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PUBLICATIONS

OF THE

MISSISSIPPI HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Centenary Series — Volume 11

J

%

COL. R. A. PINSON

PUBLICATIONS

OJP TBM

MISSISSIPPI HISTORICAL
SOCIETY

EDITED BY

DUNBAR ROWLAND. LL. D.
Secretary

OENTKNART SURIBS
VOIitTME n

Jackson, Mississippi

Printed for the Society

1918

Neither the Editor nor the Society assume* any responsibility
for opinions or statements of coMtributors.

F

v.a

oaifOCRAT PRINTINQ COXPAMT
MADISON, WISCONSIN

CONTENTS

Introductory Note

Mississippi, Centennial Poem— by Mrs. Dunbar Rowland— 5

Col. R. A. Pinson, by /. G. Deupree *

The Noxubee Squadron of the First Mississippi Cavalry,
C. S. A., 1861-1865, by /. G. Deupree 12

Did DeSoto Discover the Mississippi River in Tunica
County, Miss., by Dunbar Rnvland 1*^

DeSoto at Chickasaw Bluffs, by Judge J. P. Young 149

A Second Chapter Concerning the Discovery of the Missis-
sippi River by DeSoto, in Tunica County, Miss., by
Dr. Dunbar Rowland 1^®

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi, 186S-1890, by
7. S. McNeily 1^

An Incident of the Battle of Munfordville, Ky., by E. T.
Sykes -'. ^^

The Eleventh Mississippi Regiment at Gettysburg, by
Batxer McFarland ^**

Index ***

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

I

This volume of the Publications contains monographs of venr
real interest to the student of Mississippi h-tory- Capta.n J S
McNeily, whose ready and accurate pen ha^ charmed and m
^ructed a generation of intelligent and patnot.c Miss:ss,pp.ans
as the brilliant editor of the Vicksburg Herald and as an able and
a curate historian, completes in this volume a monumental wo^
on Reconstruction. I>. J. G. Deupree. the Woved^nd h^ored
educator under whose instrxtction many of the ^^t me^^
Mississippi received their Hterary trammg. has contributed a
falur^nd"^^^^^^^^^ paper dealing with the Instor, of the
gallant command of which he was a member Two othe a^
fured Confederate veterans have papers in the vohjme. Judge
Balr McFarland, the learned lawyer, gallant soldier^ upngh
judge and stainless gentleman, offers to mihtary annals d^^^^^^^^
tory of the famous Eleventh Mississippi Regiment at Gettysburg^
Col E. T. Sykes, the Nestor of the Mississippi bar m actn^e
practice the brave soldier and friend of Edward Cary Walthall,
g" the public a paper of value and interest. ^The. M-.ssip^
Centennial Poem by Mrs. Dunbar Rowland, which is given the
STce of honor in L volume, is worthy of the th-e and has
Len well received. The discussion between J^^ge J_ P" J^^
of Memphis and the Editor seems to be convincing that Deboto
dLlTed the Mississippi River in Tunica County. Mississippi
thus settling an interesting historical question. It is w th P"de
and pleasure that the Editor oflFers this volume to an intelligent,
patriotic and discriminating public. ^^^^ ^^^^^^^

Department of Archives and History,

Jackson, Mississippi, December 15, 1»17.

MISSISSIPPI

1817-1917
Centennial Poem

Kot«.— "niis poem has received the farorable criticism of Dr. John Ersldne.
Professor of Kngllsh of Oolumbla DniversItT of New Toric City, who ooa-
Kratulsted the author upon the composition.

O State of mine ! what golden wealth of deeds
Has placed the fair corona 'round thy brow!

What valiant blow, dealt with Arthurian art.
Has made thee victor of the tourney now!

Yea, much hast thou of which the tongue might boast :
Thy faith untouched by any doubts or fears,

Thy children eager from thy presses full

To tread a glowing measure through the years.

Thy valor, ever-blooming, stars the land
As fair as in its dazzling, primal glow.

When but a fragment of the nation's strength
In Freedom's name thy legion met the foe;

As fierce as when for honor's sake it flamed
So high that love fraternal paled before

Its burning heat, bequeathing history

A face with look that Hampden's ever wore.

For ev'ry failure thou hast had thy palms;

For ev'ry cruel rent and stain that mar
Thy garment's loveliness, ten thousand marks

Of honor thy fair vesture braid and star.

g Mississippi

For ev'ry tongue that shames thee with its guile
Ten thousand Hps speak true and golden word.

And clean hands lay upon thy altars gifts
That keep thy temple pure, thy spirit stirred.

Yet this might not have been thy history
Had'st thou not claimed a high, heroic day

From whose unfailing sources thou could'st draw
A timely strength when tested in the fray.

Since distant day, earth's boldest, bravest hearts.
Impelled by story of thy wondrous strand.

Have sought thy ports, leaving on thy first page
The jeweled impress of an ordered land.

And jealous kings have counted thee a prize
Well worthy o£ long tilt of gain and loss.

While men saw in thy wilding grove and vale,
•Site only for sweet Freedom and the Cross.

Yea, all the burning sweat and bitter stress
Of thy stem pioneers in fearsome time.

And ev'ry crimson drop for honor shed

Serve but to make more fair thy glowing prime;

More sweet the land where hearts would fain once more

On Freedom's holy altar lay their all.
And spirits leap to bugles with old fires

That thrilled thy sons at Liberty's first call.

Thy manhood had not been of that hi^ mold
In which thy strong defenders e'er were cast.

Had these not with certain prescience wrought
Fair miracles that ever more shall last.

Mississippi 7

Nor in her crucial hour could woman stand

Before her mighty task unterrified.
But for the virtues and infinite grace

Of mother who her every need supplied.

Rich in thy past and present, prophecy

Full horns through coming years foretells for thee.
And golden opportunity divines.

Vouchsafed by Freedom and Democracy.

Dear land ! Dear land ! Aye, more my eyes descry,

A vision of thy fuller destiny
Flames up as fair as Bethlehem's clear Star,

TTie vision of God-like humanity.

Mrs. Dunbar Rowland.

CX>LONEL R. A. PIN SON.
By J. G. Deupree.

Richard Alexander Pinson was the seventh child, the third and
youngest son, of Joel and Elizabeth Dobbins Pinson, born April
26th, 1829, in Lincoln County, Tenn., near Fayetteville, the
county seat. In 1835, the family emigrated and came to Ponto-
toc County, Miss. There were then no railroads, and the trip
was made in private conveyances. Richard Alexander, having
through life a most remarkable memory, always insisted that he
remembered all the important incidents of the journey. Reach-
ing their destination, they found a wilderness, peopled by Indians,
with only a few white families dotted here and there. Judge
Pinson erected a residence where the town is located ; and near
the residence still many descendants are now living. He opened
a real estate office and sold the first acre of land in the city of
"Hanging Grapes", the Indian meaning of Pontotoc. He was
generous to the corporation, and among other donations he gave
the plot to be used as a cemetery ; and his own daughter was the
first white person buried therein.

Richard, or as more familiarly known, Dick, attended a school
taught by John W. Thompson. Being an apt pupil, he early dis-
played accuracy, thoroughness, and thought fulness, unusual for
one of his age. His advancement in books was rapid. After a
few years in this primary school, his father sent him back to his
native heath where in the same neighborhood in which he first
saw the light he attended the Viney Grove Academy, an insti-
tution of which Tennesseeans were proud, and where such men
as the illustrious John M. Bright were educated.

Returning to Pontotoc, he was welcomed by a dtvoted family
and a host of friends. Deferential and obedient to his parents,

(9)

10 Mississippi Historical Society.

affectionate and tender to his brothers and sisters, it is small won-
der that he was so fondly loved and cherished. Indeed, he was
the object of admiration and affection throughout his entire life.
His father wished him to understand and love agriculture, since
he lived in a fanning country; and, therefore, gave him a sec-
tion of land near Pontotoc. He took great interest in his farm
and called it "Primrose." Though so many years have elapsed
and though the farm, still one of the best in the county, passed
into other hands many years ago, it is still knov/n as "Primrose".

The ebony faces of his slaves would ever shine with joy at the
approach of "Marse Dick", as they fondly called him. He often
made his home with his mother, whose fann "Stony Lonesome" ,
adjoined "Primrose". Horseback riding was a favorite diversion
of his ; and, as he was also a great lover of nature, he found un-
failing pleasure in his rides. His appearance was undeniably
commanding, whether on foot or in the saddle, for he was of
splendid physique and superb carriage, measuring six feet and
two and a half inches in height and perfectly proportioned in
every way. His smile was so genial, the look he bestowed so
benign, and his hand-clasp so warm and strong, that one remem-
bered it and felt better long after the greeting. In public and in
military life, in politics and in the quiet atmosphere of home, he
was a compelling force, — a man of wonderful magnetism and
influence.

In the late "Fifties", he ran for the State legislature and was
elected on the Whig ticket because of his personal popularity,
despite the fact that the constituency was overwhelmingly Demo-
cratic. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Con-
federate service. A braver, truer soldier never shouldered a
musket nor gave his country more valiant and faithful service.
In the autumn of 1861, he was chosen Captain of his company
and in the following year was elected Colonel of his regiment,
the First Mississippi Cavalry. He was in many battles and par-
ticipated in countless skirmishes and raids. Colonel Pinson, as
he must now be called, was seriously wounded but once, at Davis'
Bridge in 1862. He soon after returned to his post of duty and
continued till the last days of the war in performance of the

Colonel R. A. Pinson — Deupree. 11

great trust his office implied. His courage never wavered for
an instant; on the contrary, his brave spirit grew more daunt-
less as the days and months fled by.

Soon after his return from the war, his friends importuned him
to become a candidate for Congress. He was elected by a hand-
some majority, but was never permitted to serve because the
State had not been reconstructed. This was a bitter disappoint-
ment to his friends who realized what a factor for usefulness
he might have been at this critical time, when the country was in
such a state of upheaval and sorely needed the wisest and most
tactful Representatives. Soon after this. Colonel Pinson entered
the cotton business in Memphis. Among the various honors
bestowed upon him by the city of his adoption, none was more
appreciated than his election as President of the Chamber of
Commerce. A member of the Episcopal Church, he was broad
and liberal in his religious views, as he was magnanimous and
generous in all other respects. He was, indeed, a Christian in
the true meaning of the word.

In the spring of 1864, the gallant young Colonel led to hymen's
altar Miss Sina E. Duke, the amiable and accomplished daugh-
ter of Colonel William H. and Mrs. Sina Bankhead Duke. This
world has never known a happier marriage, — angels must have
guarded and guided them through the nine perfect years they
lived together. But in the spring of 1873, he was claimed as the
first victim of cholera, which proved to be a long epidemic in
the city of Memphis. After but a short illness, the fearless spirit
of this good man took its flight to the God who gave it, meeting
the last enemy as calmly as he always faced the foe on the field
of battle. He was laid to rest in beautiful Elm wood; and it was,
indeed, fitting that he should sleep at last in the land of his
birth, — fair, sunny Tennessee.

THE NOXUBEE SQUADRON OF THE FIRST MIS-
SISSIPPI CAVALRY, C. S. A., 1861-1865.

By J. G. Deupree.

PROLEGOMENA.

It is the purpose of this writer briefly to sketch the history of
the Noxubee Squadron of the First Mississippi Cavalry, i. e.,
Cos. F and G, known at home as the Noxubee Cavalry and the
Noxubee Troopers. Of course, it will be impossible to give
a full and detailed account of every skirmish or battle, to men-
tion every personal incident or noteworthy deed, to give the par-
ticulars of every casualty, or even simply to note the death of
every victim of battle or disease incident to military life. Hav-
ing kept no diary during the war, having access to
little written by surviving comrades, within reach
of no comrade with whom he may confer orally, and beginning
this delightful task too late in life to recall perfectly scenes and
events once vividly impressed on memory's tablet, the writer
must inevitably omit many things that would appeal to descend-
ants of the gallant horsemen that composed this squadron. It is
his purpose, however, to produce a readable and reliable story
and to give some characteristic features of camp-life, marches,
skirmishes, and battles, though necessarily omitting far more
than he gives. The four years of the war demanded of the cav-
alry arduous and continuous service, rendering it impossible
even to outline all this Noxubee Squadron was called upon to do
in picketing, scouting, repelling invaders, raiding, covering the
flanks and rear of our armies, or fighting dismounted in the
trenches with infantry. The writer must content himself, there-

(12)

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 13

fore, with a selection of scenes and events which he would un-
dertake to portray.

I must say that the history of any other company of the First
Mississippi Cavalry, if written up in detail, would be equally full
of patriotic and daring deeds, as is the story of either of the
Noxubee companies. In fact, every squadron and each company
of the regiment has often won distinction and commendation,
and I only regret that the scope of this paper precludes the at-
tempt to write up the many gallant actions of other companies
or squadrons, in which a Noxubee company did not participate.

ORGANIZATION.

In the fall of 1860, after Lincoln's election, political excite-
ment ran high in Noxubee County, Miss., — the dominating ques-
tion being whether the Southern States should secede separately
or all together. That the Union was to be dissolved seemed a
foregone conclusion. A large majority of slaveholders, how-
ever, had voted for Hon. John Bell or Hon. Stephen A. Doug-
lass, while most of the non-slaveholders had voted for Hon. John
C. Breckenridge. A policy of coercion on the part of the Fed-
eral Government seemed probable; and after the expiration of
Buchanan's administration and the inauguration of Lincoln, the
invasion of the South was expected. Self-protection suggested
measures of resistance. The Noxubee Rifles, Capt. George T.
Wier, had been organized, drilled, and equipped for years, and
were ready for active service. Now seemed to be a propitious
time to organize a company of mounted men. Accordingly, on
the last Saturday in November, when Macon was filled with peo-
ple from all parts of Noxubee County, a meeting was held in
the Court House. After some discussion, Hon. J. L. Hunter,
past sixty years of age, who had been a captain of cavalry in his
youth, upon urgent solicitation undertook to organize the troop-
ers. Mounting his blooded stallion, meeting the volunteers in
the open field not far from Purdy's Comer, he soon brought
order out of chaos, drilling the men briefly in evolutions by fours
and platoons. After marching several times up and down Main

14 Mississippi Historical Society.

street, he halted the company, had them dismount, hitch horses,
and repair to the Town Hall for the election of oflRcers. The
old Captain declined to allow his own name to be voted on, stat-
ing that age and decrepitude forbade him to serve, but urged
' the selection of the best officer possible. Upon the first ballot,
by unanimous vote, Judge H. William Foote was elected Cap-
tain with three efficient lieutenants ; three sergeants and four
corporals were appointed; also, a bugler, Mr. J. J. Hunter, who
like many others in the company had followed hounds in the
chase and could sound a cow's horn to perfection. Money was
raised ; carbines, pistols, and sabres were ordered ; and the meet-
ing adjourned.

The company grew rapidly by accessions, as they met every
Saturday for drill. Many enlisted from old and prominent
families, — Beasleys, Boyles, Brooks, Jarnagins, Jacksons,
Whites, Yateses, and others. Sometimes, squads of brothers and
cousins enrolled together. For example, there were : Bush, A.
H.; Bush, Albert; Bush, Anderson; Bush, J. D. ; Dantzler, J. L. ;
Dantzler, J. L., Jr. ; Dantzler, G. H. ; Dantzler, T. M. ; Dantzler,
Jack; Deupree, J. L. ; Deupree, J. G. ; Deupree, J. W. ; Deupree,
T. J. ; Deupree, T. M. ; Deupree, W. E>aniel ; Deupree, W. Drew-
ry; Deupree, J. Ellington; Deupree, J. Everett; Greer, A. ; Greer,
F. B. ; Greer, F. J. ; Greer, J. H. ; Greer, J. A. ; Hunter, C. M. ;
Hunter, H. M. ; Hunter, H. D.; Hunter, W.; Hunter, J. J.;
Hunter, J. W. ; etc. Many families had as many as three or
four representatives. It was, indeed, an aggregation of citizens
of every class and condition; planters, overseers, merchants,
clerks, doctors, lawyers, officials and politicians, men of means
and men without,— but all alike inspired with patriotic fervor
and determined to repel invasion, sacrificing even life itself, if
need be, on the sacred altar of their country.

NOXUBEE CAVALRY.

In due time, sabres, carbines, and pistols came. Buckling the
sabres on the left side, swinging the carbines on the right, and
putting the pistols in our belts, we were so heavily armed that

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 15

we found difficulty in mounting. Afterwards, we learned to
keep pistols in the holsters on our saddle-horns, and by practice
became adepts in using sabres or carbines at will, whether
mounted or dismounted. We drilled regularly, and progress was
made. Captain and lieutenants studied the tactics diligently. Men
and horses, with almost equal facility, learned to discriminate
and execute the various commands. Drills were frequent in
firing carbines, shooting pistols, and using sabres. Maneuvers
were practised on foot, as well as on horseback, for several con-
secutive weeks.

At length, excitement grew apace. States began to secede.
South Carolina leading off, followed by Mississippi. Governors
called for troops. The seceded States sent delegates to Mont-
gomery, Ala., to form a Provisional Government, for the Con-
federate States of America. The Federal Government raised
large armies, threatening to coerce the South. Several companies
from Noxubee county had enlisted in the Confederate service.
Lieutenant J. L. Deupree, private J. Ellington Deupree, and
other cavalrymen had withdrawn from Foote's company and
joined the Noxubee Rifles under Capt. Wier, fearing the war
would end before the cavalry would see active service. Seeing
a tendency to disintegration, Capt. Foote, on the next drill-day,
rode in front and said it seemed to him that the time had come
when duty called at least a part of the company to volunteer for
active service at the front, and ordered all who would volunteer
thus to ride ten paces forward. About half the men obeyed and
Capt. Foote put himself at their head. They withdrew and or-
ganized the Noxubee Cavalry with seventy five privates by elect-
ing H. W. Foote, Captain; Hampton Williams, First Lieuten-
ant ; C. M. Hunter, Second Lieutenant ; and T. J. Deupree, Third
Lieutenant. The necessary non-commissioned officers were ap-
pointed, and T. J. Deupree and Sam Day were directed to re-
cruit the additional men needed by the following Saturday, —
which they did.

16 Mississippi Historical Society.

VOLUNTEERING.

In April, 1861, when '-Faith as to Sumter" had not been kept
by the Federal Government, when Lincoln had called for 75,000
men to invade the South, and when the tocsin of war had thus
been sounded, the people of Dixie Land rushed to arms almost
en masse, with a precipitancy and unanimity unparalleled in the
history of the world. Until then, they had differed widely as to
the policy of secession, though not as to the right to secede ; but
now, confronted with the menace of subjugation, the South res-
olutely armed herself for protection, and all differences van-
ished. This is an inalienable right, inherent in every people, in
every age and clime. At that time the masses were intelligent
as to public affairs. All knew that the power to coerce a sover-
eign State had been denied the Federal Government by the Con-
vention that adopted the U. S. Constitution. They knew, too,
that this sacred Compact between States had been shamelessly
trampled underfoot and denounced by Abolition leaders as "a
covenant with Death and a league with Hell".

Before April, 1861, comparatively few military companies ex-
isted in the Southern States in anticipation of war. Now, volun-
teer organizations became well-nigh universal. Everywhere, with
the approval of older and wiser heads, girls and matrons' gave
picnics and encouraged enlistment, while men and boys gallantly
fell into line. Noxubee County, Mississippi, one of the richest
and fairest of all the South, was no laggard in this glorious and
patriotic movement. The first company to leave for the seat of
war was the Noxubee Rifles, which was entrained at Macon for
Virginia early in April. It became Company F in the Eleventh
Mississippi, winning fame and glory on many bloody battlefields.
The Rifles were feted and honored by the people of Macon; able
and patriotic addresses were made by Rev. G. H. Martin, pastor
of the Baptist Church and by Hon. Israel Welch, a private in the
company and afterwards a member of the Confederate Congress

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cuvalry—Deupree. 17

CAMP GOODWIN.

The Noxubee Cavalry impatiently witnessed the farewell cere-
monies incident to the departure of the Rifles, longing to go with
them and wondering why they, too, had not received marching,
orders. No longer satisfied with weekly drills on the field east of
Calhoun Institute and west of Cedar Creek, the Cavalry repaired
to Camp Goodwin, a few miles below Macon, on the Noxubee Riv-
er, for more intensive drilling and more persistent instruction in
all that pertains to military service on horseback. Here we had
ample room for all movements by twos, by fours, by platoons, or
by company. Bathing and fishing, as well as hunting, were en-
joyed greatly. The good people, from far and near, coming every
day to see our drills and parades, never failed to spread most
bountiful picnic dinners, which we eagerly consumed. At night
we held moot courts, in which culprits were tried for alleged of-
fenses against "law and disorder" of every kind; and, also, we
had public debates on various questions of "sense and non-sense",
ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. Our lawyers and col-
lege graduates led the debates. It may be incidentally remarked
in passing that such trials and debates gave diversion to camp-
life long after these embryo soldiers became war-seasoned vet-
erans in the Confederate service.

Our stay at Camp Goodwin culminated in a flag-presentation.
The fair ladies of the county had designed, and procured in Mo-
bile, a silk banner at a cost of not less than $100 in gold. It was,
indeed, exquisitely beautiful, about four feet square and of the
best possible material. Its colors were rare and radiant, and it
was fringed with golden tassels. On one side on a white field, it
was dedicated to the Noxubee Cavalry ; and on the other, were
the patriotic words : "Dulce et decorum pro patria mori". Most
gracefully and in charming phrases, the presentation-speech was
delivered by Miss Mattie Haynes, and the response was eloquent
and patriotic by Mr. J. E. Deupree, now living in Fannin County,
Texas. Not a cloud flecked the sky while we were in Camp
Goodwin, and this flag was presented on as fair a day as was
ever known in our Sunny South. The Company had been formed

18 Mississippi Historical Scxiety.

into a hollow square with the eleven young ladies representing
the eleven seceded States occupying the fourth side of the square.
Though nearly three-score years have passed since that glorious
day, its precious picture lingers still in my mind as clear and as
distinct as an event of yesterday. But my old and feeble pen
cannot portray the scene so that readers may comprehend its
beauty and brilliancy. I shall not try. All know that a beauti-
ful woman is the prettiest thing on earth, and a iine horse next ;
and the combination simply defies description. The whole time at
Camp Goodwin was most delightful to us all, and ever since then
it has been a place of blessed memory to every survivor.

UNION CITY

Early in June, the company occupied the Fair Grounds in Ma-
con, preparatory to entraining for Union City, Tenn. Additional
carbines, pistols, and sabres had been procured from Jackson to
supply our new recruits. Intensive drilling was practiced.
Messes were organized, eight or ten men to each and a two-horse
wagon for transportation of baggage and cooking utensils, and
two servants, one to cook and the other to groom horses. Per-
sonal servants attended many officers and privates who owned
slaves. We all fared well and looked forward joyously to the
time when we should meet the enemy. At length, the day came
when we were to break camp and leave Mississippi. Horses,
baggage, and wagons were put aboard the train ; officers and men
kissed their good-byes to loved ones, some shedding copious
tears, but all rejoicing that we were going toward the front. We
had a pleasant trip and reached Union City without the loss of
man, horse, or baggage. Capt. Foote reported promptly to Gen-
eral Frank Cheatham, who was in command of several thousand
infantry and a small battalion of cavalry, to which we were as-
signed as its fourth unit. Capt. John Henry Miller had been
elected Major, and the organization was known as the First Bat-
talion of Mississippi Cavalry. Other companies were added from
time to time till there were ten, when it became famous as the
First Mississippi Cavalry. Now the battalion was composed of

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deuprce. 19

the Pontotoc Dragoons, Capt. A. B. Cole; the Thompson Cav-
alry from Oxford, Capt. A. J. Bowles; the Bolivar Troopers,
Capt. F. A. Montgomery ; and the Noxubee Cavalry, Capt. H. W.
Foote. Major J. H. Miller was a Presbyterian clergyman,
thoroughly educated, descended from military ancestors, tall and
straight as an arrow, chivalrous and eloquent. Though about
fifty years old, he was overflowing with energy and military
ardor, and as active and alert as the youngest trooper in his com-
mand. General Frank Cheatham was a veteran of the War with
Mexico, frank and genial, for whom all subordinates entertained
the profoundest respect and affection. Constant drills and re-
views were the order of the day, combined with picketing and
scouting. We grew more and more impatient to draw nearer
the enemy, as we read daily reports from Virginia, South Caro-
lina, and Missouri. News of the Battle of Manassas and the
complete defeat of the Federals made us believe that the war
would soon end and that we should never see an armed enemy
nor fire a shot in actual battle. Alas ! how little did we appreciate
the grim determination of the Northern soldier! At length,
drilling and scouting became too strenuous for Lieut. Hampton
Williams, nearing three-score years of age, and he resigned,
R. O. Wier being elected Third Lieutenant to fill the vacancy
created by the promotion in sequence of the other lieutenants.

NEW MADRID, MO.

Late in August, baggage, tents, and ammunition, were loaded
on cars for Memphis, and the men were ordered to cook three
days rations and prepare to march. Much speculation was in-
dulged, but no one outside of headquarters knew the purpose
of the movement nor the destination. However, we marched
westward and in due time found ourselves on the bank of the
Mississippi several miles south of New Madrid, Mo. Thither we
were transported in steamboats. Here within a few days was
concentrated an army of 10,000 men of all arms. We now felt

20 Mississippi Historical Society.

closer to the enemy, for every day came rumors of fights be-
tween the Federals and Jeff Thompson's State Guards, composed
of Missourians and Indians. These were reported sometimes
north near Charleston and sometimes west near Sikeston. Gen-
eral Thompson's men were armed mainly with old-fashioned
squirrel rifles. Experienced in the use of these weapons, inured
to hardships, largely destitute of fear, and thoroughly at home
in the saddle, they were antagonists not to be despised. The
General himself was a wiry little man, active as the traditional
cat, and a noted horseman. His mount was a milk-white stallion
with large black spots, like a circus horse ; and he dashed along
like a boy on his first pony, invariably followed by his big Indian
orderly flashily dressed in the garb of his tri'oe. Wherever and
whenever they appeared they were cheered vociferously. Occa-
sionally, straggling men from this command passed through our
camp, telling many stories, hardly credible, of their battles with
the enemy, as well as evidently fictitious tales of Jeff Thompson's
Indian contingent.

WATKINS' FARM.

General Gideon Pillow, famous veteran of the War with Mex-_
ico, commanded our Army of Liberation, so designated because
we supposed we were about to march to St. Louis. To lend color
to this supposition, Maj. Miller's cavalry were ordered to report
to General Thompson, west of Sikeston. Cole's and Foote's com-
panies were thence sent towards Benton, in Scott County. We
camped on Watkins' Farm, where we had a most delightful time
in spite of hard service in picketing and scouting. Fat beeves
were plentiful, as well as flour, lard, and bacon. Details were
made daily to shoot beeves for the companies. This scribe re-
calls that one day, when ordered to shoot a beef, he fired his
Maynard, and lo ! not one beef but two fell dead instantly ! The
ball had passed through the head of one and the heart of another.
To the gratification of all, our meat rations were unusually lib-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 21

eral that day. In this connection, I transcribe from the MACON
(Mississippi) BEACON, dated Sept. 11th, 1861, the following

LETTER FROM CAPT. H. \V, FOOTE.

Camp Watkins, near Benton, Mo.,

August 18th, 1861.
My Dear Mr. Ferris : —

We have been about three weeks in this delightful country, —
far too good to give up without a struggle on the part of the
South. The granaries are all overflowing with this year's har-
vest, and every prospect promises an abundant crop of wheat in
the coming spring. The rich lands and the good appearance of
the country in every respect justify our claiming and holding
Missouri. The people, so far as I can judge, are with us in sen-
timent. Prudence has kept them silent. Those daring to express
themselves have been molested in divers ways ; some with per-
sonal violence, others by having their property confiscated and
carried away, while the homes of many have not escaped the
torch. The farm adjoining our camp has suffered heavily; a
fine steam-mill, a large barn, two thousand bushels of wheat, and
many other valuables were burned by the Federal Germans be-
fore we came to this neighborhood. Homes have been entered
and bayonets pointed at innocent women by the marauding
brutes ; some private citizens have been captured ; large fields
of corn have been destroyed ; horses, mules, negroes, and cattle,
have been driven away ; and every conceivable species of mischief
and destruction has been done by these cowardly wretches. They
have come, as many as 600 in a body, and forced their way every-
where, their headquarters being a stone church in the town of
Hamburg, built by Roman Catholic Germans. This is their gen-
eral rendezvous, about three miles from the county site of Scott
County.

We shall probably leave here tomorrow night. When I write
again, I may have, in all probability, something more important
to communicate.

Until then, adieu.

(Signed)

H. W. FooTE.

We were ordered back to New Madrid. A movement now oc-
curred, for which doubtless there were good reasons, though they
have not yet come to light. Tents, baggage, infantry and artillery

aa Mississippi Historical Society.

were put on steamboats, and the cavalry marched down the river
fifteen or twenty miles and bivouacked on its bank. The boats
came and were tied up. Next morning we were ordered back,
boats and all, recalling the famous historic incident, when

"The King of France with his ten thousand men
Marched up the hill and then marched down again".

HICKMAN, KY.

Early in September, the cavalry were ferried across the river
and rode to Hickman, Ky., whither General Cheatham and a bri-
gade of infantry had gone on a steamboat. Dense columns of
smoke were visible far up the river; women and children were
screaming in the streets, as we arrived ; bugles were sounded ; and
guns were placed in commanding positions to resist an expected
attack, for a large force was believed to be coming down, threat-
ening the capture of Hickman. First to come in sight was a
little Confederate stern-wheeler, the Grampus painted black, with
a six-pounder on her bow and commanded by Captain Marsh
Miller wheeled the Grampus around and opened fire on his pur-
sued by two formidable gun-boats, which were constantly firing
at him. As he came under the protection of our batteries, Capt.
Miller wheeled the Grampus around and opened fire on his pur-
suers with a six-pounder. His shots fell short. Now the twelve-
pounders on the bank began to fire, and the gun-boats thus threat-
ened with destruction quickly withdrew out of range. General
Pillow with infantry and artillery had hurried forward by land
but reached Columbus just a little too late to intercept the Fed-
eral gun-boats.

COLUMBUS, KY.

Our cavalry on reaching Columbus found General Pillow in
possession. Additional forces were soon assembled and General
Leonidas Polk assumed command. Capt. Tobe Taylor's company
from Panola was here added to Miller's battalion, — a most val-
uable accession, for Captain Taylor became one of the best offi-
cers the regiment ever had. The Pontotoc Dragoons had become

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 23

I

so numerous it was deemed expedient to divide the company,
Captain Cole retaining the larger portion, and Adjutant R. A.
Pinson being elected Captain of the new organization. Our
camp was on the river bank about one mile south of the railroad
depot. When oiTf duty, we enjoyed nothing more than to gather
on the bluff just north of Columbus to see gun-boats pursue Capt.
Marsh Miller as he returned from his daily scouts up the river,
which here flowed without a bend from north to south for many
miles. Sometimes the Grampus was gone so long we feared she
had been captured ; but at length she would be seen in the dis-
tance under a full head of steam and with her shrill whistle doing
its utmost to be heard all down the river; and beyond were the
gtmboats, firing as they came. After getting under protection of
our land batteries, the Grampus never failed to turn and "pop
away" with her six-pounder, much to our amusement and doubt-
less to the amusement of the Federals as well. But the enemy
would turn back before coming within range of our guns. At
length, we procured a big gim, christened "The Lady Polk",
which we all confidently expected to destroy the gun-boats ; but on
its first fire it exploded, and killed and wounded several of our
best gunners. Scouting, drilling, parading, picketing, and re-
views kept us busy. Rumors of intended attacks on Columbus
never ceased. By accessions of three other companies our bat-
talion became a regiment of nine companies, and our Major be-
came Lieutenant-Colonel Miller in command.

BELMONT, MO.

Col. Tappan's regiment of Arkansas infantry and Beltzhoover's
battery were on the west bank of the Mississippi in Belmont, Mo. ;
also, Montgomery's and Bowles' companies from our regiment of
cavalry. Gus Watson was with Montgomery, one of several
brothers, all men of means and note, all good poker-players, who
before the war had made frequent trips on palatial steamboats up
and down the Mississippi, ostensibly on business but really to in-
dulge in the fascinating game. From their reckless style of play
arose the well-known expression "to play like the Watsons", still

24 Mississippi Historical Society.

frequently heard. I am told, by poker-players everywhere to this
good day. Gus Watson had equipped Beltzhoover's battery at
his own expense and was with it, though holding no office. He
usually accompanied Capt. Montgomery in his scouts near F.ird's
Point, which was held by a considerable force of Federals. Once,
Montgomery with thirty picked men met a Federal captain with
more than fifty, well-mounted and fully equipped. Quite a fusil-
lade occurred, in which both sides stood their ground for some
time ; but, at length to Montgomery's gratification, the Federals
by twos and fours began to wheel out of line and give way. Pur-
suit was inadvisable, as Montgomery was far from any support-
ing force. Riding up to the abandoned Federal line, he saw
stretched in death a fine-looking young man wearing the chevrons
of a sergeant, his Burnside carbine by his side on the ground.
This was the first man killed in open fight between the opposing
troops from the hostile armies, encamped at Cairo and Columbus.
The dead Federal was left with citizens to be buried; his sabre
was given to Gus Watson, and his pistols and carbine to cavalry-
men not fully equipped. How many Federals were wounded and
carried away was never ascertained. Montgomery had five
horses killed and one man so seriously wounded that his right
arm was amputated near the shoulder. The men were proud to
get back to camp and relate the incidents of their victory. The
whole camp turned out to greet them and to hear their account of
the "battle", news of which had already been wired to the Mem-
phis papers. Montgomery and his men were heroes of the hour.
Active scouting and picketing continued. On Nov. 7th, the cav-
alry were the first to meet Grant's reconnoitering force, consist-
ing of one brigade of infantry with the usual complement of ar-
tillery, probably more than 3,000 men, marching south down the
west bank of the Mississippi, hoping to capture the whole of Tap-
pan's force. Our cavalry did valiant service, gallantly receiving
the first shock and bravely skirmishing against great odds so as
to delay their progress as much as possible, in order that Tappan
might prepare his infantry and artillery for the impending bat-
tle. Even as it was. Grant came on so rapidly that Tappan was
not fully ready and his men were driven to the water's edge and

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 25

some of Ihem into the water. Here they resisted heroically.
Lieutenant-Colonel Miller, who had been commanding other com-
panies of his regiment north of Columbus, in anticipation of an
attack, after becoming satisfied no attack would be made on
Columbus, crossed the river and put himself at the head of his
squadron in Belmont. While Miller was holding his position on
the flank of the infantry, the commanding officer rode up to him
and said: "Col. Miller, lead your men into action, Sir, and give
the Yankees hell". Miller saluted and replied: "That is the
command I have been waiting and wishing to hear". Putting
spurs to his horse he ordered and led the charge of his two com-
panies against a battalion of Federal cavalry and drove them in
utter confusion from the field. His favorite horse, "Arab",
which he had raised on his own plantation, was killed under him
in this action. Meantime, Cheatham's brigade had been ferried
across and by rapid marching hoped to cut off Grant's retreat.
This he almost succeeded in doing, being greatly aided by the
cavalry in pursuing the fleeing enemy. But Grant's men were
too fleet of foot to be overtaken. They boarded their boats and
steamed away.

On the next day, Foote's company, the Noxubee Cavalry, were
sent across the river to relieve Montgomery and Bowles, and to
supervise the Federals who came down under a flag of truce to
bury their dead on the battlefield. Some of us followed General
Oieatham on the steamboat, whither he went to meet General
Grant, whom he had known well in the Old Army. After awhile
the Generals stepped to the bar to take a social glass, it being
Grant's treat. As they lifted the liquor to their lips, Grant said,
"Here's to General Washington, the Father of his Country",
when Cheatham promptly added, "and the first great Rebel" ; and
simultaneously they drank the amended toast. We found a few
wounded Confederate soldiers aboard, whom the Federals had
collected from farm-houses in the neighborhood ; and General
Cheatham promptly and very properly ordered them to be re-
moved to shore, for it was clearly in violation of the laws of civil-
ized warfare for men under flag of truce to capture prisoners.
To us, who had as yet little experience in war, the battlefield pre-

36 Mississippi Historical Society.

sented a ghastly appearance ; and the Rev. G. H. Martin, who was
up from Macon on a visit to his many friends in our company,
was so heart-sickened he could scarcely endure the sight, and as
soon as possible cut short his visit and returned home. Our dead
were all decently interred. The Federals buried theirs hastily,
without coffins or blankets ; in one instance, laying 41 clad, just as
they fell, in a single long trench and covering them with earth to
the depth of about two feet. After the work was completed, the
Federals departed in their boats and we were recalled to
Columbus.

COLUMBUS^ KY.

One morning at Cheatham's headquarters, there suddenly ap-
peared Ned Saunders from California. His father had been a
noted criminal lawyer in Natchez; and, as far back as 1851, had
been a pronounced secessionist. After the triumph of Union sen-
timent in the memorable campaign of that year, he left the
State and made his home in California. When he became of age,
Ned Saunders joined General Walker, the great fillibuster, in his
expedition against Nicaraugua and won the grade of Major-Gen-
eral in Walker's army. While W^alker was de facto President of
Nicaraugua, Saunders was married. Walker performing the cere-
mony. After the defeat of Walker's army, Saunders managed
somehow to effect his escape and thus did not share the fate of
Walker. Receiving the necessary authority through the help of
General Cheatham, Saunders raised a company of scouts, includ-
ing his younger brother, and did excellent service till the war
ended.

CAMP BEAUREGARD.

For many weeks parties of our cavalry made long rides
through all portions of the Jackson Purchase, finding ample evi-
dence of Southern sympathy. In fact, the whole population
seemed to be loyal to the South, for those really in sympathy with
the North were discreet enough to keep quiet. We believed then,
as we believe now, that people had a right to think for them-
selves and to follow their own convictions, so long as they did not

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 37

interfere with the rights of others. In the light of this principle,
we could not but enjoy an amusing incident some of our cavalry
witnessed. Not far from Mayfield, while riding along a public
highway, they passed a farm-house; and on the verandah sat
an elderly gentleman, whose surplus adipose hung low enough to
cover his femurs, as he rested his pedal extremities on the ballus-
ters in front of him. He gesticulated wildly and shouted lustily:
"Hurrah for Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy!", while
in another part of the house a little girl was seen struggling with
might and main to haul down the Stars and Stripes, symbolic
doubtless of the real political sentiments of the family. As a
matter of course the fat old gentleman "got the horse laugh"
from the troopers. Through the purchase, however, we rode to
little purpose, for the Federals rarely ventured beyond their lines
about Paducah and always carefully evaded meeting the rebels.
Tliis hard service, nevertheless, made us take on the ways of the
soldier and taught us valuable lessons of the bivouac, which stood
us in good stead, when afterwards we were compelled to use
scanty resources to the best advantage. There was another ben-
efit : a goodly number of recruits joined us, and these Kentuckians
all made valiant soldiers. Some of our companies, including the
Noxubee Cavalry spent the latter part of the month of January
at Camp Beauregard, near the village of Feliciana, which proved
to be for us a charming little place. Our younger and marriage-
able soldiers, especially, enjoyed the society of the many fascinat-
ing young ladies, most of whom were genuinely Southern. Then,
too, we lived well, drawing rations freely from adjoining farms
and finding a plentiful supply of chickens, turkeys, and guineas,
as well as "peach and honey". None of us neglected our oppor-
tunities. But like all good things, life at Camp Beauregard must
come to an end.

SHII^H.

A change had come. Grant captured Forts Henry and Donel-
son and was moving towards Pittsburgh Landing on the Ten-
nessee River. Confederate forces were concentrating at Corinth.
Columbus, Ky., was evacuated and Miller's regiment was to cover

28 Mississippi Historical Society.

the retreat. When Polk's army had reached Lexington, Tenn.,
on April 24th by order of General Polk, Col. A. J. Lindsay, an
Old Army officer, was assigned to the command of the First
Mississippi Cavalry, Lieutenant-Colonel Miller retaining his
grade and being subordinate to Colonel Lindsay, as he was too
good a patriot to resign when a battle was impending. Though
at the risk of being somewhat tedious, to show how a great battle
appeared to a private iu the cavalry, this writer will here practi-
cally repeat much of an article he previously contributed to a pub-
lication by the Mississippi Historical Society.

While in Jackson, Tenn., enroute to his new regiment. Colonel
Lindsay received a telegram directing him to march immediately
to Monterey. He accordingly dispatched a courier with instruc-
tions to this effect to Lieutenant-Colonel Miller, and Lindsay
himself overtook the regiment a few miles from the village and
at once modestly assumed command. His quiet dignity and
soldierly bearing won immediate confidence and respect, so that
ready oljedience was accorded him from the first. Later, the
men held him in high esteem after witnessing his coolness under
fire, as he sat amid shot and shell with a leg thrown over the
horn of his saddle and puffing away with seeming unconcern at
his corncob pipe, though at the same time displaying instinctive
knowledge when to move, where to move, and how to move.

There had been no pursuit of our army and no fighting on the
retreat from Columbus; but the feeling now prevailed that we
should fight and not retreat, as our soldiers all believed that the
disasters of Forts Henry and Donelson should be retrieved. We
knew that the exultant enemy was steaming up the Tennessee and
the Cumberland ; and there was universal joy in our ranks, when
at Purdy, Tenn., we wheeled eastward towards the Tennessee
River. As we moved on, we heard more and more of the mighty
converging of Confederate forces. The roads grew worse.
Wrecked and abandoned wagons and caissons in the mud gave
ample evidence that we had been preceded by many commands
of infantry and artillery. As we advanced we found roads,
woods, and fields filled with troops, eagerly pressing forward and
intensely anxious to meet the invaders. From couriers and strag-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 39

glers we heard of numerous commands ahead. They told us of
troops from Kentucky, from Tennessee from Alabama, from
Louisiana, from Arkansas, and from Florida. Forrest's cavalry
and Terry's Texas Rangers were also mentioned. We heard
that the invincible Albert Sidney Johnston, the iron-hearted
Braxton Bragg, the superb John C. Breckenridge, and the wary
Beauregard would be there. To think of the presence of these
great leaders made all hearts bouyant. We of the army from
Columbus knew General Albert Sidney Johnston. We had often
seen his majestic form as he rode with his staiT to view the forti-
fications of Chalk Bluff and to inspect the troops of our warlike
Bishop. We had often seen him standing on the bluff, when his
gigantic form and eagle eye showed to best advantage, inspiring
all with undaunted heroism. Johnston's very looks betrayed the
born commander, and under his leadership we felt assured of
victory on the morrow.

On the night before the battle, our regiment bivouacked in
the tall timbers on the very edge of the battlefield. We were,
indeed, much nearer the enemy than any of us imagined. We
knew that for miles and miles the woods were full of our friends,
but we knew not that we were within easy range of Grant's rifled
artillery. It has seemed a mystery to me ever since, how there
could have been so perfect quiet amid the mighty hosts of those
two opposing armies on that ominous night. No bugles sounded,
no bands played ; there was no firing, no cheering, no loud talk-
ing, no noise, and no disturbance of any kind. Whether this still-
ness resulted from orders of our great commander, I do not
know ; but I do know that all was then quiet along the Tennessee.
Verily, it was but the calm before the storm. On our part, we
were happy that the long retreat had ended; and in all my life I
can recall no sounder or sweeter sleep than I enjoyed that night
with my saddle for a pillow, grass and leaves for my bed, and the
silent stars as sentinels smiling propitiously from above.

April 6th, 1862, a holy sabbath day, dawned clear and bright.
We were awakened from our dreamless sleep by myriads of song-
sters in the boughs above us. We made hasty breakfast from

30 Mississippi Historical Society.

the remnants of rations issued and cooked two days before. As
soon as it was light enough to see, the clear ringing notes of Cox,
our regimental bugler, called us "to boots and saddles". Har-
dee's advance had already encountered in the gray of dawn the
25th Missouri and the 12th Michigan, which a brigade com-
mander in Prentiss's division had' on his own initiative sent for-
ward to reconnoitre, because of an indefinable conviction that all
was somehow not right in his immediate front. At the sound of
the sharp rifles, the pent up enthusiasm of Confederates could no
longer be restrained and

"At once there came from a deep and narrow dell

As wild a yell.
As if all the fiends from Heaven that fell

Had pealed the battle-cry of Hell"'.

The regiment was formed promptly into line and then wheeled
by companies into hollow squares ; and in the centre of each com-
pany, the captain read the following

ADDRESS OF ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON.

"Soldiers of the Army of Mississippi, I have put you in motion
to offer battle to the invaders of your country. With the resolu-
tion and discipline and valor becoming men fighting, as you are,
for all worth living for or dying for, you cannot but march to a
decisive victory over the agrarian mercenaries sent to subjugate
you and to despoil you of your liberties, your property, and your
honor. Remember the precious stake involved; remember the
dependence of your mothers, your wives, your sisters, and your
children, on the result ; remember this fair, broad abounding land,
and the happy homes that would be desolated by your defeat.

The eyes and hopes of eight millions of people rest upon you;
and you are expected to show yourselves worthy of your lineage,
worthy of the women of the South, whose noble devotion in
this war has never been exceeded. With such incentives to brave
deeds, and with the trust that God is with us, your Generals will
lead you confidently to the combat, — assured of success."

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 31

I can never forget the fervid and impressive eloquence with
which this address was read to our company by our gallant Cap-
tain H. W. Foote. It fired all hearts and awoke still sterner res-
olution in the breast of every trooper. Those brave words have
lingered for more than fifty years in my memory, clustering like
a halo about the name and the fame of the great commander on
the battlefield of Shiloh.

The ground on which our line rested at its first formation was a
heavily wooded plateau without brush or undergrowth. We
could see the lines of our army for long distances on the right
and on the left as they advanced with marvelous precision and in
perfect order throug'h the open woods, with regimental colors fly-
ing and all the bands playing "Dixie". It seems but as yesterday
when we watched those advancing hosts and listened to those mar-
tial airs. The engagement had soon become general, and the en-
emy were evidently yielding to the sledge-hammer blows of Har-
dee's corps. The First Mississippi Cavalry marched forward on
the right of Cheatham's division, keeping in line with it until
just before engaging the enemy, when Col. Lindsay was ordered
to pass to the rear. Then Cheatham's infantry became heavily
engaged, while we remained close in their rear for about two
hours. The enemy were driven steadily, with no hesitation or
confusion on our part. The rattle of musketry, the booming of
cannon, the screaming of shells, the whistling bullets,

"The rocket's red glare.

And the bombs bursting in the air", —

all united to create emotions within us that words cannot describe.
The deafening sounds, the stunning explosions, and the fiery
flames of battle seemed to pass along the line in great billows
from right to left.

Being in the rear of Cheatham's division, we were not under
direct fire till about 10 o'clock, when the infantry were lying down
in front of us, and our cavalry became a target for the artillery
and sharp-shooters of the enemy. A Federal battery began to
play upon us with a good degree of accuracy. We could hear the
heavy missiles whizzing around and above us ; and some of them.

32 Mississippi Historical Society.

too, were distinctly visible. One great shot I shall never forget.
As it came through the air it was clearly seen. Capt. Foote saw it
as it ricocheted, and spurred his horse out of the way. Lieuten-
ant T. J. Deupree was not so fortunate. This same shot grazed
his thigh, cut in two the sabre hanging at his side, and passed
through his noble stallion, which at once sank lifeless in his tracks.
It also killed a second horse in the rear of Lieutenant Deupree,
and finally striking a third horse in the shoulder felled him to the
ground without disabling him or even breaking the skin. That
ball was then spent. My own horse, "Bremer", in the excitement
and joy of battle raised his tail on high, and a cannon-ball cut
away about half of it, bone and all ; and ever afterwards he was
known as "bob-tailed Bremer". Many solid shot we saw strike
the ground, bounding like rubber balls, passing over our heads
' and making music in their course. Colonel Lindsay at this time
counter-marched the regiment and took shelter in a neighboring
ravine. Thus, while in supporting distance of the infantry, we
were often under fire, unless protected by the nature of the
ground, by dense thickets, or by deep ravines.

During this great battle, the Noxubee Cavalry held the right
of the regiment and was always in front when marching by twos
or fours from one position to another on the battle-line. I rode
beside my cousin J. E. Deupree, comrade and mess-mate. Being
on the right of the company, Joe and I were the first two of the
regiment, and in this favored position we were in close touch
with the regimental officers, so that we could hear every order
given or received by Colonel Lindsay. By close attention to these
orders, we would the better comprehend the movements made
and more intelligently observe the progress of the battle. This
cousin we called "Texas Joe" for distinction's sake, as at one
time, there were three Joe Deuprees in the company. As the
name given him indicates, he was from Texas. He was perfectly
willing, however, to serve with Mississippians under that beauti-
ful flag, which he received so eloquently at Camp Goodwin about
a year before. Yet he could not but long to have the "Lone Star
of Texas" to float above his head. Joe had been a student of law
at Lebanon, Tennessese, in April, 1861. Secession broke up the

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 33

school, and the students of the Cumberland University dispersed
to their homes in order to prepare to enter the Confederate ser-
vice. On his way back to Texas, Joe found it convenient to visit
his relatives in Noxubee County, Mississippi, and was persuaded
to enlist with them in the Noxubee Cavalry, believing that the
war would be fought entirely east of the Mississippi and that, if
he proceeded to Texas, he would simply have a long and toilsome
ride back in order ever to get into battle! By agreement with
Captain Foote, however, he was to be transferred to a Texas
regiment if ever he chose to do so. This he did some months
later and soon thereafter was captured. In consequence, he
spent more than two and a half years in prison on Johnson's
Island. Some day, it is hoped, he will write out and publish his
sad experience.

Once on Sunday morning, General Cheatham rode up and in-
quired as to the health of his "Hell-roaring Battalion of Caval-
ry". His coat was all torn by a minie-ball ; and when asked if
he were wounded, he assured us to the contrary and rode away
amid the cheers of his admiring friends. He evidently thought
not of self, though ever anxious and vigilant for the welfare of
his command, doing all possible to promote their success as well
as to save them from needless exposure.

When the infantry again pressed forward. Col. Lindsay re-
ceived an order to report to General Bragg, by whom he was di-
rected to support a body of infantry further up the hill. Then
came an order through a staff-officer of General Breckenridge to
place the regiment near General Jackson's column. Here we
waited till another staff-officer brought an order to Colonel Lind-
say to move the regiment with all possible speed towards the
river. We rode in a sweeping gallop till we came to the place
where General Prentiss had just surrendered, when Colonel
Lindsay reported to General Polk for orders. It was now after 5
o'clock, and Col. Lindsay was directed to take command of all the
cavalry on this part of the field, to go up the river, and to cut
off the enemy's retreat. In obedience to this order, Col. Lindsay
attempted to collect other cavalry, meantime directing Lieutenant-
Colonel Miller to take command of the First Mississippi. The
3

34 Mississippi Historical Society.

ever impetuous and daring Colonel Miller at once put himself
at the head of the regiment and shouted : "Charge boys, charge !
Colonel Lindsay says, Charge!" Then we rushed at full speed
for more than a quarter of a mile,, yelling like devils incarnate.
A Federal battery was observed about three hundred yards
ahead, with horses attached, evidently intent on making its escape.
But on discovering us the artillerymen turned, unlimbered, and
made preparations to open fire upon us. But we came on them so
rapidly, they could neither fire nor escape. Every man, every
horse, and every gun was captured. By this time Col. Lindsay,
who failed to find other cavalry, had ridden to the front of our
column. Giving orders to Col. Miller to send this captured Mich-
igan battery, with its six brass Napoleons and all its caissons,
under escort to General Polk, and seeing another battery just
across a deep ravine, he put himself at the head of Foote's com-
pany, the Noxubee Cavalry, and rushed forward to seize it. We
at once captured one of the caissons, but coming upon the battery
we found ourselves in the immediate presence of Federal in-
fantry drawn up in line, evidently belonging to Nelson's division
of Buell's army, who were just taking position on the field. They
fired at us; but, from excitement, they fired so wildly and so
high in the air, that we all escaped unharmed into tlie ravine and
there rejoined the regiment. Some years ago, I may state in this
connection, at a Reunion of Blues and Grays on the battlefield of
Shiloh, Dr. T. J. Deupree and I had a brief but delightful inter-
view with that great soldier and cultured gentleman, General Don
Carlos Buell, in which he told us that he well remembered seeing
that little company of cavalry dash into his lines like dare-devils,
as if resolved to rob him of his battery, nolens volens, support or
no support. He seemed greatly astonished when we told him
that we escaped without the loss of a man or a horse, and he said
he saw no reason why every saddle had not been emptied by the
volley his infantry fired into our ranks.

Col. Lindsay reported to his superiors what he had seen. Some
of us had watered our horses in the Tennessee. Grant's army
was crowded in disorder and confusion about the landing, every
one anxious to make his escape across the river; men and even

i

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 35

officers were afloat on logs, making their way towards the oppo-
site shore. A semicircle of artillery, mainly siege guns intended
for use at the anticipated siege of Corinth since most of their
field batteries had been captured, was about all that intervened
between Grant's army and destruction, in as much as but few of
Buell's men were yet in line of battle. This was, indeed, the
supreme moment for a general and sweeping advance of the
Confederates to drive the Federals into the river or force a capit-
ulation.

I shall not attempt to describe the splendor of the Federal
camp nor the boundless army-stores and munitions that fell into
our hands; nor shall I tell of the efforts made by Confederate
officers to prevent pillaging, nor speak of the Irishman with his
captured barrel of whiskey, nor of the dead and dying, nor of
the horrors of the hospitals, nor of the burning woods ignited
by Federal shells and causing untold agonies to helpless wounded
till God in mercy sent rain from heaven to extinguish the flames.
I shall not tell of the long hours of picket and vidette duty on
Sunday night, nor of the wretched condition of our soldiers, so
utterly exhausted that they slept like dead men in spite of the
shells hurled incessantly upon them from Federal gunboats and
in spite of the torrents of rain that so thoroughly deluged the
ground upon which they bivouacked.

Monday morning, the reinforced and thoroughly reorganized
enemy took the initiative. The 25,000 men of Buell's army,
comparatively fresh, added to the survivors of Grant's, say about
15,000, made a total of some 40,000 men against which the Con-
federates could muster scarcely 20,000, none of whom were
fresh. The battle began at day-light and raged furiously from
right to left for about six hours. Notwithstanding the heavy
odds against them, even at 1 o'clock the Confederates had not
receded from the position in which they had concentrated as
soon as it was certain another battle must be fought. But their
ranks were fearfully depleted. They had, indeed, been able to
hold in check the superior numbers of the enemy only by bril-
liant and sanguinary charges, involving fearful loss of life. At
this hour, fewer than 15,000 men were in line. Seeing, there-

3C Mississippi Historical Society.

fore, the unprofitable nature of the struggle, General Beauregard
determined not to prolong it further. Accordingly, about 2
o'clock, the retrograde movement began, and it was executed
with a steadiness that would have done credit to veterans of a
hundred battlefields. Col. Lindsay had been ordered to take
position on the Bark road, and during the day we had supported
successively the divisions of Breckenridge and Hardee, and in
the afternoon we covered the retreat of Hardee. Along with
Forrest's cavalry and Wheeler's, skirmishing with the enemy
and at times driving him back, we retired sullenly and were
among the last to leave the field.

As a fitting conclusion of this story of Shiloh, I submit a brief
extract from the official report of General Hardee:

"General Johnston about 1 o'clock on Sunday afternoon
brought up the reserve under Breckenridge. Deploying it in
echelon by brigades with admirable skill and rapidity, he turned
the enemy's left and, conducting the division in person, swept
down the river towards Pittsburg Landing, cheering and ani-
mating the men and driving the enemy in wild disorder to the
shelter of their gunboats. At this moment of supreme interest,
it was our misfortune to lose the commanding general, who fell
mortally wounded at 2 o'clock, and expired in a few moments
in a ravine near where Brecken ridge's division had charged un-
der his eye. This disaster caused a lull in the attack on the right,
and precious hours were wasted. It is in my opinion the. candid
belief of intelligent men that but for this calamity we would
have before sunset achieved a triumph, not only signal in the
annals of this war, but memorable in all history".

Before resuming the thread of my narrative, I pause long
enough to insert just here a list of those members of the Noxu-
bee Cavalry who took part in this great battle of Shiloh, since
their descendants in years to come will find pleasure, in reading
their names:

H. W. Foote, Captain ; T. J. Deupree, 2nd Lieutenant ; C. M.
Hunter, 1st Lieutenant; R. O. Wier, 3d Lieutenant; W. H.
Foote, 2d Sergeant ; G. H. Dantzler, 3d Sergeant ; F. M. Maul-
din, 4th Sergeant ; W. D. Deupree, 5th Sergeant ; L. E. Eiland,

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 37

1st Corporal; F. E. Carlton, 2d Corporal; G. W. Praytor, 3d
Corporal ; J. C. Jarnagin, 4th Corporal ; and privates, W. E.
Beasley, A. J. Boswell, Mike Callahan, E. C. Clements, W. H.
Crawford, J. Courtes, F. S. Cox, J. E. Deupree (Texas Joe), J.
G. Deupree W. D. Deupree, Jr., W. V. Dooly, W. W. Douglass,
S. B. Day, J. A. Grant, F. B. Greer, J. Greer, A. Greer, T. J.
Goodwin, O. M. Higgins, J. E. Hardy, G. W. Hinton, H. M.
Hunter, W. Hunter, W. A. Hughes, H. C. Howlett, J..B. Hud-
son, H. C. Haynes, W. J. Hudson, C. S. Jenkins, P. H. Jones,
R. H. Joiner, W. Jackson, S. Jackson, R. W. Keown, N. Lynch,
A. J. Lyon, M. Lyon, J. J. May, J. McCormick, L. Perkins, T.
M. Pierce, W. Pagan. W. B. Porter, M. Ruff, W'. R. Randall,
George Sherrod, A. G. Wesson. J. C. Williams, R. L Walker,
W. P. Wilson, K. E. White, H. Yates.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN H. MILLER.

When our army reached Corinth, the First Mississippi Cav-
alry was stationed on the left wing at Chiwalla. Here Lieuten-
ant-Colonel Miller tendered his resignation. Patriotism and ar-
dent courage prevailed over sensitiveness till after the battle,
when indignation asserted itself that he had been superseded ;
and he returned to Pontotoc to resume his work as minister of
the gospel, a work dear to his heart and for which he was pe-
culiarly fitted. To show how he was esteemed by the regiment,.
I shall make an extract from a private letter written some years
ago by Colonel Joseph E. Deupree, of the Texas Division of
Confederate Veterans, now residing near Bonham, Texas. The
extract follows:

"Of course, you remember, John, how we captured that Bat-
tery on Sunday afternoon. Lieutenant-Colonel Miller was tem-
porarily in command. He had just dismounted for some pur-
pose when you and I exclaimed : 'Look ! Colonel, they are Yan-
kees r He looked and instantly saw they were Yankees and per-
ceived what they were doing. Springing to his feet, he shouted,
'Charge, boys, charge !' ; and flinging himself into his saddle, he
put spurs to his horse and led the charge. I can never forget
those words nor the Colonel's excited manner at the time. . .

38 Mississippi Historical Society.

I always loved ColoneJ Miller. He was a brave man, a patriot,
and a Christian. He should have due credit for his quickness
of comprehension and prompt action at that critical moment.
The slightest hesitation would have resulted in the annihilation
of our company, if not the destruction of the regiment; for, as
you remember, we were in front. Never a more timely order
was given, and never one more gallantly and promptly obeyed.
Yes, John, from that day till now I have always felt that I owed
my life to Colonel Miller, and I was very sorry when he saw
proper to tender his resignation. Honored and blessed be his
memory!"

In concluding this tribute, I quote a condensed statement of
facts concerning his untimely death, as portrayed by Dr. John
M. Waddell:

"Brother Miller was on his way to Ripley to fulfill an engage-
ment with brother Wm. A. Gray, pastor of this church, to preach
for him; and, as he drew near to Ripley, on Sabbath morning,
March 22d, he learned that the village was held by Colonel
Hurst's regiment of renegade Tennesseeans. Knowing that he
was particularly obnoxious to them because of his strong South-
ern sympathy, his zeal and his military services, he determined
to go back to Pontotoc. About two miles from Ripley, he met
two of Hurst's men, escorting two prisoners. He was too near
to attempt an escape by flight. They overpowered him, dragged
him from his horse, and shot him through the head and through
the heart. Either wound was mortal. They robbed his person
of $60, a gold watch, gold spectacles, silk hat, sermon, and a set
of artificial teeth leaving his dead body lying in the road where
the foul and dastardly murder was committed. Negroes drew
the corpse to a place of safety till it could be sent to Ripley. The
murderers reported that they had killed a 'Secesh Colonel,' be-
cause he had resisted arrest. But the testimony of the prisoners
who had witnessed the tragedy was altogether different. By
request of Mrs. Buchanan, a devoted friend, the body of Colo-
nel Miller was given into her care and subsequently taken to
Pontotoc for interment beside several dear little ones, who had
preceded him to the glory-world."

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 39

COMPANY F, THE NOXUBEE TROOPERS.

After the Noxubee Cavalry went into active service, the Nox-
ubee Troopers still maintained their organization, holding them-
selves ready for any emergency. In March, 18G2, they tendered
their services to the Confederate Government, being officered
as follows: James Rives, Captain; Charley Dowling, 1st Lieu-
tenant; R. O. Beasley, 2nd Lieutenant; J. R. Bealle, 3rd Lieu-
tenant; and Mirabeau Craven, Orderly Sergeant. Being mus-
tered in at Columbus, they began their march through the coun-
try to Corinth. At Cotton Gin, Lieutenant Dowling was stand-
ing beside his horse, when the animal shook himself and thus
caused a pistol in the holster on the saddle-horn to be dis-
charged. The ball struck the Lieutenant in the leg and lodged
in his heel. He was sent home and in a few days he died of the
wound. Thus, even before getting to the army, a most valuable
officer was lost, — a lieutenant, honored and loved by the entire
company, as well as by countless friends at home. Reaching
Corinth April 6th, the company proceeded on the 7th towards
Pittsburg Landing. In the late afternoon, they met Beaure-
gard's army. Falling in with other cavalry, they helped to
cover the retreat. On the 8th, the company was regularly as-
signed to the First Mississippi Cavalry, to be known afterwards as ■
Co. F and to form with Co. G the Noxubee Squadron. The regi-
ment was "near Chiwalla under the command of Col. A. J. Lind-
say, and Captain Frank A. Montgomery, Senior Captain, was
second in command. I may take occasion to remark here, that
Colonel Lindsay was a fearless soldier and a most capable officer
when in action, but ordinarily he seemed lacking in vigor and
energy. His chief pleasure when in camp, and about his only
employment, was a game of solitaire. Consequently, most of his
duties fell on Captain F. A. Montgomery. Some weeks later, at
our reorganization, Colonel Lindsay left us to go west.

While at Chiwalla, Lieutenant R. O. Beasley in command of a
picket was surprised and fiercely assailed by a battalion
of Federal cavalry. He stood his ground bravely till
his small force was overwhelmed. On coming back to camp, the

40 Mississippi Historical Society.

.men reported that Bishop and Lieutenant Beasley had been killed.
On reestablishing the picket post after the enemy had with-
drawn, the body of Bishop was found, and then it was supposed
that Lieutenant Beasley had been wounded and captured. The
locality was hilly and densely wooded ; and on the following day
some men on picket going down the hillside discovered Lieuten-
ant Beasley, still alive but unconscious. A bullet had struck
him in the centre of his forehead ; and he had evidently walked
down the hill, possibly in search of water, for he had unbuckled
his sabre and his pistol was lying beside him. He lived some
hours and died the soldier's death. About this time, too, another
gallant member of this company and a prominent and useful
citizen of Noxubee County, Dr. T. M. Deupree, died of measles.
Thus the Noxubee Troopers in less than one month of service
lost four of their best members. It may not be amiss just here
to mention that the two sons of Lieutenant Beasley, William and
Jerry, members of the Noxubee cavalry, afterwards gave their
lives for their country.

As the First Mississippi Cavalry one moonless night moved
along a narrow road, through a heavily timbered country, some
miles northwest of Corinth, the Noxubee Squadron in front and '
Lieutenant Wier commanding the advance-guard, we were sud-
denly halted by the ringing words, "Who comes there?" to which
Lieutenant Wier replied: "Friends." "Advance, friends, and
give the countersign," was the next challenge. This scribe, be-
ing one of the front four and within twenty paces of the chal-
lenger, suspicious and apprehensive, quietly reined "bobtailed
Bremer" to one side and waited till Lieutenant Wier had ridden
forward and the Federal officer was heard to say: "Give up your
arms and dismount". He then wheeled and rode at full speed
till he met Captain Foote at the head of the Squadron, to whom
he reported what had occurred. Our column was halted for the
night, but early in the morning we advanced and easily swept
the Federal cavalry from our front. Wier and his party of six
were sent to Chicago and held as prisoners till the end of the
war.

The character of our service for some weeks may be gathered

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 41

from the following letter written by comrade H. D. Foote, and
published in the MACON. BEACON :

In camp near Bethel, Tenn., April 30, 1862.
Dear Mr. Ferris: —

We have had another little round with the enemy, which is
considered a very small affair, but for the information of folks-
at home I will relate it.

On Friday morning last our Colonel was ordered to march
with his regiment from Lexington to Purdy, a point between
Lexington and Corinth. We arrived at Colonel Brewer's camp
Sunday at 13 o'clock, pitched our tents in the woods remaining^
quiet till Monday night, when our sweet sleep was disturbed by
one of our pickets coming in with a report of a Federal advance,
which however proved to be a false alarm. Next morning, Tues-
day the 29th, pickets came in from the Savannah and Pittsburg
road and reported the enemy advancing in heavy columns of
cavalry and infantry. A heavy skirmish was kept up by the
sharpshooters on the respective sides for several hours, or until
about 2 o'clock, when the enemy retired and has not been heard
from since. Their strength is a matter of doubt, variously es-
timated at from 1,000 to 3,000. Ours did not exceed 500.

While their sharpshooters were engaged with us, others
among them less courageous, remained in Purdy to apply the
torch to dwellings of men who dared to be Southern in senti-
ment. It was trying to the feelings of our men to see those dark
clouds of smoke rolling up from the burning houses of honest,
patriotic citizens, innocent and helpless women and children.

Yours truly,

(Signed) H. D. Foote.

REORGANIZATION.

Bragg withdrew his army to Tupelo. Many enlistments, or-
iginally but for one year, had expired, and reorganization was
imperative. The First Mississippi Cavalry, as did most of the
army, reenlisted for the war. The election of officers was sup-
erintended by Col. A. J. Lindsay, who then bade us an affection-
ate farewell. Capt. R. A. Pinson was elected Colonel by a ma-
jority of one over Capt. H. W. Foote ; Capt. F. A. Montgomery
was elected Lieutenant-Colonel ; Capt. E. G. Wheeler, Major ;
Lucius Sykes, Adjutant General ; William Beasley, Sergeant-

42 Mississippi Historical Society.

Major; T. B. Dillard, Quartermaster; Robert Ligon, Commis-
sary; Dr. C. L. Montg-omery, Surgeon; and Dr. A. C. Ferrell,
Assistant Surgeon. The officers chosen for Company G were:
J. A. King, Captain; T. J. Deupree, First Lieutenant; S. B.
Day, Second Lieutenant; W. H. Foote, Third Lieutenant; and
J. A. Greer, Orderly Sergeant. In Company F, J. R. Bealle was
elected Captain; Mirabeau Craven, First Lieutenant; Scribner
Smith, Second Lieutenant; John Lyle, Third Lieutenant; and
Thomas Stevens, Orderly Sergeant. The Captains chosen by the
other companies were: J. R. Taylor, J. L. Simmons, Charles
Marshall, T. B. Turner, W. V. Lester, J. R. Chandler, Gadi Her-
rin, and G. N. Wheeler.

ABBEVILLE.

Within a few days after our reorganization, Col. Pinson. was
ordered to report to General Villipigue, whose headquarters were
then at Abbeville, Miss. Here our squadron was in camp near
a large mill-pond in an old field that furnished excellent grazing.
We were in the habit day after day of hobbling our horses and
turning them loose to graze to their own satisfaction. One
morning as Sam Jackson and a number of others were fishing
in the mill-pond, Sam's sorrel pony quietly, hobbled as he was,
walked into the pond to drink. He soon was in deeper water
than he needed for mere drinking purposes ; and with his head
tied down close to his fore-foot, he became strangled and was
drowned before anyone reached him. Poor Sam, after a long
and solemn pause, out of the deep anguish of his soul, though
to the amusement of his comrades, exclaimed: "Now, isn't this
a hell of a tale to Tvrite home to Pap?" He wept, they laughed.
However, they cheered him and helped him. He bought an-
other horse, of which he took better care, and ever afterwards
as before made a valiant and faithful soldier. We were here
for several weeks, and our horses grew fat and sleek. One after
another, companies were detailed to burn cotton in the Delta to
prevent its falling into Federal hands. It was an unpleasant
service, and no incidents worthy of note are recalled. The Boli-
var Troopers, Captain Gadi Herrin, were fortunate in being al-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 43

lowed to disperse and spend a few days at their homes, and our
Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Montgomery was also delighted to be
in command of the companies thus detailed, as it gave him like-
wise an opportunity to spend some days and nights with his
family.

COLDWATER RIVES.

We were next ordered to report to Col. Wm. H. Jackson, af-
terwards known as "R'ed Jackson", in camp on Coldwater River,
'not far from Holly Springs. We were now brigaded with the
Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, a most gallant regiment, with which
we served either in the same brigade or the same division till
near the close of the war. Jackson was a thoroughly trained
soldier arid rapidly grew in favor with officers and men. Though
lacking, perhaps, in brilliancy and dash, he certainly possessed
solidity, good sense, and firmness, so that he won the implicit
confidence of Van Dom, Forrest, and Joseph E. Johnston, —
enough to be said of any soldier. We soon began a series of
marches and countermarches through northern Mississippi to
Tennessee and back. Each expedition closely resembled the one
preceding and following, and to attempt to narrate a tithe of the
incidents that occurred in them would be tedious to writer and
reader. I shall, therefore, touch only some of the higher places
as I proceed with this narrative. On one of the expeditions,
which I cannot now clearly differentiate from some others so
closely like it, a detachment from our command failed by a very
narrow margin to capture Gen'l U. S. Grant at the home of Jo-
siah Deloach. This adventure doubtless gave rise to the story,
long current after the war, that because of the timely warning
given Grant by Deloach, that after he became President he ap-
pointed Deloach postmaster at Memphis.

There was soon gathered here the largest cavalry force we
had yet seen. In addition to Jackson's and Pinson's regiments,
there were the regiments of Wirt Adams and Bob McCullough
and, perhaps, one or two others. General Frank Armstrong,
who had but recently been made a brigadier-general, arrived
from Virginia, assumed command, and proceeded to cut the M.

44 Mississippi Historical Society.

& O. R. R.. on which Rosecrantz' army at Corinth depended for
supplies. As we, advanced by way of Grand Junction, we en-
countered a Federal force near Middleburg- on August 20th.
Here the Second Illinois Cavalry under Colonel Hogg made a
gallant charge upon the Second Missouri under Colonel McCul-
lough. Colonels Hogg and McCullough met with drawn sabres
and fought desperately till Tom Turner, a young Missourian,
by a well-aimed shot killed Colonel Hogg and, in all probability,
thus saved the life of his own colonel. Captain Giampion and
some other Missourians were killed, as well as some Federals.

MEDON AND BRITTAIN's LANE.

After cutting the railroad at various points and tearing up
many miles of track, we crossed the Hatchie River and moved
towards Medon. Near the depot we found a strong Federal
force well posted and protected by cotton bales. A charge on
horseback by Co. E of Jackson's regiment resulted only in the
useless loss of several good men and the serious wounding of
Captain Bassett. The Noxubee Squadron and two other com-
panies of the First Mississippi were ordered to dismount and
prepare to assault the Federal position. But, just as we were
adjusting the line-up, large reinforcements for the Federals be-
gan to arrive, when much to our gratification we were ordered
to remount. We withdrew to a creek and bivouacked for the
night. Early on the morning of September 1st, 1862, we began
our return to Mississippi by a road leading towards Denmark,
Tenn. We were all greatly fatigued and decidedly hungry, hav-
ing been away from our wagons for a week. No one now ex-
pected further fighting but all. anticipated a long and tiresome
march, as we were headed south. The Noxubee Squadron was
in front of our regiment, and Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomery
was riding at its head with Captain J. R. Bealle of Co. F, a gen-
ial, jovial gentleman, who somehow seemed unusually reticent,
for he was usually full of life and fun and frolic ; and like Gen-
eral J. E. B. Stuart, was a fine vocalist and took delight on the
march in entertaining all within reach of his far-carrying voice.

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi C3iya\ry—D eupree. 45

by his comic, semi-sentimental and patriotic airs. What could
be the matter with Captain Bealle now? Colonel Montgomery
could not tell, till Capt. Bealle quietly remarked that he was
deeply impressed by a presentiment that he was to be killed this
day before getting back to Mississippi soil. Colonel Montgom-
ery told him laughingly that his presentiment signified nothing
and that he himself would also be laughing at it by to-morrow,
adding that we would not see another enemy on this raid. But
before this remark was finished, firing was heard a mile in front,
and we were ordered forward in a gallop. Jackson's regiment
in Britain's Lane, not far from Denmark, had met a force which
had been sent out from Jackson, Tenn., to intercept us. It con-
sisted of infantry, artillery, and cavalry, and was strongly posted
directly across our line of march. The Seventh Tennessee, Jack-
son's regiment, charged at once and dispersed the Federal cav-
alry, which retreated in confusion towards Jackson, Tenn., and
were not seen again in the battle. But the infantry were too
numerous and too well posted to be dealt with so eflFectively.
They held their ground valiantly. Our regiment, having come
lip at full speed, were dismounted and gallantly led in a charge
by Colonel Pinson against the brigade of infantry lying flat on
the ground just below the brow of the hill and firing their rifles
in our faces. It was intensely hot and our men suffered greatly
but never faltered. Federal batteries and rifles soon cut down
the corn in the field through which we advanced, but forward
the rush continued. Though this was to many of the men their
first baptism of fire, yet in it the regiment as a whole displayed
a steadiness which forecast that admirable courage afterwards
exhibited on many bloody fields. The ground was rough, broken
by ditches and gullies, but the men moved across it in hot haste
and speedily drove the infantry of the enemy from their chosen
position. They retreated precipitately to the next hill. Then
Colonel Wirt Adams led his regiment, formed in a column by
fours, in a brilliant charge through a lane against the battery,
which was captured and sent to the rear. The Federal infan-
try, now reenforced and on a wooded hill, poured a withering
fire on Adams' column and compelled its withdrawal. I take

46 Mississippi Historical Society.

occasion just here to remark in passing that General Adams was
a splendid gentleman and chivalric soldier, whose sad fate years
afterwards it was to become involved in a street-duel in Jack-
son. Miss., with Mr. John Martin, a newspaper editor, in which
both participants were killed.

Our loss in this action was considerable, especially in the First
Mississippi. But how any one escaped alive from that cornfield
is among the things inexplicable in war. One of the most prom-
inent of the more than half-hundred killed was Capt. John R.
Bealle of Co. F, the Noxubee Troopers, whose presentiment was
quickly and all too surely realized. Lieutenant Matthews of
Marshall's company was also killed. Captain Chandler was so
seriously wounded as afterwards to be unfitted for field service,
and he became a surgeon and rendered valuable help in hospi-
tals. Lieutenant Craven was made Captain of Company F, Lieu-
tenants Smith and Lyle promoted in regular sequence, and
Thomas Stevens was made Third Lieutenant. We had force
enough to envelop the enemy and it should have been done. Pin-
son and Montgomery both urged a renewal of our attack by a
flank movement which inevitably would have resulted in the cap-
ture of the entire Federal force. But this was not to be. To the
surprise of all, we abandoned our position under orders to with-
draw and thus lost the fruits of our costly victory. Instead of
attacking separately and successively, all our regiments should
have united in the attack, and complete destruction or capture
of the enemy would have rewarded our effort.

CAMP ON COLDWATER,

By a circuitous route we got back into the road some miles
south, and without again meeting the enemy reached our camp,
all of us exceedingly hungry and anxious to draw rations.
Within a few days. General Armstrong left us. It was said that
he had prematurely assumed command as brigadier-general, it
being some months before he actually received his commission,
and that "Red Jackson's" commission, when received, really an-
tedated that of Frank Armstrong. We all know that afterwards

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 47

Jackson outranked Armstrong, for Jackson commanded our di-
vision when Armstrong commanded our brigade. Soon all the
other cavalry were ordered elsewhere, leaving but Jackson's and
Pinson's regiments under command of Jackson, as senior colonel.

OUR ENCOUNTER WITH GRIERSON.

It goes without saying that our men were discouraged by the
results of the raid under General Armstrong, as it seemed that
we paid dearly for what little we had gained. The weather con-
tinued hot and dry, and horses were in bad condition. True sol-
diers, however, when well treated in camp, rapidly recover from
the effects of any disaster, great or small; and horses seem
instinctively, in this regard, to follow the example of their rid-
ers. How sweet was the rest now ! But it could not be long.
Van Dorn and Price were planning the details of an assault on
Rosecranz at Corinth. Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomery was or-
dered to take four companies of the First Mississippi, includ-
ing the Noxubee Squadron, and 'four of the Seventh Tennes-
see, and go in search of Colonel Grierson and his Sixth Illinois
Cavalry, who were on a raid from Memphis. The Noxubee
Squadron was in advance, followed by the two other companies
of Mississippians and by the four companies of Tennesseeans.
We passed through Byhalia and Cockrum and crossed Cold-
water on the road to Hernando. Turning north, we recrossed
the Coldwater on a rude bridge at Holloway's, about ten miles
northwest of Byhalia. We seemed to be making but an ordin-
ary march. When, however, we reached the foothills of the east
side, word was passed down the line that Grierson had crossed
the bridge behind us and was preparing to fall upon our rear.
He had thrown his regiment into line on both sides of the road.
In consequence, there was more or less commotion in our ranks
along with some degree of excitement. An order was promptly
given by Montgomery to wheel about by fours and countermarch
to meet the enemy. This movement put the Tennesseeans in
front. Immediately, there were signs that the enemy were near.
In fact, they were really much nearer than we had suspected. The

48 Mississippi Historical Society.

Tennesseeans and Mississippians were thrown into column, front
into line by companies, — the first company unfortunately very
near the enemy, who had stealthily advanced on foot, well con-
cealed by the dense undergrowth. They instantly opened a brisk
fire with their carbines, which meant certain death to men and
horses of the front company of Tennesseeans. As a matter of
course, there was a bolt to the rear, and what is known to all
participants as the Coldwater Stampede began. Nothing could
surpass it in excitement and confusion. When the first company
in retirement had reached the second, great momentum had been
acquired and the excited horses were beyond control, as they
dashed headlong through the ranks of the second company,
which (including both men and horses) instantly caught the in-
fection of demoralization ; and the same happened in succession
to all the remaining companies as the on-rush passed over each,
so that all were involved and the rout was complete. True, some
men spoke encouragingly to comrades, even denouncing the re-
treat as cowardly, thus manifesting in-born courage or personal
pride and self-esteem. But however much some were inclined
to stand firm, concert of action was out of the question ; then
those, who at first had resolved to fight, were soon getting away
as fast as the others. While we did not take to the woods, there
was no delay in crossing a high staked-and-ridered-fence into a
cornfield with the rankest growth of crab grass we had ever
seen. We ran down the rows till we had crossed the entire field
and put another fence between ourselves and our pursuers.
Now, everybody was willing to halt, and the command was at
once reorganized and brought into line. Smarting with shame
and mortification, these Mississippians and Tennesseeans, would
have then and there put up the best fight of their lives, could
they have been promptly led into action. Various reasons were
given for the disaster, but none brought consolation. Clearly,
we had been outgeneralled by one of the shrewdest and most
alert of Federal cavalrymen, indeed, the first to achieve a repu-
tation on his side as a bold and successful raider.

In describing this affair in his "Remimscences", Lieutenant-
Colonel Montgomery writes, as follows : "Taking three or four

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 49

days' cooked rations without wagons, I moved as rapidly as pos-
sible and crossed the Coldwater on a bridge not far from Her-
nado, with scouts out in every direction to see if I could hear of
Colonel Grierson. But I could not locate him ; and, as I had been
gone about as long as had been contemplated, I recrossed the
river by the same bridge in order to return to camp. I had pro-
ceeded, perhaps, two miles from the bridge, had gotten out of
the bottom into the foothills, when Captain Jack Bowles over-
took me and reported that he had a small party of scouts and
had been skirmishing with Grierson beyond the Coldwater about
five miles from the bridge, and that Grierson was coming on
this way. I at once countermarched and went to find him, which
I did much sooner than I expected. The Coldwater bottom
where I reentered it was all woods so dense that we could see
but a little way. We had proceeded to within about a half-mile
from the bridge, when our advance after firing a few shots came
back in hot haste. I had barely time to form; in fact, my lines
were not fully formed, when I saw that Grierson's whole regi-
ment was impetuously charging. After one ineffectual volley,
my men gave way for awhile with the loss of two killed in
Wheeler's company and several wounded in the command and,
perhaps, some few killed. Confusion lasted but a short time,
for the men were easily rallied; and, in our turn, we advanced.
Colonel Grierson having found a larger force than he expected,
retired immediately ; and, before we reached the Coldwater, he
had recrossed and torn up the bridge. I had no means of re-
pairing it, and besides I could not have overtaken him. Remain-
ing on the ground that night and giving each of the brave men
who had fallen a soldier's burial in a soldier's grave, I returned
to camp. While these patriots fell in no great battle, they were
heroes all the same, and they deserve all the honors that can be
paid to our heroic dead, most of whom sleep in unknown graves,
remembered, perhaps, as in this instance, by a few surviving
comrades."

Among others killed, I recall the name of John Allen, of Co.
E, Seventh Tennessee; and the substitute of Cy Jenkins of the
Noxubee Cavalry was also killed, whose name I cannot recall ;
4

go Mississippi Historical Society.

but Cy was ever afterwards reported as dead. With some other
intrepid spirits of our Squadron, W. G. White of the Noxubee
Troopers stood in the firing Hne till his horse was shot and killed
under him ; and, as the Squadron fell back. White was captured.
He was sent to Cairo, Illinois ; and, within a few weeks, he was
sent down the Mississippi River to Vicksburg and exchanged.
Soon afterards, he rejoined his company and did valiant service
till the end of the war.

"Shortly afterwards", says Colonel Montgomery in his RemtTU-
iscences, "Colonel Jackson made full inquiry into this affair in
the presence of all the officers of the two regiments, and not only
acquitted me of all blame but praised my conduct."

Later, however, Jackson did prefer charges against Montgom-
ery, as to which Colonel Montgomery states, "I was courtmar-
tialed and promptly acquitted".

AFFAIR AT POCAHONTAS.

