_Great Service of the Colored Race--Heroic Colored Women--Attack on Fort
Wagner, 18th July, 1863--The ex-Slaves go to School--The Freedman's
Bureau--The Jubilee Minstrels--A Long Letter From Mr. Thomas Lincoln,
Describing His Life in a New Orleans Hospital--The Mississippi River,
and the Fight at Pleasant Grove in the Red River Expedition._
As I stated in the last chapter, recruiting went merrily on, and colored
men came up "to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against
the mighty." The heavens now smiled upon the Northern arms, and "the sun
of righteousness arose upon them with healing in his wings." It is
glorious to think how willingly our people threw down the shovel and the
hoe, and advanced to meet the Northern troops as they came within easy
striking distance. Thousands and tens of thousands crossed the
mountains, threaded the mountain passes, kept on their way day and night
up the rivers and down the rivers till they beheld the Union armies
encamped away in the valleys, and a few more willing, enthusiastic
bounds, and they were free! It was most refreshing to read the letters
from the white soldiers at the time, commending these colored men in
every possible way. They took a perfect delight in relating the thousand
and one acts of kindness and sympathy that colored men and women
performed towards countless Union men in times of distress, disaster and
danger; how they secreted them; how they fed them, gave them rest and
shelter, and how faithfully and skilfully they guided the armies on
their way, and even piloted the Union boats in safety up and down the
rivers of the South. Never were fidelity and devotion more marked since
the world began, and it was downright pleasant to read the letters from
"the seat of war," and see how these good deeds of the African were
appreciated by the Anglo-Saxons. "Skins may differ, but affection dwells
in white and black the same," and although "Old Massa" and "Old Missus"
did their best to keep Lincoln's proclamation from the knowledge of the
slaves, somehow or other the truth became known; in fact, it seemed to
be carried on the wings of the wind, and now all prayed more and more
fervently that the Lord would send freedom.
[Illustration: _FREDERICK DOUGLASS._]
It would be a pleasure for me to relate the deeds of devotion recorded
of our people in behalf of the cause of God and liberty. There are two
acts, those of heroic women, that I must not omit. We have all heard of
General John Morgan, the Kentucky guerilla chief, who led a raid into
Ohio, and worked so much wanton mischief on Union people and the Union
in the Southern cause. We caught and imprisoned him in Ohio, but he
escaped, and took to his tricks again, and was more fleet, and harder to
catch than a long-legged greyhound. At last he was located one night in
a far-away town or village of the South, and the nearest Union troops
lay about twenty miles away. This devoted colored woman lost not a
moment of time, but steered for the distant camp, gave them the most
particular information, so that they rose at once, and upon arriving at
John Morgan's rendezvous, they woke him up, and once for all put an end
to his dreadful raidings on the Unionists.
[Illustration: _MISSISSIPPI RIVER STEAMER._]
I must next mention the case of a colored woman in Georgia, when General
Sherman came riding through the woods on his famous march from Atlanta
to the Sea. This woman was a regular heroine--"a mother in Israel"--and
one who would have made a second Deborah, with a host of men, women and
children at her back, all of whom the war had set free. This woman
advanced upon the path of the troops, and having introduced herself to
General Sherman and his men, gave glory to God and to the Union armies,
whom the God of Hosts had there and then sent forth. Her language was
worthy of a Shakespeare. On that day when Deborah, and Miriam, and Joan
of Arc, and all the other heroines of history shall be gathered together
in the Palace of God, I feel certain that this colored Deborah, this
"mother in Israel," will be among them when the Lord of Heaven and Earth
makes up His jewels.
