a good soldier, others
want to use me for cannon fodder. My equipment is substandard, and the
treatment I receive is worse than the treatment I received as a slave. And, the
criticism of my performance that I receive from those for whom I am risking my
life fails to take into account that my regiment was formed in 1863 and is
composed of inexperienced men who are being sent into battle against
battle-hardened troops who have been fighting for more than 2 years. I’m doing
the best I can despite being “up against it,” yet, I am paid an average of
$11/month as compared to the $13/month that my white “comrades” receive. Many
times, I am not even given the chance to choose whether or not I want to be
here….
That
said, let’s roll the historical videotape:
****Captain
Waddell, of the Confederate Commerce raider, CSS Shenendoah, perhaps summed it
up best:
“Southern Partisan
Magazine,” Volume XXVI No. 2, July 2007, Page 31
A Book Review of “The
Last Shot”, by Lynn Schooler, New
York, Harper-Collins, 2006
“In
his musings, (Captain) Waddell wrote regarding Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, “For two
years the North waged war against the South without attempting to interfere
with slavery. It was only when they found the negro could be used for killing
the white people of the South and serve as breastworks for Northern white
troops that they declared him free…they cared nothing for the unhappy negro;
they preferred his destruction to that of their white troops.” “
****Sherman,
who once described himself as “the best friend that Sambo ever had,” was more
than critical about the idea of black men wearing blue uniforms:
“War Crimes Against
Southern Civilians,” Walter Brian Cisco, Page 140
…
“I like niggers well enough as niggers,” but only “fools and idiots” promoted
their advancement.”
“Southern Negroes
1861 – 1865,” By Bell
Irvin Wiley, Page 302
“I
want soldiers made of the best bone and muscle in the land and won’t attempt
military feats with doubtful materials…I am right and won’t change.”….”I cannot
bring myself to trust Negroes with arms in positions of danger and
trust.”…General W.T. Sherman thought it “unjust to the brave soldiers and
volunteers” to place them on a par with Negro recruits.”
O.R.-- SERIES
I--VOLUME XXXVIII/5 [S# 76]
UNION CORRESPONDENCE…September 4, 1864.
General
HALLECK:
MY
DEAR FRIEND: ….
…..I
hope anything I may have said or done will not be construed unfriendly to Mr.
Lincoln or Stanton. That negro letter of mine I never designed for publication,
but I am honest in my belief that it is not fair to our men to count negroes as
equals. Cannot we at this day drop theories, and be reasonable men? Let us
capture negroes, of course, and use them to the best advantage. My
quartermaster now could give employment to 3,200, and relieve that number of
soldiers who are now used to unload and dispatch trains, whereas those
recruiting agents take them back to Nashville,
where, so far as my experience goes, they disappear. When I call for
expeditions at distant points, the answer invariably comes that they have not
sufficient troops. All count the negroes out. On the Mississippi, where Thomas talked about
100,000 negro troops, I find I cannot draw away a white soldier, because
they are indispensable to the safety of the river. I am
willing to use them as far as possible, but object to fighting with
"paper" men. Occasionally an exception occurs, which simply deceives.
We want the best young white men of the land, and they should be inspired with
the pride of freemen to fight for their country. If Mr. Lincoln or Stanton
could walk through the camps of this army and hear the soldiers talk they would
hear new ideas. I have had the question put to me often: "Is not a negro
as good as a white man to stop a bullet?" Yes, and a sand-bag is better;
but can a negro do our skirmishing and picket duty? Can they improvise roads,
bridges, sorties, flank movements, &c., like the white man? I say no.
Soldiers must and do many things without orders from their own sense, as in
sentinels. Negroes are not equal to this. I have gone steadily, firmly, and
confidently along, and I could not have done it with black troops, but with my
old troops I have never felt a waver of doubt, and that very confidence begets
success……
Your
sincere friend,
W. T. SHERMAN.
****Other
union soldiers, officers and politicians, often mirrored Sherman’s sentiments….
“Myths and Realities
of American Slavery,” By John C. Perry, Page 206:
- “One Union colonel
wrote of the African Americans in the union blue uniform, “makes a good enough
soldier for garrison and guard duty, but for field service a hundred white men
is worth a thousand of them.”
- “A Union sergeant
writing from the front lines in Virginia said that he did not want to fight
side by side with them, suggesting rather that the African American soldiers
“be sent here to use the pick and shovel in the roiling sun as we are doing
now, and we will take a soldier’s tool – the gun and the bayonet.” “
- “Some white Union
soldiers felt that the African American troops were given special treatment.
One write, “Some of the boys say that the army motto is, first the Negro, then
the mule, then the white man. A sergeant from Minnesota complained about the special
treatment received by an African American aide on the headquarters’ staff. He
wrote, “Their has been more sympathy lavished on him than I ever saw on 20
white men. I guess the day is not distant when a white man will be as good as a
Nigar.” “
“Perry's Saints or
The Fighting Parson's Regiment,” Chapter 11
“….
I am impelled to say, in spite of the criticisms that my statement may provoke,
that my own observation and experience, as well as the experience of others,
have convinced me that the prevailing opinion, especially in New England, of
the valuable services rendered by colored troops in actual conflict, is
erroneous, and that their most effective work during the war was done with the
pick and spade.”
