Historical Romance of the American Negro Part 9

About the 20th of April, 1864, after I had given the children their breakfast, and sent them to school, the letter-carrier came up the steps with another missive from my own dear Tom, and just as I had opened it to begin to read it, who came into the room but dear mother! So to work we went and read the letter together:

"NEW ORLEANS, April, 1864.

"Mrs. Beulah Lincoln,

"My Dear Beulah:-With great pleasure I sit down to answer all the delightful letters I have received from yourself and the girls. Your letters have been a very great joy to me indeed all the time I have been in the hospital. They have actually helped me to mend by keeping up my spirits! At least that is what the doctors and nurses say, who have read some of your letters, and they liked them so much. They were greatly delighted over your letters on your trip to Canada! If it had not been for my wound, my residence at this beautiful hospital in the Sunny South would have been almost as great a treat to me as the month you and the girls spent at Richmond Hill. Because here comes neither frost nor snow, and the sun is always bright and genial, and the flowers scent the air all the year round, and the winds come through the open windows just laden with their fragrance. But, thank G.o.d, I shall soon be well now, and then I will go back to the war if it is not all over by the time I receive my discharge from this good hospital. If the war is not over then, I will go back to the field; but, if it is all over, then I am likely to get my discharge from the army and come home. I have taken 'notes' of all the active operations in which I was engaged in the field up to the time I was wounded; and I think I will write and publish a book when I come home! All the events, let things be going as they may, I am sure that they are going ten times better now that our glorious Grant has got the chief command over all the armies in the field throughout the far-extended seat of war in the South. Before he took command even a child could see how our own Northern generals and colonels themselves wrangled, and were jealous of one another, and carried on. It always appeared to me that before Grant took command they wasted as much strength and national resources as the rebels themselves did! Too many cooks spoil the broth; and they also resembled a balky team of cross-grained mules pulling, kicking and flinging against one another! Indeed they had a great deal to learn, and that was how to agree. But Grant put them all to rights with a few shuffles of national 'cards.' He made all things work aright, and those who were too anxious to be bosses, he either set off on one side by themselves, or else sent them home about their business. In this respect the rebels had been far wiser than we were. They had, of course, their quarrels and disagreements also, but never to the same extent as ourselves. But Grant ended all that, and I observe that secession has been ailing very much ever since!

"It will be old news to you to speak in this letter about the late ma.s.sacre of white and colored officers and soldiers at Fort Pillow, where General Forrest and his men murdered hundreds of our own brave fellows in cold blood. I understand that although that ma.s.sacre occurred only a few days ago, so to speak, that the war-cry 'Remember Fort Pillow!' has already been made in quite a number of the most recent engagements between colored troops and rebels on the seat of war. The wholesale murder of our own men and officers at Fort Pillow is the entire conversation throughout the hospital, the city of New Orleans and the entire South. Surely that murder was winked at by the rebel government at Richmond. From the very first day when a rebel was shot dead by a former servant (?) all the rebels of the South together have been more faint at heart than if they had got the leprosy! There has been a constant attempt from the first to treat colored troops not as soldiers under the United States Government, but as perfect outlaws or even as wild animals themselves. A certain kind of shudder, a horror,-a something that no man can describe-seems to have taken possession of the rebel breast at the very idea of letting loose their former slaves against their masters! They think that this is awful indeed, and hold up their hands in holy horror. And this horror of theirs holds good not only with regard to the colored troops themselves, but it is even more bitter if possible when directed against the white officers who trained them in the art of war, and who led them on the battle-field. It is true that we have officers chosen from among ourselves, but then we are all one army, and we must go shares hand in hand with the rest in the general conflict.

"It was not only a great crime in General Forrest and his rebels murdering hundreds of Union men at Fort Pillow, but it was the greatest blunder they have yet committed as they will themselves find out at once. Instead of making over 200,000 men afraid of them, or deterring them from the battle entirely, we shall only go into battle ten times more eagerly than before, and do fighting ten times more valiant than ever. A shudder has already run over the entire North that will do more to unite the whole Union than if we had gained one of the greatest victories of war. The Southern policy from Jeff. Davis downwards is to ignore us completely as men, and to treat us as 'goods and chattels'

still. Jeff. even issued a proclamation against Benjamin F. Butler, at New Orleans, treating him as an outlaw for organizing regiments of colored troops, or, in fact, for pressing their former slaves into the war in any shape and form. At the same time, they themselves have made use of their slaves to throw up breastworks, and to do all kinds of labor, almost from the hour when they themselves at first rebelled.

