Robert Toombs, Jefferson Davis's Secretary of State, made the following statement

during a Cabinet meeting on 9 April 1861:

Concerning Ft Sumter, "The firing on that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than

any the world has ever seen. It is unnecessary, it puts us in the wrong. It is fatal."

His warning on the 9th of April would come true in just 4 days, when the the Federal garrison at Ft Sumter, South Carolina, would surrender to Confederates after 34

hours of bombardment.

Although the general public in 1861 (as well as the general public in 2001) was

ignorant as to who had really initiated the hostilities,

Lincoln and others knew.

The Pittsburgh Daily Gazette openly admitted that "Lincoln used Ft Sumter to

draw the Confederate fire" and that Jefferson Davis and his subordinates

"ran blindly into the trap."

Presidential secretaries and Lincoln biographers John G. Nicolay and John Hay

admitted that the episode was ordered so that "the

rebellion should be put in the wrong."

Lincoln told his friend Senator Orville Browning, "The plan succeeded. They

attacked Sumter--it fell, and thus did more service that it otherwise could."

So began the revolution to destroy the Constitutional Republic.

Sergeant William Henry von Eberstein from North Carolina fought for the Confederacy as a member of the Washington Grays, Heavy Artillery until promoted to Sergeant Major, Field and Staff of the 61st Regiment NC State Troops.   Sgt. von Eberstein wrote his memoirs before his death in 1890. He owned no slaves. He fought for the land which was his and his family's. In the 
memoirs, he notes one of the instances which Northern historians and writers refuse to admit which was USCT's being used as cannon fodder during a battle near Petersburg. "After a short 
while the Yankees made a heavy charge against the break the had made. They charged with 
their Negros in front and the White Yankees behind them with bayonets fixed. It was 
certain death for a Negro not to advance upon the charge."

Colonel Santos Benavides— Confederate Freedom Fighter

 

Santos Benavides of Laredo, Texas, was the most exceptional of the many Hispanic-Americans who fought for the Confederate States of America (CSA).  Benavides commanded the 33rd Texas Cavalry, which came to be known as Benavides Regiment.  Because of the reputation he earned, as military leader and fighter, he was authorized to raise his own regiment of Partisan Rangers and promoted to the rank of colonel.   Benavides was one about 13,000 Hispanic Americans civilians who fought for the (CSA), after the United States invaded the new organized Confederacy, in 1861.  He eventually became the highest-ranking Confederate officer of Mexican-American origin.

Benavides was born in Laredo, Texas, in 1823, and was a great-great-grandson of Tomas Sanchez de la Barrera y Garza who founded Laredo.   As a political and military leader in Laredo his efforts brought the isolated region closer to Texas politics, even though he protected local independence.  He was elected Laredo’s mayor in 1856 and the chief justice of Webb County, Texas, in 1859.  He won further distinction, leading several campaigns against Lipan Apaches and other Indians.

Under both Mexican and U.S. rule, he favored federalism and a large amount of local governmental control and opposed a large centralized government that dictated what states and local authorities could do.  When Texas seceded from the U.S., Benavides and his brothers supported the Confederacy, whose state’s rights principles were close to theirs.

He was commissioned a captain in the 33rd Texas Cavalry and assigned to the Rio Grande Military District, where he quickly won accolades as a fighter.  His men, led by him, drove Juan Cortina back into Mexico, in the battle of Carrizo, on May 22, 1861, and quelled local revolts against Confederate authority.  In November 1863, Benavides was promoted to colonel and authorized to raise his own regiment of Partisan Rangers.  His most noteworthy military victory was the defense of Laredo, on March 19, 1864, with 42 troopers against 200 U.S. soldiers.  (The commander of the U.S. soldiers had once offered Benavides a generalship in the U.S. army.)

Benavides's most significant contribution to the CSA’s survival probably happened, in 1864, when he arranged safe passage for Texas cotton from the Rio Grande area to Matamoros, Mexico, while U.S. soldiers occupied Brownsville, Texas.

Nearly every Hispanic (and Indian) that took part in Lincoln’s War fought for the Confederacy.  These men served with the same bravery, dedication, and honor, as did their neighbors. 

Lincoln’s War ended in 1865 with the former Confederacy in ruins.  The U.S. had been unable to defeat Confederate armies, so it had destroyed the civil society, which supported the armies.  This included burning homes, farms, crops, and everything else its armies did not steal.  (Lincolns War is also known, in the South, as the War for Southern Independence, and, in the North, as the Civil War or War Between the States.)

After the war, U.S. armies occupied the former Confederate states and installed governments ruled by Northerners and former slaves.  Through legislation, most of what Southerners had left of wealth and property was taken through taxation.  School history books and books published in the northern U.S. call this period “Reconstruction.”

(Before Lincoln’s War, the South paid 74% of all taxes collected by the U.S. government.  Lincoln began the war to prevent losing those taxes.  In doing so, he totally disregarded the states’ rights to withdraw from the U.S. union they had voluntarily, and with reservations for their sovereignty, entered in 1787 [upon ratifying the U.S. Constitution].)

During the U.S. military occupation, Benavides continued his mercantile and ranching activities with his brother, Cristobal Benavides, and remained active in politics.  After it, he served three times in the Texas legislature, from 1879 to 1884, and twice as an alderman, in Laredo.  He was instrumental in forming the Guarache, or Sandals party, in southern Texas, to represent average citizens.  The Guaraches were a faction within the Democratic Party of Texas that opposed a faction called the Botas, or Boots, which represented wealthy citizens.  His leadership built support for the Democratic Party amongst Hispanics and contributed to the eclipse of the Republican Party in the region.

Benavides's friendship with the followers of Benito Juárez and his kinship ties to Manuel Gonzales prompted Porfirio Díaz to select him as an envoy to the United States during the reciprocity controversy in 1880. In recognition of his political achievement, he was appointed Texas delegate to the World Cotton Exposition in 1884. Benavides died at his home in Laredo on November 9, 1891.

Suggested reading (available at public libraries and in book stores):

·          Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream, by Lerone Bennett Jr.

• The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
• When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession, by Charles Adams

Georgia State flag (Name, address, contact info of issuing organization goes HERE)

Confederate Battle flag

Confederate National Flag

        

Dear Ms. Coleman,

I found the narrative below on one of your pages, while doing an internet
search recently. Your page states that this story was submitted by a Bill
Baber ... the narrative was actually written by me, for a webpage that I
co-author (Orphan Brigade Homepage,
www.rootsweb.com/~orphanhm/atlanta1.htm ). 

I would very much appreciate your adding a note to this narrative on your
page, stating my name as the author, and the Orphan Brigade Homepage (with
URL) as the source.