O.R.-- SERIES
I--VOLUME XXXIV/3 [S# 63]
UNION
CORRESPONDENCE,…April 17, 1864.
Maj.
Gen. D. HUNTER, U.S.
Volunteers:
General
Banks has always been very vigilant in the organization of colored troops. It
is to be hoped that his expedition up Red River
will give a large number of recruits of this class. All acquired in this way,
however, being without organization or discipline, could not be counted as so
many men for defense of garrisons. Three of them, though, might count equal to
one veteran soldier in fixing the number to leave behind at any one place.
U.S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General.
- “Certainly we hope we
may never have to confess to the world that the United States government has to
seek an ally in the negro to regain its authority,” declared an editorial in
the Milwaukee Sentinel. “We don’t want
to fight alongside with the nigger,” agreed a recruit from New York.
“We think we are a too superior race for that…”
-
“Vice President Hamlin probably reflected northerners’ opinion . . . when he
told a rally in Bangor
[Maine] in
July that “we want to save, as much as possible, our men, even if it is done by
men a little blacker than myself.”
-
“Governor Samuel Kirkwood of Iowa
put the matter more baldly when he voiced a desire to see “some dead niggers as
well as dead white men.” “
****The
treatment these men received from their own side ranged from disrespectful to
downright appalling:
“Southern Negroes
1861 – 1865,” By Bell
Irvin Wiley, Page 344
“Those
Negroes who were assembled in contraband camps died by the thousands; those who
were employed on plantations received treatment little better than that which
they had received under the old regime, those who entered military pursuits
were dealt with in a manner more becoming to slaves than to freedmen.”
“The Slave
Narratives,” Rev. Squires Jackson,
Florida
“…..
That very night he ran away to Wellborn where the Federals were camping. There
in a horse stable were wounded colored soldiers stretched out on the filthy
ground. The sight of these wounded men and the
feeble medical attention given then by the Federals was so repulsive to him,
that he decided that he didn't want to join the Federal Army. In the silent
hours of the evening he stole away to Tallahassee,
thoroughly convinced that War wasn't the place for him. While in the horse shed
make-shift hospital, a white soldier asked one of the wounded colored soldiers
to what regiment he belonged, the negro replied "54th Regiment,
Massachusetts.”
VIVID REMINISCENCES
OF WAR TIMES. BY ALDEN M'LELLAN
(LIEUTENANT IN
ARTILLERY), NEW ORLEANS., Confederate Veteran June 1906. p. 265
“….
An amusing thing occurred between the white and colored troops as we left the
island. When we went on board the transport, the colored guards who came with
us were stopped. They had come prepared to go on the transport, and there were
several consultations between officers of white and colored troops before the
colored guards were allowed to come on board, and then they were required to
keep themselves at the bow of the boat. The white soldiers were not friendly to
their colored comrades. At midnight
the colored guards went on duty, then all prisoners had to keep inside the
boat. The relief that was put on duty near me was very unmilitary. The colored
guard approached in proper form, saluted, and asked for instructions. The white
guard, who was leaning on his gun, looked at the relief in a very surly manner
and said, "Stand there," and walked off, trailing his gun.”
O.R.--SERIES
I--VOLUME XXXIX/1 [S# 77], SEPTEMBER 20-OCTOBER 17, 1864.
Raids from Kentucky and East Tennessee into Southwestern
Virginia.
No. 6.--Report of Col. James S. Brisbin, Fifth U.S. Colored Cavalry of the part
taken by a detachment of the Fifth U.S. Colored Cavalry, under the command of
Col. James F. Wade, Sixth U.S. Colored Cavalry, at Saltville
HEADQUARTERS
U.S.
COLORED TROOPS,
Lexington, Ky., October 20, 1864.
……On
the march the colored soldiers, as well as their white officers, were made the
subject of much ridicule and many insulting remarks by the white troops, and in
some instances petty outrages, such as the pulling off the caps of colored
soldiers, stealing their horses, &c., were practiced by the white soldiers.
These insults, as well as the jeers and taunts that they would not fight, were
borne by the colored soldier patiently, or punished with dignity by their
officers, but in no instance did I hear colored soldiers make any reply to
insulting language used toward [them] by the white troops…..
AMES S.
BRISBIN, Colonel and Supt. Organization U.S. Colored Troops.
O.R.-- SERIES
I--VOLUME XXVIII/2 [S# 47]
UNION CORRESPONDENCE,
ETC.--#4 GENERAL ORDERS, No. 77.
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE
SOUTH,
In the Field, Morris
Island, S. C., Sept. 17, 1863.
It
has come to the knowledge of the brigadier-general commanding that the
detachments of colored troops detailed for fatigue duty have been employed, in
one instance at least, to prepare camps and perform menial duty for white
troops. Such use of these details is unauthorized and improper, and is
hereafter expressly prohibited. Commanding officers of colored regiments are
directed to report promptly to these headquarters any violations of this order
which may come to their knowledge……
By
order of Brig. Gen. Q. A. Gillmore:
ED.
W. SMITH, Assistant Adjutant-General.
O.R.-- SERIES
I--VOLUME XXVI/1 [S# 41]
UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.--#8, GENERAL ORDERS No. 12.
HDQRS. UNITED STATES
FORCES,
Port Hudson, La., July 30, 1863.
