History of the Negro Race in America Volume II Part 31

Judah's headquarters and got a written order addressed to me, describing the lad and ordering me to deliver the boy. This order was delivered to me by Col. Sterling, of Gen. Judah's staff, in person. I refused to obey it. I sent word to Gen. Judah that he could have my sword, but while I commanded that regiment no fugitive slave should ever be delivered to his master. The officer made my compliments to Gen. Judah as aforesaid, and I was placed under arrest for disobedience to orders, and my sword taken from me.

"In a few days the command was ordered to move to Glasgow, Ky., and Gen. Judah, not desiring to trust the regiment in command of a captain, I was temporarily restored to command, pending the meeting of a court-martial to try my case. When the command moved I took Alfred Jackson along. After we reached Glasgow, Ky., Gen.

Judah sent for me, and said if I would then deliver up Alfred Jackson he would restore me to command. The United States marshal was present. This I again refused to do.

"The same day, I sent an ambulance out of the lines, with Alfred Jackson tucked under the seat, in charge of a man going North, and I gave him money to get to Hillsdale, Michigan, where he went, and where he resided and grew up to be a good man and a citizen. I called the attention of Hon. James M. Ashley (then Member of Congress) to the matter, and under instructions from Secretary Stanton, Gen. Boyle's order was revoked, and I never delivered a fugitive, nor was I ever tried."

In Mississippi, in 1862, Col. James B. Steedman (afterward major-general) refused to honor an order of Gen. Fry, delivered by the man who wanted the slave in Steedman's camp. Col. Steedman read the order and told the bearer that he was a rebel; that he could not search _his_ camp; and that he would give him just ten minutes to get out of the camp, or he would riddle him with bullets. When Gen. Fry asked for an explanation of his refusal to allow his camp to be searched, Col. Steedman said he would never consent to have his camp searched by a _rebel_; that he would use every bayonet in his regiment to protect the Negro slave who had come to him for protection; and that he was sustained by the Articles of War, which had been amended about that time.

Again, in the late summer of 1863, at Tusc.u.mbia, Tennessee, Gen. Fry rode into Col. Steedman's camp to secure the return of the slaves of an old lady whom he had known before the war. Col. Steedman said he did not know that any slaves were in his camp; and that if they were there they should not be taken except they were willing to go. Gen.

Fry was a Christian gentleman of a high Southern type, and combined with his loyalty to the Union an abiding faith in "the sacredness of slave property." Whether he ever recovered from the malady, history saith not.

The great majority of regular army officers were in sympathy with the idea of protecting slave property. Gen. T. W. Sherman, occupying the defences of Port Royal, in October, 1861, issued the following proclamation to the people of South Carolina:

"In obedience to the orders of the President of these United States of America, I have landed on your sh.o.r.es with a small force of National troops. The dictates of a duty which, under the Const.i.tution, I owe to a great sovereign State, and to a proud and hospitable people, among whom I have pa.s.sed some of the pleasantest days of my life, prompt me to proclaim that we have come among you with no feelings of personal animosity; no desire to harm your citizens, destroy your property, or interfere with any of your lawful rights, or your social and local inst.i.tutions, beyond what the causes herein briefly alluded to may render unavoidable."[77]

This proclamation sounds as if the general were a firm believer in State sovereignty; and that he was possessed with a feeling that he had landed in some strange land, among a people of different civilization and peculiar inst.i.tutions.

On the 13th of November, 1861, Major-Gen. John A. Dix, upon taking possession of the counties of Accomac and Northampton, Va., issued the following proclamation:

"The military forces of the United States are about to enter your counties as a part of the Union. They will go among you as friends, and with the earnest hope that they may not, by your own acts, be compelled to become your enemies. They will invade no right of person or property. On the contrary, your laws, your inst.i.tutions, your usages, will be scrupulously respected. There need be no fear that the quietude of any fireside will be disturbed, unless the disturbance is caused by yourselves.

"Special directions have been given not to interfere with the condition of any person held to domestic servitude; and, in order that there may be no ground for mistake or pretext for misrepresentation, commanders of regiments or corps have been instructed not to permit such persons to come within their lines."[78]

Gen. Halleck, while in command of the Union forces in Missouri, issued his "Order No. 3." as follows:

"It has been represented that important information, respecting the number and condition of our forces, is conveyed to the enemy by means of fugitive slaves who are admitted within our lines. In order to remedy this evil, it is directed that no such person be hereafter permitted to enter the lines of any camp, or of any forces on the march, and that any now within such lines be immediately excluded therefrom."

On the 23d of February, 1862, in "Order No. 13," he referred to the slave question as follows:

"It does not belong to the military to decide upon the relation of master and slave. Such questions must be settled by the civil courts. No fugitive slaves will, therefore, be admitted within our lines or camps, except when specially ordered by the general commanding."