Our camp was moved nearer to Holly Springs on a road lead-
ing north. Grant had many garrisons posted east of Memphis
and was concentrating a large army at Grand Junction, where
he could be supplied by the two railroads there, evidently pre-
paring to invade Mississippi. About the middle of September,
Jackson with his own and Pinson's regiment had been ordered
to reconnoiter in the direction of Corinth. Going by way of Rip-
ley, and thence turning north, then proceeding till he had reached
the main Corinth road, parallel with the railroad, he turned east,
intending to cross the Big Hatchie where the railroad crossed it.
But late in the afternoon as the sun was setting, Pinson's regi-
ment in front, we reached an old village, called Pocahontas,
perched on quite a hill, whence the road sloped gradually down to
Davis' Bridge, perhaps half a mile away. The village seemed
deserted, but we caught here a Federal cavalryman from whom
we learned that his regiment had gone into camp just across the
river. He had eluded the guard and was on a private foraging
adventure for himself and his messmates. Pinson promptly in-
formed Jackson of the proximity of Ingersoll's Eleventh Illinois

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 51

Cavalry with a company of U. S. Regulars, going into camp be-
yond the river. Jackson's laconic reply was, "Charge them".
Pinson, without the loss of a moment, led his regiment in a
sweeping gallop across the rickety bridge, overrunning the pick-
ets, straight into the camp of the enemy, many of whom were
gathering corn from a field just across the road. The Seventh
Tennessee brought up the rear, waking the echoes with a rebel
yell. Firing was promiscuous, but casualties were few. Pinson
was the only Confederate wounded. Riding up in the gloom to
a squad of men he supposed to belong to his regiment, he found
them to be Federals and ordered them to surrender, when one of
them fired on him. Here, Pinson manifested the spirit and cour-
age of the hero, while he was borne to the Davis' residence on a
cot we had procured for the purpose. There was good reason to
believe the ball had penetrated his intestines and that he was mor-
tally wounded ; but he spoke cheerfully to anxious inquirers and
said smilingly : "Boys, it is a small matter ; I shall soon be all right
again".

The spoils were great. We brought off 150 fine Illinois horses
with their accountrements and arms, and captured some 60 un-
wounded prisoners ; but most of the enemy efltected their escape
in the dense undergrowth to the left of the road. These fine
horses, pistols, and sabres, should have been distributed among
our men who needed them, and their inferior animals and equip-
ment turned over to the ordinance department. This could have
been done under a board of survey in such a way as not only to
increase the efficiency of our command but also to stimulate the
men for future enterprises. But we did not get even a halter.
All went to supply the needs of other commands. There was one
particularly fine horse among those captured, evidently some-
what of a pet with his owner. Jim Weatherby, a Tennesseean,
from Somerville, was not slow to discover the fine qualities of
this steed, as well as his "smart trick", and he soon had him can-
tering along, as if he had owned him always. But alas! this
beautiful brown with two white feet had to be turned in, and
Weatherby was disconsolate. Thereafter, when legitimate cap-
tures fell in our way, "mum" was the word. Colonel Pinson was

52 Mississippi Historical Society.

sent home in the care of a surgeon. As Colonel Jackson was de-
termined to get off with the prisoners at once, we marched nearly
all night towards Ripley.

ASSAULT ON CORINTH.

It was the last of September. Van Dorn was ready to move
against Corinth with Price and Lovell as division commanders.
The movement began from Ripley with an army well equipped,
well fed, and in fine spirits. As there had been no rain for many
weeks, the dusty roads and scarcity of water made severe the
necessary marches to effect the concentration of the troops. But
the prospect of a successful assault on the works of Corinth
with the capture of Rosecrans and his army made buoyant the
spirits of our soldiers. Jackson's cavalry led the way, with
Montgomery in front in command of the First Mississippi. We
had ridden about ten miles and reached Chiwalla hills, when we
encountered a considerable body of Federal cavalry, which Jack-
son ordered the Mississippians to charge. We did it in gallant
style and readily swept the Federals from the field, pursuing them
several miles. This was the first day of October.

The next day we picketed the roads, while preparations and
dispositions were made for the assault. On the 3rd, the earth
trembled with the roar of artillery and the rattle of small arms,
as Price drove the enemy before him north of the M. & C. rail-
road. It was a struggle to the death, in which both sides lost
heavily. The Federal positions had been strengthened by heavy
earthworks and fallen timber, making very difficult the approach
to the main fort. All day it went well with the Confederates,
though the killed and wounded were numerous. Being in the
rear, we saw much of the progress of the battle. It was, indeed,
a bloody spectacle to see the dead and wounded borne back for
burial or surgical attention. Our army held the position it had
won and bivouacked on the field. Early on the 4th, the battle
recommenced with renewed fury. About noon. Colonel Jackson
was ordered to go round Corinth to the luka road leading east
from Corinth, supposedly, to intercept the enemy, who were

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Ca.\2.\ry—Deupree. 53

thought to be making preparations to escape ; for we had heard
that Price had captured the town. Our brigade circled the town,
passing many deserted picket posts and not seeing an enemy,
though we were at no time more than a mile from the court-
house, invisible, however, because of intervening forests. Mean-
while, the thundering cannon and rattling musketry were heard
incessantly till we had come to the luka road. Suddenly all fir-
ing ceased and oppressive silence followed. We could form but
one conjecture, — that the enemy had surrendered. Not being
able to get definite information, Jackson retraced the route he
had come, until we reached the road by which we had advanced
on Corinth. Here, much to our surprise, we found our army re-
treating. The Federals, however, were too badly demoralized to
make a vigorous pursuit. When Price was in Corinth, Lovell
failed to come to his support, and Price could not hope to hold the
place against the heavy reinforcements Grant had sent. Ehiring
the night, McPherson's division from Jackson, Tenn., had come
in and were preparing to overwhelm Price. Also, Hurlburt's
division had marched down from Bolivar to Davis' Bridge, in or-
der to dispute our passage. With McPherson in our rear and
Hurlburt in front of us, we were apparently trapped. Shrewd
generalship on the part of the Federals should have captured
our whole army. But Van Doni boldly attacked Hurlburt at
the bridge, while the Confederate trains were ordered to take the
only possible road of escape, that up the Hatchie River. Our
cavalry preceded the trains ; and, having crossed the Hatchie by
a ford, we attacked Hurlburt's rear. Then for some hours there
were two Federal and two Confederate forces, one of each fac-
ing two ways and fighting both in front and in rear. Van Dorn,
however, drew oflF at the proper time and followed his trains,
fording the Hatchie where we had crossed. Then the cavalry
fell back behind the infantry and covered their retreat. The in-
fantry on the march rearward drank all the wells dry, and all the
creeks were without water, so that the. cavalry, men and horses,
suffered greatly from thirst, while the Federals pursued almost
to Ripley. Often as many as a dozen times daily, the First Mis-
sissippi were ordered to hold an assigned position till further

54 Mississippi Historical Society.

notice; then the enemy would advance in strong lines of infan-
try, supported by batteries of artillery, and brisk fighting would
continue, till we were ordered to retire to a new position, where
the same program would be repeated. We grew very hungry,
for our rations had all been devoured several days before and the
infantry, as they preceded us, had exhausted what supplies we
might otherwise have found along the road. Finally, to
our great delight, the enemy ceased to pursue us as we drew near
to Ripley, and we were permitted to go to our wagons. For the
first time in many days we had a much-needed rest with all the
rations we could devour. The hillsides were covered with dew-
berries, ripe and delicious; and, as sugar was issued to us in
abundance, we feasted in luxury.

It may be well incidentally to explain just here, that the cavalry
on leaving Ripley in the advance on Corinth had started with
three days' cooked rations, and that under such circumstances a
cavalryman, hoping to lighten the weight for his horse as well
as relieve himself of more or less annoyance, usually consumes
all his rations at once and trusts to luck for something to eat
when hunger overtakes him. On this expedition, however, we
had all been too constantly in the presence of the enemy and too
actively engaged with them to find time and opportunity to forage
for man or beast, and in consequence had begun our retreat from
Corinth with our stomachs as thoroughly empty as our haver-
sacks. Day after day for several successive days, we had simply
tightened our belts in lieu of eating. It is not astonishing, there-
fore, that when we did get back to camp, we all ate ravenously.

While covering the retreat, let me say, that the First Missis-
sippi elicited praise from Colonel Jackson, who complimented
especially the conduct of Captain Gadi Herrin of the Bolivar
Troopers, Captain Craven of the Noxubee Troopers and Lieuten-
ant Foote of the Noxubee Cavalry.

OXFORD AND VICINITY.

Van Dorn's army was transferred to Holly Springs that it
might be in front of Grant, who seemed to be headed down the
Mississippi Central railroad. At Holly Springs were assembled

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 55

the exchanged Fort Donelson prisoners. Why Van Dorn had
not awaited their coming before attacl<ing Corinth, I do not know.
It would certainly have changed the result of the battle. But fate
was against us. "The stars in their courses fought against Sis-
era". We rested at Holly Springs till Grant moved out from
Memphis, menacing us with a large force. It would be a long
story to tell of the sullen retreat of this army, now rapidly re-
covering from the effects of the late disaster. Lovell's division
and Price's Missourians were again ready to fight. The cold
rainy days of winter had come and nothing seemed more certain
than a battle on the line of the Tallahatchie. That line, how-
ever, was abandoned. The enemy made a furious attack on the
cavalry rear-guard at Oxford. Here, while leading a charge by
the Second Mississippi Cavalry, Colonel James Gordon narrow-
ly missed running over Colonel Jacob Thompson, whose horse
had been shot under him and who was looking about him for his
spectacles. He had resigned as Secretary of the Interior in Bu-
chanan's Cabinet and joined our army. Our cavalry now had
orders to hold the Federals in check until the artillery and the
trains were safe behind the Yocona. It was one of those times
when all the woods were alive with "Blue Coats". The follow-
ing letter, written by a member of Co. E of the Seventh Ten-
nessee Cavalry, gives a graphic account of affairs :

"Editor of The Commercial Appeal :

"Whenever I hear the patriotic spirit of Southern women al-
luded to, I somehow mentally revert to what came under my own
observation one day in December, 1862, at Oxford, Miss. Price
and Van Dorn had been forced to abandon the line of the Tall-
hatchie and were falling back to the Yalobusha. Our cavalry
were stubbornly resisting overwhelming odds, endeavoring to
hold them in check long enough to get our trains out of immedi-
ate danger. A cold rain was falling and there seemed to be no
bottom to the roads. The citizens were panic-stricken and our
army was sullen. The terrible weather added to the distress.
'Blue Ruin' seemed to stare us in the face. Colonel Wheeler,
temporarily commanding Jackson's brigade, was trying to hold
the Abbeville road. No picket was out in our front, and a call
was made for somebody to reconnoitre. It was not a positive

56 Mississippi Historical Society.

order from the Colonel commanding;, but as he rode alon^ the
line, he said, 'Some of you men with carbines will go out there,
if you please, and see where they are.' It was a time when it
was nobody's business in particular, but everybody's in general.
I asked Sam Clinton if he would go with me. We rode forward,
followed by a few men from other companies. We realized the
danger and would have much preferred to be elsewhere. Soon
we stirred up 'a veritable hornets' nest.' A gun was fired and
a singing minie passed just above our heads. Instantly, a heavy
skirmish line of Kansas Jayhawkers, who knew well how to
shoot, rose up in the bushes on either side of the road. They
fired a volley ; we replied in kind, and retreated at a rapid pace.
Private Wilson, of Co. I, was struck, his thigh-bone being frac-
tured and making him a cripple for life. The gallant Joe Wicks,
of Memphis, just then came with orders for our squad to fall
back, — but we had already taken our orders from the Jayhawk-
ers. But poor Joe Wicks was never seen alive again! Having
other orders to deliver, he dashed into the forest, and in a few
minutes his riderless horse ran at full speed back to our com-
mand. Wicks never delivered his orders. His body was recov-
ered some days afterwards and buried by the good people of
Oxford.

"As we came back through Oxford, retiring before the ad-
vancing Federals, we found it a town of tearful women and
weeping maids. This but added to our overwhelming cup of
woe. On the verandah of a cottage south of the court-house,
a maiden vvas standing who did not seem to be weeping. Her
spirit had risen to the occasion. She was most forcibly express-
mg her opinion, as she saw us giving up the town to the merci-
less Yankees. Her short skirts and her youthful appearance
mollified her impeachment; for, if we had taken her opinion as
solid truth and had viewed ourselves as she saw us, we should
have regarded ourselves as the most cowardly aggregation of
'skedadling' cavalry in the whole Confederacy. But who was
this little maiden with such lofty and patriotic impulses ? Every-
body wanted to know. We fondly hoped erelong to have her
think better of us. Cad Linthicum, our little Kentuckian, who
somehow had a penchant for knowing all the girls in divers
places, said it was Miss Taylor Cook; and so it was. The 'Miss
Taylor Cook' went down the line, repeated by every trooper af-
fectionately and most respectfully. She had become famous in
a twinkling. The Seventh Tennessee Cavalry would have gladly
adopted her as the 'daughter of the regimenf, if she could have
appreciated the honor. She was, indeed, worthy to become the

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 57

wife of Nathan Bedford Forrest's only son. And she did.
Whenever I pause at her grave in beautiful Elmwood, I recall
that sad day in Oxford.

(Signed)
J. M. Hubbard, Co. E, 7th Tennessee"

On the following day, we placed the Yokona between ourselves
and the enemy. We destroyed the bridges so as to obstruct pur-
suit. Here we committed, perhaps, our first depredation upon a
citizen : we burnt his fences. It was very cold, we were wet and
had no axes. We spoke of it, among ourselves, as an outrage;
but it felt good any way to dry ourselves by the blazing fires. We
satisfied conscience by the reflection, that if a patriot the citizen
would not complain, but if not he deserved no serious considera-
tion. At night, we had a great time, eating sweet potatoes we had
roasted in the ashes and had opened up to let the gravy from fat
bacon drip into them, as we held over hot coals thin juicy slices
pierced with a sharpened stick. It was a feast, indeed, good
enough for a king. Some of the men spent the whole night thus,
roasting and eating potatoes. No one in Company G could eat
more potatoes than Mr. G. W. Alford, of the Deupree Mess. He
always contended that potatoes were the best food we could get.
Some others, and among them this scribe, preferred roasting ears,
when cooked in the ashes in the shuck. One of our Mess, whom I
need not name, on one occasion gathered twenty-five long and
large, splendid, ears, gave twelve to his horse and retained thir-
ten for himself, contending he had made a fair and equitable
division because the horse got the shucks from twelve ears and
the cobs and the fodder from twenty-five. Reader, be it known
that the best way on earth to cook roasting ears is to cook them
in their jackets and thus preserve all their delicious sweetness
and aroma. Thus cooked, in my judgment they surpass even
the roasted potato. Try it and be convinced.

Suddenly, early next morning Bugler Cox sounded "Boots
and Saddles", for already the Federal cavalry were between us
and Water Valley. There was but one thing to do, — to put on
a bold front and ride over them. This was done quickly and
thorougtily by our leading squadron, so that the rest of the com-

58 Mississippi Historical Society.

mand didn't come in sight of the enemy. Just north of Coffee-
ville, we assisted in forming an ambuscade, into which the Fed-
eral cavalry rode unsuspectingly, and we gave them such a de-
feat that they withdrew rapidly to Oxford.

ANTIOCH CHURCH.

We next went into camp six miles north of Grenada, at Anti-
och Church.

While the army was at Grenada, President Davis made us a
visit. It was the first time he had come into the State since he
became Oiief Magistrate of the Confederacy and the last till he
had been released from Fortress Monroe. He reviewed the
army. All the infantry and artillery and some cavalry were in
line, totalling more than twenty thousand and presenting a
splendid appearance. They received the President with wild en-
thusiasm, as he rode along the line, halting at the centre of each
command to return its salute. His courtesy and soldierly bear-
ing won all hearts.

We were getting well along into the second year of the war,
and our prospects were growing gloomy. North Mississippi
was overrun by the enemy, and it .seemed probable our army
might be driven to the Gulf. Though Van Dom had not achieved
success as commander of an army, or the projector of a military
campaign, yet he was known to be a born cavalryman, and one
in every way qualified to lead a bold movement to cut Grant's
communications. Accordingly, a cavalry command was organ-
ized to be led by Van Dorn. with Holly Springs as the objective.
This place had been abundantly supplied with everything needed
by an army of 50,000 men, and it was garrisoned by 8,000 men
of all arms. In the reorganization of the cavalry, Jackson, who
had become a brigadier-general, commanded the Seventh and
other Tennessee regiments; Colonel Griffith commanded the
Texas brigade, composed of the Third, Sixth, and Ninth cav-
alry; Col. Bob McCulloch, of the Second Missouri, commanded
a brigade consisting of his own regiment and the First Missis-
sippi. Our brigade had their camp at Antioch Church. When

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 59

not on duty, the men spent their time in various ways. Most ot
them were devout believers in Christianity and read their bibles
daily with pleasure and profit. Many indulged in sports of all
kinds, a goodly numiber playing checkers or chess on oil-cloth
diagrams spread on the ground, with pieces and men hand-
carved, which they carried in their haversacks, but more playing
cards for mere amusement and a number playing for money.
In fact, so many games were played in the church on rainy days
that its name was changed from Antioch to Ante-Up. On Sunday,
when not on duty, men and officers usually attended divine serv-
ice conducted by the regular chaplain, or by a visiting evangel-
ist, or by some officer or private, who was an ordained minister
of the gospel, for there were many such in our army, from
Bishop General Polk down. The most eloquent and attractive
chaplain we had during the war was Rev. ■:— . — . Osborne, whose
initials I cannot now recall. Not only men from our regiment
but many from other regiments would hang with delight upon
his discourses. I recall a favorite exclamation of his: "// re-
ligion is worth anything, it is worth everything." It cannot be
remembered at this time when he left us nor where, but we
missed him sadly. Amusing incidents often occurred. Once as
General Polk was reprimanding severely an offender against mil-
itary law and order, Mike Callahan, an Irish member of our
company, involuntarily shouted: "Let me cuss him out for you,
Gineral". The general quietly replied, "Thank you, sir, I do not
think it will be necessary ; I think, I have said enough". And he
had, for the offense was never repeated.

/;■

CAPTURE OF HOLLY SPRINGS.

Time sped on. Men and horses were rested and reinvigorated.
On the 17th of December, late in the afternoon, rations for three
days were issued to McCulloch's brigade. Jim Douglass of Co.
G at once ate all his rations, saying they were more easily carried
in stomach than in haversack and less burdensome to the horse.
We were ordered to mount and fall into line and to join the bri-
gades of Griffith and Jackson. From "THE LOST CAUSE"
published some years ago in Louisville, Ky., I clip the following:

(SO Mississippi Historical Society.

The capture of Holly Springs by Dr. J. G. Deupree, of the
University of Mississippi, is an interesting story, by a survivor
of the famous column of cavalry that rode into Holly Springs
before daybreak on a cold December morning, nearly fifty years
ago.

The narrative opens by describing the military situation as
it was about the middle of December, 1863. Grant's main army
was near Oxford, and his outposts at Coffeeville ; and Pember-
ton was south of the Yalobusha with front and flanks covered
by Van Dorn's cavalry, about 2,500 troopers. The story tells
how Van Dorn with his cavalry moved east from Grenada on the
night of December 17th, ostensibly to destroy or to capture the
Federal Colonel Dickey with his 1,000 raiders, operating on the
M. & O. railroad above and below Tupelo ; how Van Dorn, when
about to encounter Dickey, so maneuvered as to pass through Pon-
totoc in the direction of New Albany and allow Dickey to follow
him if he chose, or else simply to note his direction and go and re-
port to Grant at Oxford that he had seen Van Dorn at the head
of his cavalry moving north and apparently bent on going into
Tennessee to join Forrest at Bolivar or Jackson. As the story
goes, Dickey chose the latter course. The narrative brings out
clearly the skillful tactics of Van Dorn in keeping the enemy al-
ways behind him and never giving him an opportunity to ob-
struct his march or to send to any Federal garrison warning of
Van Dorn's approach. It shows, too, how Van Dorn kept the
enemy deceived as to his objective, as long as possible, and then
moved so rapidly that hostile pickets or scouts could not report
his coming far enough in advance to be of any service.

After telling of many amusing incidents on the march, and
how on the night of December the 19th Van Dorn's troopers
halted at 10 o'clock within five miles of Holly Springs, dis-
mounted, and in grim silence and without fires, stood holding
their horses, ready to mount at a moment's notice, the story con-
tinues, as follows:

"Before daylight an order was quietly passed along the col-
umn to mount and form fours in the road. It chanced to be the
day for the First Mississippi to lead McCulloch's brigade. Lieu-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 61

tenant S. B. Day cormmanded the advance-guard of twenty men,
and the front four were Groves Dantzler, Bob White, W. Drewry
Deupree, and J. G. Deupree. Orders were given to move for-
ward on two roads at a gallop, to capture the pickets or follow
them so closely that no alarm could precede us. The wisdom
of the order was appreciated by all, and it was obeyed with alac-
rity. The First Mississippi were to enter Holly Springs from
the northeast, charge through the infantry camp without halting
to fight or to receive any surrenders, but to attack the cavalry as
soon as discovered. The Second Missouri were to dismount at
the edge of town, charge on foot and capture or disperse any
infantry encountered. Ross' Texans were to approach from the
east, coming in by the railroad station, and thus prevent any re-
inforcements from surprising us in that direction ; also, a detach-
ment of Texans was to go south and watch the Abbeville road.
Jackson's Tennesseeans were to approach from the north, pre-
venting possible reinforcements from Bolivar, as well as watch-
ing the road coming in from Memphis on the west.

As we neared the town, we increased our speed. Pinson's reg-
iment rode through in a sweeping gallop, ignoring the infantry,
though many of them, awakened and startled .by the charge, ran
out of their tents in night-attire and fired into our column,
wounding nearly every horse in the advance-guard and some of
the men. As we approached the Fair Ground, where we ex-
pected to find the Federal cavalry, the gallant men of the Second
Illinois, under Col. Neill and Maj. Mudd, were in line answer-
ing to roll-call, prepared to go and look for Van Dom, as they
had heard he was coming. Brave and courageous as they were,
they boldly charged upon us with drawn sabres. I shall not un-
dertake to describe all that occurred in the melee, but simply
shall mention some things that came under my own observation.
Little Jere Beasley, a lad of fifteen summers, was just about to
be cut down by a stalwart Federal, when Lieutenant Day shot
the bold rider as with uplifted arm he was about to let fall the
fatal stroke. Our Major Wheeler had his thumb cut oflF in a
sabre duel with a Federal officer. Adjutant Lawrence Yates,
was seriously cut in the forehead, and the blood gushing from

62 Mississippi Historical Society.

the long wound ran down his face and neck. My horse had been
shot twice as we came through the infantry camp, and here he
received the third and fatal bullet and fell lifeless to the ground.
I simply made breastworks of the dead animal until I could catcli
the horse of the Federal with whom I had been personally en-
gaged, and who had been shot by some Confederate. Then,
mounting the captui"ed horse, I was soon with the regiment chas-
ing the routed enemy. Pistols in the hands of Mississippians
had proved superior to sabres wielded by the hardy sons of Illi-
nois. Many thrilling deeds done by Federals and Confederates
on that day will remain forever unknown. But it may be said
that the First Mississippi in the Second Illinois met foemen
worthy of their steel, for as great nerve was required to make
as to receive that charge. Few of our men were killed, though
many were more or less seriously wounded. As victors, we ar-
ranged to have the wounded all well cared for and to send our
disabled men south by a detour eastward."

Next, this valuable paper gives interesting details of the entry
of the other Confederate commands, of the surrender of the Fed-
eral infantry, of the destruction of the vast stores of every kind,
which had been accumulated here for Grant's army, as well as
of the excitement and confusion incident to the occasion. The
scene was described as "wild and exciting, Federals running.
Confederates yelling and pursuing, tents and houses burning,
torches flaming, guns popping, sabres clanking, negroes and ab-
olitionists begging for mercy, women in dreaming-robes clapping
their hands with joy and shouting encouragement to the raid-
ers,— a mass of excited, frantic, human beings, presenting in
the early morning hours a picture which words cannot portray".

Most of the storehouses around the public square were full
of food, clothing, and medical supplies. A large livery stable
had been converted into an immense arsenal for storage of arms
and munitions. There were three long trains of cars standing
on the track, filled with supplies, ready to be sent south to Grant's
army. The sutlers and small dealers who follow an army were
all richly supplied, as if they expected to stay permanently in the
sunny South. The cotton speculators were in large force and

Tlie Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Dcupree. 63-

had many hundred bales stored wherever they could find room.
It was hard to realize that we were in actual possession of the
greatest booty captured by any Confederate force thus far dur-
ing the war. Everybody wanted to carry off something, but it
was difficult to make a selection. Whiskey, brandy, and wines
of the best quality, in original and unbroken packages, were
among the spoils ; and everybody so disposed could help himself ;.
and a great many were so disposed. A. S. Coleman, sutler of
the First Mississippi, had left his wagon in Grenada and donned
his fighting clothes for this raid. He was a sort of free lance,,
assuming special privileges. He searched some of the richest
depots and selected such articles as he thought would please the
boys. He soon "hove in sight" with a string of hats as long as
a plough-line wound about himself and horse. What appeared
to be the effigy of a. man, clothed in blue trowsers of large di-
mensions and cut in twain in the middle and footless, sat bolt-
upright on the pommel of his saddle. When the contents of the
effigy were displayed, there was more good liquor than there was
room for. Then, all were soon in fine trim to attack the com-
missary stores. As with the liquors, the boys likewise did materi-
ally reduce the visible supply of good edibles. People of all
classes, without regard to previous condition of mastery or ser-
vitude, were free to walk up and help themselves, which they
gladly did. Children, too, reveled in the pleasures of the occa-
sion, and grown people declared it was the grandest day Holly.
Springs had ever seen.

The work of destruction was begun in earnest in the after-
noon. When our men had supplied themselves with pistols, sa-
bres, and carbines, and all else they needed, the arsenal was fired,,
as well as the trains, and the storehouses. Town and coimtry
were enveloped in smoke, and long after we had gone reports of
explosives were heard. Van D'orn had so completely reaped the-
fruits of victory that his praise was on every tongue. Our men
rode out of town at night-fall, the most thoroughly equipped
body of cavalry the Confederacy had known, — all in high glee
and eager for adventures further north. On the road next morn-
ing after a brief rest, we looked like a Federal column, as thous-

64 Mississippi Historical Society.

ands of blue overcoats were utilized ou this bright frosty morn-
ing. We reached Davis' Mills, now Michigan City, early on the
31st of December, on Wolf River about twenty miles north of
Holly Springs. The Federal garrison here was small but well
protected by a fort, rifle-pits, and a barricaded mill-house. The
Confederates on foot assailed the position furiously, but un-
fortunately without artillery. The firing from across the nar-
row river was so galling, that our men on retiring slieltered
themselves for a time behind the mill-dam along the bank. We
suffered considerably in killed and wounded, for retreat to our
horses was perilously exposed, while the little garrison took ad-
vantage of their opportunity to the utmost. While we were ly-
ing in the ditch behind the mill-dam, a hat held up on a stick
would instantly receive several bullet-holes. A member of Com-
pany F had his new Holly Springs hat ruined by a minie-ball,
passing through it and on through his hair, slightly wounding
his skull.

After the affair at Davis' Mill, we withdrew to the Lane Farm
and rested part of the night, and our horses had a bountiful
feed. What was to be done must be done quickly. According
to orders, we mounted and moved off in a gallop. My Yankee
horse seemed to know instinctively just what to do at all times
and under all circumstances. At every halt he would lie down
like a tired dog, but was all full of life and animation when the
column moved. Across Wolf River at Moscow in the early
morning, we took the road towards Somerville, Tenn. It was
rumored we were to repeat the Holly Springs business at Boli-
var. All hopes ran high. We were ready to lead a surprise
party or an assault. But we moved on to Danceyville, and that
did not look like going to Bolivar. But after a short halt to feed
horses, we countermarched and felt sure we were on the way to
Bolivar.

We had traveled over much of Fayette and Hardeman coun-
ties in Tennessee, when we bivouacked on Oear Creek early in
the night of December 23d. The rank and file confident that
next morning we would go into Bolivar, only a few miles away,
and there spend a jolly Christmas. But this was not to be. Our

Tlie Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 65

scouts and spies reported that the Federals were in great force
there, strongly fortified, and ready to give us a warm reception.
They had evidently heard from Holly Springs. Van Dorn drew
off to Middleburg, seven miles southwest from Bolivar, where a
small garrison was protected by a large brick church, with hall
above through the walls of which they had made portholes.
Here, again, we needed one or two pieces of artillery. The Fed-
erals stood bravely and rejected every invitation to surrender.
It was a detachment of the Twelfth Michigan Infantry, which
the citizens represented as the most devilish lot that ever came
south. Here we saw the prettiest line of battle we had ever seen
up to this time. It was Col. Sul Ross leading his Sixth Texas
dismounted, with a firing line of skirmishers several rods in ad-
vance. As we sat upon our horses in reserve, some distance in
the rear, we could not but admire this fine body of young Texans.
Sul Ross had been a gallant Indian fighter, became a I Confeder-
ate Brigadier-general, and after the war was an incorruptible
statesman, governor of Texas, and conceded to be the most poi>-
ular man in the Lone Star State.

Finding it impossible to get the Michiganders out of the
church. Van Dorn drew off without molestation, for the garri-
son was doubtless glad to see us go. Now Grierson and Hatch
with two thousand cavalry and mounted infantry were at our
heels and threatening to crowd us. Van Dorn turned eastward
and later southward, passing through Ripley, New Albany, and
Pontotoc, keeping up constant battle for some time with his cau-
tious pursuers, and at the same time beating off Mizener and
others that attempted to intercept him. We reached Grenada
after an absence of thirteen days, during most of the time fight-
ing by day and riding by night. Horses and men were exhausted
and enjoyed rest once more. Before going on this raid, the First
Mississippi was taken from Jackson's brigade and given to Bob
McCullough's. General Jackson now took occasion to express
his regret at losing the regiment and his gratitude and admira-
tion "for their cheerful attention to every military duty, their
hearty cooperation at all times, and their cool and determined
courage in every engagement while under his command."
5

66 Mississippi Historical Society.

THOMPSON S STATION.

In January, further reorganization of the cavalry was effected.
The First, the Fourth, and the Twenty Eighth Mississippi were
thrown together into a brigade to be commanded by Brigadier-
General G. B. Cosby. Late in February, Van Dorn began his
march into Middle Tennessee. Forrest's brigade, already at
Columbia, was to become a part of Van Dorn's corps. Whit-
field and Armstrong preceded Cosby on the march. Forrest in-
formed Van Dorn that a reconnaissance was expected to be made
by the enemy at Franklin, Tennessee, because early in March
Rosecrans had become desirous of more definite information as
to the positions and intentions of the Confederates. On March
4th, Van Dorn concentrated the brigades of Forrest, Whitfield
and Armstrong, south of Thompson's Station, on the pike on
which the Federals were advancing. Cosby was stiir beyond the
swollen Duck River, coming as rapidly as he could. General Jack-
son, commanding the division composed of Whitfield's and Arm-
strong's brigades, had been facing the Federals. Seeing their
column of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, stretched along the
pike for miles, he had concluded that they were too numerous for
him to attack without additional support. He, therefore, retired
a short distance. Col. Coburn with nearly three thousand infan-
try and cavalry, in addition to the Eighteenth Ohio Battery, fol-
lowed him closely. As night fell. Federals and Confederates
bivouacked almost in sight of each other, the Federals about
Thompson's Station and the Confederates not far south. "Dur-
ing the night", says Van Dorn, "my scouts reported the enemy to
consist of a brigade of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, and a
battery of artillery". The Union commander. Colonel Coburn,
was not pleased with the outlook. In his imagination. Van
Dorn's force grew to exceed fifteen thousand, and he did not
know whether to fight or run. Spring Hill seemed more remote
than when he set out from Franklin by order of Brigadier-Gen-
eral James A. Garfield to go thither and ascertain the positions
and numbers of the Confederates. Greatly perplexed, he sent a
message disclosing the situation, as it appeared to him, and

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. «7

asked, "What shall I do?" Getting no answer, early on March
5th he sent back to Franklin eighty wagons of surplus baggage,
resolved to obey Garfield's order and proceed to Spring Hill de-
spite opposition.

By daylight, Van Dorn was in the saddle and his forces in line
of battle awaiting the approach of the enemy. Armstrong's and
Whitfield's brigades, on foot, occupied a ridge crossing the pike
at right angles, Armstrong west of the pike and Whitfield east.
Deliberately and with grim determination, Coburn's brigade
came on, but slowly, so slowly in fact, that the engagement did
not begin till after 10 o'clock. The Thirty-third and Eighty-fifth
Indiana regiments, with two rified cannon, forming the right of
Coburn's line west of the pike, and the Twenty-second Wisconsin
and the Nineteenth Michigan, his left wing, east of the pike.
Still further to his left, in a dense cedar thicket, on a consider-
able knoll, were several companies of dismounted cavalry, and
just behind them, screened by the knoll, mounted and in line
stood the remainder of Jordan's regiment of Federal cavalry. On
our extreme right, to watch these cavalry was Forrest's brigade.
The One Hundred-twenty-fourth Ohio was in reserve with the
Federal train. As the Federal cavalry made a demonstration on
our right, the Indianians charged Armstrong on our left, while
the artillery of both sides thundered incessantly. King's battery
was a little to the right of the pike and Freeman's with Forrest.
A lively fusilade of rifle-fire arose, when the Federals in gallant
style charged King's battery, supported as it was by the Texans
behind a stone fence. When the enemy had gotten within two
hundred yards, the Texans fired a volley, leaped over the stone
fence and counter-charged, driving back the Federals more rapid-
ly than they had advanced. Meantime, the Fourth Tennessee un-
der Colonel Starnes had driven the dismounted Federal cavalry
from the knoll, and Forrest had pushed forward Freeman's bat-
tery and so posted it as to enfilade the Federal infantry and also
to sweep their artillery and drive it fromi the field, just as their
cavalry had been dispersed. After a brief interval, Coburn, be-
ing reinforced, compelled Armstrong and Whitfield to withdraw
to their original positions. Van Dorn, learning that Sheridan

68 Mississippi Historical Society.

was rushing additional reinforcements to Coburn, ordered a re-
newal of the charge by Whitfield and Armstrong. A fierce en-
counter at close quarters ensued, in which both sides suffered
heavily. Forrest began to close down on the left and rear of the
enemy, with a view to cutting off their escape north or east, caus-
ing the Twenty-second Wisconsin to break into a stampede. Cos-
by's brigade was crossing Duck River, the men of the First Mis-
sissippi and of the Twenty-eighth coming over in a ferry-boat,
their horses being forced to swim the swollen stream. In obedi-
ence to an order from Van Dorn, we rode at full speed to gain
our extreme left, and then wheeled into line so as to close avenues
of escape west or northwest. Here we did but little fighting and
lost only three men. Coburn, perceiving the disaster occasioned
by Forrest's movements, withdrew slowly and with fixed bayon-
ets in order to receive Forrest. Then, when Forrest had ap-
proached within twenty feet and his men were drawing their pis-
tols from holsters, Coburn, realizing that his last avenue of es-
cape was hopelessly closed against him by the Mississippians, and
that further resistance would be futile, raised the white flag and
surrendered. Thus closed this spirited battle. We captured
more than 1500 officers and men, unwounded, while our loss was
less than 350, mostly in Whitfield's and Armstrong's brigades.

In the late afternoon, after burying their dead, the Federal
prisoners were escorted to the rear by Col. James Gordon's regi-
ment. We of the first Mississippi held the battlefield and made
the wounded of both armies comfortable by building for them
great fires of cedar rails and keeping them replenished with am-
ple fuel during the night.

GRANGER OUTWITTED.

Next day we were ordered back to our cantonments near
Spring Hill, in a beautiful grove of sugar maples, such as few of
us had ever seen before. By tapping the trees, drawing and boil-
ing the sap, most delicious maple syrup was obtained, which
greatly improved our breakfast menu of wheaten cakes and but-
ter, so abundant in this garden-spot of Middle Tennessee. But
the Federals had determined to keep us busy. On the 8th, Gen-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree.

69

eral Granger, with a column of 10,000 infantry and half as many
cavalry and artillery, moved out from Franklin and down the
Columbia pike. Heavy skirmishes resulted, but the Confederates,
largely outnumbered, retired slowly and deliberately. For sev-
eral days, heavy rains had fallen, greatly swelling Duck River
and its tributaries. Behind Rutherford Creek, Van Dorn or-
dered us to make a stand, in order to gain time to send his trains
across Duck River, hoping for an opportunity to repeat on
Granger the tactics he had used against Coburn. But as Ruther-
ford Creek and Duck River continued to rise, Van Dorn decided
it would be imprudent to risk battle between those streams
against a force so far superior to his own. If beaten, he would
probably lose the greater part of his command and leave Colum-
bia exposed. He, therefore, determined to ride up the river to
a bridge twenty miles away and return down the river by a forced
march and cover Columbia again, before Granger's men could
cross both streams, though to do this Van Dorn had forty miles
to ride and Granger's cavalry only four. This bold and desperate
movement was successfully accomplished despite the fact that
his vigilant enemy was aware of Van Dorn's perilous position and
was pressing his right vigorously in order to force him into the
fork of the river and the creek. So soon as they discovered that
Van Dorn had outwitted them and extricated his cavalry and
had reached Columbia before they could make preparation to
cross Duck River, they retired. They evidently feared lest long-
er absence from Franklin would tempt their resourceful and fear-
less foe to ride around them and by a rapid march get into Frank-
lin behind them. Then, Van Dorn at once resumed his position
near Spring Hill.

Just here I shall quote a pertinent letter written soon after
these events and published in the Macon Beacon of April 1st,
1863 :

"Camp Pork and Biscuits,

March 15th, 1862. Not far from Spring Hill, Tenn,
"Dear Pa :—

I wrote you last from near Spring Hill, directly after the battle
of Thompson Station. I was mistaken in the estimate I made of
the prisoners taken. The number did not exceed 1500, exclusive

70 Mississippi Historical Society.

of the wounded that fell into our hands. But my estimates of
the killed and wounded on either side may be regarded as very
nearly correct. Several days afterwards, the Federals again ad-
vanced from Franklin with an overwhelming force of twenty
regiments of infantry and five of cavalry. On the 9th, Van
Dorn with his whole cavalry force retreated in good order and
took up a new line of defence behind Rutherford Creek, swollen
by excessive rains so as to become impassable at the ordinary
fords. It was Van Dorn's intention to hold the enemy in check,
until a bridge of boats could be constructed across Duck River
for the transportation of his artillery and wagon trains. On the
10th, the heavy rain began to fall and continued incessantly dur-
ing the night to descend in torrents upon our soldiers drenched
to the skin and shivering with cold, as they crowded around
their feeble fires. Our company and Captain Chandler's, having
been detailed as sharp-shooters, had taken position on the banks
of the Rutherford in two little stockade-forts, built last summer
by the Federals. It was in one of these that little Jere Beasley
came to his untimely and melancholy end by the accidental dis-
charge of a pistol in the hands of his dear comrade. The ball
entered Jere's head immediately behind his left ear and passed
through, coming out two inches behind the right ear. Contrary
to all expectations, Jere survived three days and was buried in
Rose Hill cemetery, in Columbia, on yesterday. Lieutenant T.
J. Deupree had a neat stone properly engraved and placed over
the spot to mark it permanently. The death of no one else could
have caused such deep grief in the company. "Jerry," as he
was familiarly called, was dearly beloved by all who knew him.

"On the evening of the lOth, the Federals were in consider-
able force in our front on the opposite bank of the creek. By
night the Duck River had so risen and the current had become so
strong, that all hopes of successfully constructing the bridge had
vanished. Our condition began to grow critical. Prospects were
gloomy. Hemmed in by a force double our own in front and
with no means save a single small and frail ferry for crossing
the turbid river in our rear, we expected nothing on the morrow
but a desperate and bloody engagement or a melancholy and un-
conditional surrender. But when the morning sun arose beauti-
ful and clear for the first time in many days, our hopes revived
and general confidence in our officers was restored. The wagons
had been conveyed across the river during the night, and only
the four pieces of artillery and the caissons awaited transporta-
tion. These were speedily carried across. The Federals began
early to reconnoiter our position and to shell our camp from ad-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 71

jacent hills. They doubtless thought from the numerous fires,
which we had kindled by Van Dorn's order, as well as from the
excessive yelling that prevailed, that we had received heavy rein-
forcements. After detailing Colonel Woodward's Kentucky regi-
ment to cover the retreat, Van Dorn by skillful maneuvering suc-
ceeded in drawing oft" his forces and proceeded up the river some
twenty miles and crossed on a bridge near White's Mills. The
enemy did not learn of the withdrawal till about night. They be-
lieved that we intended to get in their rear again, and began a
hasty retreat to Franklin, whence they came. We reached our
present camp yesterday. Duck River has fallen so as again to
be almost fordable. Our lines now extend beyond Spring Hill.
Horses generally need shoeing, and many are now unfit for ser-
vice on account of lameness caused by traveling over those rocky
roads and pikes.

"We believe that God has been with us and pray that He will
still bless and protect us. Especially, we pray for peace and na-
tional prosperity. Love to all,

Affectionately,

John."

The pontoon bridge at Columbia was rapidly reconstructed,
and the cavalry of Van Dorn had advanced beyond Spring Hill
by March 15th.

THE DASH INTO FRANKLIN.

Cosby's and Whitfield's brigades, now of Jackson's division, on
the Columbia pike were keeping up continuous skirmishing with
the Federal outposts, while Armstrong's and Starnes' brigades of
Forrest's division did likewise on the Lewisburg pike. On the
28th, Forrest assailed Brentwood and captured the garrison of
about 780 men, with their arms, munitions, and baggage. Then
the usual routine of outpost service continued without note-
worthy incident till about April 9th, when General Jackson,
commanding the advance, was led to believe that Granger was
evacuating Franklin. With a view to a reconnaissance and to
creating a diversion in favor of Bragg's army in front of Tulla-
homa. Van Dorn moved early on the morning of April lOth to
attack Franklin. Unluckily, as the sequel proved, he was twenty-
four hours too late, for Granger had received reinforcements,

72 Mississippi Historical Society.

including Stanley's strong brigade of cavalry which was des-
tined to save Granger from overwhelming disaster. Jackson's
cavalry, with the First Mississippi in advance, under the imme-
diate eye of Van Dorn, rode at full speed on the Columbia pike,
running over the opposing cavalry and right up against the brist-
ling bayonets of the Fourth Ohio Infantry, strongly posted as a
reserve. Within less than five minutes, the Noxubee Squadron
had lost a dozen horses, and some men wounded. By this time,
the regiment had wheeled into line. Colonel Pinson ordered us
to draw pistols and charge the Ohioans. With a wild yell, we
rode at full speed, leaping the ditch and forcing the enemy to
seek shelter within the fort. To our left, the Twenty-eighth Mis-
sissippi with drawn sabres swept into the town, winning plaudits
from Van Dorn, while Jackson complimented the First Mississ-
ippi. Armstrong's brigade on the Lewisburg pike, under the eye of
Forrest, had likewise driven the enemy within their fortifications
in the edge of town. All were now preparing for a final assault.
Whitfield's brigade on the Columbia pike and Starnes' brigade
on the Lewisburg pike were approaching. But about this time
Armstrong's attack suddenly ceased, for something untoward
had occurred two miles rearward of his position. In disregard
of orders, Stanley's cavalry including the Fourth Regulars had
withdrawn from their position and had ridden westward, intend-
ing to strike Armstrong's rear at Hughes' mill, and was moving
rapidly towards the Lewisburg pike, along which Starnes was
marching in column and in fancied security towards Franklin
to join in Armstrong's assault. Unexpectedly, Stanley's men col-
lided with Starnes' column.

At the mill, the road leading to the Lewisburg pike forked.
By one fork it was a mile to the pike, and by the other it was a
mile and a half. On the shorter roid, Stanley dispatched three
regiments, and on the longer two with the Fourth Regulars lead-
ing. The Regulars arrived within a hundred yards of the pike,
before their presence was discovered. Captain Freeman prompt-
ly put his four cannon in position ; but before he could fire, the
Regulars were upon him, driving off the few cavalry that had
gathered to support the battery, and capturing Captain Freeman,

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 73

his guns, and 36 of his men. Starnes at once retrieved the error,
of not guarding his flanks, by leading a furious assault against
the Regulars, driving them off, and recapturing Freeman's bat-
tery. The Regulars hurried off with their prisoners, shooting
down Captain Freeman and others unable to run as rapidly as
the Regulars wished to retreat before Starnes. This retreat of
Stanley ended the fighting, — but he had saved Granger.

Here I beg to quote the following pertinent letter, copied from.
the Macon Beacon of April 29th, 1863:

"In camp, near Spring Hill, Tenn., April 11, 1863.
"Dear Pa:—

Thinking you will doubtless hear of the terrible battle in which
Cosby's brigade was engaged yesterday, knowing you will be
uneasy until you hear definitely of casualties in our regiment, I
write at once ; and to dissipate your uneasiness, I state at the out-
set that no one was seriously hurt in the Noxubee Squadron.

"About 10 o'clock yesterday morning, our brigade being in
advance and supplied with two days' rations and forty rounds of
ammunition, began its march towards Franklin, to make a re-
connaissance in force in order to determine whether the enemy
were evacuating their works or not on Harpeth River, as scouts
reported they were doing. Our regiment was in front and was
ordered to drive in the Federal pickets and outposts. Within
two miles of Franklin, we discovered a small force of hostile cav-
alry strongly posted on Winston Hill. We advanced on them
in a gallop; they fled precipitately, without firing or being fired
on. We pursued closely till within a half-mile of Franklin. Here
they rallied, supported by two or more companies of infantry,
and thus checked for the time our further advance in that direc-
tion. At this point, one man was killed in Taylor's company and
one wounded in Cravens'. Colonel Pinson, seeing the strength of
their position and not being able to learn their exact number,
concealed as they were behind the brow of the hill, immediately
dispatched a courier to state the facts to the general and ask for
reinforcements. Orders came to move to the right and, if pos-
sible, to turn the enemy's flank and thus dislodge him. We had
gone about one-fourth of a mile east of the pike, when we were
thrown into line to receive the charge of a party of Federal cav-
alry. But as soon as we began to move towards them, they
'turned tail' and moved off rapidly. At this time, General Van
Dorn, attended by his own and General Jackson's escort, ap-
peared on the field.

74 Mississippi Historical Society.

Our regiment was now divided: the major part under Major
Wheeler, moving further east, being dismounted and posted in
the woods, was briefly engaged, but without loss, as each man
was protected bj' a tree or stump ; the remainder of the regiment,
i. e., companies A, D, I, and G, led by Colonel Pinson in person,
charged across an open field, 400 yards wide, for the purpose of
routing the enemy, supposed to be in small force on the opposite
edge of the field. These Federals, concealed by a slight elevation
of ground, waited till we were within 100 yards and then arose,
about 500 strong, and poured a galling fire into our ranks, doing
dreadful execution, as regards horses. We halted and calmly
stood the fire, though unable to return it as our guns had pre-
viously been discharged. We then retired with deliberation for
about 100 yards, when we halted and prepared to make another
charge upon the enemy. Though we charged desperately, the
result was as before. Pinson dispatched to Van Dorn, that it was
impossible, when so outnumbered, to dislodge the enemy; and
this is the reply he received, which I know to be true, for Latt
was the bearer of the message : "Hold your position as long as
possible ; you shall be reinforced". In order to hold his position,
Pinson again charged but with like result. As we began the
third charge, my horse was rapidly growing weaker from loss of
blood flowing freely from a wound received in the first charge,
and I was ordered by Cousin JefT in command of the company to
fall out of ranks and go to the rear. This order I obeyed with
alacrity. I was immediately joined by Cousin Latt and several
others with wounded horses. Soon Starkes' regiment, com-
manded by Major Jones, came up in gallant style to the support
of Pinson, forming on our left. Then Ballentine formed left of
the pike. A charge was immediately made, and the Federals
were routed and driven into town. Major Jones and Colonel
Ballentine followed them closely through the streets and, like
Pinson's men, punished them severely. The Federals, howver,
under cover of their artillery, succeeded in crossing Harpeth Riv-
er. After collecting a considerable amount of valuable spoils, and
being shelled by the Federal batteries, we rode out of Franklin.
Had not many of the Federal infantry taken refuge in the court-
house and other brick buildings and kept up therefrom such a
continuous fire, many prisoners might have been brought oflF
with us. We remained in the vicinity of Franklin, keeping the
enemy beyond the Harpeth, till late in the day, when we with-
drew into camp.

"Bill Jackson, of Co. G, was slightly wounded in the chin ;
Montague's, Holberg's, Billy Pagan's and John Hudson's horses

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Dcupree. 75

were killed; Latt's and mine so badly wounded, that they were
condemned ; Tom Brooks's horse was slightly wounded ; Lieuten-
ants Deupree, Day, and Foote led the company bravely in every
charge, the two last untouched, and the former struck by a minie
ball on the shin bone below the knee and receiving thus a black
and sorely bruised spot that lingered many days, though no bone
was broken and no blood was shed. Company F had J. J. Hunter
painfully wounded in the foot, and suffered some in horse-flesh.
Company A lost one man killed, and had two wounded by a
grape-shot, and lost in horses about as we did. Company E had
one man killed. Company C lost one man killed and had four
wounded. Companies D and I, each, lost four men wounded ;
but their loss in horses did not equal ours. Companies E and C
suffered some loss in horses, I do not know how much.

"Starkes' regiment lost eleven men killed and forty-two
wounded. Ballentine's loss was slight.

"I am grateful to God for His preserving care in answer to
the prayers of loved ones at home.

Aflfectionately, your son,

John."

the assassination of van dorn.

It was now dark and our cavalry withdrew to Spring Hill. Not
long afterwards, Forrest was sent in pursuit of Streight who
was bent on destroying the Confederate munition-plant at Rome,
Ga. Van Dorn and his staff occupied the house of Dr. Peters, a
prominent citizen of Spring Hill, while his body-guard
bivouacked not far away. Being alert, fearless, and skillful,
Van Dorn gave the enemy great cause for vigilance and anx-
iety, and some of them would not have scrupled to employ any
means, however reprehensible, to get rid of him. On May 7th,
General Van Dorn sat at his desk in conference with a member
of his staff in his office on the second floor. Dr. Peters, with
evil intent, though pretending the greatest friendliness, entered
the room and requested a passport to go into Nashville through
the Confederate lines. The staff-officer withdrew, as Van Etorn
turned to his desk to write the passport. Then, just as Van Doin
had finished the signature, D^. Peters, standing at his back, fired
the fatal bullet through his head, seized the passport, walked
quietly out of the room and down stairs through the hall,

76 Mississippi Historical Society.

mounted his horse at the gate, and rode rapidly across the fields to
the Federal lines before the alarm could spread and troopers be
sent in pursuit. But soon all was excitement and confusion, for
thousands of desperate horsemen were prepared to chase the fu-
gitive, but too late! Had they caught him, he would have been
instantly torn to pieces. He remained under Federal protection
till the war ended. It was rumored that he went directly to Nash-
ville and received his reward. It is a fact, at any rate, that after
the war he soon recovered his plantation on the Mississippi and
held it till his death. Unfortunately for us, thus passed away the
brilliant Van Dorn, hero of more than a score of battles and just
on the verge, as we believed, of entering on the greatest enter-
prise he had ever conceived, to wit, the invasion of Ohio with
his invincible corps of cavalry. General Joseph E. Johnston tele-
graphed to Adjutant S. Cooper at Richmond, Va., "I have just
received the painful intelligence of the death of the distinguished
Major-General Earl Van Dorn, which occurred this morning at
Spring Hill." General W. H. Jackson issued General Order No.
3, from which I quote these words, which so fittingly depict Van
Dorn's character: "Upon the battlefield, he was, indeed, the very
personification of courage and chivalry. No knight of the olden
time ever advanced to the contest more eagerly; and, after the
fury of the struggle was over, none was ever more generous and
humane to the suflferers than he. As a commanding officer, he
was warmly beloved and highly respected; as a gentleman, his
social qualities were of the rarest order; and for goodness of
heart he had no superior. His deeds have rendered his name
worthy to be enrolled beside the proudest in the Confederate
Capitol and will ever be fondly cherished in the hearts of his
command".

BACK TO MISSISSIPPI.

Brigadier-General W. H. Jackson was now the ranking officer
of the cavalry corps until Forrest, after capturing Streight, re^
turned to Spring Hill and assumed command on March 16th. A
few days later, General Jackson was ordered with his division of
Whitfield's and Cosby's brigades to return to his former field of

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 77

operations in Mississippi. Cosby's brigade now included King^s
battery, Pinson's First Mississippi, Starke's Twenty-eighth Mis-
sissippi, Gordon's Second Mississippi, and Ballentine's regiment,
mostly Tennesseeans but containing one Mississippi company,
commanded by Captain R. H. Taylor of Sardis, — a splendid com-
pany and admirably officered. After a long and monotonous
march, we reached Mechanicsburg the latter part of May, on the
right wing of the army which General Joseph E. Johnston was as-
sembling to relieve Vicksburg, after General Pemberton, in vio-
lation of orders, had allowed himself to be shut in. Captain Her-
rin's Squadron, which had been on detached duty near Poca-
hontas, to our gratification, rejoined the regiment; and we also
welcomed the return of Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomery, who in
consequence of ill-health, had been absent on furlough for several
weeks. Colonel Ross was now commanding Whitfield's brigade,
which at this time also included Jackson's old regiment, the Sev-
enth Tennessee, and also, perhaps Wirt Adams' regiment. We
were in constant touch with the enemy, and frequent skirmishes
along our picket lines resulted in small losses to either side. Per-
haps, the letter I find in Montgomery's Reminiscences, will more
clearly reveal the situation, as it was written in our camp here.
It is as follows :

"Camp near Mechanicsburg, June 28th, 1863.

"* * * A few days ago, two regiments from the command
were sent out on a scout, and had a pretty sharp fight with the
Yankees, killing 30 and capturing unwounded as many more;
our own loss being 20 killed and wounded. Howell Hinds, a free
fighter with Adams' regiment, was dangerously wounded. A few
days later, Genera! Cosby led us out again, but we saw no Yan-
kees. Colonel Pinson is out of camp, sick. I expect him back to-
day. * * * It is impossible to say where or when General
Johnston will move. No one knows but himself. * * * At
this camp we hear every cannon fired at Vicksburg; and for
days and nights the firing has been terrific. I hope Johnston
will move against the enemy in time to save the city. But his
plans are known only to himself. The other day, a lady asked
him some questions, to whom he replied, 'If my hat knew my
thoughts, I would burn it up'. He keeps his own counsel".

The Howell Hinds mentioned above was a son of General

78 Mississippi Historical Society.

Thomas Hinds, who won fame under General Andrew Jackson in
the War of 1812. Though badly wounded, Howell Hinds re-
covered, only to be killed in Greenville two years after the war,
while trying to separate two of his friends engaged in a pistol
duel."

Every day we anxiously awaited orders to advance, ever ready
to move at a moment's notice. But the fateful day found us still
in camp here and on that day Colonel Montgomery in a letter
wrote, as follows :

"Camp near Mechanicsburg, July 4th, 1868.
"* * * We are living pretty hard at present, some days
faring moderately well and on others badly. Nearly every day,
however, some of the boys bring me a pint or more of black-
berries, which are very plentiful now and which I enjoy very
much. Roasting ears are ripe, too, and we cannot starve, nor can
our horses. Time drags on. We have not yet attacked the en-
emy. But the attack may begin at any time, and I believe we
shall be able to whip the Yankees and relieve our gallant army in
Vicksburg, who have been shut up for so many weeks and ex-
posed to incessant storms of shot and shell. More than 50,000
shells have been thrown into the city, according to the best esti-
mates, and our army loses many killed and wounded by these
missiles every day ; among them, valuable officers. * * *
The signs are favorable. A New York paper a few days ago
advocated peace upon terms which would recognize our inde-
pendence, equitably divide the territories, and grant the border
States the privilege of choosing for themselves whether they will
remain in the Union or join the Confederacy. Nothing now but
some great victory, like the fall of Vicksburg, can reanimate the
North. But even with the loss of Vicksburg no true Southerner
would despair. It would only prolong the war."

THE FALL OF VICKSBURG.

We know now that even while Colonel Montgomery was pen-
ciling this interesting letter to his wife, negotiations were in
progress between Grant and Pemberton, and the great victory
for the North and disaster for the South became an accomplished
fact, though several hours must pass before we could know it.

On July 4th, we broke camp and in the afternoon marched
down the west side of Big Black about twenty miles and

i

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 79

bivouacked near the river. Not far away pontoons had been laid,
and our infantry and artillery had received orders to begin cross-
ing the river by daylight on the 5th ; and, with our cavalry in ad-
vance, they were to assail Grant's right wing, with a view to giv-
ing Pemberton an opportunity to withdraw his army from Vicks-
burg. But, unfortunately for the South, this was not to be.

"Alas ! for the Southron, that struggle was o'er ;
Our banners were waving over Vicksburg no more ;
The Stripes of the Yankees were floating instead;
And the hopes of Mississippi were broken and dead."

More than half a century has passed since this sad surrender,
but I still feel that Pemberton chose the wrong day for capitula-
tion. Many pronounced him a traitor; if so, may God forgive
him ! But this victory fired the Northern heart with rejnewed de-
termination to redouble their efforts to subjugate us, and this de-
feat spoiled for us the joy of July 4th forever, for how can we
participate in its celebrating and thus apparently rejoice in the
surrender of Vicksburg? Pemberton must have known John-
ston's intention and should have held out a few days longer, at
all hazards.

Just before daylight on the 5th, a courier reported the sur-
render of Vicksburg, and we were ordered to cross Big Black.
Our wagons went towards Jackson, while we proceeded south
and struck the V. & M. railroad between Edwards and Bovina.
We began to destroy the track, removing and twisting the rails
and burning the crossties, as we retired slowly towards Jackson,
followed closely by the enemy in great numbers. We found
Jackson entrenched and defended by Johnston's army. We
passed through the city and went into camp east of the Pearl. We
rested here till Jackson was evacuated on the night of the 16th,
when we were ordered to fall behind the army and to cover its
retreat. We took position between Jackson and Brandon. One
day Pemberton rode through our camp to get to the railroad
and take a train for Richmond, Va. His downcast and sorrowful
countenance ecxcited commiseration. Reaching Richmond, he re-

60 Mississippi Historical Society.

signed his commission as Lieutenant-General, and we Iieard of
liim no more during the war. Afterwards, to his credit be it said,
he died poor and obscure, and thus he was relieved of the sus-
picion that he had been a traitor.

IN RANKIN.

The infantry and artillery moved on to Meridian. We re-
mained in Rankin County, inactive for sometime. One day, a
company of Federal infantry with several wagons had crossed the
Pearl and were plundering the citizens. Captain Herrin's squad-
ron was sent to intercept them. Within a few hours he returned
to camp with 60 prisoners and four wagons heavily loaded with
all sorts of plunder. He had surprised the Federals. In the
resulting fight, he had suffered no loss and but one Federal was
killed. A few days later, a terrific thunderstorm passed over our
camp and private High of the Pontotoc Dragoons was killed by
lightning. The following extract from a letter written by Colonel
Montgomery will give a good idea of the prevailing sentiment in
our command at the time :

"Near Brandon, August 4th, 1863.

"* * * The people from all parts of Mississippi are flee-
ing to Alabama and Georgia, and I don't know what is to be-
come of them all nor how they are to live. I am convinced some
effort ought to be made to save negro property by sending it off,
yet it is best for families in the present state of affairs to remain
at home, as they will lose less, besides saving themselves the an-
noyance and trouble inevitable from running away. Besides, the
best place they can run to may eventually prove unsafe. Mobile,
doubtless, will soon be invested and probably fall, if the war lasts
long. So may every stronghold ; but we will not be conquered,
nor will we ever be, while our armies are in the field and our peo-
ple are unsubdued.

"Never despair ; we shall yet have peace on terms honorable to
the South. News from Europe is by no means unfavorable. I
am satisfied, Mr. Yancey is correct, when he says that England
and France will intervene, whenever they think there is danger
of our being conquered. But while there is no danger of that,
there is danger that the war will yet last a long time, unless they
intervene, and this they will do before the war ends. Louis Na-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 81

poleon has brought his war with Mexico to a close, and so certain
as the sun rises and sets he will soon recognize our independence,
whether any other nation does or not.

"I believe a great battle will soon be fought in Virginia with
important results, for just now the North believes that, if Lee
can be whipped, the war will be practically over. * * * But,
even should Lee be defeated, and though Richmond be captured,
tens of thousands of Southern men will never lay down their
arms nor give up the struggle till they have wrested victory
from their enemies; and among that number, if life and health
be spared, I know, my dear wife, while you would mourn the
necessity, you would be proud to count me. For we are fighting
for all we hold dear on earth ; and eternal shame and dishonor
await those who may refuse to sacrifice all in defense of home
and liberty."

FAYETTE.

Of course all hope of foreign intervention in our behalf proved
to be but the "stuff dreams are made of". By 6 o'clock next
morning, we were ordered to Jackson. The Federals had with-
drawn, and we proceeded to Fayette. General Clark, who had
been desperately wounded, was living here, still unable to walk,
but still defiant. He had been exchanged; and later, incapable
of military service, he was made governor. After a brief stay in
Fayette, we moved eastward and then northward, passed through
Terry and encamped near Jackson for a few days. The object
of this scout, I suppose, was to encourage the people, for we had
not seen even one enemy.

LEXINGTON.

Next, our regiment was ordered to join Jackson's division at
Lexington. Here we participated in a grand review, in which the
division made a magnificent display. This, too, tended to cheer
the spirits of the people, who could not fail to observe that the
cavalry were again ready for active work and sanguine of ulti-
mate success. Horses and men were in excellent condition, well
prepared for fall and winter campaigns. Winter-Quarters were
not thought of. Even tents had long ago disappeared. But
under any and all sorts of weather conditions, wherever and
6

82 Mississippi Historical Society.

whenever even a temporary halt was made, the men had learned
to improvise adequate shelter. For convenience in procuring sub-
sistence from the country, brigades and regiments had been sep-
arated by intervals of miles, but all were so located as to watch
the enemy and to be within easy call of division headquarters, in
case it became necessary for them to be massed quickly and un-
expectedly. For some weeks we had little to do except to send
out pickets and scouting parties so as to keep in touch with any
hostile movements of the enemy along the Mississippi or the Ya-
zoo River, where they had considerable forces. The Sixth Texas
and the First Mississippi were thrown together. Colonel Sul Ross,
as senior to Colonel Pinson, being in command of the brigade ;
for General Cosby had been assigned to duty elsewhere, and we
never saw him again. He was a splendid officer, when sober;
and, when not, the adjutant-general would invariably let the
ranking colonel of the brigade know it. At any rate, we were
happy to be under Ross, one of the best cavalrymen in the ser-
vice, in whose subsequent promotion we all rejoiced. Also, I
will say incidentally, just here, that those of us who survived the
war and for a time lived in the Lone Star State, were especially
delighted when he was elected governor and were proud of his
splendid administration of that high office, as well as of the uni-
versal esteem and love which the people always manifested for
him.

RICHLAND.

One day at Richland, General Reuben Davis visited our camp
and made an able and very eloquent speech, which we all thor-
oughly enjoyed. He had seen service in the war with Mexico,
and at this time he was a candidate for governor against Gen-
eral Clark. Confederate soldiers were by law entitled to vote for
governor ; and, in exercising this privilege, we cast our ballots
overwhelmingly for General Charles Clark, who because of his
wounds could not make a canvass. Some years after the war,
General Davis published his "Reminiscences of a Long Life,"
which easily rivalled in merit and interest Baldwyn's "Flujh
Times in Alabama and Mississippi."

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Detipree. 83

The citizens of Richland and vicinity gave our brigade a great
barbecue. Long tables were filled with perfectly barbecued and
highly seasoned beef and mutton, roasting ears, sweet potatoes,
and many other good things too numerous to mention here. We
all eagerly showed our appreciation in the most direct and prac-
tical way. For once, at any rate, every man in the two regiments
had all he could eat and as much as he could carry away in his
haversack. Next day, the fair ladies of Richland presented a new
battleflag to the First Mississippi. The field was blue. The red
diagonals formed a cross bearing eleven white stars, for the elev-
en Confederate States, the largest star being at the intersection
of the diagonals in the centre of the flag. A bright yellow border
encircled the whole. A most beautiful young lady mounted on a
handsome horse made the presentation-speech in most charming
style, to which this scribe responded in the purest and tersest
English he could command. The flag was exceedingly beautiful
and the regiment in appropriate resolutions expressed their
thanks and appreciation. Soon it was to wave in face of the foe ;
and, ere the year closed, two brave boys had shed their precious
blood while bearing it to victory. It was our battle flag till the
end of the war.

THE TENNESSEE VALLEY.

In the last days of October, Ross with his own and Pinson's
regiment was ordered to the Tennessee Valley to retard the prog-
ress of Sherman on his march from Corinth to reinforce Grant
at Chattanooga. We rode across the country to Pontotoc. Leav-
ing our wagons there, we carried five days' cooked rations and
reached Pride's Station on the M. & C. railroad about ten miles
west of Tuscumbia, just ahead of Sherman's advance detach-
ment, which our scouts reported as coming on rapidly. About
six miles west of Tuscumbia, on a high and rocky and wooded
hill stood a country church. At the base of the hill ran the rail-
road, and a mile away towards Tuscumbia flowed a creek, fringed
with forest trees. At the church, Ross made his first stand. Late
in the afternoon, a company of Texans, deployed as pickets and
standing on a hill a mile in front of us, saw the advancing Fed-

84 Mississippi Historical Society.

erals as they moved steadily forward. Between the hills, the
country was open, and from our hill we could plainly see the
Texans holding their own against odds, until the ever-increasing
numbers of the enemy compelled our Texans to yield ground,
which they did slowly, deliberately, and in perfect order, with the
loss of many horses and a few men wounded, most of them but
slightly. The enemy's infantry and artillery seized the hill which
Ross's men had left, and with a rain of shells made our posi-
tion at the church quite uncomfortable, especially as we had no
artillery and our carbines could do them but little harm a mile
away. How we got off with so few casualties is among the
marvels of the war. It was late and the enemy did not follow
that night. Ross led his command across the creek, which
seemed a good line of defense. Though our strength was totally
inadequate, Ross determined to contest every foot of ground and
to delay Sherman as much as possible on his march towards
Chattanooga.

As soon as day dawned, rifle-firing began. Our pickets, a com-
pany of Texans and a company of Mississippians, were not eas-
ily driven. As they were well posted and well protected, the sun
was up more than twenty degrees, before they withdrew, as they
did in good order and with slight loss. Heavy lines of hostile
infantry and two batteries of artillery followed them closely.
When they came within range of our two regiments holding the
line of the creek, the firing became fast and furious. Here we
held our position firmly till a large flanking force was reported to
be moving south of us ; and then we retired, having lost a few
men killed and about forty wounded. As the enemy came for-
ward in close array through the open, while we were more or
less screened by the timber skirting the creek, their loss must have
greatly exceeded ours, especially as we were veterans and well
armed. We buried our dead near Tuscumbia and placed the
woimded in a hospital improvised for the occasion. But alas !
among the wounded was our youthful, gallant, and dearly be-
loved adjutant, William E. Beasley, whom Colonel Pinson sent
home to Macon, Miss., in care of Dr. Shelt Wellboume, a physi-
cian in the Noxubee Cavalry, in which Beasley still claimed

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 86

membership. Though he was seriously wounded in the leg, it
was believed he would be able to endure the long trip through
Alabama in an ambulance ; and so he did. But his wound had
not been thoroughly disinfected, nor had it been properly dressed
for several days before he arrived in Macon. Consequently, gan-
grene had set in, and amputation below the knee was impera-
tive. After a few days, gangrene again appeared, necessitating
a second amputation, this time above the knee. A day or two
passed, when suddenly a tie of the artery gave way and this
patient and heroic sufferer quickly bled to death. He was a mere
boy, under twenty years of age, as chaste and modest as a
maiden, yet as brave and fearless as Julius Caesar. His mem-
ory will be cherished and loved as long as a member of the First
Mississippi Cavalry survives. The noble spirits of his father and
younger brother, as previously recorded in this narrative, had
preceded him to the glory-land, their lives like his having been
sacrificed in the same holy cause. At this writing, a sister, Mrs.
Connie Beasley Owen, is the only survivor of the illustrious
Beasley family of Noxubee County.

This was our hardest struggle with Sherman's men. We fell
back, sometimes directly facing the enemy and sometimes hov-
ering on his flanks. Sherman evidently did not like our close
and persistent attention ; for, ere we reached Decatur, he crossed
the Tennessee and continued his march north of that river. We
then withdrew and camped a day or more at the biggest spring
I ever saw. A thousand horses could easily be watered there at
the same time. As we could render no further service in the
Tennessee Valley, we were again transferred to Mississippi. We
crossed the mountains, and the latter part of November we were
again in Pontotoc.

PONTOTOC.

Here, to our great gratification, we found our wagons, for we
had been without regular rations for weeks. However, if cav-
alry be given food for their horses, the men will contrive some-
how to live. We remained in Pontotoc several days. The peo-
ple all gladly contributed to our enjoyment. This was the home

86 Mississippi Historical Society.

of Colonel Pinson, and Pontotoc County was the home of two
of our best companies ; and all did their utmost to extend a
hearty welcome and entertainment to their comrades in the First
Mississippi and Sixth Texas. Of course, while here we saw lit-
tle of our beloved Colonel, for this was also the home of the
accomplished Miss Sina Duke, whom a few months later he led
as a bride to the altar. At this writing, she still survives and with
her sister lives in a handsome and commodious home in the city
of Memphis, honored and revered by all the survivors of the
thousands who knew and loved Col. R. A. Pinson.

MOSCOW.

From Pontotoc we were ordered to New Albany to report to
General S. D. Lee, who had assembled here other commands.
Under Lee, we marched north, striking the M. & C. railroad be-
tween Middleton and Saulsbury, in order to escort General For-
rest and his small force into West Tennessee, where Forrest was
to encourage the people and to gather recruits. As Forrest pro-
ceeded north, Lee moved west along the railroad, destroying it
as he went and making it useless to the enemy, while also divert-
ing attention from Forrest. Having passed La Grange and
gone around Moscow, which was strongly garrisoned, we struck
the railroad again several miles west of Moscow and tore up
the track, especially to prevent reinforcements from Memphis
coming to the aid of Moscow. Then with the view of assailing
Moscow, General Lee headed his column east and proceeded at
a rapid trot. Lieutenant S. B. Day, of the Noxubee Cavalry,
as daring an officer as the regiment could furnish, led the ad-
vance-guard of twenty men from the Noxubee Squadron, ten
from Company F and ten from Company G, including George
Alford, T. S. Brooks, J. G. Deupree, Chesley Jarnagin, Jake
Holberg, and others whose names cannot at this time be recalled.
We were about one-hundred yards in front of the regiment,
and Lieutenant Day had orders to charge whatever hostile force
he might encounter. From the top of a ridge which overlooked the
Wolf River bottom lying between us and Moscow, the country

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 87

was open, with the exception of a fringe of forest trees a hun-
dred yards wide, or less, immediately along the river's bank.
Wolf River was narrow and deep, with precipitous banks and
well-nigh impassable otherwise than by means of the bridge.
Lieutenant Day, on ascending the ridge and looking towards
Moscow, saw several hundred cavalry and some artillery that
had evidently just come across the bridge, and others following.
He promptly ordered and led the charge. Raising the rebel yell,
we followed Day at full speed. Intuitively taking in the situa-
tion, Colonel Pinson, with General Lee riding beside him, like-
wise led the regiment at full speed; and, fronting into line,
struck the enemy like a thunderbolt from the clear sky. For a
brief interval, we were exposed to a severe fire, especially those
of us in the advance-guard. The Federals used cannon as well
as carbines, one small piece being fired several times from the
"business-end" of a mule. But quicker than the story can be
told, we drove them into the river and many of them were
drowned. Some of them escaped across the bridge. Never was
victory more swift and complete. They lost not less than 175
in killed and wounded. Besides, we captured not less than 40
horses and unwounded men. Reinforcements from Moscow held
the bridge and prevented our crossing into town. However,
from our side of the river we poured into them from carbines
and pistols such a fusilade as to drive them to the fortifications.
We suffered severe losses. Lieutenant Miller, the promising
young son of our former Colonel, was killed while bearing the
regimental flag; after him, another brave boy was shot down,
as he raised it over his head ; but the third, who seized the falling
colors, bore them till the victory was achieved. Colonel Pinson
as always, was in the thickest of the fray, sitting erect on his
horse and cheering his men. Seeing one of his old company fir-
ing from behind a tree, he suggested that better sight and bet-
ter aim could be had, if he would step in front of the tree. The
soldier at once took the hint and stepped in front. As he did so,
he was wounded in the right arm, but he continued firing till the
fight ended.

Of our twenty with Sam Day, scarcely one escaped entirely,

88 Mississippi Historical Society.

every one being shot or having his horse shot under him, though
most of the wounds were slight. I remember some of the un-
fortunates now : J. Chesley Jarnagin, eldest and noble son of
the eminent lawyer and jurist, Hampton L. Jarnagin, of Macon,
was killed by a bullet through his brain. Jake Holberg, as brave
a trooper as ever drew sabre, was painfully wounded by a can-
non ball, which passed through the .shoulder of his horse and
then carried away his stirrup and his great toe. From excessive
pain Jake was impelled to exclaim, "Mein Gott! O mein Gott!"
At once I asked where he was hit. He continued to scream, "O
mein Gott ! mein Gott ! mein toe !" Alas ! his toe was gone for-
ever! and henceforth Jake was assuredly to be to a certain ex-
tent, no-to(e)-ri-ous. But he survived the war and lived a long
and useful life, always ready to help a Confederate veteran and
to serve his city and State to the best of his ability. Macon had
no better citizen. I wish I could name every hero who on that day
shed blood for his country. About 40 were killed in the First
Mississippi. The Sixth Texas got into the firing line just as the
fighting ceased.

SOUTH MISSISSIPPI.

This was the last fight on this raid. By December 22d, we
were again not far from Jackson, brigaded with the Twenty-
eighth Mississippi, Starke as Senior Colonel now being in com-
mand. The month of January, 1864, was bitterly cold, and we
did only as much as was absolutely necessary. We remained in
front of Jackson and the railroad was in operation to Meridian.
Early in February, Sherman began again to invade Mississippi.
General Leonidas Polk was in Meridian in command of the De-
partment, but his anny was .small. Jackson's cavalry could hope
only to delay and harass the march of Sherman's large and well-
equipped army, so that Polk might be adequately reinforced and
prepared to give battle between Jackson and Meridian. With
three regiments of cavalry and King's battery, we were well
posted on a hill ten miles northwest of Clinton, on or near the
plantation of General Joe Davis, when the Federals were seen
a mile or more away on another hill. Several regiments of in-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 89

fantry, with one or more batteries of artillery, preceded by a
heavy line of skirmishers, advanced steadily in battle-array, evi-
dently despising the smallness of our force. A little dog trotted
gaily along in front of them, as if they simply meant only to set
him on us in order to show their contempt for our cavalry. At
any rate, we felt it as an insult. By a few well-aimed shots, the
little dog was either killed or driven out of sight. But we could
never learn whether the dog was the "mascot" of some regiment
or merely a "scalawag" deserter from the loyal dogs of the State.
In the brief engagement that followed, few of us were hurt and
but one man killed, — a member of King's battery. What casu-
alties occurred among the Federals we never ascertained. Next
morning not far from Clinton, in a sharp skirmish without dis-
mounting, we inflicted considerable loss upon the enemy, while
we had only a few horses and men disabled. We made our next
stand in the breastworks at Jackson on the Clinton road near
the present home of Bishop Bratton. Holding this position, we
did considerable execution, before the enemy by a flank move-
ment on our left threatened our line of retreat. Then we hastily
mounted and rode rapidly till we had crossed the railroad into
Capitol street, and then somewhat less rapidly till we came to
West street. Here, as we turned north, we passed Judge Wil-
liam Yerger standing on the sidewalk that borders the Gover-
nor's Mansion. Many knew this famous lawyer and greeted
him affectionately. He returned most graciously the salutes;
and, as we passed on, he was still standing and gazing towards
the railroad station, while the Federals were approaching it in
great numbers. We rode on at a slower pace and bivouacked
north of the Insane Asylum. Next morning we crossed the
Pearl and followed a road leading east, parallel with the A. & V.
railroad and north of it, while Sherman's army was marching
along a similar road south of the A. & V. R. R. Our force was
too weak to make effective resistance, and we could only restrict
the sweep of devastation by compelling the Federals to march in
compact masses and keep their columns well closed up.

We reached Meridian on February 18th, and General Polk
had already crossed the Tombigbee into Alabama. It was a part

50 Mississippi Historical Society.

of Sherman's plan for Smith and Grierson's forces to converge
and join him in Meridian; but the ubiquitious Forrest had
thwarted this well-conceived strategy. While under orders to
go to Forrest's support, soon after passing through Macon we
learned of Forrest's brilliant victory over Smith and received
orders to go towards Jackson and harass Sherman on his retreat
to Vicksburg.

By March 1st, we had reached Sharon a few miles from Can-
ton. In a fight next day with a detachment from McPherson's
corps, in which we had a few horses killed and a few men
wounded more or less seriously, Colonel Montgomery had a nar-
row escape when his horse was shot and killed under him. On
this occasion, Dr. Montgomery, our brigade surgeon, thought it
would be fine sport and rode out to the firing line, but not liking
the music of the minies soon reached the conclusion that a doctor
would better be at his own business, dressing the wounds of
others than risking a wound himself. He had ridden only a
hundred yards towards the rear, when a Federal battery opened
fire and the first shot killed the doctor's new blooded horse, which
he valued very highly.

In the afternoon, the First Mississippi was ordered on a scout
near Canton. To avoid a large part of McPherson's corps, we
made a detour by a neighborhood road running west, which
would lead into the main road that ran nearly due south into
Canton. The Noxubee Squadron was in front with Lieutenant
Foote in command of the advance-guard, which included T. S.
Brooks, Nat Pierce, Dallas Pack, Henry Foote, and some others,
whose names I regret I cannot recall. Just before coming back
into the main Canton road, Lieutenant Foote detected the rear
of a Federal wagon train passing the intersection of the roads
and moving south, towards Canton. The infantry guard follow-
ing the train was fully a quarter of a mile behind it. As usual,
quick to take in the situation, Lieutenant Foote led a charge
against the wagons while the Noxubee Cavalry joined him.
We thus captured and brought off nine splendid six-
mule teams and as many wagons loaded with food and
forage enough for our brigade for many days. But as Capt.

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Dcupree. 91

Craven, at the head of the Noxubee Troopers, immediately fol-
lowing us, reached the forks of the road, the rear guard of Fed-
eral infantry was approaching at double-quick, determined to
save their wagons. Without the slightest hesitation. Craven led
a brilliant charge against the infantry, routing them completely
and bringing off about forty unwounded prisoners. Craven's
loss included a few horses shot and fewer men wounded, among
them J. J. Hunter, brother of Lieutenant Charley Hunter and
one of the bravest of the patriotic Hunter family. He carried
the scar of honor till death many years after peace had been de-
clared. As it was now night- fall and our proximity to McPher-
son's corps was too close to be comfortable, we withdrew, leav-
ing the Federal dead and wounded to the care of their own com-
rades.

Around our campfire that night, among other incidents re-
lated was an adventure by Lewis Perkins, one of the best sol-
diers of the Noxubee Cavalry. He had pursued a fleeing Fed-
eral trooper to the edge of the woods, when the latter suddenly
wheeled and began shooting at him with one of the army pistols
drawn from the holster on the pommel of his saddle. Perkins
reined up, drew his own navy-six and returned the fire till but
one ball remained in the cylinder. Then, while the Federal con-
tinued to fire, Perkins very deliberately took careful aim, know^
ing it was his last and only chance ; and, as he fired, his foeman
threw up his arm and fell to the ground, exclaiming, "You have
kilt me. Sir". Perkins found in his pockets money, jewelry, and
a lady's watch marked with her initials. Next day, guided by
an old citizen of the neighborhood, he found the lady, who told
him how rudely the German villain had robbed and insulted her
and how she had said to him, "I shall pray to God that you may
never live to enjoy what you have stolen". To this, he replied,
"I don't not fear dein Gott". Perkins then said to her, "Madam,
your prayer has been answered". He then handed her all her
jewelry and her watch. Of course, Perkins declined any com-
pensation ; but it may be added, that in answer to the prayers
of this good lady, Perkins survived the war and was permitted

92 Mississippi Historical Society.

to live many years as an honored and useful citizen of Noxubee
county.

Within a few days, Sherman's army withdrew into Vicksburg,
but we followed them closely, so as to circumscribe their depre-
dations within the narrowest limits possible. About March 10th,
we went into camp at Moore's Bluff on the Big Black, after hav-
ing been almost constantly in the saddle for more than thirty
days. Of course, we rejoiced to meet our wagons here. It is
needless to say wei spent a pleasant month, till men and horses
could be made ready for further service. Colonel Pinson was
furloughed that he might go to Pontotoc to marry the highly
accomplished Miss S. E. Duke. Early in April, Jackson's divi-
sion was ordered to Grenada and thence to Columbus to pre-
pare for a long march to Johnston's army in Georgia. Colonel
Pinson rejoined us ere we reached Columbus. About a day's
march from Grenada, that dashing cavalryman. General Frank
C. Armstrong met us and was assigned to the command of our
brigade, which he retained till the end of the war. From Colonel
Montgomery's "Reminiscences", I clip the following pertinent
letter :

"Woodburn, Va., August 16, 1900.
"Colonel Frank A. Montgomery,

Rosedale. MISSISSIPPI.
"My dear friend : —

Yours of the 13th received. I am here for a few weeks dur-
ing this very hot spell. I was very glad to hear again from you,
for I love to be in touch with my old comrades of the war. Yes ;
you are correct ; my first service with your gallant regiment was
our raid around Bolivar, Tenn. I assumed permanent command
of the Mississippi Brigade near Grenada, en route to Johnston's
army in Georgia, and retained command till the end of the war.
After the battle of Chickamaugua, I went with Longstreet to
E^st Tennessee, and by request of Forrest and Lee was trans-
ferred to Mississippi. When orders came to send Jackson's
division to Georgia, I expressed a desire for service in front of
Atlanta, and was assigned to the old brigade, each regiment of
which I had known well before. Though I gave up a larger
command and district, I never regretted it, as the honor and sat-
isfaction of commanding that glorious old Mississippi brigade,
the First, the Second, the Twenty-eighth, and Ballentine's regi-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 93

ment, with King's Missouri battery, was my pride. Always
ready, perfectly reliable, and under all circumstances and condi-
tions efficient, it was then, and has since ever been my pride to
be remembered as the commander of such patriotic and heroic
men.