Their theory is that they have a perfect right to use their slaves to fight against the Union, and we, who own the whole nation must not indeed even touch them with our little fingers! This will never do, because it is a game that two of us at least cannot play at.

"It will never be known until the great Day of Judgment what became of all the colored soldiers who fell into the hands of the rebels. It is true that the rebel authorities directed them to be handed over to the States to which they belonged to be dealt with by the civil laws of those States, but even this is a subject upon which I can obtain no information whatever. I can only say that their path is unknown, and they have never been seen alive after their capture. Of other things we are more certain. The Southern soldiers have been seen killing their colored prisoners on the battle-field,-killing them in hospitals, and in many ways awarding to them the treatment we would give to any wild animal that we shot at a hunt. From the very first the rebels at Richmond have refused to exchange colored prisoners like white prisoners of war. They have never even exchanged a single man! There is an old saying that those whom the G.o.ds intend to destroy, they first make mad, that is insane. We do not thank the rebel crew for attempting to treat us as outlaws and wild beasts, but we will do one thing for them for all this,-we will now a.s.sist in pulling down their Confederacy far faster than we have done before.

"As to the murder at Fort Pillow, the whole thing was, of course, a put up job. After fighting all the morning, and finding ten times more trouble to get into the fort than they ever expected, at 1 P. M. they sent in a flag of truce. But whilst they pretended to be parleying round that flag of truce, the rebels rapidly and quietly pushed their men up on the sides of the fort, which was contrary to the laws of war, and then breaking off the truce made a sudden rush into the fort and took it. Then we surrendered, but the rebels would not receive our surrender, and their ma.s.sacre began. They shot down and killed our officers and men in every possible way after they had given up their weapons of war.

General Forrest and other rebel commanders were there and allowed the carnage to go on that afternoon and next morning. The rebels took our men, nailed some of them to the floors of old wooden buildings to which they next set fire, and thus burned them while yet alive. Then they called out others, one by one, and shot them as fast as they appeared.

One of the princ.i.p.al white officers was murdered on the road as the rebels were marching away from the fort,-at least he never came through alive. No doubt that Congress will appoint a commission of inquiry at once, and make a complete examination of the whole affair, and the entire truth will be established from the mouths of those white and black soldiers who escaped. In the meantime, we have facts enough at hand to put all the above beyond the shadow of a doubt. It was horrible.

"My dear Beulah, I had much more to write to you about, but the doctors will be here in a quarter of an hour, and as I wish you to receive my letter without delay, I will now draw it to a hurried end, and leave the balance for my next epistle. In the meantime, my dear Beulah, keep the girls steady at school, for after good religion, I think that good education (put to good use) is the grandest ornament in the world, and in a woman I think it looks splendid. Also give all my love to Mr. and Mrs. John B. Sutherland, and give them a reading of this letter-and let our children read it too, by all means. I just feel, my dear, as if I could go on writing to you for a month,-you are such a comfort! But, good-by, G.o.d bless you! Ta-ta!

"Your thrice loving

"TOM."

My indulgent and kind readers, I would be glad if I could draw down the veil upon the disasters and defeats we met with from the hands of the rebels whilst our brave men were battling for freedom, and the reunion of all the States. But, alas, alas! that would never do, and I must tell the whole truth on both sides. We had our victories in plenty, and there was a general caving-in of Secessia going on continually, but O dear me!