The
commanding general of this post has been informed of the abuse of colored
soldiers, and disregard of their authority as sentinels, on the part of some of
the other troops of this command, and on the part of some persons not in the
military service. He takes this opportunity to correct certain erroneous
impressions, and to announce to all concerned that this course of conduct must
cease at once and entirely…..
By
command of Brig. Gen. George L. Andrews:
GEO.
B. HALSTED, Captain, and Assistant Adjutant-General.
O.R.-- SERIES
I--VOLUME XXXIV/3 [S# 63]
CONFEDERATE
CORRESPONDENCE
Victoria, May 4, 1864.
Brig.
Gen. J. E. SLAUGHTER,
Chief of Staff:
SIR:
I have the honor to state that I have just returned after a week's absence at
Lavaca and Indianola. The information I have collected leaves me to believe
that all the white troops except 200 or 300 cavalry have been removed from
Saluria and sent to Louisiana.
I think it entirely reliable that Warren's
brigade have left and that their place has been supplied by a regiment of
colored troops. I am informed that the enemy have no confidence in their
colored troops; that Warren thought it unsafe to leave them at Saluria without
white troops; that the negroes mutinied on account of their pay, $7 per month;
that 1 was shot by an officer; that 50 or 60 were court-martialed and sentenced
to one, two, and three years on the Tortugas; that they absolutely refused to
receive their pay, and that numbers of them would desert if they had a chance…
O.
STEELE, Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding
****Being
fired on by their own troops was not unheard of, having their officers deny
that they ever knew them was also not unheard of, and there are several
instances (Olustee, Brice’s Crossroads and Saltville) where, in battle, white
troops ran off and left the black troops to fend for themselves:
“Southern Negroes
1861 – 1865,” By Bell
Irvin Wiley
Page 325 - “At Ship Island,
Mississippi, the Federal gunboat Jackson
was called upon to support 3 colored companies. Instead of training its guns
upon the Confederates, it directed shots into the midst of the Negroes when
they retreated. Some of the gunboat’s crew had been killed a short time before
in an altercation with a colored sentry.”
Page 339 – “A Northern white
soldier who took part in the fight [the Crater] and who was sympathetic toward
the Negroes said in a letter written two days after the battle: “Worse still,
the 13th Indiana white…deliberately shot down many of the retreating
soldiers. When I say there is a fearful mortality among the dusky heroes you
will readily understand how it happened.” The New York Herald correspondent
reported that after their repulse the Negroes “ran, a terror stricken,
disordered mass of fugitives, to the rear of the white troops. In vain their
officers endeavored to rally them with all the persuasion of tongue, saber and
pistol.”
Pages 311–312 – “General [David]
Hunter found great difficulty in getting white officers to command the units of
his regiment. “Private Miles O’Reilly” said that the reply Hunter received from
almost every competent young lieutenant or captain he approached on the subject
was, “What! Command Niggers?” General Weitzel refused to command Negro troops
raised by Butler
in New Orleans.
Ullmann, an officer of Negro troops at Port Hudson, said in an address
delivered shortly after the termination of the war: “Officers of the Ullmann
Brigade will ever have occasion to remember with bitter feelings the
contemptuous treatment they received at the siege of Port Hudson, from General
and other officers who had heaped indignities upon “Nigger Officers” as they
were wont to courteously style us.””
Page 312 - “Some of the officers of Negro troops who were
captured at Petersburg,
when asked what regiments they were attached to, gave the numbers of certain
white ones for fear they would be molested. One of them, more courageous than
the rest, answered. “Lemuel D. Dobbins, Nineteenth Negroes, by God!” His frankness
won for him more consideration than that received by his associate officers.”
O.R.-- SERIES
I--VOLUME XXXV/1 [S# 65]
FEBRUARY 5-22,
1864.--The Florida
Expedition.
No. 18.--Report of Lieut. M. B. Grant, C. S. Engineers, of engagement at
Olustee.
This
fight occurred upon ground which furnished a fair field to both parties, and no
advantage to either. The advantage of the enemy upon this occasion consisted in
the superiority of numbers and equipment. Their force was, at the lowest
estimate, twice that of ours. As usual with the enemy, they posted their negro
regiments on their left and in front, where they were slain by hundreds, and
upon retiring left their dead and wounded negroes uncared for, carrying off
only whites, which accounts for the fact that upon the first part of the
battle-field nearly all the dead found were negroes.
38 - Black History Month
and “Civil War Memory”
A Little Levity if You
Please!
A JOLT FOR WENDELL BY
A NEGRO WAITER.
123 Confederate
Veteran March 1912
A long time ago Wendell Phillips, the
abolitionist, went to Charleston,
He had breakfast served in his room, and was waited upon by a slave. Mr.
Phillips took the opportunity to represent to the negro in a pathetic way that
he regarded him as a man and brother, and, more than that, that he himself was
an abolitionist. Finally Mr. Phillips
told the darky to go away, saying that he could not bear to be waited on by a
slave. "You must 'sense me," said the negro. "I is 'bliged to
stay here 'cause lse 'sponsible for de silverware."
November, 1906, “The
Confederate Veteran”
Colonel
Brown (John C.) had a negro servant named Ned. When the fight began, Ned begged
his 'Marse John' to be allowed to ride one of his horses and stay by his side.