In Georgia, and on Hood's advance into Tennessee, and on the
retreat from Nashville to the Tennessee River, they were always
nearest to the enemy and they never faltered. Often without
rations or forage, with nothing but their determination and hon-
orable sense of duty to sustain them, they stood their ground,
yielding only under orders. When we returned to Tupelo, you
will remember, with General Dick Taylor's consent I furloughed
the brigade, and I pledged myself that these regiments would
return at the appointed time better equipped and mounted than
they were when furloughed. They faithfully kept my pledge.
I can truly say that they were always loyal to their duty and to
the cause, and they never failed me in a single instance. My love
and respect for you all will only end when I am dead. Of the
dear old First Mississippi Cavalry, Colonel Dick Pinson, your-
self, as well as all the officers and privates, nothing is too com-
plimentary. My confidence never wavered with the old First
on the line. I hope to see some of these old friends of mine
again. I cannot close without expressing to you, my dear old
comrade, the great satisfaction you always gave me in the dis-
charge of duty, as you frequently commanded the regiment. I
was sometimes temporarily commanding the division, Pinson
the brigade, and you the old First. You both did your duty so
perfectly, that I always thought it a pity it could not be perma-
nently so. I send you a photograph taken a few months ago.
Would you know it?

Always, as heretofore, yours sincerely,
(signed)

Frank C. Armstrong."

through alabama.

We left Columbus, full of hope and confidence, and passed
through Tuscaloosa, Montevallo, Talladega, and Anniston, on
our way to Rome, Ga. The pellucid streams, the charming val-
leys, and the encircling mountains, as well as the hospitable citi-
zens of towns and country, all contributed to our comfort and
happiness. This region had not yet been ravaged by hostile
bands nor traversed by many Confederates. We naturally gave

94 Mississippi Historical Society.

way to feelings of joy and gladness while we could, for well we
knew that erelong we should experience a rude contrast to these
pacific and delightful scenes.

On May 15th, we arrived at Rome. General Jackson being
away, Armstrong commanded the division, Pinson our brigade,
and Montgomery our regiment. Early next morning, Ross's bri-
gade encountered a strong force of Federal cavalry, and Mont-
gomery with the First Mississippi was sent to support Ross.
After a short and sharp skirmish, the enemy became satisfied
and retired, having met much stouter resistance than had been
expected.

ADAIESVILLE.

We then rode all night and joined Johnston's army at Adairs-
ville by daylight on the 17th, and immediately went into action
on Wheeler's right. Here let me say in passing that from that
day till the fall of Jonesboro on September 1st, we were so con-
stantly engaged in skirmishing, scouting, and picketing, that it
would be too tedious to go into minute details, and I shall under-
take simply to tell something of the more important engagements
in which we took part. General Jackson was kept too busy to
find time to write reports and left no record of the operations
of his command from May 6th to May 31st, nor from July 14th
to October 9th, 1864.

As stated above, we were sent to Wheeler's aid, when he was
doing his utmost to hold the enemy in check. The Federals,
however, brought forward heavy reinforcements and drove
Wheeler and Armstrong back. Then, Hardee's corps was or-
dered out to resist the enemy's advance and Armstrong's brigade
was ordered to support Hardee. In Johnston's Narrative, it is
simply stated that Jackson's cavalry had joined his army and
that with Hardee's corps they had checked the advance of Sher-
man. In fact, we fought in line with Hardee's corps for more
than three hours and did not yield an inch of terrain; and our
brigade lost 31. Being in the woods, we were somewhat pro-
tected, for we did not scruple to utilize every available tree, log,
or stump as a shelter from bullets. The Twenty-eighth lost

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 95

more heavily than the First Mississippi, because it was the first
of our regiments to get into the fight and was somewhat more
exposed than the First. We made a most favorable impression
on our infantry in line behind us, and they cheered us lustily
as we were ordered to the rear. After dark, our army fell back,
and we again marched all night to get into proper position on
the left flank of the army to cover the retreat. Every old trooper
of Armstrong's brigade now living will remember that night.
It was the second night we passed in the saddle with a busy day
intervening. As short halts occurred at long intervals, the men
would throw themselves on the ground to snatch a few minutes
of sleep ; but a great majority of us had learned to sleep in the
saddle, and thus we fared better than our faithful horses.

CASSVILLE.

On the morning of the 18th, we reached Cassville. Our brigade
was ordered out immediately to repel hostile cavalry advancing
rapidly and but four miles away on the Fairmount road. In a
lively skirmish for some hours, we inflicted some loss on the
enemy and drove them from the field. We were then, to our
gratification, ordered to go into camp behind the infantry. We
needed both rest and food. Gladly we unsaddled our horses and
fed them bountifully, and then we drew rations for ourselves.

Next day, May 19th, we had but little to do, though there was
firing along the whole front all day, as the enemy continued to
press the rear-guard. Late in the afternoon, a ringing battle-
order from General Johnston was read in every regiment, awak-
ening the greatest enthusiasm in every breast. The position as-
signed to Armstrong's brigade was on the extreme left of the
army, adjoining Polk's corps. So thither we marched and
bivouacked there about 9 o'clock that night. To our great sur-
prise on awakening in the morning, our army had fallen back.,
Wheeler on the east and Jackson on the west screened the move-
ments of the infantry.

96 Mississippi Historical Society.

NEW HOPE CHURCH.

On the 28th, our brigade was ordered to occupy some trenches
on the left of Bates' division. In our innnediate front, the trees
and undergrowth were thicic and effectually hid from our view
the Federal works not more than two hundred yards away. Gen-
eral Armstrong had orders from General Bates at a given signal
to charge the hostile entrenchments, supposed by General Bates
to be held by a mere line of skirmishers. We were under the
impression that Bates would advance synchronously with us.
Late in the afternoon the signal gun was fired, and with a wild
yell we leaped from the trenches and rushed forward, the First
Mississippi being next to Bates' men. We drove the enemy from
his works and captured a battery. Bates' men failed to move
forward; and, in consequence, the enemy rallied, and enfiladed
us, thus compelling us to withdraw and to abandon the captured
battery and leave our dead and some wounded on the field. With
others under the immediate eye of Lieutenant Foote, Willis
Hunter had been desperately wounded, and Jack White and J.
G. Deupree were ordered to carry him back to our field hospital.
To do this was one of the most trying experiences we had dur-
ing the war, for the Federals returning to their works concen-
trated rifle and cannon fire upon us as soon as our line began
to withdraw. Missiles of death coming from behind are far
more frightful than when coming from the front, and every
moment we felt that we would be struck down, but somehow we
carried our burden through and committed dear Willis to the
hospital. He was another of the famous Hunter group to give
his life to the cause, for he died within a few days. He and I
had been schoolmates at Howard College, where he was imi-
versally esteemed. I recall the name of another member of our
Squadron killed here, that of Ed Crawford, also a gallant soldier,
a member of Company F. The total loss in our brigade was
171, almost equally distributed among our regiments. We lost
many excellent officers and none better than Captains Herrin
and Turner of the First Mississippi, who fell within the enemy's
entrenchments. Had Bates' division advanced with us, we might

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 97

have held the Federal works and brought off many prisoners.
Our charge was made down one hill and up another, the oppos-
ing battery being on the crest of the hill and directly in front
of our regimental centre. Behind the battery were strong earth-
works filled with soldiers, thus rendering it impossible for us to
hold what we had gained, when the right of our regiment, by
Bates' men not coming forward, was thus exposed to enfilading
fire by those Federals immediately fronting Bates. But when we
reoccupied our own trenches, we hoi>ed the Federals would then
assail us, as we thought "turn about would be fair play", and
we were sanguine that we could give them a hotter reception
than they had given us. But they were content to shell us from
a distance more or less continuously during the night. The pris-
oners we captured were amazed to find, as they said, "the Con-
federate infantry wearing spurs", mistaking us for the "web-
footed", because we had assailed them so furiously.

On June 2d, Sherman withdrew from our immediate front and
extended his lines still further around Johnston's right wing.
While Sherman and Johnston were playing their game of strat-
egy for many weeks and thousands of good men were shedding
their blood, our cavalry were engaged more or less every day
in skirmishes with detachments of the enemy, but with slight
losses as compared with those we believed we had inflicted on
our foe. The Federal cavalry, as estimated by General John-
ston, numbered more .than 15,000, greatly exceeding the com-
bined cavalry of Wheeler and Jackson ; and they were far better
equipped. So we were kept exceedingly busy, watching their
maneuvers and thwarting their plans.

LOST MOUNTAIN.

On June 5th, our regiment was on top of Lost Mountain,
whence we had a grand view of Sherman's vast army encircling
Johnston's and gradually outflanking it on one wing or the other,
thus forcing it to yield one position after another in order to
maintain communication with Atlanta. Some of our companies
had quite a skirmish near the base of the mountain with a de-
7

98 Mississippi Historical Society.

tachment of Federal infantry to-day, who were evidently search-
ing for Johnston's left wing, that they might find some way to
get in his rear. As we held the higher ground, we readily drove
the Federals within their own lines.

DEATH OF GENERAL POLK.

Early on the morning of June 14th, Generals Johnston, Har-
dee, and Polk, rode to the top of Pine Mountain to inspect the
position of Bates' division. The captain of a Federal battery
six hundred yards in front observed the distinguished group and
opened fire upon them. The third shot struck General Polk and
passed through his chest from left to right, killing him instantly.
This sudden death of the eminent Oiristian and fearless soldier,
who had distinguished himself in every battle fought by the
army of Tennessee, produced the deepest sorrow among all the
troops, and more especially in his own corps, to which we prac-
tically belonged. General Polk had been a classmate of Presi-
dent Davis at West Point and they were devoted personal
friends. Had General Polk lived a few weeks longer, he might
have prevailed upon President Davis not to remove Johnston
from the command of this army, and thus the fall of the Con-
federacy might have been indefinitely postponed.

IN REAR OF SHERMAN.

In the last days of June, General Armstrong was ordered to
select a detachment from his brigade, consisting of twenty-five
men from each company, and cut the railroad between Etowah
and Alatoona. Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomery was in com-
mand of the men from our regiment, who had been selected be-
cause our horses were in the best condition. We took with us
five days' cooked rations. The strictest secrecy was observed lest
any inkling of the expedition or its purpose might reach the
enemy ; for it was a matter of great importance that we should
get into the rear of Sherman's army without being discovered.
Moving west for some miles and then turning north, we eluded
the hostile outposts and got too far ahead of them to be over-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 99

taken, if we should be discovered and pursued, before we could
strike the railroad. Whether we could ever get back was alto-
gether another question, which we would have time enough to
consider when the emergency came. We passed directly across
our old battlefield at New Hope Church, and to our astonishment
every tree was dead, evidently having been killed by the count-
less scores of bullets from the rifles of Federals and Confeder-
ates, striking the trees from near the ground to ten and twenty
feet above. Many trees had been entirely cut down by minie
balls and cannon shot, even trees more than three feet in circum-
ference. Passing on rapidly, we reached the railroad somewhat
north of Alatoona, dispersed a force of cavalry and infantry,
and captured more than forty prisoners, without incurring any
loss whatever. Having fewer than 900 men and no artillery,
Armstrong found Alatoona too strongly garrisoned and forti-
fied to be successfully assailed. He, therefore, destroyed the
railroad so far as possible, and with his prisoners moved west
ten miles and bivouacked for the night. We found abundant
forage for the horses in the wheatfields.

Next morning, Armstrong lingered here, hoping he might find
an opportunity to capture a wagon train or a cavalry detach-
ment; but none came in sight during the day. Late in the
afternoon, after giving Montgomery orders to remain here
twenty-four hours longer, Armstrong with the detachments from
his other regiments and with the prisoners set out towards Lost
Mountain, going first west and then south, somewhat in the same
way he had come. Montgomery, apprehensive that he might be
discovered, concealed his troops as much as possible in a thicket,
passed the night quietly with pickets out on all roads ; but spent
the next day more or less in dread of encountering a superior
force, supposing, of course, that cavalry would be sent in pur-
suit of us. However, the appointed hour came, and just before
night we were all exceedingly glad to start on our return to Lost
Mountain. We moved off rapidly, in order to put ten miles or
more between us and possible pursuers. We spent the latter
portion of the night in thick woods, but daylight found us again
in the saddle, going rapidly and diverging but little from the

100 Mississippi Historical Society.

route we liad come. At noon we halted in a deep valley to feed
and rest our horses. It was raining hard, but that made no dif-
ference, for we had long since grown accustomed to getting wet,
as it had rained on us during the last forty-five days, day or
night without exception. We reached camp just before night,
fed our horses, and drew rations for ourselves. Horses and men
then enjoyed a night of solid and undisturbed repose.

ON THE CHATTAHOOCHEE.

Next morning we learned that Sherman was still extending
his right wing, and by the 2d of July General Johnston reported
that Sherman's right was nearer Atlanta than our left, thus
threatening the railroad bridge and Turner's ferry. But on July
1st a division of Georgia State troops had come to support Jack-
son's cavalry, which opposed the Federal advance on our extreme
left. .On July 4th, General Smith withdrew his Georgians within
their intrenchments and thus necessitated our yielding some
ground. We had been constantly engaged since the 1st of July,
incurring some losses, as we fought outside the entrenchments.
After crossing the Chattahoochee on July 5th, we were kept busy
guarding the river for twenty miles below Atlanta. General
Johnston's Narrative says: "On July 14th, a division of
of Federal cavalry crossed the river by Moore's bridge near
Newnan, but was driven back by Annstrong's brigade, which
had been sent by General Jackson to meet it". Newnan is forty
miles southwest from Atlanta on the railroad leading to West
Point, Ga. The enemy's cavalry intended to cut this important
artery of communication with one of our sources of supply. But
we made a forced march and intercepted the Federals before
they reached the railroad, and with but one brigade we drove
back their division, with considerable loss to them and little to
us. We then destroyed Moore's bridge and awaited orders.

The morning of July 19th dawned. O fateful day! and never
to be forgotten! Just as we began moving out in obedience to
orders to intercept this same cavalry division, Colonel Pinson
informed us of Johnston's removal from the command of the

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 101

Army of Tennessee and the substitution of Hood in his place.
We were greatly surprised and deeply grieved. We could
scarcely believe it possible. We marched rapidly to head off the
Federals who were on a raid to West Point, and we rode hard
all day and all night, and the melancholy gloom that overshad-
owed officers and men can never be told. We believed that the
hopes of the Confederacy rested largely on Johnston, for we
knew well with what alacrity he had always been obeyed, the
absolute confidence the army had reposed in him, the matchless
skill with which he had thus far outwitted Sherman, and the
great losses he had inflicted on the Federals at comparatively
small cost to the Confederates; and we felt sure that Johnston
would have administered a crushing blow when Sherman's army
was divided in crossing Peach Tree Creek. It was the universal
conviction of the army that Joseph E. Johnston was one of our
greatest commanders, ranking with Albert Sidney Johnston and
Robert E. Lee, and that his removal was equal to the loss of one
half of the army. Even to this day, the theme is too sad to
dwell upon, and I turn from it and resume the thread of my
story.

IN CAMP ON BATTLEFIELD.

Our all day and all night ride ended at La Grange. The en-
emy had turned back without reaching West Point, so soon as
he learned that we were in position to cut off his retreat, in case
he advanced further. After a few days, we were ordered back
to Atlanta and arrived there on July 24th, after the memorable
battle of the 22d. I will not say what impression Hood made on
us and on the army ; but he was in authority and we must obey
without question. Colonel Pinson reported to Hood in person,
and our regiment was ordered to pass through Atlanta and go
into camp on the battlefield of July 22d. The scene was horrible;
decomposing horses were lying scattered in all directions; the
dead of both armies had been buried in shallow graves, barely
covered with earth; legs, arms, and heads might be seen pro-
truding; and the green flies were so multitudinous, that it was
well-nigh impossible to prepare food or to eat it. But the posi-

103 Mississippi Historical Society.

tion was important and must be held. The hostile infantry had
been withdrawn from our immediate front in order to continue
the extension of their right wing. We had, however, minor en-
gagements with bodies of cavalry and easily repelled their at-
tacks. We fought with them for the corn in a field lying between
us and them, and we got our full share of the corn. We were
here because ten^porarily all of Wheeler's cavalry were employed
elsewhere. Early on the 28th, however, we were relieved from
this disagreeable place and ordered to join our brigade on the
Lick Skillet road northwest of Atlanta on the extreme left of
our army.

BATTLE OF THE 28tH.

Our regiment was sent to relieve a Georgia regiment at the
edge of a skirt of woods, which bordered an open field two hun-
dred yards wide along our front. As our pickets took intervals
and began to cross this field, they were suddenly fired upon, and
the woods beyond the field were full of "blue-coats" advancing
in line of battle. We could not yield without resistance, for we
must give warning to the brigade. A brief, sharp skirmish re-
sulted, in which J. J. Hunter, of Company F, was sure he killed
one Federal ; and it was clear that we were facing not less than
a brigade and possibly a division. But we retired slowly through
the woods, firing from every stump and tree and prostrate log
into the ranks of the enemy. As we were steady veterans, good
shots, with good guns, we must have done considerable execu-
tion. The caution displayed in their advance attested somewhat
the accuracy of our marksmanship. We halted on the crest of
the next hill, protecting ourselves more or less behind houses and
fences. As the enemy came on in close array, they suffered
heavily, while our loss was comparatively light. Seeing, how-
ever, that we could not stop their persistent advance, Colonel
Pinson ordered us to withdraw to the next hill and mount our
horses. But as we gained the summit of the hill, we heard a
noise in the woods back of our horses and were overjoyed to
meet a brigade from S. D. Lee's corps on the double quick
hastening to our support. It goes without saying, the advance
of the Federals was instantly checked. Thus was brought on

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 103

the battle of the 28th of July, and this was our part in it. Both
sides brought up reinforcements, each extending its battle-line
eastward. Lee's whole corps and A. P. Stewart's came into ac-
tion, and the battle raged till night, according to Hood without
material advantage to either belligerent. Each failed to dislodge
the other. Losses were heavy, perhaps not less than from 4,000
to 5,000 to either the Federals or the Confederates.

Meanwhile, Jackson with his two other brigades and Wheeler's
cavalry under Wheeler and Iverson had been pursuing the Fed-
eral commands of Stoneman and McCook. On the 29th, a tele-
gram from Wheeler stated: "We have just completed the kill-
ing, capturing, and breaking up of the entire raiding party under
General McCook, capturing 950 unwounded prisoners, two pieces
of artillery, and 1200 horses and equipments." On the same
day, a dispatch from Iverson said: "General Stoneman, after
being routed yesterday, surrendered 500 of his men ; the rest are
scattered and fleeing towards Eatonton; and many have already
been killed and captured." Armstrong's brigade regretted not
being permitted to participate in these brilliant achievements,
though just as profitably employed in guarding the left flank of
Hood's army.

DEFEAT OF KILPATRICK.

After the battle of the 28th, Atlanta was regularly besieged
and this lasted a month. Wheeler was sent north to interrupt
Sherman's communications. Sherman, taking advantage of
Wheeler's absence, made yet another attempt to cut the Macon
railroad by sending for this purpose a strong detachment of cav-
alry imder General Kilpatrick, who passed rapidly around our
left. General Jackson with two brigades pursued, and Pinson's
regiment and most of Armstrong's brigade followed shortly af-
terwards. Kilpatrick had cro.ssed the railroad at Jonesborough,
burned the depot, and torn up several miles of track, before he
was overtaken by Jackson. General Ross had thrown his brigade
across Kilpatrick's path while our brigade under Armstrong was
pressing him in the rear. As the Texans were between Kilpat-
rick and safety by flight, he withdrew the force fighting us,
formed his troops into column by companies and charged

104 Mississippi Historical Society.

through Ross' thin line that had been stretched out to cover Kil-
patrick's front. The heroic Texans, firing first in the faces of
the advancing Federals and then at their backs after they had
passed on, inflicted heavy losses on them. Likewise, the men of
King's battery, right in the road of Kilpatrick's charging column,
fired into it one or two rounds as it came on; then, dodging un-
der their guns till the last company of Kilpatrick's column had
passed, they rose, wheeled their guns around, and again fired
into the retreating column. Afterwards, Armstrong followed
rapidly on the heels of Kilpatrick and brought him to bay. Pin-
son was ordered to dismount his regiment and begin the attack.
This he did promptly and furiously. We routed Kilpatrick's
rear-guard and drove it pell-mell a mile or more, though for
awhile they put up a stout resistance. Here, our loss was about
fifty, killed and wounded, and we killed, wounded, and cap-
tured many more than fifty. At length, on a high ridge the
Federals made another stand, but before we could assail them,
or Armstrong could bring up the regiments already mounted,
the Federals remounted and fled precipitately.

The Federal dead and wounded were left on tho field and
many unwounded were also captured. Kilpatrick's sole aim now
was to escape. This he did. I regret I cannot give the names
of our killed and wounded, other than of two of the bravest of
the Noxubee Squadron, Tommy Staunton and Hall Haynes, both
members of Company F. In charging through the Texans in
line of battle, the Federals had little time or thought for any-
thing else than flight; but as they reached the Texan horsehold-
ers and horses, they stampeded these horses and carried off as
prisoners a few of the horse-holders, all of whom, however, suc-
ceeded in getting away and coming back to Ross during the
night. Most of Kilpatrick's artillery horses and pack-mules were
killed, and his cannon and rich supplies of food and forage were
abandoned. As night had fallen, and further pursuit was use-
less. Colonel Pinson ordered us back into camp. That night,
every man of us had genuine coffee in abundance and all the
good edibles heart could wish; and our horses had corn, oats,
and hay, — all they could devour.

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 105

IN Sherman's front.

Next day, we received orders to hasten back to the left of
Hood's army, for Sherman had begun his flank movement in
earnest, because, as he says in his book, his cavalry either could
not or would not disable a railroad; and, therefore, he had re-
solved to throw his infantry on the railroad in rear of Hood.
As Sherman extended his left, Armstrong was always found in
his front to obstruct his advance. One day we held a rocky ridge
facing west with an open view for at least a mile across a culti-
vated field ; and along a road on the opposite ridge we watched
for a long while thousands and thousands of infantry march
South. We had no artillery and the range was too great for
eflfective use of our carbines. The Federals, however, not relish-
ing our constant firing into their moving column, deployed not
less than a brigade and slowly drove back the First Mississippi.
Late in the day, the head of Sherman's column crossed the rail-
road near Fairburn ; during the day we had captured a few pris-
oners from three different corps, indicating that at least three-
fourths of Sherman's army were engaged in this movement.

We had kept General Hood fully advised of the progress of
events, and at last he was convinced, as we had been for many
days, that Sherman was moving with his whole anny, that his
purpose was to destroy the Macon railroad, and that the fate of
Atlanta depended on the possibility of defeating Sherman. Our
infantry and artillery then in the neighborhood of Atlanta had
been reduced to about 35,000 men. Wheeler with 4,500
men was doing valuable service in the region around Chatta-
nooga, but service useless in the present emergency. Jackson
with two of his brigades was busy elsewhere, and only Arm-
strong's brigade of about 1,500 men was in Sherman's immedi-
ate front. After crossing the West Point railroad, Sherman's
progress was slow. The country was open and Armstrong
availed himself of every desirable position at which he could of-
fer even temporary resistance and retard somewhat the march
of Sherman's immcDse column. On the 30th of August, we
crossed the Flint River not many miles from Jonesboro, whither

106 Mississippi Historical Society.

Hood had dispatched the brigades of Lewis and Reynolds to re-
inforce Armstrong. We halted on the south bank of the Flint
and for awhile offered stout resistance. But the enemy crossed
above and below us about 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and this
compelled us to withdraw.

Our next stand was on a ridge at right angles to the road.
We had a broad open field in front and woods behind us. We
piled up rails as a fortification and sent our horses to the rear
under the hill. First a heavy line of skirmishers advanced against
us. Waiting till they were well within range, we fired a volley
and they retreated rapidly over the hill, leaving their dead and
wounded behind them. But soon appeared two solid lines of
infantry, and at least one battery of artillery opened fire upon
us. The first shots went wild above our heads ; but, soon get-
ting the range, they fired with greater precision of aim, causing
our rails to fly in all directions, and rendering our position more
dangerous than in the open. I distinctly remember that one
member of our Noxubee Cavalry, a new recruit and a noted
street "bully" at home that would fight even a wild-cat in a
fisticuff encounter, at this moment threw down his gun, turned
his back to the foe, and fled as fast as his legs could carry him.
We never saw him again. I do not care to reproduce his name, as
some respectable descendant might grieve over his cowardice.
We were ordered to get in front of our rail-piles ; but this position
was tenable only a short time, since the Federal line extended far
beyond ours on each flank and enabled them to enfilade us.

JONESBORO.

When we reached Jonesboro, we found Lewis' brigade in the
trenches. We dismounted and joined them. Reynolds' brigade
had not yet come. Early the next morning, the enemy massed
heavy forces, used long-range artillery, and drove us out. Har-
dee's corps coming a little too late assaulted the works of the en-
emy in vain, losing about 1,400 in killed and wounded. Lee's
corps arrived still later. Had these two corps been twelve hours

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 107

earlier, the result at Jonesboro would have been different. Hood
then assembled his whole army at Lovejoy and Sherman took pos-
session of Atlanta.

PALMETTTO.

After the removal of the Federal prisoners from Anderson-
ville, the destruction of railroads radiating from Atlanta, the
strengthening of the fortifications of Macon, Augusta, and Co-
lumbus, the recall of Wheeler's cavalry from Tennessee, and the
transfer of all army suppHes to the West Point railroad, Hood on
the 18th of September began to extend his left towards the Chat-
tahoochee, which his advance reached on the 19th. He formed
his line of battle on the 20th, his right east of the railroad and his
left resting near the river, with headquarters at Palmetto. On
the 28th, Jackson's cavalry advanced, a detachment being sent
to operate against the railroad between Marietta and the Chat-
tahoochee. The First Mississippi captured a long and well loaded
train of cars with its guard complete. Kilpatrick's cavalry was
north of the Qiattahoochee and Girard's had gone in the direction
of Rome.

ALATOONA.

At Alatoona, large supplies were stored, guarded by a brigade
of infantry well entrenched, which General French's division had
been ordered to capture. A squadron from Pinson's First Missis-
sippi under Capt. Tobe Taylor accompanied French and served
as eyes and ears for him. We tore up considerable stretches of
the railroad ; but when Sherman's army on its march north came
too close and threatened to cut off our communication with Hood,
General French, having captured only a portion of the Federal
works and destroyed them, despite his several desperate assaults,
retreated westward and rejoined Hood.

DALTON.

On October 10th, our cavalry was dispatched to hold in check
the Federals at Rome ; and on the 11th Hood's army marched
towards Resaca and Dalton, and on the 13th captured the latter

108 Mississippi Historical Society.

place with more than 1,000 prisoners. Wheeler's cavalry was re-
sisting and retarding Sherman's march north. Plood had plarmed
to give battle, but his corps-commanders advised him that it
would be unwise with less than 35,000 effectives to risk an en-
gagement with 65,000 veterans, flushed with recent victory.
Hood next conceived the idea of moving into Tennessee. Beaure-
gard, commanding the Department, assented but directed Hood
to leave Wheeler's cavalry to protect Georgia from state-wide
depredation by Sherman's army. Then, as Sherman turned
south, Hood moved north and on Nov. 13th established head-
quarters at Florence.

DEATH OF CAPTAIN KING.

A few days previously, Captain King of the Noxubee Cavalry,
who had long entertained a presentiment that he would be killed,
while riding at the head of his company and leading the advance
of Armstrong's brigade, was struck centrally in the forehead by a
minie-ball and instantly killed, to the utter amazement of all. Na
one was apprehensive of danger, not an enemy was in sight,
and no firing was heard in any direction. We were ascending a
hill but could not yet see over it. Evidently, the ball had been
fired by a Federal sharpshooter from a long-range gun and was
on its descending trajectory when it struck Captain King.
King's presentiment like that of Bealle previously mentioned in
this narrative was thus realized. His death was deeply lamented,
for he was universally popular. First Lieutenant T. J. Deupree
from this time till the end of the war commanded the Noxubee
Cavalry. After mounting the hill and advancing more than a
mile, we discovered the enemy's line, and a brief but sharp skir-
mish followed, in which among the first to fall was Lieutenant
Henley of the Noxubee Troopers. Thus in less than an hour our
Squadron lost two of the best officers we ever had.

DEFEAT OF COON.

On Nov. 18th, General N. B. Forrest, in obedience to orders
from General Beauregard, reported to General Hood. Then
Jackson's division, that is, the brigades of Ross and Armstrong,

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 109

were added to Forrest's command. Now in command of all the
cavalry of Hood's army, numbering about 5,000 effectives, For-
rest moved out from Florence in advance of the infantry and
went into camp on Shoal Creek. Thence, Bu ford's and Jackson's
divisions were ordered to advance northward over the military
road. Next day, Nov. 19th, a foraging detachment from Bu-
ford's division, while gathering corn, came suddenly into con-
tact with a Federal brigade of cavalry under Colonel Datus Coon
of Hatch's division, which charged the Kentuckians so vigorously
and unexpectedly, that they fled and abandoned two wagons be-
longing to Buford's headquarters. Fortunately, Armstrong's
brigade was also gathering corn from a field not far away. Up-
on hearing the firing, Armstrong promptly led his Mississippians
at a gallop to the scene and fell furiously on the right and rear
of the Federals; while Buford's men, quickly rallying after re-
covering from their surprise, again faced their pursuers. The
Federals were thus caught between the Mississippians and the
Kentuckians and were roughly handled. They were routed and
driven precipitately and in great disorder from the field, leaving
many prisoners and the recaptured wagons in our hands.

CAVALRY COMPLIMENTED

Meanwhile, Forrest with his remaining division under Chal-
mers had set out on his march towards Nashville, going through
Kelly's Forge, and reaching Henryville on the 23d. On the 22d,
Buford and Jackson, coming into Lawrenceburg, again encoun-
tered a portion of Wilson's cavalry, which after slight resistance
retreated towards Pulaski. That our cavalry made itself severely
felt is gracefully acknowledged by Colonel Henry Stone, U. S.
A., on the staff of General George H. Thomas, who says in his
report : "The Confederate army began its northward march from
Florence Nov. 19th, in weather of great severity. It rained and
snowed and hailed and froze. Forrest had come up with 6,000
cavalry and led the advance with indomitable energy. Hatch and
Cox made such resistance as they could ; but on the 22d the head
of Hood's column was at Lawrenceburg, sixteen miles west of

110 Mississippi Historical Society.

Pulaski". As the scope of my narrative is designed to give in
the main only the operations in which the Noxubee Squadron of
the First Mississippi took part, I regretfully forbear to recount
the brilliant action of Rucker's brigade, Chalmer's division, under
Forrest's own eye at Henryville.

DEFEAT OF HATCH.

Jackson and Buford continued the pursuit towards Pulaski on
separate roads, and at night on the 23d Jackson learned that the
enemy were rapidly evacuating this portion of Tennessee. Next
day, therefore, he moved more directly north and at Campbells-
ville found in his front more than a division of cavalry under
Hatch. Promptly making his dispositions to attack, Jackson
threw forward a part of Ross's brigade, while Armstrong's bri-
gade made a wide detour and fell with fury upon Hatch's right
and rear, and at the same time Young's battery from a favorable
ridge opened with telling effect. In a few moments, too, Bu-
ford's guns were heard a rnile or more away. He had also come
up against the. enemy on his line of pursuit. Thus, Kentuckians,
Mississippians, and Texans were all thrown with a common aim
against Hatch. Our fierce attack was, indeed, irresistible, and
the enemy was speedily routed. Buford on his part of the field
charged and captured more than 100 unwounded prisoners ; and
Jackson's brigades, pressing their advantage, captured still
more, with horses and equipments, four stands of colors, and
sixty-five fat beeves.

BETWEEN COLUMBIA AND FRANKLIN.

Next day, Buford and Jackson joined Forrest near Colum-
bia. This was Nov. 24th. Columbia was held by the Fourth and
Twenty-third corps under General Schofield and by Wilson's
cavalry, with heavy lines of skirmishers in rifle-pits encircling the
town. General Forrest immediately invested the place and held
his position till the 27th, when Hood's infantry arrived and the
Federalsbegan the evacuation of Columbiaby crossing to the north
side of Duck River. On the 28th, the main portion of our cavalry

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. Ill

succeeded in effecting a crossing. Forrest's celerity and boldness
in leading Hood's invasion was now giving to General Thomas
at Nashville grave concern for the safety of Schofield's army.
After crossing Duck River we promptly drove back all hostile
calvalry on the roads leading to Spring Hill and Franklin. Be-
fore midnight, Forrest with Chalmers' division was eight miles
beyond Columbia on the Spring Hill road, greatly disappointed
to learn that Buford was slow to cross Duck River by reason of
the stubborn resistance he had met and that he could not join
him earlier than 8 o'clock on the morning of the 29th. Jack-
son's division had been directed to move on the Lewisburg pike
towards Franklin. Erelong Armstrong's brigade, being in the
lead, sent back word to Forrest that the enemy had been found
in force and waited for instructions. Forrest ordered Armstrong
to hold the enemy and not press them too closely till he could with
Chalmers' division gain their flank and rear. Forrest then moved
rapidly towards Spring Hill with Qialmers' division and within
two miles of the village encountered Union pickets. By this time
Buford had come up and in conjunction with Chalmers advanced
against the enemy, who being well fortified held their position he-
roically. Strong barricades had been erected and Coon's brigade
of Hatch's division had reinforced the Federals. By his usual
flanking process, however, Forrest at length dislodged them;
and then we were ordered to press them with vigor, which Arm-
strong was always glad to do . About this time. Colonel Wilson
of the NINETEENTH Tennessee was thrice wounded while
leading his mounted regiment in a desperate charge across an
open field ; but he refused to leave his regiment. The fight speed-
ily became general, and word came from Hood to hold the posi-
tion at all hazards, and that the head of the infantry column was
only two miles away. Chalmers' division moved upon the en-
emy's right. A charge was ordered. Thus the enemy, driven
from his rifle-pits, fled towards Spring Hill. Jackson's division
was ordered to ride at a gallop to Thompson's Station, to hold it,
and thus cut off Schofield's retreat. In obedience to this order,
we reached the railroad by 11 o'clock that night, and found the
advance of Stanley's division of Schofield's army passing north.

112 Mississippi Historical Society.

We assailed them promptly, took possession of the road and held
it firmly, despite their fierce attacks, till daylight. But the odds
against us grew constantly as Schofield's army retreating from
Columbia swelled the number of our assailants, till with over-
whelming forces they drove us from their front. All this time,
while we were doing our utmost to hold the pike, Hood with
Cheatham's corps was within easy striking distance ; and, if he
had thrown Cheatham's veterans boldly and with vigor upon the
Federals, they would have inevitably been routed and captured.
This would have assured the complete success of Hood's cam-
paign into Tennessee.

But failure to make the most of this great opportunity gave
rise to a bitter controversy between Hood and Cheatham.; and
in this connection, I am sure, my readers will be glad to see the
following letter from Governor Isham G. Harris:

"Memphis, Tenn., May 20th, 1877.
"Governor James D. Porter,
Nashville Tennessee.
My dear Sir: —

General Hood on the march to Franklin spoke to me in the
presence of Major Mason of the failure of General Qieatham
to make the night attack at Spring Hill, and censured him in
severe terms for disobedience of orders. Soon after this, being
alone with Major Mason, the latter remarked to me that General
Cheatham was not to blame about the matter, that he did not send
him the order. I asked him if he had coiTimunicated that fact to
General Hood. He answered that he had not. I replied that it
was due General Cheatham that this explanation should be made.
Thereupon, Major Mason joined General Hood and gave him the
information. Afterwards, General Hood said to me that he had
done injustice to General Cheatham, and requested me so to in-
form him, that he held him blameless for the failure at Spring
Hill ; and on the day following the battle of Franklin I was in-
formed by General Hood that he had addressed a note to General
Cheatham saying that he did not censure him with the failure to
attack.

"Very respectfully,
(signed) Isham G. Harris."

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 113

FRANKLIN.

On the next day, the 30th, Forrest with his entire force pressed
the enemy closely, until they reached Winstead's Hill, where
they were strongly posted and offered stouter resistance. When
Hood's infantry came up, the Federals withdrew within the for-
tifications of Franklin. Hood then directed Forrest to take
charge of the cavalry during the impending battle; and, if the
assault was successful, to capture all who attempted to escape. I
shall not undertake to describe this bloody battle. Though our
army failed to carry all the breastworks, they made lodgements in
many places and held on firmly till the enemy late at night with-
drew and fled to Nashville.

Wilson's cross-roads and block-houses.

Crossing the Harpeth and moving along the Wilson pike, For-
rest struck the enemy in force at Wilson's Cross-roads. Mor-
ton's battery was ordered to the front and opened fire. Buford's
division charged, driving the enemy and capturing many pris-
oners. Without further resistance, some of our cavalry pursued
the fugitives several miles towards Nashville. As the infantry
had come up, next morning the cavalry began to operate against
block-houses and detached garrisons, and to obstruct navigation
on the Cumberland River. Buford's division captured several im-
portant stockades on the 3d and 4th of December. On the 5th,
Jackson's division captured a redoubt near LaVergne with its
garrison, two pieces of artillery, many wagons, and a great quan-
tity of munitions and supplies of food and forage.

M URFREESBOROUGH.

When Bates' division had come to cooperate with Forrest
against Milroy's forces at Murfreesborough, the cavalry were
ordered to picket the pikes leading from Murfreesborough to
Nashville and Lebanon, while the division of Oialmers was op-
erating successfully along the Cumberland. On the 6th, Forrest
made a reconnaisance in force of the enemy's works at Murfrees-
8

I

114 Mississippi HistoricaJ Society.

borough by advancing in line of battle Bates' division, two ad-
ditional brigades of infantry under Sears and Palmer, and Jack-
son's cavalry. Skirmishing continued for some hours, and the
Federals withdrew into the intrenchments. Forrest ordered the
infantry to remain in line, while with Pinson's regiment he rode
forward to make a careful inspection of the fortress. This he did
very leisurely, as it seemed to us who escorted him around, ex-
posed to the fire of sharp-shooters more or less all the time. He
satisfied himself that the position was too strong to justify direct
assault, but hoped to hold Milroy there till the battle of Nashville
was fought.

On the morning of the 7th, however, Milroy's forces moved
out of Murfreesborough and advanced with great gallantry, halt-
ing now and then to discharge a volley at our infantry in line of
battle. When they had come within three-hundred yards of Bates'
division, those veterans who had faced far greater odds and held
their ground unflinchingly on many a battlefield, became panic-
stricken and from some inexplicable cause broke into wild dis-
order. Forrest, in his report says : "The enemy moved boldly
forward, driving in my pickets, when the infantry with the ex-
ception of Smith's brigade, from some cause I cannot explain,
made a shameful retreat, losing two pieces of artillery. I seized
the colors of the retreating troops and endeavored to rally them,
but they would not be moved by any entreaty or appeal to their
patriotism. Major General Bate did the same thing, but was as
unsuccessful as I. I hurriedly sent Major Strange of my Staff to
Brigadier General Armstrong and to Brigadier-General Ross
of Jackson's division, with orders to say to them that everything
depended on the cavalry. They proved themselves equal to the
emergency by charging on the enemy, thereby checking his fur-
ther advance".

As stated in Wyeth's Life of Forrest, Mr. W. A. Galloway of
Atlanta, Ga., at that time an artillerist in Young's battery, says:
"I was an eye-witness to an interesting incident in this battle of
Murfreesboro. During the stampede, Forrest rode among the
infantry, ordering the men to rally and doing all in his power
to stop their retreat. As he rode up and down the line, shouting

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 115

'Rally, men, for God's sake, rally !' the panic-stricken soldiers
paid no attention to him. Rushing to a color-bearer who was
running for dear life, Forrest ordered him to halt. Failing to
have his command obeyed, he drew his pistol and shot the re-
treating soldier down. Forrest dismounted, seized the colors,
remounted, and rode in front of the soldiers, waved the colors,
and finally succeeded in rallying them to their duty."

The charge made by Armstrong and Ross had checked the
Federals, and they retired immediately within their works. In
camp that night, the men of our company indulged in chess,
checkers, cards, and other amusements, necessary to relieve the
anxieties of the day. As is well known, chess is emphatically a
game of war; and our company contained more than a dozen
devotees of Caissa. Among them was our first Captain, H. W.
Foote ; then, T. J. Deupree, who as First Lieutenant had been in
command of the company since the death of Captain King near
Florence, was an excellent player; also, Lieutenant S. B. Day,
James Rives, Alec McCaskill, Frank Adams, and J. G. Deupree
were more or less expert amateurs. There were others, whose
names I cannot now recall. By a seeming coincidence. Lieuten-
ant Deupree that night was ordered to appear before a board of
officers, presided over by Captain Porter of Memphis, for exam-
ination with a view to his promotion. The Lieutenant rode sev-
eral miles on the pike towards Nashville to face this board. On
arrival at headquarters, he was at once challenged to a game of
Chess by Captain Porter, who said: "Beat me and I shall add
another bar to your collar. Sir." The reader will bear in mind
that a First-Lieutenant wore two bars and a Captain three.
There was no dodging. Porter opened the game with "Pawn
to Queen 4", and proceeded speedily and skillfully to marshal his
forces. The Lieutenant replied with "P to King 3", and having
much at stake concentrated his mind on the game and likewise
proceeded to develop his forces to the best advantage. The game
was long and hotly contested. At length, by a judicious sacri-
fice of a rook, the Lieutenant overreached the Captain and ef-
fected mate in a style that would have done credit to a Morphy or
a Capablanca. There was no need of further examination.

116 Mississippi Historical Society.

Courage and coolness in action had been tested in actual battle
many times, and intellectual power was proved in this game of
war. Captain Porter and his board unanimously recommended
Deupree's promotion, and thus the Lieutenant became Captain.
In this connection, it may be added that he was a favorite of
Colonel Pinson's, who when in command of the brigade always
appointed T. J. Deupree to a staff position,

hood's rear-guard.

While Buford picketed the Cumberland towards the Hermitage
and some infantry destroyed the railroad from LaVergne to
Murfreesboro, Jackson's cavalry operated south of Murfrees-
boro and by a brilliant dash captured a train of nineteen cars and
the Sixty-first Illinois Infantry. The train loaded heavily with
military supplies was burned and the prisoners were sent to the
rear. Receiving a message from Hood that a general engage-
ment was in progress in front of Nashville with instructions to
hold his command in readiness to participate, Forrest on the 18th
withdrew to Wilkinson's Cross-Roads. Here he received tidings
of Hood's disastrous defeat. He was ordered to fall back
towards Dtick River, concentrate the cavalry, and be prepared to
fall in the rear of our retreating army. Chalmers' division, joined
by Buford's at Franklin, in conjunction with S. D. Lee's corps,
now in the rear, fought heroically during the 17th and 18th to
hold back the pursuing enemy, who made every possible effort to
rout the retreating column. Though he had been seriously
wounded on the 17th, Lee would not relinquish his command till
the safety of his corps was assured. He was then succeeded by
Major-General Stephenson. After reaching Duck River, where
he had purposed to spend the winter. Hood decided that the heavy
losses incurred at Franklin and Nashville had so reduced his
strength that he must cross the Tennessee as soon as possible.
Forrest agreed to protect the rear and to check the relentless pur-
suit made by Wilson's cavalry and Thomas' infantry, if in addi-
tion to his cavalry, now not more than 3,000 effectives, he could
have under his orders 4,000 select infantry under G€neral E. C.

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 117

Walthall. Just here, I shall quote from the report of General
Thomas the following pertinent paragraph :

"Forrest with his cavalry and such other detachments, as had
been sent off from his main army, joined Hood at Columbia. He
had formed a powerful rear-guard, numbering about 4,000 infan-
try and all his available cavalry. With the exception of this rear-
guard, his army had become a disheartened and disorganized
rabble of half-armed and bare-footed men, who sought every op-
portunity to fall out by the wayside and desert their cause, so as
to put an end to their sufferings. The rear-guard, hozvever, was
undaunted and firm and did its zvork bravely to the end."

In this connection, I also quote the following from Wyeth's
Life of Forrest: "Of the infantry which volunteered its service to
cover the Confederate retreat, fully three hundred were without
shoes, and their feet were so badly cut by the ice and the rocks
that they could with difficulty hobble along on foot. The brave
fellows, however, had not lost heart, -but were willing to fight to
the death, if needed. They wrapped pieces of blanket around
their raw and bleeding feet, tied them up with thongs, and
trudged .painfully along, staining the snow and slush as they
went, until Forrest ordered some wagons to be emptied of their
contents in order to furnish transportation to these unconquerable
men. Whenever it became necessary to fight off the Union ad-
vance, they left their wagons, took the"r places in line, and did
effective service. When the uncomplaining sacrifices which these
heroic patriots made becomes fully known, historians and poets
will transmit to posterity the thrilling story of the immortal rear-
guard of Hood's army under Forrest and Walthall."

RICHLAND CREEK.

At Richland Creek south of Columbia, Forrest made a stand.
Six pieces of artillery were favorably placed on the main pike,
supported by the cavalry. What impression was made on Gen-
eral Wilson, after coming up and viewing the position, may be
gathered from the following extract from his report : "The pur-
suit was resumed on the 24th. Hood's reorganized rear-guard

118 Mississippi Historical Society.

under the redoubtable Forrest was soon encountered by the cav-
alry advance-guard ; and Forrest was a leader not to be attacked
by a handful of men, however bold. The few remaining teams
and the rabble of Hood's army had been hurried on towards the
Tennessee, marching to Pulaski by turnpike and thence to Bain-
biidge by the dirt roads of the country. Hood's rear-guard had
thus a clear road, and when hard pressed could fall back rapidly.
The country to the right and the left of the pike was open and
broken, heavily timbered and almost impassable, while the turn-
pike itself, threading the valleys, depressions, and gorges, ofifered
many advantageous positions for defense ; hence with a few men
offering determined opposition, the pursuing force could be made
to halt and develop a front almost anywhere, and its progress in
consequence was at many times comparatively slow."

Wilson would not attack but waited for Thomas' infantry to
come to his aid, and then with his cavalry he began a flanking
movement to gain our rear." Forrest withdrew in order to meet
this maneuver, leaving Armstrong's and Ross' brigades to make
obstinate resistance against any attack that might be made upon
them. This they did and retired only when about to be over-
whelmed.

ANtHONY's HILL.

Forrest's next stand was at Anthony's Hill, seven miles south
of Pulaski, forty-two miles from Bainbridge, where Hood's army
was to cross the Tennessee. At this time, as General Thomas Jor-
dan says in his "Campaigns of General Forrest", the enemy were
coming on in vast numbers. General Wilson had already passed
Pulaski with 10,000 cavalry, and Thomas had reached that point
with a larger force of infantry ; and both were pressing forward
in eager pursuit. To prevent the annihilation of Hood's army, a
desperate effort must be made to delay the enemy as long as
possible. Fortunately, the ground was favorable. The approach
to Anthony's Hill for two miles was through a defile formed by
two steep high ridges, which united at their common southern
extremity to form Anthony's Hill, whose ascent was steep. Both
these ridges and Anthony's Hill in which they united, were heav-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 119

ily wooded. In the language of General Jordan, "Morton's bat-
tery was established on the immediate summit of the Hill so as
to sweep the hollow below as well as the road running through it.
Along the crest of the hill and around on the ridge were Feather-
ston's and Palmer's brigades of Walthall's division, reinforced by
400 of Ross' Texans and a like number of Armstrong's Mississip-
pians, dismounted. The rest of Jackson's division were disposed
as cavalry on either flank, with Reynold's and Field's brigades of
infantry held in reserve. The infantry had further strengthened
their position by breastworks of rails and logs, and skirmishers
were posted in line under cover on the hillside. At the same
time, Chalmers was halted a mile and a half to the rightward, on
the road along which he was moving, in order to guard that flank
from being turned. So broken and deeply timbered was this re-
gion that the concealment of the Confederates was complete.
About 1 o'clock the Confederate cavalry withdrew slowly into the
mouth of the glen and the Federal cavalry pursued closely. To
the Federals the place began to look so dangerous that their com-
mander thought it requisite to dismount several of his regiments
before ascending the hill. These he pushed forward with a piece
of artillery. The Confederates, meanwhile, had ridden rapidly
through the hollow, up and over the hill, as if they had been left
unsupported, and the enemy was permitted to ascend within fifty
paces of our skirmishers without hindrance. Then Morton broke
the grim silence with cannister, while the skirmishers enveloped
the enemy with a hot galling fire from front and flank, followed
soon by a still heavier fire from the main line of Confederate
infantry. The enemy, thoroughly surprised and returning but a
feeble and scattering fire, gave way to disorder, when the Con-
federates sprang forward with a yell and charged down the hill
upon them, rushing through the horses of the dismounted men
and halting but once to deliver another volley. Thus the enemy
were driven in great confusion out of the defile. Then Forrest
recalled his men from their hot pursuit so as to avoid becoming
entangled with the Federal infantry, which by this time was near
at hand. The enemy left behind 158 killed and wounded, 59 un-

120 Mississif^i Historical Society.

wounded prisoners, 300 cavalry horses fully equipped, as many
overcoats, one 12-pounder Napoleon, with its team of eight
horses intact. The Conferedate loss did not exceed 15 killed and
40 grounded."

Among our wounded at Anthony's Hill was George W. Alford
of the Deupree Mess of the Noxubee cavalry. No truer or braver
man ever faced the foe in battle. As usual he was with the fore-
most in pursuit of the fleeing Federals, when a bullet pierced his
chest. So serious was his condition, he could not be transported
rearward even in an ambulance. His young friend and mess-
mate, T. S. Brooks, volunteered to remain and care for him,
though knowing that this would result in his capture and impris-
onment, after we retreated. Brooks was at this time only a lad
under eighteen years of age, though a veteran by reason of two
years of service with us. By tender, faithful, and affectionate
nursing, Alford slowly and gradually began to recover. But long
before he could be moved without pain, or serious risk to life, the
Federals sent Alford and Brooks to a Northern prison, where
they remained till the war ended. Afterwards, for many years,
Alford was a useful citizen and christian in the Deerbrook neigh-
borhood of Noxubee county; and at this writing. Brooks is liv-
ing with a married daughter on our Gulf coast, esteemed by all
who know him as an honest man and a devout follower of the
lowly Nazarene.

Pertinent to the fight at Anthony's Hill, I quote the following
from the report of Wilson to the commander of the Fourth Army
Corps: "We are now four miles from Pulaski on the Lamb's
Ferry road, and have met with a slight check. If you bring up
your infantry, we may get some prisoners; and, I think, then I
shall be able to drive Forrest off. Just before sundown on Christ-
mas-Eve, Forrest in a fit of desperation made a stand on a heav-
ily wooded ridge at the head of a ravine, and by a rapid and sav-
age counter-thrust drove back Harrison's brigade, captured one
gun, which he succeeded in carrying away as the sole trophy of
his desperate attack."

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 121

SUGAR CREEK.

The day was now drawing to a close and heavy columns of Fed-
eral cavalry by making wide detours had begun to menace seri-
ously our flanks. All the advantages of this position had been
exhausted ; and, after sending ahead all prisoners and captured
munitions, Forrest retired in good order. The roads were
wretched. Horses had to be driven or ridden through slush and
mud from two to three feet deep. Infantry marched, many of
them barefooted, through ice-cold streams waist-deep, while rain
and sleet beat upon them from above. However, by 1 o'clock
that night we reached Sugar Creek, a clear stream with pebbly
bottom. Here both men and horses were glad to halt and to have
the mud and mire washed from their feet and legs. Being now
thoroughly wet, we built fires and rested till daylight.

When the first streaks of dawn flushed the eastern sky, we
strengthened our position by a lay-out of rails and logs, and then
quietly awaited the approach of the enemy. A thick fog con-
cealed our breastworks. As the Federals advanced, our pickets
with little resistance fell back slowly, till they had drawn their
pursuers within musket-range of the unseen Confederate line.
Having then joined us, our pickets fired a volley into the unsus-
pecting Federals and threw them into more or less confusion,
and they began a rapid and disorderly retreat. A charge by Ross'
cavalry and two infantry regiments completed the rout of the en-
emy. Strong bodies of infantry and cavalry were met marching
rapidly to rally and reinforce the fugitives, when our men with-
drew to Sugar Creek and remained in line of battle for more than
two hours. As the enemy failed to appear, we retreated towards
the Tennessee. General Forrest in his report says "The enemy
made no further attacks between Sugar Creek and the Tennessee
River, which stream I crossed on Dfccember the 27th."

TWENTY DAVS^ FURLOUGH.

Forrest proceeded to Corinth with all the cavalry, except Arm-
strong's and Roddy's brigades, that were to protect Hood's rear
till the army passed westward of Cherokee Station. All the cav-

123 Mississippi Historical ScKiety.

airy but Ross' brigade were then allowed to disperse to their
homes to get remounts, winter-clothing, and recruits. The Tex-
ans were too far from home and the Mississippi River was too
well guarded by gun-boats. The Noxubee Squadron of Pinson's
regiment were furloughed for twenty days. It goes without
saying, we had the time of our lives. All the delights of home
were experienced. I cannot describe them as they deserve to be
portrayed, and shall not undertake to do so. But I hazard naught
when I claim that Lieutenant S. B. D^y, Alec McCaskill, and
J. G. Deupree were at least somewhat more fortunate than the oth-
ers. We were challenged one afternoon by three beautiful and
amiable and expert Chess amateurs. Misses Duck Foote, daugh-
ter of our first Captain, Judge H. W. Foote, Pattie Lyle, after-
wards famous as Mrs. Pattie Lyle Collins of the Dead Letter Of-
fice in Washington, and Fannie Lucas, afterwards Mrs. Feather-
stone of Brooksville, to play a consultation game of Qiess that
evening at the hospitable home of Judge Foote. In the exuber-
ance of joy, we accepted, knowing full well the great pleasure in
store for us. When we arrived, we found all preparations had
been made. Two tables and sets of Chess-men had been ar-
ranged, one in each of the double parlors. Around one table sat
the three queens of ^race and beauty while at the other the cav-
alrymen took their places. Judge Foote, himself a good player
also, was chosen referee by unanimous vote ; for though we knew
his innate gallantry would incline him to give the benefit of any
doubt to the ladies, we felt sure his rare judicial temperament
would make him a just arbiter of any disputed point that might
arise in the progress of the game. By drawing, the ladies won the
Whites and the initial move. They moved Paimi to King 4. We
replied the same. Shortly after we had passed the mid-game, the
cavalrymen by skillful maneuvering outwitted the opposing team
and were preparing to give the coup de grace. Each side had a
passed Pawn on the seventh rank. It was the Black's turn to
play. After some consultation, the cavalrymen decided they
would advance the passed Paivn to the eighth rank, claim a
Knight, and thus at the same time check the white King and men-
ace the white Queen. But, foreseeing this impending disaster,

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 123

the ladies executed a novel strategy to prevent it. By the tintin-
nabulation of a tiny bell, they summoned a maid-servant bearing
a waiter, which contained seven foaming glasses of egg-nog,
better far, from a soldier's view-point, than the nectar of Olympi-
an Jupiter. The ladies sipped gently, while the soldiers drained
their glasses. While there is no positive proof that these last
glasses were extra-strong, it is certain that an instantaneous thrill
sped along the nerves of the cavalrymen, obfuscated their reason-
ing faculties, and kindled their imaginations. Caring naught for
hazard or peril, they shoved the passed Pawn, and, forgetting
their decision to claim a Knight, they called for a Queen, which
did not check, as the Knight would have done. This was fatal.
The ladies then quietly pushed forward their passed Pawn and
very properly claimed a Queen, which checked our King and
after a few moves effected a mate. Thus ended the game and an
evening of dehght. How sad it is now to reflect that I am the
only survivor of that most felicitous evening's entertainment!

CLASH WITH UPTON.

I need not undertake to give a full and detailed account of
Wilson's invasion of Alabama, with perhaps the largest and in
all respects the best armed body of cavalry ever assembled on the
continent of America. To those interested, I advise the read-
ing of Wyeth's Life of Forrest. After the expiration of fur-
loughs, Armstrong's brigade all assembled near West Point,
Miss., just as Armstrong had pledged General Dick Taylor they
would do; and, on March 25th with King's battery, were put in
motion towards Selma, Ala. The cavalry had been regrouped
somewhat, so that Jackson commanded a division of Tennes-
seeans and Texans, while Armstrong was put in the division of
Chalmers. Forrest temporarily enlarged his own escort by add-
ing to it two-hundred men with the best horses selected from
the several regiments of Armstrong's brigade. With them was
Captain T. J. Deupree of the Noxubee Cavalry. By hard riding
accompanied by this enlarged escort, on the afternoon of the
31st Forrest was moving along the road leading from Centre-

124 Mississippi Historical Society.

ville to Montevallo, while Crossland's three-hundred Kentuck-
ians and Dan Adams' Alabama Militia and Roddy's small divi-
sion were driven before Upton's and Long's troops under Wil-
son. Forrest at leng-th came in behind these Federals into the
road on which the Alabamians and Kentuckians were retreating
and the Federals were pursuing. What occurred I shall now
tell in the language of Dr. Wyeth:

"Having approached within less than one-hundred yards of
the Federals, who were in considerable confusion after having
lost their formation in their hot pursuit of the fleeing Confeder-
ates, Forrest boldly, at the head of his staff and his enlarged es-
cort, ordered the men to draw their six-shooters and in column
of fours charged directly into the road, riding along with the
Federal cavalry. This sudden and altogether unexpected attack,
its boldness, and the severe work of the repeating pistols in the
hands of those picked men, threw the Federals into still greater
confusion, and drove them in a stampede from the scene. Hav-
ing captured a number of prisoners, Forrest learned that Wil-
son's main command had passed down the road and was between
him and Selma. With this information, he left the road and
after a detour of eight or ten miles rapidly, passed around the
Federal column, and reached his command about 10 o'clock that
night near Randolph and directly in the path of the approaching
enemy.

UNWELCOME TIDINGS FROM CHALMERS.

"As the divisions of Upton and Long advanced towards Selma
early on the morning of April 1st, they encountered small de-
tachments of Confederates and drove them back with slight ef-
fort tmtil they reached a point several miles north of Planters-
ville, known as Ebenezer Church. Here Forrest was greatly
chagrined to receive a message from Chalmers informing him
he had met with such obstacles in his route that he could not
reach Plantersville in time to unite with him on that day. For-
rest was furious with rage on reading this dispatch. He then
sent an urgent dispatch to his lieutenant that Wilson was press-
ing down upon him with great vigor and overwhelming forces.

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 125

and that he would accept no excuse for his not uniting with him'
at Plantersville or between that place and Selma, before he
should be driven into the works of that city. Forrest insisted
that Chalmers had not moved with the alacrity and swiftness
which the emergency demanded, and which had characterized
him on all other occasions. Chalmers, with Starke's brigade,
was marching eastward by one route, while Armstrong com-
manding the other brigade of the division was some five miles
further north travelling by a parallel road. The messenger from
Forrest to Chalmers passed through Armstrong's command, and
Armstrong read the dispatch and forwarded it immediately to
Chalmers, informing him that under the circumstances he would
not wait to receive orders but would march to Forrest on his
own responsibility and urged the division commander also to
press on towards Plantersville to the rescue of their chief. He
added that he could then hear firing in that direction and that
he would rapidly march towards it. Armstrong, who had the
soldierly habit of always arriving in time, swept forward with
great rapidity and reached Forrest just at dark on the night of
April 1st.

bogler's creek.

"Realizing the desperate situation of his command at this junc-
ture and the necessity for holding the advance of the Federals
in check until Qialmers could reach Plantersville and be in sup-
porting distance, Forrest had selected a naturally strong position
at the crossing of Bogler's Creek, had thrown up lay-outs of
rails and logs, and had placed the small force and artillery at
his command in the best possible position for defense. Here
Roddy's division, Crossland's brigade, and Dan Adams' militia
were thrown into line of battle. Forrest with his enlarged es-
cort, including the two-hundred men selected from Armstrong's
brigade, took position immediately with the artillery command-
ing the road coming from the north. To his left, Crossland's
three-hundred Kentuckians were posted, while on the extreme
right a detachment of State troops under Dan Adams was
placed. The entire Confederate force on the field did not exceed

126 Mississippi Historical Society.

2,000 men. To assail this force, General Wilson had on the
ground and in action Upton's division, 3,900 strong. Long's
division of 5,127, and two full batteries of artillery.

SIX-SHOOTERS AGAINST SABRES.

"At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Federals appeared with
Long's division in front. As soon as the skirmishers opened
fire, Long reinforced his advance-guard. . . . Pushing these
forward, Wilson and Long ordered a rash sabre-charge by four
companies of the Seventeenth Indiana Cavalry. As soon as
Forrest saw these gallant troopers riding down upon him with
their sabres in air, he placed himself in line with his augmented
escort and Crossland's Kentuckians. He ordered the men to re-
serve their rifle-fire until the enemy had come within one-hun-
dred yards of their position, then to fire a volley, then to draw
their revolvers, and with one in each hand to ride among and
along with their assailants and use these weapons at close quar-
ters. As the Federals came near, the horse of one trooper in
their front plattoon became unmanageable, ran far ahead of the
line, bolted through the Confederates, and struck the wheel of
a gun with such momentum as to knock the wheel from its spin-
dle, dismount the gun, kill the horse, and throw the brave rider
to the ground, where he was instantly killed by being knocked
in the head with a gun-stick by one of the artillerists. As the
main body of the charging column swept into the Confederate
line. Forest and his enlarged escort and two companies of Ken-
tuckians under Captain H. A. Tyler rode in among them, and
the desperate encounter which occurred may be more easily imag-
ined than described in words. It was, indeed, one of the most
terrific hand-to-hand conflicts which occurred between cavalry
soldiers during the war. It was a test between the sabre in the
hands of as brave a lot of men as ever rode horses and the six-
shooter in the hands of experts that were just as desperately
brave and daring. Forrest himself was most viciously assaulted.
His conspicuous presence made him the object of direct attack
by a brave young officer, Captain Taylor of the Seventeenth In-

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 127

diana Cavalry, and five or six other Union troopers, who were
killed in their attempt to slay the Confederate General. In this
fierce onslaught, the Federals lost twelve killed and forty
wounded. ... On the Confederate side, General Forrest
and Captain Boone of his escort and about a dozen troopers
were wounded, but none of them fatally". I regret my inability
to give the names of the wounded troopers from the First Mis-
sissippi Cavalry in Forrest's enlarged escort.

Meantime, Upton's division, led by Alexander's brigade, ad-
vanced upon the flank, practically in rear of the Confederates,
striking the militia. Without oflfering the slightest resistance,
these fled in disorder, compelling the entire Confederate line to
be withdrawn.

AT SELMA.

When General Forrest reported on April 2d to General Dick
Taylor, Departmental Commander in Selma, he evidently made
a strong impression, for General Taylor said in an official com-
munication: "General Forrest had fought as if the world de-
pended on his arm. He appeared, both horse and rider covered
with blood, and announced the enemy at his heels, and said I
must move at once to escape capture. I felt anxious for him,
but he said he was unhurt and would cut his way through, as
most of his men had done, whom he had ordered to meet him
west of the Cahawba. My engine started towards Meridian and
barely escaped."

By the departure of General Taylor, the chief command de-
volved upon Forrest, who began at once to make dispositions for
defense, hopeless as it seemed, as three of his largest brigades
were absent and beyond his control. Armstrong's brigade, about
1,400 strong, was stationed on the left and west, with the men
deployed at intervals of 12 or 15 feet, in order to cover all the
ground assigned to the brigade. On the right of Armstrong was
Dan Adams with his State Militia, also deployed at like inter-
vals, and to the right of the militia were Roddy's men, in the
same extended development. Altogether, Forrest had about

128 Mississippi Historical Society.

3,000 men in works that had been designed and constructed for
20,000.

Lieutenant Tom Stevens and a dozen men from the Noxubee
Squadron were detailed as scouts to go out and ascertain the
number of Federals approaching on the Plantersville road. Shelt
Skinner and J. G. Deupree were posted in a thicket only a few
feet east of the road with instructions to count the fours as the
column of Federals rapidly passed along the road. This they
did quietly and unobserved by the Federals for some time. At
length, however, flankers discovered Skinner and Deupree and
charged upon them. Quickly mounting and finding it impossible
to get into the Selma road ahead of the Federal column. Skinner
and Deupree rode east at a gallop through field and forest with
a number of pursuing Federals chasing and firing at them till
after sunset. Lieutenant Stevens and others of our squad were
likewise cut oflf from Selma.

Meantime, General Wilson had come within sight of Selma
and made observations that induced him to attack. Confident of
success and appreciating the prize now almost within his grasp,
he approached with special care to avoid needless loss. An ex-
tensive wood in front of Armstrong's position was favorable for
this purpose. Though not provided with suitable ammunition,
having only solid shot, the Confederate artillery opened about
5:30 p. m. upon the Federals as they were forming for assault.
Undaunted, the Federals moved steadily and handsomely for-
ward to their work. They were all well armed with Spenser
rifles, repeaters, and breech-loaders, and from their massive lines
three-deep they poured out an incessant stream of leaden hail,
to which the return-fire of the attenuated Confederate line was
as that of a skirmish to the mighty uproar of a great battle at
its climax. Long in person led the desperate charge of his gal-
lant division against Armstrong's position. With well-attested
courage and stubbornness, Armstrong's men held their ground.
Meanwhile, the militia began to yield and gradually abandoned
the breastworks, leaving a wide gap between Armstrong and
Roddy, and thus exposing Armstrong's right. Roddy was there-
upon ordered to move by his left flank westward and close this

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 129

gap; but, before he could do it, the enemy had rushed the de-
serted line and interposed great numbers between Armstrong
and Roddy, thus effectively cutting them asunder. Turning
westward, the on-rushing Federals poured an enfilading fire upon
Armstrong, who had repulsed three attacks upon his front and
inflicted heavy loss upon his immediate assailants. Now, how-
ever, under fire from flank and rear as well as front, Armstrong
withdrew and his brigade necessarily suffered greatly. The last
to leave their position were the First Mississippi Cavalry under
Pinson. They stoutly stood until the enemy were completely in
their rear, so that the Colonel, the Lieutenant-Colonel, and most
of the intrepid officers and men were captured.

Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomery in his "Reminiscences" says:
"Our regiment occupied the works to the left, extending from
the road to a deep and narrow ravine which crossed the works
and ran for a little way in front of the works on our extreme
left. Near the road was a special fort, in which a few hundred
men might find shelter, with embrasures for guns. Here two
guns were placed. Ballentine's regiment was in the works on
the right of the road. . . . About half-way to the extreme
left of the First Mississippi, resting on the ravine, there were
high earthworks projecting at 'right angles from the breastworks
some thirty feet or more. This was designed, perhaps, to pre-
vent an enfilading fire, if the enemy should gain possession of
our works on either side of this salient. Here I had tied my
horse, a very fine one and but recently purchased. I walked
then up to the fort; Colonel Pinson and I agreed that if an as-
sault was made, he would take charge of the right and I of the
left of the regiment, since the regiment had been stretched into
a long line. Forrest, Armstrong, Pinson, and I were in the fort
with some other officers. Occasionally a cannon shot was fired
at the ridge which hid the enemy from our view. They then
brought up a gun and returned our fire. I doubt not. Forrest
was cursing Chalmers for not coming up or else praying that he
would come speedily. The sun was nearly down. A long dark
line of men appeared on the brow of the ridge, moving slowly
forward for a while, but soon charging and cheering and rush-

130 Mississippi Historical Society.

ing onward. I hastened to my place in line and was just in time
to caution the men not to fire till I gave the word, for the enemy
were yet too far for our fire to be effective.

"Rapidly approaching behind the dismounted Federals, could
be seen on the ridge a strong column of mounted men, awaiting
a favorable moment to charge. I could no longer restrain my
men ; they would begin firing too soon. But, as the enemy came
nearer, I could plainly see the effects of our fire, though it did
not appreciably check the progress of our assailants. Because of
the salient, I could not see what was going on towards our right ;
but in my immediate front the enemy had reached the ravine
and were crowding into it to protect themselves from our galling
fire. Many of them were within less than twenty feet of our
breastworks. Stepping up on the banquette at the base of the
parapet, I fired my Tranter five times into the struggling mass
and had begun reloading, when I heard wild cheering to the
right. With me were four companies, including Montgomery's
and the Noxubee Squadron; and, knowing we had effectively
repulsed the enemy in our immediate front and that two com-
panies could now hold our line, I ordered two companies to fol-
low me to the right. As I came round the salient, I saw For-
rest, Armstrong, and their staffs, and other mounted men, with
one or two caissons, going at headlong speed towards the city.
. . . I knew that all was lost. The right* of the regiment
was even then rapidly retreating, Pinson with them calling 'Half
at every step. There was no time for me to speak to the Colo-
nel. Unhitching my horse and calling to the men to follow, I
fell back towards the ravine in our rear, but my horse fell dead
before we reached it. I could see the Federals pouring over the
works to the right not a hundred yards away and their mounted
column fast approaching. As we reached the ravine, the enemy
were firing upon us. Realizing the impossibility of getting away,
I gave my last order during the war, which was for the men to
throw down their arms. In a moment a crowd of blue-coats had
gathered around us. I suppose I had fifty men with me under
Captain Cravens. Captain Montgomery had gotten across the
ravine and was one of the few men of the regiment to escape

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 131

death or wound or capture. I at once recognized a Federal ser-
geant from his chevrons. He demanded my pistol. I handed
it to him. He then asked for my pocket-book. I took it out,
saying it contained a locket with my wife's portrait which I
would like to keep. He said that would be all right; and as I
opened my pocket-book, he saw Confederate money and said if
that was the only sort of money I had that I might keep it. This
was the unkindest cut of all. I put the purse back into my
pocket. He looked up and told me to give him my hat. It was
brand new and had been smuggled through Memphis, and my
wife had looped it up on one side and embroidered a star on it.
I prized it highly and hated to part with it. But the sergeant
had lost his in the charge and would take no denial. I then gave
it to him with as good a grace as possible. All this was done in
less time than it takes to tell it. . . . As we were marching
back towards our fort, a straggler of the Federal army stepped
up to me and with an oath threatened to shoot me ; but the brave
sergeant threw up the gun and cursed him as a cowardly scoun-
drel, who had shirked the fight and now wished to murder pris-
oners. . . . The sun was down and as a Major on General
Wilson's staff rode up, I introduced myself and related what had
just happened. He at once called the sergeant and gave him
stringent orders to protect the prisoners. . . . Then as dusk
came on. Colonel Pinson, Major Simmons, Captains Taylor, Les-
ter, Deupree, and other officers of the regiment were brought
in; and the fort would not hold us all. In fact, the First Mis-
sissippi had fought its last battle; and almost to a man, we had
been killed, wounded, or captured. ... I have never seen
General Wilson's report. Neither Forrest nor Armstrong ever
made a report.

"They guarded us in the fort through the long and dreary
night, and next morning dawned upon as woe-begone a lot of
cavalry as was ever seen during the war. Tired, hungry, sleepy,
and dirty, we must have been a hard-looking set, if we looked
at all as we felt. ... In the course of the morning, Colonel
Pinson, myself, and Captain Tobe Taylor requested permission
to go over the field and see our dead and wounded. This was

132 Mississippi Historical Society.

promptly granted. A guard went with us. From the works as
far back as some of our men had gone when trying to escape,
fully a half-mile, we found dead and wounded, though some of
the wounded had been carried to a hospital under the care of our
surgeons.

"As we went over the ground, we found that the pockets of
the dead had been turned wrong-side-out. One brave fellow,
whom I knew well, who had gotten further than any other of
the dead, had his pockets also turned inside-out, and by his side
lay his bible. He had been noted for his piety as well as for his
courage, and his influence for good was marked. He belonged
to Captain Lester's company, was a good man in every way and
a brave soldier, and has gone to his reward. . . . Our guard
took us to our hospital, which had been hastily prepared. Here
we found among others our Adjutant Johnston, and we were
shocked when Dr. Montgomery told us his hours were numbered.
We said all we could to cheer him and bade him an affectionate
and final adieu. He died that night. Many others of our regi-
ment and brigade were there, and we saw them all; some lived,
and some died ; but I cannot now recall their names. Altogether,
about one hundred in our regiment were killed and wounded,
and about as many in Ballentine's. We were then escorted back
to our prison in the fort. While we were walking over the field,
a Federal took a fancy to Colonel Pinson's hat, but our guards
proved to be kind-hearted and brave and protected Colonel Pin-
son.

I have heard Captain T. J. Deupree tell how he and Lieuten-
ants Day and Foote emptied their navy-sixes right into the faces
of the Federal assailants on their part of the line, and how our
Noxubee men stood firmly and repulsed several assaults and in-
flicted heavy loss on the enemy. He also told how the Federal
cavalry, after rushing through the gap left by the fleeing militia,
had turned westward and come up directly in the rear of the
Noxubee Squadron and fired into their backs before they left
the breastworks. He said that he and Day and Foote and others
fell flat on their faces and feigned death to protect themselves
from the frenzied Federals till a commissioned officer came, to

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 133

whom they might surrender. Though but a few minutes, it
seemed an age and a fearful one at that. At length, however, a
Major came along, and they were saved. The Major received
their surrender and ordered the officers to the fort.

It will be of interest just here to insert the following condensed
statement from the Diary of Sergeant J. J. Hunter, of the Noxu-
bee Troopers:

When the First Mississippi fronted into line, before going into
the breastworks at Selma, they counted off by fours; and I, be-
ing No. 4, was among those who had to hold horses. We car-
ried the horses back two-hundred yards into a dense pine-thicket
to hide them from the artillery. But the hostile artillerymen
somehow discovered us and shelled us, killing many horses and
wounding a few men. A fragment of shell grazed my shoulder
and a passing shell blew my hat off and exploded within the belly
of a horse not far behind me and made hash-meat of the horse.
We held our position, however, till the Yankees began pouring
over the breastworks. Then most of the horseholders stampeded
to the rear, riding their own horses but turning loose the others.
I with a few others walked back slowly, each leading four horses,
obliquing so as to fall-in with General Armstrong, who was try-
ing to rally his men. He ordered us to mount and to follow him.
Just at this moment, a minle-ball passed through my right knee;
and I violently clutched the bridles of my horses till I could re-
cover from the shock, resting my weight entirely on my left leg.
General Armstrong saw me and ordered some men to put me on
my horse. I then fainted, leaning on my horse's neck and cling-
ing to his mane, while a man on each side held me in the saddle,
as we were all going at full speed. I next found myself lying-
on the ground beside the road about one-hundred yards from a
railroad station-house and platform. About one-hundred yards
behind me was the Yankee line firing at our men about the sta-
tion as they crouched behind cotton-bales and the blocks of the
platform. I was midway between the two firing lines and fully
realized my danger. I pulled my wounded leg from under me
and crawled about ten feet and got behind a bale of cotton, which
protected me from the Yankee missiles ; and a Confederate officer

134 Mississippi Historical Society.

ordered our men to be careful not to shoot me. During a brief
lull in the firing, two of Roddy's men came and carried me back
to the station and laid me behind one of the platform blocks.
When the Yankees resumed firing, I borrowed an Enfield and
fired four rounds at them before they fled. I was then put on a
pallet and left in the station. An Alabamian staid with me. The
Yankees came and we surrendered. They carried off the un-
wounded Alabamian. A rough old German asked me if we were
not sufficiently whipped. I told him we would fight to the last
to protect homes, fire-sides, women and children. He jerked out
his pistol and said that the bullet should have gone through my
head, rather than through my knee; and said he would put one
there. I told him he might kill my body but could not terrify
my soul. Just then some Westerners came up and presented
their pistols to his face, denounced him as a coward, and ordered
him at once to put his pistol in its holster, and leave the helpless
prisoner. Those brave Westerners assured me I should not be
hurt. At length, one of them looking me closely in the face
asked if I was not Sergeant Hunter. I told him this was what
was left of me. He grasped my hand and said: "Here is the
man who once guarded me as a prisoner for several days and
treated me as cleverly and kindly as I could wish. Comrades,
join me now in returning his generous kindness". He introduced
me and they all gave me the hand of comradeship and proffered
to help me all they could. They told me all of our regiment had
been captured at the breastworks and quite a number had been
killed, much to their regret, as they considered the First Missis-
sippi the best cavalry regiment in the Southern army, noted as
a dare-devil body of men, who feared nothing whatever, as they
had found out in many engagements but especially at Moscow,
Tennessee, where the First Mississippi had run into their brigade
of three regiments and so destroyed them, that afterwards the
three regiments were consolidated into one and called the Second
Iowa-Illinois. They said they were in the third line in the charge
on our breastworks at Selma, that the two lines in front of them
gave way, but they rushed on and got under cover of the breast-
works and dared not go further, knowing the First Mississippi

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 135

was in front of them. They waited till the First Mississippi had
been attacked in the rear, and then did what they could to save
their lives, capturing all the officers and many of the men. Be-
fore leaving me, they had me taken to a private house near by.
Here I fell to the care of an old negro who had been left in
charge when the family fled to escape the Yankees. I was put
in the kitchen. When I got cold, the good negro made me a fire.
I dropped off to sleep but was waked soon by bursting shells.
I looked out and saw the town on fire and the station house, too,
whence I had been brought. Cinders and sparks fell almost
everywhere, thick and fast around the house I was in. I called
the negro but he did not answer. I fell, at length, into a gentle
sleep. I awoke next morning and the sun was shining brightly,
and I spent the day reading quietly and all alone. At night I
was sleeping when three of my Yankee friends woke me about
9 o'clock and told me they had an ambulance ready to take me
to the Confederate hospital. They said they had been busy all
day burying the dead and caring for the wounded. Their loss,
they said, exceeded 800, and ours 300, exclusive of a large num-
ber of prisoners. At the hospital, the surgeons consulted as to
the amputation of my leg, and but one opposed amputation.
Then the chief surgeon came and after my pleading with him,
consented to leave me my leg. It was washed and dressed, and
I was placed on a bunk, so that my leg could hang over the side.
It got well with a crook in it and it has that same crook yet. The
Yankee surgeon sent me some nice food which I enjoyed amaz-
ingly, for I had eaten nothing during thirty-six hours. Father
and mother came within the next few days and remained with
me. I was well treated and recovered rapidly. I was soon on
my crutches. So ended the war with me."

Besides J. J. Hunter, who had here received his fifth wound
since entering the service, Gus Fant and others were wounded
in Company F; while Nat Barnett, James Brooks, John Fraser,
Charley Gray, Dabney Gholson, William Perry, and Wiley Shaw
were killed. The killed and wounded in Company F were fully
50% of those engaged in the battle. I regret I cannot give a
list of the killed and wounded in Company G. But their casual-

136 Mississippi Historical Society.

ties were comparatively few ; and it will always be a mystery
how and why the losses of Co. F so far exceeded those of Com-
pany G at Sclma, when the two companies were interlaced, as
it were, in the breastworks, each member of one company being
sandwiched, so to speak, between two members of the other com-
pany. All other members of the Noxubee Squadron, except
some horseholders, were captured, as were our dashing and in-
trepid Adjutant, Lawrence Yates and other regimental and com-
pany officers.

Wyeth's Life of Forrest tells how he escaped and on his way
out fought the Fourth U. S. Regulars, and by personal prowess
put hers de combat his thirtieth armed enemy, and how Arm-
strong and his followers escaped.

Our squad under Lieutenant Stevens, after being chased by
the Federals till late, somehow next morning came together, and
by capturing several distinct detachments of straggling and pil-
fering Federals soon had more than twice as many prisoners as
there were men in our squad. We reported late at night to Col-
onel Matt Galloway at Marion, Ala. Here in a few days were
concentrated Jackson's division and Chalmers' brigade. Not
long afterwards, Forrest ordered all to Gainsville.

General Wilson remained in Selma a week and then crossed
the Alaban\a River, taking all unwounded prisoners with him,
as he marched towards Montgomery. Hundreds escaped during
the night-march, as only the officers were closely guarded. It
is evident that Wilson intended to scatter the Confederates along
the way; for on successive days he paroled many at long inter-
vals. For example, he paroled W. G. White and Frank White,
two brothers and both valiant and faithful soldiers, more than
100 miles apart. Then, after confirmation of Lee's and John-
ston's surrender, Wilson paroled all the officers and the few Con-
federate privates still with him. Finally, all made their way to
Gainsville.

After the surrender of General Dick Taylor, Forrest on May
9th issued an address to his command, from which I quote the
following paragraphs:

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 137

"Soldiers,—

By an agreement between Lieutenant-General Taylor and
Major-General Canby, the troops of this Department have been
surrendered. The terms are favorable and should be satisfactory
to all. They manifest a spirit of magnanimity and liberality on
the part of the Federal authorities, which should be met on our
part by a faithful compliance with all the stipulations and con-
ditions therein expressed. As your Commander, I sincerely hope
that every officer and soldier of my command will cheerfully
obey the orders given and carry out in good faith all the terms
of the cartel.

"Civil war, such as you have just passed through, naturally
engenders feelings of animosity, hatred, and revenge. It is our
duty to divest ourselves of such feelings, and to cultivate friendly
feelings toward those with whom we have so long contended,
and heretofore so widely and honestly differed. Neighborhood
feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be
blotted out; and, when you return home, a manly, straight- for-
ward course of conduct will gain the respect even of your ene-
mies. Whatever may be your responsibilities, whether to gov-
ernment, to society, or to individuals, meet them like men.

"In bidding you farewell, rest assured that you carry with you
my best wishes for your future welfare and happiness. . . .
Your courage and determination, as exhibited on many hard-
fought fields, have elicited the respect and admiration of friend
and foe. I now cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge my in-
debtedness to you, the officers and men of my command, whose
fidelity and unflinching bravery have been the greatest source
of my success in arms.

"I have never on the field of battle sent you where I was un-
willing to go myself; nor would I now advise you to a course
which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good
soldiers ; you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your
honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can
afford to be, and will be magnanimous.

"(signed)

N. B. Forrest,
Lieutenant-General."

The utmost eagerness now prevailed to get home. General
Dennis, a courteous gentleman, did all he could to accelerate the
work of issuing paroles, and did it in a manner most acceptable
to his late antagonists. By May 16th, 8,000 officers and men

138

Mississippi Historical Society.

had been paroled and allowed to start home. To that extent, at
least,

"To them the blooming life is sweet;
But not for all is there return".

Alas ! how sad it is to reflect that thousands of our dear com-
rades, as valiant and strong of soul as ever died on battlefield in
defense of their birthright, after making bright records at Don-
elson, Murfreesboro, Thompson Station, Moscow, and in that
dreadful winter retreat from Nashville, were in their graves on
that day when Forrest's Cavalry ceased to exist!

APPENDEX A
Roster of Company O

Adams, Frank

Adams, Robert, Sergeant

Alford, George W.

Armstrong, William

Atterberry, C. &.

Augustus, William B., Corporal

Ball, I. H.

Barnham, John

Barton, Thomas P.

Beasley, J. R.

Beasley, W. E., Adjutant

Binlon, A. D.

Blnlon, W.

Boggess, Thomas

Boswell, A. J.

Boyle, Robert W.

Brooks, James P., Sergeant

Brooks, Thomas S.

Bush, A. H.

Bush, Albert, Jr.

Bush, Anderson

Bush, John D.

CahlU, P. P. N.

Caldwell, Robert L.

Callahan, Michael

Channlng, George

Carleton, Flnnls E.

Caston, Mid G

Cheatham, W. A.

Clark, Matthew

Clarke, A. V.

Clemm'ents, Early C.

Coats, James A.

Colbert, William H.

Colbert, Jack

Cole, Washington

Connor, W. D.

Connor, W. S.

Cornelius, R.

Cotton, I. B.