Thank you,

Geoff Walden

Bill Baber submitted this story of our Orphan Brigade:
The campaign for Atlanta in the summer of 1864 was the most severe test for 
the Army of Tennessee, and the Orphan Brigade as part of it. Active combat 
started for the Brigade on 7 May 1864, and did not cease until 2 September, 
nearly four grueling months later.
The Orphans began the campaign by manning various positions on Rocky
Face Ridge, outside Dalton, Georgia (as you drive south on I-75 toward 
Atlanta, you pass through Mill Creek Gap just before Dalton, with Rocky Face
Ridge to your right). From there they marched to Resaca, and participated in
the defense of that town on 14-15 May. The 2nd and 4th Kentucky regiments
repulsed several heavy assaults from their works at Resaca.

As Gen. Johnston's Army of Tennessee was continually outflanked, the Orphans
fell back to the south, arriving near Dallas, Georgia, on 25 May. Here, on 28 
May, they participated in a fateful assault that never should have been. What
was meant to be a probing action turned into a full-scale assault, and 
supporting units fell back before the Orphans got the word, leaving them to
attack the Federal works alone. The Brigade lost 51 percent of its strength in
this doomed attack.

The Orphans went on to man the Pine Mountain line (where Gen. Leonidas Polk 
was killed) and the Kennesaw Line. They saw heavy skirmish action, but did 
not participate in the main battle of Kennesaw Mountain. As part of Bate's 
Division, Lewis' Orphan Brigade attacked on the Confederate right during the 
battles of Peachtree Creek and Atlanta, but they were unable to turn the 
Federal lines.

The Orphans referred to this latter action as the battle of Intrenchment Creek,
after a water course that ran near their lines. On 6 August 1864 the Brigade 
found itself on the far left of the Confederate line, where it was attacked
by a strong Union probing force near Utoy Creek. Here, brother fought against
brother, as the Federal 11th Kentucky Infantry attacked the 4th Kentucky
Infantry of the Orphan Brigade. The Orphans were once again successful in
repelling the Federal attacks. (The site of the battle of Utoy Creek is located
today in Cascade Springs Park, on Cascade Road in western Atlanta.)

As the Federal noose around Atlanta grew ever tighter, the Orphans became
part of a force moved south to Jonesboro to protect the last remaining rail
line into the city. A desperate assault on 31 August 1864, which claimed 
many Orphan lives, failed to dislodge the Federals. The next day, Hardee's 
depleted corps was left to defend Jonesboro against nearly the entire Federal 
army. Hardee's men stood their ground against repeated attacks, but finally,
the brigade to the Orphans' left gave way, and the Federals surged around 
the Kentuckians' left flank and rear. Many men of the 2nd and 6th regiments 
were overrun and captured, along with the battle flag of the 6th Kentucky. 
The remainder of the Brigade fell back to a more defensible position. Among 
those who would serve no more was the faithful color-bearer of the 4th 
Kentucky Infantry, Robert Lindsay, mortally wounded during the attack on 
the 31st.

The battle of Jonesboro marked the end of the Atlanta Campaign, and the 
end of the Orphans' infantry service. They were issued horses and mules, and 
converted to mounted infantry. As such, they opposed Sherman's March to 
the Sea. The campaign had taken a terrible toll on the Orphans. They started 
in May at Dalton, 1,140 strong. By the time the Brigade reached Jonesboro, it 
had compiled a total of 1,860 cases of death or hospitalization. Many men 
were wounded multiple times and returned to the ranks. On 1 September, 
the Brigade could muster only 240 men in the ranks. Yet, during this entire 
campaign, fewer than ten men deserted. (Thompson, "Orphan Brigade,
" 1973 ed., p. iv)

On the 15th day April, 1861,

 Mr. Lincoln made his call for 75,000 men with which to invade the Southern
Confederacy, and demanded of Virginia her quota. To honor this call was to
abandon her principles, join in an unconstitutional invasion of the Southern
States, and inaugurate a cruel war upon their people.

Proof Positive that Sherman  Issued "Kill and Burn" Orders
by Barry Colbaugh

Rome, Ga. May 3rd 1902
Editor Journal:-
In your issue of Tuesday, April 19th, I notice that you quote General 
Wheeler as follows: "It is true that Sherman's Army did burn buildings 
but I never heard of him killing or hurting a non-combatant."

I judge from the trend of the interview that General Wheeler does not 
believe that General Jacob H. Smith had a precedent for his actions, 
as charged against him before the court martial now in session. I fear 
that his memory fails him, and wish to refresh it by submitting the 
following orders by one of the most famous (?) generals produced 
during the late civil war, as shown over the general's own signature, 
and found in "War of Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and 
Confederate Armies." In Series I, Volume XXXIX, Part III, page 494 you 
will find the following:

Headquarters, Military Div. of the Miss, Rome Ga. Oct. 29th, 1864
Brigadier General Watkins, Calhoun, Ga.:
Can you not send over to Fairmount and Adairsville, burn ten or 
twelve houses of known Secessionists, kill a few at random, and let 
them know that it will be repeated every time a train is fired upon 
from Resaca to Kingston.
W. T. Sherman
Major General Commanding

You will find in Series I, Volume XXXVIII, Part IV, Page 579, another 
evidence of the general's heartlessness, as follows:

Headquarters, Division of the Miss. In the field, Big Shanty, June 
23rd 1864
Major T. B. Steadman , Commander of District of the Etowah, 
Chattanooga

General ..............................Now if torpedoes are found in 
the possession of an enemy to our rear, you may cause them to be put 
to ground and tested by a wagon load of prisoners, or if need be 
citizens implicated in their use. In like manner if a torpedo is 
suspected on any part of the road, order the point to be tested by a 
car load of prisoners or citizens implicated, drawn by a long rope. Of 
course an enemy cannot complain of his own traps. I am etc.,
W. T. Sherman
Major General Com.

It will probably be remembered that Henry Grady said of Sherman that 
he was "careless with fire, in passing through Georgia", but the 
extent to which this carelessness was practiced by General Sherman I 
fear has been overlooked, and beg to call attention to the following:

Brigadier General John M. Corse, Rome, Ga.
In the execution of sealed orders No. 115 you will destroy tonight all 
public property not needed by your command, all foundries, mills, 
workshops, warehouses, railroad depots, all other storehouses 
convenient to the railroad, together with the wagon shops, tanneries, 
or other factories useful to our enemy. Destroy the bridges 
completely, and then move tomorrow to Kingston or beyond.

W. T. Sherman
Major General.

If this is not enough to convince General Wheeler or anyone else, I 
would be glad to furnish additional proof from the same abundant 
source.
W. M. Towers
Formerly of Forrest's Cavalry

The above article was found in a collection by Thomas P Lovic of the 
10th Georgia Infantry. Scrapbook Collection MSS34 in the Atlanta 
History Center. The article was from the Atlanta Journal. Note: I have 
several stories of citizens of Cassville, Georgia and the atrocities 
that happened around October 1864 a lot caused by the 5th Ohio 
Cavalry. Interestingly enough Matthew Brady photographed the camp life 
above Adairsville and had some photos of the Bridge below Cartersville 
and Allatoona but no photos of the totally decimated towns of Etowah 
and Cassville. Cassville was a very large town during that time almost 
as big as Atlanta and was located over 2 miles from the railroad not 
wanting to have the railway through their town. Cassville was the only 
town who paid to have it moved to another location that became known 
as Cass Station. Cassville was the only town outside of Savannah that 
had paved sidewalks and you can still see remnants thereof today. This 
is an idea of just how prominent a town like Cassville was.

Greg Ballentine wrote

FYI, attached is a copy of the letter from my g-g-grandaddy describing the burning of Columbia to one of his sons, an officer in the 16th SCV. His reference to "Bennie" was another son, a Lt. in the 16th. Thought you might be interested.

Columbia, March 14, 1865

My Dear Allston,

Our beautiful city is now a mass of ruins - 1350 houses on 84 squares, all the heart of the city, were burned. Sherman told the Mayor on entering that private property would not be disturbed - hence I made no effort to save anything. They commenced burning in the afternoon, Gen. Hampton living the lie to Sherman's statement.

After seven P.M. some cotton in Main Street was set on fire and the wind being high flames spread all around - the houses were fired. About 10 P.M. an orderly came to my house and said the fire was accidental and that the Gen. said if our servants were turned out the fire could be stopped. They cajoled us - our stores were then burning. The flames became a tornado of fire and we were surrounded. My house was saved outwardly by buckets of water on the roof - about 12, the villains came into the house and set fire in my parlor. I turned a Yankee Negro out, setting fire. Then I took a torch of fire from a soldier trying to push it through the window of the basement. He leaped at me and jeered - Robt. McCulloch took up the fire in the parlor and threw it out - a Yankee jerked him and said let the damned house burn. I then gave up and left the house - but as they took away everything of value in the streets I carried nothing out but a bag with my bonds and money. I saved only the suit I had on. Everything was destroyed. - I did not save a single picture. McCulloch saved little DeVeauxs bust. All my clothes were stolen and Miss Elliotts trunk of silver broken open and robbed. Seventeen days after the fire I dug up what was buried under the bricks. Caroline's and Mary Thomas's silver being in wooden boxes was burned and much melted and destroyed - but my silver being in a tin box was saved. What was buried for Mary was all burned. Your dear Ma's jewelry and mine in a wooden box were all burned. My sword and canes were destroyed. My brandy and rum burst and the wine boiled. We found the fires still burning and the bottles were too hot to be handled. I saved about 100 out of 250 bottles - about half of it is sound, the rest vinegar.

 

My pony was taken.

 

July and Sims went off with the Yankees and Henry (from the printing office) was carried off - he sent word to Nancy he would come back if he could - but so far has not come. The other Negroes behaved well.

 

Jacob came home and brought your knapsack. There are a few unimportant papers in it and a few clothes. Mary lost everything, so did Robert and Jas. Wilson. James's house was saved by almost a miracle - after he had left it to burn. Thank God we have a shelter there.

 

They took corn from Moultrie but did not burn his place. Moultrie and Lewis were captured by Kilpatrick and paroled. He and Mary are at home and Hasell and Alice are there. Hattie is away from home and I am going to Newberry for her. I have been very sick and not well enough to go for her as the weather is very bad.

 

Thomas is here and will carry Mary and the children to Spartanburg next week - as the Gov. intends the cadets to remain there. I am undecided what I will do. I will stay with James for the present.

 

My horses have got back safely.

 

The city is in a deplorable state and our people seem to be demoralized and have no spirit - they seem all desirous of stealing anything they can get hold of.

 

Negroes were robbed by the Yankees but they still have quantities of plunder. Committees have been around and collected much stolen property. Yesterday it was expected to be claimed and crowds claimed everything. Some things had a dozen claimants. Ladies were ready to swear to buttons and tape and spools of cotton! Some of them who had lost nothing actually claimed lots of things.

 

I have succeeded in getting Gen. Hampton's buggy and his fine china - most of it. The burning was like clock-work. Towards morning Sherman seemed to get ashamed of his villainy and ordered out a division to stop the fire and in an hour it was stopped. If he had chosen it could have been done at 7 P.M. but he meant to burn the city.

 

The college library and buildings there are saved. The female academy and fem. college saved. Preston's house was saved by the Nuns going into it. The old capitol burned - the new not much injured.

 

Susan's and Mr. Singleton's, Mayrant's, Sanders' and H. Green's houses saved - Sanders' out buildings burned.

 

James Guignard's corn and horses and mules were taken but his place was not burned. All of Sanders house Negroes in town went to the Yankees - Mayrant lost 16, a great many went. Some have come back.

 

I will send Dr. Gibbon $200.00 by first private opportunity.

 

Today (14th) is the anniversary of our dear Bennie's death. Little did I suppose that ere it arrived your dear mother would be resting beside him in the dreary grave. God has filled my cup of grief to overflowing and sad and desolate is my poor heart. The world seems now a blank to me. All the associations of my life seem gone and cheerless is the prospect of the future to my weary spirit. God give me consolation! He seems to have taken your dear mother to save her from the dreadful scenery we have waded through. God bless you and protect you. Write when you can.

Yr. Affte. Father,

R.W.G.

"BLOOD AND FIRE IS THE MEDICINE I USE" -

YANKEE METHODS IN TENNESSEE 1861-65

Union General Robert H. Milroy was a "kill-and burn" commander during the occupation of Middle Tennessee.In probably the beginning of 1865 a Union "snitch", Moses Pittman, an illiterate, reported on Confederate guerrillas and those who aided the Confederates to Gen. Milroy. A list was drawn up based on Pittman's information and it is preserved in the records of the Provost Marshal.
One example from the list:
"10. Wilkins Gifford Is the leader of a bushwacker gang, who lurk in the neighborhood of Beans Creek and Moses Pittman is of the opinion that they are the ones that were specifically engaged in robbing him Kill and clean out". The note at the bottom is in a different handwriting and is an order to deal with those reported by Pittman. Milroy issued an order in ten paragraphs in February 1865 and made official his burn-and-kill policy. He was then Commander Defenses Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, Military Sub-District No. 1.

Paragraph ten details:
" TENTH: The following persons have committed murder and if caught will be hung to the first tree in front of their dooryard and be allowed to hang there for an indefinite period. You will assure yourself that they are dead before leaving them also if at their residence they will be stripped of everything as per the above instructions and then burned." In this paragraph are four names and concerning the last name Major General Milroy orders: "If caught Willis Taylor will be turned over to Moses Pittman to be killed." Naturally letting a civilian carry out the execution of a prisoner is against the Laws of War.
The conclusions to be drawn concerning paragraph ten are chilling indeed. There was to be no trial, no chance for the accused to defend himself or produce witnesses in his defense or offer mitigating circumstances. 