Colonel Brown let him have a pistol and one of his horses. Ned proudly rode to
the front. When the fire opened between Porter's (Morton's) Battery and the
Federal batteries opposite, Ned could not stand the bursting shells and falling
limbs, and he rode up to Colonel Brown and said: 'Marse John, I 'spec' I'd
better go back under dat hill an' fix fer ter cook yo' dinner. An' heah, Marse
John, jes' take dis pistol. I neber needed er pistol ter cook wid.'
550 Confederate Veteran December 1898.
CONFEDERATE VETERANS
IN NEW YORK.
I
remember, continued Eli, "when they began to have the first freedmen
schools around Memphis
in 1864. Several Massachusetts
tutors were teaching the freedmen the new doctrine of political equality. The
negroes, you know, can never separate political equality from social equality,
so when the teacher said, 'We are all born free and equal,' Clarissa Sophia
broke in, 'Wa' dat yo's sayin' now? Yo say I'se jes as ekal as yo is ?' 'Yes,'
said the teacher, 'and I can prove it.' 'Ho ! 'tain't no need,' replied the
lately disenthralled. 'Reck'n I is, sho' nuff. But does yo say dat l'se good as
missus, my missus?' 'Certainly you are, Sophia,' said the teacher. 'Den I'se
jes gwine out yere rite off.' said Sophia, suiting action to word. 'Ef I'se
good as my missus, l'se goin' ter quit, fer I jes know she ent ,'soshiatin' wid
no sich wite trash as you is.'
The Confederate
Veteran , April, 1893
After
the battles of Bull Run and Manassas it was the writer's privilege to
stand picket at the farm house of a good
old Mrs. Taylor, a few miles east of Fairfax Station. It was there I learned
the true meaning of the word Manassas,
and how it originated. A faithful old negro man belonging to Mrs. Taylor met a
neighboring brother, and addressed him about as follows: " Uncle Willis,
kin yer tell me how dey got dis name Manassas fur dis place down dar whar dey
has all dem big guns?" "I dunno, Brer Ephriam, cep'ing tis we is de
man, and dem Yankees whar cum down here is de asses, dats how we gets de name
Manasses, I speck."
39 - Lee’s Great Slave
Raid?!
You
may or may not have heard of this story, but it appears to have grown both in
scope and popularity in recent years. During the Gettysburg campaign, it is alleged that the
Confederate army seized black Pennsylvanians in Gettysburg and the surrounding areas, (both
runaway slaves and free blacks), threw them into chains and sent them back to Virginia to be sold.
…and
it has, as you might expect, generated the usual amount of weeping and
teeth-gnashing so common among those whose habit it is to wail and
hyperventilate over social injustice - as in the case of this shrill excerpt
from a letter writer to the Civil War Times:
“When
Lee's men entered Pennsylvania
in 1863, it resulted in many former slaves and free blacks being rounded up
and sent south into slavery. Where were the great leader's orders to his men,
forbidding such a practice? Such orders do not exist.”
I
swear, every time I hear this story it seems to grow in size and scope. I
suspect that in a few years, what used to be known as “The Gettysburg Campaign”
will become known instead as “Lee’s Great Slave Raid!?”
I
have no doubt that at least some African Americans living in South Central
Pennsylvania were taken captive in 1863. There were African American
communities in the Gettysburg
area at that time, specifically in Biglerville, Chambersburg
and Greencastle. There is no doubt that many of the people living there were
runaway slaves, though certainly, not all. Further, the Constitution at that
time stated that one person “bound to service” in one state, may not legally
escape that service by fleeing into another state and the law at that time was
such that runaway slaves were legally liable to recapture and to be returned to
those who had originally owned them. And human nature, being what it is and always
having its dark side (regardless of what color uniform it wore), has always
been such that it would be shocking if no incidents of free African Americans
(i.e., those who had legally been manumitted or who themselves had never been
slaves), hadn’t been spirited away by less-than-honest men looking to make a
quick buck for themselves at the auction block. What I have some serious doubts
about is the scope of this incident, and the Confederate high command’s
knowledge of it, or, its dedication to making it part of its military
objectives for this campaign.
Now
I haven’t read every Confederate letter or diary that’s out there, but I have
searched the “Official Records”, the “Confederate Veteran”, the “Southern
Historical Society Papers,” and other sources, including the “Slave Narratives”
and have essentially come up (nearly) empty. In the “Official Records,” both Union AND Confederate dispatches, are devoid of any
mention of this incident during the Gettysburg
campaign. All these sources (which I own), are on searchable CD’s. Searches
using words like, “negroes or negro,” “colored,” “slave or slaves,” as well as
various other words or phrases, turn up nothing on this subject except 3
indirect references to African Americans or African American communities in
this part of Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg campaign. However, none of
those references mention anyone getting hauled off and sold into slavery. If
anything, the 3 sources that I did find left me scratching my head and
wondering how much of this story is truth, and how much has been exaggerated or
embellished.