what drawbacks and disasters there are for the historian to tell! The whole nation was still smarting from our signal defeat at Ol.u.s.tee, Fla., when the butchery at Fort Pillow fell upon us like a thunderstorm in summer. I can't tell which was the worst in its way-our complete defeat, our flight and almost total annihilation at Ol.u.s.tee, or the barbarous murders at Fort Pillow. Our defeat at Ol.u.s.tee took place on the 20th of February, 1864. We must, in the first place, thank our General Gillmore for disobeying orders, and leading his black and white troops into that perfect trap which the rebels had prepared for us among the forest trees at Ol.u.s.tee. They had their masked batteries, and all their perfect preparations of war completely concealed from us till we were right inside the very trap itself, and then General Gillmore, instead of drawing back his forces and forming them into a regular line of battle, wildly rushed one regiment after another into the powerful rebel position that lay concealed between two swamps, where our poor fellows were just mown down like gra.s.s before the scythe. When eight hundred colored soldiers and six hundred white ones had thus been placed hors de combat, we turned and fled for Jacksonville, and all along the way the rebels followed up our retreat, and all the fugitives alike shared the disasters of a defeat, which was most complete in every part. The exultation at the South, of course, was as great as our depression of spirits at the North, for it was another Braddock's defeat over again; but then war is as much of a game as a game of cards, or a game at the checker-board. Thus one was in joy whilst the other was in grief; in the same way the dark night follows the bright day, and sunshine gives way to shadow. It is the self-same with the individual as with the nation.

Which one of us has not had a grand day of triumph, as well as his night of misfortune and distress? What proportion our defeats bore to our victories I am at this time unable to say; but I know they were a very high percentage of the whole, as we found out to our cost. It is not my intention to open up the whole question, but there is at least one horror that I must mention besides actual conflict on the battle-field, which is, that the nation lost about 80,000 men that were starved to death (I might almost say) or perished through misusage and neglect, and the want of all comforts in the Southern prisons, at Richmond, Andersonville and elsewhere. Whilst we were fattening their men in our Northern cities, and exchanging them as prisoners of war, so they might take the field against us once more, our poor fellows, who were merely skin and bone, were returned to us only to remain mental and bodily wrecks on our hands the rest of their days. Few of them, indeed, were ever found fit to go back to the field again. Thus 80,000 men, some at least of whom were colored, died in the South from want of sufficient food, from cold in the winters, and almost every other conceivable and bad reason, such as the want of medicine, proper nursing and attention during sickness, and so forth. No wonder, then, that our people used to a.s.sociate the murders at Fort Pillow and the deaths in the Southern prisons together.

We also met with a great defeat at the explosion of the mine at Petersburg, on the 30th of July, 1864. That turned out one of the greatest blunders and most bungled affairs of the whole war. It was decided that the colored troops should lead the charge into Petersburg after the explosion had cleared the way for the advance and attack. Then a general, who ranked higher, in a spirit of jealousy countermanded the first and best arrangements, and ordered his white troops to lead the advance. Then the mine itself did not explode until some hours after the appointed time. When the explosion came the advance and attack were so bungled that the whole affair turned out a complete failure. The attacking troops were also caught inside the crater in a perfect trap, and the colored troops who were sent in to their aid, fared no better.

In fact, at last there was neither advance nor retreat for any one, and things were even worse than at Ol.u.s.tee, and all had to surrender in a body, prisoners of war. Thus all our labors were thrown away at Petersburg on that fatal morning, through jealousy and every kind of bungling and mismanagement. General Grant has recorded it in his life, that if the first arrangements had been carried out, they would no doubt have succeeded in capturing the city.

But such are jealousy and ignorance! These were the two grand causes of the disaster of the Union armies during the first half of the war, and all these misfortunes happened in the face of an ever-watchful and desperate enemy, who had staked everything on the issue-life, fortune and all-an enemy fighting with all his might for the inst.i.tution of slavery, and for the control of his own land and government without interference from Uncle Sam. But so it has ever been with all wars that the historian has ever recorded. Nations have their dark days as well as their bright ones. And if we had great and crowning victories, we also had our defeats and dark days.