Cox, P. L., Bugler

Cranf or d, William H.

Daniel, James.

Daniel, H. M.

Dantzler, A. J.

Dantzler, Groves H, Sergeant

Dantzler, J. L., Sr.

Dantzler, J, L., Jr.

Dantzler, Thomas M.

Day, Samuel B., Second Lieuten-
ant

Deal, Nick

Deupree, Joseph Lattlmore, Third
Lieutenant

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 139

Deupree, Joseph Ellington
Deupree, Joseph Everett
Deupree, John O.
Deupree, Thomas Jefferson, Cap-
tain
Deupree, William Daniel
Deupree, William Drewry
Doogan, J. L.
Dooly, William W.
Douglass, James H.
Douglass, William W., Sergeant
East, Samuel
Eckford, H. G.

Eckford, James W., Third Lieu-
tenant
Edwards, T. J.
Elland, James O.
Elland, Lake Erie
Evans, John H.
Pairforce, J. W.
Farrow, W. L.
Foote, Henry D.
Poote, H. W., Captain
Foote, W. H., Third Lieutenant
Garvin, Robert
Glass, A. D.
Glass, E.

Goodwin, George H.
Goodwin, Thomas J.
Grant, J. A.
Greenwood, J. E.
Greer, Alonzo.
Greer, Felix B., Sergeant
Greer, Fred J.
Greer, John H.
Greer, Julius A., Sergeant
Haley, Daniel D.
Hall, R. B.
Hamilton, T.
Hardy, John C.
Hardy, Louis W.
Harper, A. C.
Harper, J. C.
Harper, R. H.
Hartly, S. B.

Haynes, H. C, Corporal

JQIbbler, J. E.

Hlbbler, Robert, Corporal

Kibbler. Tol

Hlggins, O. H.

HintOQ, George W.

Holberg, Jacob, Sergeant

Howlett, Jack

Hewlett, H. C.

Hudson, H. A.

Hudson, William J., Sergeant

Hughes, William A.

Hunter, C. M., Third Lieutenant

Hunter, Henry M., Corporal

Hunter, Willis

Ingram, J.

Jackson, Samuel D.

Jackson, William R.

Jarnagln, J. C.

Jenkins, Cyrus

Johnson, Woodson

Joiner, R. H.

Jones, R. H.

Keown, Robert W., Corporal

King, James A„ Captain

Lea, Joseph, Sergeant

Lea, Pryor, Jr.

Lewis, Clarke

Lewis, Samuel P.

Lindsay, H. M., First Lieutenant

Little, William

Lockett, A. J.

Lockett, R. A.

Lynch, Nicholas

Lyon, A. J.

Lyon, Augustus

Lyon, Major

Magee, T. H.

Mauldin, Frank

Mauldln, Jesse

May, Joseph J., CorpoFSl

McCasklll, A. P.

McCormick, Joseph

McDavld, P.

Mcintosh, Daniel

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Mississippi Historical Society.

McClelland, Robert G.

McMullan, James V.

Menees, I. R.

Minor, H. A.

Montague, Charles

Muse, J. M.

Neal.J. H.

Pack, Dallas

Pack, J. L.

Pagan, William L.

Parker, William

Pendleton, John

Perkins, Louis

Pettus, Henry J.

Pierce, Jacob H., Corporal

Pierce, Nathaniel

Pierce, John

Pierce, Richard R.

Pierce, Thomas M.

Porter, H.

Praytor, George W.

Randall, W. R., Corporal

Randall, John

Rives, James H.

Rives, Robert O.

Ruff, P. M.

Simmons, William H.

Skfnner, I. L.

Skinner, K. S.

Smith, E. C.

Smith, Robert
Spann, John
Suttrell, P. T.

Swift, Robert B. ^

Swift, Doctor J.
Tate, C. M.
Tate, William
Taylor, William B.
Thompson, Robert
Walker, L. W.
Walker, R. J.
Watson, John, Sergeant
Weinberg, Julius
Weir, Robert
Wellboume, W. H.
Wellborne, Dr. S. G.
Weston, A. J.
White, Charles N.
White, R. E., Orderly Sergeant
Wier, R O., Second Lieutenant
Williams, Hampton, Second Lieu-
tenant
WilHams, Henry
wmiams, J. C.
Williams, John
Wilson, W. P.

Wright, J. J., First Lieutenant.
Yates, H.
Yates, Lawrence T., Adjutant

APPENDIX B

Roster of Company F

Adams, F. M.
Adams, J. B.
Adams, L. M.
Anderson, Benjamin
Anderson, Ephraim
Archer, M.
Aust, J. O.
Barnett, Watt
Barnhlll, T. F.
Bealle, John R., Captain

Beasley, H. O., Second Lieuten-
ant
Bell, William
Bethune, W. L.
Bishop, G. L., Corporal
Black, Joe
Blair, John M.
Boyle, D. C.
Bridges, Thomas E.
Brooks, James F., Sergeant

i

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree.

141

Brown, C.
Brown, Jesfla
Brown, S. M.
Buck, John B.
Burks, J. D.
Cade, JafP D., Sergeant
Clleuthe, J.
Colbert, Jack
Coleman, William H.
Coleman, C. M.
Coran, R. A.
Cotton, James
Cotton, John
Cox, W. A.

Craven, L. Mimboau, Captain
Crawford, A. B.
Crawford, G. W.
Crossley, J. W.
t>allas, John
Dancy, Henry
Daniel, Isaac
Daniel, J. T.
Davis, David

Davis, James M., Sergeant
Davis, John H.
Davis, William M.
Dean, William F.
Denton, William, Corporal
Denton, Jonah
Dorroh.J. W.
Deupree, Dr. T. M.
Diggs, Willis

Dowling, Charles, First Lieuten-
ant
Drake, M. A.
Duncan, J. F.
Dyer, J. B.
Bddings, W. W.
Edgarton, J. N.
Edwards. M. B.
Edwards, W. A.
Edwards, W. J.
Brwln, C. H.
Fancher, Augustus A.
Fancher, F. B.

Fancher, N. F. B.

Fancher, J. F.

Ferrell, H. H., Assistant Surgeon

Ford, Robert

Freeman, E. B., Assistant Surgeon

Freeman, W. W.

Gillespie, Lueullus

Garmon, M. M.

Gary, C. F.

Garvin, G. P.

Gholson, Jason L.

Gholson, W. D.

Gholson, W. H.

Glfford, Joseph

Goodwin, G. W.

Grant, John

Gregory, G. W.

Haley, Andrew

Happen, T. W.

Hardy, John E.,

Hardy, William

Assistant Surgeon
B.

Hare, Wniiiim F., Sergeant

Harris, Nor.h

Harris, N. S.

Itarris, V. F.

Harrison, A. T.

Hajmes, A. S.

Haynes, J. M.

Haynes, T. J.

Henly, G. H.

Henry, John

Higgins. O. M.

High, J. M.

Hill, J. B.

Hill, J. C.

Hill, J. V.

Hinton, Lafayette

Holman, J. N.

Hopper, J. F.

Horn, W. A.

Howard, Thomas

Howze, H. L.

Hudson, O. W.

Hughes, Thomas

Hunt, W. B.

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Mississippi Historical Society.

Hunter, H. M., Sergeant

Hunter, H. D.

Hunter, J. J., Sergeant

Hunter, W. W.

Hunter, Willis

Irwin, F. R.

Jackson, T. F.

Joiner, William

Jones, J. L.

Jordan, J. J.

Jenkins, J. F.

Johnson, B. W.

Johnson, T. W., Corporal

Kelley, W. R.

Lagrone, N. C.

Little, E. S.

Lockett, James

Lockett, W. B.

Logan, D. S.

Logan, W. R.

Long, R. F.

Lovelace, W. T.

Lnke, James

Lyle, J. B., First Lieutenant

Marshall, W. H.

Martin, J. B.

Martin, J. L.

McDonald, Robert

McKlbben, W. A.

McLeod, Randall

McNeal, W. L.

Menasco, J. H.

Miller, W. L.

Mlsso, Roscoe

Montgomery, D. C.

Montgomery, F. A.

Moore, Andy, Corporal

Moore, W. A.

Moore, Thomas G.

Moore, William

Morgan, Samuel

Morris, S. M.

Morris, Zebulon

Morrow, F. W.

Morrow, G. W., Sergeant

Mosely, J. T.
Moulden, J. N.
Nicholdson, F. G.
Nix, David, Corporal
Osborne, Egbert
Park, E., Sergeant
Payne, R. C.
Payne, W. U.
Pearre, James, Corporal
Pearre, M. T.
Perdue, J. F.
Permenter, J. S.
Perry, W. W.
Peterson, S. M.
Peterson, W. W.
Petway, M. L., Sergeant
Phillips, J. T.
Prince, E.
Putnam, L. D.
Rives, J. H., Captain
Rives, R. G., Sergeant
Robins, J. R.
Robins, James
Robins, Winter
Robinson, J. W.
Rogers, James
Rogers, Nick
Rye, D. W.
Saunders, F.
Saunders, A. H.
Shaw, Wiley
Simmons, J. S.
Sisk, W. A.
Slaughter, Felix
Slaughter, Henry
Smith, G. W.

Smith, Scribner, First Lieutenant
Smith, J. J. S.
Sorrell, J. F.
Spann, Frank

Staunton, Thomas S., Sergeant
Stevens, Thomas, Third Lieuten-
ant
Stewart. T. B , Sergeant
Stone, Samuel

The Noxubee Squadron, Mississippi Cavalry — Deupree. 143

Strickland, J. N.

Swann, M.

Sykes, Smith, Corporal

Thomas, B. n.

Thomas, D. N.

Thomas, W. E.

Trimble, D. E.

Walker, Benjamin, Corporal

Walker, L. W.

Walker, R. J.

Walker, W. J.

Warren, G. W.

Warren, J. B.

Warren, W. E.

Warren, W. S.

Watts, Benjamin

Weathered, James
Weinberg, Julius
Wheeler, E. G.
White, William G.
White. Frank S.
White, A. J.
Wilder, John
Wilder, William
Williams, John
Williams, D. A., Sergeant
Williams, J. R.
Williarcs. W. L.
Wilson, T. E.
Wimbish, J. D.
Wooten, J. S.
Wright, E.

APPENDIX O

Survivors of the Noxubee Squadron, October Ist, 1017

Of Co. F —

M. J. Clark, S. Reed Are.,
Mobile, Ala.

J. D. Weatherhead, Atlanta,
Ga.

Frank S. White, Birming-
ham, Ala.

W. G. White, West Point,
Miss.

Binion, Macon,

Of Co.

Deal A.

MlSB.

T. S. Brooks, Gulf Port,

Miss.
Thomas Dantzler, Beau-

volr. Miss.
J. E. Deupree, Ivanhoe,

Tex.
J. Q. Deupree, Jackson,

Miss.
T. J. Deupree, Texarkana,

Ark.
J. E. Hibbler, Macon,

Miss.
Robert Hibbler, QainsviUe,

Ala.

DID DE SOTO DISCOVER THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN
TUNICA COUNTY, MISS.?*

By Dunbar Rowland, LL. D.
Director Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

After the discovery of America by Columbus, the Spaniards
made two heroic eflforts to explore the interior of North Amer-
ica. DeSoto and Coronado were the intrepid leaders of the ex-
peditions, and if their routes are linked together, they almost
reach across the continent from Georgia to the Gulf of Cali-
fornia. The march of DeSoto has received most attention from
historians and it deserves the distinction. His coming marks the
advent of the white man on the soil of six great Southern States
and the narratives of his march contain the earliest accounts of
the Lower South, — of its flora, fauna and topography, of the
Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminoles, — Indian tribes
famous in history, story and song, and of the discovery of the
Mississippi River and the first crossing of its waters by a white
race.

After the disastrous expedition of Narvaez, 1537-28, the vast
region called Florida by the Spaniards was neglected. Their
imagination, however, was much inflamed by the wealth found
in Mexico and Peru by Cortez and Pizarro, and the next to try
his fortune was Hernando de Soto, the son of an esquire of Xerez
de Badajoz, who had been with Pizarro in the conquest of Peru,
and who was eager to rival the exploits and achievements of
Cortez and Pizarro.

The best evidence of all the incidents connected with the De-
Soto expedition is, of course, the written statements, made at

• WTiere did DeSoto discover the Mississippi River? The Editor of these
publications holds the opinion that the place of discovery was in Tunica
county, Mississippi. The question Is discussed by Judgre J. P. Young of
Memphis and the Editor in the following papers.

(144)

Did DeSoto Discover the Mississippi River? — Rowland. 145

the time by accurate and truthful men who accompanied it, and
such narratives only can be received by the conscientious and
careful historian. We have several satisfactory, accurate and
reliable records of the DeSoto expedition, chief among which
are several contemporary and independent narratives of the
progress of the march, correctly translated from the original
Spanish, viz: "Narrative of the Gentleman of Elvas," (sup-
posed to be Benedict Fernandez), which is the longest and one
of the most accurate; "The Narrative of Louis Hernandez de
Biedma," the factor of the expedition, which is highly colored
and unreliable; "The History of Hernando DeSoto and Florida,"
by Garciloso de la Vega (the Inca), compiled from oral state-
ments of three of DeSoto's companions and written in 1591, fifty
years after the expedition. This narrative is the least trust-
worthy as the writer had no personal knowledge of the facts.
The official report of the expedition which Rodrigo Ranjel, the
secretary of De Soto, drew up from his diary, made from day to
day on the march, on reaching Mexico, is the accepted and best
account. My authority for these estimates is Dr. E. G. Bourne,
of Yale, the scholarly author of "Spain in America."

The purpose of this paper is not to trace the entire route of
DeSoto's tragic expedition. My purpose is to answer, guided
by the best authorities, the question: "Did DeSoto discover the
Mississippi River in Tunica County, Mississippi ?" Candor com-
pels me to answer in the affirmative and. to give the reasons for
my conclusion and the evidence upon which it is based.

I freely admit in the outset that the claim of Memphis as the
place where the great river was discovered has been accepted
by some Memphians, but that acceptance has, no doubt, been
based upon the narrative of Garciloso de la Vega, "The Inca,"
which careful and complete investigation has shown to be un-
reliable and not in accord with the narratives of the facts as
given in all contemporary accounts.

My contention is that the Mississippi River was discovered in

Tunica County, Mississippi, at Willow Point, which the map of

De LTsle made in 1718. places about 30 miles in a straight line

below Memphis, and in Tunica County. Not a map, so far as

10

14<J Mississippi Historical Society.

I know, gives Memphis the honor of being the point at which
the Mississippi was discovered.

The most painstaking and accurate study of the route of the
DeSoto expedition is that of Theodore Hayes Lewis, the learned
antiquarian, archaeologist and historian, which appears in Volume
VI., Pages 449-467, Publications of the Mississippi Historical
Society. I quote from that authority that part of his study which
deals with the march of DeSoto from April 26 to June 18, 1541,
which includes his immediate journey to and crossing of the
river.

"On Tuesday, April 26th, they left Chicacilla and slept at
Alabamo. On Thursday they came to another savanna, where
the Indians had constructed a very strong fort of palisades,
which was located on the bank of a small river, near a ford.
The Spaniards stormed it and drove the Indians out and across
the river. This fort and ford were on the Tallahatchie river,
and probably at or near New Albany, in Union County. Rocky
Ford, located on section 17, town 7, range 1 east, some 15 miles
below New Albany, is the last point down the river at which a
crossing can be made by fording, but the topography makes it an
improbable point. On Saturday, April 30th, the army left this
enclosed place, turning to the westward. According to Elvas,
the country they were now passing through was a wilderness of
thick forests, having many marshy places that were fordable,
and some basins and lakes (sluggish streams) that were not.
In another place he says : "The land is low, abounding in lakes."
Ranjel says they passed over bad roads leading through woods
and swamps. This part of the route lay wholly within the State
of Mississippi, for, had it been toward Memphis, they would
have passed through a hilly region instead of one of swamps.
While the route by way of Sacchuma would have been practi-
cally of the same general character, they were prevented from
taking it by reason of the hostility of the Indians, for then they
would have had both tribes to contend with.

"At noon on Sunday, May 8th, they arrived at the first town
in Quisquis, and carried it by sudden assault, A league distant
was the second town, and at the end of another league they came
to the third town, "where they saw the great river." On Satur-
day, May 21st, they moved to a meadow lying between the river
and a little town,' — the fourth one. Elvas says there was a river
a crossbow-shot from the first town, and that they moved to
another one (Ranjel's third town), a half league from the river,

Did DcSoto Discover the Mississippi River? — Rowland. 147

and from there to a plain near the river. The crossing: was made
either at Council Bend or Walnut Bend, in Tunica County, in a
straight line some 25 to 38 miles below Memphis. DeLTsle
(1718) seems to have been the first geographer to attempt to
map the route, and he places the crossing at "Pointe d'Oziers"
(Willow Point) ; but the place cannot be identified. D'Anville
(1735) shows "Point d'Oziers," plainly enough as being about
halfway between the mouths of the St. Francis and White rivers ;
but this is too far down. The Chiaves map of 1598 (Ortelius'
edition) and the Sanson map of 1656, the information on both
of which is taken from the Elvas narrative, the Leide map
(1700) having the names from Elvas and the Inca intermixed,
and other maps of a similar character, are not taken into con-
sideration.

"The Memphis theory of the location of Quisquis and the
crossing, which is based upon the Inca's account, is untenable,
and a fair analysis or review of his statements will show that
neither the town nor the crossing was located at that point. He
says: "They arrived in sight of a town called Chisca, which
stood near a great river," which he calls the Oiucagua ; that
"many Indians gathered here (on the mound) and others in a
very fine wood which lay between the town and the great river ;"
and that "because of the many streams around there they could
not use their horses." It will readily be seen that this description
does not apply to the Fort Pickering mound. Ran j el gives the
distance between the first and the third towns as being two
leagues (over five miles) ; Elvas says that they moved to another
(the third) town, gives the distance between it and the river as
being a half league, and the Inca fills in this space with "a very
fine wood." Biedma says the town was near the banks of the
Espiritu Santo, which statement refers to the third town. If
commentators are right, and the town was located at the Fort
Pickering mound, they should follow their authority (the Inca)
for "four little days journey of three leagues each, up the river,"
which would make the crossing about 31 miles above the mound.
The reason given by the Inca for this journey of 12 leagues was
the dense woods, together with the high, steep banks of the ra-
vines leading to the river (and evidently the river banks also),
"so that one could neither go up nor down them." It is a well
known fact that, wherever the channel of the lower Mississippi
river strikes the edge of the flood plain, it is continually cutting
away the bank, so that it is perpendicular or nearly so. There-
fore, this part of his description is applicable to all such places.
It should be borne in mind, however, that none of the narratives
mention this journey."

148 Mississippi Historical Society.

The scholarly study of Mr. Lewis was published in 1902 and
no historian has thought it wise to question his conclusions.

The best translation of the narratives of the DeSoto expedi-
tion is found in the "Narratives of DeSoto," edited by Edward
Gaylord Bourne, LL. D., Professor of History in Yale University,
published in 1904, in two volumes as a part of "The Trail Mak-
ers." In his introductory note he gives an accurate estimate of
the narratives of the expedition and in his opinion "The Inca"
cannot be relied on. John G. Shea, another authority on the
route of DeSoto, is of the same opinion. All the narratives,
with the exception of "the Inca's," were written by participants in
the expedition and were contemporary with it.

My purpose in presenting this question is to correct what I
believe to be an error which has almost become an accepted fact
among many well informed and intelligent people. If I am
depriving the great and prosperous City of Memphis of one of
her most cherished traditions, let me assure her people that I do so
with regret. If some of your images are broken by this discus-
sion, truth requires it. If you are in error in claiming that De-
Soto discovered the great river from your beautiful bluflfs, I know
that you will graciously concede it and heartily accord the honor
to the State which bears the name of the mighty stream, discov-
ered by the intrepid Spaniards three hundred and seventy-five
years ago.
State Department of Archives and History,

Jackson, Miss., January 30, 1917.

DE SOTO AT CHICKASAW BLUFFS

A Review of the Works of Various Historians of the Great
Spaniard's Life.*

Bv Judge J. P. Young.

An article entitled "Discovery of the Mississippi," which ap-
peared in The Commercial Appeal of Feb. 18, ult., from the pen
of Dr. Dunbar Rowland, director, Mississippi Department of
Archives and History, and the conclusions reached by the learned
historian as to the point at which DeSoto first saw the great
river, calls for a challenge from the people of Memphis, to
whom he appeals for an indorsement. To assent would be to
tamely surrender what they have so fondly claimed for nearly a
century, the distinction of living about the site of the village at
which it was discovered in 1541, the Indian hamlet of Chisca.
The author of the article says :

"I freely admit in the outset that the claim of Memphis as the
place where the great river, was discovered has been accepted by
some Memphians, but the acceptance has been based no doubt on
the narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega, 'The Inca,' which careful
and complete 'investigation has shown to be unreliable and not
in accord with the narratives and facts as given in all contempor-
ary accounts."

Which particular Memphians our good friend intends to de-
scribe by the adjective "some" in this paragraph is not made clear,
but playfully, we with equal freedom are willing to admit that
there are about, say, 100,000 of the class described now living on
the lower Chickasaw Bluff, and they are as jealous as the abor-

•Reply to the foregoing paper by Judge J. P. Young, Circuit Judge of
Shelby county, Tennessee.

(149)

150 Mississippi Historical Society.

iginal Qiickasaw would have been of this invasion of their be-
loved title to a distinction justly belonging to them.

But, seriously, let us examine the article of Dr. Rowland, who
is a man of great learning and high repute, and carefully weigh
his claim that we have fallen into a great historical error in ac-
cepting a tradition or legend as a truth. The writer is himself a
native of Mississippi, though a citizen by adoption of Tennessee
for more than half a century, and would not wantonly remove
one olive leaf from the brow of his mother state. No historian
or investigator, however, has any proprietorship in the history of
any place or era. He cannot even be original in history, except
in rare instances, perhaps, in treating of contemporary events of
which he has had personal observations, but is limited to weigh-
ing and comparing the writings of others in order to reach the
truth.

In the article referred to Dr. Rowland lays down these postu-
lates as the basis of his attacks on the "cherished traditions" of
Memphis.

First — That there are only four sources of information as to
the journey of DeSoto, viz. : The "Narrative of the Gentleman
of Elvas," "the largest and one of the most accurate" ; the nar-
rative of Louis Hernando de Biedma, the factor of the expedi-
tion, "which is highly colored and unreliable" ; the "History of
Hernando De Soto and Florida," by Garcilaso de Vega, "the In-
ca," "which is the least trustworthy," and the official report of the
expedition which Rodrigo Ranjel, the secretary of DeSoto, drew
up from his diary, and which "is accepted as the standard and
best account." He gives Dr. Edward Gaylord Bourne of Yale
as his authority for these estimates.

Second — To quote : "My contention is that the Mississippi was
discovered in Tunica County, Miss., at Willow Point, which the
map of De ITsle, made in 1718, places about 30 miles in a
straight line below Memphis, in Tunica County. Not a map,
so far as I know, gives Memphis the honor of being the point at
which the Mississippi was discovered."

Third — Dr. Rowland refers to the article of Theodore Hayes
Lewis, appearing in "Publications of the Mississippi Historical

DeSoto at Chickasaw Bluffs — Young. 161

Society." Vol. VI, in 1903, as "the most painstaking and accurate
study of the route of DeSoto," and quotes him as saying of the
march of DeSoto from the Tallahatchie River at or near New
Albany, Miss., to the Mississippi River :

"The army left this inclosed place (an Indian fort, Alibamo,
where there was a battle), turning to the westward. According
to Elvas the country they were now passing through was a wild-
erness of thick forests, having many marshy places that were
fordable and some basins and lakes (sluggish streams) that were
not. In another place, he says, the land was low, abounding in
lakes. Ran j el says they passed over bad roads leading through
woods and swamps. This part of the route lay wholly within the
State of Mississippi, for had it been towards Memphis they would
have passed through a hilly region instead of one of swamps.
* * * At noon on Sunday, May 8, they arrived at the first
town in Quisquis and carried it by sudden assault. * * *
The crossing was made either at Council Bend or Walnut Bend,
in Tunica County, in a straight line some 25 to 38 miles below
Memphis. De I'lsle (1718) seems to have been the first geog-
rapher to attempt to map the route and he places the crossing at
Pointe de Oziers (Willow Point), but the place cannot be iden-
tified. D'Anville (1755) shows Point d'Oziers plainly enough as
being about half way between the mouths of the St. Francis and
White rivers ; but this is too far down. * * * The Memphis
theory of the location of Quisquiz and the crossing which is based
upon the Inca's account, is untenable, and a fair analysis or re-
view of his statements will show that neither the town nor the
crossing was located at that point."

Fourth — The scholarly study of Mr. Lewis was published in
1902 and no historian has thought it wise to question his conclu-
sions.

Fifth — My purpose in presenting this question is to correct
what I believe to be an error, which has almost become an ac-
cepted fact among some well informed, intelligent people. If I
am depriving the great and prosperous City of Memphis of one of
her most cherished traditions, let me assure her people that I do
so with regret.

152 Mississippi Historical Society.

To rapidly review the foregoing conclusions of Dr. Rowland,
reference will first be simply made to his estimate of the nature
of the several narratives of the DeSoto chroniclers, the authority
for which is given as Prof. Edward Gaylord Bourne of Yale. We
do not find in Prof. Bourne's introduction any statement that the
narrative of Biedma is "highly colored and unreliable," but he
does say that "Biedma's Relation possesses the important advant-
age of being the official report of a king's officer ; but it is brief
and is given as a whole with comparatively few details, except as
to directions and distances."

Of the History of Florido and EteSoto by Garcilaso de la Vega,
Prof. Bourne, after reviewing the work of the Portuguese gentle-
man, says, "Next in order of publication and equal in fame comes
'La Florida del Inca.' " And in another place writes : "In mak-
ing another (narrative of DeSoto), a descendant of the Incas of
Peru transmitted the tale of hardships and meetings with the
Indians, friendly and hostile, into an old romance of chivalry —
the first and certainly the most celebrated one dealing with an
American theme — in which a groundwork of fact is richly em-
broidered by the author's imagination, with romantic details, into
a whole so full of charm as to have beguiled even professed his-
torians."

Much has been written by critics to disparage the Inca's narra-
tive, because out of harmony with the other three narrators in ad-
ding details and incidents not referred to by the latter. It seems
reasonable to suppose, however, that these differences arose, as
similar phenomena have arisen in our own day, in the frequent
and truthful sidelights thrown upon the stories of the battles and
marches of the Civil War in the incidents related by the survivors,
which do not appear in the official reports of the commanders, or
in the official army itineraries kept by the staff officers. Garcilaso
was not present with DeSoto, nor were his modern critics. But
Garcilaso had the acquaintanceship of several survivors and his
critics have nothing but the official reports and diaries. For in-
stance, Garcilaso says : "The Spaniards departed from the en-
campment of Alibamo (on the Tallahatchie River), still march-
ing towards the north to avoid the sea." Theodore Hayes Lewis

DeSoto at Chickasaw Bluffs — Young. 168

says : "On Saturday, April 30, the army left this inclosed place,
turning to the westward." The first course would take DeSoto
towards the lower Chickasaw Bluff. The latter would take him
to the Mississippi in the vicinity of Moon Lake, in Coahoma
County, Miss. Garcilaso had in this instance the statement of
survivors. Mr. Lewis had no guide whatever, as the other three
narrators do not mention the direction of the march. Let us as
historians be fair in this inquiry.

Taking up next the second postulate of Dr. Rowland, as noted
above, viz: "My contention is that the Mississippi River was dis-
covered in Tunica County, Miss., at Willow Point, which the
Map de ITsle made in 1718 places about 30 miles in a straight
line below Memphis, in Tunica County." This must be an inad-
vertance on the part of Dr. Rowland. The map of De ITsle
(Amsterdam edition, 1707, but the same as above referred to)
shows clearly the assumed route of DeSoto, and places the cross-
ing at Pointe de Oziers (Willow Point), midway between the
mouth of the Arkansas River and Lac des Michigamea, adjoining
the mouth of St. Francis River and 80 miles in a straight line be-
low Memphis instead of in Tunica County, 30 miles below, as
claimed by Dr. Rowland. In addition to this, the writer has
before him the map of Lieut. Ross of the British army, "taken
on an expedition to the Illinois in the latter end of the year 1765,
improved from the survey of the river made by the French."
This map places the crossing of DeSoto on the thirty-fourth par-
allel about five miles below "Oziers Point," which on this map
is about midway between the mouths of the St. Francis and Ar-
kansas rivers. But these old French and English maps are not
reliable guides, as the cartographers had less information from
the DeSoto narratives than is now available and infinitely less
knmvledge of the country through which DeSoto marched than
the school boy of today.

And, referring next to the third contention of Dr. Rowland, in
which he quotes so fully and approves the study of Theodore H.
Lewis of DeSoto's march from the Tallahatchie River to the
Mississippi River at "Council Bend," or at "Walnut Bend," in
Tunica County, Miss., as set out above. Mr. Lewis argues from

154 Mississippi Historical Society.

the character and topography of the country between AHbamo
and Council Bend, as compared with that between the same point
and Memphis, as described by the narrators in the DeSoto nar-
ratives, that the former was swampy and the latter high and hilly.
In this Dr. Rowland is perhaps again not fortunate. The writ-
er has passed over both routes several times, and they are prac-
tically identical if the route lay north of the Tallahatchie Swamps,
in topographic characteristics and elevations, except the last 12
or 15 miles of approach to Council Bend and Walnut Bend,
which is in the alluvial basin of the delta, so-called, and is flat and
swampy.

Finally, on this subject, in his fourth contention. Dr. Rowland
says :

"The scholarly study of Mr. Lewis was published in 1903 and
no historian has thought it wise to question his conclusions."

Perhaps not more than one history, written since 1902, has
questioned his conclusions. But among historians writing before
1902 many noted ones have taken a different view and arrived at
opposite conclusions as to DeSoto's point of crossing the great
river. Bancroft says, volume 1, page 51, he crossed "probably
at the lowest Chickasaw Bluff, not far from 35 parallel of lati-
tude." John Gilmary Shea, writing in and for Winsor's Narra-
tive and Critical History of America, volume 2, page 291, states :
"As to the point of DeSoto crossing the Mississippi, there is a
very general agreement on the lowest Chickasaw Bluff."

The great Mississippi historian, J. F. H. Oaiborne, in his Mis-
sissippi As a Territory and State, volume 1, page 8, thus describes
the discovery :

"Still shaping his course to the northwest, he struck the great
river at the lower Chickasaw Bluff, just below old Fort Picker-
ing, in May, 1541. Any route from the Chickasaw Old F^lds
south of the one assumed would have carried him into the im-
penetrable swamps of the Yalobusha and Tallahatchie and their
tributaries, where there were no paths and no footing for men
or horses."

J. G. M. Ramsey, the Tennessee historian, in the Annals of
Tennessee, 1853, writes:

DeSoto at Chickasaw Bluffs — Young. IM

"It is generally conjectured that Chisca, the village near which
DtSoto was encamped, and which bore the name of the chieftain
of the province through whose territories the Spaniards were
passing, occupied the site of the present thriving City of Mem-
phis, and that the point where they crossed the Mississippi was
near the Chicasaw Bluff."

J. M. Keating, in his history of Memphis, 1888, describes the
approach of DeSoto to the mighty river thus:

"They entered the village of Chisca near the high mound which
overlooks the great river, where it divides to flow southward on
either side of what is known as President's Island."

Another similar view of DeSoto's approach to the Mississippi
River at Memphis is expressed in Young's History of Memphis,
1912, in these words:

"Comparing these four narratives (Elvas', Biedma's, Ranjel's
and RicTielet's version of Garcilaso, given in full in the text, of
the march from the Tallahatchie River), which are in pecuHar
agreement with each other, except the last, it can readily be seen
that Ran j el, in speaking of the villages a league apart to which
the Spaniards moved in turn for the purpose of obtaining pro-
visions, was merely describing the usual group of villages which
went to make up a settlement among these Indians, such as the
Spaniards found in the Chickasaw towns in Pontotoc County,
Mississippi, and in no way contradicts the other narratives. The
fact seems to be that DeSoto came upon the town of Chisca,
where the great mound was and still remains, which was near
the wide river with a forest between, and then, without reaching
the river, he moved from village to village on the bluff for more
convenient access to corn or maize, by which his army was sup-
ported, and finally pitched his camp under the bluff at the foot of
a ravine, probably near the mouth of Wolf River and within
crossbow shot of the water, where he constructed and launched
his boats."

We can, in conclusion, question the statement of Dr. Rowland
that the views of "some Memphians as to the place of discovery
and crossing of the Mississippi" has been based no doubt on
the narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca, which careful

166 Mississippi Historical Society.

and complete investigation has shown to be unreliable and not in
accord with the narrative and facts as given in all contemporary
accounts.

There are but two facts mentioned in Garcilaso's narrative
which aid eiTectively in locating Memphis as the site of the vil-
lage of Chisca, or Quizquiz, as some wrote it, where DeSoto first
found the river.

These are, first, "That Spaniards departed from the encamp-
ment of Alibamo, still marching towards the north to avoid the
sea," as translated by Irving; or, "The Spaniards, in leaving Ali-
bamo, marched across a waste country, bearing always towards
the north in order to get further away from the sea," as rendered
by Richelet, and second, that Chisca, the chief, lived on "a high
mound which commanded a view of the whole place." There are
merely details added to the other three narratives and in no way
contradict them. John G. Shea, in his chapter on Ancient Flor-
ida, written for Winsor's history, above referred to, says on page
290, volume VI : "The spirit of exaggeration which pervades
throughout this volume (Garcilaso's narrative) has deprived it
of esteem as an historical authority, though Theodore Irving and
others have accepted it." But on the next page, 291, he says : "As
to the point of De Soto's crossing the Mississippi there is a very
general agreement on the lowest Chickasaw bluflf."

Tliere is another most persuasive fact well established by many
writers which points to Memphis as the point of De Soto's cross-
ing, viz., that an ancient trail existed from the lower Chickasaw
bluff, southeastward 'to the Chickasaw old fields and from there
it is traced still southeastward, by Claiborne, to the Choctaw
crossing of the Tombigbee at Lincacums Shoals, just above the
mouth of Tibbee Creek, and along which it is generally agreed
that DeSoto marched to Chickasaw in December, 1540. It was
this trail he followed to the Chickasaw Bluflf, as Qaiborne con-
tends. The Portuguese narrative states, in describing the march
to Alibamo fort that the army had to pass a desert seven days'
journey in extent, and men were sent out to hunt for maize for
the journey, and that "Juan de Anasco, the comptroller, went with
15 horses and 40 foot on the course the governor would have to

DeSoto at Chickasaw Bluffs — Young. 167

inarch and found a staked fort where the Indians were awaiting
them." This fort, AHbamo, was at Rocky Ford, on a high hill
overlooking the Tallahatchie River, and in almost an airline from
the \'illage of Chicacilla. De Soto began his long march to the
lower Chickasaw bluff along the famous Chickasaw trail to the
bluffs above mentioned, and not manifestly along the route indi-
cated by Mr. Lewis.

In 1849 Frederick P. Stanton, the congressman from the Mem-
phis district, was instrumental in having the celebrated painting
of De Soto discovering the Mississippi River made for the na-
tional capitol at Washington, and suggested the features of the
picture to Powell, the artist. This was at the period when the
march of DeSoto was being most widely discussed by the histor-
ians and the public and the great historic painting was approved
by the nation.

This article has been written in reply to Dr. Rowland only to
get at the truth of history so far as it sheds light on the story of
De Soto's discovery, and is confidently submitted to the discern-
ing judgment of the public and in the broadest spirit of good will
towards Dr. Rowland, the eminent and learned writer. We be-
lieve that it plainly proves that the leading historians, except Dr.
Theodore Lewis and his supporter. Dr. Rowland, have correctly
placed the discovery and crossing at the lower Chickasaw bluffs,
where Memphis now stands.

A SECOND CHAPTER CONCERNING THE DISCOVERY

OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BY DE SOTO,

IN TUNICA COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI.*

By Dunbar Rowland, LL. D.
Director Mississippi Department of ArchiTes and History.

The Commercial- Appeal of March 18th contains an answer by
Judge J. P. Young to my article on the discovery of the Missis-
sippi River by DeSoto, which appeared in the same paper of Feb-
ruary 18th, in which he attempts to establish the contention that
De Soto discovered and crossed the Mississippi River at Mem-
phis. The issue is made, and is based on historical evidence. I
accept it with pleasure, not only on account of Judge Young's
high character, great ability, and gentlemanly courtesy in contro-
versy, but because I am convinced that a full and fair study of
the evidence, as contained in the records made by eye-wit-
nesses and participants, and of the opinions of the best historians,
will establish the fact that De Soto discovered and crossed the
Mississippi River within the 34th parallel in Tunica County, Mis-
sissippi, and not at Memphis, as contended by Judge Young. In
making the claim for Tunica County, I unhesitatingly assume the
burden of proof, which requires that my contention be established
by a preponderance of the evidence. Let us carefully examine
the original testimony.

THE BEST EVIDENCE.

In the article of February 18th, referred to above, it was
stated that : "The best evidence of all the incidents connected with
the De Soto expedition is, of course, the written statements made
at the time by accurate and truthful men who accompanied it, and

•Rejoinder by the Editor.

(158)

DeSoto Discovering the Mississippi — Rowland. 159

such narratives only can be received by the conscientious and
careful historian." The most reliable source of information is
found in original records ; the most unreliable source is tradition,
which is nothing more than hearsay evidence. The acceptance
of the first source and the rejection of the last is the distinguish-
ing characteristic of the scientific historian. Judge Young ap-
plies these well known rules of evidence in the court over which
he presides with learning, courtesy and dignity. If a litigant in
His court, by his attorney, should attempt to introduce into the
record of the case the same kind of hearsay and unsupported evi-
dence which he introduces in support of his contention that De
Soto discovered the Mississippi River at Memphis, it would be
ruled out as soon as offered. I refer to his acceptance of au-
thorities who wrote from hearsay and without special investiga-
tion.

What is the original record evidence in the question under dis-
cussion? Who made it, and when was it made? Did the authors
making the records know the facts, and were they truthfully re-
corded? These are important questions in arriving at a correct
conclusion. In my first article, in dealing with the narratives of
the expedition which have come down to us, I stated that they
were four in number, that the best and most reliable was the ac-
count of Rodrigo Ranjel, that the narrative of the Gentleman of
Elvas was the longest and stood next in rank, that the account
of Biedma was less reliable than the other two, and that the story
of "The Inca" was unworthy of serious consideration, as it was
founded on highly colored hearsay evidence.

That accounts of the expedition should contain descriptions of
the country through which it passed, is natural and to be expected,
as next to the presence of the Indians the topography of the coun-
try, its physical geography, flora, forests, streams, lakes, and high
and low lands would attract the interest of the narrators. Such
descriptions do occur in the narratives of Ranjel and Elvas. Since
1541 the Indians have gone, their towns and villages are no
more, and the forests have given place to cultivated fields, but
the topography of the country through which De Soto and his
men passed is the same today as it was then; we have the same

IW Mississippi Historical Society.

character of country now ; time has not changed the geological
formations. North Mississippi from Pontotoc County, along the
old Chickasaw Trail in a northwesterly direction to Chickasaw
Bluffs, is the same hilly country today that it was in 1541, and
West Mississippi, lying between the bluff formation which runs
from Memphis to Satartia, Yazoo County, Miss., and the Mis-
sissippi River, is the same low country abounding in streams,
lakes and slashes as it did when De Soto passed over it on his way
westward to the river. The route of the great explorer is written
indisputably in the topographical features described by Ranjel
and Elvas. It is common knowledge that the counties of Pon-
totoc, Union, Marshall and De Soto, Mississippi, and Shelby
Coimty, Tennessee, through which the Chickasaw Trail ran, over
which Judge Young contends that De Soto passed on his way to
the Chickasaw Bluffs, is hilly throughout. Do Ranjel and Elvas
describe the "vermilion hills" of North Mississippi, or the bottom
lands of the Mississippi Delta? They say that from April 30th
to May 8th, seven days, the expedition struggled through a wild-
erness of forests, marshes, lakes and sluggish streams. Can
there be a reasonable doubt that the seven days preceding the dis-
covery of the river, on May 8th, were passed in the low, marshy
lands of the Mississippi Delta? Do the counties in North Mis-
sissippi, mentioned above, abound in lakes, basins, marshes and
sluggish streams ? Can the wildest stretch of the imagination lead
us to believe that those seven days were spent on the well-trodden
trail of the Chickasaws, on the high lands and ridges of those
counties? It is not difficult to see why Judge Young touched
so lightly on the topographical argument as given in my article of
February 18th. Elvas and Ranjel described conditions existing in
the section of Tunica County, between Coldwater River west to
the Mississippi.

If the DeSoto expedition ever reached such a prominent point
as the Chickasaw Bluffs, is it possible that the narratives would
not mention such a height overlooking the great river? The fact
that it was not mentioned seems conclusive that the place was
never seen.

DeSoto Discovering the Mississippi — Rowland. 161

EVIDENCE FROM MAPS.

In my former article it was stated that : "Not a map, so far as
I know, gives Memphis the honor of being the point at which
the Mississippi was discovered." This of course was a direct re-
quest for such evidence. It is fair to presume that inasmuch as
Judge Young failed to name a map which supports his contention,
the evidence is not available. Such evidence in support of my
contention is abundant. Delisle's map has already been cited ; in
addition to that citation, I call attention to the map of Dr. Mitch-
elle as given in "De Soto and Florida," by Barnard Shipp, Page
660; to that in Channing's "History of the United States," Vol. I.,
Page 73; to Vol. II., "Narratives of Ete Soto," at the title page,
edited by Bourne; to "Spain in America," page 134, also by
Bourne. These could be reinforced by many others, but it is not
deemed necessary to give them, in the absence of evidence to the
contrary. Next to facts obtained from first hand testimony,
and the evidence given by the topography of the country, the facts
gathered from maps are the most important and convincing.
Geography is a science dealing with the earth and its life, and its
findings of fact are most important in all historical investigations.

JUDGE young's authorities.

In the preparation of his article, Judge Young evidently felt
the weakness of his case from the standpoint of the evidence con-
tained in the original narratives of the expedition, and of maps
fixing the place of the discovery and passage of the river, and he
seems to rely more on the secondary evidence in the case as con-
tained in the work of commentators, who had never specially in-
vestigated the subject. In support of his contention, he quotes
Bancroft, Shea, Ramsey, Claiborne, Keating and himself. Be-
fore quoting authorities in support of my contention, it may be
best to deal with his citations. Bancroft is quoted as saying, that
De Soto "crossed probably at the lowest Chickasaw Bluff, not
far from the 35th parallel of latitude." That is certainly not put-
ting it very strong. Bancroft also says, "The search for soid^
11

163 Mississippi Historical Society.

wealthy region was renewed ; the caravan marched still further to
the west. For seven days it struggled through a wilderness of
forests and marshes ; and at length came to Indian settlements in
the vicinity of the Mississippi." The Judge is not happy in quot-
ing Bancroft for several reasons. In the first place, the word,
"probably" is not quite convincing ; then he describes the Missis-
sippi Delta and not the "vermilion hills" of North Mississippi ;
and says that the expedition "marched still further to the west,"
which is in conflict with the Judge's unqualified statement that
the march was always to the northwest. Judge Young's greatest
misfortune in quoting Bancroft lies in the fact that the eminent
historian cites as authorities historians who disagree with him.
He cites Belknap 1, — 192 who says De Soto crossed the river
within the thirty-fourth degree ; Andrew Ellicott's Journal 125
which gives the crossing place as "Thirty-four degrees and ten
minutes"; McCullah's Researches 526, "Twenty or thirty miles
below the mouth of the Arkansas River." As Memphis lies well
above the 35th parallel it is readily seen that the citations are
against it. The same comment applies to John Gilmary Shea.
The position of Claiborne is disposed of in that portion of this
article which gives the topographical evidence. As Ramsey, the
Tennessee historian, only conjectures that Memphis was the place
of discovery and crossing, such a statement carries little weight.
Col. J. M. Keating in his history of Memphis ^ays that the Vil-
lage of Chisca was on the river ; this is in direct conflict with nar-
ratives and maps, and the same may be said of Young's History
of Memphis. These are all the authorities quoted by Judge
Young.

OTHER AND MORE AUTHENTIC AUTHORITIES.

While I do not attach the same importance to the opinions of
commentators, (which is only secondary evidence) as I do to
the primary sources of information such as the original narratives
and topography, I am at the same time entirely willing to meet
my worthy and learned friend in that field also, and I shall now
cite certain eminent authorities whose findings are not in accord
with the Memphis theory.

DeSoto Discovering the Mississippi — Rowland. 163

One of the first eminent historians who wrote the history of
the Mississippi Valley was Dr. John W. Monette, and while his
two-volume work, entitled "Monette's Valley of the Mississippi,"
was published in 1846, it has never been superseded as the
standard work on the subjects with which it deals, by any later
history. In treating of the subject under discussion, he says,
(Vol. I., Page 47) "Much doubt and uncertainty has obtained as
to the precise point at which De Soto reached the Mississippi. It
was evidently much below the latitude of Memphis, where he
was toiling four days in advancing twelve leagues up the river,
and seven days in his westward march through swamps and deep
forests, from the up-lands east of the Tallahatchee. At no point
above Helena are the highlands, on the east side of the river,
more than ten or fifteen miles distant. The point where De Soto
crossed the river was probably within thirty miles of Helena.
The changes of the channel in the lapse of three hundred years
may have been such as to defy identification now." Harper's
Encyclopedia of United States History says, (Vol. III., Page
106) "Turning northward with the remnant of his forces, he
fought his way through the Chickasaw country, and reached the
upper waters of the Yazoo River late in December, where he
wintered in great distress. Moving westward in the spring, he
discovered the Mississippi River in all its grandeur in May, 1541.
It was near the lower Chickasaw Bluflf in Tunica County, Missis-
sippi." In the history of the United Stales by Dr. Edward Chan-
ning. Professor of History in Harvard University, (Vol. I., Page
73), a map is given which fixes the place of discovery about 20
miles below the 35th parallel in Tunica County. These works
have both been issued since the painstaking and scholarly study
of the DeSoto route of Professor Theodore Hayes Lewis, quoted
in my first article. In Larned's "History for Ready Reference,"
(Vol. II, Page 1178) it is stated that "At length, in the third year
of their journeying, they reached the banks of the Mississippi,
132 years before its second (or third?) discovery by Marquette
* * * The Spaniards passed over to a point above the mouth
of the Arkansas." Dr. Edward Gaylord Bourne in his "Spain in
America," gives a map at page 134, which places the crossing in

164: Mississippi Historical Society.

Tunica County, Mississippi. Belknap and Ellicott, referred to
above, place the passage and discovery within the 34th parallel.
And finally. Professor Lewis, in his study of every phase of the
subject and every mile of the route as given in the publications
of the Mississippi Historical Society, (Vol. VI., Pages 449 — 467),
quoted at length in a former paper, fixes the discovery at Willow
Point, in Tunica County, Mississippi. And let me repeat my as-
sertion that the open-minded investigator cannot study his won-
derful presentation of the subject without complete agreement
with his conclusions.

I believe that it is not over-stating the case to claim that the
following contentions have been established by this and my first
paper :

First: That the best evidence of the De Soto route estab-
lishes the fact that, from April 30 to May 8, 1541, it was through
the low lands of the Mississippi Delta and not through the high
lands of North Mississippi and West Tennessee.

Second: That the topography of the country, as described
in the narratives up to the very day of the discovery of the river,
confirms the contention that it was made in the midst of a low
country, abounding in marshes, lakes and sluggish streams.

Third : That the maps of the route of De Soto all give the
point of the discovery and crossing within the 34th parallel.

Fourth: That the best and most accurate commentators on
the subject place the point of discovery and crossing between the
mouth of the Arkansas River and the 35th parallel.

Fifth: That the preponderence of evidence gathered from
both original and secondary sources, establishes the contention
that Tunica County, Mississippi, was the scene of the discovery
and crossing of the Mississippi River, May 8, 1541, by Her-
nando De Soto,

WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI
1863-1890.

By J. S. McNeily.

"A redder sea than Egypt's wave, '

Was piled and parted for the slave,
A darker cloud moved on in light,
A fiercer fire was guide by night."

Introduction.

The events of Southern reconstruction constitute a distinct
and memorable era of history. The irrepressible conflict be-
tween the free and the slave holding sections had blazed forth
after a half a century of brooding storm in four years of bloody
and relentless war. How the South had contended with the
vastly superior forces of coercion, impartial historians have told,
The culmination of the issue and the end are thus clearly and
concisely summed up by a noted historian, Dr. Von Holtz : "The
South had stood still, while the rest of the country had under-
gone vast changes ; and remaining still she had retained the old
principles that had once been universal. Both she and her prin-
ciples, it turned out, were caught at last in the great national
drift. Her stored up economic resources were no match for the
mighty strength of the nation with which she had fallen out of
sympathy. There is in history no devotion, not religious, no
constancy not meant for success, that can furnish a parallel lo
the devotion and the constancy of the South in this extraordin-
ary war." The war had passed, leaving the South laid low in
defeat — agonized and devastated. And then there rose up a se-
verer test, a more trying ordeal, than war.

(165)

166 Mississippi Historical Society.

The terms of readmission to her former position in the
Union imposed on the South were debasing to American
citizenship, a perversion of the government as ordained by the
fathers, destructive of social order and civilization and to the
last degree revolting to pride of race and cherished popular tra-
ditions. True to themselves and their trusts, with spirits un-
subdued by conquest and threats, and unseduced by pleas of
expediency that would have lowered character for temporal good
and gain, the people opposed the odius and revolting laws to the
limit of their powers, through peaceable means. In the resist-
ance of the forces of the government eixerted to abase them
under the rule of black men, in adherence to their principles and
fortitude in enduranpe of shameful wrongs, there is, indeed, no
other story comparable to the record of the Southern people.
It is for testimony of the truth of this claim that this history of
reconstruction in Mississippi has been undertaken. It goes forth
under no pretense of divestiture of sectional sentiment. It is
written from the Southern viewpoint by a Southern man — one
who was actively, if not conspicuously, engaged with the history
making of the period. The central purpose of the work, is to
secure a just appreciation of the leaders and the people of the
reconstruction years — the base and tyrannical infliction they
bore, the severe and manifold trials and wrongs, from which
they have emerged victorious. To make all this clear to the
succeeding generations of their countrymen, to vindicate their
judgment and patriotic purposes from misconstruction and de-
rogation, the facts carefully gleaned from the contemporary
chronicles, is the aim and argument of the author.

RECAPITULATION OF CHAPTERS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED.

This contribution to a volume of the State Historical Society
has been preceded by others dealing with that period of state
history commonly known as the Reconstruction Era, and con-
nected antecedent events of the last years of the war. It is much
regretted that the previous chapters have not appeared in chron-
ological order. The first to be published — a sketch of the an-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 167

nullment of the negro suffrage status, imposed by the reconstruc-
tion laws, and the war amendments of the U. S. constitution,
by the state constitutional convention of 1890 — was the last in
point of time to occur. It was contained in Volume VI. of the
Historical Society series. The next was under the title of "The
Enforcement Act of 1871 and the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi,"
in Volume IX. This was followed in Volume XII, by "Climax
and Collapse of Reconstruction in Mississippi," embracing the
years 1874-1876. The next of the chapters told the story from
18G5 to 1868 — from "Organization to Overthrow of the
State's Provisional Government." The present contribution fills
out the gaps, and completes the story. It begins with the eman-
cipation proclamation and the order for enlistment of negro
soldiers, in the early days of 1863 ; opening co-incidentally with
the campaign that was concluded in the fall of Vicksburg and
the re-opening to trade and commerce of the Mississippi river.
As President Lincoln said with dramatic portent when that death
blow to the Confederacy was announced: "The Father of
Waters again flows unvexed to the sea." Appreciated commend-
ation of preceding chapters upon Mississippi reconstruction his-
tory stimulates the hope of some day, publishing the entire series
of contributions to the volumes of the State Historical Society,
in book form.

From the beginning of the war until achieved, recovery of the
Mississippi river was held by the Washington government of
equally vital military consequence and consideration with the de-
fense of Washington. Due to limited resources in men and
equipment partly, and partly to confidence in the impregnability
of points that had been fortified, which had been seemingly vin-
dicated in the easy repulse of the first aUempts on Vicksburg,
concerted and adequate means of defense had not been provided.
Here the first mortal wound was inflicted upon the Southern Con-
federacy in the conquest of the Mississippi river. Unlike dis-
asters elsewhere it was hopelessly irretrev'able. While on other
fields the tide of war ebbed and flowed, the loss of that vital
point of vantage was final. It was doubly calamitous, for in the
occupation of the lower river a limited but invaluable supply of

168 Mississippi Historical Society.

cotton was procured for the New England mills ; and nearly two
hundred thousand black soldiers were enlisted. Probably as
many more army and navy employees, each one relieving a white
recruit for the battle line, were secured. Previous to the fall of
Vicksburg, and the occupation of the lower valley, the emanci-
pation proclamation had been looked on by the large slavehold-
ers, and the small ones, with derision, as a vain threat. When
it materialized at their doors, a genuine despondency spread over
the land.

The blow inflicted on the South in the reopening of the river
was doubled, in the inspiriting effect it had upon the Western
people. Railroad development was scarcely emerged from its
infancy, when that powerful and opulent section was deprived
of an avenue and means of trade that was felt to be an incalcu-
lable and an intolerable loss. It was in a plea to "a great Union
meeting," for holding up his arms in the prosecution of the war,
that President Lincoln sententiously announced the fall of Vicks-
burg and the conquest of the Mississippi by the Union armies
and fleets, in the words above quoted. While the blow fell heav-
ily on the Southern Confederacy, it descended as the knell of
doom on the valley people. The extent of the calamity was
probably more fully comprehended at Washington than at Rich-
mond, for "the Father of Waters to flow unvexed to the sea"
meant little in the Eastern states of the Confederacy by compari-
son with the consequence attached to it in the west and north-
west. To them it represented the true casus belli. And not even
the fall of Richmond would have been so gladly hailed as that
the Union forces held the river and its fortresses clear to the
Gulf. Planning for the campaign which consummated this great
purpose, Gen. Halleck, President Lincoln's military adviser and
the titular commander in chief of the Union armies, in the fall
of 1862 wrote Gen. N. P. Banks, who had succeeded Butler in
command of the Department of the Gulf: "The President re-
gards the opening of the Mississippi river as the most important
of all our military operations." He specified the two rnain ob-
jects of the two armies. Grant's operating down the river from
Memphis, and Banks' up from New Orleans, in cooperation with

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 169

the fleets of Admirals Farragut and Porter. These were the cap-
ture of Vicksburg and the possession of the Red river ; the forti-
fications at Port Hudson being the key to the latter.

More than the mere occupation of the country by a hostile
force, it was the effect of these two disasters — arming the slaves
and trading in cotton — that cast a blight over the spirit of the
people. They combined to appall and corrupt. Hitherto, the
Lincoln administration had resisted the importunities and temp-
tations of arming the slaves. Even tenders of free negro soldiers
were declined during the first year of hostilities. A regiment of
negroes raised by Gen. David Hunter, commanding the Union
forces on the South Carolina coast, was made the subject of a
congressional resolution of enquiry. Fearful of the effect on
sentiment, especially of the border states, this action was dis-
avowed and the organization disbanded. There was a strong,
at that period a predominant, party in the North that still looked!
to a restoration of the Union with slavery. That idea was sus-
tained by President Lincoln's declaration, that if the Union could
be saved with slavery preserved, he would thus save it. Not
until the war was more than a year old was the emancipation
policy seriously entertained. The flocking of the negro runaways
and refugees to the camps was an embarrassment that led to
an act of congress, July 17, 1862, authorizing the President "to
make provision for transportation and colonization or settlement
in some tropical country beyond the limits of the United States,
of negroes escaped from slavery as may be willing to emigrate."
In his message of December, 1862, President Lincoln referring
to "such colonization as contemplated by act of congress," said
"several of the South American republics have protested against
the sending of such colonies to their respective territories. . . .
I have offered to the several states situated within the tropics
to negotiate with them to favor the voluntary emigration of
persons of that class to their respective territories. Liberia and
Hayti are as yet the only countries to which colonists of Afri-
can descent from here could go with certainty of being received ,
as citizens, and I regret to say such persons contemplating col-
onization do not seem so willing to migrate nor so willing as I .

170 Mississippi Historical Society.

think their interest demands. I believe, however, opinion among
them in this respect is improving, and that ere long there will
be an augmented and considerable emigration to both those
countries from the United States." A communication from Gen.
Grant at Holly Springs, to Gen. Halleck, at Washington, Janu-
ary 6th, 18G3, is quoted : "Contraband question becoming a seri-
ous one. What shall I do with surplus negroes? I authorized
an Ohio philanthropist a few days ago to take all that were at
Columbus, Kentucky, to his state at government expense. Would
like to dispose of more same way." The problem of disposing
of the "surplus negroes" was shared by all the Union army com-
manders to a greater or less degree at this period of the war.

Tlie impression in the South, based on such evidence, of the
attitude of the government at Washington toward the slave, that
after the war had run its course there could be a settlement pre-
serving slavery, was not without a reassuring influence; espe-
cially in the sections of large negro population. This was most
unfortunate, for it was wholly deceptive. In its nature the war
was one to be fought to a finish. As it progressed, as the exac-
tions of blood and treasure grew heavier, the purely military
policy could but sweep away mitigating sentiment and rule ev-
erything. Thus it came about that the course of the war as re-
lated to the slaves and slavery radically changed — that the ad-
ministration moved up to the position of the extremists who had
from the beginning contended for an emancipation proclama-
tion. This consummated, in January, 18G3. the decision for arm-
ing the slaves, for fully utilizing them in bringing the war to a
close was adopted and acted upon. The policy was looked on
as a risky and dubious one at first. True Gen. Butler had se-
cured the President's authority even before the emancipation
proclamation to raise two regiments of "colored men" — the
"darkest of whom" as Butler wrote the war department, "was
about the color of the late Daniel Webster." In the fall of 1862
they had formed part of a force operating in Southwest Louis-
iana and commanded by Gen. Godfrey Weitzel. He declined
the command November 11th, 1862, in a communication to Gen.
Butler, which is quoted : "The reason I must decline is because

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 171

accepting the cottimand would place me in command of all the
troops in the district. I cannot command those negro regiments.
The commanding general knows well my private opinion on this
subject. What I stated to him privately, while on his staff I see
now before my eyes. Since the arrival of the negro regiments
symptoms of servile insurrection are becoming apparent. I can-
not assume the command of such a force and thus be responsible
for its conduct. I have no confidence in the organization. Its
moral effect in this community which is stripped of nearly all
its able bodied men is terrible. Women and children are in ter-
ror. It is heart rending and I cannot make myself responsible
for it. I will gladly go anywhere with my own brigade that you
see fit to order me. I beg you therefore to keep the negro bri-
gade directly under your own command."

The time had now come when it was decided to put aside, or
quell, such scruples as Gen. Weitzel entertained and which had
animated the Union generals and soldiers generally, heretofore.
Both army and civilian instinct, or prejudice, against black
troops was to be overcome. But the plunge once taken, all ob-
jection and obstacle disappeared. .No more was needed, in fact,
in the then doubtful war outlook, than to show its imperative
necessity. Very shrewdly, the first step taken was to convince
the army. March 23, 1863, the adjutant general of the army,
Lorenso Thomas, received instructions from Secretary of War
Stanton to visit the army operating under Gen. Grant, in the
Mississippi valley. The matter of main importance entrusted
to him was stated in the following passage:

"The President desires that you should confer freely with
Maj. Gen. Grant, and the officers with whom you have conver-
sation and explain to them the importance attached by the gov-
ernment to the use of the colored population emancipated by the
President's proclamation, and particularly for the organization
of their labor and military strength. You will cause it to be
understood that no officer in the United States service is re-
garded as in the discharge of his duties under the acts of con-
gress, the President's proclamation and the orders of this de-
partment, who fails to employ to the utmost extent, the aid and

172 Mississippi Historical Society.

cooperation of the loyal colored population in performing the
labor incident to military operations and in performing the duties
of soldiers under proper organization, and that any obstacle
thrown in the way of these ends is regarded by the President
as a violation of acts of congress and the declared purposes of
the government in using every means to bring the war to an end.
You will ascertain what military officers are willing to take com-
mand of colored troops and if troops can be raised and organized
you will so far as can be done withouit prejudice to the service
retire officers and privates from the service in which they are
engaged to receive commissions in the brigades, regiments and
companies of colored troops j and to organize such troops for
military service to the utmost extent to which they can be ob-
tained in accordance with the rules and regulations of the serv-
ice."

In a subsequent report to the secretary of war upon this mis-
sion Gen. Thomas said: "You undoubtedly recollect that the de-
termination to send me on this duty (the organization of colored
troops) was a sudden one, and the purpose was only unfolded
to me prior to the date of the instructions and you urged ex-
pedition in the matter. The subject was new to me and I entered
on the duty by no means certain of what I would be able to
effect. . . . The prejudice against colored troops was quite
general and it required in the first instance all of my efforts to
comba/t it. ... I found the treatment of the blacks varied
very materially at the different military stations, some command-
ers received them 'gladly, others indifferently, whilst in very
many cases they were refused admission within our lines. This
resulted from the fact that no policy in regard to them (the
blacks) had been made known. But as soon as I had announced
by your authority the views of the President and yourself all
opposition to their reception ceased."

At the same time orders were issued to Gen. Banks at New
Orleans, to immediately raise a large military force from the
colored population of Louisiana. There had been several regi-
ments enlisted in that department, shortly before the formal an-
nouncement by Adjutant General Thomas of the policy determ-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 173

ined upon. The great expectation from arming the negroes is
evidenced in the following letter from President Lincoln to Gov-
ernor Andrew Johnson, March 26th, 1863 : "I am told you have
at last thought of raising a negro military force. In my opinion
the country now needs no specific thing so much as some man
of your ability and position, an eminent citizen of a slave state
and a slave holder himself, to go to this work. The colored
population is the great available and yet unavailed of force for
restoring the Union. The bare sight of 50,000 armed and drilled
black soldiers upon the banks of the Mississippi would end the
rebellion at once."

General in Chief Halleck, the President's personal military
•adviser, wrote Gen. Grant March 31 : "It is the policy of the
government to withdraw from the enemy as much productive
labor as possible. So long as the Rebels retain and employ their
slaves in producing grain, etc., they can employ all the whites
in the field. Every slave withdrawn from the enemy is equiva-
lent to a white man put hors de combat. Again, it is the policy
■of the government to use the negroes as far as practicable as a
military force for defense of forts, depots, etc. They certainly
•can be used with advantage as Jaborers, teamsters, cooks, etc.,
and it is the opinion of many that they will do as a military force,
. . . It is expected that you will use your official and personal
influence to remove prejudice of this character. . . . The
character of the war has very much changed the last year. There
is now no possible hope of reconciliation with the Rebels. We
must conquer or be conquered by them. This is the phase the
rebellion has now assumed. We must take things as they are.
The government has adopted a policy and we must faithfully
carry it out." Writing to Secretary of War Stanton from He-
lena April 6th, 1863, Gen. L. Thomas said: "I addressed 7,000
troops today and the policy rc-^pecting arming the black man was
most enthusiastically received. Gens. Prentiss, Washburn and
Hovey made speeches in high commendation. It has inspired
new life into the troops and they say now they see that the re-
bellion will be crushed. . . . Gen. Hurlburt says his corps
will give the policy of arming the blacks their supportj especially

174 Mississippi Historical Society.

the regiments that have been in battle." Other addresses to the
soldiers were reported, who received the announcement "with
great enthusiasm." At Lake Providence, being followed by Gen.
Jno. A. Logan. Gen. Thomas wrote : "He not only fully indorsed
my own remarks but went far beyond them." From Milliken's
Bend, where Gen. Grant's main force was camped, he wrote,
"the predjudice in the army respecting arming the negroes is
fast wearing out. I send by mail plan for occupying abandoned
plantations."

April 11th Gen. Grant, at Milliken's Bend wrote Gen. Steele
at Greenville : "All negroes you have you will provide for where
they are, issuing to them rations until other disposition is made
of them. You will encourage all negroes, particularly mMdle
aged males, to come within our lines. Gen. L. Thomas is now
here with authority to make ample provision for the negro."
After Vicksburg was taken the inflow of negroes to the Federal
camps was greatly swelled. August 9th President Lincoln wrote
Gen. Grant: "Adjutant General Thomas has again gone to the
Mississippi valley with the view of raising colored troops. I
have no reason to doubt that you are doing what you can upon
the same subject. I believe it is a resource which, if vigilantly
applied now, will soon close the contest. It works doubly —
weakening the enemy and strengthening us. We were not fully
ripe for it until the river was opened. Now I think at least
100,000 ought to be organized along its shores returning all the
white troops to serve elsewhere." In fact a total of 186,000
negroes were enlisted from the slave states, as follows : Ken-
tucky, 23,700; Missouri, 8,800; Tennessee, 20,100; Arkansas,
5,500; Mississippi, 17,800; Louisiana, 24,000; Maryland, 8,700;
Alabama, 4,900; Georgia, 3,400; South Carolina, 5,400; North
Carolina, 5,000 ; Virginia, 5,100. The rest of the total was raised
by recruiting officers sent South by Northern Governors. They
attracted recruits, who were credited on their draft quotas, by
offers of large bounties. Thereupon, using this new form of
enlistments were sought with such zeal that General Sherman,
June 24th, 1864, issued an order forbidding "recruiting officers
from enlisting negroes who are profitably employed in any of

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 175

the army departments, and any staff officers having a negro em-
ployed in useful labor on account of the government will refuse
to release him by virtue of any supposed enlistment. Command-
ing officers of military posts will arrest and if need be imprison
any recruiting officer who to make up companies of negro sol-
diers, interferes with the necessary gangs of hired negroes of
the quartermaster's or other departments without the full con-
sent of the officer having them in charge." General Thomas re-
ported to the secretary of war that bounties ofTcred by these re-
cruiting agents were encouraging desertions from the negro reg-
iments. About the same time, September, 18G4, he complained
that "Gen. Sherman was opposed to the organization of colored
troops. He ought to bear in mind that they guard a long line
of his communications, and that on the Mississippi river they
are relied on for guarding important points." This rebuke was
occasioned by Sherman's protest against "the invasion of his
camp by agents from states for recruiting negroes." He was
informed in a letter from Gen. Halleck that "the law was a
ridiculous one, but it was passed through the influence of East-
ern manufacturers who hoped to escape the draft through negro
enlistments. They were making immense fortunes out of the
war and could well afford to purchase negro recruits to keep
their employees at home." He further wrote Sherman to rec-
oncile himself to the slave arming policy — that "your ranks can-
not be filled by the draft." In the Vicksburg Herald, August
16th, 1864, recruits were advertised for by agents from New
York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Liberal
bounties were offered to all who would enlist to fill the quotas
of the states named, respectively, under the call for half a mil-
lion men. "It is comparatively easy," the Herald said, "for the
loyal citizens to be represented in the U. S. army. Colored men
will be accepted as substitutes, and these can be procured with
but little difficulty and at very small cost for bounties."

The calculations upon the double effect of using the negro as
a military force and agency, of the strength it would add to the
North and take from the South, were fully verified. Every
negro used in guarding posts and communication lines, and as

176 Mississippi Historical Society.

teamsters, etc., added a white soldier to the armies in the field.
Wliile Lincoln's assertion, that "the bare sight of a negro army
would terminate the rebellion at once," failed of verification,
demonstration of fact of such a reserve force for the Union
armies to rely upon, was a material final factor in the failure of
the Confederacy. The ensuing moral subjugation of the people
of sections without the Confederate lines, was reflected in a let-
ter to President Lincoln from Gen. Hurlburt, Aug. 11, 1863.
Referring to an application of "fifty men of mark and position
in Mississippi to hold a meeting to consider recognition by the
United States, he wrote : "Mississippi is thoroughly broken spir-
ited. . . . The terror inspired by the mission of Gen. L.
Thomas of arming negroes will hasten results." The suggestive-
ness of the following letter from Gen. Hunter to Secretary of
War Stanton, August 3d, 1863, readily explains the terror of
communities without military protection, inhabited solely by old
men, women and children:

"From all I can see and hear at the North and from the hope-
less state of the rebels I am fully convinced you will shortly be
overwhelmed with the cry of the 'Union as it was and the con-
stitution as it is.' Slavery will thus be fixed forever and all our
blood and treasure will have been expended in vain. Cannot
this be prevented by a general arming of the negroes and a gen-
eral destruction of all property of slaveholders thus making it
their interest to get rid of slavery? Let me take the men you
can spare from this city (New York), land at Brunswick, Ga.,
march through the heart of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi
to New Orleans, arming all the negroes and burning the house
of every slaveholder. A passage of this kind would create a
conviction among the negroes that they could be left to do the
rest. Slaveholders have no rights a negro is bound to respect."
It is but just to the North to state that Gen. Hunter was a Vir-
ginian, and that he subsequently practiced what he preached by
ravaging and burning the homes of the valley section of which
he was a native.

The social and industrial disorders brought to the state through
the Union military policy, was greatest in the river and northern

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeUy. 177

counties. During this period the Confederate authorities were
dragnetting the state for recruits and deserters. Conscription
which was sweeping, drew forth the earnest remonstrances of
the civil authorities. They protested against the state, which
had been so largely abandoned by the Richmond government,
being stripped of its male population. The negro male popula-
tion was heavily drawn upon by both sides ; the Confederates
for building earthworks, repairing communication lines, etc.,
while they were being enlisted as soldiers, and employed in forti-
fication works, as teamsters and in the multitude of camp uses
by the Union army. Thousands were moved out of the state by
their owners to prevent them from going in the Union lines.
But the most potent of all the causes of demoralization and
decay of the war spirit in the river country — ^more effective than
all combined — was the trade in cotton. The blockade of the
Southern ports had caused a great deal of cotton to accumulate
in the interior; a considerable portion of the full crop of 1860-
61 and practically all that bad been grown in the two years en-
suing. This cotton was being sought for at prices that now read
like fiction. The total crop of 1860-61 was 4,861,000 bales. Of
this Mississippi raised over a fourth. The ten counties and par-
ishes in a radius of less than a hundred miles of Vicksburg pro-
duced nearly a seventh of the South's total. When that territory
was opened up to speculators with official permits, with cotton
selling around a dollar a pound, the people went cotton mad. A
cotton famine abroad was an influence counted on heavily, to
force foreign intervention. That calculation failed. Instead the
smuggling demand sapped the Confederate foundations that
rested on devotion to the cause. Under the Southern war pol-
icy, tens of thousands of bales had been burned by order of the
Confederate authorities, to keep it out of the market. Could they
have foreseen the evils of the cotton traffic, all would have been
destroyed.

It did not help the Confederate cause that the fever of cotton

speculation was almost as evil on the Federal as the Confederate

side of the line. It was so recognized by General Grant when

he made Memphis his base, in 1862. He sought to break up the

12

178 Mississippi Historical Society.

trade entirely through the most sweeping order. But he was
powerless before the policy and the permits of the treasury de-
partment. In a letter to Secretary of War Stanton from his as-
sistant, C. A. Dana, who had been sent on a mission to Gen.
Grant's department, dated Memphis, Jan. 21, 1863, was the fol-
lowing: "The mania for sudden fortunes out of cotton, raging
in a vast population of Jews and Yankees scattered throughout
the country, and in this town has to an alarming extent cor-
rupted and demoralized the army. Every colonel, captain or
quartermaster is in secret partnership with some operator in
cotton; while every soldier dreams of adding a bale of cotton to
his monthly pay. I had no conception of the extent of the evil
until I came and saw for myself. No private purchase of cot-
ton should be allowed in any part of the occupied region. Let
quartermasters buy at a fixed price of 20 or 25 cents a pound,
and forward it to be sold at public auction on goverimient ac-
count. I have seen Gen. Grant, who fully agrees with all my
statements and suggestions except that implying corruption to
every officer, which of course I did not intend to be taken liter-
ally. I have just attended a public sale of 5,000 bales of cotton
confiscated at Oxford and Holly Springs. It belonged to Jacob
Thompson and other notorious rebels. This cotton brought to-
day over $1,500,000."

After several campaigns and movements for effecting the con-
quest of the lower valley had been thwarted, success crowned
Gen. U. S. Grant's efforts in the capture of Vicksburg, July 4th,
1863, and the army of near 30,000 men which the incapacity or
cross purposes of the Confederate commanders opposing him had
allowed to be cooped up there. With this signal success the un-
disputed control of the river by the Union fleets was consimi-
mated. Vicksburg had been treated by the Confederate govern-
ment and looked on by the people as the valley stronghold, and
the connecting bond between the Southern states. East and West
of the Mississippi. Failure of former efforts to reduce or seize
it had grown a feeling of false confidence in its impregnability.
Its unlooked for fall followed by that of Port Hudson, involv-
ing the surrender of forces that could not be replaced, caused a

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 179

feeling of dismay and despair throughout Mississippi and the
other Gulf states, that discounted Appomattox. Outnum^
bered and outgeneraled, beaten in battle and starved into
surrender, the captured troops were paroled. Despondent and
humiliated, they fared forth from the beleagured city to spread
abroad the contagion of despair. His government wished Gen.
Grant to hold them until exchanged. But with a clearer sense
of effects he released them on their parole ; writing to Gen. Hal-
leck: "Pemberton's army may be regarded as discharged from
service." He thus explained himself in after years: "I was glad
to give the garrison of Vicksburg the terms I did. There was a
cartel in existence at that time which required either party to ex-
change or parole all prisoners either at Vicksburg or at points
on the James River within ten days after capture or as soon
thereafter as practicable. This would have used all the trans-
portation we had for a month."

As the Confederate government had at the time of the sur-
render a large balance in prisoners of war to their credit, it was
designed to immediately place the paroled garrison back in the
service. Hence as soon as the formalities of surrender had been
completed, parole lists made out and delivered, Pemberton's
troops marched from the city July 11th, destined for private
camps in the eastern part of the state to be reorganized and out-
fitted for immediate service. The departure was attended by
ominous evidence that Gen. Grant had not miscalculated the ex-
tent of their demoralization. Gen. M. L. Smith, the Confeder-
ate parole commissioner, enquired of Gen. Pemberton "if men or
regiments so desiring might be sent North instead of being pa-
roled." After conference with the Federal commander, Pem-
berton replied they could not — ^they must accept parole and leave
the post, nor would Gen. Grant "permit the oath of allegiance
to the United States to be taken by any member of my army."
Nevertheless, troops of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas regi-
ments were not interfered with in crossing the river, whence
most of them vanished never to return. In the march across the
state his command dwindled so rapidly that Gen. Pemberton
urged that a general furlough be granted, to satisfy the incessant

180 Mississippi Historical Society.

clamor to visit their homes before again entering active service.
July 17th he advised the war department that "the men, misled
by many officers, insist on going home. I have no arms to prevent
them. It is not to avoid a camp for paroled prisoners, but a de-
termination to see their families. I have done everything in my
power to keep them together, but in vain. Nearly all from the
trans-Mississippi and from Mississippi have deserted already.
Georgians, Alabamians and Tennesseeans will go when they
draw near home." To meet such a condition, badly as these
troops were needed, they were furloughed for thirty days. July
20th the Confederate exchange commissioners proclaimed that
all the Vicksburg army were exchanged. This declaration was
challenged by the Federal commissioners. A dispute followed,
which dragged on for weeks and months. This prevented the
most of the men from repairing to the concentration camgs un-
til the close of the year. Many soldiers would not return to the
ranks under a questionable status. Not a few of them never
again did active service. Among the people the confidence lost
when Vicksburg fell was never regained. Gen. Grant wrote Hal-
leck on August 11th: "This state and Louisiana would be more
easily governed now than Missouri or Kentucky, if armed rebels
from other states could be kept out. In fact the people are ready
to accept anything. The troops from these states, too, desert and
return as soon as they find that they cannot be hunted down. I
am informed on reliable authority through many parts of Mis-
sissippi of moves to unite the people to bring the state into the
Union. I receive letters and delegations myself on the subject,
and believe the people are sincere."

A communication from Gen. Jas. R. Chalmers, dated from
Grenada, July 29th, 1863, to Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, told the
story of a beaten people. It read as follows : "I regret to say
that I am informed that there is some disaffection among the
people of the northern parts of the state and that a few persons
are openly advocating a policy of reconstruction. Is it advis-
able to attempt to suppress such expressions of sentiment; and
if so what course shall I pursue toward persons guilty of using
them"? Like reports emanated from various sections of the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 181

state, in some there were disaffected gatherings of the weak
hearted. While they were barren of direct result, they were in-
fallible symptoms of defection that was fatal. In the case noted
Gen. Chalmers was ordered "to arrest all who are openly advo-
cating the policy of reconstruction." In a communication to
Gen. Johnston from Gen. Daniel Ruggles, dated Columbus, Aug-
ust lOth, 1863, "the political status of the people of this district"
was the subject of discussion. The following paragraph deals
especially with a much noted cause of disaffection: "The spirit
of volunteering has ceased to exist and although there are num-
bers of men apparently within conscription limits few go for-
ward to swell the ranks of our armies, there being no sentiment
sufficiently potent to impel them to enter the service. This want
of patriotic fervor is traceable to a number of causes, coming
under the ruling desire of saving property. It is to be appre-
hended that this feeling is reacting banefully on that class pos-
sessed of small estates. They assume that if the more wealthy
portion of our population, slaveholders especially, will not enter
the ranks of the army to defend their rights of property, it is
not incumbent on them who have no such large interests at stake.
The argument assumes the greater plausibility considered in
connection with the number of substitutes employed by the more
wealthy, and unless something is done and that right speedily to
arrest this growing spirit of discontent, we shall cease to have
that cordial support of citizens who constitute a majority of our
fighting forces."

The conscription act, and the exemption from its drag net
of managers of plantations with twenty negroes, went far to
depopularize the war. Both undoubtedly proved their unwis-
dom, in doing more harm than good.

Writing to President Davis of the influences depopularizing
the war. Senator Phelan of this state said: "There are many
plausible reasons which I need not detail, for the desire to get
away from the military service. The vigorous enforcement of
the conscription act would tend to allay the spirit of discontent.
Reorganize the whole system and let popular attention be started
and attracted by the prominent, rich and influential men being

182 Mississippi Historical Society.

swept into the ranks. Never did a law meet with more universal
odium than the exemption of slave owners. Its gross injustice
is denounced even by those whose position enables them to take
advantage of its privileges. Its influence upon the poor is most
calamitous, and has awakened a spirit and elicited a discussion
of which we may safely predict unfortunate results. I believe
such a provision to be unnecessary, inexpedient and unjust. It
has aroused a spirit of rebellion in some places, and bodies of
men have banded together to resist it. I hope you will satisfy
yourself of the truth with reference to the recommendations in
your message." The intent of the law exempting from military
service one white man on every plantation of twenty or more
negroes was that the negro should be kept under proper control,
his labor be intelligently supervised for support of the home pop-
ulation and the army. This seemed sound policy. But it was
proved quite otherwise. When volunteering slackened and con-
scription was resorted to, the discrimination was looked upon as
stated by Senator Phelan, and used by the demagogues of dis-
content to stir up opposition to the conduct and continuation of
the war. The purchase of substitutes, while it did not prevail
to any great extent — the substitutes being secured from the few
able bodied men over conscript age who had not volunteered. —
was used in the same way.

The purpose of the Union establishment of freedmen's
camps and employment agencies was to rid the towns and garri-
son points of the squatting hordes of negro idlers. These were
centres of filth and vice that spread debauchery and disease
among the troops. As a rule the abandoned plantations were
leased out to favorites, or partners, of those who controlled the
leasing. The field seemed an inviting one to Northern adven-
turers who came in the wake of the army. Any sort of a prospect
for growing cotton worth a dollar a pound commanded capital
for plantation supplies. Provisions were taken for protecting
lessees from raiding bands of Confederates. Posts were garri-
soned at points from which guards could be afforded. Lessees
were empowered to enlist their own guards. They were further
sheltered under an order issued by the commander at Vicksburg,

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 18S

May, 1864, threatening indemnity contributions, to be levied on
any property of the "disloyal" owners of adjacent lands, for de-
predations on the property of loyal lessees by guerrilla bands. A
fine of $10,000 was ordered, for the benefit of the family of any
lessee thus killed. Firing on passing boats was ruthlessly re-
taliated upon adjacent houses and towns by burning. Thus Don-
aldsonville, La., Greenville, Miss., and Columbia, Ark., were to-
tally destroyed, for acts of those over whom the citizens of the
towns had no control. Under like circumstances a number of
plantation homes were burned.

The so-called guerrillas were in fact acting for protection of
the people from pillage. The outrage of burning Donaldson-
ville is emphasized by the following, from the report of Lieut.
Roe, commanding the gunboat Katahdin only a few days before
the burning: "I respectfully request instructions if the Katah-
din's guns are to be used for protection of soldiers upon a ma-
rauding expedition, and if I am to use them in protection of
drunken, undisciplined and licentious troops in the wanton pil-
lage of a private mansion of wines, plate, silk dresses, chemises,
female wearing apparel. I cannot further prostitute the dignity
of my profession as I conceive I have done today. I blush to
report that while the troops were thus engaged I pointed my fire
upon guerrillas hovering in the rear, apparently occupied in pre-
venting such acts of United States troops."

Terrifying as retaliation which fell only upon them was to the
supplicating citizens, boats were fired on and leased plantations
raided and broken up to the end of the war. The Palmyra, or
Davis Bend plantations, were so located, with the river on three
sides, that the following order was issued March 28th : "All the
property in the Palmyra Bend except the Turner and Quitman
plantations is hereby reserved for military purposes on which
will be reserved 'a Home Farm,' to furnish land for freedmen
for their own cultivation. The general superintendent of freed-
men will have active control under the proper military authority.

"By order of the Secretary of War.

"L. Thomas,
Adjutant General."

184 Mississippi Historical Society.

By a subsequent order of the general in command, N. J. T.
Dana, the Davis Bend arrangement seems to have been used for
the profit of a few "fortunate persons." This order extended the
"home farm" over the whole peninsula, "including the islands
known as Hurricane, Palmyra and Big Black." The order re-
ferred to recited that "the limits described will easily support not
less than twenty-five thousand freedman. Davis Bend is per-
fectly secured against rebel attack and raids. It was never in-
tended that this security should be afforded at a high cost to the
government under pretense of providing a 'freedman's home'
in order that three or four fortunate persons should be favored
with leases of plantations in so desirable a locality." All white
persons were notified to leave the plantations named. Thus Davis
Bend became the chief camp of freedmen.

"There is at Davis Bend," said The Herald of September 21,
1864, "a great experiment in progress of what the freedmen may
be expected to do hereafter. There are about seventy-five farmers
working land on their own account. About 1,200 acres in cotton
and the same in corn. Jeff Davis' plantation is all covered with
these negro farmers, and just where the rebellion was hatched
shall rise up the demonstration that black men need only the op-
portunity to solve the great problem that has so vexed the poli-
ticians."

In October 1863 the following circular of the policy toward
abandoned plantations was issued through Gen. L. Thomas,
from Natchez, by order of Secretary of War FAv/in M. Stan-
ton:

The following regulations for the government of the com-
missioners for leasing plantations are published for the inform-
ation of all concerned :

1. Tlie primary objects are to line the Mississippi river with
a loyal population and to give aid in securing the uninterrupted
navigation of the river at the same time to give employment
to the freed negroes, whereby they may earn wages and be-
come self supporting.

2. The property of disloyal persons of right belongs to the
United States, and when required may be taken. Such is the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 185

case with plantations, crops, etc., owned by them, which the
commissioners may take possession of and lease the plantations
to loyal citizens.

3. The plantations of men of undoubted loyalty, especially
those who have been so from the beginning of the rebellion,
will be occupied and managed by themselves or leased by them
to loyal citizens. In case they do neither, the commissioners
may take possession and lease as in the above case.

4. Men of doubted loyalty if permitted to cultivate their
plantations, will be required to take as a partner a loyal citizen.

February 20th, 1864, Gen. L. Thomas complained to the
secretary of war of the maladministration of the affairs of
freedmen and abandoned plantations by Mr. W. P. Mellen,
agent of the Treasury Department. He wrote: "Since Mr.
Mellen has taken charge of the abandoned plantations, instead
of recognizing what had been done under my instruction for
the present year, he required all permits to be revoked and in-
troduced a system the workings of which the men of experi-
ence on the river assert to be impracticable. * * * I do
not wish to have anything to do with the abandoned plantations,
but if the government will send a commission I will operate
with them cordially and furnish all the labor required. I con-
sider the negroes under my charge, but Mr. Mellen avers that
they are entirely under him. The military authorities must
have command of the negroes or there will be endless confu-
sion." The answer to Gen. Thomas' complaint was a letter
from President Lincoln that he "go at once to the Mississippi
river and take hold of and be master of the contraband and
leasing business." In a letter to the secretary of war some
months later Gen. Grant wrote : "Through treasury agents on
the Mississippi and by a very bad civil policy in Louisiana I
have no doubt the war has been considerably protracted, and
the states bordering on the river thrown further from sympa-
thy with the government than they were before the river was
thrown open to commerce."

March 11th, 1864, Gen. Thomas issued, from Vicksburg, a
long and intricate code of instructions, interspersed with much

186 Mississippi Historical Society.

politico-moral disquisition, governing the labor and conduct of
the abandoned plantations. His rules were prefaced by the fol-
lowing general announcement: "The occupation of the plan-
tations and employment of the freedmen having been directed
by the President of the United States, must be regarded as a
settled policy of government, and it is the duty of all military
commanders and troops to afford protection to the fullest ex-
tent to this most important interest whenever it can be properly
done." Enthused by contemplation of his system he rhapso-
dised over it; "A more majestic and wise clemency history
does not exhibit. Those who profess allegiance to other gov-
ernments will be required as the condition of residence in the
military division of the Mississippi to acquiesce without reser-
vation, in the demands presented by government as a perma-
nent basis of peace. The noncultivation of the soil, without
just reason, will be followed by temporary forfeiture to those
who will secure its improvement. * * * The yellow har-
vest must wave over the crimson field of blood and the repre-
sentatives of the people displace the agents of purely military
power." Laying his scheme of occupation and cultivation of
the river plantations before Gen. W. T. Sherman, it was con-
demned by that commander as "a long weak line easily ap-
proached, which can be broken at any point by bands of a hun-
dred men with perfect impunity. * * * Now I would pre-
fer much to colonize the negroes on lands clearly forfeited to
us by treason and for the government to buy or extinguish the
claims of other and loyal people in the district chosen. I look
on the lands bordering the Mississippi, Steele's Bayou, Deer
Creek, Sunflower, Bogue Phalia, Yazoo, etc., in that rich al-
luvial region lying between Memphis and Vicksburg, as the
very country in which we might collect the negroes, where they
will find more good land already cleared than any district I
know of." The vae victis of Brennus the Gaulish barbarian
was mild, by comparison with the pains and penalties these two
Union generals proposed for the people of the lower river. Be-
tween the upper and the nether millstone of military tyranny

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 187

and negroism they sought to grind the non combatant popula-
tion to powder.

By act of congress, in July, 1864, the trade in cotton was
limited to persons actively residing and producing the article
within the Federal military lines. Beyond this limitation only
the government could become the purchaser. This act was
passed because of the cotton trade corruption of the army and
to cut off the revenue derived from trade across the lines by
the "rebels." Very elaborate regulations were promulgated
from the treasury department, for executing this law. The
following orders controlling and regulating "abandoned plan-
tations" were published in the Vicksburg Herald:

Vickburg, Miss., Sept. 8, 1864.
"The application of every planter for permit to ship cotton
must be accompanied by certificate of the superintendent and
provost marshal of freedmen, that the wages of the laborers
have been paid, or that sufficient security has been given for
the payment of the same. No permit will be granted without
such certificate.

Vicksburg, Miss., Sept. 16, 1864.
For the information of the public, it is announced that the
undersigned has been assigned by the general agent of the
treasury department to permit the transportation of products
from the district of Vicksburg, which were purchased under
proper authority and paid for prior to July 29, 1864, in pursu-
ance of section 55, regulations of July 29, 1864, upon the con-
dition following:

The authority under which the products have been purchased
must be presented to the undersigned, and a copy thereof must
be filed at this office.

Vicksburg, Miss., Sept. 16, 1864.
(Circular.)

In order to secure to the government pay for rations furn-
ished negroes working lands for themselves all sales of cotton

188 Mississippi Historical Society.

or corn made by negroes must be approved by the provost mar-
shal of freedmen, and bear his certificate that all claim for ra-
tions and supplies furnished by the government have been set-
tled.

This order applies to all cases, whether the parties have re-
ceived any supplies or not as there is no way of finding out
who have received except upon an examination of the parties
themselves and the books in this office.

Samuel Thomas,
Col. and Provost Marshal of Freedmen.

Headquarters, District of Vicksburg,
, . Vicksburg, Miss., Sept. 15th, 1864.

Misapprehension appears to exist as to the authority under
the right granted in the rules and regulations of the treasury
department to ship products of the rebellious states, which were
purchased and paid for prior to their adoption. Many persons
appear to consider that this carries with it the understanding
that products can still be produced beyond the lines of actual
military occupation and brought within said lines for shipment.

General Order 33, current series, forbids the crossing of any
property over the lines, except the personal property of bona
fide refugees; and all persons are cautioned that that order will
be literally construed, saving solely the coming crops of plan-
tations which have been worked under the authority of the
treasury department.

Pickets will be careful to prevent the coming in of any other
products, and will increase their watchfulness to prevent and
punish frauds by bad men attempting to smuggle old cotton
under the pretense of its being a part of their crop.

By order of

Maj. Gen. N. J. T. Dana.

H. C. RoDGERS, Asst. Adjt. Gen.

The special treasury agents, "after conference with the major
general in command," at Vicksburg, issued trade permits under
which alone could any one engage in merchandising. No per-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 189

son could be so licensed who had not taken the oath of allegi-
ance. Nor could his clerks be employed except on such condi-
tion. Products of leased plantations in the Mississippi district
could only be offered for sale in Vicksburg and Natchez. But
in spite of high priced cotton, and all of the advantages of pro-
tection and favoritism, more fortunes were lost than were made
by those who invested money in planting. In addition to the
losses of raids, the taxes and protection exactions, the army
worm appeared in August, 1864, and seriously damaged the
crop. A letter in the Vicksburg Herald of August 20th re-
ported the destruction as very great. "Every plantation in
this neighborhood," it read, "is laid waste and many fields will
not make five bales to the hundred acres." Another account
stated that "the whole crop would be cut short a half." Octo-
ber 5th the paper stated that "the season from the moment of
planting was as propitious as could be wished up to about the
15th of August, when the army worm made its appearance and
in a very short time the fair promises were blasted forever.
There is no planter around here who will make a fourth the
amount he reasonably expected, and some will scarcely make
the seed, they planted," The following from a later Herald,
after the yield was determined, refers to the Davis plantation:
"We did not over-state the productiveness of the soil, the in-
dustry of the people or the reasonable expectations. But alas
for human foresight, we did not allow for the waste of worms.
They devoured as the locusts of Egypt. Five-sixths of the crop
was thus destroyed. Some of the negro planters sold their crops
before the worms came for large prices." Much of the disas-
ter was attributed to the late planting, growing out of "the col-
lision of the departments over them, the treasury and military,
and the conflicts of authority."

While cotton growers on the abandoned plantations had
burned their fingers in 1864, there was no abatement of the
fever of high priced cotton. It was calculated that the experi-
ence of the past year would, if duly observed convert losses
into gains. One thing sought was better protection from raid-
ers. This was urged in a long memorial addressed to Gen.

190 Mississippi Historical Society.

Canby, commanding the military division of the gulf, and dated
Dec. 12, 1864, reciting that "it was unnecessary to allude in de-
tail to the many trials and difficulties endured by the loyal les-
sees of the Vicksburg district, in the past year. Suffice it to
say, that invited by the government to cultivate the most neces-
sary staple of our country — cotton — with promises of protection
and all necessary facilities for pushing the business, thousands
of enterprising and loyal citizens from various parts of the
Union, with faith in the honest intentions of the government
officials, that they would perform their pledges, accepted the
invitation and invested capital and labor in planting." This
preface was followed by a moving recital of "the murder and
pillage of the loyal lessees by guerrilla bands." Bitter complaint
was lodged against the military authorities for withholding pro-
tection— "many acts of unparalleled atrocity and murderous bar-
barity being committed almost within gun shot of Federal mili-
tary posts." "Necessary arrangements were urged whereby
the plantations may be resumed and reoccupied and made more
secure for another year."

The details of the arrangement asked were set forth — all
based upon a larger military protecting force. Otherwise it
was stated that in the proposed district to the west of Vicksburg
the government would lose a revenue of $6,640,000 on
150,000 bales of cotton; or $44 per bale. At this date
cotton was selling in New York for $1.24 per pound.
Such a showing was deemed a sufficient argument for
the employment of an army of plantation guards.

More regulations were published for systematizing and sup-
ervising the plantation control and management for the year
A 1865. The exact terms of contracts, with the specified wages,^
rations and clothing for the laborers, were prescribed as set
forth in instructions from the treasury department and indi-
cated in the following:

"All contracts made by white men with freedmen, either for
furnishing plantation supplies or stock, for the leasing of land,
for labor, or any other articles, involving the interests of the
freedmen in any way, must be written out in full, the main

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 191

points clearly stated, and approved and filed in this office. Plant-
ers wishing freedmen to labor on plantations must apply at this
office for a proper permit, and no planters who have not set-
tled with their hands for labor done during the year 1864, and
who have not taken up the bond for such settlement, deposited
in this office, will be permitted to employ freedmen until such
settlement is made and the bond cancelled.

After securing such permit, planters can proceed to any
freedmen camps in the district and hire freedmen, but must
enter into a written contract with them as required by the treas-
ury regulations, before they are taken to the planations, a copy
of which contract must be filed as above.

All planters in this district will report to this office, in writ-
ing, upon the last day of each month, the names of all hands in
actual employ during the month; date of entry upon labor, or
of leaving the plantation; rate of wages paid or amount of
interest in crop; amount of stoppage during month, and num-
ber of dependents upon each working hand.

By order of

CoL. Samuel Thomas,
Pro. Mar. Gen. of Freedmen.

A lengthy document, dated March 21st, 1865, contained the
following :

In addition to just treatment, wholesome rations, comfortable
clothing, quarters, fuel, and medical attendance, and the oppor-
tunity for instruction of children, the planter shall pay to the
laborer as follows:

Male Hands — First class, $10 per month; second class, $8
per month; third class, $6 per month.

Female hands — First class, $8 per month; second class, $6
per month; third class, $5 per month.

Boys under 14, $3 per month.

Girls under 14, $2 per month.

These classes will be determined by merit and on agreement
between the planter and the laborers.

Engineers, foremen and mechanics will be allowed to make

192 Mississippi Historical Society.

their own contracts, but will always receive not less than $5 per
month additional to first-class rates.

One-half of the money wages due will be paid quarterly as
follows : On the first days of May, August and November, and
final payment of the entire amount then due, on or before the
1st day of January.

PENALTIES.

Wages for the time lost will be deducted in case of sickness ;
and both wages and rations where the sickness is feigned for
purposes of idleness; and in cases of feigned sickness, or re-
fusal to work according to contract, when able so to do, such
offender will be reported by the provost marshal to the super-
intendent, put upon forced labor on public works, without pay.

Laborers will be allowed and encouraged to choose their own
employers, but when they have once selected, they must fulfil
their contract for the year, and will not be permitted to leave
their place of employment (except in cases where they are per-
mitted so to do for just reasons, by the authority of the super-
intendent) and if they do so leave without cause and permis-
sion, they will forfeit all wages earned to the time of abandon-
ment and be otherwise punished as the nature of the case may
require.

All crops and property on any plantation where laborers are
employed will be held to be covered by a lien against all other
creditors to the extent of the wages due employes, and such
lien will follow such crops or property in any and all hands un-
til such labor is fully paid and satisfied.
By command of Major Gen. Hurlbut.

George B. Blake,

Lieut. Col. and Assistant Adjt. Gen.

The weekly ration for laborers was fixed. No store could be
j^ opened except by permit, which was not saleable nor transfer-
able. Lessees were granted permits to erect stockades and en-
list guards who were to be officered by the military commander
and equipped and rationed out of the government stores.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 193

Guards were promised lessees by Gen. Dana, the Mississippi
department commander, with headquarters at Vicksburg,
"wherever they could be spared, to be stationed at such points
and in such numbers as to save peril to boats, and prevent smug-
gling to the enemy. Monthly reports were required of each
lessee.

The price of cotton, which so corrupted and crazed the peo-
ple and the speculators, averaged 31.39 cents in New York, in
1861-62; 67.21 in 1862-1863; 101.50 in 1863-64; and 83.38 in
1864-65. The freight from Vicksburg to New York was 3 cents
a pound. In a graphic, if scandalous picture of cotton trading
across the line, Gen. N. J. T. Dana wrote Gen. O. O. Howard
November 12, 1864, from Vicksburg: "It is utterly impossible
for cotton and efficient war, loyalty and traitorous traffic, to
grow together. Bad as Memphis is said to be, this place and
Natchez were, prior to Gen. Canby's advent, much worse." Of-
ficers of high rank engaged in sharing the profits of this "trait-
orous traffic." One general was charged by an officer of his
command with having netted $10,000 in three months, while
commanding at Natchez. In 1864, secure in possession of the
river, extensive plans were laid for raising cotton on the ripar-
ian plantations. Treasury department agents were assigned to
take possession of abandoned lands. Freedmen's camps had
been provided for under general order 51, August 10, 1863.
Army officers were detailed as superintendents of such camps,
to issue rations, lease lands and give employment to freedmen.
They were authorized to hire them out to civilians "on proper
assurances that they would not be run off beyond the military
jurisdiction of the United States." Negroes in such charge
might also be hired on public works or in gathering abandoned
crops. Under prescribed rules citizens might make contracts
with their freed slaves for plantation work. Provost marshals
were ordered to see that every negro in the military jurisdiction
was employed by some white person, or sent to the freedmen's
camps.

In correspondence of J. B. De Bow, general produce loan
agent, after the fall of Vicksburg, the statement is made that
13

194 Mississippi Historical Society.

the Confederate government owned 200,000 bales of cotton in
Mississippi. He was then instructed by the secretary of the
treasury, C. S. Memminger, "to consult the military authorities
and organize some system by which the cotton may be preserved
when practicable and destroyed if otherwise there is great danger
of its falling into the hands of the enemy." This cotton was scat-
tered over the country, in the hands largely of planters who had
sold it for Confederate notes or bonds. After the fall of Vicks-
burg some was moved out, some burned, some captured and much
of it preyed upon and sold across the line by soldiers and citizens.
Every bale was the object of speculation or greed. There was
nothing elsewhere in the occupation of Confederate territory like
the contamination of this trade in cotton. Its sordid and bale-
ful effects duplicated those of the gold discoveries. It under-
mined virtue, public and private, destroying the self-sacreficial
spirit that upheld the Confederate cause. This touchstone of
evil had deeply infected West Tennessee and North Mississippi
as early as the close of the second year of the war.

In a letter from Vicksburg to the Secretary of the Treasury
Gen. Grant wrote July 23, 1863 : "My experience in West
Tennessee has convinced me that any trade whatever with the
rebellious states is weakening to us at least thirty-three per
cent of our force. No matter what restrictions are thrown
around trade, if any whatever is allowed, it will be made the
means of supplying to the enemy what they want. Restric-
tions, if lived up to make trade unprofitable, and hence none
but dishonest men go into it. I will venture to say that no hon-
est man has made money in West Tennessee in the last year
while many fortunes have been made there during the time."
Idle words, though true, these proved.

"Our people," writes Gen. R. Taylor in Destruction and Re-
construction, "were much debauched by the trade in cotton. I
write advisedly, for during the last two and a half years of the
war I commanded in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama, the great producing states. Outpost officers would
violate the law and trade. In vain were they removed; the
temptation was too strong and their successors did the same.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 195

* * * I hated the very name of cotton, as the source of so
much corruption to our people." When Gen. Taylor took com-
mand in the Trans.Mississippi he protested strongly against the
cotton burning policy. But after he had become acquainted
with the cotton itch, he thus reversed his opinion, in a report to
Gen. Bragg, in Feb. 1864:

"My views; upon the subject of the destruction of private cot-
ton have undergone a decided change, and I am of the opinion
that cotton belonging to private individuals should be destroyed
whenever likely to fall into the hands of the enemy. * * *
So long as the Federals can receive cotton from our lines, or
have any prospect of procuring it by occupation of any portion
of our territory, they will observe their existing policy and re-
quirements prohibiting the shipment of supplies to us, I have
issued orders directing the destruction of private cotton when-
ever it is in danger "of falling into the enemy's hands."

Writing to President Davis Jan. 5, 1865, Robert McHenry,
a citizen of Union county, Arkansas, thus pictured the evil in
that state: "The cotton speculation on the Mississippi river
has been carried on for the last year on a very extensive scale.
Under the pretense of obtaining clothing for the army it has
had and is still having a very demoralizing effect on the Con-
federate army in the Trans-Mississippi * * * The soldiers,
I am sorry to say, are deserting and going home and to the en-
emy in consequence of the cotton speculation, and unless there
is a stop put to it I fear the consequences. * * * ^ large
portion of the cotton returned to Richmond as being burned,
has been stolen and sold to the enemy."

How much cotton was burned during the war is a moot ques-
tion. The policy, and the orders of the Confederate authorities
directed the burning of all cotton liable to be captured. After
the investment of Vicksburg this was construed to mean all baled
cotton between the Mississippi river and the Yazoo river on the
east bank, and between the Mississippi and the Ouachita on the
west bank. And, generally, south of Vicksburg on the east
bank, and north of the Louisiana line in Arkansas, that was ex-
posed to, capture. Toward the close of the war large quantities

196 Mississippi Historical Society.

were burned in front of the advance of Gens. Sherman and
Wilson. While there was doubtless less cotton burned than so
reported, it is probable that as much as a million bales, and pos-
sibly more, was burned. Gen. Wilson reported 255,000 bales
stored mainly at Selma, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia,
burned.

The corrupting cotton trade and attendant robbery of a de-
fenseless people increased after the fall of Vicksburg. It was
not so imperative for the commanders of garrison troops and
posts to enforce discipline, as when confronted by hostile forces.

Impelled by intolerable conditions, forty citizens of Oak
Ridge, near Vicksburg, met Sept. 4, 1863, to appeal to the mil-
itary authorities for relief from "straggling soldiers, and ne-
groes armed and unarmed, who had despoiled them of their
possessions and from whom their families were daily exposed
to injuries and insults." Permission was asked to "unite as
good orderly citizens for mutual aid in pursuing the vocations
of life and protection of property and person." The "removal
or disarming of the negroes on Roach's and Blake's plantations,
who had robbed peaceable white citizens, and murdered citizens
of Deer Creek," was asked. Tlie question was asked, if "se-
curity of life and property would be afforded those who were
planting and pursuing their vocations by the military." Copies
of the proceedings of this meeting were sent Gens. Sherman
and Grant. The former's response was as a stone to those who
asked bread. In a long and spiteful harangue he informed
these people that on account of "firing on our steamboats, and
after the long and desperate resistance to our armies and in
Mississippi generally, we are justified in treating the inhabi-
tants as combatants and would be perfectly justifiable in trans-
porting you all across the seas. ... In due season the ne-
groes at Blake and Roach will be hired or employed by the gov-
ernment. But in the meantime no one must molest them. . .
The moment your state can hold an open fair election and send
senators and representatives to congress, I doubt not they
would again be a part of the government. Until that is done

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 197

it is idle to talk of such little annoyances as you refer to at
Roach's and Deer Creek."

Gen. Sherman further, and considerately informed these com-
plaining citizens that "Gen. Grant was absent and would have
no time to notice their petition, as he deals with a larger sphere ;
I have only reduced these points to writing that you people may
have something to think about, and divert your minds from cot-
ton, niggers and petty depredations." A copy of his correspon-
dence being sent to Gen. Halleck, that officer referred it to
Gen. Grant, who took occasion to write that "he did not coin-
cide with Gen. Sherman as to the policy toward those people.
. . . I think we should hold out terms that by accepting
they would receive the protection of our laws." Subsequently,
Gen. Sherman explained to Gen. McPherson, who commanded
a corps under him that he "intended making planters feel that
they were responsible for the safety of navigation, for collect-
ing com and cotton, giving receipts to the loyal only. They
must be shown we can reach and punish them in case they con-
nive at attacks on our boats." To disprove connivance, "they
must be active as friends. They cannot be allowed to be neutral.
They may protest against being held responsible for acts of
Confederates. But in war we have a perfect right to produce
results in our own way." Such distorted and brutal theory of
methods of war found no echo either with Gen. McPherson or
Gen. Grant.

In a letter to Gen. Halleck August 30th, General Grant thus
referred to the Deer Creek affair: "Signs of negro insurrec-
tion are beginning to e~hibit themselves. Last week some
armed negroes crossed tb' Yazoo in the neighborhood near
Haynes' Bluff, and went uj. into the Deer Creek country, where
they murdered several whitt men. I cannot learn the full par-
ticulars of this occurrence. The negroes who committed this
act, however, are not soldiers, but were probably some men
from a negro camp occupying plantations near Hayi\es' Bluff.
It seems that some of the citizens in that country have at-
tempted to intimidate the negroes by whipping and (in a few
instances) by shooting them. This probably was but a case of

198 Mississippi Historical Society.

retribution." Local chronicles reveal no retribution in this case.
After the fall of Vicksburg all Confederate troops cleared out
of the Deer Creek country, a section made up wholly of large
plantations and no white men of military age remained. Know-
ing that they might rob and murder there with impunity, negro
men from concentration camps at Blakeley and Roach's, being
under no restraint, and armed by the Federals, depredated on
the citizens as reported to Gen. Sherman.

The following account of the Deer Creek raid, in Aug. 1863,
was obtained from Col. W. D. Brown, a planter and a gentle-
man of highest character and respectability, who was near the
scene at the time:

"A murderous band of negroes from Haynes' Bluff on the
Yazoo river, made a raid up Deer Creek. The raid was not
authorized by the military authorities, but was planned by a
few blood thirsty negioes, intent on murder of the few white
citizens then resident on the Creek. At the Good Intent plan-
tation (now Smedes station) they murdered a Mr. Sims, then
the overseer or manager of that plantation. Moving up on the
west side of the Creek they next captured Charles J. Fore, quite
an old man, who had for many years been the general manager
of the several plantations owned by H. R. W. Hill on Lower
Deer Creek. They did not kill Mr. Fore, but according to my
recollection they wounded him severely and left him — suppos-
ing he was dead or that he would die. Continuing up on the
west side of the Creek they came to the home of Mr. Joe Qark,
near the head of Neasome Bayou. Mr. Clark was shot to death
by them, his wife clinging to him and begging for his life in
the midst of the volley fired into his body and he fell dead in
his room in the presence of his wife and little children. Con-
tinuing northward they next came to what is known as the
Georgiana plantation, then the property of Mr. George F.
Short. There they shot to death Mr. Johnson, the overseer of
the plantation. A little further up the Creek they attempted to
kill Mr. John M. Clark, but failed as the Creek lay between
them. Mr. Qark escaped with a bullet hole through his hat.
Continuing their raid to the point where Rolling Fork is now

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 199

located, they found an old Irishman in charge of the property
of an absent owner, but did not molest him. There they made
inquiry for the writer, whose residence was half a mile further
up Big Deer Creek. Learning that he was absent from home,
they turned back toward the Yazoo river."

Col. Brown makes this observation, which is eloquent of the
restraints and the lessons of slavery: "A fact connected with
these murders which excited no notice at the time, but which
is very noticeable now, is that these unrestrained demons did
not, even though nerved to indiscriminate plunder and murder
of white men, in a single case offer to injure or insult women
and children."

This murderous Deer Creek raid was one of the few actual
symptoms, of "the slave insurrection" mentioned by Gen. Grant.
A month before a document setting out «uch "a plan" came
into the possession of the Confederate government, a part of <
the mail of a steamer captured between Norfolk and New Berne.
It described "a plan to induce the blacks to make a concentrated
and simultaneous movement or rising in the night of August
1st; to arm themselves as best they could and commence oper-
ations by burning railroad and county bridges,. tearing up rails,
destroying telegraph lines, etc. No blood is to be shed except
in self-defense. Intelligent contrabands were to be selected to
spread the plan and make the rising understood by several hun-
dred thousand slaves by the time named." This document,
which may be read on page 1068 of the War Records, Series
I, Volume XVIII., was signed Augustus S. Montgomery and
directed to Major General Foster, commanding the Department
of North Carolina. He was assured that it would be communi-
cated "to every other department in the seceded states." It
was endorsed, "approved, C. Marshall, Major and Aide de
Camp." Secretary of War Seddon in sending copies of it to
Southern governors, wrote: "You will perceive that it dictates
a plan of a general insurrection of the slaves on August 1st
next, and while attaching no great importance to the matter,
I deem it prudent to place your excellency in possession of the
information."

200 Mississippi Historical Society.

The "negro insurrection" was calculated upon no little by
Northern political leaders, as an agency in the subjugation of
the South and the punishment of "rebels." The idea was not
quenched by John Brown's failure. But it was never a cause
of serious apprehension in the South, or by the Confederate
authorities. Negro fealty and fear, contempt for their capac-
ity of organization, prevented alarm. Dread of the visitations
of independent companies which operated throughout the river
country was sufficient to hold the slave population of the plan-
tation belt in order. And a few months after the occurrence
above related, the descent of a small body of Confederates
broke up the negro camps at Blakeley and about Haynes' Bluff,
though they were almost under the guns of the Vicksburg gar-
rison.

This sense of security against insurrection by the slave popu-
lation was rudely disturbed when the policy of arming the ne-
gro population and organizing them under white officers was
announced. This did not have the effect announced by Presi-
dent Lincoln of at once ending the war. The negro troops
in fact were never looked upon and never proved themselves
formidable in battle. But in garrison, or on the raid,
they "inspired a terror," as was foretold by Gen. Grant,
that was frequently justified at the expense of the non-
combatant population. While the Deer Creek murders was the
most ominous event of the kind, there were others that spread
fear of the armed bodies of negroes abroad over the land. In
June, 1864, the people of Vicksburg were horrified by an affair
thus related in The Herald : "John Bobb, a peaceable unof-
fending citizen, has been most brutally murdered by negro sol-
diers. Ordering a lot of negroes out of his yard, where they
were picking flowers, Bobb was cursed, abused and insulted.
He knocked down a negro sergeant, when they left vowing re-
venge. He immediately proceeded to headquarters and, after
reporting the affair, was promised protection by Gen. Slocum.
When he went to his home some fifteen or twenty negro sol-
diers, led by a sergeant, arrested him and a Mr. Mattingly, who
was with him. He was taken through the machine shops and

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 201

150 rods down the bayou when a negro shot him in the back.
He fell and another shot struck his face. Mattingly ran and
was pursued and shot at. Gen. Slocum sent one of his staff to
ascertain the facts. He found Bobbs dead, his distracted wife
hanging over his body, surrounded by 100 negro soldiers who
shouted, 'we've got them now.' He ordered the arrest of all
the parties, but up to this writing the sergeant alone has been
arrested. If Gen. Slocum does not find out and hang these
men there is no security for life to any man, and he is unfit for
the command." But beyond issuing an admonitory order of
"the terrible consequences if the spirit which led to this act is
not repressed" and that "hereafter the officers of any regiment
guilty of such crimes will be held to a strict accountability,"
nothing seems to have been done.

Gen. Slocum's order was not, it seems by the following from
the Herald of July 23d, taken seriously : "Complaints are daily
made to the military authorities of outrages committed on the
rights of the citizens, and no means have been resorted to for
effective remedy. Several cases have come to our knowledge
in the past week where colored soldiers have entered and strip-
ped gardens of vegetables and fruit. Only yesterday this was
done and when ordered out by a lady she was grossly insulted.
This was in three hundred yards of two encampments." Other
instances of a like nature followed, occasioning the observation
that such "daily occurrences does not argue well for officers
charged with the duty of maintaining discipline." The recur-
rent reports of disorder and turbulence of the negro soldiers
continued. February 24th, 1865, the Herald tells of "the dia-
bolical murder" of Mr. Garrity, manager of the Dick Christ-
mas plantation, his wife and two children by two negro desert-
ers from a gunboat. The house was robbed and burned. "We
did not hear," the paper said, "of any efforts for arresting the
fiends."

March 17, 1865, the Herald had an account of "a horrible
affair, the shooting and mortally wounding by soldiers of the
66th colored infantry of Mr. S. B. Cook, some miles from
Vicksburg on his plantation. They entered his house and be-

202 Mississippi Historical Society.

haved in a very insulting manner besides committing other out-
rages." Mr. Cook died from his wounds. No arrests or pun-
ishment of the murderers followed. This crime was closely
followed up by another "horrible murder." The Herald's ac-
count reads as follows: "On the night of April 3d, after Ma-
jor J. R. Cook, who lives seven miles from Vicksburg, and his
family had retired, a party of about 25 negroes entered the
house and shot Mrs. Cook. Major Cook sprang to her assist-
ance and was severely if not mortally wounded. Supposing his
wife, already dead, he succeeded in making his escape in com-
pany with his little son. The negroes remained in the house
five hours, plundering. Mrs. Cook died the following morn-
ing. She spoke but few words, merely saying she had been
shot by negroes dressed in uniform. Major General Dana has of-
fered a reward of $500.00 for apprehension of the guilty." This
general, who had succeeded General Slocum, followed up his of-
fer of reward by prompt and vigorous action. A dozen negro
soldiers were arrested and tried by a court martial presided
over by Gen. J. A. Maltby. They were convicted and ordered
executed. The order was carried out May 26th, eight of the
52d colored infantry and one of the 5th colored heavy artil-
lery being hung outside the city fortifications. Three of the
guilty were respited by Gen. Warren, who had succeeded Gen.
Dana in command.

Wherever the negro soldiers were stationed or marched,
there was dread among the women and children. On one of
Col. E. D. Osband's raids through the river country, with three
white and one negro regiment, in October 1864, he surprised a
small battery of light artillery. Before abandoning the guns
a few shells were fired from near the residence of Judge Ed-
ward McGehee, a mile or so from Woodville. The negro regi-
ment was detailed to burn him out. An old letter from a mem-
ber of the family relates that "on the remonstrance of this old
man, who told the officers in command that the house sheltered
none but himself, his wife and three daughters, one seriously
sick, he was dragged from the house and beaten over the head
by the negro soldiers with their pistols. His wife begged the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 203

white commander, a Captain J. B. Cook, of Kansas, not to 'let
those negroes treat her husband so.' This wretch called out,
'do you hear that, boys? She called you niggers. Hit her.'
And one of them knocked her down with his saber."

March 16 by order of Gen. Dana, "Provost courts'' were es-
tablished at the posts of Vicksburg and Natchez. There was
conferred upon such tribunals original jurisdiction, with powers
of "fine and imprisonment, hard labor and banishment" over
misdemeanors and minor civil actions, and all cases of military
offenses now triable by military commission. Provost courts
were given authority to try "matters of difference between the
United States government, its officers or agents, and citizens
concerning the right or possession of personal property." All
decisions, judgments and sentences were to be promptly re-
ferred to the commanding general of the district for approval,
which was requisite before execution of the court's prescripts
in cases of banishment, when the fine was over a hundred dol-
lars, the imprisonment over thirty days, or the property inter-
est over a hundred dollars.

Preceding contents are intended for enlightenment upon con-
ditions and events in the sections that were virtually outside of
the Confederacy, after Federal occupation of the river and the
river cities and towns. There was little less demoralization
and despondency in the adjacent counties. With the shift of
the main military campaign and operations to the eastward, the
whole of the state was open to hostile expeditions, from Mem-
phis, Vicksburg and Natchez, which were frequent, extending
pretty much to the eastern state boundary. In January, 1864,
with no other apparent purpose than to lay waste the country,
Gen. W. T. Sherman swept across the state from Meridian to
Vicksburg with an army of 30,000 men. There being no force
adequate to resist him, his march was scarcely opposed except
by cavalry demonstrations and attacks on his trains. On reach-
ing Meridian, then but a straggling town it was wantonly
burned. Sherman then took up his return in March, via Hillsboro
and Canton, burning and ravaging the country. All the way
across the state a line of march from twenty to thirty miles

204 Mississippi Historical Society.

wide was marked by standing chimneys — ^mute sentrys to the
sheer barbarity of war. The country was stripped of corn and
cotton, horses, mules and all stores of provisions, reducing the
non combatant population to actual want. Tliis was the fore-
runner to the manner of war soon to be visited upon Georgia,
and the Carolinas by this same ruthless warrior.

Thereafter, to the war's close, except in the middle eastern
part of the state, no regular or adequate force of Confederates
was maintained for protection of the people. Such bodies of
irregular cavalry as operated in the state effected little except
to keep the negro population in a wholesome state of submis-
sion. The state was still looked to and heavily drawn
upon for army supplies. Between such regular demands
and the exactions and robberies of Union marauders,
and the thinly disguised plunder of the people by Con-
federate shirkers, with consequent interference with farming
operations in 1864, to secure the necessaries of life by the non-
combatant population had become a problem by 1865. With the
slave population that had grown over a million bales of cotton
a year engaged wholly in the production of food supplies, there
had been abundance even after supplying the requisitions for
the army, up to 1864. Removal of the negroes and impress-
ments of horses and mules with the drain and destruction of in-
vasion had produced exhaustion that had brought the state to
the verge of economic collapse. After the Vicksburg campaign
in 1863, the capital of the state had been moved to Columbus ;
afterwards to Macon. The legislation of the war years was
almost wholly devoted to acts for sustaining and co-operating
in the Confederate military operations. Local government was
centered upon providing for dependent families of soldiers. In
each county there was a board of relief commissioners, one
from each police district, whose duty it was to gather informa-
tion of the necessities of the dependant, and with the boards
of police administer to their wants. A most serious domestic
problem was to furnish the people with salt. The legislature
passed various acts to supply this pressing need. January 1st,
1863, half a million dollars was appropriated "out of the mili-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 205

tary fund for the purpose of procuring salt for the people of
the state, and particularly for the indigent families of soldiers."
The government was authorized to appoint agents "to obtain
salt by mining or otherwise." By act of April 5th, 1864, the
governor or general salt agent was empowered to make good
losses of salt, upon proof of the board of police of any county
where salt furnished for indigent families had been captured
or destroyed by the public enemy. The purchase of cotton and
woolen cards was authorized also by legislation for the use of
indigent families.

At the legislative session in January, 1863, the governor was
authorized to impress all able bodied slaves between the ages
of 18 and 50 years, or so many thereof as may be required by
the military engineers of the state, or as may be called for
either by the commander of the state or Confederate forces
therein, with the use of tools and implements, wagons and teams
necessary to render the labor of the slaves so impressed effect-
ive, to provide for the public safety by aiding the military forces
of this state and of the Confederate states, to repel invasion and
repress insurrection. But in a subsequent resolution, after the
subjugation of northern and river counties, to repress abuses
of slave impressments, the governor was called upon "to do
all things in his power to protect the people from illegal press-
ing of slaves by officers of the Confederate army, or by parties
assuming to be such officers ; especially to prevent the whole-
sale pressing of slaves progressing in the border counties,
which, if continued, will have the effect to cause the slaves of
those counties to go almost en masse to the lines of the enemy."
The increasing urgency for men in the Confederate armies was
marked in a resolution of August 13, 1864, "waiving exemp-
tion from conscription of all officers under 45 of incorporated
cities and towns; all relief commissioners, trustees for state in-
stitutions ; road overseers ; deputy sheriffs, except one in each
county; deputy clerks, school commissioners." In this session
the governor was empowered in time of invasion or threatened
invasion of the state by the enemy, to call to the state military
service all free white males between the ages of 16 and 56,

208 Mississippi Historical Society.

including all exempted or detailed by the Confederate state not
actually in the military or naval or other service of the Confed-
erate states. Only judges and clerks of courts of public record,
extending to the principal clerk alone, the legislative depart-
ment, one sheriff to each county, commissioners appointed to
distribute the fund for relief of destitute families of soldiers
not exceeding one for each police district; physicians above the
age of 45 years, who are engaged in the practice in the county
of their citizenship, such public millers absolutely necessary, com-
prised the exempt list. The governor vetoed a bill extending
exemptions to members of the board of police, county treasur-
ers, and ministers of the gospel, and it was passed over his veto.
Though in a resolution of April 4, 1864, it had been declared
that the Confederate congress had no constitutional power to
conscript or place in the Confederate military service any legis-
lative, executive, judicial, or military officer of the state gov-
ernment. Power to this extent was claimed in an act so sweep-
ing that no exemptions of such officers was specified. Local
officers such as were not dispensed with, were held by old men
and disabled soldiers. In pursuance of the war policy, the people
were encouraged and urged to the growth of food products sole-
ly; cotton planting above three acres per hand was interdicted
under a heavy penalty. All private distillation of grain was pro-
hibited, the state undertaking to supply the medicinal needs of al-
coholic drink through a public distillery, and dispensaries. Some
millions of bonds and notes were issued in aid of the war power —
a million notes being paid out direct to the families of soldiers.
To supply a sufficient money circulation and arrest the deprecia-
tion of the currency, five millions of notes known as cotton
money, were used in the purchase of cotton, at five cents a pound.
Thus secured it was expected this issue would pass on a parity
with gold and silver. It was contracted that the cotton would be
delivered when called for by the Governor, at such places as he
might direct. With Confederate notes these state issues fur-
nished the circulating medium.

Upon the breaking out of war gold and silver as a circulating
medium disappeared of course. After the fall of Vicksburg Con-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 207

federate notes depreciated almost to worthlessness. In the river
counties after the capture of Vicksburg United States notes,
greenbacks paid out for contraband cotton, circulated at an enor-
mous premium. Judged by the prices, everything was a luxury.
At the prevailing currency depreciation, however, price lists of
the closing years of the war tell of nothing so much as the im-
pending collapse. A bond sale authorized by acts of the legislat-
ure in August, 1864, provided that they .should not be sold at less
than par. The next day a supplemental act was passed that the
said bonds should not be sold at less than 50 per cent of par.
"Needs must when the devil drives."

The legislature continued to meet in regular and special ses-
sions, to aid in and provide for the needs and emergencies of the
Confederate war policies and operations. Attendance after the
shift of the capital from Jackson, when occupied by the enemy in
1863, to Columbus, and then to Macon in 1864, was under many
difficulties, and at heavy cost and inconvenience to the member-
ship. Among the acts called for by the war's exigencies was one
exempting the property of soldiers from levy and sale. Subse-
quently all collections at law, or under mortgage and trust deed
sales were stayed until twelve months after the close of the war.
Civil courts were thus practically deprived of business, and
closed. The war and its burdens, the service and sacrifice re-
quired in the support of the forces in the field, combined and
swayed the domestic life of the people as well as their political
destiny. Yet while the state honored as far as possible all drafts
upon her resources of men and material, inherent jealousy of in-
fringements of the central government upon the rights of the
states lingered. The core of these rights, the writ of habeas cor-
pus, was treated as a sacred calf to be saved from the sacrificial
altar on which the lives of the best and bravest had been so lavish-
ly offered up to the wrath of Moloch. Through all the stress of
storm, the darkness and disasters of war, the state and the South
clung with a fatuous tenacity which materially weakened the re-
sisting war power, to the writ of habeas corpus. Upon the recom-
mendation of President Davis congress had, early in 1862, au-
thorized a limited suspension of the writ. But its enactment,

208 Mississippi Historical Society.

and application in certain sections, so aroused hostility that it
was repealed within the year. By unanimous vote the legislature
of the President's own state, instructed the Mississippi senators
and requested the representatives to support repeal. In Febru-
ary, 1864, upon the earnest recommendation of President I>avis
that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was the sole
remedy for evils he enumerated, it was so enacted in a carefully
restricted form for ninety days. Governor Brown, of Georgia,
the evil genius of the Confederacy, by message incited the
legislature of Georgia to declare the suspension uncon-
stitutional by statute. Governor Vance of North Carolina, too,
aired it as a grievance. The President's appeals and arguments
for re-enactment of the suspension of the writ were vainly re-
newed until the adjournment of congress, just before the col-
lapse. By a queer revolution of time's whirligig Senator Yancy,
who had tolled the tocsin of war first and loudest, and Vice
President Stephens, the most illustrious and influential opponent
of secession led the fight against the writ. "I deny in toto," said
the senator in debate, "that the war power in this government is
superior to the civil power." The President's insistence upon
suspension caused Mr. Stephens "to doubt his good intentions."
Sailing through the storm lashed sea under such a dead weight
of political barnacles, it is small wonder the Confederate ship of
state went to the bottom.

Historians have remarked on the difference in the habeas cor-
pus procedures of the two sections, furnishing as the contrast
does a significant illustration of the more real and earnest devo-
tion of the South to the rights and liberties of the citizens as safe-
guarded by constitutional prescription. The Confederate Presi-
dent unhesitatingly recognized that the suspension of the writ
which he deemed essential in the conduct of war was vested in
congress. On the other hand Mr. Lincoln suspended the writ at
will. He even delegated this extraordinary and tyrannical pow-
er to his generals as he saw fit. The Northern practice is best
illustrated by the boastful and memorable words of Secretary of
State Seward, to Lord Lyons, the British minister. "My Lord, I
can touch a little bell on my right hand and order the arrest of a

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 209

citizen of Ohio. I can touch a bell again and order the imprison-
ment of a citizen of New York, and no power on earth except
the President can release them. Can the Queen of England do
as much?" Short work would Lincoln and Seward have made
of such obstructionists, thorns in the flesh of the struggling Con-
federacy, as Vice President Stephens, Senator Yancy, Governors
Brown of Georgia, and Vance of North Carolina.

As late as March, 18G5, the legislature of Mississippi — called
in special session by Governor Qark for the reason that "the
destitution of the people calls for immediate relief and other mat-
ters of importance demand prompt legislative action" — ^met in
Columbus. Time and occasion was taken to pay tribute to the
habeas corpus fetich of state's rights ; with the death rattle sound-
ing in the throat of the Confederacy, an act was passed to brace
up that shelter for offenders against military authority and law.
And in less than sixty days from the date of that act, the rights
and liberties which the military power, shorn by the legislature,
alone had guarded, were under the iron heel of a despotic foe.
Thereafter, for years, the writ of habeas corpus was no more
respected by the military commanders than the mace of the
speaker of the house of commons, when raised against the usur-
pation of Cromwell. "Take away that bauble" was the reply in
deed if not in words on a hundred occasions, by the epauleted
rulers of the South, to appeals for rights under the law.

In special session of the legislature at Macon, in February,
1865, the act "to provide for families of soldiers" was extended
and amplified. A fixed feature of both Confederate and state
governments, growing out of a depreciated currency, was the
gathering of tithes of food products. This tax in kind was two
per cent, which with certain specified exemptions, was levied on
the gross amounts of corn, wheat and bacon produced in the year
1865 ; on tolls of grain mills ; on the gross profits of tanneries,
and on all woolen and cotton fabrics and yarn manufactured, and
on a number of other subjects. A new fund for the same pur-
pose was created by a levy of a special tax of one hundred and
fifty per cent on the regular state tax; not to apply to slaves,
stock and plantations. Boards of police were directed to levy a
14

210 Mississippi Historical Society.

further tax in kind for "the 1864 deficit in the indigent fund."
There were "Confederate state assessors" to return the amount
of products of each producer, which returns the county district
commissioners were to adopt, as a basis of the said tax in kind.
These commissioners were for the purjxjse of equitable distribu-
tion of the "tax in kind," directed and empowered to prepare rolls
of the number of such indigent families, with the number and
age of each and deposit the same with the clerk of the board of
police, which board was empowered to classify the dependents,
and to verify any rolls that they doubted the correctness of.
Families of deserters or soldiers absent without leave were
barred from the tax in kind. All necessary details for its proper
application and operation were provided in the law which was
approved March 9th, 1865. The commissioners were empowered
besides by a separate act to impress the surplus of all who had
taken the benefit of the Confederate law exempting owners of
twenty negroes from service. They were also empowered to
make impressments of teams or boats necessary to the efficient
discharge of their duties. Thus was the war brought home to
every one, as an all controlling and ever present power, in the
affairs of life.

To check the spread of demoralization, with the design of re-
storing order and obedience to the authorities, in that territory,
Gen. N. B. Forrest was given command over a department in-
cluding West Tennessee, Mississippi and East Louisiana. In an
order dated January 21, 1865, he thus addressed himself to the
task: "The rights and property of citizens must be protected
and respected, and the illegal organizations of cavalry prowling
through the country under various authorities not recognized as
legitimate, or which have been revoked, must be placed regularly
and properly in the service, or driven from the country. They
are in many instances nothing more nor less than roving bands of
deserters, absentees, stragglers, horse thieves, and robbers, whose
acts of lawlessness and crime demand a remedy which I shall not
hesitate to apply even to extermination. I sincerely hope * * *
I shall have the hearty co-operation of all subordinate command-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 211

ers and the unqualified support of every brave and faithful
soldier."

The legislature being in session "hailed with great satisfaction
the avowed purpose declared by Gen. P'orrest in his recent pub-
lished address ; pledging him all the aid in their power in consum-
mating so laudable a purpose." The governor was requested "to
use all the means at his command to effect the ends stated and to
fully co-operate with Gen. Forrest in such measure as may be
necessary to restore all delinquents to our army."

The disturbed and deplorable state of affairs that Gen. Forrest
was expected to restore to order is disclosed in a letter H. W.
Walter, a prominent citizen of Holly Springs, who was an officer
of the inspection department, wrote December 29, 1864, to Sen-
ator Watson of this state. He said "The conscript department
was worthless ;" that it employed more able bodied men than it
had sent to the front." He stated that "from a careful examina-
tion of the subject the number of deserters in the state was not
less than 7,000. * * * The number of skulkers under de-
tails is also very large. Every post is full of them, generally of
young and healthy men. Large numbers of supernumerary and
unnecessary officers are found everywhere. * * * Portions
of the state have been so repeatedly over run by the foe, that
scarcely half our planters have been able to till the soil. In the
northern tiers of counties sufficient food is not found for the
home population." He again wrote February 1, 1865, that "af-
fairs are in a deplorable state. The county is infested by desert-
ers, robbing friend and foe indiscriminately, and the condition
of the citizens is pitiable. Dismounted Confederate cavalrymen
steal his horses, while a dastard foe robs him of food and cloth-
ing. Grain cannot be grown and food cannot be purchased. Our
cavalry vigilant and successful in arresting the citizen whose
wants compel him to send his bale of cotton to Memphis to pro-
cure necessary food, fail to molest the professional blockader who
makes merchandise of treason. * * * I am satisfied that not
less than 1,000 deserters ten days since could have been found be-
tween the lines in this section. * * * j cannot discover that
one man has been added to the regular service by conscription

212 Mississippi Historical Society.

from this (Marshall) county for months past. Conscripts and
deserters are daily seen on the streets of the town of Holly
Springs * * * Gen. Forrest with that energy and ability
which always characterizes his actions has turned his attention
to this evil. With the aid of his brother Col. Jesse Forrest, he
has lately arrested and sent to their commands many deserters."
Writing from Leake county to President Davis November 25th,
1864, of bad state conditions, Judge R. S. Hudson reported a
terrible confusion of military affairs. "The state reserves is
composed mostly of persons liable to, or deserters from the Con-
federate service. The infantry is deserting to the cavalry. A
large number calling themselves 'scouts,' and 'independent com-
panies' are infesting the valley and are nothing less than mur-
derers, plunderers and blockade runners. The cohesive band is
spoils from our own people. Nearly all the deserters take refuge
with them. They adopt a most extravagant furlough system to
make sale or dispose of their booty. They demoralize the
country from whence they came, through which they pass, and
where they stay. They scatter at will, and reunite the same way,
bearing such permission from their officers. The citizen is their
victim in purse or property. The next evil is one resulting in a
great measure from this. It is a general discontent and loss of
confidence in the administration and our success, a disposition
of opposition of the powers that be and declarations for recon-
struction. Your proposition for the government to possess itself
of the negroes for army uses finds great and general opposition."
Such letters must have mournfully suggested to Mr. Davis the
story of Job and his comforters.

The following from an account in the Memphis Bulletin of
March 13th, supplies further evidence of conditions in North
Mississippi as reported by a raiding force of Union troops : "The
country was found to be in a desperate condition, the people in
some places being on the verge of starvation. In Tippah county
meetings had been held to devise means for getting and dis-
tributing food. An intense Union feeling prevailed, many who
had been bitter secessionists were ready and anxious for peace on

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 213

any terms. * * * In Marshall county home guards were or-
ganizing for protection from robbers. Negroes sent out of the
way of the Federals were being brought back under wages agree-
ments as the Confederacy was believed to have played out."

The thoroughness of Gen. Forrest's plan for checking the de-
moralizing and criminal practices that were rife is to be read
in the following directions March 15th, to one of his subordinates,
Col. Jesse Forrest : You will move with your command from this
point (West Point) through Chickasaw, Pontotoc and Lafayette
to Oxford * * * You will spread out your men as much as
possible to gather up deserters, absentees and stragglers ♦ * *
From Oxford you will move in the direction of Panola, scouting
well the counties of Marshall, Panola and De Soto. * * *
Arrest all persons taking cotton through the enemy's lines with-
out proper authority, which can only be given by Maj. Jno. T.
Wallis, approved by the lieutenant general commanding depart-
ment. * * * Having scouted the counties mentioned move to
the Mississippi river near Horn Lake, then down the river as far
as Issaquena, arresting absentees, deserters, stragglers, etc.
* * * While on your rounds you will collect all companies or
parts of companies you may find, unless they be there under or-
ders from department or district headquarters, ordering them to
report to you for duty and taking them with you." Any officer
resisting, Col. Forrest was ordered to arrest and place in irons.
In the growing inclination to escape actual service, a number of
companies of so-called cavalry had congregated in the counties of
West Mississippi and East Louisiana under the pretense of guard-
ing the river landings and approaches, and to break up the trade
in cotton and mule stealing which many of their officers were
engaged in. These were especial objects of Gen. Forrest's atten-
tion. The stringency of his orders and policy is illustrated in the
following story, published by the Rev. S. Archer, a noted Presby-
terian minister patriot of Greenville:

"On one occasion, I was called upon to marry a couple at the
place known as, Winterville, then called the Ireys plantation. I
met Capt. Evans within a mile of the place. He said : "Where are
you going, sir ?"

&14 Mississippi Historical Society.

"I am going to marry Miss Copeland to Lieut. Johnson."

He replied: "It aint any use, I have just had him shot and
flung into the river."

"Why, you are mistaken."

"No, it's a fact."

"What did you do that for ?"

"He stole Mr. Halsey's mules, and I had orders from General
Forrest, who commands the cavalry in this section, to shoot all
such marauders, and simply executed my orders."

I repaired to the house and found that what he told me was
literally true.

Could any man have brought order out of the confusion and
despair that prevailed, nerved the heart of the people to renewal
of faith and vigor in the failing cause Gen. Forrest would have.
But the situation was become vain. Only in the ranks of the
armies in the field did constancy and fidelity linger. With the
people, the source of sustenance, the force of resistance had run
out, and only the shell was left, to offer a short prolongation of
the futile combat. In the Southern part of his department Gen.
Forrest reported that no dependence should be placed on the
forces stationed there for enforcing his orders. The utmost de-
termination was shown by Gov. Qark to aid in the campaign for
clearing the state of deserters and stragglers, and forcing them
back in the ranks. But patriotic inspiration and the summons by
brave leaders to battle had become idle as the call of spirits from
the vasty deep. The tide of affairs of the Southern Confederacy
was ebbing fast. The last breath of vitality went out at Appo-
mattox, April 9th, 1865. What show or sign of prolonging the
struggle thereafter was mere convulsion of dissolution.

So harrassed and outworn as the people were, so feeble had
grown the pulsations of hope of a successful termination of the
war, that the shock of the surrender of the armies in the field was
broken. The effect of the collapse upon sentiment had been dis-
counted as an inevitability. The bitterness of defeat, the under-
lying remorse and grief over the vast and vain sacrifices of blood
and treasure was threaded by the natural sense of relief, that the
end of war, with its agony and bloody sweat, had come. There

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 215

was joy, subdued and sombre in the home coming of the soldiers,
and in the better feeling dispensed from the survivors of armies
in which disaster and defeat had not extinguished the morale
of a heroic struggle and a surviving sense of patriotic duty.
There was no time for repining over the wasted and tear dimmed
past — to "sit down by the waters of Babylon and weep." In the
stir of action, compelled to sustain life, hope rose above the om-
inous clouds that darkened the future.

It was at this crucial juncture that there befell the sorely af-
flicted South, a crowning and unlocked for calamity. April 15th
President Lincoln was assassinated — an insane and wicked deed
that plunged the North into the depths of grief, which for a time
was well nigh predominated by invocations of rage and revenge
toward the South. For the Southern people the loss of ^Ir. Lin-
coln from the nation's helm was in itself a misfortune beyond cal-
culation. And for this to have come on in a shape that enabled
the haters of the South to inflame Northern sentiment against
her was an overflow of the cup of ills. The current had set
strongly for a just and kindly restoration of the Southern states
to the Union. Instead there was raised a clamor of rage and
revenge that swept away or silenced all kindly feeling for the
Southern people. Even Gen. Grant, who had so recently won
the gratitude of the Southern soldiers by the liberal terms he
granted at Appomattox, was carried away by the passion that
swept over the land. A di.spatch to Gen. E. O. C. Ord, command-
ing at Richmond, read as follows :

Washington, April 15th, 18G5.
Maj. Gen. Ord, Richmond, \''a. :

Arrest J. A. Campbell, Mayor Mayo and the members of the
old city council, who have not yet taken the oath of allegiance,
and put them in Libby prison. Hold them guarded beyond the pos-
sibility of escape until further orders. Arrest all paroled officers
and surgeons until they can be sent beyond our lines unless they
take the oath of allegiance. The oath need not be received from
any one who you have not good reason to believe will observe it,
and from none who are excluded by the president's proclamation

216 Mississippi Historical Society.

without authority of the president to do so. Extreme vigor will
have to be observed whilst assassination remains the order of the
day with the rebels.

U. S. GRANT,
Lieutenant General.

It is to his eternal credit that Gen. Ord rose above the passion
that raged and stayed the blind impulse of his superior officer.
His reply is quoted:

Richmond, Va., April 15, '65.
Gen. U. S. Grant : Cipher dispatch directing certain parties to
be arrested is received. The two citizens I have seen. They are
old, nearly helpless, and I think incapable of harm. Lee and staff
are in town among the paroled prisoners. Should I arrest them
under the circumstances I think the rebellion here would be re-
opened. I will risk my life that the paroles will be kept, and if
you will allow me to do so, trust the people here who, I believe,
are ignorant of the assassination, done, I think by some insane
Brutus with but few accomplices. Messrs. Campbell and Hunter
pressed me earnestly to send them to Washington to see the Pres-
ident. Would they have done so if guilty? Please answer.

E. O. C. ORD,

Major General.

Gen. Grant replied :

"On reflection I will withdraw my dispatch of this date direct-
ing the arrest of Campbell and Mayo and others so far as it may
be regarded as an order and leave it only as a suggestion to be
executed only so far as you may judge the good of the service de-
mands." But a few days later he ordered the arrest and imprison-
ment of both Judge Campbell and Senator Hunter.

Secretary of War Stanton was the originator and a chief insti-
gator of the charge, as cruel as it was false, that the assassination
of Lincoln was other than the act of an "msane Brutus, with but
few accomplices." On the morning of the President's death, in a
letter to the British minister, he charged and promulgated that
"evidence has been obtained that the horrible crime was com-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi— A/cA^«7>'. 217

mitted in execution of a conspiracy deliberately planned and set
on foot by rebels under pretense of avenging the South and aid-
ing the rebel cause." Thus was the first authoritative, after the
war, key note for firing the Northern heart against the South,
sounded. It was taken up and echoed by a misguided multitude.

An eloquent denial of the base and palpable calumny was
voiced in a letter of April 16th, from Gen. R. S. Ewell, in the
Fort Warren Military prison to Gen. Grant, which read as fol-
lows: "General: You will appreciate, I am sure, the sentiment
which prompts me to drop you these lines. Of all the misfortunes
that could befall the Southern people, by far the greatest would
be the prevalence of the idea that they could entertain any other
than feelings of unqualified abhorrence for the assassination of
the President of the United States. No language can adequately
express the shock produced upon myself with all the other gen-
eral officers confined here with me by the occurrence of this ap-
palling crime and the seeming tendency in the public mind to con-
nect the South and Southern men with it. Need we say that we
are not assassins, nor the allies of assassins?"

Rhodes history is quoted : "One loves to linger over the last
days of Lincoln. He had nothing but mercy and kindness for his
by-gone enemies. There can be no such agony of vain and un-
ceasing sorrow and regret in Northern hearts, as clouds Southern
retrospection of Lincoln's direful taking off. No other event in
history is so laden with the undying remorse of dwelling upon
what might have been; of the years of trial and torment, of the
enduring fruitage of evil, that Lincoln would in all human proba-
bility have arrested or vastly ameliorated. And when to this re-
flection is added the fact that he was slain by a Southern man,
with the insane thought of avenging Southern wrongs, it is
brought home to Southern men, as the most cruel dispensation of
the irony of fate, in all the record of time."

There was one exception to the general grief too remarkable to
be passed over in silence. Among the extreme radicals in con-
gress Mr. Lincoln's pre-determined clemency and liberality toward
the Southern people had made an impression so unfavorable that,
though shocked at his murder, they did not, among themselves.

:218 Mississippi Historical Society.

conceal their gratification that he was no longer in their way. In
a political caucus held a few hours after the President's death,
the thought was nearly universal, to quote the language of one of
their most representative members, that "the accession of John-
son to the Presidency would prove a Godsend to the country."
Heading a committee calling on President Johnson Senator Ben
Wade said, (according to Rhodes' History, Vol. V, page 151) :
"Johnson, we have faith in you. By the gods tlicre will be no
trouble now in running the government." The President thanked
him and replied : "I hold that robbery is a crime. Rape is a crime ;
treason is a crime and crime must be punished."

The files of the newspapers of the day testify to the prevalence
of the abhorrent feeling, among radical leaders of the day, of
gratification in Lincoln's death.

The prejudicial effects of the assassination of the President
was not, at once or fully, appreciated in the South. The peo-
ple could not believe that they would be held accountable for an
act which they not only felt to be direful to their welfare, but
naturally abhorrent to every Southerner. The war being over
thought was fixed on the pursuits of peace — the changes that
would be required. In regard to the status of the negro, it was
only looked upon as an industrial question ; at this time political,
still less social, equality was not dreamed of. In the restoration
of the "lately rebellious states" to their former station and rela-
tions in the Union, it was not foreseen, not even as a shadow,
what destiny had decreed. Nor were the Southern people alone
in looking on reconstruction as a simple matter. It was so re-
garded by Gen. Dana, and other department commanders. Under
his sanction, and motion, Judge A. Burwell, of Vicksburg, came
to the front, April 22d, in a lengthy address published in the Her-
ald. The people of the state were called upon to "calmly con-
sider the position of the country and reflect upon the course of
duty and interest." In conclusion it was suggested "as every
measure will have a beginning," that "the people hold meetings
in every county to appoint good and true representatives to re-
esitablish the state government imder and in harmony with the
laws of the United States." And that "there be an election of

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 219

delegates in every county in the state to meet in Vicksburg June
1st ; to inaugurate such measures as will result in commemorating
the full settlement of the state government. It becomes men of
the south to act promptly. To act boldly." Judge Burwell had
just returned from Washington, where he had lived during the
war, in close touch with the administration. This fact, with the
approval of the "suggestion" by G?n. Dana, caused much signifi-
cance to be attached to the Burwell address. Commenting upon it
editorially, the Herald said that "Judge Burwell's suggestion for
a convention meets with the entire approval of Gen. Dana, the
commander of this department, who authorizes us to say that safe
conduct will be granted delegates to this city, to come and return."
Further evidence of the reconstruction idea entertained by the
Union soldiers at this period, and of the liberal and patriotic views
of Gen. Dana will be read in the following correspondence be-
tween himself and Gen. Davidson, commanding the Natchez dis-
trict under him. Gen. Davidson wrote April 22d as follows:
"General : I desire to know whether the lenient policy I asked of
you shall be pursued, since the recent calamity to the country in
the violent death of the President. I have felt a doubt about it
until I should again hear from you, not knowing how far the
plot might implicate the disbanded traitors." To this Gen. Dana
nobly replied, April 24: "I do not see reason to change the policy
alluded to because of the great calamity which has befallen the
country. Even though contrary to any expectation, the rebel
leaders in high positions should ultimately be found to be impli-
cated in the diabolical assassination of the President, I h.ave no
idea that the masses or subordinate officers entertain any other
feeling than utter abhorrence of the deed. * * * It is my de-
sire to avoid all action which might increase irritation of people
outside of our lines. I wish to allay their fears and encourage
them to be friends to the government. I am induced to believe
that since their recent defeats mouths of men secretly for the
Union have been opened and a loyal party is fast growing. I
wish to develop it. * * * Under the present aspect of affairs
I counsel liberality and in the belief that a Union party is now
growing in Mississippi, whose purpose is to bring the state back

220 Mississippi Historical Society.

to her allegiance, I am advising and giving countenance to the
meeting of a convention here June 1st, at which I hope most of
the counties will be represented. Its work will be merely pre-
paratory. I hope you will do what you can, regularly, to encour-
age it. I have it in contemplation to order a civil government in
a few days for Vicksburg and Natchez. I would be obliged to
you to commence to advise with leading citizens and let me have
your views in full, and suggest half a dozen names for a city gov-
ernment." This correspondence was published as "very import-
ant" in the Herald, April 25th. The editor, a Union officer, pro-
nounced "the policy certainly highly praiseworthy. It is the in-
itiatory step, if we may so speak, toward the restoration of civil
government throughout the state."

Such roseate views of "restoration of civil government" were
quickly shown to be delusions — the country was soon instructed
that the south was to have no smooth sailing to reach the old
anchorage in the Union. The first authoritative notice of the
trouble in store came from the new President, Andrew Johnson.
Called upon by the congressional delegation of Lincoln's home
state, Illinois, for a declaration of his intention, he announced
that "the American people must be taught that treason is crime,
and must be punished. * * * The people must understand it
as the blackest of crimes and will be severely punished. * * *
What may be mercy to individuals is cruelty to the state." * ♦ *
Let it be enjoined on every hand that treason is crime, and trai-
tors shall suffer its penalty * * * In regard to my future
course, I will now make no pledges. * * * I have no profes-
sions to offer ; profession and promise would be worth nothing. I
will not attempt to anticipate future results until they occur and
it becomes necessary to act." While this was vague, in some
passages almost incoherent, it was generally accepted as pointing
to extreme measures toward "traitors."

Events of great import followed in close succession in those
dark days. The next shock came April 20th, when Gen. Sher--
man announced an agreement with Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, for "a
universal suspension of hostilities, looking to a peace over the
whole surface of the country." Having been the most relentless

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 221

and savage of all the Federal commanders toward the Southern
people, carrying the rigors and destruction of war to an extreme
that transgressed all of the rules of warfare, Gen. Sherman
passed to the other extreme upon the fall of the Confederate gov-
ernment. The terms of peace to whicli he subscribed were only
too liberal and far reaching. They were promptly and sternly
annulled by the President. The announcement of this disapproval
by Secretary of War Stanton, was in terms of severest rebuke.
In declaring "a cessation of the war, general amnesty, guarantee
of political rights as well as rights of persons and property to the
people and inhabitants of all the states as guaranteed by the con-
stitution of the United States and of the states respectively" Gen-
eral Sherman was charged, first, with "assuming authority not
vested in him, which on its face shows that both he and Gen.
Johnston knew that Gen. Sherman had no authority to enter into
such arrangement. Second, it was a practical acknowledgment
of the rebel government. Third, it undertook to re-establish the
rebel state governments, etc. ; fourth, by restoration of rebel au-
thority in the respective states they would be enabled to reestab-
lish slavery." Half a dozen other reasons were assigned for the
annullment of the peace arrangement. So unsparing was Secre-
tary Stanton of the feelings of the coinmander whose manage-
ment of the campaign allotted him had precipitated the overthrow
of the Confederacy that, as though his loyalty was distrusted,
Gen. Grant was ordered to proceed direct to Raleigh and assume
the direction of operations against the Confederate forces. Gen.
Johnston readily accepted the change, and surrendered on the
terms given Lee at Appomattox.

In view of his subsequently declared policy of reconstruction, it
was a fatal mistake in President Johnson that he did not sustain
Gen. Sherman. There was no substantial difference in his terms
and the settlement that the President was so soon brought to see
was the only one consistent with the constitution, the national wel-
fare and for which he vainly contended for throughout his entire
administration. At that period there was no factious alignment
on the question. The general wish for peace would have been
fully met by the Sherman- Johnston plan. Gen. Grant, and the

222 Mississippi Historical Society.

commanders, with the rank and file of all the Union armies, would
have been satisfied. ' But it was not to be — it was written in the
book of fate that the wind having been sown, the whirlwind
must be reaped.

In his "Forty Six Years," page 353, Gen. Schofield passed this
telling comment on the Sherman terms of peace: "It may not
be possible to judge how wise or how unwise Sherman's first
memorandum might have proved if it had been ratified * * *
We know only this much^ — that the imagination of man could
hardly picture worse results than those wrought out by the plan
finally adopted."

Defending Sherman against Stanton's imputations Secretary
Wells says in his Diary of Recollection: "But this error, if it be
one, had its origin, I apprehend with President Lincoln, who was
for prompt and easy terms. * * * At a late period President
Johnson assured me that Stanton's publication was wholly un-
authorized by him — that he knew nothing of it until he saw it in
the papers. We were all imposed on by Stanton, who had a pur-
pose. He and the radicals were opposed to the mild policy of
Lincoln, on which Sherman had acted and Stanton was deter-
mined to defeat it."

Upon learning of the annulment of the Sherman-Johnston
terms, and the restriction of military commanders to acceptance
of surrender of Confederate troops. Gen. Dana revoked an armis-
tice to which he had agreed for "a total cessation of hostilities ex-
cept in the apprehensin of guerrillas and other oflfenders against
the peace." On information of the surrender by Lieutenant Gen-
eral Taylor of all the Confederate forces in Mississippi General
Dana issued an order authorizing resumption of trade and inter-
course. "Permits and passes" it was announced, "are no longer
necessary, and well disposed people of the country can come and
go at pleasure." Commanding officers were notified that they
would be held to strict accountability for exact discipline in their
commands, and "for securing the people of the country against
molestation or annoyance by their troops, and protection against
injury from any sources. Supplies will be allowed to pass freely
and products of the country. Well grounded complaints from

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 223

the citizens in case of injury will be welcomed and treated with,
kindness and attention."

The action taken in overruling Gen. Sherman was notice to
all that the generals in the field could exercise no more authority
than to receive the surrender of the Confederate forces and prop-
erties, paroling and dispersing the men to their homes, and to
hold the country subject to the future dispositions of its political
future and rehabilitation by the Civil government. Orders
were issued to other generals in the field to be limited in accepting
the surrender of their opposing forces, by the terms given by
General Grant.

Col. H. A. M. Henderson, of the Confederate Bureau of Ex-
change of Prisoners, addressed several thousand returning sol-
diers. The following close of his address, published in the Her-
ald of May 9th, faithfully reflected the prevailing sentiment
among the Southern soldiers : "I know not whether ever again
you will be rallied to that standard which through victory and
defeat you have followed so gloriously for years. It may be the
Confederate flag is furled forever. If this should be the case it is
the duty of good men to respect authority. Predatory warfare
can accomplish no good and only evil." A lengthy comment
upon "the end" in the Vicksburg Herald closed as follows:
"The war against the Union is virtually at an end in the state of
Mississippi. It now remains with the people of the state to usher
in the glorious reign of peace and prosperity and resume her
proud position in the Union as a loyal state. The sooner this can
be effected the better will be the condition of the people of the
state. Peace must follow the end of the war, and the people will
return to their rightful allegiance. The bitter hatred from the
war must and will be forgotten. Hate must not be nursed — it
is not a Christian virtue — it belongs to a barbarous race — the
Southern people are not barbarians." Well would it have been
had this article comprised all there was preliminary to the res-
toration of the state to her place in the Union!

Governor Clark issued an address from Meridian, May 6th,
conveying the information that all the Confederate armies east
of the Mississippi had surrendered. "All officers and persons in-

224: Mississippi Historical Society.

possession of public supplies will be held to a rigid accountability.
Arrangement will be made to supply the destitute. I have called
the legislature to convene at Jackson the 11th inst. They will
doubtless order a convention. Officers of the state government
will immediately return with the archives to Jackson. County of-
ficers will be vigilant in the preservation of order and the protec-
tion of properly. Sheriffs have power to call out the posse
comitatus, and the militia will keep arms and obey orders for this
purpose as in times of peace. The civil laws must be enforced as
they now are until repealed. If the public property is protected
and the peace preserved, the necessity for Federal troops in
your counties will be avoided. You are therefore urged to con-
tinue to arrest all marauders and plunderers.

"The collection of taxes should be suspended, as the laws will
doubtless be changed — Masters are responsible as heretofore for
the protection and conduct of their slaves, and they should be
kept at home as heretofore. Let all fearlessly adhere to the for-
tunes of the state; aid the returned soldiers to obtain civil em-
ployment, maintain law and order, condemn all twelfth-hour vap-
orers, and meet stern facts with fortitude and common sense.

■ CHARLES CLARK,
Governor of Mississippi."

In a criticism of this call the Vicksburg Herald avowed the "be-
lief that the United States government will not recognize or per-
mit the action taken by Governor Qark as he is a civil officer of
the state under rebel rule, and more than all he is not a loyal
man." The paper stated it as "altogether probable that Governor
Qark had acted on his own responsibility." But on the next day
the paper said: "In an editorial yesterday we expressed our be-
lief ( from inference) that the government would not recognize or
permit the action which Governor Clark had taken in calling to-
gether the state legislature. * * * 'We have since canvassed
the matter and have learned that the Governor's course was taken
by the advice and with the consent of Gen. Canby, and has in
view this one object only — the calling of a convention of the peo-
ple." The paper of that date. May 12th, also announced the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 225

presence in the city of Judges Wm. L. Sharkey and Amos R.
Johnston, "to consult with Gen. Dana in regard to a policy for
restoration of civil law."

May 7th Gen. Canby, who earnestly desired to share the bur-
thens of relieving an existing evil condition in his department
with civil government, wrote Secretary of War Stanton: "I am
satisfied if permitted the legislature of Alabama will at once call
a convention which, in 24 hours, will undo all that has been done
in the past four years and settle favorably and definitely all ques-
tions that conflict with the superior authority of the government
of the United States. I am not yet so fully advised with regard
to the state of Mississippi, but I believe that the same conditions
will control in that state." Gen. Canby wrote again: "I have
answered all who have applied to me that I have no authority to
determine any question affecting the political relations of the
states to the general government, but have advised all civil officers
to return to their posts with the archives and property in their
charge; to report themselves to the military authority, and to
wait the action of the general government. In my judgment it
will be wise to use the agencies which now control. If they move
in the wrong direction they can be guided, and if perverse can be
stopped at any moment. Please advise me by telegraph by way
of Nashville and duplicate by the Mississippi river." No reply
was made to this question. In the state of affairs it was small
wonder that Gen. Canby wrote to the secretary of war that "many
officers who have surrendered in this command have applied for
permission to leave the country. Can tliat be allowed, and if it
can, under what conditions?"

Responding Gen. Grant recommended to the Secretary of War
the publication of an order "authorizing any paroled prisoner
who chose, to leave the country, not to return without authority."

Secretary Stanton turned a heart hard as flint to the pitiful con-
ditions in the South. He was no more moved by the suffering
anci privations of the people than Marat was by those of the
French "aristocrats." Like that monster his thoughts were all on
bringing the leaders to judgment, and in guarding against dan-
gers and plots which were pure concoctions of a mind diseased and
15

026 Mississippi Historical Society.

distorted by hate. April 25th he wrote Gen. Hooker, at Cincin-
natti, warning him that "the rebels in Canada are again plotting
an attack on the frontier cities, and to be vigilant in guarding
against attack." A few days later he wrote Gen. Palmer at
Louisville, that "Geo. D. Prentice says that Lieut. Governor Ja-
cobs stated to J. D. Osborn that he, Jacobs, knew that the rebels
contemplated something that would startle the nation. But that
he had no right to say anything further in regard to the matter.
Please examine Jacobs under oath requiring him to say what he
meant, and from whom- he received his information and report
the result." After all the armies and arsenal forces had surrend-
ered, he directed the commander of the Gulf department to be
on the lookout for an expedition of New Orleans parties to cap-
ture the Tortugas forts. He was as insane and diabolic on the
subject of rebels, and punishing traitors as Jeffreys was, after
the Monmouth rebellion. And under a like license of that guilt
stained monster, he would have left a bloodier trail.

Governor Clark had been an old Whig in politics, with a strong
bent for military affairs. Having commanded a Mississippi
regiment in the Mexican war he was one of the first in commis-
sion of the state's brigadier generals. He was elected Governor
after being disabled by wounds received at Shiloh, and Baton
Rouge. Before calling the legislature in session he had con-
ferred with Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commanding
department; also with a number of prominent citizens. All
agreed that this was a proper step to take. May 16th Gen. Dana,
who had administered the affairs of the department fairly, wisely
and magnanimously, and who was in full sympathy with an early
and liberal restoration of civil government, was succeeded in
command by General G. K. Warren. A few days later the leg-
islature assembled at Jackson, as called. In his message to it
Gov. Qark dwelt upon the embarrassing circumstances environ-
ing the state, expressing grave fear that the reorganization of
the state would prove a task both delicate and difficult. He es-
pecially prefigured the effects of the assassination of Lincoln,
which he said had caused a feeling of "the profoundest senti-
ments of detestation," as exciting the fiercest passions. The

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 227

message closed with the recommendation of a call of a conven-
tion of delegates of the people to repeal the secession ordinance.
In the meanwhile Gen. Canby had been instructed from Wash-
ington to "not recognize any officers of the Confederate or state
government within the limits of his command as authorized to
execute in any manner the functions of their late offices," and to
"prevent by force if necessary any attempt of any of the states
in insurrection, to assemble for legislative purposes and to im-
prison any members or other persons who may attempt to exer-
cise these functions in opposition to orders." No order in con-
templation of obedience to the government's will as expressed
was needed. The mere rumor that General Osband, notorious
as a dissolute commander of negro troops, was in Jackson,
charged to enforce this order, was enough to secure the disso-
lution of the state legislature and the hasty hegira of the mem-
bers thence. As reported by that official the session lasted about
an hour. May 20th, and the proceedings consisted of three acts:
To call a convention. To send three commissioners, Judges
Sharkey, Wm. Yerger and Fisher to Washington to confer with
the President relative to its assembling and finding out what was
necessary to bring the state back into the Union. To deplore
President Lincoln's death.

Col. Osband's report concludes as follows: Upon adjournment
of the legislature I immediately notified Governor Oark that I
could not recognize the civil government of Mississippi, and hav-
ing placed the offices of the heads of departments under guard
demanded the custody of public books, papers and property and
the executive mansion, appointing Monday, May 22d, for their
delivery. At 9 a. m. Governor Clark delivered all public prop-
erty to me under protest, but without asking to have force em-
ployed."

Nothing was less thought of at this dire juncture, than the re-
sistance of force. Whether to the credit or the discredit of the
Southern people, the mere word of any uniformed authority was
accepted without question. It is a pleasure to record that abuse
of this authority by Union officers was rare. It was the saving
grace of a sorely perplexing situation that the military com-

328 Mississippi Historical Scxiety.

manders in Mississippi had no sympathy in the spirit of proscrip-
tion and vindictiveness toward the South that emanated from
Washington. Thanks to them and the kindly consideration with
which they tempered the execution of a vindictive policy, the
following from Garner's Reconstruction in Mississippi, is not
founded in fact: "Many expected wholesale confiscation, pro-
scriptions and the reign of the scaffold. People were thrown
into more or less terror. Some held their breath indulging in
the wildest apprehension. For days and weeks, frightened
women lived in a state of fearful suspense, in hourly expecta-
tion of the beginning of all that their frightful imagination had
pictured of Northern vandalism and rapacity. Old men as well
as some younger ones shared largely in this belief!" This pic-
ture calls for correction. The author of this work, speaking from
distinct memory, and the chronicles of the period, denies that
there was any thought of "wholesale confiscation," or of the
"scaffold." In the vicinity of the camps of negro soldiers there
was some fear, possibly, "terror," on the part of women and chil-
dren. There were no "days and weeks of fearful suspense."
All this is fiction. There was disappointment and discourage-
ment of the expectations of a wise and non-partisan settlement
of a sorely trying and gravely embarrassed state of society.
There was quite enough in the uncertainties of the industrial
problem created by emancipation, the lack of faith in the freed-
man as a laborer, to darken the future, without the terrors of
confiscation and beheading.

The friendly helpfulness of Generals Canby, Dana, Slocum
and Osterhaus, was the almost complete antidote of the harsh-
ness of the President and the Secretary of War. A circular of
instruction to post commanders by General Dana, through his
adjutant, Capt. Frederic Speed, read as follows : "You are par-
ticularly directed not to molest or incommode quiet and well dis-
posed citizens and will be held to strict accountability that your
men commit no depredations of any sort. Houses, fences, farm
property, etc., will be secure and remuneration will be compelled
and punishment inflicted for all infractions of this rule. The
well disposed people must be made to feel that the troops are

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 229

for their protection rather than for their inconvenience." Col.
Hugh Cameron at Holly Springs was directed to "irritate the
public mind as little as possible." Major Lyon, at Lexington,
was "ordered to enforce the strictest discipline and that nothing
must be taken from the people. If you are compelled to take
forage you are to furnish the owners the necessary certificates,
but it will be better to abstain entirely from taking anything."

"In taking command, June 18, of the Northern Mississippi
District, Gen. Maltby was instructed by Gen. Canby "to give all
assistance to citizens who are willing to resume their old pur-
suits and settle questions between the blacks and whites with a
view to induce the former to remain at their old homes when- .
ever their former masters recognize their freedom. The negro
must be protected against any outrages by these old masters who
must accept the changed condition and prepare to work their
plantations on a basis of mutual agreement with their laborers.
Vagrancy among the negroes must not be tolerated. All must
work." Gen. Osterhaus, who had succeeded to the command in
the state, reported to Gen. Canby June 6th that there was "a
great deal of marauding over the larger portions of the state.
As a general thing there are no supplies in the country to be
shared for the troops." Gen. Osterhaus gave especial attention
to the restoration of railroad facilities in the state. June 6th he
reported to Gen. Canby that "after transfer of the railroad be-
tween Vicksburg and Big Black and all property belonging to
the Southern railroad, it appears the president was utterly un-
able to put the road in order between Big Black and Jackson.
No money, no credit, no energj' is at the company's disposal, and
if they had the force of laborers to do the work the company
would look to the government exclusively to furnish them with
rations and the necessary material, and it would not be completed
in less than four or five months. Lieutenant Holgate of the U.
S. Engineers, made the closest investigation of the road. It is
his positive opinion that the thirty miles between Big Black and
Jackson could be put in sufficient repair for operation in one
month." In conclusion, as the road was of "undoubted utility
to the government and almost a necessity to the people of cen-

230 Mississippi Historical Society.

tral Mississippi and Alabama," Gen. Osterhaus recommended
that the order to transfer the road to the company be rescinded
for the present and put in running order by the military author-
ities." Orders were taken accordingly and working parties
placed on the road. A few days later Gen. Osterhaus reported
that "the gap in the Soutliern road from Big Black to Jackson
would be closed by July loth. This road is in operation from
Jackson to Meridian. The Mobile & Ohio is in regular operation
as far north as Okalona and bids fair to soon be repaired its
whole length. The New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern
is in operation from Canton to Brookhaven. The company has
raised capital in New Orleans to complete all repairs. The Mis-
sissippi Central is running regular trains from Canton as far
north as Senatobia. The Mississippi and Tennessee is running
trains from Grenada to Oxford. No communication beyond
Holly Springs. We are totally without the institution of mail.
The condition of the country so far as my observation extends,
may only be described as intensely quiet, generally. I hear of
localities in which there are reported occasional disturbances of
the peace. But this poverty stricken and utterly subjected peo-
ple are only anxious for the restoration of authority of whatever
description."

The arrest of a reconstruction initiative which was thought to
be in full compliance with the results of the war and the urgent
need of society, its treatment as a crime although sanctioned and
encouraged by the military commanders, prolonged the chaotic
condition. True the military authority had lifted the bars for a
resumption of business and traffic. And, by executive order,
April 29th, the President had removed all restrictions upon in-
ternal domestic and commercial intercourse in the Southern
states east of the Mississippi river, with certain exceptions speci-
fied.

But this permission to resume trade with the outside world
was handicapped and almost neutralized in the greedy search
and surveillance of the treasury department, for "Confederate"
cotton. Concerning this cotton the following order was issued
May 10th, 1865, by Gen. E. R. S. Canby :

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 231

The cotton belonging to the Confederate government in E^st
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and West Florida, having been
surrendered to the government of the United States, its sale to
private individuals, or its transfer to any persons, except the
officers or agents of that government, is prohibited. This order
applies to all cotton procured by subscription to the cotton loan,
by sale of Confederate bonds or notes, by the tax in kind, or by
any other process by which the title was vested in the Confeder-
ate government, whether in the possession of the agents of that
government, or still in the hands of the producers; and all per-
sons in whose charge it may be, will be held accountable for its
delivery to the agents of the United States. Commanders of dis-
tricts will be furnished with a transcript, from the records of
the cotton agents, showing the quantity and location of the cot-
ton within the Hmits of thdr commands, and will give the agents
of the treasury department, appointed to receive, such facilities
as may be necessary to enable them to secure it."