Where all did so well, it would be in vain to single out any one
regiment that distinguished itself more than another. At the same time,
there were certain regiments that attracted a great deal of attention to
themselves because they were the first ones to break the spell as to
whether colored men would fight like white men, and thus render
effective service in the war. And such men were the colored troops that
had been well drilled and sent down from Massachusetts to South
Carolina, and who lent a hand in the investment of Charleston. It was on
the 18th of July, 1863, when a general bombardment of both land and sea
forces at once made a high-handed attempt to carry Fort Wagner--a rebel
fort which lay on the narrowest part of a mere strip of sandy land
called Morris Island, washed by the ocean on one side, and approachable
by low, swampy marshes in the rear. The entire morning and middle of the
day had been spent in bombarding the place till at last the extemporized
fort, composed of timber, and stone, and sand, seemed to have crumbled
away; for, as the day wore away, the rebels ceased entirely to reply to
the land and sea forces, and the Federal troops were under the
impression that the place was abandoned altogether, or at least
destroyed past all hope of remedy for the present. The Union forces
clamored loudly for an advance upon the fort, and to occupy the place
once for all. After some hesitation the commanders assented to their
wishes, and it was decided to advance just as the darkness of the night
was setting in on that long July day. Alas, alas! It was a fatal
resolution, for the rebels had been busy all the afternoon and early
night making swift preparations to give our men a terrible reception. By
the time that darkness had fully set in, Fort Wagner was almost as good
as ever, although it had such a terrible knocking about all the early
hours of the day. The Southern engineers were so clever, and their men
had wrought with such a will, that it needed the bravest of the brave to
fight with them; but as far as that was concerned we were all about
even-handed when we had a fair field. Four thousand men, therefore,
advanced along the sands of Morris Island with the intention of
investing and clearing out the fort of its defenders, if there were any
of them there. The colored Massachusetts troops led the way, and so they
all advanced along the sands--the white sands that had but lately been
washed by the ocean. Everything was as still as a stone till they came
to a ditch, when a fearful tempest of shot from the cannon and musket
assailed them, and the assailants were mowed down like grass before the
scythe. Still our troops bravely advanced across the ditch, climbed up
the bank, and pushed forward right into the fort, slaughtering the
gunners and clearing a path before them. But all this time our brave men
were being mowed down in rows. Many jumped into the fort and had to
surrender there, because, indeed, they could neither advance nor
retreat, being caught in a perfect trap. Thus we lost about half our men
in killed, wounded and prisoners, and had to retreat in the best way we
were able. It was a dreadful defeat that the Union forces sustained; but
the colored troops had the honor of leading all the rest, and the
foolish idea that colored men would not fight received another complete
quietus, and their bravery was published in all the papers from one end
of the Union to the other.
We now come to the glorious subject of education--that which lifts up
any nation from the bottom, and places it among the kings and queens of
the world. The colored men and women of the South before who could read
and write, were like angel visits--few and far between. You might search
the whole day long, and not find one who could sign his name. But the
government records show that in the year 1870, only five years after the
close of the war, taking the entire population of the United States in
the aggregate, there were two-tenths, which is twenty per cent., who
could read and write. Here, indeed, was one of the signs of the times
with a vengeance! Surely the colored race must have a great natural
thirst for knowledge. In the year 1880, that is, fifteen years after
freedom came, three-tenths, which is thirty per cent. of the whole
population, could read and write; and in 1890, or twenty-five years
after the end of the war, forty-three of every hundred. In other words,
forty-three per cent. of the colored population of the United States
could read and write--being ten years and over of age. At that time that
I am writing my book, that is, the year of grace, 1897, inasmuch as the
increase is going bravely on from day to day, I have no hesitation in
saying that fifty per cent., that is, one-half of the entire colored
population of the United States, North and South included, and--as usual
in such government statistics--ten years of age and over, are able to
read and write at least, and there are hundreds of thousands of them who
can do a hundred times more.
Now, since Adam and Eve walked hand in hand on the enchanting grounds of
Paradise, I would like to know where the people can be found who ever
came out of such Cimmerian darkness, who ever progressed at such a rate
as this? The present march of education among the colored race far
surpasses the march of the whites since freedom came, and it still keeps
ahead of them at the present time of writing. Indeed, in some parts of
the fair and Sunny South, we are in lead our white brethren; and it is
quite superfluous for me to say that whoever are in the lead in
education are the more intelligent of the two, be they black or white.
Behold the stupid-looking and ignorant hordes of Italians, Poles,
Bohemians, Chinese and others who are dumped down in shiploads upon our
shores! Even at home in their own lands they are very little more than
dumb-driven cattle! How much more, then, must their stupidity appear in
full blaze of daylight in a highly-intelligent nation like this! It is
like comparing the feeble light of midnight under the stars alone with
the full blaze of a day when the sun is shining at twelve at noon. Shall
we of the colored race, who may now safely count on fifty per cent. of
the entire population who can read and write compare ourselves with the
immigrants like these, or even with Spaniard or Portuguese, Turks or
Greeks, who have had the opportunities of acquiring education for
hundreds of years, while we, who were set free only thirty-two years
ago, have produced men and women who have stood in honor before
presidents and kings, and proved that we are able to climb to the
topmost rounds of the ladder that Almighty God Himself has set up? No,
indeed. Men and brethren, we are not going to come down and compare
ourselves with any such persons! That won't do at all!
As fast as ever the Northern armies cleared the way, benevolent and
devoted teachers sent down by the different churches followed, and
imparted to those who had never had a chance before the elements of
English education, teaching them to read, write and figure, and many
other useful things besides that accompany civilization and
enlightenment. The American Mission Association took the lead, but the
different churches and societies sent down their full quotas, and those
volunteer teachers did a splendid and most devoted work. And yet there
was some risk to run in this business, now being tried for the first
time, because the war was still going on, and sometimes the Southern
arms regained the territory they had lost, which brought the teachers
into danger on one hand, and the colored people on the other. It had
always been the policy of the Southern law-makers to keep the slaves in
darkness, and even the rank and file of the white people themselves were
purposely kept in a condition little better than the slaves. The
planters kept teachers in their own grand halls, or sent their sons and
daughters away from home for education. It was made a crime for a slave
to be found with a book in his possession, or for anybody to teach him,
whether he was white or a free person of color. A white man taught even
the celebrated Bishop Daniel E. Payne in a cellar at Charleston, S. C.,
of which city the bishop was a native. In short, the laws of slavery
warred upon nature, and even on God himself. The whole system was a
system of murder, robbery and adultery. Every human right was broken
down; but as the Northern armies cleared the way the teachers and their
colored pupils rushed in at once.
On the 3rd of March, 1865, Congress launched the Freedman's Bureau upon
the country for the purpose of assisting the freedman in any and every
way just as soon as they were set free from slavery, and required the
help of the national government. The Freedman's Bureau took education
under its fostering care, and did a good work during the few years that
it lasted, 1865 to 1872. The devoted teachers from the North had even
begun to follow the very armies themselves as early as the year 1862,
and we find them then on the Lower Mississippi. The colored soldiers
took to their lessons well, and owing to their great thirst for
learning, they learned with an eagerness and rapidity that filled their
willing teachers with the greatest surprise. And throughout the freed
zones did not only young girls and boys thus drink in--yea, literally
swallow up instruction, but smart men and women sixty and seventy years
of age and over learned to write, read, spell and cipher with a gusto
and an enthusiasm that was most inspiring!
"Arise! Shine forth, for the light has come, and the glory of the Lord
has risen upon thee!" Thus saith the Prophet, and it was now fulfilled.
What a treat, to be sure, for men and women thus to learn to read the
mighty word of God, many of them in their old age! Verily, the ways of
the Lord are wonderful and past finding out! Much hardship was
experienced at first in finding suitable buildings in which to teach the
people, and many a church and school-house were burned to the ground
both during the war and the first years that followed the entire
collapse of the "peculiar institution," but that has not stopped the
triumphal march of the education of the colored race, for who, indeed,
could stop the waves of the ocean?
It is indeed a joyous thing to look around us at this time and behold
even now how high the sun has ascended in the heavens. If we have
advanced so much in thirty-two years, how much farther shall we be in
thirty-two more? Behold all the schools, colleges and places of learning
of every name and nature thrown open in hundreds to our young people,
both male and female! What a glorious array of splendid seminaries all
over the great republic, besides hundreds belonging to the whites, to
which we can obtain admission! It is true that there are others still
barred against us on account of the prejudice still obtaining here and
there owing to the color of the skin, but that will give way in due
time, for there is nothing incapable of change but the Great Creator
Himself.
By way of illustrating the results of the great Civil War, let us look
back a little over twenty years, when Fisk University, at Nashville,
Tennessee, sent forth Miss Ella Shephard and the rest of the "Jubilee
Minstrels" to astonish the North with what even those who had been in
slavery could do, when once their God-given talents were brought to the
front. For the benefit of Fisk University they sang an immense sum of
money out of the country, and covered themselves with unfading glory for
all coming time. And where would those poor girls have been if it had
not been for their own fathers who assisted white men in the war to
knock off the chains of slavery? Why, to be sure, instead of being the
"Jubilee Minstrels" in the North, they would have been toiling among the
cotton, the sugar-cane and the rice fields of the South, wearing their
young lives away down there.
[Illustration: _A SCENE ON THE JACKSON PLANTATION._]
But the glories of the "Jubilee Singers" were by no means over. More
money was still needed, and those devoted people again took to the road,
and this time, with most laudable ambition; they even crossed the North
Atlantic, and sang with the most abundant success before the crowned
heads and grandees of Europe. These crowned heads and grandees knew full
well that if it had not been for the war for freedom and the union, the
singers would at this time have been in the cane, the cotton and the
rice fields singing:
Away down in Egypt's land
We have gained the victory,
Away down in Egypt's land
We have gained the day!
Oh, children ain't you glad,
The sea gave away?
When Moses smote the waters
The children all passed over,--
O, glory, halleluia!
For we have gained the day!
Oh, children, ain't you glad,
That Moses smote the waters,--
Oh, children ain't you glad
The sea gave away?
The Jubilee singers did sing the above song and many others before the
rich and great, and the general population of the British Isles and
continental Europe, but it was to let them hear what slaves used to sing
before the war to wile away the time before Uncle Sam came down from the
North to set them all free; in doing which he was assisted by 200,000
colored men, or more. Such are the fruits of war!
I here append a letter I received from Tom at New Orleans, whither he
had been carried and placed in a hospital on account of a wound he had
received in a skirmish with some of the rebel forces on the Lower
Mississippi:
"At the hospital, New Orleans, La., December, 1864.
"My Dear Beulah:--
"I dare say that you and the children are looking for a letter from me
once more. I duly received your own nice, kind and most welcome letters,
with all the sweet home news, and I can assure you that they did me an
immense deal of good whilst being confined here with my wound. I am,
however, doing very well indeed, and in a short time expect to be
discharged and in the ranks once more. It is impossible for me to tell
you of the kindness and attention of these doctors and nurses in this
hospital, it is really most astonishing to see strangers so kind. We are
all loud in the praises of these good people, who are taking the best
care in the world of us when we are so far from home and from our loved
ones. Nobody knows how much good there is in the world until he comes
across good strangers like these. Of course there is always plenty of
evil in it too; but it is at least a very great compensation to come
across so much love and kindness among such strange people. We never
looked for anything better than cuffs and blows!
"Although I was not in the very best mood, as I was brought down to New
Orleans to enjoy the sights all around me, still I was tremendously
impressed with the majesty and immensity of the ever-glorious
Mississippi. Well, to be sure,--to be sure! What a grand factor of our
national greatness is the Mississippi! I don't wonder at yourself and
Mrs. John B. Sutherland always making such a fuss over our glorious
river. Indeed too much can never be spoken in its praise, and, above
all,--of the great Creator who made it. I have seen plenty of the
'Father of Waters' before on many a long day, as I went sweeping past
the forts where I was located further up the river; but, as we came on,
it received so many and such large rivers, into its swollen waters, till
it was more like a sea than a river; and, although level and destitute
of beautiful banks like the Ohio, it had ever an increasing majesty and
grandeur about it that mightily impressed all who beheld it. I don't
wonder at Uncle Sam fighting so hard for the restoration of the Union.
Such a river as the Mississippi alone,--if there were no other,--is the
very joy and glory of the United States. But I shall have more to tell
you about these things at another time, and I hope to be able to do so
by word of mouth when the war is over.
"I very much regret to inform you that several of my wounded comrades
have died since we were all brought into this hospital, though the most
part of them, in common with myself, have recovered; and we now all
desire to go back to war as soon as we are well.
"I have had a good deal of conversation with a soldier who served in the
Red river campaign under General Banks, and where the rebels numbered
three to our one. In that campaign we were unsuccessful, for they
defeated our forces day after day. We were about ten thousand in number,
as we fled before such overwhelming odds. It was at this crisis that the
black soldier proved himself such 'a very present help in the time of
trouble.' If it had not been for Dickey's colored troops there would
have been a regular slaughter of the Union forces at Pleasant Grove.
These colored soldiers were attached to the first division of the 19th
corps. Our army under General Banks had been beaten both days at Sabine,
Cross Roads, below Mansfield, and they drove us for several hours before
them towards Pleasant Grove. And yet the ardor and spirit of the
combined Union forces under Banks and Franklin could not have been much
higher. But for all that, it was quite evident that unless the rebels
could be checked by the time we were pushed back to Pleasant Grove, all
would be lost. So General Emory prepared for the coming crisis on the
western edge of a wood, which had an open field before it that sloped
down towards Mansfield. It was at this point that General Dwight formed
a brigade of the colored troops right across the road in the face of the
rebels, who came rushing and hurrahing on, driving our ten thousand men
before them. They were charging at double quick time; but the black
brigade reserved their fire till the exultant rebels were close at hand,
when they all poured a deadly volley into them, arresting them at once,
and covered the ground with their dead and wounded. Now a regular fight
came on which lasted an hour and a half, and only ceased even then
because darkness put an end to the terrible combat. The foe made one
charge after another, and as he had plenty of men, he thought he would
wear us out at last; but the black soldiers and General Emory's brigade
successfully repulsed them every time, and thus saved the Union army
from being destroyed. Nor was this the only time that our own troops met
the rebels in the Red river campaign, and defied both them and their
repeated threats of 'the black flag;' for they always said that they
would not treat a black man like a white man if the former fell alive
into their hands. They said they would treat him like a wild beast, and
not like a human being at all! No doubt but that was done to keep our
soldiers from fighting for freedom and the Union; but the threat most
signally failed, because our brave men cared not a straw for their black
flag; indeed the threats, and even the practices of the rebels in
destroying some of our prisoners whom they took in the beginning
contributed a great deal in bringing about the downfall of the rebel
powers, at least up to the present time; and will no doubt contribute
more and more till the last rebel lays down his arms. Although a war
proclamation has been issued that we will shoot our rebel prisoners, if
they kill any of our men, I am unable to say what general effect it has
had so far. I only know that none of the men who have fallen alive into
their hands have ever since been heard of, and I fear the worst. But of
one thing I am sure, and that is, that the 'black soldiers' so far has
done as good fighting as the 'white soldiers,' and he has either won or
been defeated with the latter on many a hard fought field. He has had
his full share in disaster and victory alike; and thus he will still
assist in pulling down this terrible rebellion,--but I must lay down my
pen. With much love to yourself and all, I am,
"Your most affectionate,
"THOMAS."