Similar orders were issued by Milroy on at least two other occasions. Milroy was born in Washington County, Indiana, in 1816. Graduating from university and becoming a lawyer he served in the Mexican war. At the outbreak of the WBTS he recruited a regiment in Indiana and was promoted to Brigadier General in February, 1862. After a debacle in Virginia he was transferred to Tennessee and the Tullahoma area. The challenge was enormous for him as support for the Confederacy was widespread, to say the least.
Milroy left Tennessee a bitter man in July, 1865, burdened with debts. After having failed an attempt to find oil in the state where he used warfare by blood and fire, he took up a job as government agent on the Yakima Indian Reservation near Olympia, Washington, until his death in 1890. There is a statue to honour Milroy in Rensselaer, Indiana.
Source: "Shoot if you can by accident" by Michael Bradley and Milan Hill, North & South magazine, Vol. 3, Number 1, November 1999. Submitted by Bertil Haggman.

---

"Governor Jackson and his legislature, retreating to Neosho, convened in proper session, passed an ordinance of secession, and officially carried Missouri into the ranks of the South. From the first to last more than 50,000 Missourians entered the Confederate service without draft or forced enlistment, a record not equaled by any other State on either side".

---

The Andersonville Story

Ronald Collier Submitted:

In 1992, while doing genealogical research via microfilm of old 
1870s local newspapers, I came across an extensive newspaper article in the 
16 May 1874 Houston Home Journal written by L. M. Park, a 15 year old guard 
who was stationed at Andersonville almost from the first establishment of the 
prison. I have transcribed it below.

This article is entitled: THE REBEL PRISON PEN AT ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA.


-------------------BEGIN------------------->>> It is the duty of every lover 
of justice, when he sees a gross and injurious calumny put into circulation 
which he is able to refute from direct knowledge, to challenge it at once, 
and more especially if it is aimed at his own people, and meant to be used to 
their injury. It is true that in those regions for which calumnies are 
prepared, they are too generally prepared to the truth, even when the truth 
is offered; but the duty of affirming the truth is no less stringent on those 
who are able to affirm it.

It is with this view that the following paper is written to correct certain 
statements which recently appeared in Appleton's Journal, professing to 
relate facts gleaned during a trip to Andersonville, GA, concerning the 
Confederate military prison there and the treatment of Federal prisoners. 
Instead of reviewing the article in detail, I will merely take up, one by 
one, the principal false statements.

THE WATER THE PRISONERS DRANK:

It was my fortune to be stationed at Andersonville almost from the first 
establishment of the prison until the removal to Millen, GA, or Camp Lawton, 
and I unhesitatingly pronounce the statement that "the prisoners had to drink 
the water that conveyed the offal of three camps and two large bakeries off 
before it reached them" utterly false. The guards drank of the same water 
that quenched the prisoners' thirst, cooked their food with the same water, 
the same large stream or creek flowing through the encampment of guards and 
stockade, or "prison pen" as the Northern writers sneeringly call it.

The camps of the guards all faced the stream, while their sinks were far off 
in the rear, and orders were most strict not to muddy the stream, much less 
defile it in any way. As to the offal of the bakeries, these being presided 
over by prisoners on parole, and who did the cooking for the entire prison, I 
do not believe they would pollute the water their brother prisoners had to 
drink. As rapidly as they could, the prisoners dug wells; in all some two 
hundred were dug, and purer, sweeter, cold water I never drank. Being on the 
staff of Captain Wirz, I had free access to the prison at all times day or 
night, and whenever I wished to quench my thirst, I went inside the prison 
and drank from one of these wells.

THAT PROVIDENTIAL SPRING SO-CALLED:

That "Providential Spring" is an impious myth. I have been in the prison a 
thousand times and never before heard it so called, except on reading the 
Herald's account of the anniversary of the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting, when 
some pharisaically pious old brother recited a long rigmarole about this same 
"Providential Spring", and said it was planted there in direct answer to 
prayer. The gist of this spring tale is that when prisoners' sickness and 
suffering from thirst was at its greatest, all at once this spring burst 
forth in direct answer to prayer. Was there ever such blasphemy? If such 
was the case, why does the spring still exist after it has answered its 
purpose? Do those rocks of Horeb struck by Moses to slake the children of 
Israel's thirst still exist, and at this late day the water rush forth? It 
is all a cock-and-bull story, and unlike Sternes, one of the poorest I ever 
heard.

TWO FEDERAL AND THREE REBEL PROVIDENTIAL SPRINGS:

If my recollection serves me right, there was yet another of these same 
"Providential Springs" inside the stockade, and that Providence who sends the 
rain alike on the just and the unjust gave unto the wicked and ungodly Rebels 
three of these "Providential Springs" and I am sure he did not plant ours in 
answer to prayer, for we had just as leave drank the branch water.

WHY THERE WERE NO BARRACKS:

The Confederate Government has always been harshly assailed for its want of 
humanity in not having barracks to house the prisoners from the sun and 
rains. A more senseless hue and cry was never heard. How was it possible to 
saw timber into planks without saw-mills? There were two water-power mills 
distant three and six miles respectively, but such rude primitive affairs 
undeserving the name. The nearest steam saw-mill was twenty-three miles 
distant (near Smithville), the next at Reynolds, about fifty miles distant; 
but the great bulk of lumber used, fully two-thirds, was brought from Gordon, 
a distance of eighty miles.

Even if these mills had had the capacity to supply the necessary amount of 
lumber, it would still have been impossible to have provided barracks for the 
prisoners, as all the available engines of all the railroads in the 
Confederacy were taxed to their utmost capacity in transporting supplies for 
the army in the field and to the prisons. But few even of the officers of 
the guard had shanties, these few were built of slabs and sheeting, which 
every one knows is the refuse of the mills. And even though there was no 
lack of lumber, when we remember that there was but one solitary manufactory 
of cut nails in the limits of the Confederacy, certainly no blame could be 
attached to the authorities for not furnishing more comfortable quarters for 
them.

Nearly every building in the encampment was built of rough logs and covered 
with clap-boards split from the tree and held to their places by poles. The 
force of these statements is readily appreciated by every intelligent and 
unprejudiced mind. Besides, is it customary for any nation in time of war to 
treat their prisoners in a more humane manner than their own soldiers in the 
field? The inquiry becomes pertinent when we reflect that during the last 
two years of the war, there was not a tent of any description to be found in 
any of the armies of the Confederacy save such as were captured from the 
Federals.

HOW THE STOCKADE WAS BUILT:

The stockade was built by the negroes belonging to the neighboring farms, 
either hired or pressed into sevice by the Confederate authorities to cut 
down the immense pine trees growing on the ground intended for the stockade; 
and these same trees were then cut into proper lengths and hewn on the spot, 
then planted in a ditch dug four feet deep to receive them. In this manner 
was the stockade made. Before it was completed the prisoners were forwarded 
in great numbers, and it being impossible to keep them in the cars, we had to 
put them in the completed end of the stockade and double the guard, our whole 
force kept ever ready day and night for the slightest alarm; for at first we 
only had the shattered remnants of two regiments, the 
26th of Alabama and the 55th of Georgia, numbering in all, some three hundred 
and fifty men. This constituted the guard.

In about ten days thereafter my regiment, 1st Georgia Reserves, composed of 
young boys and old men, (I was not sixteen) just organized, were sent to take 
the place of the 26th Alabama and 55th Georgia, so they could be sent to the 
front for duty. In a few days after our arrival the 2d, 3d and 4th Georgia 
Reserves, all composed of lads and hoary-headed men, for we were reduced to 
the strait of "robbing the cradle and the grave for men to make soldiers", 
joined us rapidly as they could be organized.

The author of "Jaunt in the South" says: "When the stockade was occupied in 
1864, there was not a tree nor a blade of grass within it. Its reddish sand 
was entirely barren, and not the smallest particle of green showed itself. 
But now the surface is covered completely with underbrush; a rich growth of 
bushes, trees and plants has covered the entire area, and where before there 
was a dreary desert, there is now a wild and luxurious garden." I have 
before said the ground was covered with a pine forest, and the trees were 
utilized to build the stockade.
Any one who has traveled south of Macon, GA, knows the pine is abundant, and 
in fact, almost the only tree. In these forests the ground is covered with 
wire grass and other grass peculiar to them.

WHY ANDERSONVILLE WAS SELECTED:

The main reasons for locating the prison at Andersonville after its first 
being thought the most secure place in the Confederacy from the Yankee 
cavalry raids, was the abundance of water and timber, wherewith to construct 
the prison rapidly, and its being the very heart of the grain growing section 
of the South, which would make it less inconvenient to supply with provisions 
such a vast multitude.

MALICIOUS EXHIBITION IN OHIO STATE CAPITOL:

In the summer of 1867 I set out for New York, being resolved to live no 
longer in the South where negroes were being placed over us by Yankee 
bayonets, and in their vernacular, "de bottom rail was agittin' on de top er 
de fence." I travelled very leisurely and stopped in every city of any note 
on my route, and kept eyes and ears wide open to drink in everything. I 
visited the Ohio State Capitol at Columbus, and in the museum of curiosities 
were some small paper boxes carefully preserved in a glass case, containing 
what purported to be the exact quality and quantity of ration issued per diem 
at Andersonville.

In one box was about a pint of coarse unbolted meal, and in another about one 
table-spoonful of rice, and still another box with about two table-spoons of 
black peas; and in a tiny little box was about one-eighth of a tea-spoonful 
of salt. Underneath it is all explained, and says among other things: "When 
rice was given the peas were withheld, but when they had no rice this kind of 
peas were given instead." It is needless to say how my blood boiled at this 
atrocious, malicious and damnably false exhibition. No wonder the hatred of 
the North is kept alive, and the bloody chasm continually widened by such 
wicked and uncharitable displays as this in one of the largest and most 
enlightened States in the Union.

RATIONS TO GUARDS AND PRISONERS THE SAME:

I was for three months a clerk in the commissary department at Andersonville, 
and it was my business to weigh out rations to the guards and prisoners 
alike, and I solemnly assert that the prisoners got ounce for ounce and pound 
for pound of just the same quantity and quality of food as did the guards. 
The State authorities of Ohio ought to blush at thus traducing and slandering 
a fallen foe, and never in the first instance to have placed on exhibition 
for preservation as truth this fabrication of partisan hate. No 
Andersonville prisoner, unless he were lost to all sense of honor and shame, 
could make such a statement as that the rations were no more than the 
specimens shown.

WHY THE PRISONERS WERE FED ON CORN BREAD:

It has been charged as a crying shame upon the Confederacy by ignorant 
humanitarians that the South might at least have given the prisoners wheat 
bread occasionally; that they rarely ate corn bread in their own land, and 
that the bread we issued was made of meal so coarse and unsifted that it 
caused dysentery, thereby largely increasing the mortality. It is well known 
now that the South depends very largely, and with shame I confess it, on the 
West for her bread and bacon, and the cotton belt proper makes but little 
pretensions of raising wheat, for the climate is said is unsuited; so that 
the region round about Andersonville, being in the very heart of the 
cotton-growing section of Georgia, such a thing as feeding prisoners on flour 
was impossible, and the little flour that was obtained as tithes (one-tenth 
of all the crops raised was required by our Government) was devoted entirely 
to the use of the hospital.

Not only was this true of the territory immediately surrounding 
Andersonville, but of the whole South. Our armies were unsupplied with 
flour, and perhaps not one family in fifty throughout the whole land enjoyed 
that luxury. The guards ate the same bread, or rather meal; the bread eaten 
by the prisoners being baked by the regular bakers (prisoners detailed for 
that purpose), while the guards did their own cooking. The meal, however, 
was the same, and both were unsifted and in truth very coarse. I ate the 
unsifted meal always.

THE DEAD LINE:

Another cry of holy horror is raised every time the "Dead Line" is mentioned, 
as if this dead-line was prima facie evidence that the Southerners were as 
barbarous and cruel a race as ever blotted the face of the earth. The 
civilized North, however, had the same barbarous dead-line in their prisons, 
and in fact originated the device. It was a necessity with us, for we never 
had at one time more than 1200 to 1500 guards in the four regiments fit for 
duty, and we had the keeping at one time of nearly 40,000 prisoners. By a 
concerted plan of onslaught, they could at any time have scaled the walls, 
captured the guards, and with the weapons of their keepers overrun the entire 
country, which, all south of Dalton, GA, (100 miles north of Atlanta), was 
left wholly unprotected save by gray-haired old men and young boys; and the 
women, children and negroes, who were the only hope for the making of crops 
for our armies, would have been helplessly at their mercy.

This dead line was clearly defined and consisted of stakes driven into the 
ground twenty feet from the walls of the stockade, and on these stakes was a 
three-inch strip of plant nailed all around the inside of the prison. They 
were all notified that a step beyond this line was not prudent, and they were 
not so unwise as to venture beyond that limit.

BURIAL OF DEAD PRISONERS:

Speaking of the number and burial of the dead, the writer of the aforesaid 
"Jaunt" says: "The authorities at the stockade who had charge of the 
interment of the Federal dead, did their work rudely, digging pits and 
burying them in", then he goes on: "It is hard to comprehend the true value 
of the number 14,000; its magnitude eludes you. Fourteen thousand men form a 
great mob, or a great army, or a great town. Here you have 
14,000 men lying silently in a few acres. Within these bounds men have 
suffered as greatly as have any since the world began."

In reply to this I would merely say, the burial was the work of prisoners 
paroled especially for the purpose, both the hauling of the bodies to the 
ground, the digging of the graves and even the records of the names were all 
done by paroled prisoners. Books and a tent were provided soley for the 
latter purpose. Owing to the weakness of the guard, paroled prisoners were 
employed for this duty, as we could spare no men for the purpose; and if the 
work was rudely or carelessly done, the blame rests with them. As 
compensation they were given double rations and almost entire freedom. As to 
the number of dead we admit that it is great, but statistics show that more 
Southern soldiers died in Northern prisons than Northern soldiers in Southern 
prisons. In vain have Northern writers tried to disprove this fact.

MORTALITY NO GREATER AMONG PRISONERS THAN GUARD:

Great as was the mortality among the prisoners, it was no greater in 
proportion to the number than that of the guards, which is fully attested by 
the reports of the surgeon in charge. Besides, it is well-known to every 
soul that can or does read, that the Confederacy, through their agent, Judge 
Ould, made frequent and tireless efforts to get the United States Government, 
through their agent, General Butler, to exchange.
But no, the Federal authorities would not hear to it; but acting on the 
avowed and promulgated idea that the South, being blockaded, could not 
recruit her armies from foreign lands, while to the North the whole of Europe 
was opened, they cruelly determined not to exchange, so as to detain our 
soldiers from again fighting them, well knowing even then we had made our 
last conscription (17 to 50 years) and when those we had were killed up or in 
prison, we could of course be overpowered. This was their cold-blooded, 
brutal policy; and closely did they stick to it even till were almost 
literally wiped out, while the men they had fighting us were in the most part 
hired substitutes, drafted men and foreign hirelings.

PRINCIPAL CAUSE OF MORTALITY:

Farther, as to the mortality among the prisoners, let it be remembered that a 
majority of the deaths caused in our prisons was want of proper medicines, 
which we did not have and could not get, except by blockade-running. Had the 
Federal Government any of the milk of human kindness in its composition, it 
would have acceded to our earnest request to take cotton in exchange for 
drugs to administer their own dying soldiers. Their immense manufactories 
were lying idle for the want of cotton, while we had it but could not use it. 
But as these self-same drugs and medicines would also be applied to the 
relief of our own sick soldiers, they determined it would be to their 
advantage to let all die alike, knowing that the South could get no more men 
to supply the places of the sick and dying, and these they had imprisoned, 
and so refused all overtures.

After using every effort and exhausting every argument to get an exchange, we 
proposed as we had no medicines and could get none, except what we 
accidentally ran in through the blockade from Europe, (they being declared 
contraband and always confiscated whenever captured by the blockade fleet) we 
proposed to turn over to them all their sick, without requiring man for man, 
but giving them absolutely up, if the United States would only send vessels 
for transporting them. This was done at Camp Lawton (Millen, GA), after the 
prison was removed from Andersonville for greater security.

EXTRACTS FROM AN OFFICER'S DIARY:

From the private journal of a Confederate officer high in command, both at 
Andersonville and other Southern prisons, glean the annexed facts, the first 
bearing directly upon the foregoing: "At one time an order came to Camp 
Lawton to prepare 2000 men for exchange. The order from Richmond was to 
select first the wounded, next the oldest prisoners and sickly, filling up 
with healthy men according to date. This partly went first to Savannah, as 
arranged, but by some mistake the ships were at Charleston, and the poor 
wretches had to be taken there; and every one who knew the Southern railroads 
in those days, and the difficulty or rather impossibility to procure food for 
such a crowd along the road, will know what those poor fellows suffered.

At Charleston they were refused, the commissioner declaring that he was not 
going to exchange able-bodied men for such specimens of humanity.
(The term used was more brutal.) Finding him obdurate, Colonel Ord requested 
him to take them without exchange. This he refused with a sneering laugh, 
and the crowd was ordered back. Never did the writer of this witness such 
woe-begone countenances, in which misery and hopelessness were more strongly 
painted, than shown by these poor fellows on their return. And the curses 
leveled against the rulers who thus treated the defenders of their country 
were fearful, although certainly well deserved. As the stockade gate closed 
upon them the surgeon in charge said to the writer: "Poor fellows! the world 
has closed upon more than half of them; their disappointment will be their 
death-knell." His words proved true. Who murdered these men? Let history 
answer the question.

CLOTHING FOR PRISONERS:

Again I extract from the aforesaid journal: The Northerners talk much of the 
cruelty of the South to Federal prisoners. At one time the unfortunate 
prisoners were almost without clothing, indeed some hardly had as much as 
common decency required. The South could not provide them, not being able to 
clothe their own men. An application was made to Seward. The reply was that 
"the Federal Government did not supply clothing to prisoners of war." 
Luckily for the poor fellows, a society in New York took the matter in hand, 
and several bales of clothing and cases of shoes were forwarded to Richmond, 
and divided in proportion to numbers, among the prisoners.

CRUELTY TO PRISONERS:

A great deal has been said of the cruelty to the prisoners inside the 
stockade. This so-called cruelty was inflicted by their own men. In every 
prison a police and a chief, all from the prisoners, was appointed to keep 
order, see to the enforcement of the regulations, and inquire into all 
offenses, reporting through their chief to the Commandant. The punishment, 
such as were used in the Federal army, were ordered inflicted by these men, 
and some were of such a barbarous nature that they were prohibited with 
disgust by Confederate officers, who substituted milder and more humane ones; 
and yet the former were in common practice in the Federal armies, as 
testified by all the prisoners.

BLOOD-HOUNDS:

Among the numerous lies invented by Northerners, and actually still believed 
by some parties to this day, was the story that the Confederates used to hunt 
and worry prisoners with bloodhounds. Now it is well-known that the breed of 
bloodhounds is nearly extinct in the South, and the large packs of those dogs 
alluded to by writers on the subject existed only in their imaginations, the 
prolific brains of penny-a-liners, whose vile and lying compositions now 
abound in any so-called respectable New York papers; no public man is safe 
from their ferocious attacks.

Among the various specimens of this dog alluded to by the above named gentry, 
was the famous bloodhound of the Libby Prison. The writer has often seen 
this formidable animal, which certainly in his youth must have been as fine a 
specimen of the kind as could be met anywhere, but unfortunately for the 
thrilling portion of the accounts of his doings at the time of the war, the 
poor beast, worn out with old age with hardly a tooth in his head, wandered 
about a harmless, inoffensive creature. He was the property of the 
Commandant of Libby, who kept him because he was a pet dog of his father's, 
and there the brute lived a pensioner in his old age. As to his worrying 
men, he could not, had he even tried, have worried a child. The other 
prisons had none, not even as pensioners.

Among the records history gives us of using those dogs to hunt men, it is 
stated that during the Florida war a number of bloodhounds were imported by 
the Federal Government from Cuba to hunt the Indians out of the Everglades, 
and that numbers of the natives were worried to death by the ferocious 
beasts. The writer does not deny that when a prisoner got out of the 
stockade trying to escape, if no clue could be obtained of his whereabouts, a 
few mongrel or half-breed fox hounds were used to track him, but the worrying 
was all done in the correspondent's own brain. However, it suited the times 
and made the article sell. The only complaint made is that this vile and 
malicious lie is still, if not believed, repeated by some who use it for 
party purposes, and thus help to keep up the bad feeling between the North 
and the South.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE GREAT MORTALITY:

So never shake your gory locks or point your guilty finger at the South for 
the dead who died in Southern prisons. History, with impartial pen will 
place the guilt and censure of the damning deed at the door of the insulter 
of defenseless women, the plunder of New Orleans, and the murder of Mrs. 
Surratt, or as he is admiringly called by his worshippers, "the great 
Secretary", Edwin M. Stanton and their backers, the members of the United 
States Congress. History will also declare Captain Wirz to have been as 
foully and wilfully murdered ers as Mrs. Surratt. Though a rude pro ers 
fane man, he was never guilty of heartless cruelty while I was under him, a 
period of over three months, until the prisoners removal to Camp Lawton. The 
day will come when his memory will be fully vindicated; now the attemp is 
vain.

I will add that this article has not been written either for fame or money. 
It has been prepared amid the pressure of business engagements and at 
necessarily detached intervals, and is prompted soley by a sense of duty to 
vindicate the cause of truth and the claims of an outraged people.

L. M. PARK

---

"NEVER FORGET THE CONFEDERATE VET" ©

Would the North reason? Must we fight?
The Constitution agreed- the South was right!
But it was might over right- if you'll but read-
That broke the back of the "Confederacy".
Early victories gave us hope-
That in a year or two- the "Yanks" would choke!
After all, we had "Stonewall" and Robert E. Lee-
But fate would determine our destiny.
Battle worn and numerically thin-
The war for "Southern Independence" was coming to an end.
As brave men fought and multitudes gave all-
Soon the Confederacy with their dreams would fall.
Our women were diligent, remaining true to the cause-
Whatever was needed- they did without pause.
The land was scorched- the fields were bare-
The stench of death filled the air.
Oh when before had so many suffered so much?
Battle flags now furled- midst a silent hush.
It wasn't for slavery that they freely gave their lives-
But for a noble stand called HONOR, or SOUTHERN PRIDE!
Once a mighty army marched- as they said their good- byes-
Now only tears filled the mourner's eyes.
And WHY? Why I ask? Did they die in vain?
Tell me why these souls were slain?
Conquered, but NOT defeated- we must NEVER FORGET-
Our history- Our heritage- THE CONFEDERATE VET!!!!

BY: GERALD L. JOHNSON, COPYWRITE 1999
COL. CHARLES F. FISHER CAMP #813 (SCV)
GRAHAM, NORTH CAROLINA

---

This story ran in the Chester Report(SC) on February 17, 1995 during Black 
History Month


Burrel Hemphill

Trust of ancestor remembered by great-granddaughter

General William T. Sherman left Columbia 130 years ago headed 
north toward Chester County and Blackstock. The main body of his troops 
did not reach Chester County, but turned east and then north again heading 
for North Carolina.
Raiding parties or foragers, they were more nicely known came into 
the southern and eastern parts of the county.
Burrel Hemphill was a slave, left by his master to guard the 
Hemphill homestead in Blackstock. He encountered a Union foraging party 
with tragic results. Hattie Jean Hemphill Holmes, 83, is the 
great-granddaughter of Burrel Hemphill. She lives near the old Hemphill 
place and for decades the story of her grandfather has been handed down 
from family member to family member.
"He gave his life before he would tell where the silver was 
hidden," Mrs.. Holmes said. "He wouldn't betray his master's trust".
Burrel Hemphill was a trusted slave of Robert Hemphill, the 
bachelor property owner that was said to be benevolent and kindly toward 
his slaves. Robert Hemphill owned a large plantation of 2,200 acres, most 
of it near Hopewell Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church. "The Hemphill 
place was down the road from the church," Mrs. Holmes said of the stories 
that she was told as a child. "The Yankees, I think it was, asked him 
(Burrel Hemphill) to tell them where the silver was hidden. But they had 
told him not to tell where he had hid it. They watched him to see if he 
would show them where it was hid. But he wouldn't tell where the silver 
was hidden so they hanged him.
Mrs. Homes says that she does not remember many details of the 
story, but she does remember members of her family telling the story of the 
bravery and determination of her great-grandfather who gave his life in 
order not to betray a trust.
Tradition has it that as Sherman's troops made their advance from 
Columbia northward, Robert Hemphill headed toward North Carolina, leaving 
Burrel Hemphill in charge
Sherman's plan was to head north making it appear that they were 
heading (this part of the paper is missing). Troops crossed the 
Wateree/Catawba at Rocky Mounty, near Great Falls rather than crossing 
further into Chester County.
Sherman's troops were in the area until the end of February 
1865. The left wing of the army was at the Rocky Mount section and the 
right wing crossed the river at Peay's Ferry on Feb. 23.
The right wing built a pontoon bridge across the Wateree at Rocky 
Mount but it was swept away because of the flooded conditions of the river 
and all the troops did not get across until Feb. 28. Raiding parties 
however made it to the Hemphill plantation some 10 miles away.
There they encountered Burrel Hemphill. Sherman's Army generally 
burned many homes and other pieces of property in their path as they 
marched northward from Savanna. The foragers were supposed to be 
searching for food for the troops, but generally they hunted for tools and 
valuables that were left behind by fleeing refugees.
As the Yankee's approached Burrel they tried to get him to lead 
them or tell them where the silver was hidden. When he refused, they 
tortured him, tying him to a horse and dragging him from the Hemphill home 
to the church which is about a half mile or more. Torture would not entice 
Burrel to reveal the valuables and the soldiers took him be hind the home, 
secured a rope on the limbs of a blackgum tree and hung him. While he was 
hanging and dying they shot him in the legs.

End:

This was typical of raiding parties. There are documented stories 
on my first cousin (5 times removed) who was one of the signers of the 
Ordinance of Succession for SC. Dr. Columbus Cauthen, MD was suffering 
from TB (consumption) when Sherman's troops came through Lancaster. He 
was dragged from his bed and taken outside to the horses watering 
troth. His head was submerged repeatedly until he passed out. He died a 
short time later as a result of this.       Claude Sinclair

---

Randall Hamilton   wrote:

We must all remember that we have the most powerful and enduring weapon of them all; upon our side we have the TRUTH. Jefferson Davis knew this truth. The U.S. government knew this truth. That is why they held our President in prison for two years and would not put him on trial even though Jefferson Davis begged them to. The U.S. knew they would lose and that Lincoln and the North would be shown to the whole world to have been wrong and that the SOUTH WAS RIGHT. The Confederate Government and Confederate Constitution are the lawful government of our Southland, then, today and forever, until our Lord returns to rule this earth. The Holy Scriptures declare, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free". (John 8:32) It is our sacred duty to see that all Southerners at long last have an opportunity to learn THAT TRUTH, then the South will not only have been right, but at last it can be free.

As Confederates, we must grasp every opportunity to take responsibility on our part to set the record straight concerning our Confederate history. Much damage to the truth of Southern history was done by "national" school teachers during the reconstruction period; as the northern controlled U.S. government set out to write history, and more importantly, to teach history through the their new politically correct teachers. In reading a book written by twelve Southern men in the late 1930's titled "I'll Take My Stand" a person can readily see that, according to "I'll Take My Stand", the goal of this new northern educated teacher was "to set the South on an everlasting stool of repentance".

This new "teacher" began the indoctrination of Southern children, most of them the children of men who had fought in defense of the Confederacy. Many were orphaned because their Fathers had given their life's blood in defense of our Southern land. The object of the lesson to be learned by these innocent minds was that their own Fathers, Grandfathers and ancestors were traitors and outlaws who fought to protect "evil" slavery and that all that was good in America was in no way part of these men. They were taught that these men fought to destroy the "sacred" Union, and therefore they (the children) should forever be ashamed of their heritage -

Although the 'teachers', at first, were not always successful in convincing these children of the truth of these 'lessons', nevertheless they have been very persistent all through the last 128 plus years. Today this view of our noble ancestors is the one most prevalently held in America, even among the children of the South whose own ancestors bled and died for the hallowed Southland. In all reality, most of them do not even realize they are Southern, or that their Grandfathers just a few generations back were Confederates fighting for the Southern Cause. Most of them have probably never even heard of "the cause", much less the truth of what that cause was and is.

LIFE OF REV. WM. MACK LEE, BODY SERVANT OF GENERAL©
ROBERT E. LEE THROUGH THE  WAR---- COOK FROM 1861
TO 1865:
He states:
"I was raised by one of the greatest men in the world. There was 
never one born of a woman greater than Gen. Robert E. Lee, according to my
judgment. All of his servants were set free ten years before the war, but all
remained on the plantation until after the surrender."

Official U.S. Policy on Confederate POWs:

     "Rebel prisoners in our hands are to be subjected to a treatment finding its

parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes and resulting in the death of multitudes

by the slow but designed process of starvation and by mortal diseases occasioned 

by insufficient and unhealthy food and wanton exposure of their persons to the inclemency

of the weather." 

Preamble to the H.R. 97, passed by both Houses

---

Lt. Edward W. Allen noted in his
diary what happened when his Wisconsin regiment visited Columbia in 1865. He
spoke of "women down on their knees with hands clasped in prayer," and he
wondered how he would react if his own family had to go through such an
ordeal.

But he wasn't so moved that he couldn't participate in the looting:"...
(W)hen morning came, every conceivable article that one could imagine, most,
was to be found in our camp, clothing, bed clothing, such splendid
coverlets, quilts, and sheets, musical instruments -- violins, guitars,
music box, and had not pianos been quite so heavy you might have seen many
of them there.... Silver plate, plates, knives, forks, spoons, but it would
take too much time, candle and paper to mention or even try to mention all
that was there, most all was left -- destroyed except small articles of
value easily carried by one of the boys. I got a nice vase which I will try
to get home."

If they want to compare anything with Nazism, perhaps they should compare
their own behavior with Hitler's looting of Paris.

THE TRAGIC ERA     Claude Bowers

Page 52

It only remained for the Federal Government to drive the disarmed people to the verge of a new rebellion by stationing negro troops in the midst of their homes. Nothing short of stupendous ignorance, or brutal malignity, can explain the arming and uniforming of former slaves and setting them as guardians over the white men and their families. Even the patient Wade Hampton was moved to fury; and he wrote hotly to Johnson denouncing ‘your brutal negro troops under their no less brutal and more degraded Yankee officers’ by whom ‘the grossest outrages were committed . . . with impunity.’ This is not an exaggerated picture. Even Northerners, not prone to sympathize with the prostrate foe, were shocked and humiliated by the scenes they saw.

In streets and highways they took no pride in the spectacle of thousands of blacks with muskets and shimmering bayonets swaggering in jeering fashion before their former masters and mistresses. These colored soldiers were not so culpable as the whites who used them to torture a fallen enemy were children, acting as children would under the circumstances. Marching four abreast in the streets, they jostled the whites from the pavements. In rough and sullen tones the sentries challenged old crippled and emaciated men in tattered gray. So insolent did their conduct become in some communities that women no longer dared venture from their doors, and citizens in the country no longer felt it safe to go to town.¹ Noisy — often, when intoxicated, dangerous — they gave the freedmen refusing to work a sense of racial grandeur, and encouraged the dream of the distribution of the white man’s land.

Worse than the men were the degraded white officers who commanded them.² From every quarter appeals reached Washington for their 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. In retaliation for the blow of a white man entrusted with the guardianship of a young woman who bad been insulted, negro soldiers dragged him to camp, murdered him in cold blood, and danced upon his grave.³ These are not carefully selected cases to make the picture black. The evidence is overwhelming that they do not exaggerate the peril thus placed at the doorsteps of the whites. Here and there were colored troops, under the discipline of decent white officers, who conducted themselves with propriety and without offense. There was such a regiment in Florida. 

But always, with these newly freed negroes armed and in easy reach of liquor, the shadow of an awful fear rested upon the women of the communities where they were stationed.

Nothing could have been finer than the spirit and courage with which the women faced defeat and misfortune, and vet, despite their simulated smiles in that spring that came unusually early in 1865, there was bitterness and sorrow in their hearts.  

Not only had they lost husbands, sons, brothers, and sweethearts, but they were impoverished and their cause had failed. Even so there was no bending of their pride. A correspondent traveling in South Carolina noted their ‘superior presence’ and a ‘certain air of vehemence or Pertness. Disaster and poverty could not rob them of their charm. For the sake of the returning warriors, humiliated by defeat, they made merry over the makeshifts imposed upon them in matters of dress, wearing their homespun and their calico with a regal grace. And though it was observed that ‘hardly any one at church is out of mourning,’ by one who thought it piteous to see so many mere girls’ faces shaded by deep crape veils and widow’s caps,’ 2 they turned bravely to the soothing of the wounded spirits of their men. Within two weeks of time surrender, a traveler was amazed to see the young people at Winnsboro gayly celebrating May Day amid the still smoking ruins.² In midsummer a young girl was writing in her diary that ‘we are trying to help our soldiers forget, and are having picnics and parties all the time.’ Popular were the ‘starvation parties,’ where no refreshments were served, and picnics where young folks danced to the music of fiddles.⁵ Soon they were turning to tournaments where riders, armed with hickory lances, rode past posts collecting rings suspended to them on the end of the lance for the glory of their ladies. There was billing and cooing, even among the graves.

 

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