"Any sales of this property, in violation of this order, will be
treated as the embezzlement of public property." Gen. Canby
reported to the Secretary of War, May ISth,- that "the quan-
tity of cotton to be turned over to the United States by the
cotton agents in Elast Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Flor-
ida, will probably reach 200,000 bales. The greater part of that,
however, is still in the hands of the planters, and they have al-
ready manifested a disposition to appropriate on the ground
that the rebel bonds and notes have no value. In this attempt
they will be aided by the cotton speculators. The records of
the (Confederate) cotton agents appear to be very complete
and show the location and quantity in their possession and still
in the hands of the planters. The tax in kind cotton is all in
the hands of the planters and the greater part of it unginned.
These records will be turned over to the (U. S.) treasury agents
as soon as they are appointed and will give them every facility
possible for collecting the cotton."

Cotton growers had in fact received no valuable consideration
for this cotton. The notes or bonds paid them in its purchase
were outlawed and made of no value by the power claiming the

232 Mississippi Historical Society.

cotton. Under all principle of right, by any line of reason, the
government should, as a plain matter of justice, have made good
the price of the cotton or made no claim to it. Under the circum-
stances the policy adopted was dishonest and merciless. It was
in fact a denial to the Southern people of the belligerent right,
recognized during the war. But this was not the limit of the
injustice. An army of harpies, agents and special assistant
agents, were turned loose on the country to ferret out Confed-
erate cotton — all cotton being treated as Confederate cotton, or
cotton subject to condemnation and confiscation, until proved to
the contrary. Those who owned cotton dared not move it for
fear of seizure and detention, with costs and fees, which went
into the pockets of the treasury sleuths. April 23d Assistant
Special Agent Tomeny reminded the public through The Her-
ald that the law of July 2nd, 1864, "prohibits the sale of cotton
in the insurrectionary states except to duly authorized govern-
ment agents," and to avoid seizure and condemnation the law
must be complied with. The military authorities sought to
amend or modify the literal construction of laws and regulations
framed for a condition of war. Another assistant special agent,
Montross, having ordered that "all cotton moving in this district
be secured and held as Confederate cotton." Gen. Canby directed
that "all cotton be brought forward without any military re-
striction" and that "every facility consistent with the require-
ments and interests of the service be furnished" ; "that there
would be no more search for Confederate cotton."

But the order was not regarded by the treasury agents. The
Herald of June 9th had the following: "There seems to be dif-
ficulty on the cotton question between the military and the finan-
cial departments of government. Gen. Slocum and Gen. Canby
have issued very liberal orders in regard to bringing the staple
forward, but the treasury officers seem determined to check its
transportation. The Memphis Argus of 6th says that "Mr. El-
lery, who is the purchasing agent for the United States at that
place, has determined to seize all the cotton coming to Memphis
by way of the river to be held by him until such time as the
parties bringing it here can prove that it was raised by free labor

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 235

or purchased in good faith prior to July 29, 1864, and that the
late so-called Southern Confederacy had no claim therein. Some
two thousand bales were seized yesterday, but the greater por-
tion was afterward released, the necessary proof having been
furnished."

Some of the Confederate cotton seized in the hands of growers
had not been paid for — it was only contracted for. But with
agents paid from 25 to 50 per cent of the value of cotton "re-
covered," no explanation was respected. By commissions and
stealages treasury agents made fortunes.

Another issue of the Herald told of the "seizure of a vast
amount of cotton shipped on permits to St. Louis. Much of this
cotton came out of the Yazoo. It was secured by Treasury Agent
Howard, who expected a round sum for relinquishment of
claims." But the merchants to whom this cotton was consigned
would not submit to the robbery. They sent their lawyer to
state the case to Secretary McCullough, who promptly ordered
the "release of the Yazoo cotton and all secured for the same
cause." It was the aim of these agents to harass holders of cot-
ton into buying the facility of selling it, or to force them to sell
it to them as purchasers for the government. When Montross
issued his order of indiscriminate seizure, it was ostentatiously
added that "the order does not prevent cotton being sold to the
treasury purchasing agents, under provisions of treasury regu-
lations of May 9th, 1865." This "regulation" which is deemed
worth perpetuating in history, is here stated in its material sec-
tions :

Treasury Department, May 9, 1865.

I. Agents shall be appointed by the secretary of the treasury,,
with the approval of the president, to purchase for the United
States, under special instructions from the secretary of the treas-
ury, products of states declared to be in insurrection, at such
places as may from time to time be designated by the secretary
of the treasury as markets or places of purchase.

III. The operations of agents shall be confined to the single
article of cotton ; and they shall give public notice at the place in
which they may be assigned, that they will purchase, in accord-

S34

Mississippi Historical Society.

ance with these regulat'ons all cotton not captured or abandoned,
which may be brought to them.

IV. To meet the requirements of the 8th section of the act
of July 2, 1864, the agents shall receive all cotton so brought,
and forthwith return to the seller three-fourths thereof, which
portion shall be an average grade of the whole, according to the
certificate of a sworn expert or sampler.

V. All cotton purchased and resold by purchasing agents
shall be exempt from all fees and all internal taxes. And the
agent selling shall mark the same "free," and furnish to the
purchaser a bill of sale clearly and accurately describing the char-
acter and quantity sold and containing a certificate that it is ex-
empt from taxes and fees, as above.

VI. Purchasing agents shall keep a full and accurate record
of all their transactions, including the names of all persons from
whom they make purchases, the date of the purchase, a descrip-
tion of the cotton purchased by them, also the quality and quan-
tity thereof ; also of the one quarter retained by them. A trans-
script of this record will be transmitted to the secretary of the
treasury on the first day of each month.

VII. Sales of the cotton retained by the purchasing agents
under regulation IV, as the difference between three fourths the
market price and the full price thereof in the city of New York,
may be made by such agents at such places and times and in such
manner as may be directed in special instructions from the sec-
retary of the treasury. Where such sales are not so authorized,
the agents shall, without delay, ship it to New York on the best
terms possible, consigned, until otherwise directed, to S. Draper,
cotton agent and disbursing officer at that place.

X. These regulations, which are intended to revoke and an-
nul all others on the subject heretofore made will take effect and
be in force on and after May 10, 1865.

Hugh McCuixogh,
Secretary of the Treasury.

Executive Chamber, Washington City, May 9, 1865.
Approved :

Andrewt Johnson.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 235

I ain prepared to receive cotton in conformity with the above
amended regulations.

H. H. Yeatman,
U. S. Purchasing Agent.
Office on Crawford street, Vicksburg, Wirt Adams' Building.

Purchasing Agent Yeatman thus explained the regulations,
in The Herald of June 6th, 18G5 : "This tax of one fourth must
be paid. If you sell your cotton to a broker or merchant, you
are charged this one-fourth, with the other taxes assessed by
the authorities here and the incidental expenses of sale. But if
you bring four bales of cotton to the purchasing agent, he takes
one as the fourth due the government, and gives you his certifi-
cate that this government tax is satisfied, and you can then sell
the other three to whomsoever you please."

A few days later Agent Montross cited an act of congress
approved July 17th, 1862, entitled "an act to suppress insurrec-
tion, to punish treason and rebellion to seize and confiscate the
property of rebels ;" and which forbade "all persons residing in
states declared in rebellion against the authorities of the United
States, to make any sale or transfer of any property, stock, bonds,
etc., and all such sales or transfers so made were declared void.

The purchaser under such sale or transfer neither can nor does
acquire any title under such sale or transfer, but the title vests
at once in the United States, by the abandonment of the previous
owner. No sale or transfer is good or valid between parties but
where the party conveying has taken the amnesty oath, in good
faith, under the proclamation of his excellency Abraham Lin-
coln, dated December 8th, 1863, and not even then, is it good
unless they belonged to the class expressly relieved thereby, to-
wit: All soldiers and officers of the rebel army below the rank
of colonel. No officers in the civil list,. Confederate, state, county,
or municipal, or who has accepted an agency under either, can
claim the benefit of the. amnesty oath. It does not apply to them,
and they are required to obtain a full pardon from the president :
Hence, all property, etc., so transferred by parties prior to tak-
ing the amnesty oath, and all so transferred by those not in-

236

Mississippi Historical Society.

eluded in the amnesty, is subject to be taken possession of by the
United States at once."

By order of the treasury department rule III of local rules
for special agencies, plantation trade registry, was amended by
inserting the words "loyal and" before the words "well disposed"
so that it will read, "all loyal and well disposed persons," etc.

In the Vicksburg Herald of May 16th Special Treasury Agent
A. McFarland, of the "Skipwith District," published a warning
to "persons purchasing cotton in this district raised in 1864 and
attempting to ship same on old permits" as follows :

"Notice is hereby given that such transactions are illegal and
in violation of the existing Treasury regulations. Cotton pro-
duced in 1864 and so shipped, is subject to seizure and confisca-
tion. Parties having cotton produced in 1864, in the counties of
Issaquena, Washington, Bolivar, Yazoo, Holmes, Carroll, Sun-
flower, and other counties lying east of these, in Mississippi, and
desiring to ship the same, must report it at this office. This or-
der also includes that portion of Arkansas and Louisiana lying
between the Arkansas river and the south line of Carroll parish,
Louisiana. On all such cotton. so shipped, (if by owners), there
is a tax of one cent per pound, to be paid at this office; if by
lessees the tax to be paid here is two cents per pound. Such cot-
ton can only be cleared as having been raised by free labor, and
subject to this tax, or sold or shipped to a government agent,
who retains one-fourth of it. Any attempt to evade this tax and
control the cotton as having been purchased previous to July 29,
1864, will subject the cotton to seizure."

That is all persons with old cotton, living anywhere between
the latitude indicated, from the Alabama to the Texas lines, be-
fore shipping their cotton, were required to "report at this of-
fice," at Skipwith, an obscure river landing in Issaquena county.
This agent also notified planters of his district that "information
having been filed in this office of certain persons shipping goods
into that portion of Mississippi intersected by the Yazoo and
Sunflower rivers, under pretence of their being plantation sup-
plies, but with the design of selling them, notice is hereby given
that all goods so taken into that territory are liable to seizure.

I

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 237

and if detected will be seized and confiscated. Persons owning
or controlling plantations within the counties of Issaquena,
Washington, Bolivar, Yazoo, Holmes, Carroll, Sunflower and
other counties lying east of these in Mississippi, are requested
to come forward and register their plantations in this office, after
which they will be entitled to take out such supplies as they need
for their own use. Recommendations for the same will be given
at this office. This order also includes that portion of Arkansas
and Louisiana lying between the Arkansas river and the south
line of Carroll parish, Louisiana. Any attempt to evade these
regulations by taking goods clandestinely in the above-named
territory for sale, will subject them to seizure and confiscation."

April 27th, Treasury Agent Montross warned "planters who
have been obliged to abandon their plantations on account of
high water, that they must first make application to this office
for permission to dispose of their plantation supplies and pay
the (traders) assessment fee of three per cent." Every act and
€flFort of the citizens, in buying or selling, even the calamity of
a Mississippi river overflow, was penalized and preyed upon, by
the drove of ruthless and hungry treasury sharks. Yet an-
other hold the government had was the state's quota of the di-
rect tax levied in 1861 for the sinews of war waged against her.
Payment of this was demanded, and an arbitrary acreage assess-
ment was imposed on the tax payers for an amount that in the
aggregate was near half a million dollars. Only a part was paid,
the remainder being charged against the state. As collection
was difficult, to even up the account, in after years, there was a
refund out of the treasury of all payments made by all states,
Northern and Southern; millions to the former hundreds to the
latter.

A true reflection of the iniquitous and oppressive government
cotton policy at the war's close, is borrowed from the report of
"the joint select committee, to enquire into the condition of aflFairs
in the late insurrectionary states," commonly known as the Ku
Klux report ; testimony being taken in 1871 and the report sub-
mitted February 19th, 1872 :

"As to the cotton frauds. When the war ended there were

238 Mississippi Historical ScK'iety.

on hand in the South at least five millions of bales, worth in
Liverpool, five hundred million dollars. Of this five millions of
bales, the Confederate States owned a mere fraction, the bulk
of which was turned over to General E. R. S. Canby by Gen-
eral E. Kirby Smith May 24. 1865. The Confederate govern-
ment had cotton stored at Montgomery, Alabama, and Columbus,
Georgia, but it was all burned — with other cotton, the property
of private individuals — on the approach of General Wilson's
cavalry raid in the latter part of April, 1865. What became of
this five million bales of cotton? Who got it, and where did it
go? The Treasury Department filled the entire South with its
agents, informers, and, spies, in search of Confederate cotton,
tobacco, etc. The Treasury Department had also given contracts
to numerous parties, who were to receive from a quarter to half
of all Confederate cotton discovered. These agents, spies, in-
formers, and contractors went to work and seized indiscrimin-
ately everybody's cotton. They pretended in all cases to have
proof that what they seized was Confederate cotton. Proofs
piled mountain high rarely convinced them to the contrary. But
when the proof of ownership was accomplished with an oflFer
to surrender a part of the cotton for the return of the balance,
the proposition was always accepted. The owner of a hundred
bales of cotton on the first seizure would be tolled not less than
twenty bales, and if the cotton was being moved from an interior
place, it was not infrequently the case that the owner would have
to submit to a second and often a third and fourth tolling be-
fore reaching market. Instances are numerous in New Orleans
and New York where cotton was seized after it had reached
those cities, by orders from the Treasury Department, although
the cotton thus seized had run the gauntlet of tolling from the
plantation to its place of destination. When seized in the large
cities, enormous tolls were demanded either in cotton or money.
But when terms were arranged by which the share demanded by
the official was given up, the proof of private ownersh'p was al-
ways satisfactory. The owners of the cotton had no redress, and
they were compelled to either surrender a part or the whole. A
Treasury regulation required all cotton seized in the Atlantic and

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 239

Gulf states to be shipped to Simeon I>raper, United States cot-
ton agent in the city of New York ; and cotton seized on the
waters of the upper Mississippi — north Georgia and north Ala-
bama— to be shipijed to William P. Mellen, United States cotton
agent at Cincinnati. Much of the cotton seized was found on
plantations before the owners could get home after the surrender
of the southern armies. In such cases the agent making the seiz-
ure, after retaining from a quarter to a half, would ship the bal-
ance to his supervising agent, and this supervising agent would
levy his contribution, when the remnant would be shipped either
to Mellen at Cincinnati or Draper at New York. When the
cotton reached Draper or Mellen it was again manipulated, and
when offered for sale, it was always by samples ; and the sam-
ples were invariably greatly inferior to the cotton represented.
Such usually was the inferiority of the samples exhibited (fre-
quently grades representing a quality of cotton known as low
middlings) that the quality offered would only sell for ten or
fifteen cents a pound, when in reality the cotton thus sold was
worth in the market from sixty cents to one dollar and twenty
cents per pound. The purchasers on such occasions were al-
ways the special friends of Draper, as well as partners in the
swindle. Bales of cotton weighing from five to six hundred
pounds, were always reduced by plucking from one to two
hundred pounds before being offered for sale. This was called
"waste cotton," and was carefully gathered up and sold as
"trash" to the eastern manufacturer. When the owners of cot-
ton traced their property to Draper, (if a thousand bales had
been taken from them.) he would report that of the thousand
bales seized he had only received two hundred; and that the
"two hundred bales received was of very inferior quality, and
only sold for ten or fifteen cents per pound, and that transpor-
tation, storage and commissions were so and so, which left only
a small sum in his hands." Thus was cotton manipulated by
Simeon Draper, United States cotton agent at New York. When
Draper became cotton agent of the United States at New York,
he was known to be a bankrupt. It is a well known fact that he
settled his debts and died leaving property estimated at millions.

"240 Mississippi Historical Society.

Draper only did on a large scale what was universally the prac-
tice of treasury agents on a lesser scale.

"In defiance of the President's proclamation and Treasury in-
structions, treasury agents continued to seize cotton as late as
December 1865. Although the Supreme Court of the United
States, the Chief Justice delivering the opinion, in the case of Mc-
Leod vs. Callicott, decided that any cotton seized after the 30th
of June, 1865, was unauthorized and therefore illegal and that
the claimants of cotton seized after that date were entitled to
recover from the United States what the cotton was worth in
the markets at the time of the seizure, with lawful interest from
date, these claims are generally unpaid."

"Of the five million of bales of cotton in the Southern states
at the close of the war, in the spring of 1865, the agents and gov-
ernment of the United States appropriated not less than three
million bales. On March 30th, 1868, congress passed a joint
resolution covering into the treasury the proceeds of all captured
and abandoned property. And when that resolution passed,
Jay Cooke & Co. had $20,000,000 of the proceeds of cotton in
their possession, on which they had been banking for years."
* * * On page 10 of a report to the 37th congress made by
the Secretary of the Treasury February 19th, 1867, Simeon Dra-
per reports that he received 95,000 bales of cotton. This vast
amount only netted the government $15,000,000, when it should
have sold for $50,000,000."

There were also the officials of the Freedman's bureau to
reckon with. This institution had grown out of the military
occupation of the lower Mississippi Valley and the Carolina
coast country, where large plantations and myriads of slaves
had been left by their refugee owners. The necessity of exer-
cising supervision over these negroes was recognized and pro-
vided for in an Act of Congress introduced in March 1864, but
which only passed a year later. It established a "Bureau of
Freedmen's Affairs." General O. O. Howard, a Union corps com-
mander of intense negro phobiac tendencies was made commis-
sioner. His Mississippi assistant commissioner was Colonel Sam-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 241

uel Thomas. The state was divided into three subdistricts, one
for each of three acting assistant commissioners.

As the system thus provided was developed a local agent for
each of the counties was appointed. These were usually detailed
or discharged army officers, with a large sprinkling of Chaplains.
To such a corps was entrusted the abandoned lands and the gen-
eral supervision and care of the interest of the freedmen includ-
ing that of education. Planters were reminded by an order from
military headquarters that general order No. 34 — which minutely
defined and prescribed the terms and treatment of negro labor
on the "abandoned plantations" while the war was wagfing, was
still in full force and effect and that "a strict compliance with it
would be exacted." And that "the provost marshal general of
Freedmen, will take measures to inform the planters and the
freedmen what is expected and required of them both, each in
his station." This was followed by a published notice in the
Herald from Col. Stuart Eldridge, provost marshal for freed-
men at Vicksburg. that planters were using the order abolishing
trade permits "to evade compliance with the regulations for hir-
ing freedmen." And that "the policy of proper treatment for
freedmen must be respected, and any planter found without a
certificate from this officer of having complied with the govern-
ment regulations for hiring freedmen will be waited on by a
guard and compelled to compliance." This was, in fact, a notice
to the planters to come forward and be bled. To add another
nail for the cross on which the South was being crucified, the
Rev. Thos. W. Conway, "General Superintendent of the bureau
of free labor," went through this and adjoining states, taking
notes. June 3d he wrote Gen. Canby: "I have found a perfect
reign of idleness on the part of the negroes, and persecution
and violence on that of the whites. The bitterness of the old
slave holders and their determination to persecute and murder
the freedmen leaves in my heart but one solemn impression and
that is the only means of saving them lies in the military power.
The returned rebel soldiers are the worst. They are filled with
a spirit of lawlessness — hate. I am pained at the scenes I wit-
nessed along my route. I saw freedmen whose ears were cut off
16

Z4A Mississippi Historical Society.

by former slave holders. I have seen others, whose throats were
cut and still others whose heads were mutilated in a most bar-
barous and shocking manner." Gen. Canby gave no heed to
this diatribe, which was disproved by the reports and correspond-
ence of every military commander in his department.

Col. Howland, commanding at Macon, Georgia, reported "the
old system of slavery working with more rigor than formerly,
a few miles from garrison station — the revolution being so com-
plete and the change so radical that it seems impossible for slave-
holders to comprehend it. . . . This feeling is confined
principally to the formerly wealthy planters, but does not seem
to be participated in by returned Confederate soldiers. They
usually manifest a very kindly feeling." But such testimony only
added to the inflammation of sentiment against the South. Com-
ing as did all of these inflictions of hate and exactions of greed
to a people bankrupt and crushed by the ruin and the woes of
war, well might they repeat after the Psalmist — "Mine enemies
hem me in on every side."

The close of the war had not ended the depredations in the
western counties of the state, of irregular and marauding bands of
Confederates. Denounced and outlawed as guerrilas by com-
manders of both sides, co-operative measures were prepared
against them. Just before the surrender and disbandment of all
the Confederate forces in Mississippi, April 18th, Gen. W. F.
Tucker addressed a communication to Gen. Dana at Vicksburg.
He said he had information that the Federal commander "was
anxious to correct lawlessness at present so rife in Warren
county." He proposed a joint raid against them; that he would
send a company of mounted men to meet and co-operate with a
like force of Union soldiers "in this work of humanity." On
May 1st Gen. Washburn, commanding at Memphis, gave notice
of "a guerrilla hunt" by half a dozen diflferent bodies of cav-
alry, of from one to two hundred each ; the country from Mem-
phis south and east, covering several Mississippi counties, was
to be thoroughly scoured. "People in the country will be kindly
treated, but mtist be informed that if they are known to harbor
or encourage guerrillas they shall be utterly destroyed." It was

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 243

several months before law and order prevailed in this section of
the state.

Instructive and impressive light is shed on the discouraging
and unsettled condition that prevailed in Mississippi after the
collapse of the Confederacy, by the following communication of
one of the local military commanders and administrators, Col.
Forbes, of the Seventh Illinois cavalry. It was addressed to his
superior officer, Gen. Hatch, who forwarded it to Gen. Geo. H.
Thomas, department commander, with the endorsement, "as an
example under which every station throughout the district is
laboring to a more or less extent."

"We are in the midst of a remote populous, sensitive district,
without instructions to guide or orders to administer, except in
a very limited sense. Not less than a territory of 2,500 square
miles looks to this point as its natural centre, and the fact of
a military occupancy gives the people the opportunity and in a
manner the right to expect the announcement of public policy
and some indications of private duty in the trying ordeal through
which this, with all other communities, are passing. I am vis-
ited by hundreds of men asking information of vital interest,
without being able to give more than a semi-intelligent guess
toward solution. The needs of this region are imminent, press-
ing, critical, and unless some action is taken commensurate with
their importance, ' the most deplorable consequences are not far
away. First and foremost, as usual, are the negroes. They are
becoming more and more demoralized daily, notwithstanding the
most constant and consistent efforts on the part of the military
to enjoin industry and quiet. A large portion of the able-bodied
are already vagrants, and more are daily becoming more so. The
slightest friction of the home harness is enough to drive them
into vagabondism. As soon as they cease to work they subsist
by stealing, and even the railroad, which has been rationing and
paying them $25 per month, cannot retain them in its employ.. e
They desert their agreements in whole gangs, always leaving ..-ec-
the night. The most trivial and childish reasons are sufficworn
to cause them to adopt courses which jeopardize not onlyer face
security and comfort, but even their lives. Five stout nt the in-

IM4 Mississippi Historical Society.

and about twenty women and children ran away en masse last
night from a mistress who has permitted them to make their own
living on her place for two years because one of them was an-
gered when the mistress required him to catch and saddle a
horse. In the night they stole her horses and clothing and came
in here. This case is one of a hundred merely. Save as they
fancy they are determined not to work. The vagrancy of the
able leave the ineffective, a dead weight on the planters' hands,
and in self-defense he thrusts these out to follow their provid-
ers. How can he be required to feed and clothe the imbecile
when he is not confirmed in the control of the labor needful to
provide the means? Great things are expected from the Freed-
men's Bureau. I expect little from it, from the fact that it will
be unable to connect itself with the black masses with sufficient
intimacy to be able to control their movements, unless practically
every master be constituted its supervising agent, and this would
prove to be formal revival of slavery under federal authority.
I fear that the vital truth for the present is that the freedmen of
these interior regions are not able to be free. For them to be
free is for them first to beg, then to steal, and then to starve.
The nearest superintendent of freedmen is at Meridian. He en-
joys the dignity of captain and announces some very fine theories
for regulation of the labor question intended, as far as I can
learn, to effect an area of about 10,000 square miles of territory,
every square mile of which is in a state of fermentation and be-
coming every day more and more surcharged with gathering
disgust and more dangerous passions. The whites hear nothing
of his announcements, much less the blacks. He is the party by
whom all contracts are to be registered ; to him all the complaints
of the negroes are to be submitted, and by him all discipline is
to be enforced. He is 160 miles away, and needs to exercise a
positive jurisdiction on every plantation every day; to be, in
"act, universal overseer. The whites say, "What shall we do if
P 'blacks refuse to work?" It may be answered, "Cease to feed
and if contumacious, drive them away." The reply, "What
won't go ; but hide by day and steal by night ?" Answer,
them in crime and turn them over to the courts." We

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 245

answer, "General Thomas' recent order reestablishes the jurisdic-
tion of the courts for the administration of the laws as in exist-
ence prior to the act of secession." They ask, "Can we admin-
ister our black code then?" We think not, for that contains the
most authoritative possible recognition of slavery in all its old
vital relations to society and law. They rejoin, "We have no
other law." What then? What shall we do? There is but one
reply left; it is: "Refer the matter to the nearest agent to the
Freedmen's Bureau at Meridian." They then reply, "How shall
they be restrained meanwhile during the pendency of the refer-
ence?" And you can resort to no law but that of force again,
which is slavery. I have grown satisfied that there is, and can
be, no such thing as the actual immediate emancipation of a large
mass of plantation slaves. To announce their freedom is not to
make them free, and the continuous rigors of necessity and re-
straints of authority, inseparable respectively from their own
circumstances and the self-defensive action of society, consti-
tutes essentially the substance of slavery still. As federal sol-
diers we can neither recognize slavery nor its equivalent, and
are left helpless lookers-on, while the broken ship and the crazed
crew are drifting on the rocks together. I see but one remedial
plan. That is, to compel by some intimate, close-fitting system
of prescriptions every able-bodied negro to work, the adoption
of some appropriate rule of law for the government of the class,
under which the courts can administer restraints and confirm
rights, and the thorough, careful policing of the entire area of
the slave states by mounted soldiery in support of the jurisdic-
tion of the courts ; that soldiery to be intimately subdivided and
finally assigned to certain territorial limits. I presume that so
comprehensive a measure will not be taken until some great and
fatal mischief has indicated its necessity. Meanwhile, what am
I to do, or to attempt toward restraining the vagrancy and vio-
lence of the negroes, and the cruelty and heartlessness of the
bad masters? Starving people are coming in from every direc-
tion from five to sixty miles away for relief. I am clean worn
out with their wan and haggard beggary. I would rather face
an old fashioned war-time skirmish line any time than the in-

846 Mississippi Historical Society.

evitable morning eruption of lean and hungry widows that be-
siege me at sun up and ply me until night with supplications that
refuse to be silenced."

A Methodist minister visiting Vicksburg where he had lived
many years before wrote :

"I have heard of privation and sorrow here until my heart is
sick. The town is lively — a great many negro soldiers are here,
and they throng the streets all day. A large number of Northern
men have come here to open business houses, and Washington
street looks as if much trade was being carried on. Most of the
old residents who survived the war have come back. They are
all poor, many of them crippled for life, but seem to be submis-
sive to their fate. Many families have not a male member left,
all having perished in the revolution. Dr. Charles K. Marshall
resides here. I breakfasted with him this morning."

Another pathetic picture of the hardship and destitution that
prevailed after the war ended has been preserved in the report
of Col. Dornblaser, commanding the post at Meridian, May 17th,
1865. "The raids," he said, "on the part of our army, and the
Confederate impressments have almost entirely stripped the coun-
try of horses and mules, leaving citizens as well as returning
soldiers wholly without means of planting and cultivating a crop.
Many returned soldiers as well as citizens will have no employ-
ment and as idleness can only be productive of evil it would cer-
tainly be politic to adopt a remedy. I would therefore beg leave
to suggest that all mules, horses and other property turned in by
the Confederates be at once inspected, appraised and sold to coun-
ty commissioners, payable at such times as the state of currency
will make practicable, or distributed to the best advantage." This
recommendation was supplemented by one from Capt. O. S. Cof-
fin, quartermaster, stating that he was in possession of "the very
mules impressed by the Confederates from surrounding farmers
and never paid for." Permission was asked to return such mules.
Such expressions of sympathy and desire to relieve the distress
of the people were common with the Northern soldiers, when
hostile operations had ceased.

Gen. Jno. E. Smith commanding at Memphis, in a circular or-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 247

der, stated that he was "daily in receipt of petitions, which the
reports of post commanders confirm, setting forth complaints
arising from the new relations of colored people with land owners
and praying for his authoritative action in adjustment of difficul-
ties. Not alone are the freedmen responsible for the state of
things. The planters themselves, too reluctant to practically ac-
cept the passing away of slavery, in numerous instances awaken
and confirm disaffection among the negroes, which renders them
so unfaithful and unreliable."

May, 31, 1865, Gen. Hatch, commanding in North Mississippi
wrote Gen. Thomas : "Allow me to call your attention to the im-
portance of a distinctive policy in regard to the negro. On the
large plantations of the Tombigbee many are living in bands by
plunder on the neighboring plantations. If they can be assured of
being paid by the planters I think they will work for a living ; or
if assured of a fair share of the crops now growing it will pre-
vent much suffering among them this year and keep them out of
idleness."

How could the impoverished and destitute planters pay, or give
assurance of, anything?

Being asked by Gen. Hatch for authority to carry out the intent
of a considerable store of undistributed "tax in kind" corn — its
distribution among the destitute and distressed families in North
Mississippi — Gen. Tliomas assented. He tainted his assent, how-
ever, by directing that "the holders of the corn be instructed that
they had no right to it whatever, and should be thankful that the
government elects to distribute it rather than to divide what they
had in their private possession, with the poor."

May 22nd Thos. C. Billups, Geo. R. Clayton and 23 other cit-
izens of Columbus addressed Gen. Grierson saying: "We have
seen with regret that large bodies of negroes are leaving homes in
the country and congregating in Columbus in great numbers with-
out food or employment. Large quantities of growing crops of
prov-sions and cotton now fully half cultivated will be entirely
lost and all law and order in a great degree be destroyed. They
will become demoralized and ready for crime and violence.
Under the circumstances we are constrained to place ourselves

M»

Mississippi Historical Society.

and families under your protection, and respectfully to ask that
you by an order properly enforced keep the negroes on the plan-
tations. By retaining to some degree the present relations until a
new one shall be inaugurated by the government, much of the
evil which will necessarily follow a change will be arrested."

The ominous outlook in the South, was given a darker hue at
the time by the capture of the Confederate President, Jefferson
Davis. His plan for escaping through the country and to the
trans-Mississippi department was thwarted by the successive sur-
renders of the Confederate armies, and the penetration of the in-
terior by the Union cavalry. He was overtaken in Georgia and
sent to Fortress Monroe. President Lincoln had expressed the
wish that Mr. Davis might get away and leave the country.
There were other Northern leaders who took the same view ; that
to dispose of such a captive was sure to prove a problem and an
embarrassment. In discussing the terms of his original conven-
tion with Gen. Johnston, Gen. Sherman is said to have stated that
a ship would be placed at the service of Mr. Davis, for going to
any foreign port he miight choose. But no such views were en-
tertained by Secretary of War Stanton and the radicals. They
saw nothing but a short trial, a sure conviction and a bloody end
Doubtful of making out a case of treason, the monstrous accusa-
tion of instigation of the assassination of President Lincoln was
trumped up to render Mr. Davis hated and infamous with the
Northern people and the world. This charge was formally laid
in a proclamation offering a reward of $100,000 for his capture.
It was alleged in the court martial charges against the persons
caught red handed in the assassination crime. On learning of the
capture of the Confederate president, Stanton despatched Gen. Q.
A. Gilmore, commanding department : "These prisoners are to be
dealt with as criminals of the most dangerous character. No
consideration should control you in their secure delivery in Fort-
ress Monroe to the officers who may be assigned." Gen. Halleck
was ordered to repair to Fortress Monroe to "place a sufficient
force there to secure against surprise or effort at rescue or es-
cape." And to "send away the women and children constituting
the family of Davis. Do not permit them to go north or remain

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily.- 249

at Fort Monroe or Norfolk." Having doubts about Halleck for
carrying out his malicious and brutal designs, Stanton sent after
him his assistant secretary of war, C. A. Dana; a worthy tool of
such a master. His report, in the War Records, Series 2, Vol-
ume 8, Page 564, is briefed as follows:

"The arrangements for the security of the prisoners seem to me
as complete as could be desired. Each occupies the inner room of
a casement. The window is heavily barred. A sentry stands
within before each of the doors leading into the outer room. The
doors ♦ * * are now secured by bars fastened on the out-
side. Two other sentries stand outside these doors. An officer is
constantly on duty * * * whose duty it is to see the prison-
ers every fifteen minutes. The outer door of all is locked on the
outside and the key is kept exclusively by the general officer of
the guard. Two sentries are stationed without that door. A
strong line of sentries cuts off all access to the vicinity of the
casemates. * * * The casemates on each side and between
those occupied by the prisoners are used as guard rooms and
soldiers are always there. A lamp is constantly kept burning in
each of the rooms. * * * I have not given orders to have
them placed in irons, as General Halleck seems opposed to it, but
General Miles is instructed to have fetters ready if he thinks them
necessary."

The "instruction" to Miles was thus expressed: "Brevet Major
General Miles is hereby authorized and directed to place manacles
and fetters upon the hands and feet of Jefferson Davis and Cle-
ment C. Qay whenever he may think it advisable in order to ren-
der their imprisonment more secure." (Signed) C. A. Dana, As-
sistant Secretary of War.""

This was followed by the shameful and crowning infamy of
placing Mr. Davis in irons. The outcry it raised lead to the
following dispatch from Washington: "Major General Miles
will please report whether irons have or have not been placed
on Jefferson Davis. H they have been, when it was done, and for
what reason, and remove them." (Signed) Edwin M. Stanton,
Secretary of War. To this came the following reply : "Hon. Ed-

250 Mississippi Historical Society.

win M. Stanton: I directed anklets to be put on his (Davis')
ankles — ^which would prevent his running, should he endeavor to
escape."

(Signed) N. A. Miles, Brig. Gen.

Dana's report to Stanton telling of the "arrangements for the
security of the prisoners," prompts the query: Escape how, or
where to — rescue from whence and by whom? There was not a
crevice or a rat hole of exit from the Fort Monroe double locked
door, window barred casemate, in which the Confederate chief-
tain was immured. Sleeping or waking he was under constant
watch and guard. If given the freedom of the seagirt fortress,
without the endowment of wings he could not have gained his
liberty. He was as secure in the dungeon to which he was con-
signed as had he been in his grave. This fact was well known
to this trio, Stanton, Dana, Miles. Shackling their illustrious
victim could have no other design than to torture and degrade.

There has been controversy to this day as to the responsibility
for placing prisoner of state Davis in irons. Yet the record here
quoted discloses the whole plot. The last lines of Assistant Sec-
retary of War Dana reveals that he left Washington with verbal
order from Stanton to have Jefferson Davis shackled. As "Hal-
leck seemed opposed to it," Dana was admonished to provide a
loop hole for Stanton and himself. This Gen. Miles, an am-
bitious, rising young soldier, who was not of a character to stand
upon scruples of conscience or right in seeking advancement,
furnished. To win the favor of the all powerful secretary of
war, which Dana doubtless pledged him, he would, if called to it,
as readily have had his prisoner — then being under foot and
gloated over, for whom no one in all the North dared speak out
loud — strangled and thrown in the bay. For two months after
the shackling scene, the incidents of which can never be read
without a feeling of abhorrence and shame, Mr. Davis was kept
in his cell under the "arrangements" stated in Dana's report.
Than these there could not have been a more perfect adaptation
for that favorite measure of torture by the Spanish inquisition,
insomnia. Besides the constant tramp of the sentry before his

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 251

door and "the light kept burning in the room" of one whose
weak eyes had been a cause of suffering for years, the officer of
the guard \vas required "to see his prisoner every 15 minutes."
The noise of guard mounting at his door every two hours further
prevented any sleep, but that of exhaustion. He was deprived of
the pipe which was a habit and a solace of years. When he was
threatened with the total loss of his eye sight, or as Surgeon
Craven reported that "there must be a change or he would go
crazy or blind or both," the light in his cell was turned out. Af-
ter having been immured in a veritable underground dungeon,
the covered gun room of a casemate two months. Gen. Miles
"suggested the propriety of allowing him to be taken out in the
open air occasionally, this to be done under my own supervision,
as that seems to be the only method of requiring him to take ex-
ercise, which he seems to avoid." After the lapse of three months
Mr. Davis was permitted to write to his wife, solely upon family
matters, his letters being read before being mailed by Gen. Miles
and then the Attorney General, who forwarded them to Mrs.
Davis. October 26 Gen. Miles in enclosing one to the Attorney
General, wrote: "I would respectfully call your attention to the
paragraph enclosed in brackets, namely: "For say three months
after I was imprisoned here two hours sleep," etc. This state-
ment is false in every particular as I know he rested and slept
more than he says. His answer on being asked how he had slept
was invariably, "very well." As Mr. Davis so loathed Gen. Miles
that he preferred remaining in his casemate to taking the air in
his company, he would have replied "very well" on a bed of coals,
rather than complain to him.

Upon the repeated representation and protest of the surgeon,
of the effects of the air of the damp and unventilated cell upon
the health of Mr. Davis, a change was ordered. But it was de-
layed by Gen. Miles until he was directed specially to make it,
October 3rd, when, after the summer heat was over, Mr. Davis
was taken out of the casement, and given a room in the officers
quarters. "The same guard" wrote Gen. Miles," "of one officer
and ten sentinels are still kept over him."

The sympathy of the surgeon and every officer and man at the

2£i2 Mississippi Historical Society.

post brought in contact with Mr. Davis, was won by the charm
of his manner, his uncomplaining fortitude, his native dignity
and force of character ; all save Gen. Miles. For more than a
year he kept up his practice of annoyance, of cruel and irritating
espionage upon his prisoner. This is all recorded in his daily
reports to Secretary of War Stanton, by the narrative publica-
tions of Surgeon Craven and others with personal knowledge.
Mr. Davis told his wife, who was permitted to join him after a
year of imprisonment, that "Gen. Miles had exhausted his ingenu-
ty to find something more afflicting to visit upon him. He said
that Gen. Miles never walked in enforced companionship upon the
ramparts with him without saying something so offensive and in-
sulting as to render the exercise a painful effort.

Mr. Davis' self control was not proof at all times against the
petty persecution, the studied torture of his coarse mannered and
morally blunted jailor. One instance is cited. As published in
the War of Rebellion Record, Major Muhlenberg was ordered to
remove a piece of red tape which Gen. Miles had chanced to spy
in Mr. Davis' room. Being required to report what occurred.
Major Muhlenberg narrated the following painful scene : "When
I asked Mr. Davis if he had any use for the tape which Gen.
Miles directed me to remove, he replied : "The ass ! Tell the
damned ass that it was used to keep up the mosquito net on my
bed. I had it in the casement and he knew it. The miserable
ass !" This was reported to Secretary of War Stanton, by Gen.
Miles with the statement that he was led to believe by Mr. Davis"
rage that he "desired it for improper purposes." This elicited
Stanton's thanks, with the injunction that "there could not be too
much vigilance at this time, and that care should be taken in ref-
erence to any of the officers who may have undue feelings in favor
of the prisoner."

Upon publication of Dr. Cooper's narrative report, in August,
1866, there was an outburst of indignation and denunciation, of
disgust and horror, in Northern papers that compelled the atten-
tion of the President to the case of Mr. Davis and Gen. Miles.
Secretary McCulloch was requested by Mr. Johnson to go to
Fortress Monroe and personally inquire into the fact of the re-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 253

ports about the treatment of Mr. Davis. "I listened silently," re-
ported Mr. McCuUough, "to his statement ; but I felt as he did,
that he had for a time been barbarously treated." Soon there-
after President Johnson ordered a change of commanders at the
fort. Gen. Miles, with a taste for his post as jailor, remonstrated
to Secretary Stanton and begged that the order be held up. He
complained bitterly that the President had ordered him away
from Fortress Monroe because of his treatment of Davis. He
wrote that he was the victim of the "base slanders and foulest
accusations of the disloyal press. I am ready to vindicate my
course to all honorable men, and as far as the confinement of Jef-
ferson Davis is concerned, he has received better treatment than
any other government would have given him." The story of the
personal indignities inflicted upon Jefferson Davis has not and
never will be "vindicated to honorable men." Not in modern
times and in civilized nations has any such "treatment" been
practiced on a prisoner of state, except French "terrorists." Only
in barbaric times are there to be found precedents for the "course"
of General Miles. And in after years, risen to the coveted emi-
nence, and better versed in the weight of the moral equations of
life, his sin has found him out. He has cowered under and sought
to escape the Nessus shirt he donned so free of care in his youth.
Even as Stanton and Dana tried to escape at his cost, so has he
since vainly plead the mitigation of obedience to orders. As to
the responsibility, the verdict of the eternal verities is that all
three were equally, inexpiably, gi.iilty of bringing enduring shame
on the nation — of doing that which no man, not the most ultra
South hater, has ever defended or apologized for.

Though out of its chronological order, the story of Jefferson
Davis is continued. In December, 1865, the senate, impatient
over the delay "in making treason odious," by resolution enquired
"on what charges or for what reasons, Jefferson Davis was still
held in confinement, and why he has not been put on his trial."
In response President Johnson transmitted reports of the Secre-
tary of War, and the Attorney General. The former alleged that
the indictment of Mr. Davis for high treason was pending in the
court of the District of Columbia. And that he was "also charged

UBi Mississippi Historical Society.

with inciting the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and with
the murder of Union prisoners of war by starvation and other
barbarous and cruel treatment toward them;" and that "the
President deeming it expedient that Jefferson Davis should first
be put upon his trial before a competent court and jury for the
crime of treason, he was advised by the law officers of the govern-
ment that the most proper place for such trial was in the state of
Virginia." The report of the Attorney General contended that
"trials for high treason cannot be had before a military tribunal."
He concluded as follows : "When the courts are open and the laws
can be peacefully administered in those states whose people re-
belled against the government * * * the prisoner now held
in military custody * * * should be transferred into the cus-
tody of the civil authorities of the proper districts to be tried for
such crimes as may be alleged against them. I think that it is
the plain duty of the President to cause criminal prosecutions to
be instituted. * * * I should regard it as a direful calamity
if many whom the sword has spared, the law should spare also.
But I would deem it a more direful calamity still if the executive
* * * in bringing those prisoners before the bar of justice
should violate the plain meaning of the constitution in the least
particular." Plainly Attorney General Speed wished to go about
the murder of Jefferson Davis under all the formalities of law
and precedent.

A few days later, January lOth, 1866, the house adopted a reso-
lution asking for "such reports among others as have been made
by the bureau of military justice as to the grounds, facts or ac-
cusations upon which Jefferson Davis (et al.) are held in confine-
ment." This brought out a long report from the official to whom
the task of making out the case of inciting the assassination of
Mr. Lincoln had been entrusted ; Judge Advocate General Joseph
Holt. Having been successful in hanging Mrs. Surratt and Capt.
Wirz under drum head trial, he had set himself to the higher
charge of placing the noose around the neck of Jefferson Davis.
He proved both eager and fitted to his assignment — it was
through no fault of his that there was failure. The report re-
ferred to states that the military commission which tried and con-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. f65

victed Mr. Lincoln's assassins "arrived at the deliberate judg-
ment also, and so declared, that Davis was directly implicated in
their crime and guilty with them of the murder of the President."
This was followed by a recapitulation of the evidence, prepared
and presented to the commission by Judge Advocate General
Holt, which he bolstered with all the fertility of the advocate
trained "to make the worse appear the better reason." The re-
port concluded as follows:

"Impressed by the force of these proofs, which still exist and
are within the reach of the government, I have entertained the
opinion that Davis should be put upon his trial before a military
commission such as condemned his alleged confederates in guilt) —
such a tribunal alone, in my judgment having jurisdiction of the
offense, which was committed in aid of the rebellion and in viola-
tion of the laws and usages of war. My conviction is complete
that the punishment of the wretched hirelings of Davis, some of
whom have been sent to the gallows and some to the penitentiary,
has made no sufficient atonement for this monstrous crime against
humanity, but that on the contrary the blood of the President is
still calling to us from the ground for justice." This is a plain
averment of the murder plot contrived, which was only thwarted
by the precedence given the civil law trial of treason.

The "proofs" on which Holt demanded the conviction of Mr.
Davis consisted of a chain of alleged circumstances and unsub-
stantiated statements that bore falsehood and perjury so plainly,
that his malevolent and blood thirsty report reacted in a wave of
popular disgust and horror which overwhelmed and buried him
in a sea of odium he never recovered from. This report is re-
corded on pages 847 — 855 of the official War Records, serial
No. l&l. To break the force of popular condemnation, July 3d
Holt made report of his correspondence and communication with
Sanford Conover, his chief procurer of witnesses and evidence,
who had "repented," and sold the story of the plot to the N. Y.
Herald. This is contained in the same volume, pages 931-&45.
Its purpose is declared in the following conclusion: "The history
of Sanford Conover's agency and its results has been given thus
circumstantially in order that you may discard the testimony pro-

&56 Mississippi Historical Society.

duced by him from consideration, and also that you may under-
stand under what constant encouragements and apparently trust-
worthy avenues the enquiry committed to his hands was continued
on my part." Acknowledging that he had been misled by pre-
pared statements, for which Conover was indicted, did not relieve
Judge Advocate General Holt from the public scourge. Indeed
his repudiation and persecution of Conover drew forth the counter
assertion that Holt bad suborned his witness into his false
statements, and that he had sought to prevent the exposure of the
fabrication. Writing under the execration he had drawn down
on his head, the Judge Advocate General complained to Stanton
of "a base endeavor through the disloyal press acting in the in-
terest of Jefferson Davis and the rebellion" to so convict him ;
"charges of the utmost gravity affecting my official integrity and
conduct have been preferred against me before the country that
I suborned testimony which secured the conviction of Mrs. Sur-
ratt, and that I united with Conover in the fabrication of evidence
of the complicity of Jefferson Dav's in the assassination of Presi-
dent Lincoln." At the close of this complaint Holt asked for a
court of enquiry. This was denied him in an indorsement, for the
reason that the President was "entirely satisfied with the honesty
and fidelity of the Judge Advocate General, in which view the
Secretary of War fully concurs." But public opinion was not
shaken out of the fixed belief of Holt's guilt. His part in the
wicked and .shameful chapter was held to be all the more infam-
ous in that he was a Southern renegade. He had in former years
lived in Mississippi, where he had won prominence and fortune
at the Vicksburg bar. He was postmaster general when the
other three of Buchanan's four Southern cabinet members re-
signed. Holt was then made secretary of war. In the closing
months of Buchanan's administration he showed the proverbial
zeal of the apostate, and great talent besides, in the initial war
preparations. He subsequently, as judge advocate general,
worked in complete harmony with the vindictive and saturnine
Secretary of War Stanton. And like him he went to his grave
wretched and abhorred — as the contriver of the murder of an in-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 257

nocent woman, he lives in history "a fixed figure for the time of
scorn to point his slow unmoving finger at."

Holt was regarded by President Johnson, according to the
Welles' diary, with extreme aversion ; as "cruel and remorseless,
that his tendencies and conclusions were very bloody. All of his
decisions partook of the traits of Nero and Dtaco." Welles
agreed that Holt was "severe and unrelenting. He is credulous
and often the dupe of his own imagination, believes men guilty
on shadowy suspicions and condemns them without trial. Stan-
ton has sometimes brought forward singular papers relating to
conspiracies, and dark and murderous dangers in which he has
faith and Holt has assured him in his suspicions."

More proof of the Davis murder plot may be read in a letter
from General Carl Schurz to the president, and published in the
Schurz reminiscences. It is quoted : "Permit me to avail myself
of the privilege you gave me to write to you whenever I had any-
thing worthy of communication to suggest. A few days ago I
found it stated in the papers that the trial of the conspirators
was to be conducted in secret. I did not believe it until now I see
it confirmed. I do not hestitate to say that this measure strikes
me as very unfortunate and I am not surprised to find it quite
generally disapproved. * * * When the government charged,
before the whole world, the chiefs of the rebellion with having
instigated the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, it took upon itself
the grim obligation to show that this charge was based upon evi-
dence sufficient to bear it out. I am confident you would not
have ventured upon this step had you not such evidence in your
possession. But the government is bound to lay it before the
world in a manner which will command the respect even of the in-
credulous. You will admit that a military commission is an an-
omaly in the judicial system of this republic; still, I will not
question here its propriety in times of extraordinary dangers. At
all events, to submit this case to a military commission — a case in-
volving in so pointed a manner the credit of the government —
was perhaps the utmost stretch of power upon which the govern-
ment could venture without laying itself open to the imputation
of unfair play. But an order to have such a case tried by a mili-
17

258 Mississippi Historical Society.

tary commission behind closed doors, thus establishing a secret
tribunal, can hardly fail to damage the cause of the government
most seriously in the opinion of mankind. This is the most im-
portant state trial this country ever had. The whole civilized
world will scrutinize its proceedings with the utmost interest, and
it will go far to determine the opinion of mankind as to the char-
acter of our institutions."

General Schurz wrote President Johnson that he did not per-
ceive what was to be gained by secrecy. But he explains it in
the following from his own comment: "The evidence of JefiFer-
son Davis' complicity in the assassination of Lincoln, which
President Johnson had in his possession when he issued his proc-
lamation offering a reward for Davis' capture, subsequently turned
out to be absolutely worthless." Nothing but a secret trial could
be relied upon for conviction on "worthless evidence."

The student of history is brought closer to the inner motive of
events by the "Diary of the Reconstruction Period," by Secretary
of the Navy Gideon Welles. Of the cabinet meeting of July 21st
he wrote: "Qiief subject was the offense and disposition of J,
Davis. The President, it was evident was for procuring a discus-
sion or the views of the cabinet." Here follows the respective
views of the cabinet members. Stanton was thus quoted :

"Stanton was for a trial by the courts for treason — the highest
of crimes — and by the constitution. Only the courts could try
him for that offense. Otherwise he would say a military com-
mission. For all other offenses he would arraign hinj before the
military commission. Subsequently, after examining the consti-
tution, he retracted the remark that the constitution made it im-
perative that the trial for treason should be in the civil courts,
yet he did not withdraw the preference he had expressed. I was
emphatically for the civil court and an arraignment for treason —
for an early institution of proceedings — and was willing the trial
should take place in Virginia."

* * * ♦ *

"The question of counsel and the institution of proceedings was
discussed. In order to get the sense of each of the members, the
President thought it would be well to have the matter presented in

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 859

a distinct form. Seward promptly proposed that Jefferson Davis
should be tried for treason, assassination, murder, conspiring to
burn cities, etc., by a military commission. The question was so
put, geward and Harlan voting for it — the others against, with
the exception of myself. The President asked my opinion. I
told him I did not like the form in which the question was put. I
would have him tried for military offenses by a military court,
but for civil offenses I wanted the civil courts. I thought he
should be tried for treason, and it seemed to me that the question
before us should first be the crime and then the court. The others
assented and the question put was, shall J. D. be tried for treason?
There was a unanimous response in the affirmative. Then the
question as to the court. Dennison moved a civil court — all but
Seward and Harlan were in the affirmative. They were in the
negative."

Stanton voted in the affirmative of the Welles motion, because
in his heart he had resolved that there should be no occasion for
a trial in the civil courts. He designed that there should be first
the secret trial under the assassination charge, before a military
court constituted to convict.

In "Men and Measure of Half a Century." Hugh MacCulloch,
Secretary of the Treasury, has the following: "The legal ques-
tion, has Mr. Davis been guilty of such acts of treason that he
can be successfuly prosecuted? was submitted to Attorney Gen-
eral Speed, who, after a thorough examination of it and consulta-
tion with some of the ablest lawyers of the country, came to the
conclusion that Mr. Davis could not be convicted of treason by
any competent and independent tribunal, and that therefore he
ought not to be tried. " * * The President was chagrined
by the decision, which was enforced upon the opinions of the At-
torney General and other eminent lawyers. He was committed
by his vindictive speeches made at the commencement of his ad-
ministration, but he saw the correctness of it and from that time
published his generosity to those whom he had denounced as
traitors to an extreme."

May, 18fi6, Mr. Davis was indicted in the Federal court at Rich-
mond, for treason. But he was neither given a trial nor admitted

260

Mississippi Historical Society.

to bail. As his conviction was not possible, his trial was denied ;
the influence of the prosecution was centered upon keeping him
in prison. To bolster up Stanton and Holt, a resolution was
passed in the house upon motion of Geo. S. Boutwell, of Massa-
chusetts, that he should be held in custody until tried. At the
expiration of his second year of incarceration at Fortress Monroe,
May, 1867, he was admitted to bail — a plain confession of the
government that it had no case against him ; Horace Greeley and
Gerritt Smith, prominent abolitionists among others signing the
appearance bond on which Mr. Davis was at last released. The
following December his case was called and argued, and resulted
in a mistrial on a motion to quash the indictment ; Chief Justice
Chase who was sitting in the case, being for the motion, and Dis-
trict Judge Underwood against it.

The two elements of encouragement and strength to a sorely
stricken state in this interim between the surrender of the armies
and the restoration of civil government, were the returned
soldiers and the kindly, sympathetic sentiment of the Federal mil-
itary commanders and, as a rule, the subordinate officers and
their men of the Lamson commands. But the rejoicing, comfort-
ing feeling inspired by the home coming of the men of the dis-
banded armies was darkened by the sorrow, the unappeasable loss
of those who had fallen in battle or died of disease. This formed
a chronicle of pathos and tragedy that entered every household.
The full extent, the total of this war tax upon the youth of the
state has never been accurately stated, though the exhausting
drain of priceless blood may be approximated from the material
at hand. In February, 1864, the Confederate congress passed an
act to aid any state in perfecting the records concerning its troops
in the Confederate army. Subsequently the state passed a corres-
ponding act creating the office of superintendent of army records
in the state ; to "collect and place in a form for permanent preser-;-
vation and reference the names of all Mississippians in the Con-
federate service," et cet.

For the performance of this historically important labor Gov-
ernor Qark appointed Col. J. L. Power. He proceeded to the Mis-
sissippi command in the Virginia army in December, 1864, and

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 261

was engaged in listing and tabulating them from that time until
interrupted by the field operations that ended in the surrender at
Appomattox. At the time his labors were thus broken in upon
Col. Power had made a complete roster of the Griffith-Barksdale-
Humphreys Brigade of four regiments, from which the following
totals are quoted :

Whole, number enrolled 5,615

Killed or died of wounds 833

Died of disease : 761

Total dead .. 1,594

The rolls of thirty-one of the forty companies of the Davis-
Stone Brigade were also listed, from which the following is
taken :

Whole number enrolled 3,792

Killed or died of wounds 502

Died or disease 463

Total dead 965

There remained on the rolls of the former of these two com-
mands, after deducting the discharged from wounds, etc., at the
close of the war, 1,544 men, rank and file, and on the rolls of the
thirty-one companies of the other 1,190. Deducting from these
totals the absent, in Northern prison, on detail or furlough, the
much greater number being prisoners of war, there were left to
answer bugle call of officers and men in the first of the two
commands only 400, and in the other 500. These remnants were,
as organizations, totally destroyed in the last fighting, in the Pet-
ersburg defences and on the retreat to Appomattox. The third
of the Mississippi Virginia Brigades shared much the same fate.

The following further matter is quoted from this report, which
was submitted by Col. Power to Governor Humphreys, and by
him to the legislature in October, 1865:

"From this and other data in my possession, I have thought it

262 Mississippi Historical Society.

might be interesting to deduce something like an approximate es-
timate of the total strength and losses of the troops furnished by
the state of Mississippi — making in the aggregate about sixty-
three regiments of all arms :

Whole number in service 78,000

Died of disease 15,500

Killed and died of wounds 12,000

Discharged, resigned, released 19,000

Deserted or dropped 11,000

Missing 250

Transferred to other commands 1,500

Total loss from all causes 59,250

Balance accounted for 18,750

It is an eternal pity that the recommendation accompanying Col.
Power's report for completion of his work, for making up the
records of all the Mississippi troops, was not acted upon. But so
absorbing were the immediate demands of the prostrate state upon
the legislature that assembled in 1865, so weighed upon was the
provisional government by the difficult and perplexing cares of
the people, that there was no room for consideration of even so
patriotic and sacred a cause as that of preserving the records of
the war. The number estimated of killed, or mortally wounded
in battle, 13,000, is undoubtedly over stated. This seems calcu-
lated on the percentage of the twelve regiments of infantry in the
Virginia army, some of which Col. Power has tabulated as quoted
from their available field rolls. It is common knowledge, how-
ever, that few, if any other regiments suffered near so heavily.
But estimating those who died in battle at a fourth less than 12,-
000, this with the 15,500 who died of disease, was a fearful de-
pletion of the youth of the state. And of the 19,000 "discharged,
resigned or dropped," the greater portion were disabled for life
from wounds. The "deserted or dropped" constituted the dodg-
ers and shirkers — men whose hearts grew faint after one or two

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 263

or three years service. Their case is thus stated in the report of
Col. Power:

"Our reverses of the last two years of the war, the desponden-
cy, speculation and extortion of money of our people at home, the
inability of the government to pay the troops promptly, or to fur-
nish anything like adequate suppHes of food or clothing, the abso-
lute destitution of many families of soldiers, and toward the last
the seeming hopelessness of the struggle, all conspired to de-
press the soldiers' hearts, and caused thousands to retire from the
service when there was greatest need for their services."

Of the "balance accounted for," of the 18,750, who had been
faithful to the end, they came straggling home after the Appo-
mattox surrender in early April, to the mid-summer days; ac-
cording to when they were paroled in the field or released from
Northern prisons. If the prodigals "fatted calf" was often denied
them, the rejoicing on the home return of these sons of the "way-
ward sisters" made amends for all. Fortunately they brought
home something else besides the hero's laurels. In their four
years tutelage under perils and privations of the camp, the field,
the prison, they had been taught life's hardest lessons ; "learned to
labor and to wait." While there were "fallen angels," it was
the Confederate soldiers, so long as their numbers dominated the
counsels and policies of the state, who tinted post bellum history
with a fleeting renaissance of the virtues and the glories of the
old South.

The contrast in the home-coming of the two armies, in the do-
mestic conditions awaiting them, at the close of the war was
marked. On the side of the North it was a triumph, with the
South it was a tragedy of darkest tint. The Union hosts returned
to the paths of peace with banners flying, trumpets peeling the
notes of victory and gladness, crowds cheering and showering
them with gifts. The thin grey line dissolved into straggling
groups of dejected, despondent men. Foot sore and travel
stained, they wended their way homeward where want and pov-
erty, sorrow and affliction awaited them. But let the contrast of
sections be spoken by the tongue of eloquence.

264

Mississippi Historical Society.

The following extract is from a speech delivered by Henry W.
Grady of Atlanta, Ga., before the New England Club in New
York on Dec. 21, 1886, following a speech by Rev. T. DeWitt
Talmadge, the great preacher and orator. No truer pen pic-
ture of the Confederate soldier was ever drawn.

"Dr. Talmadge has drawn for you with a master's hand, the
picture of your returning armies. He has told you how, in the
pomp and circumstance of war, they came back to you, marching
with proud victorious tread, reading their glory in a nation's eyes !
Will you bear with me while I tell you of another army that
sought its home at the close of the late war — an army that
marched home in defeat and not in victory — in pathos and not
in splendor, but glory that equaled yours, and to hearts as loving
as ever welcomed heroes home. Let me picture to you the foot-
sore Confederate soldier, as buttoning up in his faded gray jacket
the parole which was to bear testimony to his children of his fi-
delity and faith, he turned his face southward from Appomattox
in April, 1865. Think of him as ragged, half starved, heavy-
hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds, having fought to exhaus-
tion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his comrades in
silence, and lifting his tear-stained and pallid face for the last
time to the graves that dot old Virginia hills, pulls his gray cap
over his brow and begins the slow and painful journey. What
does he find — let me ask you who went to your homes eager to
find in the welcome you had justly earned, full payment for four
years' sacrifice — what does he find when, having followed the
battle-stained cross against over-whelming odds, dreading death
not half so much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so
prosperous and beautiful? He finds his house in ruins, his farm
devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his
trade destroyed, his money worthless, his social system, feudal
in its magnificence, swept away ; his people without law or legal
status, his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy on
his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions gone, with-
out money, credit, employment, material, or training; and be-
side all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met
human intelligence — the establishment of a status for the vast

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 865

body of his liberated slaves. What does he do — this hero in gray
with a heart of gold? Does he sit down in sullenness and de-
spair? Not for a day. Surely God, who had stripped him of
his prosperity, inspired him in his adversity. As ruin was never
before so overwheming, never was restoration swifter. The
soldier stepped from the trenches into the furrow ; horses that had
charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and fields that ran
red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in
June ; women reared in luxury with a patience and heroism that
fit women always as a garment, gave their hands to work. There
was little bitterness in all this. Cheerfulness and frankness pre-
vailed."

Under the environments of war's aftermath the state lost
thousands of her remaining young men. A few went to South
and Central America, mostly to return. The many that sought
their fortunes in Texas and the West, were permanently lost to
Mississippi. By a state census the next year an actual loss of
population was shown as follows :

White 1860 353,899

" 1866 _ 343,400

Decrease 1866 10,499

Negroes 1860 437,404

1860 381,218

Decrease , 56,146

There was an increase of population from the Northern sol-
diers who remained to make their homes in the state after their
regiments were mustered out, and of men who were tempted to
locate here by the high price of cotton. These with the birth rates
probably oflFset in numbers the war losses. It is entirely within
the bounds of reason to assume a migration loss equal to the dif-
ference between the totals of 1860 and 1866. The negro decrease
is easily accounted for. Over twenty thousand had been enlisted
in the Union army — probably as many more were employed in

266 Mississippi Historical Society.

the army and navy in the various labors of the camp and marine
service. Most of the regiments were mustered out in the state
though some were sent West. The army death rate was exces-
sive. A report in the war records series HI, vol. IV, page 669,
reads :

"In the casualties among the colored troops the most striking
feature is the excessive proportion of deaths by disease. The ratio
is no less than 141.39 per thousand, while the general volunteer
ratio is 59.32; the highest (Iowa) being 114.02. The disparity
is the more remarkable because the colored troops were not so
severely exposed to the hardships of field service proper." Thous-
ands of negroes were moved out of the state, to Alabama and
Texas, when the state was invaded and the river counties con-
quered. Many of them never returned. Another cause of the de-
crease in population was the heavy death rate among the thous-
ands who led lives of vagrancy and exposure the year after the
war.

The surrender of the armies of the Confederacy and the occu-
pation of the subjugated states having been completed. Presi-
dent Johnson was brought face to face with the problem of the
restoration of civil authority in the South. He at once realized the
embarrassment of the embraces of the radicals, already intent up-
on forcing the bitter pill of negro political equality upon the
Southern people as a condition precedent to receiving their states
back in the Union. At first they seem to have been confident of
the sympathy and support of the President. In this expectation
they were destined to disappointment. The President was not
averse to hanging a few of the leaders, Jefferson Davis at least,
whom he hated. But he balked at going further. Fully imbued
with "poor white" color repugnance, he revolted from negro suf-
frage. This issue which was to prove the apple of national politi-
cal discord, was first threshed out in the cabinet. How closely
it followed on the close of the war is told in the recently published
Diary of Reconstruction," by Secretary of the Navy Gideon
Willes. Of a cabinet meeting May 9th, 1865, he wrote : "The
condition of North Carolina was taken up, and a general plan of
organization intended for all the rebel states submitted and de-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 267

bated. No great difference of opinion was expressed, except on
the matter of negro suffrage. Stanton, Dennison and Speed
were for negro suffrage, McCulloch, Usher and myself were op-
posed. It was agreed on request of Stanton, we would not dis-
cuss the question, but each express his opinion without prelimin-
ary debate. * * *

"Stanton has changed his position — has been converted — is now
for negro suffrage. These were not his views a short time since."
Mr. Welles himself at this meeting declared for "adhering to the
rule prescribed in President Lincoln's proclamation," and for "no
further subversion of the laws, institutions and usages of the
states respectively, nor for (more) intermeddling in local matters
than is absolutely necessary." In the following Mr. Welles clear-
ly stated the trend of the question, and doubtless voiced the views
of President Johnson and Secretary Seward: "The question of
negro suffrage is beset with difficulties, growing out of the con-
flict through which we have passed and the current sympathy
for the colored race," he wrote. "The demagogues will make
use of it regardless of what is best for the country.
There is a fanaticism on the subject with some, who persuade
themselves that the cause of liberty and the Union is with the
negro and not with the white man. White men, and especially
Southern white men, are tyrants. Senator Sumner is riding this
one idea at top speed. There are others less sincere than Sum-
ner, who are pressing the question for party purposes. . . .
No one can claim that the blacks, in the slave states especially,
can exercise the elective franchise intelligently. In most of the
free states they are not permitted to vote. Is it politic and wise,
or even right, when trying to restore peace and reconcile differ-
ences, to make so radical a change, provided we have the author-
ity, which I deny?"

"There is an apparent determination among ingrained aboli-
tionists t© compel the government to impose conditions on the
rebel states that are unwarranted. Prominent men are striving
to establish a party on the basis of equality of the races in the
rebel states for which the people are not prepared. Perhaps they
never will be, for these very leaders do not believe in social

268 Mississippi Historical Society.

equality nor will they practice it. Mr. Sumner, who is an un-
married man, has striven to overcome what seems a natural re-
pugnance." Thad Stevens, who shared the leadership of the
"ingrained abolitionists," with Charles Sumner, was too, an
unmarried man striving to overcome" the same "natural repug-
nance," through negro concubinage.

The feud between President Johnson and Secretary of War
Stanton that was destined to be the centre of national politics,
and of a heat and bitterness beyond all comparison, was yet in
the bud. But it was being talked of to such an extent that on
June 15th Stanton gave out a contradiction, through the Wash-
ington Chronicle. In it he declared that the relations between
himself and the President were of "the most cordial and friendly,
agreeable and confidential character; and that there had been
no disagreement, difference or dispute much less a collision."

In a letter to an Iowa friend Secretary Harlan, of the interior,
thus stated the President's attitude on the negro suffrage issue:
"I beg leave respectfully to state that you misapprehend the po-
sition of President Johnson, and my own, as well as that of the
Union party at large. The real question at issue, in a national
point of view, is not whether negroes shall be permitted to vote,
but whether they shall derive that authority from the National
Government, or from the state governments respectively."

The factious battle was drawn on this line. "Radical senators
and representatives immediately urged the importance of in-
cluding freedmen in reorganizing electorates." (Vide Dunning's
"Reconstruction," page 37).

Light is thus shed on the President's standing with the radical
leaders at this juncture, by the historian Rhodes' Vol. 5, page
522: "While Johnson was talking in public at random he was
in private giving the Radicals false hopes of negro suffrage.
Chief Justice Chase and Sumner were earnest for the immedi-
ate enfranchisement of the freedmen * * * During the first
month of his administration they had many interviews with him,
pressing the matter which they had at heart and were always
listened to with attention and even sympathy. Writing to John
Bright, Sumner said: 'My theme is justice to the colored race.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 269

Johnson accepted this idea completely and indeed went so far as
to say 'that there is no difference between us. He deprecates
haste — thinks there must be a period of probation, but that mean-
while all loyal people, without distinction of color must be treated
as citizens and must take part in any proceedings for reorgani-
zation." But as no words of Johnson are stated in affirmance
of the position Senator Sumner gives him, it is more than rea-
sonable to believe that the Massachusetts negro-phobiac assumed
more than the truth warranted. From page 524, Vol. 5, Rhodes'
History, Stanton's testimony before the impeachment investiga-
tion is quoted: "The question of negro suffrage came up (in
the cabinet) May 9th when Secretary Stanton submitted a re-
vision of the draft of a plan which had been discussed April 14
by Lincoln and his advisers. This provided that all "loyal citi-
zens" might participate in the election of delegates to the state
convention to be called for the adoption of a new state consti-
tution. What is meant by "loyal citizens," was asked by Secre-
tary Welles?" "Negroes as well as white men," was the reply.
Upon expression of opinion, Stanton, Dennison and Speed
declared for negro suffrage, McCulloch, Welles and Usher main-
tained that this was beyond the power of the Federal govern-
ment, Welles arguing that President Lincoln and his cabinet
had agreed that "the question of suffrage belonged to the states."
Johnson expressed no opinion, but took the matter into "thought-
ful and careful consideration."

The fact that three members of the cabinet had come to favor
the imposition of negro suffrage upon the Southern states as
early as May 9th, 1865, as a condition of their re-admission to
the Union, indicated the quick and dangerous upgrowth of rad-
icalism. A year before, as will be shown on a following page,
while the South was yet unconquered, only a single cabinet mem-
ber had favored the odious and revolutionary action. A year
before congress had passed and President Lincoln had approved
a law prescribing the terms upon which the people of the se-
ceded states could reorganize their governments and resume their
places in the Union, after resistance to the Federal authority had
ceased. There was in that law no provision or suggestion of

270 Mississippi Historical Society.

subverting this power of the states — to prescribe qualifications
for their electorates — no hint or threat of the odious and revolt-
ing outrage of negro suffrage. With but two opposing votes
the senate had adopted a resolution at the beginning of the war,
July 22nd, 1861, that "war is not waged upon our part in any
spirit of oppression nor for any purpose of conquest or subju-
gation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with
the rights or established institutions of these (the seceded)
states, but to maintain the supremacy of the constitution with all
the dignity, equaHty and rights of the several states unimpaired."
In 1864 state governments were organized in Louisiana and Ar-
kansas under President Lincoln's plan and order, and through
conventions chosen by the white voters only. After these shams
on statehood had been effected President Lincoln wrote Provi-
sional Governor Hahn thus guardedly, as to negro suffrage:
"Now you are about to have a convention which among other
things will define the elective franchise, I freely suggest for your
private consideration whether some of the colored people may
not be let in — as for instance the very intelligent, and especially
those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. But this is only
a suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone." The situation
was now changed. A degrading infliction that was not thought
of when the South was defended by her armies, when the result
of the war hung suspended in the balance, was vengefully de-
manded when she was prostrate and supplicating. That the un-
patriotic and revengeful conspiracy was foreseen, and detected,
by Mr. Lincoln is revealed in the account by Secretary
Welles of the la.st cabinet meeting, thus quoted in Rhodes,
page 137, Vol. V: Friday, April 14, Lincoln held his last
cabinet meeting. General Grant was present. * * * mat-
ters of routine were disposed of and then the subject of re-
construction was taken up. After some discussion the President
said : "I think it providential that this great rebellion is crushed
out just as congress has adjourned and there are none of the
disturbing elements of that body to hinder and embarrass us. If
we are wise and discreet we shall reunite the states and get their
governments in successful operation, with order prevailing and

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 271

the union re-established before congress comes together in De-
cember. * * * I hope there will be no persecution, no
bloody work after the war is over. No one need expect me to
take any part in hanging or killing these men, even the worst
of them. * * * Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must
extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union.
There is too much of a desire on the part of some of our good
friends to be masters, to interfere with and dictate to those
states, to treat the people not as fellow citizens. There is too
little respect for their rights. I do not sympathize in these
feelings." * * * He said at the close of the meeting, "re-
construction is the great question pending and we must now be-
gin to act in the interests of reason.

The new irrepressible conflict over the radical policy of re-
construction based on negro suffrage outcropped long before the
surrender. It was given concrete form when President Lincoln
through the military commander of Louisiana, as above stated,
organized a state civil government; as when the question of
recognizing this creation came up in the senate the issue around
which the storm was destined to rage was raised. The opposi-
tion to the resolution of recognition consisted of a small body of
Republicans and the Democratic senators. The position of the
former is thus stated in Rhodes' History, page 55: "The im-
portance of this debate lies in the opposition of Sumner to a
plan matured by Lincoln. The two most influential men in pub-
lic life were at variance. * * * 'j-j^e serious difference be-
tween the President and the senator lay in the senator's insist-
ence that the suffrage should be conferred upon the negroes on
the same conditions as on the whites before the state should be
received back into the Union." This "serious difference" in the
Lincoln and the Radical view of reconstruction again came to
the surface when he visited Richmond, the day after its occu-
pation by the Union army. In an interview with Judge J. A.
Campbell he gave the former justice of the United States su-
preme court a memorandum of the terms of peace ; disbandment
of all the Confederate armies, restoration of the national author-
ity, and recognition of the emancipation of the slaves. Under

272 Mississippi Historical Society.

the influence of the array of opposition he met from his cabinet
and radical congressmen this memorandum, and a permit issued
to the mihtary commander at Richmond for the assembly of
members of the Virginia legislature to act under it, were with-
drawn. But the record of Lincoln's plan of reconstruction is to
be read in the incident nevertheless. It was yet again revealed
in his memorable address in Washington, four days before his
assassination, which is quoted : "By the recent surrenders re-
construction is pressed much more clearly upon our attention.
It is fraught with great difficulty * * * Nor is it a small
additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among
ourselves as to the mode, means and measures of reconstruction.
As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attack
upon myself. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to
my knowledge that I am much censured from some supposed
agency in setting and seeking to sustain the new state govern-
ment of Louisiana * * * Xhe new government is also un-
satisfactory that the elective franchise is not given to the col-
ored men. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on
the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as sol-
diers. Still the question is : Will it be wiser to take it as it is,
and help to improve it, or to reject and defer it?"

"It may be my duty to make some new announcement to the
people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act
when satisfied action is necessary."

On the day this speech was made Chief Justice Chase com-
mun'cated his views on Southern reconstruction in a letter to
president Lincoln. Vide War of Rebellion Record, Serial No.
47, pt. Ill, page 427, from which the following is quoted: I am
very anxious about the future, and most about the principles
which are to govern reconstruction. . . . The easiest
and safest way seems to me the enrollment of the loyal citizens
without regard to complexion in the reorganization of state
governments under constitutions securing suffrage to all citi-
zens. This you know has long been my opinion. It is confirmed
by observation more and more. This way is recommended by
its simplicity, facility, and above all justice. It will hereafter

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. t7S

be construed equally a crime and a folly if the colored loyalists
of the rebel states are left to the control of the restored rebels,
not likely in that case to be either wise or just until taught both
wisdom and justice by new calamities. ... I most respect-
fully but earnestly commend these matters to your attention."
This letter was followed up by a longer one the next day, after
Mr. Chase had read Mr. Lincoln's speech. Referring to his ex-
pression of opinion when a member of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet,
and when the amnesty proclamation was under discussion the
chief justice wrote : "It is distinct in my memory though doubt-
less forgotten by you. It was an objection to the restrictions of
participation in reorganization to persons having the quahfica-
tions of voters under the laws in force just before the rebellion.
Ever since reconstruction has been talked about it has been my
opinion that colored loyalists ought to be allowed to participate
in it. I did not, however, say much about the restriction. I was
the only one who expressed a wish for its omission and did not
desire to seem pertinacious.

Once I should have been, if not satisfied partially, at least,
contented with suffrage for the intelligent and for those who
had been soldiers. Now I am convinced that universal suffrage
is demanded by sound policy and impartial justice." The as-
sassin's bullet cut off Mr. Lincoln from replying to the mon-
strous suggestion coming from the Chief Justice, to rob the
states of their constitutional right of fixing and controlling their
electorates.

Chief Justice Chase evidently thought that the time had come
for him to grasp party leadership, lay claim to the presi-
dency, for which he had an insatiate yearning, on the plat-
form of negro political equality in the South. The course
he took was neither marked by sound judgment nor sense
of judicial propriety. Before leaving for the South to preach
the gospel of enfranchisement direct to the newly eman-
cipated negroes, he wrote Gen. Schofield, who was commander
of the Department of North Carolina, a letter which is quoted
from as of importance in connection with a history of the form-
ative period of reconstruction: "Gen. Sherman has shown me
18

274 Mississippi Historical Society.

your telegram to him on the subject of the reorganization of
government of North Carolina and it has occurred to me that
you might like to know the general views of those who think as
I do. I cannot, perhaps, put them before you with so little trou-
ble or more distinctly than by sending you copies of two letters
written by me to President Lincoln just before he was so foully
murdered. ... I have since his accession had several con-
versations with President Johnson, and think myself authorized
to say that he . . . thinks the reorganization should be the
work of the people themselves acting in their original sovereign
capacity ... by the enrollment of all the loyal citizens pre-
paratory to the election of delegates to a convention. In this
enrollment he would prefer that the old constitutional rule in
North Carolina which recognized all freeman as voters, should
be followed, rather than the rule of the new constitution, which
excludes all freemen of color. It may be that he has already
issued an address or proclamation stating his views. He was
considering the subject when I left Washington on the 1st inst."
This letter, dated May 7th, is in the War Record, page 427,
Vol. 43, Part 111. It was written in Beaufort Harbor, on board
the U. S. steamer which was bearing Judge Chase on his mission.
The telegram from Gen. Schofield to Gen. Sherman referred to
is quoted: "I hope the government will make known its policy
as to organization of state governments without delay. Affairs
must necessarily be in a very unsettled state until that is done.
The people are now in a mood to accept almost anything which
promises a definite settlement. What is to be done with the
f reedmen is the question of all, and it is the all important question.
It requires prompt and wise action to prevent the negro from
becoming a huge elephant on our hands." Schofield's message to
Sherman is published in the same voluSne, page 405. The writer
was greatly disturbed by the Chase letter. This is shown in a
letter to General Grant, of May 10. Schofield saw "disastrous
results," in the Radical policy. He urged that "the organiza-
tion of the state governmlents be left to the people acting in
their original sovereign capacity. * * * First the constitu-
tion of the state as it existed immediately prior to the rebellion

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. ili

is still the state constitution and there is no power on earth
but the people of the state can alter it. The operations of the
war have freed the slaves. But the United States cannot
make a negro or even a white man, an elector in any state.
That is a power expressly reserved by the constitution to the
several states. * * * My second reason for objecting to
the (Chase) proposition is the absolute unfitness of the ne-
groes, as a class, for any such responsibility. They can neither
read nor write; they have no knowledge! whatever of law
or government; they do not even know the meaning of the
freedom that has been given them, and are much astonished that
it does not mean that they are to live in idleness and be fed by
the government. * * * i have yet to see a single one of the
many Union men of North Carolina who would willingly sul>-
mit to the immediate elevation of the negro to political equality.
If they did not rebel againt it it would be only because rebellion
would be hopeless."

Gen. Schofield said in conclusion : "I am willing to discharge
to the best of my ability, any duty which may properly devolve
upon me. Yet if a policy so opposed to my views as that pro-
posed by Mr. Chase is to be adopted I respectfully suggest I am
not the proper person to carry it out." May 18th Gen. Grant
acknowledged receipt of Gen. Schofield's letter, briefly as fol-
lows: "Until a uniform policy is adopted for re-establishing
civil government in the rebellious states the military authorities
can do nothing but keep the peace. I have but just received your
letter of the 10th, and agree with your views."

In his letter to Gen. Schofield Chief Justice Chase stated he
had "some fifty copies of his Lincoln letter printed for informa-
tion of individuals — not for publication." A copy was received
by Gen. W. T. Sherman. As ready with pen as sword, Gen.
Sherman replied at length and with candor, to Chase's statement
of "a way of reconstruction recommended by its simplicity, facil-
ity and above all justice." The following is from Sherman's let-
ter. May 6th, 1865 : "I say honestly that the assertion openly of
your ideas as a fixed policy of our government, to be backed by
physical force, will produce new war, more bloody and destructive

87(5 Mississippi Historical Society.

than the past. * * * Our own armed soldiers have preju-
dices that, right or wrong, should be consulted. * * * j ^j^q
have felt the past war as bitterly and keenly as any man, confess
myself 'afraid' of a new war, and a new war is bound to result
from the action you suggest, of giving to the enfranchised ne-
groes as large a share in the most delicate task of putting the
Southern states in practical working relations with the general
government." Of all the men prominent in national affairs at
the period Gen. Sherman seems to have been the most keenly
alive to the difficulties of reconstruction. In a letter a few days
later to Gen. O. O. Howard, just appointed head of the f reed-
man's bureau, he wrote: "I believe the negro is free constitu-
tionally, and if the United States will simply guarantee that
freedom, and the negro to hire his own labor, the transition will
be apparently easy. But if we attempt to force the negro on the
South as a voter "a loyal citizen," we begin a new revolution.
* * * I know the people of the South better than you do.
I believe they realize the fact that their negroes are free, and
if allowed reasonable time, and are not harrassed by 'confisca-
tion.' and political complication, will very soon adapt their con-
dition and interest to their new state of facts." To Gen. Scho-
field, who had just been appointed military governor of North
Carolina, he wrote May 28th from Washington, "I cannot yet
learn that the executive has already laid down any policy, but I
have reason to believe Mr. Johnson is not going as far as Mr.
Chase in imposing negro suffrage on the Southern states. I
never heard a negro ask for that, and I think it would be his
ruin. * * * I laugh at fears of those who dread the rebels
may regain some political power. I believe the whole idea of
giving votes to negroes is to create just that many votes for po-
litical uses."

In a speech at Lexington, Kentucky, July lOth, "to the peo-
ple among whom he was born and reared" Gen. Frank P. Blair
gave warning of the radical intention of giving suffrage to the
negroes — "a movement headed by Chief Justice Chase. He has
stepped down from his high position on the supreme bench to
traverse the Southern states in a government vessel to urge the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 277

negroes in Vicksburg and elsewhere to protest against Governor
Sharkey's appointment as governor." The Vicksburg Herald
said "there was no doubt of the truth of the charge that the
chief justice did travel on a government boat for the benefit as
he hoped of his pet scheme of negro suffrage, dragging the ju-
dicial ermine in the filth of presidential scheming."
The N. Y. World published the following criticism:

THE CHIEF JUSTICE.

"It is with pleasure we announce that an act of Congress re-
quires the presence of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in
Washington on the first Monday of December, and that judicial
duties will compel him to remain there for some months. — Since
that high tribunal adjourned last spring the country has been con-
stantly scandalized by the acts of the Chief Justice "on his trav-
els." That eminent functionary seems to have managed, with
perfect success, to do during the summer and autumn just the
things which regard for the proprieties of his position demand
that he should not do. — From making speeches on the street cor-
ners in the extreme South to squads of blacks, he has passed
through audiences of applauding partizans, in the Southwest,
and junketing expeditions on the Northwestern lakes, at the ex-
pense of the Treasury Department, to club suppers and Repub-
lican gatherings in New York city."

In 1865 there were only two states in which negro suffrage
prevailed, in Massachusetts and New York. And in the latter
state, only negroes who owned property could vote. As there
were only a handful of negroes in those states then, their en-
franchisement was of no practical concern or consequence. But
the tide of fanaticism and sectional hate which was so soon des-
tined to overwhelm the South with the polluted flood of neg^o
political equality was fast rising. While there were leaders of
political thought in the Northern states who held out against the
fatuity and the brutality of forcing such a bitter cup of shame
and ruin on the Southern whites, their protests were being
drowned by the cry of vae victis. Replying to what he called

378 Mississippi Historical Society.

His "Oberlin inquisitors," Gen. Cox, a veteran of distinction and
a candidate on the Republican ticket for Governor of Ohio, said
of the demand for imposing negro suffrage upon the Southern
states : "You answer that the extension of the right of suffrage
to the blacks, leaving them intermixed with the whites, will
cause all the trouble. I believe it would be rather like the dim-
ness in that outer darkness of which Milton speaks, when —

"Qiaos umpires its.
And by decision more embroils the fray."

Being called on for "a solution of the problem," Gen. Cok
replied in words of wisdom that time has fully and sadly verified
that the only real solution was deportation of the negroes. But
that as this was impracticable "the solution was narrowed down
to one of peaceable separation of the races on the soil where
they now are." As there could be no amalgamation, it could be
decided that the salvation or destruction of the negro race will
surely be worked out in its family isolation."

Closing his letter, which was published in the Vicksburg Her-
ald of August 11th, 1865, Gen. Cox, who afterwards served in
Grant's cabinet, thus gave his reasons for opposing negro suf-
frage in the South.

First, because there could be no real unity of people between
the Southern whites and Southern blacks, it seems manifest that
there could be no political unity but rather strife for the mas-
tery in which one or the other would go to the wall.

Second. The struggle for the supremacy would be so direct
and immediate that the weaker race would be reduced to hope-
less subjection or utterly destroyed.

As early as May 8th, Lewis D. Campbell, a prominent and in-
fluential Ohio Republican, wrote President Johnson, who soon
after made him minister to Mexico: "Among other questions
this is one which is beginning to assume much significance — ne-
gro suffrage. This is being pressed everywhere by those who
style themselves radicals. Of course you will be called on to
take sides. I regard that question as one belonging exclusively
to the state and not to the Federal government."

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 279

The evil genius of the country and President was Secretary
Stanton. While so comporting himself as to give no cause for
his dismissal from the cabinet, he was in the close confidence of
the enemies of his chief, "We were all imposed upon," reads
the Welles diary of May 20, "by Stanton, who had a pur-
pose. He and the radicals were opposed to the mild policy of
Lincoln." Stanton's "purpose" was to crush the South. How
he was swayed by hate is recorded in his correspondence con-
, cerning the case of Gov. Brown, of Georgia. Destitution in the
counties of that state devastated by Sherman the year before ap-
proached the famine point, and called for immediate relief.
Many thousands were on the verge of perishing. In a tabulated
report by counties Gen. Wilson stated that there were 60,000
people totally without supplies, or with only enough for ten days.
As many more were in a precarious condition. May 6th, Gov.
Brown wrote President Johnson : "The complete collapse of the
currency and the great destitution of provisions among the poor
makes it absolutely necessary that the legislature meet to supply
this deficiency and with a view to the restoration of peace and
order by accepting the price which the fortunes of war have
imposed on us, I have called the legislature to meet the 22d inst.
Gen. Wilson informs me that he cannot permit the assemblage
without instructions from the government at Washington. Does
the government at Washington, or will you order that no force
be used to prevent the meeting of the legislature" ?

To this communication Secretary Stanton replied "by direction
of the President," and through Gen. J. H. Wilson, who com-
manded the department of Georgia. He was instructed to in-
form "Mr. Brown" that "the great destitution of provisions
among the poor of the state of Georgia have been caused by the
treason, insurrection and rebellion incited and carried on by Mr.
Brown and his confederate rebels and traitors. What Mr. Brown
calls the result which the fortunes of war have imposed on the
people of Georgia, and all the misery, loss and woe they have
suffered are chargeable upon Mr. Brown and his confederate
rebels as the just penalty of the crimes of treason and rebellion.
* * ♦ Men whose crimes have spilled so much blood of their

880 Mississippi Historical Society.

fellow citizens will not be allowed to usurp legislative powers
taht might be employed to set on foot fresh acts of treason and
rebellion. In calling them together Mr. Brown perpetrated a
fresh crime that will be dealt with accordingly."

On the same day, May 7th, Gen. Wilson was instructed to
"immediately arrest Joseph E. Brown, who pretends to act as
Governor of Georgia, and send him in close custody under suf-
ficient guard to Major General Augur at Washington and allow
him to hold no communication, verbal or written, with any per-
son but the officer having him in charge." But Gov. Brown was
not held. He had been shrewd or lucky enough to surrender as
commander of the state troops, and obtain a parole. Gen. Grant
cited the Secretary of War to this circumstance, and while other
Governors went to prison, Governor Brown was soon on his way
borne from Washington. Others who plead their paroles were
not so fortunate. It was published in the press dispatches that
Gov. Brown was released to appear as a witness against Presi-
dent Davis, with whom he was at bitter feud.

May 29th President Johnson issued his "amnesty" proclama-
tion. After declaring the grant of amnesty and pardon, and
prescribing the oath of allegiance, the following exceptions were
specified :

1. All who are or shall have been pretended civil or diplo-
matic officers, or otherwise domestic or foreign agents of the
pretended Confederate government.

2. All who left judicial stations under the United States to
aid the rebellion.

3. All who shall have been military or naval officers of said
pretended Confederate government, above the grade of colonel
in the army and lieutenant in the navy.

4. All who left seats in the congress of the United States
to aid the rebellion.

5. All who resigned or tendered the resignation of their
commissions in the army and navy of the United States to evade
their duty in resisting the rebeUion.

6. All who have engaged in any way in treating otherwise
than lawfully as prisoners of war, persons forced into the United

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 281

States service, as officers, soldiers, seamen, or in other capacities.

7. All persons who have been or are absentees from the
United States for the purpose of aiding the rebellion.

8. All military and naval officers in the rebel service, who
were educated by the government in the military academy at
West Point and at the United States naval academy.

9. All persons who held the pretended office of governor of
states in insurrection against the United States.

10. All persons who left their homes within the jurisdiction
and protection of the United States and passed beyond the fed-
eral military 1-nes into the so-called Confederate States for the
purpose of aiding the rebellion.

11. All persons who have engaged in the destruction of the
commerce of the United States upon the high seas, and all per-
sons who have made raids into the United States from Canada
or been engaged in destroying the commerce of the United States
upon the lakes and rivers that separate the British provinces
from the United States.

13. All persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain
the benefits hereof by taking the oath herein prescribed, are in
military, naval or civil confinement or custody, or under bond
of military, naval or civil authorities or agents of the United
States, as prisoners of war or persons detained for offenses of
any kind, either before or after conviction.

13. All persons who have voluntarily participated in said
rebellion and the estimated value of whose property is over
$20,000.

14. All persons who have taken the oath of amnesty pre-
scribed in the President's proclamation of December 8th, 1863.
or oath of allegiance to the United States since the date of said
proclamation, and who have not thenceforward kept and main-
tained the same inviolate.

Provided, that special application may be made to the President
for favor by any person belonging to the excepted classes, and
such clemency will be liberally extended as may be consistent
with the facts of the case and the peace of the dignity of the
United States.

282 Mississippi Historical Society.

It will never be claimed that this was a dispensation of "the
quality of mercy" not strained — which "droppeth as the gentle
rain from heaven — blessing him that gives and him that takes."
It largely increased the class of exempts as specified in Mr. Lin-
coln's amnesty proclamation of December, 1863. As the war
was all over, the rebellion crushed and the rebels supplicant, a
patriotic, and a wise policy would have reduced the amnesty ex-
ceptions instead of enlarging them. Though the whole amnesty
doctrine was misconceived and irrational, "treason," and "re-
bellion" applied to Southern leaders was mere epithet. It was
in conflict with the belligerent rights accorded the government
and armies of the Confederate states throughout the war. From
the foundation of the Union, secession had been recognized as a
constitutional right by many of the most eminent statesmen of
both sections. At this time, with the passing of the passions of
war and in the sober light of reason, none dispute that it was at
least a valid, or a permissible claim of the meaning of the Union
of states. Singling out the leaders for amnesty exceptions was
in the face of the notorious fact that secession was a popular
upheaval — the masses precipitating the leaders into the gulf. No
one knew of these contradictions to the premises of his amnesty
proclamation better than President Johnson. He was, however,
embarrassed by his violent and maledictory mouthings when first
invested with the presidency, when he was hailed by the radicals
as one of themselves. He was on record with the declaration that
"the American people must be made to understand the nature of
the crime, the length, the breadth, the depth of treason. For the
thousands who were drawn into the infernal rebellion there should
be amnesty, conciliation, clemency and mercy. For the leaders
justice — the penalty and the forfeit should be paid. The people
must understand that treason is the blackest of crime and should
be punished." In his ensuing brave and patriotic struggle with
radicalism' these words handicapped and mocked him.

Exemptions under section 13, placing men of property under
the ban was doubly perverted. It probably owed existence to
the common, though utterly mistaken, Northern opinion that
the rich brought on the war and should be made to suffer by it.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 283

In Mississippi at least this was the reverse of the fact. Seces-
sion majorities had been rolled up in the white and poorer coun-
ties— the large slave owning constituencies voted against seces-
sion. Both self-interest and wider knowledge led to their rejection
of the election of a Republican president, with majorities in both
houses opposed to the slavery policies of that party, as a justifica-
tion or a cause of disunion. But the $30,000 limit possessed its own
antidote ; deducting values of slaves lost and debts remaining, in-
solvency was the rule with the wealthy of the old regime. The
whole fulmination of amnesty exceptions, was, however, looked
on as stage thunder. It was marveled at by James G. Blaine, in
his "Twenty Years in Congress," that the persons excepted un-
der the President's amnesty did not approach the mercy seat in
an humble and a contrite spirit. "Many," he declared, "as it
must be regretfully but truthfully recorded, appeared to have
no proper appreciation of the leniency extended to them. They
accepted every favor with an ill grace, and showed rancorous
hatred to the national government even when they knew it only
as a benefactor." The reverse of this is true. For acts of leni-
ency and kindliness by the Union authorities with whom they
came in contact, and who held authority in their states, there
was the fullest appreciation by all classes of Southern people.
But as defeat had not changed the fixed and fundamental belief
in the constitutional right of the South in seceding, and that the
war waged upon her therefor was wicked and tyrannical, re-
quirement of pardon for things that were not crimes was re-
garded as an added wrong. Pardons were only applied for as
conveniences and were granted in the same spirit. The pre-
scribed oath was administered and taken without solemnity, as a
perfunctory act, a mere mechanical restoration to citizenship
withheld in malice. Men of mark and influence conformed to the
odious requirement in a spirit of self-sacrifice to duty; as an ex-
ample of submission to the government. The case of Gen. Lee is
cited. His application, dated June lath, 1865, addressed to
President Johnson, read as follows : "Sir, Being excluded from
the provisions of amnesty and pardon contained in the procla-
mation of the 29th ult., I hereby apply for the benefits of the full

284 Mississippi Historical Society.

restoration of all rights and privileges extended to those in-
cluded in its terms." In a letter his son, Gen. Custis Lee, sub-
sequently wrote : "When Gen. Lee requested me to make a copy
of this letter he remarked it was but right for him to set an ex-
ample of making formal submission to the civil authorities, and
that he thought by so doing he might possibly be in a better po-
sition to be of use to the Confederates who were not protected
by military pardon, especially Mr. Davis." Only a few days
later Gen. Lee realized that neither influence or his pre-eminent
character nor his "military pardon," nor Gen. Grant's protest
could protect him from an indictment dictated by radical mal-
evolents. No more could the amnesty, which Mr. Blaine charges
was shown "no proper appreciation" relieve the people from out-
rage and extortion. Enveloped as the state was in an atmos-
phere of doubt and distrust of the future policy of the govern-
ment, harassed by compulsory exactions and restrictions on trade
and planting, plagued by the humiliation and the menace of the
negro garrisons, is it to be wondered that the amnesty proclama-
tion caused mighty little comfort and touched no spring of grati-
tude? Non molestation in their daily bread winning pursuits
was the burthen of the people's desire.

A fly was dropped in the amnesty ointment, by Secretary of
War Stanton, who ordered the arrest of the Governor of the
state, Gen. Chas. Clark, who had been paroled to remain at Ma-
con to answer any charges that might be made against him. By
order of Secretary of War Stanton, he was taken in custody June
3d, and sent to Fort Pulaski without charges. His offense was
presumed to be that of attempting to exercise the functions of
his office by calling the legislature in session. In submitting to
arrest the Governor exclaimed bitterly against the outrage to
which he only yielded because the power of resistance was lack-
ing. As related by Gen. Richard Taylor, in "Destruction and
Reconstruction," the course pursued toward Governor Clark was
a brutal tyranny. "He was imprisoned," the book referred to
reads, "for acting on my advice submitted to and approved by
Gen. Canby." Other Southern Governors, Confederate cabi-
net members, and other persons of prominence, were taken into

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 285

custody and sent to various military prisons. No other motive
for their arrest is to be inferred than that of bringing a certain
number of the more distinguished "traitors" to trial. General
Taylor was Confederate commander of the Departments of Mis-
sissippi. Alabama and Louisiana.

Though a Southern man and an ante-bellum Democrat, ex-
treme vindictiveness toward the secession leaders had won for
President Johnson the welcome of the radicals upon his acces-
sion to the Presidency. They were confident that he would
prove the chief executive after their own heart that Lincoln was
not. It was with bitter disappointment and resentment that they
contemplated his departure from the policy, in the provisional
government proclamation of making treason odious. Subse-
quently there has been no Httle speculation upon the cause, or
causes, of the President's changed views of reconstruction.
James G. Blaine, in "Twenty Years in Congress," in discussing
the question, attributes the change to the influence of Secretary
of State Seward. He says, page 62 : "Mr. Seward believed that
the legislation which should affect the South, now that peace had
returned, should be shared by representatives of that section and
that as such participation must at last come if we were to have a
restored republic, the wisest policy was to concede it at once and
not venture by delay a new form of discontent." * * * He
had undoubtedly a hard task with the President. * * * He
set before him the glory of an administration which should com-
pletely re-establish the Union of the states and reunite the hearts
of the people. * * * By his arguments and" by eloquence
Mr. Seward completely captivated the President. He effectu-
ally persuaded him that a policy of anger and hate and vengeance
would lead only to evil results. * * * The man who had in
April arrayed himself in favor of the halter for intelligent, in-
fluential traitors * * * was now about to proclaim a policy
of reconstruction without attempting the indictment of even one
traitor, or issuing the warrant for the arrest of a single partici-
pant in the rebellion aside from those suspected of personal crime
in connection with the noted conspiracy of assassination."
While Mr. Blaine's book possesses decided literary merit, the

28(5 Mississippi Historical Society.

passage quoted is only one of many proofs of its unreliability as
history. When the President formed and declared his policy of
reconstruction, Mr. Seward was incapacitated by his wounds
from attending his cabinet meetings, or advising with him.
What is more convincing, Mr. Johnson's whole life record con-
tradicts any story of his dependence upon any one, however cap-
tivating his "eloquence and arguments," in forming his convic-
tions. Nor is the Blaine explanation sustained by the Welles
diary, or any other contemporary evidence. Mr. Welles, who
was the President's devoted supporter, represents Secretary Sew-
ard as occupying an ambiguous position toward the administra-
tion. In his diary of October 21st, he writes : "Secretary Seward
has been holding forth at Auburn in a studied and comprehen-
sive speech, intended for the special laudation and glory of him-
self and Stanton." December 6th the diary reads : "Seward ap-
prehending a storm, wants a steamer to take him to Cuba.
Wishes to be absent a fortnight or three weeks. Thinks he had
better be away."

There is no inherent improbability in claiming honesty in the
President's shift from ultra radicalism to extreme conservatism.
He was a man of probity, who did not fail in comprehension of
the weight of responsibilities of his high station. At the same time
he labored under grave temperamental infirmities, which not un-
naturally betrayed him into a false attitude in a time of utmost
popular excitement and passion. The brutal tyranny of the rad-
icals doubtless revolted President Johnson, and brought him
more easily under reactionary influence.

As Lincoln is a name to conjure with, it is noted that after all
the carping of the radicals against Johnson's plan of reconstruc-
tion, it was nearer to their idea and was more arbitrary than that
of his predecessor.

May 29th, President Johnson took the first step for the restora-
tion of civil authority in the South, in a proclamation appointing
W. W. Holden provisional Governor of North Carolina. June
13th a similar proclamation was issued in which Wm. L. Sharkey
was named as provisional Governor of Mississippi. It was de-
clared to be his duty to convene a convention, to be "composed

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 38t

of delegates, chosen by that portion of the people of the state loy-
al to the United States." Said convention was to alter or amend
the constitution, and take steps to enable said "loyal people" to
return Mississippi to its constitutional relations to the Federal
government. It was provided that in any election hereafter held
for choosing delegates to any state convention as aforesaid, "no
person shall be qualified as an elector or shall be eligible as a
member of said convention unless he shall have previously taken
the oath of amnesty, and is a qualified voter as prescribed by the
constitution and laws of the state of Mississippi in force imme-
diately before the 9th day of January, 1861, the date of the so-
called ordinance of secession; and the said convention, when
convened, or the legislature that may be thereafter assembled will
prescribe the qualifications of electors and the eligibility of per-
sons to hold office under the constitution and laws of the — a pow-
er the people of the several states composing the Federal Union
have rightfully exercised from the origin of the government to the
present time." In these last lines the administration's theory as to
the electorate was declared. The military commander of the de-
partment and persons in the military and naval service were di-
rected to aid and assist the provisional Governor in carrying this
proclamation into effect. The respective cabinet heads of de-
partments were called on to appoint officials as provided for ex-
ecuting the Federal laws ; such as postmasters and mail carriers,
assessors and collectors of customs taxes. Federal courts were to
be resumed and lastly: "The Attorney General will instruct the
proper officers to libel and bring to judgment confiscation and
sale, property subject to confiscation."

Without specific precedent or authority for his provisional gov-
ernment creations, the President claimed the warrant for his ac-
tion in the fourth article of the constitution ; which was thus in-
corporated in the proclamation:

"The fourth section of the fourth article of the constitution of
the United States declares that the United States shall guarantee
to every state in the Union a republican form of government, and
shall protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence;
and whereas, the President of the United States is by the constitu-

388 Mississippi Historical Society.

tion made commander in chief of the army and navy, as well as
chief civil executive officer of the United States, and is bound by
solemn oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the
United States and to take care that the laws be faithfully exe-
cuted; and whereas, the rebellion, which has been waged by a
portion of the people of the United States against the properly
constituted authorities of the government thereof in the most
violent and revolting form, but whose organized and armed forces
have now been almost entirely overcome, has in its revolutionary
progress deprived the people of North Carolina of civil govern-
ment ; and whereas, it becomes necessary and proper to carry out
and enforce the obligations of the United States to the people of
North Carolina, in securing them in the enjoyment of a republican
form of government; Now therefore * * * i^ Andrew
Johnson," etc.

The time of appointment of the provisional governors and their
election and convention proclamations were as follows :

North Carolina— W. W. Holden, May 29th, 1865.

Mississippi — Wm. L. Sharkey, June 15th, 1865. Election of
delegates Aug. 7th, convention to meet Aug. 14th.

Georgia — James Johnson, June 17th, 1865. Election of dele-
gates October 4th, convention to meet Oct. 25th.

Texas— A. J. Hamilton, June 17th, 1865.

Alabama — L. E. Parsons, June 21st, 1865. Election of dele-
gates August 31st, convention to meet Sept. 10th.

South Carolina— B. F. Perry, June 30th, 1865. Election of del-
egates October 4th, convention to meet Nov. 30th.

Florida— Wm. Marvin, July 18th, 1865.

The President's appointee. Judge Sharkey, was more than ac-
ceptable to the people among whom he had risen to eminence, and
in whose confidence and esteem he held exalted place. A native
of East Tennessee, he had come to the state, in Warren county,
when a child. A boy of 15, he enlisted in Jackson's army and
was a participant in the battle of New Orleans. While promi-
nent in the counsels of the Whig party, as an opponent of seces-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 289

sion, he had won his distinction on the bench. His fame is thus
sounded in "Thirty Years in Congress" by S. S. Cox:

"Judge Sharkey was a lawyer who had a thoroughly profes-
sional mind. He could drive a legal proposition through every
impediment. It may not do to liken him to Chief Justice Mar-
shall, wlio gave such logical decisions that they required no pre-
cedent to support them. For eighteen years he presided as chief
justice of the high court of errors and appeals in Mississippi. In
that domain he had no peer in his state. He read law with Dt.
Hill, of Lebanon, Tenn. His genius for the law gave him a
large practice. He was an eminent judge as early as 1832. No
man who ever sat upon the bench in Mississippi ever settled
more questions or made more authoritative decisions. He never
failed on a legal principle. He never failed in minute detail.
When he left the bench in 1850 it was to rescue his Httle fortune.
President Fillmore tendered him the position of secretary of war,
which he declined. Years after, when the dire work of civil war
had ended, he became one of the heroes of reconstruction. Pres-
ident Johnson made him provisional governor of Mississippi. It
was a difficult, delicate and most ungrateful office ; yet all parties
were satisfied with his administration. The writer remembers him
well as a man of kind, polished manner, with a rare fund of con-
versation. His fame is written all over, and all through and all
under the jurisprudence of his state." The appointment of such
a man might reasonably have been supposed immune to attack.
But the factional line had been drawn, and anything linked with
the President's reconstruction work, everything pertaining to his
provisional governments, was an offense with the radicals. As
Governor Sharkey's past political record could not be assailed
from the standpoint of Unionism, savage attacks that did not
stop short of falsification, was directed at his judicial record.

In the Vick^burg Herald of June 27th the arrival of the state's
commissioners. Judges W. L. Sharkey and Wm. Yerger, from
Washington, was announced. With them was their secretary,
Col. Jones S. Hamilton, whom the governor appointed his pri-
vate secretary. "A salute," the paper stated, "was fired from
Battery Grant in honor of the arrival of Hon. W. L. Sharkey,

290 Mississippi Historical Society.

provisional governor of Mississippi." The same paper published
the appointment by the governor of Marmaduke Shannon .sheriff
of Warren county, and of Ira Batterton, the proprietor of The
Herald and a Union officer, as state printer. Publication was
made of the governor's direction to the sheriff to hold an election
for a mayor and city council of Vicksburg, and the consequent
notice of the election by Mr. Shannon. This was the first official
action by the governor. Of the city election, the first held in the
state, the Herald said: "The election for municipal officers took
place in the city yesterday, according to the order of Gov. Shar-
• key. It passed off without a single incident to mar the occasion
of a free people once more assembling under the protection of
the glorious union, to exercise tlie elective franchise. All the can-
didates were among our oldest and most worthy citizens. Pro-
Bate court opened a term and transacted business on Monday,
July 3rd. On reaching Jackson certain other appointments were
made, including James R. Yerger, secretary of state.

July 1st, 1865, Provisional Governor Sharkey issued his proc-
lamation to the citizens of Mississippi from which the following
is quoted:

"Fellow Citizens of Mississippi : The president of the United
States, by virtue of the power vested in him has been pleased
to appoint the undersigned provisional governor of the state of
Mississippi "for the purpose of enabling the loyal people of the
state to organize a state government, whereby justice may be es-
tablished, domestic tranquility insured, and loyal citizens pro-
tected in all their rights of life, liberty and property." And to ac-
complish that purpose has directed me "at the earliest practicable
moment to prescribe such rules and regulations as may be neces-
sary and proper for convening a convention of delegates, to be
chosen by that portion of the people of said state who are loyal
to the United States, and no others, for the purpose of altering
or amending the constitution thereof" so that the state may re-
sume its place in the Union. And being anxious to carry out the
wishes of the president and restore the dominion of civil govern-
ment, as speedily as possible, I do hereby ordain and declare as
follows :

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 291

To avoid the delay which would necessarily occur from the
separate cxrganization of each county by special appointments of
the several county officers, the county officials incumbent on May
22nd, 1865, and those of municipalities regularly kept up, were
appointed to fill the offices respectively they then held. Special
appointments already made were excepted. All of such appointees
were required to subscribe to the amnesty oath prescribed in the
president's proclamation of amnesty. Nor could any one hold any
of the offices in question who came under any of the clauses from
which the benefits of the proclamation was withheld. Special
appointments to be immediately made upon showing of the ne-
cessity, were assured to counties which had been disorganized, or
where there were no persons available. The sheriffs were com-
manded in their counties respectively, to "hold an election Au-
gust 7th, 1865, for delegates to the convention for the purposes
mentioned in the president's proclamation." Voters were re-
quired to possess the qualifications prescribed by the constitution
and the by laws as they existed prior to the 9th day of January,
1861. and must also produce a certificate of having taken the
amnesty oath, and no one was eligible as a member of the conven-
tion unless he had taken it. Counties and towns were entitled to
such representation, numerically, in the convention as they pos-
sessed in the lower legislative branch prior to secession. The
delegates elected were to assemble in Jackson August 14th and
organize the convention. The trustees of the State University
were also enjoined to meet at Oxford July 31st and put that in-
stitution in operation.

In his proclamation Gov. Sharkey discussed the validity of the
emancipation proclamation which there seemed to be some who
looked on as unconstitutional. He announced that "it must," ac-
cording to rule of law, "be regarded as valid until the supreme
court shall decide otherwise." * * * The people of the
Southern states were in rebellion; the President had a right to
prescribe terms of amnesty; he has done so and it is hoped the
people will take his oath with the fixed purpose to observe it in
good faith." * * * The negroes are free — free by the proc-
lamation— free by common consent, free practically as well as

298 Mississippi Historical Society.

theoretically. And it is too late to raise technical questions as
\o the means by which they became so. Besides it would be bad
policy now to undertake to change their conditions if we could do
so. It would be nothing less than an effort to establish slaverj-
where it does not exist. Therefore let us cordially unite in our
tflforts to organize our state government, so that we may by wise
legislation, prepare ourselves to Hve in prosperity and happiness
in the changed condition of our domestic relations. Fellow-citi-
zens, I accept the office of provisional governor in full view of
the troubles and responsibilities incident to it. I was actuated
by no other motive than a desire to aid the people in organizing
a civil government preparatory to the restoration of the harmon-
ious relations with the government of the United States. That I
shall commit errors I know full well, but I know also that I shall
very soon leave the office, and that I shall carry with me the con-
soling reflection that I endeavored to subserve the best interests
of the people in this critical and trying conjunction of public af-
fairs."

The practical freedom of the negro was so manifest that dis-
cussion of the question was viewed by the public as vain and idle.
Only dreamers and Bourbons held otherwise. The conclusion of
the message which is quoted, is to be read with the reminder
that Gov. Sharkey had been an extreme Union man, and without
sympathy in the war to establish disunion, further than that of
loyalty to his state and fellowship with his fellow citizens :

"The people of the South have just passed through a most ter-
rible and disastrous revolution, in which they have signally failed
to accomplish their purpose. Perhaps their success would have
proved to be the greatest calamity that could have befallen the
country, and the greatest calamity to the cause of civil liberty
throughout the world. * * * The business of improving our
government if it should be found to need it, and of promoting
reconciliation between Northern and Southern people, are now
prominent duties before us, so that we may hereafter live in the
more secure and perfect enjoyment of the great patrimony left us
by our fathers, and so that those who are to come after us may
long enjoy in their fullest functions the inestimable blessings of

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 293

civil lilierty, the best birthright and noblest inheritance of man-
kind."

Gov. Sharkey thus wrote without foreseeing that the clouds
were already gathering to overwhelm civil liberty in the South.
No dream or foresight of its overthrow by military force dark-
ened his vision, no nightmare of reconstruction built up on negro
political equality, which in his state meant negro dominion.
When the blow fell he bared his breast to the fury of the storm,
and led in resisting it. It is to be doubted if he then remained
steadfast in the view, that Southern success would have been
"the greatest calamity that could have befallen the country."

Gov. Sharkey did not include the higher judiciary in his gen-
eral scheme of rehabilitation of civil government, of restoring of-
ficials who had been displaced by military order. Above probate
judges he relegated court incumbents to the convention. He,
however, gave recognition to the pressing needs of litigation in
a proclamation, July 12, appointing "a special judge," with equity
jurisdiction in all contracts for cotton or other personal property
in the state, with power to proceed in a summary way on petition
to enforce specific contracts on notice to parties, to issue sum-
mons, to punish for contempt, to appoint a clerk. Sheriffs of the
counties were required to execute processes, to bring parties into
court and enforce decrees. The appointment of other equity
judges followed. Though the legality of these courts was ques-
tioned, they served the good end of relieving the military author-
ities of duties that were inconsistent and obnoxious. The validity
of their authority was subsequently tested in the courts, which
affirmed the creation of such tribunals as a legitimate exercise of
the power conferred on the provisional governor by the Presi-
dent as commander in chief of the army.

July 17th Governor Sharkey issued a proclamation to raise rev-
enues to defray the expenses of the provisi6nal government.
Taxes were levied on a number of privileges, and on cotton a
dollar a bale. On all profits made during the war by buying and
selling cotton, tobacco, salt, sugar, molasses and other articles
of trade and products, 5 per cent tax was imposed. The same
amount was levied on all property purchased during the war.

S94 Mississippi Historical Society.

The authority for the exercise of power was thus stated:
"Whereas it becomes necessary to raise revenue for the support of
the provisional government of the state of Mississippi, and to
meet the expenditures incident to the assembling of the conven-
tion which has been called in obedience to the proclamation of
the President of the United States, which can only be done by
taxation; and whereas there is no legislative body in existence
which can impose taxes and consequently the execution of the
power necessarily falls on the provisional governor. Therefore,"
etc. The county assessors were instructed to assess and the sher-
iff to collect the taxes imposed ; the latter being instructed to
make returns of all moneys collected on or before the meeting of
the convention. "As cases of hardship may arise in the assess-
ment and collection of the taxes hereby directed, I assume the
power to give relief to parties on proper showing." Governor
Sharkey, it will be seen, spared himself no labor in the discharge
of the arduous and difficult duties of his station. As he ap-
pointed no state revenue officials, he acted as treasurer and audi-
tor in receiving and disbursing the receipts of tax funds.

Discussing the suppression of crime and the punishment of
the gviilty. Governor Sharkey's proclamation read: "The com-
manding general at the post has kindly offered to me the force at
his command for the protection of the people and for the appre-
hension of offenders against the law. * * * I would advise
the people where it may become necessary in consequence of their
remoteness from a military post, to organize themselves into a
county patrol for the apprehension of offenders."

Governor Sharkey was criticised for the installation of civil
government prior to the state convention, and particularly for his
re-appointment of the war-time county officials. The Governors
of some Southern states, Georgia at least, went no further than
to order the election for delegates to the convention — proclaiming
that said election should be held by qualified voters to be desig-
nated by their fellow voters. But Governor Sharkey took his
commission with all its implied investiture of executive dignity
and powers, and problems of administration of questionable au-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 295

thority confronted him on every side. With these he grappled
vigorously, construing his jurisdiction liberally and practically.

Not only was the establishment of provisional government in
Mississippi criticised by the radicals as premature and mistaken,
criticism was sharpened by the uses made of the record of the
President's appointee in decisions he rendered as judge, upon
the institution of slavery. The Vicksburg Herald, edited and con-
trolled by a Union soldier, sought to break the force of such
censure in the issue of June 20th "Nearly every paper," it said,
•'which has reached us from the North, has an article on the re-
cent proclamation of the President, appointing Judge Sharkey
provisional governor of Mississippi. Some refer to his decisions
while on the High Court of Errors and Appeals, and severely
criticise his views on the subject of slavery. The injustice of
such reflections are made apparent when it is remembered that
Sharkey was a judge and not a lawmaker ; that he had nothing to
do with the laws except to expound them as a sworn officer of
the highest judicial tribunal of the state, and it is not at all im-
probable that he believed slavery to be no curse and freedom no
great blessing to the slaves, under the peculiar formation of our
society at that time. But, however that may be, he was stern, de-
voted, unflinching, unwavering, proud of the union of the states,
which we suppose constituted his chief merit at Washington."
The New York Tribune compliments the sterling worth of Judge
Sharkey but could not refrain from the following censorious
criticism :

"Truth compels us to add that some of his pro-slavery deci-
sions have seemed to us little better than infernal. Here is a sam-
ple of them: 'A Mississippi planter who had l.ved with one of h's
female slaves and had several children by her, died, leaving a will
whereby he gave this woman and her children freedom, with a
considerable slice of his property. His white relatives contested
the will and the case went up to Sharkey for adjudication. He
annulled the will and sent the testators, mother and children, to
the auction block, alleging that relations which lead to such dis-
position of the estate was an immoral one and emancipation was
contrary to the policy of Mississippi.' Replying that the Tribune

296 Mississippi Historical Society.

did not fairly state tlie case. The Ht-rald said : 'These negroes
had been emancipated in violation of the laws of Mississippi and
Ohio. Then the case was decided according to law and it matters
little what are the views of the judge, legal points are decided ac-
cording to law."

Quoting a comment upon the same decision from the Cincinnati
Times, the Herald pronounced it "even more unfair and unscru-
pulous toward the Governor than the Tribune." Of course there
was neither logic nor justice in raising his ante-bellum decisions
construing state law and policy on the slavery issue, against
Judge Sharkey; none at least that would not have condemned
the whole body of the people as equally beyond the pale of trust
and consideration. These criticisms are quoted as an illustration
of the President's difficulties in carrying into effect his Southern
policy — of its vulnerability to sectional and envenomed attacks.

Reflecting the views of the most rabid South haters the Chi-
cago Republican, edited by C. A. Dana, Secretary of War Stan-
ton's understudy and mouthpiece, claiming the necessity of con-
tinued rule of the South by military law, said: "We doubt very
much if the conventions to be elected in the rebel states will do
much that will be satisfactory in the way of organizing state gov-
ernments. The consequence will be that those states will continue
to be governed by military power." This display of the mailed
hand was thus thereby shaded by the veil of hypocrisy : Much as
the heart of every lover of his country will mourn over such a re-
sult, there seems to be no escape from it. * * * So long as
Gen. Lee remains in this country, and is allowed to be about
■without punishment, but to proclaim disloyal and obnoxious opin-
ions such as he fought for against the United States, there will be
a feeling of dissatisfaction among loyal citizens. There is some-
thing infinitely galling in the fact that the articles of convention
between him and Grant were so loosely drawn as to afford a loop-
hole of escape of such a traitor from the clutches of the law." A
comment on this virulent article in the Cincinnati Commercial
alludes to it as "a war office point of view."

The New York Times, a supporter of the Johnson policy of
rehabilitation, said of the provisional governors, August 16th:

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 297

"Their action in the first step has in every case, been discreet,
temperate and conservative. They have adopted the same policy
of interfering as little as possible with those things which enter
into the character, history and institutions of each state, which
were established in other times and are adapted to existing con-
ditions. In one direction they must build anew, and radically,
but in others they find much valuable work which only requires
to be let alone. While unequivocally loyal, they do not unneces-
sarily stir up popular prejudices. They all proclaim that slavery
is abolished, totally and forever, and aid energetically in the re-
construction of the new social state upon the basis of universal
freedom." The plan of the Tribune, Greeley's paper, and the
most influential of all at this period, was thus briefly announced:
"Universal amnesty and universal suflfrage."

Tliotigh lookefl upon at the time as of no significance, the subse-
quent course of events gives historic moment to the following,
the first echo of negro political aspiration in the state :

MEETING OF DISFRANCHISED LOYAL CITIZENS.

A mass meeting of the loyal disfranchised citizens of Vicks-
burg. Miss., was held June 19th. Jacob Richardson of the 49th
U. S. C. I., presided. M. H. Mason was appointed secretary.

PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS.

Whereas, tlie President of the United States has by proclama-
tion, dated Washington, June 13th, 1865, appointed a provisional
governor for the state of Mississippi, Hon. \V. L. Sharkey, and
directs that a convention be called and an election held, allowing
such only to vote under the constitution and laws of the state of
Mississippi, as administered before the passage of the so-called
Ordinance of Secession of January 9th, 1861, excluded the loyal
colored citizens : therefore, resolved :

First. That we regard such a policy unjust to the colored cit-
izens, "paralyzing to the colored soldiers and most damaging to
the peaceful and early establishment of the federal supremacy in
rebellious territory.

298 Mississippi Historical Society.

Second. That in view of the facts we will appeal to the people
of the North, and will earnestly a])peal to congress that the state
of Mississippi be not restored to federal relations unless by her
constitution she shall enfranchise her loyal colored citizens.

June 23 the president of the railroad from New Orleans to
Canton reported it in excellent condition north of Ponchatoula,
"except that some bridges required repairing." From the fol-
lowing specified statement an idea may be gathered of what was
called "excellent condition" : The company is running one locomo-
tive from Brookhaven to Jackson, and one from Jackson to Can-
ton." The merchants of New Orleans were urged to advance
$50,000 necessary to repair the bridges on the road. This road,
now a part of the I. C. main line, had for its then president. Judge
C. C. Shackelford of Canton.

July 19th the following notice was published from headquarters
of the northern district of Mississippi concerning the Southern
railroad, by Col. Gordon Armstead, Adjutant General : "I can
inform your numerous readers on good authority that the gap
between Pearl river and Big Black will very soon be repaired. In
fact the road would have been in running order ere this, but for
the unexpected delay in procuring spikes and ties. The track to
Qinton will be ready for the locomotive by August 5th, and to
Big Black by the 20th or 24th at farthest." The road between
Vicksburg and Big Black had been kept in running order by the
military."

While rail traffic was slow of restoration, river trade was in
full blast. A score or more of regular packets were advertised
in the river columns of the Herald, running in all the ante bellum
lines. But postal service was still lacking. July 8th the Herald
was bemoaning the delay: "We ought to have mails." it said,
"and yet we don't get them." Appointment of a postmaster was
announced July 25th.

More emphatic and conclusive evidence that the war was over
was to be read in an advertisement of a sale by order of the navy
department of "gunboats and other vessels composing a portion
of the Mississippi squadron." The notice carried the names, with
description and offer of sale at Vicksburg and other ports, of a

Wax and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 299

multitude of all sorts of craft of a fleet which had for the last
two or three years of the war dominated and terrorized the lower
river country. After playintj an indispensable part in breaking
the backbone of the Confederacy, in sealing its downfall, they
were put up and sold for whatever prices they would bring.

With July 1st there was terminated by a Treasury Department
order "all restrictions upon commercial intercourse in and with
states and parts of states, heretofore declared in insurrection,
and on the purchase, sale and transportation of the products there-
of. Nor will any fees or taxes be collected except these imposed
by the customs or internal revenue laws. And the supervision
necessary to prevent the shipment of the prohibited articles will
be exercised only by the regular and ordinary officials under the
revenue laws of the United States." Functions of subordinate
officers under the old system were terminated. They were
charged to turn over "abandoned or confiscated lands, houses or
tenements in their possession to duly authorized officers of the
Freedmen's Bureau, together with all moneys, books, papers and
records relating thereto." This was a vast relief, in the cotton
states especially.

Though the previous activities of the thieving treasury agents
in "winding up their affairs" did not wholly cease until some
months later.

Gen. G. K. Warren, who had been a corps commander in the
Army of the Potomac, was in command of the Department of
Mississippi at the time of the institution of provisional govern-
ment. He was succeeded by Major General Osterhaus, a corps
commander in the army in Mississippi, June 5th. In an order
announcing his retirement Gen. Warren, who had popularized
himiself with the citizens by his sympathetic consideration of
their distressed state, thus testified to their acceptance of the war's
results and his appreciation of friendly ties formed in his brief
stay in the state: "My best wishes in the future will be for them,
and for the civilians of this state, who have shown by their good
behavior, during a period when all civil authority was annulled
and military authority but imperfectly substituted, a respect for
order and right which does them honor."

300 Mississippi Historical Society.

On taking command General Osterhaus subdivided the state
into five districts, with a Brigadier General in command of each.
He chose old and trusted citizens for his civilian appointments,
provost marshals and commanders of militia in their respective
accounts. His general course was conciliatory and conservative,
like his predecessor's. This was appreciated by the people, as
shown in a publication in the Vicksburg Herald of a public meet-
ing of the citizens of Issaquena, who adopted resolutions of
thanks to the General for the appointment of Col. W. B. Barnard,
an old and trusted citizen as "provost marshal," a sort of general
supervisor over the peace and order of the country during the sus-
pension of all civil official authority.

July 19th General H. W. Slocum was appointed to command the
department, which he had also commanded a year before. Gen-
eral Osterhaus was continued in command of the Jackson division.
In the published interpretation of his authority, General Slocum
displayed patriotic and statesmanlike views of administration. He
was a volunteer soldier, who had served with distinction in both
the Eastern and Western armies as corps commander. His course
was in marked contrast with that of another civilian soldier — Gen.
Daniel E. Sickles, who, like General Slocum, was a New York
Democrat. As commander of the Carolinas General Sickles,
while robbing the civil authorities of such power as was granted
them, anticipated the reconstruction laws by enforcing race equal-
ity of civil rights and jury service.

August 5th General Slocum issued orders defining the line of
military, of state and of Freedmen's Bureau jurisdiction. Mili-
tary officers were prohibited from interfering in cases in the spe-
cial courts organized by Governor Sharkey, involving the title of
cotton or any other property in dispute. District and post com-
manders were directed to prevent removal of property in dispute
beyond the civil jurisdiction, and to hold it subject to the order of
the court. No claim for restoration of abandoned property was
subject of consideration except by the Freedmen's Bureau at
Washington. District and post commanders were directed to in-
form themselves of the duties of the Freedmen's Bureau, and to
aid its agents in the performance of their official duties. But in

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 301

no case were the military officials to aid in the exercise of any
powers not authorized by law. Until the state laws were so
amended as to secure the rights of the Freedmen, tribunals of the
Bureau were to adjudicate contentions between white employers
and negro employees. But it was particularly impressed upon the
colored man that he was given no immunities not accorded to all :
and that he was subject to all the penalties of the law for violation
of the law.

The order concluded as follows: "The class of citizens who
are so blinded as to think of still holding colored men as slaves
are the worst enemies of the state. On the other hand, the pro-
fessed friend of the negro, who is constantly dwelling on his
wrongs by his former master, constantly repeating that the gov-
ernment has not yet granted to him all the privileges to which he
is entitled, is the worst enemy of the colored race. The colored
man can be improved and elevated not by making him the enemy
of the dominant race among whom he must live ; not by making
him the tool of politicians, but by impressing upon him the value
of education and of the habits of industry and thrift." Another
order of this date, August 4th, announced that hereafter "the
entire charge of the municipal offices would be left with the peo-
ple. Hereafter no taxes of any kind on property and trade to
meet the expenses of municipal administration will be imposed by
military authority and no fines will be levied except pursuant to
orders of a military commission.

Absorbed as the people were in bringing some degree of order
out of the chaos of their industrial domestic affairs, and providing
the basis of a livelihood of their dependents, there was little time
to bestow upon political discussions or meetings. Fortunately
there was little faction abroad in the land — this had been extin-
guished in the common calamity. The demagogue was conspicu-
ous by his absence in the choice of delegates to the convention
called by Governor Sharkey's proclamation. There was intuitive
agreement that these should be men of sober thought, and for the
sake of appearance and influence in the North, "original union
men," opponents of secession. There was no contention on this
point. Generally the people looked on the convention as limited

302 Mississippi Historical Society.

to the task and duty of giving in their formal acceptance of the
results of the war; to reorganize the state's constitution and laws
accordingly. True, there were a few voices crying in the wilder-
ness, seeking to quibble, to split hairs with destiny, but thfey
formed a negligible quantity. The South was whipped and the
people knew it, and stood ready to pay the price as they then saw
the price to be ; the restitution of the union and the freedom of
the slaves. With the ordinance of secession and all Confederate
appurtenances thereof sponged off of the slate, there were few
indeed who were not ready and willing to "settle up" on such a
basis, and quickly, so that the work of rebuilding the waste
places should be begun in earnest. The candidates for seats in
the convention, or rather the citizens called on to become dele-
gates, with few exceptions indulged no ideas beyond such limits.

The following from the Memphis Bulletin of July 19th reflects
the general interest and action of the counties upon the procla-
mation of the provisional governor and in nomination of dele-
gates to the convention. "There was a general attendance of the
county officials of D'e Soto county at Hernando on Monday, and
of the people from every district in the county. The county
officials were all qualified under Governor Sharkey's proclama-
tion. A convention was held, and Dr. Malone, T. S. Tate and
R. T. Saunders were nominated for the state convention. Able
and instructive speeches were made, in reference to the best
means of reorganizing the state government, by Judges Morgan
and Hancock, C. F. Labauve and Jno. S. James. Everyone pres-
ent seemed to be well pleased at the action of the President in
appointing Judge Sharkey to the governorship, and a spirit of
cordial cooperation was evinced."

Thus environed, the election of delegates to the convention
passed off uneventfully. The day, August 14th, having ar-
rived for the convention to assemble, it was called to order by
Governor Sharkey and the roll of counties called by the secre-
tary of state, James R. Yerger. Many of the delegates had been
soldiers, among them Major General W. T. Martin of Adams,
and Brigadier General W. L. Brandon of Wilkinson counties.

Each delegate was required to present the original copy of the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 303

amnesty oath he had subscribed, and such as failed to bring these
asseverations of their loyalty with them were sworn over again.
And on the next day a delegate raised the point of order, which
was sustained, that it was incompetent for members to proceed
with the convention business, unless they had qualified by taking
the oath of allegiance to support the constitution of the United
States. At this period oath taking was of the essence of loyalty
and citizenship. It was not restricted to official or political ad-
ministration. By an order of the Treasury Department the test
oath was required as a condition precedent to the pursuit of
usual vocation of a livelihood — "all persons engaged in business
of every kind, whatever, clerks, mechanics, teachers, lawyers,"
etc.

The convention organized by electing its officials. Judge J.
Shall Yerger, of Washington county, one of four brothers who
all stood in the front rank of the profession of law at a period
when the state bar was nationally famous, was chosen to preside
over it. He had been a member of the secession convention, and
had opposed its fateful policy to the last. But the die being cast
fie was faithful to his state and paid his share of war's tribute —
one of his four sons who enlisted in the Confederate service was
killed in battle, one died of camp exposure and sickness, and his
plantation home was burned by a raiding party of Union soldiers.
J. L. Power, a popular citizen and newspaper publisher, was
chosen secretary, with the famous hotel keeper of his day, "Gen-
eral" T. C. McMacken, sergeant at arms. As the convention
wrote a memorable chapter in state history, the names of the
delegates are given :

Adams County — W. T. Martin, S. N. Lampkin.
Amite — David W. Hurst.
Attala — Elijah Sanders, Jason Niles.
Bolivar — L. Jones.

Calhoun — Charles A. Lewis, Eli J. Byars.
Carroll — William Hemingway, Jno. A. Binford.
Chickasaw — James M. Wallace, Allen White.
Choctaw— James H. Dorris, Robert C. Johnson, Robert B.
Woolsey.

304 Mississippi Historical Society.

Qaiborne — James H. Maury.

Clarke — James A. Head.

Coahoma — W. L. Stricklin.

Copiah — Ephraim G. Peyton, William A. Stone.

Covington — Alex. H. Hall.

De Soto— Reuben T. Sanders, Thomas S. Tate, F. J. Malone.

Franklin— K. R. Webb.

Greene — Not represented.

Hancock — David C. Stanley.

Harrison — L. L. Davis.

Hinds— William Yerger, Amos R. Johnston, George L. Potter.

Holmes— Robert H. Montgomery, J. F. Sessions.

Issaquena — Lawrence T. Wade.

Itawamba — Jno. M. Simonton, Braxton Cason, Wiley W.
Gaither, M. C. Cummings.

Jackson — William Griffin.

Jasper — Caleb Lindsay.

Jefferson — George P. Farley.

Jones — T. G. Crawford.

Kemper — James S. Horner, H. J. GuUey.

Lafayette— Richard W. Phipps, H. A. Barr.

Lauderdale— Charles E. Rushing, Peyton King.

Lawrence — E. T. Goode.

Leake — Dempsy Sparkman.

Lowndes — James T. Harrison, T. C. Billups. .

Madison — William McBride.

Marion — Hamilton Mayson.

Marshall— W. C. Compton, J. F. Trotter, William Wall, Law-
rence Johnson, J. W. C. Watson.

Monroe — Lock E. Houston, C. Dowd.

Neshoba — Joseph M. Loper.

Noxubee — Hampton L. Jarnigan.

Oktibbeha — David Pressley.

Panola — Lemuel Matthews, Lunsford P. Cooper.

Perry — J. Prentiss Carter.

Pike — James B. Quin.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 805

Pontotoc — Charles T. Bond, Joseph L. Morphis, Nicholas
Blackwell, J. M. Wylie.

Rankin — Richard Cooper, Jno. B. Lewis.

Scott — ^J. G. Owen.

Simpson — T. R. Gowan.

Smith — Harvey F. Johnson.

Sunflower — William McD. Martin.

Tallahatchie — James S. Bailey.

Tippah — J. H. Kennedy, A. Slover, W. A. Crum.

Tishomingo — William L. Duncan, R. A. Hill, B. C. Rives, A.
E. Reynolds.

Tunica — Francis A. Owens.

Washington — J. Shall Yerger.

Wayne — James A. Home.

Wilkinson — W. L. Brandon.

Winston — A. Reid, S. W. Woodward.

Warren — Charles Swett, T. A. Marshall.

Yalobusha — James Weir, Robert M. Brown.

Yazoo — J. H. Wilson, R. S. Hudson.

General Osterhaus thus expressed his appreciation of an invi-
tation to a seat within the bar of the convention: "I feel the
honor conferred on me deeply, and cannot suppress a feeling of
justifiable pride and pleasure that my humble self was destined
to be the first office of the national force to receive such a
friendly invitation from our returned brethren. No man can
more earnestly desire that all the states of the republic may
again be encircled by one bond of harmony and confidence.
This is a fair reflection of the spirit of amity and sympathy
entertained by union soldiers for their late foes."

The important work of the convention was entrusted to two
committees of fifteen each. One was "to inquire into and report
such alterations and amendments of the constitution as may be
proper and expedient to restore the state of Mississippi to its
constitutional relations to the Federal government and entitle its
citizens to protection by the United States against invasion and
domestic violence." A second clause of the resolution, referred
20

306 Mississippi Historical Society.

to the other committee of fifteen, recited action necessary to be
taken "relative to the ordinance of secession, and the ratification
of such legislative, executive and judicial acts not in conflict with
the constitution of the United States, as were passed . . . since
the 9th day of January, 1861." Before entering upon the seri-
ous work of the convention it was resolved that the debates and
discussion should be stenographically reported and published ;
for the reason as explained by Gen. William T. Martin, the dele-
gate from Adams county, that it was "important for us not only
to show that the constitution we shall adopt shall show the
spirit of our people, but it is also important to show by the
debates the spirit in which these propositions were discussed.
... It is necessary and proper to show that in surrendering and
as a people giving our paroles, it is a mistake to suppose we
merely did it to gain time. . . . Whatever can should be
done to assure the people of the North . . . that having first
tried the logic of schools and having failed in that, and having
then resorted to the stern logic of arms, and having failed in
that also, we are now honestly disposed to return to our al-
legiance, and to make out of the disasters that have befallen us
the best we can." There was manifest purpose behind this reso-
lution of publicity which so truly stated the plight of the people
of the state. Already, even as the war storm lulled, another up-
looming cloud was emitting lurid flashes, giving warning of the
radical design of passing the South under the rod of the iron
rule. This it was the aim of the convention to avert. The idea
was patriotic but vain.

On the fourth day of the convention the committee upon alter-
ation and amendments to the constitution reported through its
chairman, delegate Harrison of Lowndes. The report simply
provided for striking out sections of the constitution relative to
slaves, and the insertion of a slavery inhibition provision as
article 8 of the constitution. A second clause of the report was
that the legislature should, at its next session, provide by law for
"protection of the person and property of freedmen and guard
them and the state from any ills that might arise from their
sudden emancipation." The report specified certain aims of leg-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 807

islation under this proviso. (See page 30, convention journal,
election ordinance.)

On the same day the committee on ordinance and laws reported
through its chairman, delegate Johnston, of Hinds. First, the
report declared the secession ordinance "null and void." This
was followed by lengthy schedules of provisions of law enacted
subsequent to secession, to be repealed or legalized according to
their nature and class. The presentation of these reports opened
up the field for debate under a motion for their consideration sec-
tion by section. The first for consideration was the amendments
striking out the slavery sections of the constitution. The conven-
tion had its due proportion of Bourbons and hair splitters — of
men who out of conscientious and short sighted conviction strove
against the fated wind and tide. They indulged vain imaginings
of limitations and exceptions to emancipation — placed stress upon
the husks of verbiage, the exact order and form of the record
abolishing slavery. Discussion of the section lasted three days.
A number of substitutes to the committee action were offered
and voted down. The main contention was upon a proposed
substitute to recognize the abolition of slavery only until the
illegal emancipation should be annulled as unconstitutional. This
was oflFered by a very able lawyer, though singularly unsophisti-
cated in the trend of politics. Judge Potter, of Hinds county. An-
other delusion was proposed, by Delegate Judge Hudson of
Yazoo, that "nothing herein contained shall be construed to
prejudice any right to compensation from the United States for
the loss of any slave." Very few delegates were caught by such
supremely vain and absurd hope. Nor did the people waste their
time with quibbling over the double sense. It sufficed with them
that their slaves were freed in fact by the Appomattox cataclysm.
They perceived that constitutional truisms and legal technicali-
ties were outweighed by the sword of Brennus. Debate was
closed by Delegate William Yerger, of Hinds, one of the state's
greatest minds and lawyers. In the course of his remarks urging
adoption of the committee report, he read a communication from
the Judge Advocate General — approved by the Secretary of War,
to the military commander in Mississippi, touching the jurisdic-

308 Mississippi Historical Society.

tion of military courts; using the same to illustrate how far the
state was from being out of the woods. "That the President has
accorded a provisional government to Mississippi," this communi-
cation announced, "is a fact which should not be allowed to
abridge or injudiciously affect the jurisdiction heretofore prop-
erly assumed by the military courts. And especially is the con-
tinued exercise of that jurisdiction called for in cases — 1st, of
wrong or injury by citizens to soldiers ; and 2d, of assault or
abuse of colored citizens generally. . . . Moreover, the re-
bellion, though physically crushed, has not been officially an-
nounced or treated as a thing of the past. The suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus has not been terminated nor has military
law ceased to be enforced in proper cases." This edict of the
war department was convincingly used by Judge Yerger as an
admonition to the convention that it was acting under duress of
military law — that "the condition of things is as certain to re-
main and continue, as we remain and continue determined to
repress the proposition made by the President so to change and
alter our organic law as to accord with existing facts." Yet
while showing the impolicy and the absurdity of the substitute
proviso, he indulged the illusion of "a class who probably in
the near future may receive some compensation for loss of slaves.
The orphan whose slave was taken from him without any hostile
action on his part, the widow whose property was destroyed with-
out any participation on her part in the war — there is a possi-
bility that in the future some compensation may be made to them,
but not until the asperities of war shall have been smoothed
down." This excerpt from the most forceful speech of the con-
vention will show how far even the wisest were from realization
of what the future had in store for them ; of the extreme swing of
the pendulum of revolution.

Composed as a large majority of the convention was of men"
who had been avowed and active opponents of secession when
the question was a vital one, it was but natural that delegates
should stress the fact of this opposition. Yet there was a re-
markable and a magnanimous freedom from reproach of the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 309

leaders who four years before had embarked the state upon the
ruinous and fatal course in search of "peaceable secession."

Although there was no disagreement upon the fact to be re-
affirmed and recorded, so well tutored were the leaders in the
niceties as well as the essentials of political law, and so observant
were they of the precedents and institutions of government, that
they debated on the formula of the destruction of slavery three
days. Of the three hundred pages of the convention journal,
over one hundred pages are covered by the debate on it. As
finally decided the momentous fact of the emancipation of the
slaves was adopted by a vote of 87 to 11, as follows : "The insti-
tution of slavery having been destroyed in the state of Missis-
sippi, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, otherwise than
in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in this state; and the legis-
lature, at its next meeting, and thereafter as the public welfare
may require, shall provide by law for the protection and security
of the person and property of the freedmen of the state and
guard them ^ and the state against any evils that may arise from
their sudden emancipation."

The report upon the ordinance of secession coming up for
consideration, it too, was extensively debated, as to its phraseol-
ogy. Substitutes and changes proposed were voted down, and
the committee report simply recited that "an ordinance passed by
a former convention of the state of Mississippi on the 9th day of
January, 1861, entitled an ordinance to dissolve the union be-
tween the state of Mississippi and other states united with her
under the compact entitled the 'constitution of the United States
of America,' is hereby declared to be null and void."

As will be shown of the convention journal, fifty pages were
taken up with the question of whether the secession ordinance
should be declared "null and void," or "repealed and abrogated."
The importance attached to this difference of verbiage may seem
to the readers of the present day strained and exaggerated. But
to judge with right discrimination, both the environments and
the spirit of the times must be reckoned with. Though the stulti-
fication of history was of no material effect, the reason in throw-

810 Mississippi Historical Society.

ing the "null and void" tub to the whale seemed sound. In that
view the state had never technically been out of the union and
was therefore still in it by a strained construction.

Thus was the curtain formally rung down — the record closed
of the ruinous plunge, the first act in a great drama, that had
been placed on the stage of history with the ringing of bells, the
thunder of cannon and the fervent outpouring of story and
song. The secession ordinance being thus rescinded by a vote of
81 to 14, all of its subsidiaries in aid of the war were sponged
off the slate.

The convention next set about saving from the wreckage such
legislative acts in the war period as were necessary to patch up
the provisional machinery.

It was provided in a section of an ordinance to legalize and
support legislative enactments since January 9th, 1861, etc. :
"Laws and parts of laws enacted since the 9th day of January,
1861, so far as the same are not in conflict with or repugnant to
the constitution of the United States and the laws made in pur-
suance thereof, and of the constitution of the state as it existed
January 1st, 1861, or in aid of the late rebellion, with the excep-
tion of laws in relation to crimes and misdemeanors, and except
"an act to enable railroad companies of this state to pay the
moneys borrowed by then)," approved December 16, 1863, were
ratified, confirmed and declared to be valid and binding. It was
ordered that "all acts authorizing the payment of dues to the state
in Confederate money or notes, and all laws authorizing the dis-
tillation of spirits on state account should no longer be en-
forced." The same action was taken upon "the official acts of all
acting public officers of the state since the 9th day of January,
1861." A difficult and perplexing situation was provided for in
the third section of the ordinance, covering "all official acts, pro-
ceedings, judgments, decrees and orders of the several courts of
the state." This called for a number of provisos, all being de-
vised and drawn with the utmost circumspection by the best and
most conscientious legal talent in the convention, for meeting the
exigencies of an unprecedented situation. All such "official acts,
judgments, decrees and orders, regular on their face," etc., with

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 311

"all sales made by judicial officers, executed," etc., and "whta
the same have been executed by payment of purchase money,
were legalized, ratified and confirmed, subject, nevertheless, to
the right of appeal, writ of error, supersedeas, etc."

"The special courts of equity heretofore or that may be here-
after established by the provisional governor thereof" were rec-
ognized by the convention to be in existence. But rights of ex-
ception, writs of error, appeal to the high court of errors and
appeals were secured to litigants. It was further provided that
such special courts should not be recognized after the courts
known to the constitution and laws of the state be established,
beyond their established business. An ordinance was adopted
providing that a general election for representatives in congress,
the districts being as fixed already, all state officers and members
of the legislature, should be held October 1st, 1865. At the same
time there was ordered a special election for all county, district,
judicial and municipal officers. It was provided that no one
should be qualified as an elector, or eligible to any office at said
election unless in addition to the qualifications by the constitution
and laws he shall have taken the amnesty oath prescribed by the
President May 29th, 1865. Terms of office of the officials to be
elected were to commence the third Monday of October, when
the legislature, it was provided, was to convene and organize.

Other things of importance disposed of by the convention were
a decision that "it was not practical or expedient to submit said
several amendments and ordinances to the 'people'; the selection
of a committee to prepare and report to the next legislature for
its consideration and action such laws and changes in existing
laws of the state as to said committee may seem expedient" ; the
appointment of commissioners to confer with the authorities at
Washington relative to rebuilding the Mississippi river levees;
the transmission to President Johnson of a memorial signed by
4,633 ladies of the state in behalf of President Davis and Gover-
nor Qark, who were in imprisonment; memorializing the Presi-
dent for removal of negro troops from the state. There was
earnest debate upon a resolution for punishing the crimes of
grand larceny, robbery, rape, arson and burglary, with the pen-

SIX Mississippi Historical Society.

alty of death. It was rejected, though strong reasons for its
adoption were urged. The lawlessness of bands of robbers car-
ried over from the war had not yet run its course, and called
urgently for extraordinary measures of suppression. Disorders
were greatest and more prolonged in the western counties, in the
river section.

In pronouncing the convention adjourned, its president, Judge
J. S. Yerger, the delegate from Washington county — who was in
the same category of lawyers and statesmen as his brother, the
delegate from Hinds — delivered an impressive address. He con-
gratulated the convention upon the absence of partisan heat; the
freedom from unbecoming recurrences of past difference of opin-
ion. "We have all met together," he said, "in a spirit of for-
bear.ance and harmony — as I believe and trust in God this great
people will come together again as brothers of a common land
and children of our common inheritance." He alluded with deep
feeling to his "fortune to occupy a seat on the floor in strange
times and during startling history. I was here when Mississippi
was covered with the desolatory consequence of commercial dis-
aster and ruin. ... I was here to witness the state of Mis-
sissippi in the hour of delusion of her people lay hand to the
destruction of the fabric of the constitution and the union of their
states. I was a delegate to that convention. I raised my voice
against what I believed to be sacreligious wrong. It was in vain.
I bowed my head in sorrow. ... I have again met the rep-
resentatives of the sovereignty of the people of Mississippi in this
convention; come together that they may, if possible, restore
Mississippi to her proper and constitutional relations with the
United States. God grant, gentlemen, that your deliberations
and example may aid in the commemoration of this result." With
thoughts thus touched by saddest of reminiscences and tinged by
the faintest glow of hope, the convention adjourned and the dele-
gates departed for their desolated homes and impoverished con-
stituents.

At the close of the convention journal is the usual classifica-
tion, or descriptive recapitulation, of the membership. And ap-
pended to this is a comparative statement of political afiiliations

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 313

of the two conventions of 1861 and 1865. It reflects the story of
the vast change that swept over the spirits of the people — their
readiness to break away from the bonds of a dead and blood
stained past, and bow to the visitations of the darkly overcast
present. Both bodies were alike composed of able and patriotic
men. The change is recited in the following from the foot note
referred to: "Of the 97 members of the convention of 1865,
total Whigs 70. Democrats 18. Conservatives, et cet., 9. The
convention of 1861 consisted of Democrats 84, Whigs 25. Of the
seven members of the convention of 1861 who served in that of
1865, six had voted against secession." This change had not been
the result of a struggle at the poll's. As a rule there was a tacit
agreement in the counties, the good policy of which was palpable,
of retirement of the leaders of the party identified, if not charge-
able, with the awful plunge of the state into secession. There
was no protest against this policy. It was indeed anticipated in
large measure, by the voluntary self-effacement of the men who
had controlled state affairs prior and leading up to the outbreak
of war.

The work of the convention did not escape criticism. The
first to assemble and institute provisional government of all, its
proceedings had been regarded with national interest. Radical
organs assailed the convention for ignoring consideration of the
political rights of the negroes. Even Northern Democrats were
disappointed that those of education and superior intelligence
were not granted the ballot. WTiat was desired was indicated in
the following letter from President Johnson to Governor Shar-
key, and submitted by him to the convention without remark :

"I am gratified to see that you have organized your convention
without difficulty. I hope that without delay your convention
will amend your state constitution abolishing slavery, and deny-
ing to all future legislatures the power to legislate that there is
property in men ; also that they will adopt the amendment to the
constitution of the United States abolishing slavery."

The delegates to the convention had been elected as conserva-
tives and reactionaries. They were profoundly sensitive to im-
pressions of Northern radicals of their action. They understood

314 Mississippi Historical Society.

they were being watched — that every move and word would be
taken down in a critical or hostile spirit. There was every desire
to give assurance of the acceptance by the state of the decrees
and results of the war, and to effect a restoration of civil govern-
ment. All felt gratified to the President, and wanted to support
his administration. But there was not one voice raised in the con-
vention favorable to his expressed wish for even a restricted
negro suffrage. Not even the war's bitter experience, or fear of
the dire hate of the radicals, could move the deep seated resolu-
tion for a pure and undefiled white governed state. While the
people, and first the leaders, were subsequently coerced into sur-
rendering this citadel, the ripened fruit of the evil tree has proved
that the 1865 instinct against negro suffrage was right ; and the
struggle and sacrifice in rejecting it until physically coerced was
due their race, their state and themselves.

The tenacity of the opposition to extending this privilege to
the negroes only deserves notice as a mark of how little men's
feelings on the race question had been changed by the emanci-
pation proclamation and the conquest of the slave states.

While the convention's act of omission was held to be its chief
offense, there were other subjects of criticism. One was an
amendment to the bill of rights, authorizing the legislature to
dispense with indictments for certain misdemeanors and for pro-
ceedings in information, for prosecution before justices of the
peace. This was construed as of evil design toward the negro,
and was held up in the North as foreshadowing design of re-
enslavement. It in fact was in imperative conformity to the new
social condition.

The following correspondence passed between Governor Shar-
key and President Johnson, while the convention was in session :

Washington, D. C, August 24, 1865.
Governor W. L. Sharkey, Jackson, Miss. :

Your dispatch received. I am much gratified to hear of your
proceedings being so favorable. If you need military force to
preserve order and enforce the law, you will call upon the com-
mandant of the department, General Slocimi, who will furnish it
to you. I would not organize the militia until further advances

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 315

are made in the restoration of State authority. The military
authority and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus will be
withdrawn at the earHest moment it is deemed safe to do so.
Your convention can adopt the amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, or recommend its adoption by the legislature.
You no doubt see the turn that is being given to the attempts in
the south to restore State governments by the extreme men in
the north ; hence the importance of being prompt and circum-
spect in all that is being done.

The proceedings in Mississippi will exert a powerful influence
on the other States which are to act afterwards.

God grant you a complete success, and that your doings will set
an example that will be followed by all the other States.

Andrew Johnson,
President United States.

Ejcecutive Mansion,
Washington, D. C, August 22, 1865.
Governor Wm. L. Sharkey, Jackson, Miss. :

Information comes to me that reports are freely circulating in
influential quarters, and where, without contradiction, they are
calculated to do harm, to the effect that, in appointments to office
and in the recommendations for appointments, the true Union
men are totally ignored and the provisional governors are giving
a decided preference to those who have participated in the re-
bellion. The object of such representations is to embarrass the
government in its reconstruction policy, and while I place no
reliance in such statements, I feel it due to you to advise you of
the extended circulation they have gained, and to impress upon
you the importance of encouraging and strengthening, to the
fullest extent, the men of your State who have never faltered in
their allegiance to the government. Every opportunity should be
made available to have this known and understood as your policy
and determination. Acknowledge the receipt of this telegram.

Andrew Johnson,
President United States.

Jackson, Miss., August 25, 1865.
A. Johnson, President:

Your two despatches are received. I have endeavored to avoid
the appointment or recommendation of secessionists, both from
inclination and duty. It has been an indispensable requisite that
parties applying should be free from this objection. Perhaps in
a few unimportant instances parties objectionable in this respect

318 Mississippi Historical Society.

may have been accidentally appointed, but never from design.
I was desired in one instance by recommendation, good, as I
thought, after having charged the parties that appointees must
be unobjectionable in this particular, but it was for a temporary
office. I am sure the Union men are satisiied.

I notice what you say about the militia. They will leave us in a
helpless condition. General Slocum has no cavalry, and has not
force enough to protect us. His negro troops do more harm than
good when scattered through the country.

W. L. Sharkey.

While there is no official record of this singular correspondence,
there is no reason to doubt its authenticity. It was widely pub-
lished and without challenge. It is a faithful reflection of the
political temper of the times — of a North swept away from the
constitutional moorings by the tempests of war and the low state
to which ill fate had brought a Southern state. It tells of the
timidity of the President in running counter to the tide of persecu-
tion that was rising high in the North. That prime minister
of hate, Thaddeus Stevens, was already "riding the whirlwind
and directing the storm." A speech he delivered at his home,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, sounded the key note — a veritable tocsin
of relentless wrath — of the Radical reconstruction policy. Con-
fiscation, desolation and degradation of the whole South was his
theme. In a comment upon this speech, made early in September,
1865, the New York Tribune, edited by the famous abolitionist,
Horace Greeley, said :

"The Hon. Thaddeus Stevens is one of the ablest living states-
men of this or any country, and his opinions bear the weight
which is commanded by unquestioned honesty and ripe experi-
ence. Mr. Stevens is one of the few intrinsically great men now
left in public life."

Having paid out this compliment, the Tribune proceeded to
answer the speech demanding confiscation, by logical demonstra-
tion when its atrocity called for denunciation of the speaker.
"Unless all history is a fable," wrote Mr. Greeley, "the govern-
ment would realize next tc nothing from this 'wholesale confisca-
tion. Marshals, judges, informers, denouncers, speculators, and

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. Sir

the whole vulture tribe whcmi the scent of a fat carcass calls to-
gether, would become suddenly and fabulously rich ; but precious
little net proceeds would ever reach the treasury. Worse than
all, the Southern people would starve to death while the trans-
formation was in progress. No one would sow in doubt as to
who should reap ; no one would build or repair, or make any con-
siderable improvement on land sequestrated and about to be sold
to the highest bidder; all would be stagnation, disgust, hesitancy.
In our deliberate judgment, Mr. Stevens' project, if executed,
would kill more of the blacks than the war has sent to their
graves, and not many fewer of the whites."

This was no answer at all to Thad Stevens. If confiscation
involved destruction of the South the punishment was not judged
excessive in his hate gorged heart for the sin of secession and
war. Criticising the same speech, the New York Times said:
"We do not believe that the people have fought this war for the
purpose of establishing at Washington the most relentless despo-
tism the civilized world has ever seen. Nor are they at all likely
to regard the extermination of the Southern people as the most
likely means of restoring tranquility, promoting order and form-
ing a 'more perfect Union.' "

But the apostle of confiscation and extermination as a means
of perfecting the Union found disciples. In a letter read to a
large meeting of the Union League at Washington, Gen. B. F.
Butler — as reported in the New York Herald — echoed the
Stevens policy. He asked for "confiscation of Southern lands
and their colonization by discharged soldiers and loyal negroes.
He anticipated that the first call for help would come from the
slaveholders, and that Massachusetts would not be among the first
to respond to the appeal." In plain English, General Butler an-
ticipated a race war. and that his section would not stir while the
Southern white people were being butchered by their late slaves.

The confiscation feature of the radical scheme of reconstruc-
tion was not popular. In New York its Stevens- Butler leader-
ship, which was destined to sway the Republican party and the
nation, was so repellant that the state Republican convention,
September 20th, adopted a resolution assuring President Johnson

318 Mississippi Historical Society.

of their "cordial support and full endorsement of his reconstruc-
tion policy."

The work of the convention was thus referred to in the New
York Post: "It needs but the most trifling change to make the
Mississippi constitution a model instrument in any free state.
The black stain of slavery is not woven into its texture, it is seen
only in a bit of rag stitched on at the end. And even in this patch
the object appears to have been more to guard the comfort of the
slave, and to facilitate his emancipation, than to care for the privi-
lege of the slave owner."

The rival view of the Mississippi convention's work is to be
had in the following from the Worcester Spy, one of the most
influential papers of the times, in Massachusetts. It was edited
by Jno. D. Baldwin, a member of congress :

"There is a question of greater importance in which the coun-
try has some interest, but which does not appear to have occurred
to this convention. The population of Mississippi is not far from
six hundred thousand, of whom more than one-half were for-
merly slaves, but under the new constitution will be a part of the
free, representative population of the state. Before the war the
proportion of the white male population to the black, throughout
the state, was very nearly equal. Yet the former, with all the ex-
ecutive and legislative power restored to them, recognize the ex-
istence of the latter only in a proposition to provide for them a
kind of substitute for slavery as an offset to the 'evils of emanci-
pation.'

"Three hundred and twenty thousand blacks, under the consti-
tution now offered for our acceptance, have no place in the courts
of that state, have no public provisions made for their education,
have no influence present or prospective upon the character of the
laws by which they are, and are to be, governed. While they are
counted for all the other purposes of representation, they are for-
bidden to say what that representation shall be, and are treated in
every respect as a degraded and subject race. If there were no
questions of policy involved, no considerations of public safety to
be thought of, a decent regard for justice would require us to say
to such an application :

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi— AfcAVi/y. 819

" 'The United States can be no party to oppression ; your con-
stitution neither represents the people of Mississippi nor promises
to provide for their representation hereafter ; one-half the people
of your state cannot bear testimony in your courts, nor exercise
those rights which in a republic are the pride and the safety of a
freeman; you have simply reorganized a government of privi-
lege— the rule of a class, and with that the Federal government
can have no sympathy.' "

To this harsh and bitter indictment of the convention, reason
supplied the answer that the omissions charged against it had been
relegated, and rightly, to the legislature. The convention was
summoned to so amend and shape the organic law that the legis-
lature which it called could authoritatively provide for the radical
and far reaching changes known as results of the war. The con-
vention could, consistently with the President's proclamation, and
its character as an organic body, do no more than prepare the
ground. But radicalism was athirst and not to be denied. The
abolitionists and South haters, who were fast swelling into the
majority, saw nothing in the arbitrament of arms but negro equal-
ity as an instrument of vengeance. What they aimed at and
finally achieved, was the placing of "black heels on white necks."
This was clearly divined by the far-seeing. It was revealed to
the convention by Judge William Yerger, whose remarks are
quoted below. He had gone with Judge Sharkey, as already re-
lated, to consult the President upon the duty and policy of the
state in June, 18G5. He said in his speech that he had made it his
business to ascertain public sentiment as far as he could, during
his journey from Cairo to the capital, on the Southern question.
He found all were agreed that "slavery had been rubbed out by
the friction of war." On this point there was no two opinions.
"But," said Judge Yerger, "I did find, Mr. President, that there
were two parties at the North upon the position that the Southern
states should have under the government of the United States,
and in reference to the place which the negro should hold under
the constitution and the laws. Upon this question two parties
were arrayed, and were preparing for the struggle which is now
imminent. Upon one side . . . the ultra radicals, . . ,

320 Mississippi Historical Society.

strong in numbers, powerful in intellect and vigorous in prosecut-
ing every plan which their fanaticisms, or their opinions of right
and constitutional law suggested to their fertile and scheming
brains. That party insists that the Southern people having with-
drawn from the government of the United States, by an act of
secession — which although void and unconstitutional as to the
government — have estopped themselves from insisting upon a re-
turn to the government of states, except on such terms as may be
accorded by the parties who have triumphed in the contest. They
insist that for a period of time indefinite in its length, the South-
ern states shall be kept in territorial organization — that they shall
remain under martial law — that they shall remain under the con-
trol of the Federal government and Federal bayonets, until the
scheme of universal suffrage, which these gentlemen have sprung
upon the country shall have ripened into perfection. Then, hav-
ing thus carried into effect this scheme, they will present a con-
vention of the states to be assembled — an organization of state
authority take place, and a return as states into the Union ; but
not as President Johnson proposes we shall now return, but with
members of congress composed of white and black, with equal
suffrage, with equal civil rights, with equal political rights, with
equal social standing on the part of the negro. That is their
platform and their fixed determination is — if they have the
power — to carry it into effect." This singularly clear exposition
of Northern political sentiment, and prophetic prefiguration of
the radical policy and programme, is published in the Journal of
the convention of August. 1865.

The difficulties of at once harmonizing the provisional and the
military state governments, weighed upon as the situation was by
the new dual race relationship, soon cropped out. Under the
theory that the administration of justice was biased in favor of
the whites the following order was issued, August 13th, by Secre-
tary of War Stanton ; in the case of a white man who had been
wrested from the civil authorities while undergoing trial for
shooting a negro :

"Major General Slocum : Colonel Samuel Thomas, assistant
commissic«ier of the Freedman's Bureau, has been directed to turn

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 321

over to you a man who had been arrested by his order for shoot-
ing a negro. You will receive the man in your custody, cause
him to be tried before a commission and carry its sentence into
effect. If any effort te made to release him by habeas corpus
you are directed to disobey the writ and arrest the person issuing
it or attempting to execute it and report for further orders."

Under this direction the civil judge issuing such writ was ar-
rested. Thereupon Governor Sharkey carried his "appeal to
Caesar." He cited the President's proclamation showing that
General Slocum had transcended the limitations it defined; that
while the military was only directed to aid the civil authorities in
the administration of government, the general had usurped a con-
trolling power. General Slocum made the point in reply that his
action was justified by the state's practice under which the negro
was not a qualified legal witness. Until this rule was changed by
the legislature, he contended that in such cases the military tribu-
nal was the proper one. The President sustained the military
commander — the Governor being admonished that it was "inex-
pedient to rescind the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus" —
that "anarchy must in any case be prevented as the process of
reorgan'zation though seemingly begun very well, was only be-
gun." General Slocum took occasion at this time, August 15th,
to publish an order from the war department, embracing a ruling
by the Judge Advocate General upon the jurisdiction of the mili-
tary courts, and the status and authority of the provisional gov-
ernment. The order is quoted in full :

War Department,
Bureau of Military Justice,

July 25, 1865.
The trials by military commission of the within named citizens
of Mississippi, (Cooper, Downing, and Saunders,) charged with
capital, and other gross assaults upon colored soldiers of our
army, (and in one instance of similar treatment of a colored fe-
male) should be at once proceeded with ; and all like cases of
crime in that locality should be promptly and vigorously prose-
cuted. That the president has accorded a provisional government
to the state of Mississippi is a fact which should not be allowed to
abridge or injuriously aflFect the jurisdiction heretofore properly
21

332 Mississippi Historical Society.

assumed by military courts in that region during the war. And
especially is the continued exercise of that jurisdiction called for
in cases — 1st, of wrong or injury done by citizens to soldiers,
(whether white or black ;)^ — and 2d, of assault or abuse of colored
citizens generally ; where, indeed, the local tribunals are either
unwilling (by reason of inherent prejudice;) or incapable (by
reason of the defective machinery, or because of some state law
declaring colored persons incompetent as witnesses), to do full
justice, or properly punish offenders.

The state of Mississippi, in common with other insurgent states,
is still in the occupation of our forces, and — embraced as it is in a
military department — is still to a very considerable extent under
the military authorities. Moreover, the rebellion, though physi-
cally crushed, has not been officially announced or treated either
directly or indirectly, as a thing of the past ; the suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus has not been terminated, nor has military
law ceased to be enforced, in proper cases, through the agency of
military courts and military commanders, in all parts of the
country.

August 30 another case of disputed jurisdiction was appealed
to the Provisional Governor by the mayor of Jackson. A negro
was shot and killed while in the act of stealing chickens. Avow-
ing the act, the man who fired the fatal shot, submitted his person
to the mayor, D. N. Barrows. While the case was being tried by
him. General Osterhaus sent a guard of soldiers, which took the
prisoner out of the custody and jurisdiction of the city authority.
The mayor, D. N. Barrows, reported the facts of the case to Gov-
ernor Sharkey, saying "I was about to commence the trial, when
Major Hissing, provost marshal general, came to my office and
stated that he was directed by Major General Osterhaus to de-
mand the prisoner." I stated to him that I had the right, and it
was made my duty as an officer of the law, to hold him in custody
until he was thence discharged by due course of law, and I could
not give him up. Whereupon Major Hissing called a guard of
armed men, marched into my office and took the prisoner from
my custody by force. Having been appointed by yourself to the
office of mayor, and being desirous in all cases, so far as in my
power, to perform my duty, I submit this statement of facts and
ask your protection and advice."

There was no recourse to the complainant save submission.
But republication was made in the Vicksburg Herald a few days
after of paragraph 7, circular No. 5, Freedmen's Bureau, with
General Order No. 10, holding out to the civil authorities the
offer of sole jurisdiction, if negro testimony were accepted in

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 323

cases where persons of that race were on trial. The republication
closed as follows :

"In cities or counties where mayors, judicial officers and magis-
trates will assume the duties of the administration of justice to the
freedmen, in accordance with paragraph 1, Circular No. 5, issued
from the Bureau of Refuge, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
and approved by the president, and will signify their willingness
to comply with this request by a written acceptance addressed to
the assistant commissioner for the state, no freedmen's courts will
be established, and those that may now be in existence in such
localities will be closed.

It is expected that the officers of this bureau will heartily co-op-
erate with the state officials in establishing law and order, and
that all conflict of authority and jurisdiction will be avoided.
By order of

COL. SAMUEL THOMAS,
Assistant Commissioner Freedmen's Bureau for State of Mis-
sissippi."

The following consequential order was published :

Office Ass't Commissioner,
For State of Mississippi.

Vicksburg, Miss., Sept. 22, 1865.

The mayor of this city having signified his willingness to al-
low negroes the right to testify before his court and to impose
the same penalties upon negroes violating state laws or city or-
dinances, as would be imposed upon white persons committing the
same crime, it is hereby ordered that the officers of this bureau
shall in no case interfere with the city authorities in the discharge
of their duties, and shall take cognizance of no case coming with-
in the jurisdiction of the mayor of the city, but turn over all such
to the mayor for trial.

September 29th Gov. Sharkey formally accepted, in a proc-
lamation, the proposition of Col. Thomas, assistant commissioner
Freedman's Bureau for Mississippi, transferring to the civil au-
thorities the right to try all cases in which the rights of freedmen
are involved, whether for injuries done to their person or prop-
erty. The governor expressed the opinion that the late constitu-
tional amendment abolishing slavery, abolished all laws which
constituted a part of the system of slavery. Declaring that the
negro should be protected in his person and property was recog-
nition of principles which, of themselves, entitled the negro to sue
and be sued, and as a necessary incident to such right, he was

324 Mississippi Historical Society.

made competent as a witness according to the laws of evidence
of the state. The Governor's view was not generally accepted
as logical or tenable in law. The question he passed upon was an
issue in the election of the legislature. It was fully recognized
and accepted by the assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's
Bureau, and made the basis of the very important General Or-
der No. 13, of the Bureau, dated October 31st, the first section
reading as follows :

"The conditions of General Order No. 8, from this office, and
of the Proclamation of his Excellency, Wm. L. Sharkey, Pro-
visional Governor, providing for the admission of the testimony
of Freednien in the courts of the state, have been so generally
accepted by the judicial officers, and carried out in such good
faith, that the officers of this Bureau have discontinued Freedmen
Courts in nearly every locality."

The hope was expressed in the order that "the same honorable
determination, to grant the Freedmen of the state impartial jus-
tice, which induced the officers of the civil government to admit
them to the witness stand and protect them in their rights be-
fore the courts, will continue now that the interests of these peo-
ple are more fully committed to their care; and that new laws
may be placed upon the statute books of the state regulating the
subjects spoken of in this order, in accordance with the new con-
dition of affairs."

The order prescribed, "however, that it was of the highest
consequence that on account of the ignorance and poverty of the
freed people, they be assisted in presenting their causes in the
courts, advised as to their rights and the proper modes of main-
taining them before the tribunals, and even aided with profes-
sional counsel when justice can in no other way be secured."

Gen. Slocum, published the following, which states the au-
thority and the rule under which he was acting:

Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.

Washington, May 31, 1865.
Circular No. 5.
Rules and Regulations for Assistant Commissioners.

VII. In all places where there is an interruption of civil law,
or in which local courts, by reason of old codes, in violation of
the freedom guaranteed by the proclamation of the President and
laws of congress, disregard the negroes' right to justice before

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 385

the laws, in not allowing liim to give testimony, the control of all
subjects relating to Refugees and Freedmen being committed to
this Bureau, the assistant commissioners will adjudicate, either
themselves or through oflicers of their appointment, all difficul-
ties arising- between negroes and whites or Indians, except those
in military service ,so far as recognizable by military authority,
and not taken cognizance of by the other tribunals, civil or mili-
tary, of the United States.