On the 18th of February, 1862, Major-Gen. A. E. Burnside issued a proclamation in which he said to the people:

"The Government asks only that its authority may be recognized; and we repeat, in no manner or way does it desire to interfere with your laws, const.i.tutionally established, your inst.i.tutions of any kind whatever, your property of any sort, or your usages in any respect."

The following letter from Gen. Buell shows how deeply attached he was to the "const.i.tutional guaranties" accorded to the rebels of the South:

"HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, } "NASHVILLE, March 6, 1862. }

"_Dear Sir_: I have the honor to receive your communication of the 1st instant, on the subject of fugitive slaves in the camps of the army.

"It has come to my knowledge that slaves sometimes make their way improperly into our lines; and in some instances they may be enticed there; but I think the number has been magnified by report. Several applications have been made to me by persons whose servants have been found in our camps; and in every instance that I know of the master has recovered his servant and taken him away.

"I need hardly remind you that there will always be found some lawless and mischievous person in every army; but I a.s.sure you that the ma.s.s of this army is law-abiding, and that it is neither its disposition nor its policy to violate law or the rights of individuals in any particular. With great respect, your obedient servant,

"D. C. BUELL, "_Brig.-Gen. Commanding Department._

"Hon. J. R. UNDERWOOD, _Chairman Military Committee_, "Frankfort, Ky."

So "in every instance" the master had recovered his slave when found in Gen. Buell's camp!

On the 26th of March, 1862, Gen. Joseph Hooker, commanding the "Upper Potomac," issued the following order:

"_To Brigade and Regimental Commanders of this Division_:

"Messrs. Nally, Gray, Dunnington, Dent, Adams, Speake, Price, Posey, and Cobey, citizens of Maryland, have negroes supposed to be with some of the regiments of this division. The brigadier-general commanding directs that they be permitted to visit all the camps of his command, in search of their property; and if found, that they be allowed to take possession of the same, without any interference whatever. Should any obstacle be thrown in their way by any officer or soldier in the division, he will be at once reported by the regimental commander to these headquarters."

In the spring of 1862, Gen. Thos. Williams, in the Department of the Gulf, issued the following order[79]:

"In consequence of the demoralizing and disorganizing tendencies to the troops of harboring runaway negroes, it is hereby ordered that the respective commanders of the camps and garrisons of the several regiments, 2d brigade, turn all such fugitives in their camps or garrisons out beyond the limits of their respective guards and sentinels.

"By order of "Brig.-Gen. T. WILLIAMS."[80]

In a letter dated "Headquarters Army of the Potomac, July 7, 1862,"

Major-Gen. Geo. B. McClellan made the following observations concerning slavery:

"This Rebellion has a.s.sumed the character of a war; as such it should be regarded; and it should be conducted upon the highest principles known to Christian civilization. It should not be a war looking to the subjugation of the people of any State, in any event. It should not be at all a war upon populations, but against armed forces and political organizations. Neither confiscation of property, political executions of persons, territorial organization of States, nor forcible abolition of slavery should be contemplated for a moment."

But the drift of the sentiment of the army was in the direction of compromise with the slavery question. Nearly every statesman at Washington--in the White House and in the Congress--and nearly every officer in the army regarded the Negro question as purely political and not military. That it was a problem hard of solution no one could doubt. Hundreds of loyal Negroes, upon the orders of general officers, were turned away from the Union lines, while those who had gotten on the inside were driven forth to the cruel vengeance of rebel masters. Who could solve the problem? Major-Gen. Benjamin F. Butler banished the politician, and became the loyal, patriotic _soldier_! In the month of May, 1861, during the time Gen. Butler commanded the Union forces at Fortress Monroe, three slaves made good their escape into his lines. They stated that they were owned by Col. Mallory, of the Confederate forces in the front; that he was about to send them to the North Carolina seaboard to work on rebel fortifications; and that the fortifications were intended to bar that coast against the Union arms. Having heard this statement, Gen. Butler, viewing the matter from a purely military stand-point, exclaimed: "These men are _contraband_ of war; set them at work." Here was a solution of the entire problem; here was a blow delivered at the backbone of the Rebellion. He claimed no right to act as a politician, but acting as a loyal-hearted, clear-headed _soldier_, he coined a word and hurled a shaft at the enemy that struck him in a part as vulnerable as the heel of Achilles. In his letter to the Lieut.-Gen. of the Army, Winfield Scott, 27th of May, 1861, he said:

"Since I wrote my last, the question in regard to slave property is becoming one of very serious magnitude. The inhabitants of Virginia are using their negroes in the batteries, and are preparing to send their women and children South. The escapes from them are very numerous, and a squad has come in this morning, and my pickets are bringing in their women and children.

Of course these can not be dealt with upon the theory on which I designed to treat the services of able-bodied men and women who might come within my lines, and of which I gave you a detailed account in my last dispatch.