Before my dear Tom got wounded, and was taken to the hospital at New Orleans, I received a letter from him describing a march his regiment had down the banks of a beautiful river in Mississippi, after which they came upon the boundaries of one of those grand mansions that I alluded to before as almost excelling the princely palaces of the grandees of Europe. We used to think Riverside Hall something (continues my dear letter-writer), but Riverside Hall was nothing to Belmont, as this place was called. The family had all left, and there was n.o.body in and about the princely place. No wonder that the slave-holder had grown rich! With a thousand people to work for them for nothing, and themselves pocketing the entire proceeds of their labors and toils, all they had to do was to bank their money, and lay it out in eating and drinking and riotous living, as the Bible tells us. No wonder that they had pleasant trees and shrubbery, and fine streams gliding through the park here, the smooth lawns reminding one of the garden of Eden before the fall of our first parents. No wonder that they had grand statuary all along their graveled walks, along which fine carriages and lordly companies on foot glided along their sunny way in the palmy days of slavery, now departed to return nevermore! In the Sunny South this day, we marched down the banks of one of the sweetest rivers I have seen in the State of Mississippi. I have written a few verses on the subject; written them on a marble table in the interior of splendid Belmont, a mansion, which for glory and for beauty, it would dazzle your eyes to look upon. Here are the lines I composed:

UPON THE SOUTHERN RIVER!

Across the bridge we made our way, The dancing waves sang loud and gay, And warm and bright the sunbeams lay, Upon the Southern River!

And countless birds sang in the trees, Our banners fluttered in the breeze, All eyes were charmed midst scenes like these, All down the Southern River!

Our hearts were light, our bands did play Upon that glorious sunny day.

Beside the southern river!

"The Sunny South!-The Sunny South!"

These words were ever in each mouth, Suggesting things of love and youth Along the Southern River.

And still we marched, and laughed and sang And down the flowery banks we sprang, The wild woods with the echoes rang All down the Southern River!

Until we came to "Belmont" grand,- The finest mansion in the land, That on the rising ground does stand Beside the Southern River!

Thus my Tom wrote about the Southern river and the Sunny South. After this I never wondered more why the slave-holders fought so hard to gain their independence. No wonder, when they fought for "Belmont," etc.!

CHAPTER IX.

_The Colored Men of Iowa-Hard Fight Near White River-The Men of Kansas-Enthusiasm for the War-Fight at Butler-Battle of Cabin Creek-Battle of Honey Springs-The Battle of Poison Springs-Battle at the Sabine River-Battle of Boykin's Mill with Poem-Incidents of the War._

I have said nothing yet about the far western frontier, and the enlistments that took place far away between the Mississippi river and the Rocky Mountains. There were not many colored people in those States and territories at that time, but the few who were there acted with the greatest enthusiasm, and came joyously up to the rescue of the Union and liberty. Although all colored men were free in those parts, they most willingly laid down the plough and other implements of husbandry, left their sweethearts, their wives and families, and all that they held dearest, with wonderful zeal and alacrity, and marched to the field even with the utmost joy, "to help of the Lord against the mighty." Of course the Western frontier was not the only part of the Union where such devotion for the Union and liberty was shown. It was the very same everywhere. Even in the old slave States, when the recruiting sergeants came along, and asked the slaves if they would like to go to the war and fight for Uncle Sam, to a man they answered yes. Thus the recruiting went rapidly on wherever colored volunteers could be found. Poor Uncle Sam was in great need of men, and these brave recruits were gathered together at places appointed for drill, in all the various branches of the art of war, and they learned with great willingness and with great rapidity also. With so much enthusiasm and fire, is it any wonder that colored troops did so well in the war, and with their strong, brawny, willing arms so mightily helped to knock down the South? It is no wonder at all!

Yes, poor Uncle Sam was in great need of a.s.sistance about the time of Lincoln's proclamation of freedom, for these terrible and clever rebels had not only destroyed our white troops by tens of thousands, but they had at the same time thinned out some thousands of the black soldiers also. Lincoln kept calling for more troops, for a very great many more, indeed, and black and white men came up to the national call like heroes.

It was not until August, 1863, when the men of Iowa arose, hurried through their drill, and marched to the front. They gathered at first at St. Louis, where Mrs. I. N. Triplet presented one of the regiments with a beautiful silk national flag, on behalf of the ladies of Iowa, and of the city of Muscatine. That beautiful flag was carried all through the war, and was brought home again to Iowa, in the midst of great congratulations.

