History of the Negro Race in America Volume II Part 33

"I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far above partisan and personal politics.

"This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of Heaven, not rending or wrecking any thing. Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been done by one effort in all past time, as, in the Providence of G.o.d, it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it!

"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.

"Done at the city of Was.h.i.+ngton this 19th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1862, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-sixth.

"(Signed) ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"By the President: "W. H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State._"

The conservative policy of the President greatly discouraged the friends of the Union, who felt that a vigorous prosecution of the war was the only hope of the nation. Slavery and the Union had joined in a terrible struggle for the supremacy. Both could not exist. Our treasury was empty; our bonds depreciated; our credit poor; our industries languis.h.i.+ng; and the channels of commerce were choked.

European governments were growing impatient at the dilatory policy of our nation; and every day we were losing sympathy and friends. Our armies were being repulsed and routed; and Columbia's war eagles were wearily flapping their pinions in the blood-dampened dust of a nerveless nation. But the Negro was still on the outside,--it was "a white man's war."

FOOTNOTES:

[75] Rebellion Recs., vol. i. Doc., p. 63.

[76] Albany Atlas and Argus, May 27, 1861.

[77] Greeley, vol. ii. p. 240.

[78] Rebellion Records, vol. iii. Doc. p. 376.

[79] I have quite a large number of such orders, but the above will suffice.

[80] Greeley, vol. ii. p. 246.

[81] Greeley, vol. ii. p. 238.

[82] New York Times.

[83] Greeley, vol. ii. pp. 249, 250.

[84] Greeley, vol. ii. p. 250.

[85] Greeley, vol. i. p. 585.

[86] Greeley, vol. ii. pp. 239, 240.

[87] Greeley, vol. ii. p. 246.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE NEGRO ON FATIGUE DUTY.

NEGROES EMPLOYED AS TEAMSTERS AND IN THE QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT.--GENERAL MERCER'S ORDER TO THE SLAVE-HOLDERS ISSUED FROM SAVANNAH.--HE RECEIVES ORDERS FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR TO IMPRESS A NUMBER OF NEGROES TO BUILD FORTIFICATIONS.--THE NEGRO PROVES HIMSELF INDUSTRIOUS AND EARNS PROMOTION.

The light began to break through the dark cloud of prejudice in the minds of the friends of the Union. If a Negro were useful in building rebel fortifications, why not in casting up defences for the Union army? Succeeding Gen. Butler in command at Fortress Monroe, on the 14th of October, 1861, Major-Gen. Wool issued an order, directing that "all colored persons called contrabands," employed by officers or others within his command, must be furnished with subsistence by their employers, and paid, if males, not less than four dollars per month, and that "all able-bodied colored persons, not employed as aforesaid,"

will be immediately put to work in the Engineer's or the Quartermaster's Department. On the 1st of November, Gen. Wool directed that the compensation of "contrabands" working for the government should be five to ten dollars per month, with soldier's rations. These Negroes rendered valuable service in the sphere they were called upon to fill.

In the Western army, Gen. James B. Steedman was the first man to suggest the idea of employing Negroes as teamsters. He saw that every Negro who drove a team of mules gave to the army one more white soldier with a musket in his hands; and so with the sympathy and approval of the gallant Gen. Geo. H. Thomas, Gen. Steedman put eighty Negroes into uniforms, and turned them over to an experienced white "wagon-master." The Negroes made excellent teamsters, and the plan was adopted quite generally.

In September, 1862, an order from Was.h.i.+ngton directed the employment of fifty thousand Negro laborers in the Quartermaster's Department, under Generals Hunter and Saxton! This showed that the authorities at Was.h.i.+ngton had begun to get their eyes open on this question. "And while speaking of the negroes," wrote a "Times" correspondent, in 1862, from Hilton Head, "let me present a few statistics obtained from an official source, respecting the success which has crowned the experiment of employing them as free paid laborers upon the plantations. The population of the Division (including Port Royal, St.

Helena and Ladies' islands, with the smaller ones thereto adjacent, but excluding Hilton Head and its surroundings) is as follows:

"Effective 3,817 "Non-effective 3,110 ----- "Total 6,927

"The number of acres under cultivation on the same islands, is:

"Of Corn 6,444 "Of Cotton 3,384 "Of Potatoes 1,407

"A little calculation will show that the negroes have raised enough corn and potatoes to support themselves, besides a crop of cotton (now ripe) somewhat smaller than in former years, but still of very considerable value to the Government."[88]

Gen. Mercer issued the following order at Savannah, Georgia, which shows that the rebels did not despise the fatigue services of Negroes:

"C. S. ENGINEER'S OFFICE, } "SAVANNAH, GA., Aug. 1, 1863.}

"The Brigadier-General Commanding desires to inform the slave-holders of Georgia that he has received authority from the Secretary of War to impress a number of negroes sufficient to construct such additional fortifications as are necessary for the defence of Savannah.

"He desires, if possible, to avoid the necessity of impressment, and therefore urges the owners of slave property to volunteer the services of their negroes. He believes that, while the planters of South Carolina are sending their slaves by thousands to aid the defence of Charleston, the slave-holders of Georgia will not be backward in contributing in the same patriotic manner to the defence of their own seaport, which has so far resisted successfully all the attacks of the enemy at Fort McAllister and other points.

"Remember, citizens of Georgia, that on the successful defence of Georgia depends the security of the interior of your State, where so much of value both to yourselves and to the Confederacy at large is concentrated. It is best to meet the enemy at the threshold, and to hurl back the first wave of invasion. Once the breach is made, all the horrors of war must desolate your now peaceful and quiet homes. Let no man deceive himself. If Savannah falls the fault will be yours, and your own neglect will have brought the sword to your hearth-stones.

"The Brigadier-General Commanding, therefore, calls on all the slave-holders of Eastern, Southern, and Southwestern Georgia, but especially those in the neighborhood of Savannah, to send him immediately one fifth of their able-bodied male slaves, for whom transportation will be furnished and wages paid at the rate of twenty-five dollars per month, the Government to be responsible for the value of such Negroes as may be killed by the enemy, or may in any manner fall into his hands. By order of

"Brig.-Gen. MERCER, _Commanding_.

"JOHN MCCRADY, "_Captain and Chief Engineer, State of Georgia_."[89]

Negroes built most of the fortifications and earth-works for Gen.

Grant in front of Vicksburg. The works in and about Nashville were cast up by the strong arm and willing hand of the loyal Blacks. Dutch Gap was dug by Negroes, and miles of earthworks, fortifications, and corduroy-roads were made by Negroes. They did fatigue duty in every department of the Union army. Wherever a Negro appeared with a shovel in his hand, a white soldier took his gun and returned to the ranks.

There were 200,000 Negroes in the camps and employ of the Union armies, as servants, teamsters, cooks, and laborers. What a mighty host! Suppose the sentiment that early met the Negro on the picket lines and turned him back to the enemy had continued, 50,000 white soldiers would have been required in the Engineer's and Quartermaster's Department; while 25,000 white men would have been required for various other purposes, outside of the ranks of the army.

A narrow prejudice among some of the white troops, upon whose pedigree it would not be pleasant to dwell, met the Negro teamster, with a blue coat and b.u.t.tons with eagles on them, with a growl. They disliked to see the Negro wearing a Union uniform;--it looked too much like equality.

But in his lowly station as a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, the Negro proved himself industrious, trustworthy, efficient, and cheerful. He earned promotion, and in due time secured it.

FOOTNOTES:

[88] Times, Sept. 4, 1862.