Example
1- One source not mentioned above, J.H. Segars’ and Charles Kelly Barrows’
book, “Black Southerners in Confederate Armies,” cites a mention on pp. 194-195
in a story about one “Levi Miller”, a “black confederate”. This reference was
itself taken from the Winchester Evening Star, (Virginia), November 11,
1921.The author, Richard C. Radi, a soldier in the 5th Texas Infantry, Texas
Brigade, Hoods Division, Longstreet’s corps, writes of Miller as follows:
“He
[Levi Miller] was in the Pennsylvania
campaign and at New Castle
and Chambersburg he met several negroes whom
he knew (I think some of them were related to him) and who had run away from Virginia. They tried to
get Levi to desert but he would not…”
I
suppose one question would be why those “several negroes” referred to, who were
most likely runaways, were not themselves hauled away? There is no mention by
the narrator of such a thing in the story. And if the Confederate army was such
a threat, why are they standing around talking to Levi instead of running for
their lives? Perhaps they were already prisoners and were trying to convince
Levi to free them and run off with them, but this is just conjecture. In any
case, the narrator does not seem to make much of an issue at all about them
being runaways except to note that they were, and this leaves me scratching my
head!?
Example
2 – The May 1896 edition of the “Confederate Veteran” magazine, contains a
short story on page 154, written by a Confederate Officer about his personal
servant following the Battle of Gettysburg, entitled, “A TRIBUTE TO THE MAN IN
BLACK” The officer had been seriously wounded during the battle and was too
injured to make the trip home in the wagon train. His servant, “George”,
expressed concern about being captured by the pursuing Yankees.
According
to the officer:
“I
insisted on George accepting his freedom and joining a settlement of free
negroes in the vicinity of Gettysburg,
which we had passed through in going up to the battle. But he would have none
of it. He wanted to stay with me always.”
It
appears that the author did take note of a free black settlement that was
actually located near Gettysburg
that time. However, there is no mention of anyone getting hauled off, and
indeed, if the settlement had been stripped of its residents, as some
contemporary story-tellers claim, why would the officer tell “George” to go
hide out there? (Incidentally, George refused his freedom and went off to
rejoin the ANV. He succeeded in catching up with the army but was later killed
on the retreat by Federal cavalry.)
Example
3 – An incidental example, but one nonetheless, is found in the Sept 1898 issue
of the “Confederate Veteran” (p. 417) by a veteran of the Gettysburg campaign. Again, no mention of the
“old [black] couple” getting hauled off into slavery, nor any mention of the
old black couple fleeing for their safety!
“On
June 29 our division was countermarched to Greenville, via Scotland, to Gettysburg. On this entire line of march I
saw only two negroes, and they were a very old couple, man and woman, standing
on the roadside as the army passed. One of my company asked the negro man if he
was "secesh," and he replied, "Yes, sir, massa, I sees you now."
To
reiterate - that some runaways were found in Pa. and returned to Virginia, I have no doubt. As per the laws
of that time, if you're a runaway, and someone finds you, you're going back to
whoever owned you. That’s the way the law was at the time and I see no need for
anyone 150 years later to have a stroke over it. I also have no doubt that some
less-than-honest men in the Confederate army saw an opportunity to make a quick
buck for themselves by spiriting away blacks who were not runaway slaves. Human
nature is what it is and it’s not always good. Quite simply though, the absence
of information on this “event” in the dispatches of both armies, as well as its
absence in other sources mentioned, combined with the odd nature of the 3
references in question, makes me at least question the scale of this episode as
it is being presented today, as well as the motivations of those who tell this
story the loudest! Let's not forget that today's favorite pastime among those
who claim to be "historians", is to make the South look bad, and the
more dramatically creative one can be in doing that, the more brownie points
one garners from his or her fellow "historians."
40 - The Black
Confederate – A Few more…
"There are two
world histories. One is the official and full of lies, destined to be taught in
schools – the other is the secret history, which harbors the true causes and
occurrences."
Honore de Balzac
Washington Wills
All
the criticisms that have been leveled at the concept of “The Black Confederate”
boil down to one issue or question – Did these people serve willingly or were
they coerced? Some of the articles in this series hopefully demonstrate that
many indeed served willingly and honorably, and were proud of their service when
it was completed. Washington Wills, a personal servant to George Wills is one
such example. The following excerpts are taken from “Rebel Boast, First at Bethel, Last at Appomattox,” by Manly
Wade Wellman, (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1956). The book is a narrative
based on the wartime correspondences of a group of young North
Carolinians.
Page 18 – This passage gives
the reader a look into the past, specifically, what the personal servant
brought to the table insofar as the white soldiers are concerned, as well as
the relationships that often existed between the men and the servants who
accompanied them to war:
“The company of Wash
as his (George Wills’) personal servant was like part of the home atmosphere. Wash was really brother
Richard’s property. They were of the same age, Wash and Richard, and as boys had rambled
and played together on terms of affectionate equality, while Wash had alternately petted and supervised
the younger George. Wash
still supervised at times. That was a natural consideration in assigning Wash to “look after” the
young soldier.”
Page 34 – The passion of these
men often rivaled that of the white soldiers. I suppose the idea of a slave
wanting to pick up a gun and shoot Yankees is enough to make modern day Yankees
squirm. So be it:
“If any of you fall,
I want the gun,” Wash
pleaded. “I feel as if I could kill a few Yankees before I go home.””
Pages 93-94 – Wash’s response to a Pennsylvania farmer’s
wife who, during the Gettysburg
campaign, suggested he desert is also enough to make any Yankee squirm. It also
yields perhaps, some insight into why some of these men considered their
service important and why they were willing to do what they at least viewed as
their duty. I submit that the operative word in Wash’s response, is the word “home.”
“And as flavory as
any conversation between Carolinian and Pennsylvanian was that of Wash with a buxom old
farm wife. She suggested that he slip away from his master and the Confederacy
and stay in Pennsylvania
as a free man. “Are you well treated?” she asked solicitously. “I live as I
wish,” was the brown man’s reply, courteous but boldly prompt. “And if I did
not, I think I couldn’t better myself by stopping here. This is beautiful
country, but it doesn’t come up to home in my eyes.””
Pages 176-177 – George Wills was
killed at the battle of Winchester
in 1864. After bringing his body home, Wash
writes a lengthy letter to George’s older brother Richard. Below is an excerpt
from that letter. Note the statement with regard to his “struggling country.”
Dear Master Richard,
…..I am home, I don’t
know for how long. Master Eddie says he wants me to go with him, I will go and
do the best I can for him. I am willing to do anything I can to help out our
struggling country. I desire to see you and talk with you, have a long talk
about one thing or another. If we ever be so fortunate as to be able to do it
so it will afford me a great consolation certainly Master Richard. I know
something about trouble…..”
“A TRIBUTE TO THE MAN
IN BLACK”
The
following story can be found in the Confederate Veteran Magazine, May 1896
issue, page 154, and was written by Sgt. Major C.C. Cummings about his personal
servant George. Cummings had been wounded at Gettysburg and had to be left behind to the
tender mercies of the Yankees, being too injured to travel. I mentioned the
incident in an earlier article, “Lee’s Great Slave Raid.” This is the story in
its entirety.
“……This revives the
memory of a faithful man in black who followed me through from First Manassas,
Leesburg, where he assisted in capturing the guns we took from Baker, to the
Peninsular, the Seven Days before Ricnmond, Fredericksburg, the bombardment of
the city December 11, and the battle, two days after, at Marye's Heights, to
Chancellorsville, the storming of Harper's Ferry, and the terrible struggle at
Sharpsburg (Antietam now), and last, Gettysburg. Here he lost his life by his
fidelity to me his 'young marster" and companion. We were reared together
on 'de ole plantation" in "Massippi."
I was wounded in the
Peach Orchard at Gettysburg
on the second day. The fourth day found us retreating in a cold, drizzling
rain. George had found an ambulance, in which I, Sergeant Major of the
Seventeenth Mississippi, and Col. Holder of that regiment, still on this side
of the river, and an officer of the Twenty first Mississippi, whose name
escapes me, embarked for the happy land
of Dixie. All day long we
moved slower than any funeral train over the pike, only getting eight miles to
Cashtown. When night camel had to dismount from loss of blood and became a
prisoner in a strange land. On the next
day about sundown faithful George, who still clung lo me, told me that the
Yankees were coming down the road from Gettysburg and were separating the
"black folks from dar marsters," that he didn't want to be separated
from me and for me to go on to prison and he'd slip over the mountains and join
the regiment in retreat, and we'd meet again "ober de ribber,"
meaning the Potomac. We had crossed at Williamsport.
I insisted on George
accepting his freedom and joining a settlement of free negroes in the vicinity
of Gettysburg,
which we had passed through in going up to the battle. But he would have none
of it, he wanted to stay with me always. I had him hide my sword, break it off
at the hilt and stick it in a crack of the barn (that yet stands in the
village) to the left of the road going away from Gettysburg, where I, with about thirty other
wounded, lay. I can yet see that faithful black face and the glint of the blade
as the dying rays of that day's sun flashed upon them. A canteen of water and
some hard tack was the last token of his kindly care for me.
In the spring of
1865, I saw a messmate from whom I was separated on that battlefield, and he
told me the fate of poor, faithful George. He had gotten through the lines
safely and was marching in the rear of our retreating command, when met by a
Northern lady, who had a son in our command, whom George, by chance, happened
to know. He was telling her of her son, who was safe as a prisoner, when some
men in blue came up. George ran and they shot and killed him. He was dressed in
gray and they took him for a combatant. The lady had him buried and then joined
her son in prison. She told my messmate of this and he told to the boys in camp
the fate of the truest and best friend I ever had. George's prediction will
come true I feel we will meet again "over the river."”
“NAMING CAMPS FOR THE
LIVING”
The
following story can be found in the May 1901 edition of the Confederate Veteran
Magazine on page 218, and provides yet more insight into the question of
whether or not the service of slaves was “willing” in spite of their status as
“slaves.” Once again, Yankees everywhere are squirming:
“…With the batteries
of Capt. John W. Morton, Gen. Forrest's chief of artillery, there were two
negroes, Bob Morton, a cook, and Ed Patterson, the hostler for the captain,
both of whom served with the artillery throughout the war. Ed Patterson, whose
fidelity and loyalty stoutly withstood the test of battle and even of capture,
still survives. He is a respected householder and property owner, near Nashville, and delights
to recall the time when he wore the gray in Morton's Battery.
Everybody in the artillery service of Forrest knew and liked Ed. He took good
care of the horses, and performed his duties with unflagging good humor.