In January, 1864, this regiment was ordered to report to Helena, Arkansas, and lent a hand in a number of small engagements, where they took numbers of prisoners. But the most serious fight in which they were engaged took place in the following July, near the White river, where they attacked a force of the rebels twice as numerous as themselves.

This fight was most desperate, though the rebels lost three men to our one. Most of our own officers were killed or wounded; night was coming on apace, and still we held out-yea! fought like lions hour after hour.

At last a body of white Union soldiers coming to our aid, burst through the rebel ranks with loud cheering, and our poor fellows, who were so hard pressed, cheered loudly in return. Still the arrival of these re-enforcements did not turn the battle into a Union victory, but they enabled us to retreat from the field in good order. Later on in the day, more colored re-enforcements from Helena arrived, but too late to make any changes in the situation. It was well for us, however, to save all the men we could, because the rebel soldiers and the rebel population on these western States and territories seldom missed an opportunity to murder every colored soldier who fell alive into their hands. Still we cared nothing for their "black flag," but fought ten times harder than before, and thus we helped on the downfall of slavery!

The State of Kansas was the very first State in the entire Union to make a commencement in recruiting and drilling regiments of colored men to put down the great rebellion. Kansas was only admitted into the Union as a free State on the 29th of January, 1861. It was her admission as such that transferred the slave-holder's rebellion from Kansas to South Carolina, and the other seceding States. In other words, the rebellion began in Kansas, and the scene was simply shifted upon Lincoln's election. But the Republican men of Kansas arose with unbounded alacrity and enthusiasm, and in a short time had 20,000 men in the field, some of whom were regiments of colored men, who did yeoman's service in the West. And not only in Kansas, but in every other section of the Union, colored men showed a great deal of principle in the way in which they came up to the rescue of the nation; came up with horse, foot and artillery! As Deborah says in her song of victory (Judges, 5 chapter, verse 18): "Zabulun and Naphtali were a people that jeopardized their lives unto the death in the high place of the field." The first fight in which the colored troops of Kansas were engaged took place near Butler.

There were about two hundred and twenty-five men in all, and they were attacked by about five hundred Confederates. This is supposed to have been the very first engagement in the war between colored soldiers and the rebels, and the rebels were defeated with considerable loss. The date of the engagement was the 28th of October, 1862. The next morning a few recruits came up and joined their comrades in the pursuit of the secessionists, but failed to overtake them. The work of recruiting, drilling and disciplining the regiments still went on, till at last they were so efficient in the various arms of the service that they were second to none. Soon after this a foraging party of forty-five of our men were attacked by three hundred Confederates, and half of them killed or captured in a short time.

This regiment, which was lead by the gallant Colonel Williams, remained in camp at Baxter Springs till the 27th of June, 1863, when it marched for Fort Gibson, in connection with a large supply train from Fort Scott en route to the former place. The Colonel was led to believe that they would be attacked in the neighborhood of Cabin Creek. He made haste, and gathered all his men together, about eight hundred in all. Upon arriving at Cabin Creek the rebels in great force under General Cooper met him there, but our men were unable to cross the stream on account of a shower of rain, which had swollen its waters too high for infantry to get over. When the morning came, by the aid of those who had come up in the night, the whole effective force was now raised to 1,200 men, which embraced some cavalry, a few Indians, and four pieces of artillery.

Being well lead on by their officers, these 1,200 men made a most heroic attack on the vastly-superior rebel force, and after two hours' hard fighting, vanquished them completely, killing and wounding one hundred men, and taking eight prisoners. We had eight killed and twenty-five wounded on our side. The road was now open, and our men proceeded with the train to Fort Gibson, where they arrived on the 5th of July, 1863.

It was on the morning of the 17th of July when our small force under command of General Blunt, left Fort Gibson, and moved upon the enemy, 6,000 strong, who were commanded by General Cooper. We found the latter encamped at Honey Springs, twenty miles south of Fort Gibson. After a desperate combat of two hours, the rebels were totally defeated with a loss of four hundred men killed and wounded, and one hundred prisoners.

After this the Kansas City troops returned to Fort Gibson, where they remained till September, when they moved out again against General Cooper and his forces, who fled at their approach. We followed them for one hundred miles, but as they still continued to keep ahead of us, we returned and encamped at Fort Davis, a former Confederate fort on the Arkansas River.

The troops marched and counter-marched till the month of March, 1864, when they joined Union General Steele's forces, and marched against the enemy, who were posted on the west side of Prairie d'Ane, within twenty-five miles of Washington. As we came up, the enemy fled before us, and we occupied their works without having to fight for them!

Indeed, a good deal of the warfare on the western frontier was nothing but marching and counter-marching; coming to blows now and then, in which we were mainly successful, for the rebels often preferred to fly before us!

It was curious to note at the time how what appeared to be very frivolous circ.u.mstances led to pitched battles and the most serious results. Letters from newspaper correspondents, and private letters as well, made this quite clear. Private letters to friends were often more clear and explicit than the more general and profuse war correspondence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A RELIC OF SLAVERY DAYS_]

Col. Williams informs us that he arrived at Camden on the 16th of April, 1864, but on the following day, the 17th, started with five hundred men of the First Colorado, two hundred cavalry detailed from the Second, Sixth and Fourteenth Kansas regiments, and one section of the Second Indiana Battery, with a train for the purpose of loading forage and provisions at a point twenty miles west of Camden, on the Washington road. On the 17th he reached the place, and succeeded in loading about two-thirds of his train, which consisted of two hundred wagons; the rest of the wagons were loaded next morning as they pa.s.sed along. At a point fourteen miles west of Camden, the advance encountered a small force of the enemy, who retreated down the road after some slight skirmishing, but did in such a manner as to convince the Colonel that it was a mere feint to cover other movements, or else to draw his command into ambush, as had already been done at Ol.u.s.tee, in Florida. The troops advanced with caution for about a mile and a-half to a place called Poison Springs, and here they came upon the skirmish lines of the enemy in a thickly-timbered region. Our troops drove in their skirmish lines, and discovered that the rebels were there in force. Indeed it was ascertained afterwards that there were about ten thousand of them, and their intention seemed to have been to eat us all up alive! To me it is a most astonishing thing to even think that our small force, not more than 1,000 men, should venture to contest a "field" of 10,000 rebels; but so it was, not only at the battle of Poison Springs, but such attacks were made again and again over the entire seat of war. Surely the colored troops must have had the hearts of lions, and a most tremendous amount of self-confidence even to look in the face of such odds!

The enemy, with ten pieces of artillery, now opened the fight, six in front and four on the right flank. (They had twelve cannon altogether, but commenced the engagement with ten). We had to fight hard, yes, most desperately, and lost many a brave man, either killed or wounded. Col.

Williams still fought on and on, making the best disposition possible of his little force. We were only able to use two of our light cannon at any one time, on account of the difficult nature of the thickly-timbered land. The Colonel was ever hoping that re-enforcements would come up to his aid from Camden, and relieve the train loaded of two hundred wagons, and save our little army, but no relief ever came. Thus the battle went on from 10 A. M. till 2 P. M., during which the rebels made one charge after another, but were always repulsed after the most desperate fighting. The loud roaring and yelling of the rebels at Poison Springs even exceeded the noise of the fire-arms used upon that occasion. We had ninety-two killed, ninety-seven wounded, and one hundred and six missing-in all two hundred and ninety-five. The enemy probably lost more than we did. As no re-enforcements arrived by 2 P.M., it was decided to abandon our entire train, and work our way through the woods as best we could to Camden, where those who remained arrived at 11 P.M. on the day of the battle. Col. Williams named this tremendous fight the Battle of Poison Springs, from a spring of that name in the neighborhood. This was one of the very hardest fights of all that took place in the West. No one but a fool would now ask the ridiculous question, "Will colored men fight?"-because here we see a force of a thousand colored men or less fighting most desperately for four hours with ten times their own numbers. This was as good as the 10,000 Greeks under Miltiades, at Marathon. The Greeks did not one whit better than our troops at Poison Springs.