Slavery and Four Years of War Part 1

Slavery and Four Years of War.

by Joseph Warren Keifer.

PREFACE

The writer of this book was a volunteer officer in the Union army throughout the war of the Great Rebellion, and his service was in the field.

The book, having been written while the author was engaged in a somewhat active professional life, lacks that literary finish which results from much pruning and painstaking. He, however, offers no excuse for writing it, nor for its completion; he has presumed to nothing but the privilege of telling his own story in his own way.

He has been at no time forgetful of the fact that he was a subordinate in a great conflict, and that other soldiers discharged their duties as faithfully as himself; and while no special favors are asked, he nevertheless opes that what he has written may be accepted as the testimony of one who entertains a justifiable pride in having been connected with large armies and a partic.i.p.ant in important campaigns and great battles.

He flatters himself that his summary of the political history of slavery in the United States, and of the important political events occurring upon the firing on Fort Sumter, and the account he has given of the several attempts to negotiate a peace before the final overthrow of the Confederate armies, will be of special interest to students of American history.

Slavery bred the doctrine of State-rights, which led, inevitably, to secession and rebellion. The story of slavery and its abolition in the United States is the most tragic one in the world's annals.

The "Confederate States of America" is the only government ever attempted to be formed, avowedly to perpetuate _human slavery_.

A history of the Rebellion without that of slavery is but a recital of brave deeds without reference to the motive which prompted their performance.

The chapter on slavery narrates its history in the United States from the earliest times; its status prior to the war; its effect on political parties and statesmen; its aggressions, and attempts at universal domination if not extension over the whole Republic; its inexorable demands on the friends of freedom, and its plan of perpetually establis.h.i.+ng itself through secession and the formation of a slave nation. It includes a history of the secession of eleven Southern States, and the formation of "The Confederate States of America"; also what the North did to try to avert the Rebellion.

It was written to show why and how the Civil War came, what the conquered lost, and what the victors won.

In other chapters the author has taken the liberty, for the sake of continuity, of going beyond the conventional limits of a personal _memoir_, but in doing this he has touched on no topic not connected with the war.

The war campaigns cover the first one in Western Virginia, 1861; others in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, 1862; in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, 1863; and in Virginia, 1864; ending with the capture of Richmond and Petersburg, the battles of Five Forks and Sailor's Creek, and the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox, 1865. A chapter on the New York riots of 1863, also one on the "Peace Negotiations," will be found, each in its proper place.

Personal mention and descriptions of many officers known to the writer are given; also war incidents deemed to be of interest to the reader.

But few generalizations are indulged in either as to events, principles, or the character of men; instead, facts are given from which generalizations may be formed.

The author is indebted to his friends, General George D. Ruggles (General Meade's a.s.sistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac, late Adjutant-General, U.S.A.), for important data furnished from the War Department, and to his particular friends, both in peace and war, General John Beatty and Colonel Wm. S. Furay of Columbus, Ohio, for valuable suggestions.

J. W. K.

December, 1899.

I

INTRODUCTORY

Slavery is older than tradition--older than authentic history, and doubtless antedates any organized form of human government. It had its origin in barbaric times. Uncivilized man never voluntarily performed labor even for his own comfort; he only struggled to gain a bare subsistence. He did not till the soil, but killed wild animals for food and to secure a scant covering for his body; and cannibalism was common. Tribes were formed for defence, and thus wars came, all, however, to maintain mere savage existence. Through primitive wars captives were taken, and such as were not slain were compelled to labor for their captors. In time these slaves were used to domesticate useful animals and, later, were forced to cultivate the soil and build rude structures for the comfort and protection of their masters. Thus it was that mankind was first forced to toil and ultimately came to enjoy labor and its incident fruits, and thus human slavery became a first step from barbarism towards the ultimate civilization of mankind.

White slavery existed in the English-American colonies antecedent to black or African slavery, though at first only intended to be conditional and not to extend to offspring. English, Scotch, and Irish alike, regardless of ancestry or religious faith, were, for political offenses, sold and transported to the dependent American colonies. They were such persons as had partic.i.p.ated in insurrections against the Crown; many of them being prisoners taken on the battle- field, as were the Scots taken on the field of Dunbar, the royalist prisoners from the field of Worcester; likewise the great leaders of the Penruddoc rebellion, and many who were taken in the insurrection of Monmouth.

Of these, many were first sold in England to be afterwards re-sold on s.h.i.+pboard to the colonies, as men sell horses, to the highest bidder.

There was also, in some of the colonies, a conditional servitude, under indentures, for servants, debtors, convicts, and perhaps others. These forms of slavery made the introduction of negro and perpetual slavery easy.

Australasia alone, of all inhabited parts of the globe, has the honor, so far as history records, of never having a slave population.

Egyptian history tells us of human bondage; the patriarch Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew nation, owned and dealt in slaves. That the law delivered to Moses from Mt. Sinai justified and tolerated human slavery was the boast of modern slaveholders.

Moses, from "Nebo's heights," saw the "land of promise," where flowed "milk and honey" in abundance, and where slavery existed.

The Hebrew people, but forty years themselves out of bondage, possessed this land and maintained slavery therein.

The advocates of slavery and the slave trade exultingly quoted:

"And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken it."--Joel iii, 8.

They likewise claimed that St. Paul, while he preached the gospel to slaveholders and slaves alike in Rome, yet used his calling to enable him to return to slavery an escaped human being--Onesimus.( 1)

The advocates of domestic slavery justified it as of scriptural and divine origin.

From the Old Testament they quoted other texts, not only to justify the holding of slaves in perpetual bondage, but the continuance of the slave trade with all its cruelties.

"And he said, I am Abraham's servant."--Gen. xxiv., 34.

"And there was of the house of Saul a _servant_ whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the King said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he... .

"Then the King called to Ziba, Saul's _servant_, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that pertained to Saul, and to all his house.

"Thou, therefore, and thy sons, and they servants shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in _the fruits_, that thy master's son may have food to eat," etc. "Now Ziba had fifteen sons and _twenty servants_."--2 Samuel ix., 2, 9-10.

"I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me."--Eccles. ii., 7.

"And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence comest thou? and she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.

"And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself to her hands."--Gen. xvi., 8, 9.

"A servant will not be corrected by words; for though he understand, he will not answer."--Prov. xxix., 19.

And from the New Testament they triumphantly quoted:

"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.

Art thou called being a servant? care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather."--I Cor., vii., 20-22.

"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ," etc.

"And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him."--Eph., vi., 5-9.

"Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing G.o.d."--Col. iii., 22.

"Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven."--Col. iv., 1.

"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of G.o.d and his doctrines be not blasphemed," etc.--I Tim., vi., 1, 2.

"Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of G.o.d our Saviour in all things."--t.i.tus ii., 9, 10.

"Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward."--I. Pet. ii, 18.

The advocates of slavery maintained that Christ approved the calling as a slaveholder as well as the faith of the Roman centurion, whose servant, "sick of a palsy," Christ miraculously healed by saying: "_I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel_."--Matt.