On one occasion it
was feared that Ed was lost to the battery. In the terrific fight at Parker's
Cross Roads, when Morton's men, behind the guns, were almost overwhelmed by
superior numbers of the enemy in a sudden charge, about twenty members of the
battery were run over and captured. Ed
was among them. He was missed, notwithstanding the confusion of the disaster,
and the temporary reverse of the almost invariably successful artillerists was
regarded by them as aggravated by the loss of their diligent hostler. Capt.
Morton particularly mourned his absence. One morning, a few days after the
battle, he rode into the camp of the battery, mounted upon a superb horse,
whose caparison denoted it the property of an officer of no mean rank.
“Hallo. Ed! Where did
you come from?” was the artillery chief's greeting.
”I des come f'om de
Yankees, responded Ed complacently, as he dismounted and stood proudly eyeing
the steed.”
”How did you get
away, and where did you get that horse?”
”Wall, sah, dey taken
us all along. When we got out o' sight o' y' all, I notice dat dey didn't 'pear
to notice me, an' when dey got to whar dey was gwine into camp, I sort o' got
away. De Yankees des seed me ridin' 'roun', an' I 'spec' maybe dey thought I
was waitin' on some o' de officers. I des went on th'ough de woods. I seed a
heap o' dead men wid blue coats on, an' a heap of 'em what was live, too.
D'rectly I come to a big road. I seed one o' our boys walkin' what 'ad done
los' his horse. I axed him which erway
Marse John went. He knowed me, an' said de artillery done gone down dis road. I
kep' on, an' passed a heap o' our men walkin'. I axed 'em which er way de
artillery done gone, an' dey said, 'Down dis road.' I kep' on an' kep' on 'til
I got here, an' dat's why I'm here, Marse John. Dey took yo' horse away f'om
me, but I done got you a better one, sho. No, sah, dey didn't 'pear to notice
me at all. When I was comin' on I seed some mighty nice lookin' bosses tied in
de bushes, an' ez dey wan' nobody noticin' I tuck 'n' pick me out one, an' des
got on dis 'n' and rid him to hunt y' all. I seed a blue overcoat layin' on de
groun', an' I took 'n' put it on. An' it's a good one, too, Marse John.””
Aunt Tinny
The
following account is from a friend and compatriot. Earlier articles in this
series, I hope, will go some ways toward dispelling the popular belief that the
Yankee armies were the saviors of black folks. This story is yet one more nail
(I hope) in the Yankee coffin.
Reading
third hand accounts of people like this in books is one thing. Actually knowing
someone who is connected to the person in question makes the story take on a
whole new meaning.
“My mother was born
in central Georgia
in 1889 and grew up in Sumter
County, not far from that
notorious Confederate prison camp, Andersonville. When she was a child, her mother was often
ill, and she was taught to cook and sew by an old former slave lady whom they
affectionately called Aunt Tinny.
Aunt Tinny had also
grown up in central Georgia
not far from Andersonville and told my mother
about how the locals would take food--whenever they had any--to share with the
prisoners at the camp. As any extra food
they may have was often sent to feed the troops, they rarely had more than
enough for themselves, and yet they still shared whatever they could with the
prisoners.
Aunt Tinny told my
mother another thing--something the court historians wouldn't at all like to
hear.
Although Sherman bypassed Andersonville, his foragers and bummers did not. That is,
they didn't pass up any food they could find, and that included food belonging
to black families as well as that belonging to white families. And so the one recollection Aunt Tinny had
of Sherman's
"march to the
sea" was when she and her mother hid in the woods and watched as his
bummers took their chickens, ducks, pigs, and food and then killed her father
and uncle when they tried to put the fire out when they burned their house. They were thus set free--free from everyone
and every thing, free
to starve to death while Sherman's
men marched on with their forage wagons filled with provisions.
This, of course,
isn't fit material for the present-day textbook or classroom, is it!”
Ken Bachand
Capt. Walter M. Bryson-George
Mills Camp 70, SCV
Hendersonville, NC
Jason Boone – “I fought to defend what was mine.”
Once
again, we have a story about someone whose descendent I personally know or have
met. Katherine Hamilton, a math teacher from Suffolk, Virginia,
is a regular at the annual Dick Poplar Day ceremonies each September in Petersburg Va.
The following is a reprint from a story about her ancestor, Jason Boone, a free
black Virginian who served in the Confederate forces. There were initially some
questions as to what exactly his duties were. What exactly his function was in
the army is never specified in this story. The word “soldier” is used and he
carried a gun. However, to be fair, these things, in and of themselves don’t
necessarily mean he carried a military rank and or that it was his job to stand
in the line of battle and shoot at the enemy. Black men, both slaves and free,
in support positions, were known to refer to themselves or be referred to as
“soldiers” while not actually having been sworn in as such. And it was not
unheard of for these men to be carrying weapons. Further investigation showed
that he was a laborer with the 41st Virginia infantry and served honorably in
that capacity from 1862 until the end of the war. The issue is less one of “was
he a soldier,” and more one of how did he personally view his service?