"I am in the utmost doubt what to do with this species of property. Up to this time I have had come within my lines men and women, with their children,--entire families,--each family belonging to the same owner. I have therefore determined to employ--as I can do very profitably--the able-bodied persons in the party, issuing proper food for the support of all; charging against their services the expense of care and sustenance of the non-laborers; keeping a strict and accurate account, as well of the services as of the expenditures; having the worth of the services and the cost of the expenditures determined by a board of survey hereafter to be detailed. I know of no other manner in which to dispose of this subject and the questions connected therewith. As a matter of property, to the insurgents it will be of very great moment--the number that I now have amounting, as I am informed, to what in good times would be of the value of $60,000.

"Twelve of these negroes, I am informed, have escaped from the erection of the batteries on Sewell's Point, which fired upon my expedition as it pa.s.sed by out of range. As a means of offense, therefore, in the enemy's hands, these negroes, when able-bodied, are of great importance. Without them the batteries could not have been erected; at least, for many weeks. As a military question it would seem to be a measure of necessity, and deprives their masters of their services.

"How can this be done? As a political question, and a question of humanity, can I receive the services of a father and a mother and not take the children? Of the humanitarian aspect, I have no doubt; of the political one, I have no right to judge. I therefore submit all this to your better judgment, and, as these questions have a political aspect, I have ventured--and I trust I am not wrong in so doing--to duplicate the parts of my dispatch relating to this subject, and forward them to the Secretary of War.

"Your obedient servant, "BENJ. F. BUTLER.

"Lt.-General SCOTT."[81]

The letter of Gen. Butler was laid before the Secretary of War, who answered it as follows:

"SIR: Your action in respect to the negroes who came within your lines, from the service of the rebels, is approved. The Department is sensible of the embarra.s.sments which must surround officers conducting military operations in a State, by the laws of which slavery is sanctioned. The Government can not recognize the rejection by any State of its Federal obligations, resting upon itself. Among these Federal obligations, however, no one can be more important than that of suppressing and dispersing any combination of the former for the purpose of overthrowing its whole const.i.tutional authority. While, therefore, you will permit no interference, by persons under your command, with the relations of persons held to service under the laws of any State, you will, on the other hand, so long as any State within which your military operations are conducted remains under the control of such armed combinations, refrain from surrendering to alleged masters any persons who come within your lines. You will employ such persons in the services to which they will be best adapted; keeping an account of the labor by them performed, of the value of it, and the expenses of their maintenance. The question of their final disposition will be reserved for future determination.

"SIMON CAMERON, _Secretary of War_.

"To Maj.-Gen. BUTLER.

In an account of the life and services of Capt. Grier Talmadge, the "Times" correspondent says:

"To the deceased, who was conservative in his views and actions, belongs the credit of first enunciating the 'contraband' idea as subsequently applied in the practical treatment of the slaves of rebels, Early in the spring of 1861, Flag-Officer Pendergrast, in command of the frigate 'c.u.mberland,' then the vessel blockading the Roads, restored to their owners certain slaves that had escaped from Norfolk. Shortly after, the Flag-Officer, Gen.

Butler, Capt. Talmadge, and the writer chanced to meet in the ramparts of the fortress, when Capt. T. took occasion, warmly, but respectfully, to dissent from the policy of the act, and proceeded to advance some arguments in support of his views.

Turning to Gen. Butler, who had just a.s.sumed command of this department, he said: 'General, it is a question you will have to decide, and that, too, very soon; for in less than twenty-four hours deserting slaves will commence swarming to your lines. The rebels are employing their slaves in thousands in constructing batteries all around us. And, in my judgment, in view of this fact, not only slaves who take refuge within our lines are contrabands, but I hold it as much our duty to seize and capture those employed, or intended to be employed, in constructing batteries, as it is to destroy the a.r.s.enals or any other war-making element of the rebels, or to capture and destroy the batteries themselves.' Within two days after this conversation, Gen. Butler has the question practically presented to him, as predicted, and he solved it by applying the views advanced by the deceased."[82]

The conservative policy of Congress, the cringing att.i.tude of the Government at Washington, the reverses on the Potomac, the disaster of Bull Run, the apologetic tone of the Northern press, the expulsion of slaves from the Union lines, and the conduct of "Copperheads" in the North--who crawled upon their stomachs, snapping and biting at the heels of Union men and Union measures,--bred a spirit of unrest and mob violence. It was not enough that the service of free Negroes was declined; they were now hunted out and persecuted by mobs and other agents of the disloyal element at the North. Like a man sick unto death the Government insisted that it only had a slight cold, and that it would be better soon. The President was no better informed as to the nature of the war than other conservative Republicans. On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley addressed an open letter to the President, known as "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," of which the following are specimen pa.s.sages: