USE OF NEGROES IN AID OF THE REBELLION. 521 cause of his color, or because of that cy Walker, at Mobile, exultingly "Large gangs of negroes from plantations are at work on the redoubts, which are substantially made of sand-bags and "That all persons of color who were free on the 19th day of April, 1861, and who have been enlisted and mustered into the military service of the United States, shall, from the time of their enlistment, be entitled to receive the pay, bounty, and clothing, allowed to such persons by the laws existing at the time of their enlistment." When the 54th Massachusetts were ready, in May, 1863, to proceed to the seat of war in South Carolina, application was made in their behalf to the Chief of Police of New York for advice as to the propriety of taking that city in their route, and marching down Broadway. He responded that they could not be protected from insult and probable assault if they did so. They thereupon proceeded wholly by water to their destination. Within seven or eight months thereafter, two New York regiments of Blacks, raised by voluntary efforts mainly of the Loyal League, though discountenanced by Gov. Seymour, marched proudly down Broadway and embarked for the seat of War, amid the cheers of enthusiastic thousands, and without eliciting one discordant hiss. The use of negroes, both free and slave, for belligerent purposes, on the side of the Rebellion, dates from a period anterior to the outbreak of actual hostilities. So early as Jan. 1st, 1861, a dispatch from Mr. R. R. Riordan, at Charleston, to Hon. Per 45 June 15, 1864. A Washington dispatch to The Evening Post (New York), about this time, set forth that everything there betokens active prepara"A gentleman from Charleston says that tions for fight. The thousand negroes busy in building batteries, so far from inclining to insurrection, were grinning from ear to ear at the prospect of shooting the Yankees." The Charleston Mercury of Jan. 3d, said: colored men, of Charleston, yesterday of- "We learn that 150 able-bodied free The Legislature of Tennessee, that negotiated that State out of the Union, by secret treaty with the Confederate Executive, passed" an G. Harris) act authorizing the Governor (Isham "to receive into the military service of the State all male free persons of color, between the ages of 15 and 50." These Black soldiers were to receive $8 per month, with clothing and rations. The sheriff of each county was required, under the penalties of misdemeanor, to collect and report the names of all such persons; and it was further enacted "That, in the event a sufficient number of free persons of color to meet the wants of the State shall not tender their services, the Governor is empowered, through the sheriffs of the different counties, to press such persons until the requi site number is obtained." The Memphis Avalanche joyously proclaimed that "A procession of several hundred stout negro men, members of the domestic in16 June 28, 1861. 17 Sept. 3, 1861. 47 "Sec. 9. Where slaves are impressed by the Confederate Government, to labor on fortifications, or other public works, the impressment shall be made by said Government according to the rules and regulations provided in the laws of the State wherein they are impressed; and, in the absence of such law, in accordance with such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as the Secretary of War shall from time to time prescribe: Provided, That no impressment of slaves shall be made when they can be hired or procured by the consent of the owner or agent. "Sec. 10. That, previous to the 1st day of December next, no slave laboring on a farm or plantation, exclusively devoted to the production of grain and provisions, shall be taken for the public use, without the consent of the owner, except in case of urgent necessity." "Three cheers for the patriotic free negroes of Lynchburg!" The next recorded organization of negroes, especially as Rebel soldiers, was at Mobile, toward Autumn; and, two or three months later, the following telegram was flashed over the length and breadth of the rejoicing Confederacy: "NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 23, 1861. "Over 28,000 troops were reviewed today by Gov. Moore, Maj. Gen. Lovell, and Brig.-Gen. Ruggles. The line was over seven miles long. One regiment comprised 1,400 free colored men." The (Rebel) Legislature of Vir ginia was engaged, so early as Feb. 4, 1862, on a bill to enroll all the free negroes in the State, for service in the Rebel forces; which was favored by all who discussed it; when it passed to its engrossment, and probably became a law. All these, and many kindred movements in the same direction, preceded Mr. Lincoln's first or premonitory Proclamation of Freedom," and long preceded any organization of negro troops to fight for the Union. The credit of having first conquered their prejudices against the employment of Blacks, even as soldiers, is fairly due to the Rebels. Had the negroes with equal facility overcome their repugnance to fighting for their own enslavement, the Black contingent in the Rebel armies might soon have been very little inferior to the White, either in numbers or in efficiency. Yet Mr. Lincoln's initial Proclamation aforesaid had hardly been diffused throughout the Confederacy, when measures of deadly retaliation and vengeance were loudly pressed on every hand. That a Government struggling against a Rebellion found The Lynchburg Republican (Va.) had, so early as April, chronicled the volunteered enrollment of 70 of the free negroes of that place, to fight in defense of their State; closing with-ed on Slavery, should threaten to 48 18 Approved, March 26, 1863. 49 Sept. 22, 1862. THE CONFEDERATES ON BLACK UNION SOLDIERS. fight the consequence through the cause, was esteemed an immeasurable stretch of presumption. The following dispatch aptly embodies the prevailing sentiment: "CHARLESTON, S. C., Oct. 13, 1862. "HON. WM. P. MILES, Richmond, Va.: "Has the bill for the execution of Abolition prisoners, after January next, been passed? Do it; and England will be stirred into action. It is high time to proclaim the black flag after that period. Let the execution be with the garrote. 51 50 (Signed) "G. T. BEAUREGARD." Prior to the issue of President Lincoln's later, unconditional edict of emancipation, Jefferson Davis had, in proclaiming the outlawry of Gen. Butler and his officers," decreed that all slaves captured in arms be turned over to the Executives of their several States, to be dealt with according to law, and that a similar disposition be made of their White officers. So, in his third Annual Message," he dealt, of course, very harshly with President Lincoln's final Proclamation of Freedom, then recently promulgated, which he stigmatized as a violation of a solemn assurance embodied in the author's Inaugural Address, and in the resolve of the Chicago Convention therein quoted. Mr. Davis hailed the proclamation as an admission that the Union could never be restored, and as a guaranty that such restoration was impossible. Says the Con 64 federate chief: "It has established a state of things which can lead to but one of three possible consequences—the extermination of the slaves, the exile of the whole White population of the Confederacy, or absolute and total sepa 523 which can no longer find any justification in withholding our just claims to formal recognition. It is also, in effect, an intimation to the people of the North that they must prepare to submit to a separation, now become inevitable; for that people are too acute not to understand that a restitution of the Union has been rendered forever impossible by the adoption of a measure which, from its very nature, neither admits of retraction nor can coexist with union." But the passage which more especially concerns Negro Soldiership is the following: "We may well leave it to the instincts of that common humanity which a beneficent Creator has implanted in the breasts of our fellow-men of all countries to pass judgment on a measure by which several millions of human beings of an inferior race -peaceful and contented laborers in their sphere are doomed to extermination, while at the same time they are encouraged to a general assassination of their masters by the insidious recommendation to abstain from violence unless in necessary self-defense. Our own detestation of those who have attempted the most execrable measures recorded in the history of guilty man is tempered by profound contempt for the impotent rage which it discloses. So far as regards the action of this Government on such criminals as may attempt its execution, I confine myself to informing you that I shall-unless in your wisdom you deem some other course more expedient-deliver to the several State authorities all commissioned officers of the United States that may hereafter be captured by our forces in any of the States embraced in the proclamation, that they may be dealt with in accordance with the laws of those States providing for the punishment of criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrection. The enlisted soldiers I shall continue to treat as unwilling instruments in the commission of these crimes, and shall direct their discharge and return to their homes on the proper and usual parole." The Confederate Congress took up the subject soon afterward, and, after protracted consideration, ultimately disposed of it by passing the following: ration of these States from the United 60 Jan. 1, 1863. 52 "Resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, In response to the message of the President, transmitted to Congress at the commencement of the present session, That, in the opinion of 54 See Vol. I., p. 422. 63 Jan. 12, 1863. 64 Congress, the commissioned officers of the enemy ought not to be delivered to the authorities of the respective States, as suggested in the said message, but all captives taken by the Confederate forces ought to be dealt with and disposed of by the Confederate Government. "SEO. 2. That, in the judgment of Congress, the proclamations of the President of the United States, dated respectively September 22d, 1862, and January 1st, 1863, and the other measures of the Government of the United States and of its authorities, commanders, and forces, designed or tending to emancipate slaves in the Confederate States, or to abduct such slaves, or to incite them to insurrection, or to employ negroes in war against the Confederate States, or to overthrow the institution of African Slavery, and bring on a servile war in these States, would, if successful, produce atrocious consequences, and they are inconsistent with the spirit of those usages which, in modern warfare, prevail among civilized nations; they may, therefore, be properly and lawfully repressed by retaliation. "SEC. 3. That in every case wherein, during the present war, any violation of the laws or usages of war among civilized nations shall be, or has been, done and perpetrated by those acting under the authority of the Government of the United States, on the persons or property of citizens of the Confederate States, or of those under the protection or in the land or naval service of the Confederate States, or of any State of the Confederacy, the President of the Confederate States is hereby authorized to cause full and ample retaliation to be made for every such violation, in such manner and to such extent as he may think proper. SEO. 4. That every White person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as such, who, during the present war, shall command negroes or mulattoes in arms against the Confederate States, or who shall arm, train, organize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military service against the Confederate States, or who shall voluntarily aid negroes or mulattoes in any military enterprise, attack, or conflict, in such service, shall be deemed as inciting servile insurrec tion, and shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished at the discretion of the court. "SEO. 5. Every person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as such in the service of the enemy, who shall, during the present war, excite, attempt to excite, or cause to be excited, a servile insurrection, or who shall incite, or cause to be incited, a slave to rebel, shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished at the discretion of the court. "SEC. 6. Every person charged with an offense punishable under the preceding resolutions shall, during the present war, be tried before the military court attached to the army or corps by the troops of which he shall have been captured, or by such other military court as the President may direct, and in such manner and under such regulations as the President shall prescribe; and, after conviction, the President may commute the punishment in such manner and on such terms as he may deem proper. "SEO. 7. All negroes and mulattoes who shall be engaged in war, or be taken in arms against the Confederate States, or shall give aid or comfort to the enemies of the Confederate States, shall, when captured in the Confederate States, be delivered to the authorities of the State or States in which they shall be captured, to be dealt with according to the present or future laws of such State or States." The connection between the premises here alleged and the action based thereon is by no means obvious. For more than two years, negroes had been extensively employed in belligerent operations by the Confederacy. They had been embodied and drilled as Rebel soldiers, and had paraded with' 55 White troops at a time when this would not have been tolerated in the armies of the Union. Yet, in the face of these notorious facts, it is here provided that " every White person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as such, who, during the present war, shall command negroes or mulattoes [whether ever slaves or not] in arms against the Confederate States, shall, if captured, be put to death, or otherwise punished at the discretion of the court." Some of the leading and most thorough Rebel journals, on reflection, admitted that this was unjustifiable-that the Confederacy could not prescribe the color of citizens of the Free States, never in bondage at 55 At New Orleans, see p. 522. MR. LINCOLN ON PROTECTING NEGRO SOLDIERS. 525 the South, whom our Government of power to surrender Blacks taken might justifiably employ as soldiers. in arms, because of the resolve just But the resolve nevertheless stood for quoted and orders based thereon; years, if not to the last, unrepealed and this was probably the immediate and unmodified, and was the primary, impulse to the issue of the following fundamental impediment whereby General Order: the exchange of prisoners between the belligerents was first interrupted; so that tens of thousands languished for weary months in prison-camps, where many thousands died of exposure and starvation, who might else have been living to this day. "EXECUTIVE MANSION, "WASHINGTON, July 30, 1863. "It is the duty of every Government to give protection to its citizens, of whatever those who are duly organized as soldiers in class, color, or condition, and especially to the public service. The law of nations, and the usages and customs of war, as carried on by civilized powers, permit no distinction as to color in the treatment of prisoners of Secretary Stanton, having learned war as public enemies. To sell or enslave that three of our Black soldiers cap-or, and for no offense against the laws of any captured person, on account of his coltured with the gunboat Isaac Smith, war, is a relapse into barbarism, and a crime in Stono river, had been placed in against the civilization of the age. close confinement, ordered three of our prisoners (South Carolinians) to be treated likewise, and the fact to be communicated to the Confederate leaders. The Richmond Examiner, commenting on this relation, said: "It is not merely the pretension of a regular Government affecting to deal with 'Rebels,' but it is a deadly stab which they are aiming at our institutions themselves -because they know that, if we were insane enough to yield this point, to treat Black men as the equals of White, and insurgent slaves as equivalent to our brave soldiers, the very foundation of Slavery would be fatally wounded." After one of the conflicts before Charleston, an immediate exchange of prisoners was agreed on; but, when ours came to be received, only the Whites made their appearance. A remonstrance against this breach of faith was met by a plea of want 5 In discussing the first bill that came before the Senate involving directly the policy of arming negroes to fight for the Union, Mr. Preston King-who very rarely spoke, and never with bitterness-said: "I have done talking in such a manner as to avoid giving offense to our enemies in this matter. I think it was the captain of the watch here at the Capitol who came and consulted me about getting permission to omit, during the sessions of the Senate, to hoist the flag on the top "The Government of the United States will give the same protection to all its soldiers; and if the enemy shall sell or enslave any one because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy's prisoners in our possession. "It is therefore ordered that, for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a Rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into Slavery, a Rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN. "By order of the Secretary of War, of the Capitol; and, when he was asked what he |