Suffolk News Herald, Wednesday,
March 29, 2006 6:43 PM
CST
“Soldier
Jason Boone (1831-1936)”
“An
accurate account of the Civil War cannot be given without speaking of the
notable contributions of the black confederate soldier. One such man was Jason
Boone, a young, free-born black Virginian living in the Skeetertown area of Nansemond County (Suffolk) when he was called upon to defend
that which he loved most, his family and home. It was rumored if the North won
the war he would probably lose all they had worked so hard for.
Jason joined the Confederate States Army and
left the area for Northern Virginia, where he served honorably for three years.
In an interview at the turn of the century, he was asked why he fought for the
South. His response was, "I fought to defend what was mine."
After the war ended Jason returned to Skeetertown and raised his family. He
could have migrated north as hundreds of others did, but Jason chose to continue
to farm the land he loved. His family had lived there for generations and he
was connected to the community.
My father was 24 years old when his grandfather Jason Boone died, so he knew
him well. We grew up hearing of this man who we believed to be larger then
life. We heard of his house with the large porch, the horse he would enter in
races, and the songs he like to sing. The gun he had during the Civil War was
his most prized possession.
We were also told of some of his experiences during the war, which was a most
difficult time for all. He passed these stories and experiences on to his
children and grandchildren.
Today we still quote some of Jason's sayings, which are as true today as they
were in his time and will be a hundred years from now. - "Stand for what
is right," "Do not meddle in other people's business,"
"Treat others like you want to be treated." "Be your own
person," "Buy, never rent," "Do not borrow from other
people," as well as "Go to school." These are a few of his
philosophies that I have implemented in my life.
People would seek his advice on matters because he was also known for his
wisdom and integrity. Though he had a large family, he was always willing to
help the less fortunate. The life lessons he instilled in his son, my
grandfather, who in turn passed these virtues to my father, who then passed
them on to me, which are not taught or learned in the classroom, have had a
profound impact on who I am today.
My child and grandchildren are well aware of Jason Boone. My grandson wrote a
brief history of his grandmother's great-grandfather, who fought in the Civil
War, and his teacher phoned from Denver
to express her appreciation of an eight-year-old so well informed concerning
his ancestors.
This man who I never met, yet who I feel I know, is worthy to be remembered. He
fought for this nation as we know it today, and for what he believed in.”
Nell Boone Smith
Great-granddaughter of Jason Boone
Colorado Springs, CO
Miscellaneous Notes
I
have already devoted several pieces in this series to the question of how
voluntary the service of those “enlisted” in the USCT was, and I have already
cited numerous slaves (from the “Slave Narratives”) which gave evidence that
such service was, many times, involuntary. I suppose in citing more examples
from that work, I could be accused of “pouring it on!?” Ok, so I’m pouring it
on. Here’s a few more examples.
Jennie Worely Gibson, Arkansas
"Gran'ma
was Pheobe West. Mama was Jennie West. Mama was a little girl when the Civil
War come on. She told how scared her uncle was. He didn't want to go to war.
When they would be coming if he know it or get glimpse of the Yankee soldiers,
he'd pick up my mama. She was a baby. He'd run for a quarter of a mile to a
great big tree down in the field way back of the place off the road……
Phillis Fox, Mississippi
"When
dem Yankees come through they got one Marsa Fox's best horses an' took my
brother Limuel with em too an' I ain't never seed or hearn tell o' him no
more."
Noah Perry, Oklahoma
“The
Yankees come along and took all the able-bodied colored men to the army. Father
went as a cook and it was a many long day before we ever saw him again. Our
family was all broke up after dat.”
Pauline and Boudreaux Johnson, Texas
“….Us
three uncles, Brune and Pophrey and Zaphrey, they goes to the war. Them three
dies too young. The Yankees stole them and make them boys fight for them.”
A. F Owens,
Alabama
…ain't
been no count since my boy John died. He had de con-sumption. He had de flues
when he was in de War. Now, he didn't fought. He had to go, dey 'scripted him.
He stayed there two year, but dey paid him.
William Ward, Georgia,
“At
the time that Sherman
marched through Atlanta,
Ward and other slaves were living in an old mansion at the present site of
Peachtree and Baker Streets. He says that Sherman
took him and his fellow slaves as far as Virginia
to carry powder and shot to the soldiers. He states that he himself did not
know whether Sherman
intended to keep him in slavery or free him.”
****In
some cases it might appear that the white Yanks were a bit confused, as they
appeared not to be able to differentiate between cows, cotton, food, horses and
people. Just ask Lucy Mcullough.
Lucy Mcullough, Georgia
"Whilst
Marse Ned was 'way at de war, bad sojer mens cum thoo de country. Miss Millie
done hyar tell dey was on de way, en she had de mens haul all Marse Ned's
cotton off in de woods en hide it. De waggins was piled up high wid cotton, en
de groun' was soft atter de rain. De waggins leff deep ruts in de groun', but
none us folks on de plantation pay no heed ter dem ruts. When de sojer mens
cum, dey see dem ruts en trail 'em right out dar in de woods ter de cotton. Den
dey sot fire ter de cotton en bun it all up. Dey cum back ter de big house en
take all de sweet milk in de dairy house, en help 'emselfs ter evvy thing in de
smoke houses. Den dey pick out de stronges' er Marse Ned's slave mens en take
'em 'way wid 'em. Dey take evvy good horse Marse Ned had on de plantation. No Ma'am,
dey diden' bun nuffin ceppen' de cotton."