O. O. Howard, Major General,

Commissioner Bureau of Refugees Freedmen, etc.
Approved, June 2, 1865.

Andrew Johnson,
President of the United States.

General Orders No. 10.
Headquarters Department of Mississippi, Vicksburg, Miss,, Aug.

4, 1865.

This order, (Circular No. 5, Paragraph VII., Bureau Refugees,
Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,) however, must not be so con-
strued as to give the colored man immunities not accorded to oth-
er persons. If he is charged with the violation of any law of the
state, or an ordinance of any city, for which oflFense the same
penalty is imposed upon white persons, as upon black, and if
courts grant to him the same privileges as are accorded to white
men, no interference on the part of the military authorities will
be permitted. Several instances have recently been reported in
which military officers, claiming to act under the authority of the
order above mentioned have taken from the custody of the civil
authorities negroes arrested for theft and other misdemeanors,
even in cases where the courts were willing to concede to them
the same privileges as are accorded to white persons. These of-
ficers have not been governed by the spirit of the order. The
object of the government is not to screen this class from just
punishment ; not to encourage in them the idea that they can be
guilty of crime and escape its penalties ; but simply to secure to
them the rights of freemen, holding them, at the same time, sub-
ject to the same laws by which other classes are governed.

By order of Maj. Gen. Slocum.

These orders, while in accordance with the policy dictated by
the overthrow of the Confederacy and the ensuing Southern con-
dition, materially trenched upon the express authority, the scope
of administration, of the provisional government. But it did

326 Mississippi Historical Society.

no more than place in due form what was a self evident fact.
Nor in dispassioned thought upon the temper of the times, the
then social condition, environed by industrial and social revolu-
tion, can the part claimed for the military be condemned as ty-
rannical. Other clashes of authority over disputes and frays be-
tween white citizens and negro soldiers or civilians followed.

Other matters and measures were carried in General Order
No. 13. Vagrants, orphans and indigents, the marrying of ne-
groes, were remitted by Commissioner Thomas to the state and
local authorities under the laws of the state. The following as
to freedmen's contracts and wages comprised by far the more
important part of the order :

X. Freedmen may contract to labor for the year 1866 ; but
no contracts will be made to extend beyond December 31st, 1866.
No rules or regulations will be issued from this office regulating
the price to be paid for labor, or the amount of food or clothing
to be furnished. The demand in different localities will be al-
lowed to regulate the price. Contracts will be filed with sub-
commissioners of this bureau, who will carefully examine each
contract, and protect the ignorant freedmen from imposition.
Subcommissioners will be governed in their estimates of the
worth of freedmen's labor by the amount received by former
owners for the hire of slaves in that locality. Of course the com-
plete change in circumstances must be considered. In localities
where no freedmen bureau officers are stationed, magistrates are
hereby authorized to act as agents of this bureau and file contracts
made with freedmen. Freedmen should be urged to contract
for the coming year, secure good homes, and avoid the risk of be-
ing thrown out of employment.

XI. It has been reported to this office that many of the more
ignorant freedmen are expecting that something will happen
about the holidays that will be greatly to their interest, and for
that reason are not willing to contract for work next year till
after that time. Nothing of the kind will happen. What they
gain in property or advancement of any kind will come after
patient labor, by which they may merit such reward.

XII. All acts of lawlessness or violence by any body of freed-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 32T

men will be suppressed by force. Oflficers of the bureau will,
upon the discovery of any organization among the freedmen for
resistance to law, or destruction of life or property, disarm all
such dangerous persons, and use every possible measure to
prevent any action on their part, that would bring them nothing
but misery and death.

XIII. Idleness and vagrancy will not be allowed among the
freedmen. They must not expect peculiar immunities. No lands
or property of any kind will be divided among them. The gov-
ernment will feed none but those who are utterly unable to care
for themselves. All ideas of "a good time coming," when there
will be no work to do, and the freedmen will be supported by the
government, or by the division of the property of the citizens of
this state, are foolish and wrong; calculated to injure the inter-
ests of freedmen, deprive them of good homes, make them un-
happy and disappointed, and arouse prejudice against them as
freedmen among the people who should be their friends, who
will employ and pay them for their labor when it is honestly
performed.

A few days after the issuance of the above order Gen. O. O.
Howard, chief commissioner of the bureau, addressed the ne-
groes, in Vicksburg. His speech was thus referred to in the Her-
ald : "His remarks were very appropriate and well timed. He gave
them good advice and if they follow it out, there will be no cause
of hostility between the two races."

There was nothing in the declaration of either General How-
ard, or Col. Thomas, to cross the presumption of honest and patri-
otic motives, and that their feelings and intentions toward the
white people were kindly and hopeful. But for net good effects,
their task was as impossible as to grow figs from thistles. Re-
sults depended upon the patriotism, the understanding and the
temperament of fifty odd sub-commissioners of districts and
county posts. These officials, entire strangers to the country and
tKe people, were detailed from the volunteer force, mainly the ne-
gro regiments. Chiefly mercenary and prejudiced adventurers
they were given absolute jurisdiction over transactions and re-
lations between white employers and black employees. They

328 Mississippi Historical Society.

were made arbiters of labor contracts and agreements and of dis-
putes and diflferences growing out of them. The bureau ex-
tended aid in the way of supplies to the indigent, medical atten-
tion to the sick, education to the aspiring. The sub-commission-
ers were especially enjoined to call on the negroes to come to them
for instruction in their rights, ask redress of complaints and
charges of being wronged. The negroes were taught that as
their protectors, the bureau agent was above the courts, the state
law and officials. What mattered it if they were told, at the
same time, to be industrious and well behaved toward their
former masters ? The mere advent of a sub-commissioner — clotlied
with power over the class they had for generations looked upon
as supreme — a stranger to the people and a presumptive hostile,
was the certain cause and signal of discontent and discord upon
the plantation; the radiator of unrest and insubordination. The
forerunner of the carpet bagger to come, the bureau naturally in-
cited the negro to revolt against any form or degree of the direc-
tion or dictation of the land owner. Under grievances, some-
times real and often imaginary or frivolous, the ignorant, simple
minded, suspicious negroes swarmed around the posts of the
bureau. Planters were invited or summoned to answer or ex-
plain complaints which entertained, even if decided against the
complainants, as they commonly were, were destructive of the
system of discipline that his success depended on. Requiring
contracts to be written and filed helped matters little, when they
were, in fact, only binding on the planter. In some counties there
were openly inimical relations engendered between the planter
and the bureau officials. Publication was made in a local paper
of the meeting of citizens of Zion Hill, in Amite county, to in-
vestigate an official report by Captain Mathews of the bureau,
that Jno. H. McGehee of that neighborhood, "had murdered a
negro and nailed his skin to his barn door." Publications were is-
sued denying the report as malignantly false, without foundation
and courting official enquiry. "It is thus," commented the paper,
the Wilkinson Journal, "that the Southern people are defamed by
the very men sent among us for restoration of order and peace.
And such reports are readily believed by people with ears open

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 329

for anything to advance their political schemes." Fortunately
many if not the majority of the subcommissioners had the itching
palm. For dismissing charges or compelling the return of ab-
sconding freednien, the fee ranged from ten to a hundred dollars.
Some of the bureau sub-commissioners were men of integrity.
But to such the position soon became as distasteful as it was
difficult. Under such circumstances some went in for an easy
time. Parties involved were left to settle their own differences
and this general plan yielded the best ends and the least wrong.
AIs a rule the longer a sub-commissioner remained in a post, the
less he exercised his powers. That is if these Union soldiers
studied the situation and the people they had to deal with, they
unlearned much that prejudice or the previous point of view had
taught.

From the viewpoint of the emancipationists, the freedmen's
bureau was a right and necessary institution. The slave holders
were regarded as tyrannical taskmasters, resentful and rebellious
against the fact of emancipation and not to be trusted for hu-
mane and fair treatment of the freedmen. It was asserted by the
Radical leaders that unless restrained by force they were deter-
mined to establish a condition tantamount to slavery. Under
such theory it was thought to be the duty of the government
after setting the negro free, to provide for the security of their
freedom and protection against oppression from the holders of
the land, their former owners. Such was the reasoning out of
which grew the freedmen's bureau. It is not to be denied a de-
gree of apparent logic. And while the creative power was
streaked with prejudice and sectional antipathy, it may be con-
ceded there was mitigation of culpability for a policy which proved
evil, in the temper of the tinjes which clouded wisdom. Though
such admissions do not shake the inflexible and soon demon-
strated truth of the matter ; that adjustment, despite whatever
of wrong doing and oppression was sure to follow, had in-
finitely better have been left to work itself out without outside di-
rection or restraint. True, hardship and wrong were certain.
But, left alone, in time justice and fairness would have prevailed.
The wisdom of self interest and the public welfare, the dictates

330 Mississippi Historical Society.

of conscience, would have ruled, as they could not through the
coercive force applied to the whites. Or if the co-operating gov-
ernment felt called upon to exercise protective jurisdiction, the
army and military law was sufficient. Better to have doubled
the garrisons and prolonged the occupation, than the setting up
of the bureau machinery in the South. Nothing could ever offset
or undo the evil of the intrusion of the bureau officials, and
their demoralizing effect upon the negro. To avoid the one and
correct the other, those who directed the policy and the system
of the bureau were powerless, however constant in striving
against the bad fruit of the tree. A few days after the circular
of instructions above quoted on November 11th, Major General
and Commissioner Howard published the following:

"It is constantly reported to the commissioner and his agents
that the freedmen have been deceived as to the intention of the
government.

It is said that lands will be taken from the present holders and
be divided among them on next Christmas or New Year. This
impression, wherever it exists, is wrong.

All officers and agents of this bureau are hereby directed to
take every possible means to remove so erroneous and injurious
an impression. They will further endeavor to overcome other
false reports that have been industriously circulated abroad with
a purpose to unsettle labor and give rise to disorder and suffer-
ing. Every proper means will be taken to secure fair written
agreements or contracts for the coming year, and the freedmen
instructed that it is for their best interest to look to the property
holders for employment.

The commissioner deprecates hostile action and wishes every
possible exertion made to produce kind feeling and mutual con-
fidence between the blacks and the whites."

In the meanwhile a grave dispute arose between the military
and the civil authorities.

August 19th Governor Sharkey issued a proclamation upon in-
formation that "bad men have banded in different parts of the
state for the purpose of robbing and plundering ; and the military
authorities of the United States being insufficient to protect the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 331

people throughout the entire state, I do therefore call upon the
people, and especially such as are liable to perform military duty,
and are familiar with military discipline, to organize volunteer
companies in each county in the state, if practicable at least one
company of cavalry and one of infantry as speedily as possible,
for the detection of criminals, the prevention of crime and the
preservation of good order. These companies will be organized
under the law in relation to volunteer companies in the revised
code. I most "urgently call upon the young men of the state who
have so distinguished themselves for gallantry to respond prompt-
ly to this call in behalf of a suffering people."

Governor Sharkey only took this step after it had been proved
to be necessary — that with the military in the state composed as
it was mostly of negroes, other machinery was needed in cer-
tain sections. Nevertheless, the summons of the militia was
promptly challenged by General Osterhaus, who held that it was
his duty to prohibit military organizations unless specially author-
ized by the war secretary or the department commander. Gen.
Sk)cum. He declared that the number of troops was ample, if
they could have the earnest co-operation of the civil authorities.
Governor Sharkey did not yield — he cited to the complaints of
robberies which showed the need of the agency of correction he
had summoned. In addition to the nightly hold up of the stages
between Vicksburg and Jackson he referred to information from
various portions of the state, remote from military posts, where
robberies and outrages upon persons and property were com-
mitted. The following from the Memphis Bulletin describes the
general nature of the lawlessness prevailing: "We are informed
by reliable parties that horse thieving and other depredations are
carried on to a considerable extent in the vicinity of Olive
Branch, DeSoto county, Mississippi, about eighteen miles from
Memphis. Last night two weeks ago, six horses and mules were
carried off, and since then ten more were spirited away in like
manner, and brought in the direction of this city. They were
tracked to the picket lines. The thieves are said to be negroes
who operate in connection with white men in this city. The cit-
izens of DeSoto county are peaceful, law-abiding people and feel

332 Mississippi Historical Society.

that they have some claims upon the aiUhorities for protection,
and it is hoped it will be extended to them or at least such meas-
ures adopted as will enable them to protect themselves." It is
manifest that posts of infantry could do little to check these nests
of thieving, located in practically all of the western counties. Be-
sides, any use of the negro troops which carried them into the in-
terior was more than liable to bring on collision.

As late as July 29 the Yazoo steamer Dove was captured and
robbed by guerrillas while at the Tchula landing. -The Herald of
August 2d reported the incident as "one of the most daring acts
of villainy which has disgraced these troublous times." The mate
was killed while resisting the armed desperadoes who boarded
the boat, and Capt. Butler seriously and Qerk Basket slightly
wounded, and $60,000 in cash and goods taken. August 13th The
Herald reported the capture and robbery by the same parties of
the steamer Keoto, in the Sunflower river.

The Memphis paper is quoted again, as follows: "The
negroes in the northwestern part of Tippah county have been
growing more and more troublesome and disorderly for sev-
eral months past. This state of things is directly traceable to the
fact, that they have nearly all been permitted to arm themselves.
Last week these troubles culminated in a difficulty between the
negroes and whites, in which Maj. Harvey Maxwell who resides
about twelve miles south of LaGrange on the Meridian road,
and his son, were shot and severely wounded by the rampant and
reckless freedmen in that part of the county. This occurrence,
and the general state of affairs, coming to the ears of the mili-
tary authorities here, Capt. Oay Fields, of Tippah county, we
learn, was authorized by Gen. Smith to raise a company for the
purpose of putting down lawlessness and violence, and disarming
the negroes. In performing this duty, we understand that Capt.
Fields has been constantly resisted by the negroes, with arms in
their hands, and the consequence has been that more than a dozen
have lost their lives. A large quantity of all kinds of small arms
— amounting, according to our informant, to "a perfect arsenal"
■ — has been captured and turned over to the authorities."

Gov. Sharkey persistently claimed that he had the authority

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 333

of the president, saying in his letter replying to General Oster-
Haus: "If further justification were needed I may say that in
the last interview I had with the President, in speaking of an-
ticipated troubles, he stated distinctly to me that I could organize
the militia if it should become necessary." With this Governor
Sharkey stated that he should feel it his duty to carry out his
militia policy. This was met by a peremptory order from Gen.
Slocum, contesting the Governor's action. He claimed that the
duty of preserving order and executing the laws and orders of
the war department devolved upon the military authorities. He
asserted that the proposed organization of the young men would
be certain to increase the difficulties that beset the people. It was
therefore ordered that district commanders give notice at once
that no military organization except those under control of the
United States would be permitted within their respective com-
mands and all attempts to organize the militia would be arrested.
The order declared that "most of the crimes had been committed
against North.em men, government couriers and negroes, and that
henceforth when an outrage of this kind was reported, & military
force would be sent to the locality, and every citizen within ten
miles of the place where the crime was committed would be dis-
armed by the officer in command. If any citiien possessing in-
formation which would lead to the capture of the outlaws re-
fuses to impart the same, he will be arrested and held for trial.
The troops will be quartered on his premises, and he will be com-
pelled to provide for the support of men and animals."

Neither the situation nor the spirit of the people called for
such an imperious and prejudicial assertion of military suprem-
acy. It was inexplicably inconsistent with Gen. Slocum's general'
attitude towards the people of his command, and the cordial re-
lations he held with many. He was applauded to the echo, how-
ever, by the radical press. The Chicago Tribune, extreme radi-
cal, said "his overriding of Governor Sharkey would make him
a strong candidate. General Order No. 22 entitles him to mem-
bership in full standing in the Union party simply on the score of
its eminent fitness and unquestionable propriety." The subject of

334 Mississippi Historical Society.

this flattering endorsement indulged no such expectations of Gen-
eral Order No. 22.

President Johnson was loath to meet this issue which was be-
ing held up by his political enemies as a test of his provisional
government plan. To avoid a contest he sought to have Governor
Sharkey forego his militia organizations. But after Gen. Slo
cum's arbitrary order the Governor insisted upon a decision
as follows :

Jackson, Miss., August 30, 1865.
Andrew Johnson, President:

In our last interview you distinctly stated to me that I could or-
ganize the militia to suppress crime if necessary. Deeming it
necessary, I issued a proclamation on the 19th instant, calling on
two companies, one of cavalry, to organize in each county for the
detection of criminals, the prevention of crime, and the preserva-
tion of order. Not called into actual service.

General Slocum has thought proper to issue an order to prevent
any such organization, and to arrest those who attempt it. His
chief reasons seem to be because I did not consult him. Here is a
collision that must be settled, and it rests with you to do it. I
wish to be able to vindicate myself when trouble comes, as we
apprehend it will. Copies will be forwarded.

W. L. Sharkey.

The sequel is to be read in the following:

War Department, Washington, Sept. 2d.
Major General Slocum :

Upon the 19th of August Governor Sharkey issued a proclama-
tion for the formation of militia companies in each county, to de-
tect criminals, prevent crime, and preserve gftod order in places
where the military forces of the United States were insufficient to
do so. If you have issued any order countermanding his proclama-
tion or interfering with its execution, you will at once revoke it.

"Acknowledge receipt of this action.

"By order of the President of the United States.

T. T. ECKERT,

"Acting Asst. Secretary of War."

With the best possible grace Gen. Slocum accepted the Pres-
ident's decision against him. and issued the following:

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 335

Headquarters Department of Mississippi, Vicksburg, Miss., Sept.

4, 1865.
General Orders, No. 23.

By direction of the President of the United States, G€neral
Orders No. 22, current series, from these headquarters, is hereby
revoked.

No officer will, in any manner, interfere with the organization
of troops pursuant to the proclamation of the provisional gover-
nor.

The order which is hereby revoked was issued, as stated there-
in, from apprehension of danger of conflict between the state
troops and tlie colored troops serving the United States and in
the firm belief that it was in accordance with the policy of the
government.

It is the imperative duty of all United States officers serving in
this department to be guarded in the execution of all orders; to
avoid giving offense: and in case of conflict with either officers
or soldiers serving under the state authorities, to postpone action
in the matter, if possible, until it has been referred to the district
or department commander for decision.

There entered into this controversy a person who was destined
to exercise a baleful influence upon the reconstruction tragedy.
The new figure on the scene was Major General Carl Schurz,
who had left Washington early in July, commissioned by Presi-
dent Johnson to travel through the South and report upon the
prevailing conditions.

Gen. Schurz was thus brought by his mission to Vicksburg in
time to take part in the contention over Gov. Sharkey's militia
call. As the General states he "found Gen. Slocum, the commander
of the Mississippi department, in a puzzled state of mind," over
the Governor's proclamation; which had no other contempla-
tion than the repression of crime and the punishment of robbers
and marauders. He reported to Mr. Johnson "the organization
of a large armed military force consisting of men who had but
recently surrendered their arms as Confederate soldiers * * *
a force independent of the military authority now present and su-
perior in strength to the United States powers on duty in the state.
The execution of the scheme would bring on collision at once, es-
pecially when the United States forces consisted of colored
troops. The crimes and di.sorders which the provisional Gover-
nor advanced as his reason for organizing his state volunteers
had been coinmitted or connived at by people of the same class the
volunteers belonged to." Carried away by such perverted reason-
ing. General Schurz telegraphed the President that "Gen. Slocum

336 Mississippi Historical Society.

had issued an order prohibiting organization of the mihtia. The
organization of the militia would have been a false step." The
Schiirz reminiscences are quoted upon what ensued :

"II is hard to imagine my amazement when, at two o'clock on
the morning of September 1. I was called up from my berth on
a iVIississippi steamboat carrying me from Vicksburg to New Or-
leans, off Baton Rouge, to receive a telegraphic dispatch from
President Johnson, to which I cannot do justice without quoting
it in full :

"Washington, D. C, Aug 30, 1865.

"To Major General Carl Schurz, Vicksburg, Mississippi.

"I presume General Slocum.will issue no order interfering
with Governor Sharkey in restoring functions of the state gov-
ernment without first consulting the government, giving the rea-
sons for such proposed interference. It is believed there can be
organized in each county a force of citizens or militia to suppress
crime, preserve order, and enforce the civil authority of the
state and of the United States which would enable the federal
government to reduce the army and withdraw to a great extent
the forces from the state, thereby reducing the enormous ex-
pense of the government. If there was any danger from an or-
ganization of the citizens for the purpose indicated, the military
are there to detect and suppress on the first appearance any move
insurrectionary in its character. One great object is to induce
the people to come forward in the defense of the state and federal
government. General Washington declared that the people or the
militia was the army of the constitution or the army of the Unit-
ed States, and as soon as it is practicable the original design of the
government must be resumed and the government administrated
upon the principles of the great chart of freedom handed down
to the people by the founders of the republic. The oeople must
be trusted with their government, and. if trusted, my opinion is
they will act in good faith and restore their former constitutional
relations with all the states composing the Union. The main ob-
ject of Major General Carl Schurz's mission to the South was
to aid as far as practicable in carrying out the policy adopted by
the government in restoring the states to their former relations
with the Federal government. It is hoped such aid has been
given. The proclamation authorizing restoration of state gov-
ernments requires the military to aid the provisional governor in
the performance of his duties as prescribed in the proclamation,
and in no manner to interfere or throw impediments in the way of

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 837

consummating the object of his appointment, at least without ad-
vising the government of the intended interference.

"Andrew Johnson,
President United States."

"My first impulse," writes General Schurz, "was to resign my
mission at once." But he did not as will be shown in a subsequent
chapter. The President having enclosed Governor Sharkey a
copy of the above to his commissioner, with a permission to pub-
lish it, the gratifying close of the military strain upon the situa-
tion was thus communicated to the people by Governor Sharkey :

"In these times of gloom and apprehension, it is due to the Pres-
ident of the United States — it is due to the peoplei — that I should
publish a dispatch received on the 30th ult.. omitting only two
lines of a private character. The people will see that they may
implicitly confide in the President, and that he confides in them
for the protection of their own government. They may confi-
dently hope that, under his wise and just policy, the day is not dis-
tant when all the functions of civil government will be entirely
restored under the constitution of the United States."

The people needed all the cheer that could be had from the
president's policy. The despondency and destruction consequent
on the adverse end of the war, with the industrial confusion in-
cident to emancipation, was added to by a disastrous crop season.
A New Orleans price current of August 17th is quoted: "The
crop is so small it will all be in market at a very early date." The
cotton caterpillar which had appeared the previous year again
came and cut down the yield of the short crop.

None of the predicted evil came out of the militia organiza-
tions. Only a few companies were formed, as the trouble and
turbulence remaining after the war soon yielded to civil author-
ities, and local "vigilance" committees. There were no "collisions"
between the militia and the negro troops such as Gen. Schurz so
confidently predicted. In fact there is no public record of militia
operations, though some of the few companies did good work, or
their presence had the defeired tranquilizing influence. Neverthe-
less, the aflFair was made the subject of no little prejudiced com-
22

338 Mississippi Historical Society.

ment by the radical press. The Philadelphia Enquirer of August
20th said: "It is known that Governor Sharkey, of Mississippi
has failed to keep his promise made to President Johnson, either
in letter or spirit, and it is not improbable that his concern may
come to a summary close before long."

The Chicago Tribune denounced "Sharkey's plan," as virtually
proposing to reorganize the rebellion army after the loyal army
had been disarmed and disbanded and would enable them to drive
every Northern man out of the state, make the condition of the
freedmen intolerable and revive a "reign of terror." This wras
lunatic raving — ^misjudgment that was as stupid as it was cruel.
There was no more design or chance of such a reversal to a state
of chaos and war in Mississippi than there was in Illinois. The
whole thought and purpose of Governor Sharkey and the people
of the state, was to bind up the wounds of war — suppress viola-
tions of the law, effect elimination of robber bands, and thus induce
the inflow of Northern men and capital, to make the new race re-
lationship tolerable and acceptable for the freedmen, on whose
labor all expectation and hope of industrial prosperity and suc-
cess depended. But thejr dependence and necessities could not
bring their hearts or minds to accept the negro garrisons as con-
servators of the peace nor did they lack sympathizers under the
infliction, in the North. The New York Herald, in the following
ironic rebuke, replied to the critics of the President, in the Mis-
sissippi case : "We comprehended the case of the nigger soldiers
thoroughly. Let the first batch of them be sent to New York
and we can dispose of them among the different islands in the
harbor and rivers. The Loyal League will no doubt be anxious
to present the gallant fellows with another flag, and most prob-
ably the ladies of the Loyal League will present each of the
fragrant heroes with a bouquet. The rest of the nigger soldiers
should be sent North and scattered all over the towns and cities of
New England, where they will be worshipped like gods, and the
scheme of the regeneration of the race can be carried out by their
marrying into the families of Phillips, Garrison and Sumner,
and the Boston traders who signed the lecture to President John-

War and Reconstruction in Mississii^i — McNeily. 839

son. This is the way to solve the difficuhy of the nigger soldier
question."

September 4th, in accordance with a previous executive order,
an important change in the rules and regulations of the bureau
of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands was promulgated.
Under the law of 1864 abandoned property was thus defined:
"All property, real or personal, shall be regarded as abandoned
when the lawful owner thereof shall be voluntarily absent there-
from, and engaged, either in arms or otherwise, in aiding or en-
couraging the rebellion." From the bureau circular here referred
to the following is quoted : "Assistant commissioners will, as rap-
idly as possible, cause accurate descriptions of all confiscated and
abandoned lands, or other confiscated or abandoned real property,
that is now, or may hereafter, come under their control, to be
made ; and besides keeping a record of such themselves, will for-
ward monthly, to the commissioner of the bureau, copies of such
descriptions, in the manner prescribed by circular No. 10, of July
11, 1865, from the bureau. They will, with as little delay as pos-
sible, select and set apart such confiscated and abandoned lands
and property as may be necessary for the immediate use or refu-
gees and freedmen — the specific division of which into lots, and
the rental or sale thereof, according to the law establishing the
bureau, will be completed as soon as practicable, and reported to
the commissioner. In the selection and setting apart of such
lands and property, care will be used to take that about which
there is the least doubt that this bureau should have custody and
control of. Whenever any land, or other real property, that shall
come into the possession of this bureau as abandoned, does not
Fall under the definition of abandoned as set forth in section 2
of the act of congress approved July 2, 1864, hereinbefore men-
tioned, it will be formally surrendered by the assistant conuitis-
sioner of the bureau of the state within which such real estate is
situated, upon its appearing that the claimant did not abandon the
property in the sense defined in the second section of said act."

The next and last section, which practically closed out the
abandoned lands provision, is quoted :

340 Mississippi Historical Society.

Former owners of property held by the bureau as abandoned,
who claim its restoration on the ground of having received the
pardon of the President, will, as far as practicable, forward their
applications to the commissioner of the bureau through the sup-
erintendents and assistant commissioners of the districts and
states in which the property is situated. Each application must
be accompanied by, first, a copy of the special pardon of the Pres-
ident of the United States, or of the oath under his amnesty proc-
lamation, where they are not embraced in any of the expectations
therein enumerated ; second, proof of title ; third, evidence that
the property has not been confiscated or libeled in any United
States court, and, if libeled, that the proceedings against it have
been discontinued. Officers of the bureau through whose hands
such applications may pass, will endorse thereon such facts as
may assist the commissioner in his decision, stating especially the
use to which the property is put by the bureau.

(Signed) O. O. Howard,

Major General, Commissioner of Refugees, Freedmen and Aban-
doned Lands.
Approved: September 4, 1865.

Andrew Johnson,
President of the United States.

Under the last clause of the foregoing all of the "abandoned
lands" were restored to the legal owners, within the next year,
and including that declared confiscated.

Gen. Slocum turned over the command September 16th to Gen.
Osterhaus and left the state on leave of absence. He soon after-
wards resigned and did not return. Whatever ill feeling had
been engendered by his harsh orders of a month before had sub-
sided. In their hard surroundings the people could not afford,
nor were they in any spirit, for indulgence of harbored resent-
ment. The citizens of Vicksburg gave Gen. Slocum a banquet
on the eve of his departure. The chief feature of the function
was the General's toast: "To W. L. Sharkey, the Provisional
Governor of Mississippi — a sound statesman and true patriot.
May he long be spared to the state he has served so well."

As candidate on the Democratic ticket for Secretary of State,
Gen. Slocum entered actively into the New York campaign. The
following from a speech he made at Syracuse on the 22d of Sep-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. S41

tember is well worth incorporating into state history of the per-
iod ; especially what he said of the Freedman's Bureau :

"Each state is placed in charge of an assistant commissioner. It
is made the duty of the department commander to detail such offi-
cers and soldiers as these assistant commissioners may require in
the discharge of their duties. All questions between whites and
blacks are to be adjudicated by an officer or agent of the bureau.
This of course requires that one officer or agent shall be stationed
in each county, or at least that they shall be so distributed as to
be accessible to all the inhabitants.

"These gentlemen, who are to act as judges in matters of diflfer-
ence between the races, are usually lieutenants selected from the
regiments on duty in the state. Each judge, lieutenant or agent,
as you may please to call him, has his guard, and each guard its
customary establishment. The news of his arrival in any section
of the country spreads with wonderful rapidity. A negro has a
grievance against his employer or some other white person — ^he
enters his complaint and the judge or lieutenant orders the white
man or white lady to appear before him and confront his or her
accuser. The usual forms adopted in our courts of justice, to
ascertain the facts in the case, are discarded. In some cases the
accused Is at once released ; in others he is fined twenty, fifty or a
hundred dollars. The judge collects the fine, and usually for-
wards it to his superior, to be used in defraying the expenses of
the institution. The negro goes home, stopping ax cdcn planta-
tion and detailing the particulars of the case to other freedmen.

"Half the negroes in that section are at once seized with a de-
sire to see the Yankee military judge, and to see how their old
masters or mistresses would act on being brought before him.
Complaints are made against the kindest and best people in the
country. The immediate result is despondency and anger on the
part of the whites — discontent and indolence on the part of the
blacks. Here is a young man from a Northern state, not educated
as a judicial officer, and often not possessing a single qualification
for the discharge of such duties — ^upon whom devolve greater
responsibilities than devolve upon the justices of the Supreme

848 Mississippi Historical Society.

Court — for he not only acts as judge, but also as sheriff and
clerk ; and from his decision it is seldom an appeal can be made.

"You often read accounts in the newspapers as to the condition
of affairs in certain localities. You are informed about the pros-
perous condition of a few schools established for the benefit of
negro children; of the readiness with which they learn their let-
ters, and of the ardor with which they sing patriotic airs. Ac-
cording to some of these accounts the negro children are far
superior to your own ; they mutter the alphabet in their sleep and
spend most of their waking hours in invoking blessings on the
head of General Sexton and other distinguished public men. To
many I presume this is pleasant reading matter, and it may serve
to convince some people that the great problem is already solved ;
that through the efforts of Sexton and his co-laborers four mil-
lions of ignorant and degraded beings are to be suddenly ele-
vated, and to become educated, refined and patriotic members of
society.

"You seldom hear of the numerous cases where the freedmen
have laid claim' to the lands of their former masters, and have
quietly informed them that they held title under the United States
government, and have persistently refused to do anything but
eat, loiter and sleep. They fail to tell you of the cases where,
just as the harvest was to commence, every hand has suddenly
disappeared from the place, leaving the labors of a year to decay
in the field. They fail to tell you of great bands of colored people
who leave their former homes and congregate in the cities and
villages or settle on a plantation, without permission from' the
owner, seeking only food and utterly careless of the future. On
the very day that I left Vicksburg a poor woman came to me
with a complaint that at least fifty negroes, not one of whom she
had ever before seen, had settled on her farm and were eating
the few stores she had laid aside for winter use.

"Our sympathies are due to the white as well as to the black
race, though we have no constitutional right to control either.
The difficulties surrounding this question can only be miet and
overcome by practical men. It is an easy matter to theorize on
the subject : to point out the evils likely to result from the policy

I

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 343

of the president, but it will be found far more difficult to sug-
gest any other method not likely to result in still greater evils.

"General Howard, who stands at the head of the Freedmen's
Bureau, is a man of great purity of character, and will never
sustain a system which he does not think productive of good, and
yet, after carefully observing the operations of that Bureau, I
am unconvinced that more good than evil will result from per-
petuating it after the states have adopted constitutions prohibit-
ing slavery. . . .

"In my remarks upon the Bureau, I do not wish to reflect upon
any one of the officers connected with it. Generally they are
earnest and sincere men, and are doing all in their power to make
it successful. It is of the system I speak — I contend that it is so
utcerly foreign to the principles by which our people have been
governed that it cannot continue. I have become fully convinced
that the policy adopted by the President of leaving to the respec-
tive states the entire control of their local affairs is the only safe
policy that can be adopted."

Of the controversy between himself and Governor Sharkey,
over the organization of state militia companies, General Slocum
said: "In response to an application for instructions as to the
jurisdiction of military tribunals, I received from the War De-
partment a communication informing me that the govermnent
regarded the state of Mississippi as still in a state of rebellion.
Immediately after the receipt of these instructions the provisional
governor proposed to organize and arm the militia of the state.
Acting under my orders I would not permit it. Subsequently,
the President taking a view of the condition of the state, differ-
ing somewhat from that taken by the War Department, resolved
to withdraw the United States troops from the state, which, of
course, removed all objection to the organization of the militia.

"So far from feeling annoyed at the result of this matter, I
most heartily approved the removal of the troops from that state,
and I most earnestly hope that within thirty days every soldier
now on duty there will be mustered out of the service, and that
all attempts to interfere in her local affairs will cease. Now that
the state has adopted a constitution which does not recognize

S44 Mississippi Historical Society.

slavery, I would confide to her the settlement of all questions
likely to arise as to the means of supporting and controlling the
freedmen. I believe that the people will regard the interest of
the state as closely identified with that of the freedmen, and that
such laws will be passed as will be best calculated to promote the
interest of all."

Operations of the Freedman's Bureau fully proved the truth of
General Slocum's condemnation of the institution. But there
was much to justify his disclaimer of reflection upon General
Howard, and the higher officers, at least, in charge. The fol-
lowing contemporary publication in the Vicksburg Herald proves
the honest intent of their administration, and sheds light also
upon the abuses of the "system so foreign to the principles by
which our people have been governed:"

"On the 25th of August last, Mr. C. W. Wood, through Hon.
T. C. Tupper, applied to General Howard, commissioner of the
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, for relief
upon this state of case : An agent of the bureau claimed that the
property of Mr. Wood was liable to confiscation upon the ground
that he was worth over $20,000, and that it was his duty to seize
and take possession of the same, and thereupon said agent took
possession of a horse and buggy and a lot of cotton; and stated
that he would take possession of Mr. Wood's residence, unless
he would pay rent for the same, monthly in advance ; which he.
Wood, agreed to do. Thereupon Mr. Wood applied to Com-
missioner Howard, claiming that these proceedings were "un-
authorized and illegal," asked for the restoration of his prop-
erty. Whereupon the following order was made in the case:

War Department,
Bureau R. F. and A. L.

Washington, August 25, 1865.
"Respectfully referred to Col. Samuel Thomas, assistant com-
missioner, state of Mississippi.

"There is no authority for such a proceeding as is herein re-
ported. You cannot take personal property of any description
for the use of the Bureau, and only such real estate as is aban-
doned or duly confiscated and turned over to you by the United

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 346

States district court. Several complaints of such seizures in Mis-
sissippi have been reported. They are illegal and unauthorized.
Circular No. 14, from this bureau, does not contemplate such
proceedings. You will therefore cause the real and personal
property of Mr. Wood, as herein indicated, to be restored to him
and take similar action in like cases without delay.
"By order of,

"Maj. Gen. Howabd."

Upon the adjournment of the convention the campaign for the
election of officers it provided for had opened. There was active
competition for the various state and county offices. In a card
responding to a call from many fellow citizens Gen. B. G.
Humphreys, one of the most popular and trusted of all the cwn-
manders of Mississippians in the field, stated : I am yet an im-
pardoned rebel. I have taken the amnesty oath and forwarded
an application to the President for a special pardon and am desir-
ous of returning to my allegiance to the United States govern-
ment. The President may not be equally desirous of receiving
me back and restoring me to the rights of citizenship ; and until
he makes known his pleasure on the subject it may be a source
of embarrassment to my friends to use my name as a candidate
for Governor. ... If my friends think otherwise and elect
me I can only pledge my honest efforts to do my duty." The
friends of the old war chief "thought otherwise" and upheld him
as their choice for Governor, willing to take chances on the par-
don which there was no good reason for withholding. In an
editorial the Vicksburg Herald urged an immediate pardon for
General Humphreys — that "his influence with the young men
lately in the Confederate army is powerful, and no man will
exert a happier influence in rallying them to the support of the
Union." It was commonly understood, however, that the Presi-
dent did not think favorably of the election of a Confederate
General to the office, and this caused many to doubt its ex-
pediency.

The especial issue, or feature, of the campaign preceding the
election of officers ordered by the convention, was an effort to
enlist opposition to the election of Gen. B. G. Humphreys as an

84:6 Mississippi Historical Society.

unpardoned rebel general. There was some discussion, and divis-
ion of sentiment, upon the admissibility of negro testimony in the
courts. But the people gave little thought to anything except the
dominant question of state rehabilitation; to the restoration of
civil authority and constitutional government in lieu of military
government, which was made utterly repugnant by negro garri
sons.

The attempt to array prejudice against General Humphreys
did not prove popular. Designed for defeating a former whig,
an opponent of secession, this was looked upon as carrying con-
servatism too far, causing resentment and reaction. The support
of his opponent, Judge Fisher, on a no war record issue, went far
toward effacing the line that had, in the election of convention
delegates, been drawn against Democrats and secessionists. He
had been a judge of the state high court, and had been brought
forward for the office of Governor by the August convention,
informally. It was generally understood that he was favored by
the President, to avoid the further ground of attack upon his
Southern policy that the radicals would have in the election of a
soldier candidate.

The election, held October 2d, passed off without exciting inci-
dent. The only disorder reported occurred at Holly Springs. It
was thus stated in the Memphis Bulletin:

"During the election at Holly Springs on the 2d, quite a scene
was occasioned on the streets by the captain in charge of the
Freedmen's Bureau, in a temporary state of aberration occa-
sioned by whiskey, drawing a pistol and threatening to shoot
several citizens. He also threatened to bring his guard into town
and kill twenty-three of the people before 3 o'clock. He also

denounced the citizens generally as 'd d rebels,' and declared

he was not afraid of them. He also abused Governor Sharkey in
terms not very elegant. Mayor Falconer had the belligerent
gentleman arrested, but he was released on giving his lieutenant
as bail."

This narrative is now brought to the beginning of the pro-
visional government of the state. The events of that period hav-
ing been covered in the contribution entitled "Organization and

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 347

Overthrow of the Provisional Government," the history of the
return to military rule in July, 1868, under which reconstruction
in accordance with the act of congress, and the ensuing years of
carpet bag and negro government, follows:

The Democratic national convention met in New York City
July 4th, 1868. After a score of ballots in which th« vote was
much split up there was a concentration upon ex-Governor Sey-
mour of New York, the chairman of the convention; who in
spite of his protests, was unanimously chosen as the party's can-
didate fori President. He was probably the best man to put up,
against Grant, as the leader of a forlorn hope. The platform led
off with a recognition of the "settlement for all time to come of
the questions of slavery and secession by the war, with the volun-
tary action of the Southern states." Wherefore the "immediate
restoration of all these states to their rights in the Union and un-
der the constitution, and of civil governments to the American
people, with amnesty for all past political offenses and of the rec-
ognition of the elective franchises in the states by their citizens,"
was demanded. The reconstruction acts were declared "unpatri-
otic, unconstitutional, revolutionary and void" — the radical party
arraigned for violation of "the solemn and unanimous pledge of
both houses of congress to prosecute the war exclusively for th«
maintenance of the Union."

The convention declared that President Johnson "in resisting
the aggressions of congress is entitled to the gratitude of the
whole American people and in behalf of the Democratic party
he was thanked for his patriotic efforts." Lx)gically, the conven-
tion should have nominated President Johnson for re-election.
But there was no thought of this among the delegates. After
polling 65 votes on the first ballot, his support dwindled to 6.
Mr. Johnson was literally a President without a party — hated by
Republicans and shunned by Democrats. While the South ap-
preciated his brave efforts, his record of implacable hate of
secession and secessionists was an impassable chasm between
the two.

The adjourned meeting of Congress failed for lack of a quo-
nun, which was the result of calculation, and precaution. The

348 Mississippi Historical Society.

presidential election was drawing near, and to secure the vote of
the conservative Republicans the managers of General Grant's
canvass were averse to further Southern agitation at this time.
The Mississippi Democratic Central Committee, through its chair-
man, addressed a communication to General Gillem, asking him
to make an order by which the state would be enabled to partici-
pate in the election for president. This General Gillem did not
consider himself authorized to do. Whatever of the wrong there
was in the deprivation had much compensation. Prohibition from
taking part in the campaign gave the state a rest from political
turmoil that was a great boon. Perpetuation of military govern-
ment under General Gillem was well worth the labor of defeat-
ing the black and tan constitution. In the vacation of political
tutelage by the Northern adventurers, the negro population easily
and completely fell under the old influenced and returned to plan-
tation labors. The readiness with which they accepted the defeat
of the constitution which bestowed on them political equality was
significant and instructive. The reversion was thus referred to
in the Woodville Republican of November 7: "It is edifying
and gratifying to notice the complete friendHness and good will
again existing between white and colored people throughout the
state. There is no disorder, no disturbance, or contention. Mis-
sissippi is enjoying freedom from scenes of violence which
marked the progress of the late political contest in the other
Southern states. The freedmen are industriously and cheerfully
at work, at least those engaged on the plantations."

The necessities from the crop failures of the two preceding
years was a compelling force for the negroes to fall into the old-
time habits of labor. The 1868 season proved propitious, the
crop was cheaply grown, and with the high price of cotton much
of the load of debt was lifted. Hope and encouragement for the
future returned under the promise of more prosperous conditions
and the respite from the excitement and turbulence which had so
lately prevailed. The peace and quiet in Mississippi was in
strong contrast with the condition of the other Southern states.
In Arkansas, Tennessee and the Carolinas, the most revolting
atrocities were perpetrated by the negro militia, and in all of the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 849

reconstructed states there was demoralization incident to the
presidential election, which interfered seriously with all industrial
pursuits. Even the census testifies to the blessings Mississippi
enjoyed through the deprivation of her people from their right
of citizenship. In a cotton crop total of 2,380,000 bales the state
produced 400,000, which was far in excess of any other state.

The success of the national Republican ticket was followed by
a jubilant gathering of the carpet bag clans at Jackson to memo-
rialize congress on the lines of the Gibbs proclamation. Carried
away by the utter Democratic rout, its tone was more insolent
and virulent. The people of the state were assailed as being
"defiant of the authority, and regardless of the wishes of con-
gress. They had rejected with contempt all terms of restoration,
and had assumed the right to dictate the terms on which they
would condescend to be readmitted to the Union." The address
closed with an urgent appeal to congress, and the committee was
appointed to go to Washington and lay the memorial before the
reconstruction committee. On the first day of the session of con-
gress, that committee was instructed to inquire into the conditions
of Virginia, Mississippi and Texas, and report the necessary leg-
islation. In Virginia and Texas elections for ratification of new
constitutions had not been held, as it was feared they could not
be carried. Like Mississippi, they were still under military rule.
Boutwell of Massachusetts succeeded to the chairmanship of the
reconstruction committee, made vacant by the death of Stevens.
In his message, President Johnson assailed the reconstruction
acts with unabated vigor. He declared that the conditions cre-
ated in the South through the reconstruction policy was worse
than that left by the war. While this strong and truthful ar-
raignment had no effect on congress, it was essential to the
President's sense of duty and record.

The election of General Grant, it is true, extinguished all hope
of any conversion of Mississippi's respite into a rescue from the
ultimate complete sway of carpet bag and negro rule. While the
president-elect was not a malignant, and would have administered
upon the Southern question without flagrant injustice had he been
free to follow his inclination untrammeled, such as administra-

8ifr Mississippi Historical Society.

tion was not to be hoped for. He had accepted the presidency
under a bond of circumstances and conditions, if not express
pledges, which assured his adherence to the policy of Southern
oppression. This fact was fully appreciated by the carpet bag
contingent. Many of them were left in sore straits by the defeat
of the constitution. Some left the state, never to return, others
were provided with civil offices as vacancies occurred in the state.
General Gillem's request for a suspension of the iron-clad oath so
that he might appoint residents of the state having been refused,
nothing was left him but appointment of carpetbaggers.

After a vain effort to have the election investigated by General
Gillem, the committee of five had reported to the reconstruction
committee that it had been carried by threats and intimidation.
The committee had then set about the purpose of having the
result changed by congress. Inferentially this action was taken
at the direction of the congressional leaders. A report founded
on a mass of ex parte and unsubstantiated statements and deposi-
tions from all over the state was gotten up. On such a process
W. H. Gibbs, the committee chairman, impudently proclaimed the
ratification of the constitution. The perjured and high-handed
document on which the seizure of the state government was in-
tended closed as follows: "Now, Therefore, by virtue of the
authority in the said committee of five, I, as chairman, after a
careful examination of the reports made by the commissioners
to hold such elections, and after a patient and diligent investiga-
tion of the affidavits and statements of many of the citizens, do
proclaim the constitution thus submitted to have been duly rati-
fied and adopted by a majority of the legal voters and the Repub-
lican state ticket duly elected," etc. This audacious proclamation
caused intense indignation and General Gillem was urged to
arrest the author and bring him to punishment. But it was well
understood that behind him were the reconstruction leaders at
Washington. Their instrument, the chairman of the committee
of five, was a typical product of the reconstruction era. He was
an Illinois carpetbagger who had been a delegate in the conven-
tion from Wilkinson county. He was afterwards state auditor,

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 361

served a term subsequently as postmaster at Jackson and wound
up his public career by a term in the United States penitentiary.

The reconstruction committee at once opened its door for wit-
nesses and reports from the unreconstructed states. There were
two Republican delegations from Mississippi, the radical and the
conservative. General Gillem was summoned to Washington and
gave evidence in support of his report and contradictory of the
proclamation of the committee of five. The radical delegation
wanted congress to authorize the convention to reassemble with
governmental powers. This was according to the committee of
five proclamation, and the bill which had failed in the senate after
passing the house the preceding August. A measure known as
the Bingham bill was framed accordingly, but it was rejected by
the committee, which, while intent as ever on extreme measures,
was grown some more particular in methods of procedure. Gen-
eral Gillem's testimony was a fatal obstacle to the adoption of
the defeated constitution, without some modification. Only the
extremists dared go so far as to attempt to override the officer
created by the reconstruction act to execute it. Nor were they
sure of the President, who indeed indicated a marked aversion
to the Gibbs committee. This led to hopes destined to bear dead
sea fruit. The committee reported a bill February 15th, which
provided for reassembling the Eggleston convention with power
to authorize a provisional government. It proposed the adoption
by congress of the defeated constitution shorn of its proscriptive
clauses. This was a concession to meet the testimony of General
Gillem to the eflfect that had the constitution not contained dis-
qualifications beyond the 14:th amendment it would have been
ratified at the polls.

A liberal Republican plan, which was brought forth and car-
ried to Washington, asked for the appointment of a provisional
Governor with power to remove all of the civil officers in the
state, and fill the vacancies with the "truly loyal." The constitu-
tion was then to be resubmitted, shorn of its excessive proscriptive-
ness. This was only preferable to the committee of five scheme,
because anything was better than the enthronement of the black
and tan convention. In addition to the two Republican delega-

35S Mississippi Historical Society.

tions, statements had been made before the reconstruction com-
mittee by certain prominent conservative citizens of the state.
They had substantiated General Gillem's statement, that the con-
stitution would have been ratified but for the proscriptive clauses.
To support the conservative view of state policy, a conference of
citizens early in February secured the attendance in Washington
of ex-Senator Brown and Judge H. F. Simrall. They were rep-
resentatives of the elements that had favored reconstruction in
1867, a policy which persisted in by a small minority, after it had
been condemned by the overwhelming sentiment of the white
people, had caused defeat at the polls. Under the stress of tem-
pestuous times, they were headed for any port out of the storm.
This feeling increased, and secured many new followers under
the gloom and uncertainty following the continuance of military
rule, and the discouragement in the overthrow of the Democratic
national ticket. It was under such circumstances that the sub-
missionists now came to the front again. Their position was set
out in a statement to the reconstruction committee by Judge Sim-
rall, which read in part as follows :

"At the time of the passage of the reconstruction laws they
were distasteful to a large majority of the whites. There was,
however, a minority (of which I was one) that advised their
acceptance and the organization of the state under them. The
fact to which I have alluded, and others which I will not pause
to enumerate, interfered with a calm and dispassionate considera-
tion of the subject, and a majority of the white electors did not
participate in the election of delegates to the convention. It is
now pretty generally conceded that this was a mistake.

"The late Presidential election is a popular endorsement of the
reconstruction policy, concluding the subject finally. It is not
considered open to further debate. The fourteenth constitutional
amendment, coupled with these laws, also finally settles the ques-
tion of impartial or uniform suflfrage in Mississippi. It is be-
lieved that a large majority of the whites would prefer impartial
suffrage, with full representation in the House of Representa-
tives, to limited suflfrage, with reduced representation.

"Aside from the amendment and this legislation, it would be a

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 853

problem demanding the exercise of the wisest statesmanship to
deal with this question of suffrage. In the Southern States,
where the colored race is so large an element of the population,
the time would have come when the large portion, if not all,
would have had the ballot conferred on them. It is confidently
believed that a majority of the whites are now prepared and
ready to adopt a constitution, and elect officers under it, framed
in accordance with laws of congress. The constitution of the
late convention having been voted down, the majority of our peo-
ple are ready to adopt the same constitution, if shorn by congress
of all unjust and irritating discriminations, especially its disabili-
ties, as contained in the franchise article, conforming it to the re-
construction acts, and resubmitted to a vote of the people, and at
the same time elect officers, therein provided for, and members
of the lower house of congress; or they will conform to any
other mode which congress may adopt, which commits the whole
subject afresh to the people."

Judge Simrall thus reflected one view point On the other
hand : while the resolute spirit and the organized concert of resist-
ance to reconstruction, which sustained the 1868 campaign, had
waned and weakened, the proposition of surrender to the doom
of "impartial uniform suffrage" did not pass without opposition.
The proposition was opposed as helping the Radicals out of a
dilemma. It was held that a persistence in passive resistance
would gain time from which much might be hoped. There was
a growing and manifest aversion, even in the reconstruction
committee, to further extreme action. At worst continued re-
sistance to congressional reconstruction could only perpetuate mil-
itary government, which had been proved by comparison of Mis-
sissippi's condition with that of the reconstructed states to be in-
finitely better than acceptance of carpet bag and negro govern-
ment. Admitting that reconstruction was inevitable, it was be-
lieved by a great many to be best to have it forced on the State
by Congress than aided and invited by the people. This view
was thus expressed in the Woodville Republican of February
13th, opposing the mission of conservative citizens to Washing-
ton. "If we will only remain true to ourselves in this crisis all
23

I

354 Mississippi Historical Society.

will yet be well, and we will not have suffered in vain. While a
way may be contrived for consummating Mississippi's reconstruc-
tion, nothing is to be gained by sacrificial offerings to it. This,
Virginia now knows to her sorrow. It is well Mississippi sent
on no "committee of nine." It is true certain gentlemen of the
State have gone to the Washington mercy seat volunteering their
services. They can accomplish nothing. We will score a point
by forcing Congress to fix negro suffrage on us without our help
and contrivance. We should strenuously object to giving assist-
ance to unraveling the "Gordian knot." On this account we dis-
approve this mission, and do not believe a majority of the white
people of Mississippi favor it. It will be sad for the State after
weathering the storm so far — after steering clear of the Scylla of
radicalism — to be lured on its Charybdes by this siren vagary."
With the delusion of roseate but vague assurances from persons
high in authority a delegation or committee of Virginians had
gone to Washington with high hopes of accomplishing definite
good for their State. The circumstances of their visit and return
was thus stated by the Richmond Examiner and Enquirer:

"The most radical Congressman will agree in conversation with
any moderately conservative Southern man and ten minutes after
will vote to have his ears cut off."

While Congress was adjourned for the holidays, as a Christmas
gift to the South, the President, on December 25th, issued a gen-
eral amnesty proclamation. It bestowed a full and unconditional
pardon on all persons who had directly or indirectly participated
in the rebellion for the crime of treason. There were no excep-
tion of persons to this full restoration of all the rights, privileges
and immunities under the constitution. Forthwith the attorney
general ordered a nolle pros to be entered against the indictments
of Jefferson Davis, John C. Breckenridge, R. E. Lee and other
leading Confederates. When Congress reassembled the resolu-
tion was assailed in the Senate and declared by resolution to be
invalid. This was the last of the many collisions between Con-
gress and President Johnson. Reconstruction in Mississippi,
which was the remaining bone of contention, was laid aside for
the few remaining days of his administration. February 19th, an

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 855

explanatory statement of the postponement was made by Chair-
man Boutwell, in which he said : "It was my purpose until very
recently to report from the reconstruction committee a bill for
establishing provisional government in Mississippi. After full
and free conference with gentlemen on the other side, and hav-
ing been by them assured very frankly that it was their purpose
to resist the passage of the bill by such parliamentary measures as
they can command, I feel obliged to abandon the preparation of
it. As I have reason to expect the bill will be vetoed, it would
be useless to pass it unless by both Houses between this and next
Saturday. I feel constrained to abandon the measure for a time
with the assurance to our friends on the other side that immedi-
ately after March 4th we will test the capacity of this side to
pass this, or a similar measure."

To make places for the carpet bag adventurers pending re-
construction in Mississippi, a bill was passed in the last days of
the session for vacating all civil offices and providing that they
should be filled through appointments of the military governor,
by persons who could take the iron-clad oath, or whose disabili-
ties had been removed by Congress. As both Generals Ord and
Gillem had confined their discretionary power of removals to fill-
ing vacancies as they occurred, or were created for cause, the
local offices were still held chiefly by those elected in 1865. The
act of removal which was passed February 17th became a law
without the President's signature. It was provided not to go into
effect for thirty days, in which time there would be a change of
Presidents. On the last day of his term President Johnson issued
an address to the people in vindication of his position on the re-
construction policy, which time and the calamities and crimes it
bore has fully affirmed. Wjhile he could not avert reconstruction
and its baneful fruits, he was an insurmountable obstruction to
the more extreme measures sought by the Radical leaders. The
defeat of his impeachment alone saved the South from the com-
plete Africanization sought by Stevens and Butler, Sumner and
Wade.

In the early days of his administration President Grant was at
times, and in some of his acts, an enigma and a disappointment

8M Mississippi Historical Society.

to both radicals and liberals. Three days after his inauguration
a reassignment of Major Generals acting as Southern military
governors was ordered. All who held under Johnson were trans-
ferred. General Gillem being ordered to join his regiment in
Texas. While the change was looked upon as ominous, it was not
unexpected. For a brief while it was hoped that there was no sig-
nificance in the change for Mississippi, as the command passed to
General Pennypacker, the next in command, who was well known
in the state and respected as a fair and a just man. On March
16th his succession was formally effected by an order from Gen-
eral Gillem. But the satisfaction and relief that this afforded was
short lived, as on the next day he was ordered to his regiment in
North Dakota, and by an order from headquarters General Ames
assumed command. Thus in two days the state had three diff-
erent military commanders. The new ruler was soon known for
what the other two were not, a prejudiced partisan of Radical-
ism, and a political self-seeker. By his appointment he became
both provisional and military Governor. At the time of his re-
moval General Gillem was engaged in making the appointments
of county officials of the most acceptable citizens, who could qual-
ify under the removal act, a policy immediately reversed by Ames.
Before General Gillem's departure from the state a public meet-
ing was held in Vicksburg, presided over by a Confederate Gen-
eral, Wirt Adams, to express the common approval and grateful
appreciation of his Governorship. The meeting adopted a resolu-
tion of tribute for "an administration under circumstances of
peculiar difficulties, and embarrassment calling for an exercise of
rare capacity, which had been so conducted as to entitle him to
the thanks of every lover of his country."

At the time he was made military Governor, General Ames
was not affiliated with the radicals. He had indeed so con-
ducted and restrained himself as to be looked on as one in senti-
ment with themselves by the liberal Republicans, and they had
favored his appointment as General Gillem's successor. Certain
prominent but over sanguine Democrats had taken the same meas-
ure of the new ruler, and commended him as acceptable. By his
subsequent conduct he appears to have either worn a mask, or he

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 357

underwent a startling change of heart. From the soldier with no
other idea than to carry out orders, he became the zealous leader
of Mississippi Radicalism — all his official power and patronage
were devoted to the success of that faction in the pending elec-
tion. But, while sudden, the transformation of Ames was ex-
plained by the ensuing events. Promotion to control the destinies
of a state dawned upon him, or was instilled in him, as an oppor-
tunity for self advancement. A seat in the United States Senate
arose before him as a prize for the taking. And the proof soon
appeared of a plain case of bargain and sale between him and the
carpet bag-scalawag crew which controlled the negro vote. It is,
furthermore, to be remembered in judging Ames' course at this
juncture that he had passed under the tutelage of Ben Butler —
whose daughter he had married — one of the most astute and un-
scrupulous politicians of his day. The son-in-lawship and the
awakening of political ambition give the clues to the conversion
of General Ames to radicalism.

President Grant further aroused Southern apprehension by an
attempt to revoke the nolle pros orders taken under the amnesty
proclamation of his predecessor. His order for their annulment
failed, as Attorney General Hoar ruled that when pardons had
been placed in the United States Marshal's hands the proclama-
tion was completed. This prevented the revival of the indict-
ments of Jefferson Davis, R. E. Lee and others. The contact
between this order of President Grant, and the letter of General
Grant when prosecution of General Lee was proposed to him in
1865, does not shed luster on his fame. Upon the assemblage of
Congress, the reconstruction committee resumed consideration of
the case of Mississippi. Having been made Secretary of the
Treasury, Mr. Boutwell was succeeded in the chairmanship by
the violent and odious Benjamin F. Butler. He reported a bill to
Congress March 19th, which was a recast of the Boutwell meas-
ure, providing for the reassemblage of the convention, with the
authority to remove and appoint all officials and exercise the
powers of government, legislative and executive, until a constitu-
tion should be prepared and submitted. But the Republicans of
the committee were not solid, and the bill barely secured a recom-

858 Mississippi Historical Society.

mendation. It was in the air that the President was opposed to
it, and when the convention delegation called to ask his support
of the Butler bill, he plainly avowed disfavor of it. He opposed
reassembling the Convention and suggested instead that the Mili-
tary Governor should be given time to remove and appoint officials
under the recent law of Congress. He would then resubmit the
constitution after selecting certain amendments that "perhaps
ought to be rejected," he said, "for separate submission would be
a severe blow to the delegation, and they left the White House, as
published in the New York Herald^ "expressing themselves in
strong language against the President, and wished he was in a
warnler climate than Washington."

While the bill was being debated, March 26, the President was
called on by the visiting Democrats and Liberal Republicans, to
whom he reiterated his idea of the proper procedure, and they ex-
pressed their approval of it. The Butler committee bill came to
a vote March 31st and was displaced for a substitute embracing
the President's plan, but suspending all further reconstruction ac-
tion until the next session of Congress. Such postponement had
been urged by the Mississippi Liberals, who had called on the
President so that the labor and industries of the State might not
be interrupted during a crop season by a canvass and election.
But a few days later, on April 7th, to meet the wishes of the
Virginia committee, the President sent in a special message to
Congress recommending an election in that State at an early day.
And in the concluding paragraph of his message, he recom-
mended the resubmission of the Mississippi constitution. On
the next day the reconstruction committee reported a bill accord-
ingly. It provided "that the President may submit the constitu-
tion of Mississippi at such time and in such manner as he may di-
rect, either the entire constitution or separate provisions of the
same." The bill was amended in the Senate by requiring the
ratification of the 15th amendment by the Legislatures before
either of the States of Virginia, Mississippi or Texas should be
readmitted. This was strongly opposed as a violation of faith
which had been pledged to those States on terms already fixed.
But the bill passed both Houses as amended, and Congress ad-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 359

journed, leaving its operation in the hands of the Executive. As
by the reconstruction acts Congress had already inflicted upon the
Southern States, that which the amendment proposed for all —
negro suffrage — the fresh breach of faith made little immediate
impression.

By proclamation of the President, the Virginia election was
fixed for July 5th. He informed a Texas delegation that no
date would be set for that state or Mississippi until Virginia had
voted. Immediately upon his appointment as military Governor
Gen. Ames gave a partisan character to his administration. It
was soon known that he had come to agreement with the radicals
on the basis of his election to the XAiited States senate. In con-
summation of the bargain he gave harshest and most unscrupul-
ous application to the removal act. March 33d, all of the civil
officers throughout the state who came under its disqualification
were removed by order. No provision was made for the confu-
sion that was created by the arbitrary suspension of all the agents
and agencies of government. There was no thought or attempt
to have appointments fit in with removals. Some counties were
left in this chaotic condition for weeks. At the same time the
removed officials were required to retain custody of books, papers
and other property until their successors were qualified. The
needless and heedless tyranny here displayed revealed the utter
indifference of Ames, to the wellbeing and the rights of the peo-
ple. He left them without courts or court officials, without pro-
vision for care or custody of criminals or paupers. None had
authority to make arrests for crimes. Parties desiring to enter
into marriage contracts had to go beyond the state. It was to the
credit of the people that in such an interregnum, there was gen-
eral observance of the laws and freedom from disorder. In some
counties Gen. Gillem had made appointments of persons qualified
imder the removal act. They, too, were removed, regardless of
loyalty or past services in the Union army, to make way for parti-
sans of radicalism. This was the sole requisite. The responsible
offices were bestowed upon men who had never been in the coun-
tries to which they were assigned. No care whatever was exer-

360 Mississippi Historical Society.

cised in securing persons of capacity and integrity. Only the
form of bonds for honest performance of duty was required.

Gen. Ames' administration as military governor was generally
consistent with his despotic execution of the act of removal.
Laws were annulled wherever annullment served the faction he
had allied himself with. He especially sought to arouse the po-
litical zeal of the negroes by acts that pointed to race equality,
and that expressed his animosity towards the whites. On April
14th he issued an order annulling a state law which provided for
artificial limbs for maimed Confederate soldiers, and that exempt-
ed them from poll tax. Brutal and odious as this order was it was
but an echo of the sectional spirit dominating the North. It had a
parallel equally revolting in sight of the national capitol, a few
days later, when the yearly decoration of the Confederate graves
at Arlington was forbidden, and a cordon of marines was drawn
around the spot to prevent women from strewing flowers over
those for whom they mourned. The New York Herald and oth-
er Northern journals deplored and censured such insensate perse-
cution. But it drew forth no disapproval from those in authority.
And Gen. John A. Logan, a commander of the G. A. R., issued
an order of indorsement and approval of the action of the guard
of marines. These incidents tell of the bitter hostility in which
the South was held by the government and the majority of
Northern people at this dark and trying period. Even before he
had fully provided the state with courts, on April 27th, Gen.
Ames issued another order, intensifying the resentment and
straining the endurance of the white people of the state. Going
far beyond authority, or the contemplation of the reconstruction
acts, he directed that negroes should be held competent for jury
service and so listed. Provisions of law were wantonly abrogated,
courts were deprived of jurisdiction, decisions and processes were
nullified, according to the whim of the military ruler. Two of
his Rankin county appointees being convicted of embezzlement,
they were forcibly taken from the custody of the sheriflf and given
their liberty. That there might be no judicial review of his acts
the Military Governor ordered post commanders to disregard
writs of habeas corpus from either Federal or state court.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 361

One of the arbitrary acts under the Ames administration re-
sulted in a tragedy of far-reaching and calamitous effect. To sat-
isfy a tax assessment against the residence property of E. M.
Yerger, who claimed a valid offset, the military mayor of Jack-
son, Col. Joseph G. Crane, ordered the sale of a piano that was
in the house. It was proved to the military marshal, who went
to serve the writ, that the piano had belonged to Mrs. Yerger
since before her marriage. Repeating the fact to Col. Crane, he
was ordered to execute the service and sale, regardless. Mr. Yer-
ger, who was absent from the state, was informed of the pro-
ceeding by telegraph. He wired Crane asking him to suspend
the execution until his return ; to which request no attention was
paid. On his return Yerger, who was subject to fits of maniacal
temper, met Col. Crane on the streets and in the encounter that
ensued stabbed him to death. The affair caused extreme ex-
citement, and in the North where it was held up as proof of
Southern intractability, bitter resentment. The time for such a
fire brand could not have been more fate fully chosen. The
President was then balancing between the liberal and the radical
Republicans of the state. The all-potency of his influence in the
pending election was believed to be veering towards the former,
or that he would hold it out of the scale, which was all that was
asked by the white people of the state. Yerger was quickly
brought before military court for trial. His leading counsel.
Judge William^ Yerger, hurried to Washington with an applica-
tion for a writ of habeas corpus before Chief Justice Chase. This
again brought up the greater question of the constitutionality of
the reconstruction acts, which involved a test of the jurisdiction
of the court martial. The result was another pollution of the
stream of law, as in the McCardle case. To avoid a decision an
agreement was concluded between the Attorney General and
Judge Yerger, which was thus stated in the Associated Press dis-
patches of July 13th, 1869; "Argument in the Yerger case for
procuring its removal from the military commission, and bringing
it before the supreme court, was concluded yesterday. Attorney
General Hoar strenuously combatted the jurisdiction of the court.
Important questions in the petition for a writ of habeas corpus

8fi2

Mississippi Historical Society.

have induced the Attorney General to enter into written stipula-
tion with petitioner's counsel to put the question in such form as
may be considered and determined before the supreme court next
October. The present application to the chief justice to remove
was suspended. The President authorized the Attorney General
to say that no sentence of a military court will be executed until
the final determination of the court. This meets the approval of
Chief Justice Chase." Such agreement denotes that the court held
that it had jurisdiction over the case and had a decision been ren-
dered the "important questions" would have been so adjudged,
that the whole reconstruction fabric would have been annulled as
unconstitutional. The trial in the military court was brought to a
conclusion and no sentence was pronounced though it was known
that the death sentence had been agreed on. The accused was
held in confinement until civil government took the place of the
military and was finally released as having been once in jeopardy
of his life.

The course of President Grant toward Mississippi reconstruc-
tion at this juncture cannot be looked upon with pride, from the
viewpoint of justice and principle. From the day of his inaugura-
tion and even before he had been paid court to by all parties as
the arbiter of events. As the time came on for him to decide his
action, reserve and reticence gave place to tergiversation and
double-dealing. The fact that he had ruled against the Radicals
in March had been construed hopefully. Hope, however, was
"sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought" by his tacit approval
of the subsequent open and unscrupulous partisanship of General
Ames. This could not be made to consist wiith the assurances and
claims of the Liberal Republicans, that the President was their
friend. Under a perplexing situation doubt and distrust com-
pleted the political disorganization of the white people of the
State. The carpet-bag adventurers were correspondingly elated,
for they felt that the situation of the year before, when the Presi-
dent and the Military Governor were hostile to them, was re-
versed. Despairing and apprehensive, the spirit of resistance to
Radicalism was wasted away in delusions of compromise and
bowing to the storm. Taking council of their fears, the Demo-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 363

cratic leaders were lured into the toils of fusion, of propitiating
Northern animosity, of dividing the negro vote, by supporting a
ticket of Liberal Republicans. The illusory idea had been fast-
ened upon by the example of Virginia, where the election held
July 6th resulted in the success of such a ticket. The scheme was
shaped up in Mississippi by a convention in Jackson June 23d, to
which the Liberal Republicans invited all citizens. The proceed-
ings made a brave show of claiming the executive backing, but
the attendance was ominously scant. Resolutions were adopted
favoring an early restoration of Mississippi to her place in the
Union, "in strict accordance with the reconstruction acts." The
President and Congress were thanked "for rejecting the claim to
impose the rejected constitution upon the people of the State."
The unwavering support of the administration of President
Grant was affirmed. The State Republican organization was de-
nounced as "false and unworthy of the confidence and respect of
the voters of the State." The effect of this passage upon the
white voters would have been stronger but for the constraint of
declarations designed to propitiate Northern sentiment and win
the negro vote. The nomination of a State ticket was deferred,
as the election proclamation had not been issued. This convention
was presided over by Maj. J. L. Wofford, an ex-Confederate sol-
dier, and a reputable citizen of Tishomingo County.

The regular Republicans met in convention July 1. The reso-
lutions adopted, like those of the Liberals, favored rejection of
the proscriptive clauses of the constitution, which the President
had signified for a separate vote. They declared for universal
amnesty with universal suffrage, for "the removal of disqualifi-
cations and restriction imposed on late Rebels in the same meas-
ure as the spirit of disloyalty shall die out." Confidence was ex-
pressed and support was pledged for "Maj. Gen. Adelbert Ames,
military commander and Governor of Mississippi, whom we look
to as the representative of the President and Congress." This
sentiment was reciprocated by the Major General and Governor.
According to the associated press report of the proceedings,
"General Ames, commanding the Fourth District, was on the
floor and assured the Convention of his hearty approval and un-

k

364

Mississippi Historical Society.

conditional support." This was construed as sealing a bargain
for a seat in the United States Senate. The Convention was
quite a large one, and thoroughly representative of the elements
and ends of Radicalism. The spreading demoralization among
the white people was exhibited in the presence of a number of
them in the Convention. Their leader was General James L.
Alcorn, a prominent and influential citizen of Cahomo County.
July 9th, the Associated Press published that Messrs. Jeffords,
a judge of the high court of appeals, and Wofford had called on
the President in behalf of the conservative Republicans. They re-
ceived "his assurances that there should be utter impartiality in
the approaching campaign by the administration, and the military
cominander would be restrained from any show whatever of par-
tiality. The President said that a fair contest is all that the ad-
ministration requires provided violence be avoided. It would
only interfere in behalf of peace and against violence." On the
next day the Associated Press announced that "Gen. Ames, mil-
itary Governor of Mississippi and Gen. Reynolds, military Gover-
nor of Texas, had been instructed against showing partiality in
the preliminaries to the election." It is more than probable that
this call upon the President and his pledge was the result of the
open espousal of the Radical side by Gen. Ames in the July 1st
convention. July 9th, the same day that Messrs. Woilford and
Jeffords had received the President's promise of impartiality be-
tween the factions in Mississippi, a letter was written them by
Judge Lewis Dent, responding affirmatively to a request that his
"name might be placed before the national Union Republican con-
vention." This letter in connection with what the President said
to Messrs. Jeffords and Woflford was quite a stimulus of hope.
Judge Dent was the President's brother-in-law, as well as his con-
findential Secretary, residing at the White House. He had been
active in bringing the President in touch with the Mississippi op-
ponents of Radicalism, who had visited Washington the preced-
ing winter. That connection had given birth to the thought of
nominating him for Governor. As lessee of a plantation in Coa-
homa county, he was able to claim a sort of residence of the
state. His wife besides was a native Mississippian. On all of

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 866

these accounts, and under the prevailing circumstances, being a
man of good character and fair ability, and previous record as a
Democrat, the Dent idea grew in favor.

At a cabinet meeting July 9th, the question of a proclamation
for the Mississippi and Texas elections was discussed. The Vir-
ginia election having been held, these two states alone remained
to be dealt with. The case was considered in the light of the
Virginia election, which having gone against them caused ex-
treme disappointment and irritation among the Radicals. In
some of the papers of that party it was insisted that Virginia re-
construction should be held in suspense until Congress could meet
and deal with the conservative victory. An order aiming to sub-
vert the returns of the election was issued by the military com-
mander, who announced that the officials elected would be re-
quired to qualify under the iron-clad oath. While this proposed
violation of law and faith failed of consummation, the admission
of Virginia was deferred until action could be taken by Congress.
To gain time for the moral influences of the Virginia victory to
subside, and for thorough preparations for its avoidance in Mis-
sissippi and Texas, the day for them to vote was put off until
November 30th. The President issued his election proclamation
on the next day accordingly. On July 23rd Gen. Ames was sum-
moned to hong Branch to see the President. It was reported
that he would be relieved, and a few days later the Associated
Press said that "it was intimated that Gen. Canby would be sent
to Mississippi." On July 29th, President Grant returned to
Washington. The next day the Associated Press said "the pres-
sure on Grant to throw his administration influence in favor of
the Mississippi Radicals is heavy. The extremists are in good
spirits. Boutwell urges the President that Dent's Democratic
support meant the redivivus of secession."

To dispel a report that owing to the President's having es-
poused the radical side of the Mississippi contest Judge Dent
would decline to make the race as the liberal candidate for Gov-
ernor, a letter was written him by Judge E. Jeffords and Col.
George Moorman, conservative Republicans of prominence to this
effect. "Having seen in certain dispatches of the New York press

366 Mississippi Historical Society.

that you would decline the candidacy for Governor of Mississippi,
on the national Republican ticket, we desire to know whether you
adhere to your previously expressed determination for the pur-
pose of putting this matter fully at rest." July 30th, Judge Dent
replied as follows : "Gentlemen : In reply to your communication,
I beg to say that while I can not decline what has not been for-
mally offered me, you are at liberty to say to the national Repub-
lican party of Mississippi that in the event of my nomination as
Governor, I shall certainly accept it." This letter was considered
significant from the fact that when it was written the President
was occupying rooms at Judge Dent's residence in Washington,
as the White House was undergoing repairs. And on the next
day the Associated Press published an interview with President
Grant by Col. George Moorman, a liberal Republican, and a resi-
dent of the state. By the report he said to the President that "the
only desire of the conservatives was neutrality on the part of the
administration. The President replied that he wanted to know
whether the former enemies of the government were acting in
good faith in their present professions of loyalty. And that this
would soon be ascertained in part by their actions in Virginia.
If they were acting in good faith he would like to have the influ-
ence of that state and the South generally in support of his admin-
istration. He asked when the conservative Republicans would
meet in convention to nominate their candidates. Being told
about Sept. 1st, he said he "would see what kind of ticket they
would put in the field and that action would be influenced more
or less by subsequent events." While this was not reassuring in
tone. It was still thought the President would stick to his promise
of neutrality unless "subsequent events" were resolved into vio-
lence. On the next day he left for Long Branch and Ames re-
turned to Mississippi the Associated Press saying he would not
be relieved.

Events now moved rapidly toward a head. On August 5th an
address was published urging the people of the state to support
the conservative Republican ticket. The address quite authori-
tatively declared that it was "well understood that the real citi-
zens of the state — ^the old inhabitants and owners of the soil — ^will

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 867

not place any ticket before the people at the coming election. The
policy we recommend was pursued by our wise and intelligent
friends in Virginia in the recent election, and they obtained a
great victory over the radical Republicans. Let us follow the
lead of the Mother of States." It was argued that by adopting
this policy Mississippi could certainly secure a fair election, be re-
admitted into the Union and have her interests represented in
congress." Unprophetic words. The address was signed by 136
citizens comprising residents of a majority of the counties.
There was a good deal of discontent with this action, and an abor-
tive agitation for a Democratic convention. But the address set-
tled the policy of the "real citizens." On August 6th Tennessee
held an election, and by a large majority overthrew radicalism.
In further incensing the reconstruction leaders this boded no
good for Mississippi. It was looked upon with especial disfavor
by the President, as it was claimed as a vindication of Andrew
Johnson, whom he hated, and who had taken a leading part in
the canvass as a candidate for the United States senate. On Au-
gust 11th, the Sphinx broke silence, and, besides, the faith of his
previous assurances of neutrality. Without "waiting to see what
kind of a ticket the Mississippi conservative Republicans would
put up," he authorized the publication, through the Associated
Press, of an interview had with Judge Tarbell, secretary of the
Mississippi Republican executive committee, as follows: "The
President remarked upon the small number of Republicans in the
national Republican party in Mississippi, using the name of
Judge Dent. He said that in his judgment this fact in itself was
evidence that they could not be otherwise than used by the oppo-
sition. These people cast suspicion upon their own motives by
the fact that all their efforts seemed to be aimed at dividing the
Republican party in Mississippi. To sincere men it could not be
difficult to see who in the South were and had been friends of
the administration. The President stated that in conversation
with gentlemen representing the new Republican party in Missis-
sippi he had expressed himself much more emphatically. He
said that he fully indorsed the administration of Gen. Ames, and ,
that that officer would have to do much more serious things than

868 Mississippi Historical Society.

what had been published before he would subject himself to a
removal."

The effect of these words was consternating. Had the situa-
tion been contrived, a more effective trap could not have been
sprung upon Mississippi Democrats. The fusion entered into
with the "so-called Conservative Republicans" was wholly a mat-
ter of convenience and necessity. Odious to sentiment, it had
been taken up solely because of the hope of success with the
President's brother-in-law for its leader. It was calculated that
this would at least insure the promised impartiality by the Federal
power, which was felt to be the equivalent of success. There was
nothing else attractive in the scheme, and when this expectation
was shown to be delusive the hopes it raised failed. There was
nothing to do, however, but stand to the rack. The dupes were
too far in the trap when it was sprung to draw back. Judge
Dent was snared as effectually as his Democratic supporters. He
was undeceived in the following belated warning, dated Augfust

1st: :~

Long Branch, Aug. 1, 1869.

Dear Jtidge — I am so thoroughly satisfied in my own mind that
the success of the so-called Conservative Republican party in
Mississippi would result in the defeat of what I believe to be the
best interests of the state and country that I have determined to
say so to you (in writing of course). I know or believe that
your intentions are good in accepting the nomination of the con-
servative party. I would regret to see you run for office and be
defeated by my act ; but as matters look now, I must throw the
weight of my influence in favor of the party opposed to you. I
earnestly hope that before the election there will be such conces-
sions on either side in Mississippi as to unite all true supporters
of the administration in the support of one ticket. I write this
solely that you may not be under any wrong impression as to
what I regard, or may hereafter regard, as my public duty.

Personally, I wish you well, and would do all in my power
proper to be done to secure your success, but in public matters
personal feelings will not influence me.

With kindest regards, yours truly,

U. S. Gkant.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeUy. 369

Had a mere hint to this effect been given Judge Dent previous
to his letter of July 30th, he would have abandoned, or been aban-
doned by, the campaign against Radicalism. But the blow was
timed so as to bind and not to loose him from it. He protested
in a spirited but vain reply, exposing the President's change of
mind. He reminded him that he had by his decision "given the
hand of fellowship to the class he had foiled in their attempt to
force an odious and rejected constitution on the people of Missis-
sippi, and had spurned the other class who had accepted the Re-
publican invitation to stand on its platform and advocate its prin-
ciples in good faith." The protest availed nothing, the President's
surrender was as complete as it was inexplicable in its inconsis-
tency. To those who seek explanations of President Grant's
tortuous course at this period, it may be a help to bear in mind
that he was a man habitually dependent on, and subject to, per-
sonal influences, good or bad ; and that at this time he was losing
the council and prop of his "guardian angel," General John A.
Rawlins. His constant friend and war time chief of staff was a
man of strong individuality and inflexible resolution. While Grant
was weak in convictions of political and moral principles, Rawlins
was rock-built. He was the victim of a fatal malady and had
been fast failing since soon after his appointment as Secretary
of War. As his physical condition weakened. Radicalism, to
which he was in opposition, gained sway over the President.
This may have been merely coincidenccv but the theory is not im-
probable that had not Gen. Rawlins sunk under disease, Secre-
tary Boutwell would not have dominated the Cabinet, or pre-
vailed upon President Grant to abandon the position he took in
the first month of his administration. The lingering illness of
Gen. Rawlins terminated in death September 8th.

President Grant's Tarbell interview appeared in sinister con-
junction with the meeting in Philadelphia on the same day of the
Union League committee — the Republican Jacobin Qub — "to
make provisions for the Mississippi and Texas elections." The
resolutions of the meeting were not published, but the echoes
followed the next day, August 12th, in the removals of E. Jef-
ords of the state high court ; A. Warner, secretary of state ; Fred-
24

370 Mississippi Historical Society.

eric Speed, judge of the Warren criminal court, and a large tium-
ber of minor officials, supporters of the Democratic ticket, by
Adelbert Ames, military Governor. The ax of the President was
busy with the same timber, the resignation of Maj. JefT Wof-
ford, postmaster at Corinth, and G. Gordon Adams, United States
district attorney, being called for. The letter of the latter, an ex-
Union soldier and a man of established reputation for integrity
and courage, to the Pre.sident, read as follows :

Washington, August 10, 1869.
To His Excellency, U. S. Grant, President of the United States :

Sir — I respectfully tender my resignation of the office of at-
torney of the United States for the Southern District of Missis-
sippi.

Though the office is not of much importance, I cannot retain
it without being identified to some extent with an administration
whose acts, so far as they relate to my own State, I cannot ap-
prove.

Major Wofford, an officer of the late Rebel Army, who, in
deifiance of the contumely and reproach heaped upon him by the
Southern people, supported bravely and almost alone in his dis-
trict the reconstruction policy of Congress, has been removed
from office.

From the late approved published statement of your views, I
am justified in the belief that this is done in accordance with the
established policy of your administration. From the same sources
I learn of your confidence and support of General Ames, an offi-
cer who has degraded his position as Military Commander of the
Fourth Military District by exercising its functions solely in
furtherance of his own personal and partisan ends unhesitatingly
avowing that he desired to use tfte high office of Senator from
my State as a stepping stone to the appointment of Brigadier
General in the regular army and whose whole course in that State
has been marked by a tyrannical exercise of power utterly antago-
nistic to the spirit of the reconstruction laws. As a resident of
Mississippi, and one of the founders of the Republican party in
that State, though never a political aspirant, I would be false
to my State and to Republican principles which I have always
maintained, if I retained the office to which your kind prefer-
ence has assigned me.

I am very respectfully your obedient servant,

G. Gordon Adams.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. S'J'l

September 8th the national Republican convention met in
Jackson, and nominated Judge Dent for Governor. The other
places on the ticket were divided among the three elements com-
posing the Dent following* — the white and black Republicans and
the Democrats. The latter were given the offices of attorney
general and superintendent of public education. Gen. Robert
Lowry, a heroic Confederate soldier and one of the most popular
men in the state, was nominated for attorney general. A negro,
Thomas Sinclair, was placed on the ticket for secretary of state.
This nomination, which told of the humiliation and demoraliza-
tion that had spread over the state, was a double blunder. The
negro vote it was designed to attract was all solidified, through
the loyal leagues, and bitterly hostile to any member of the race
who stood with the whites. On the other hand the negro on the
ticket was felt by the whites to be the bitter water of the desert of
their wanderings. It made them refuse to see any difference in
the two Republican parties, and the stay at home vote loomed up a
great obstacle and supreme discouragement to the Dent ticket.
The next day. September 9th, the Democratic executive commit-
tee met and formally announced that the party would place no
state ticket in the field. Local organization was urged in support
of the Dent ticket, and to make naminations for legislature and
local offices and candidates for the various congressional districts.
Speaking announcements were made for Judge Dent, Gen.
Lowry and other nominees on the state ticket. Joint debates were
challenged and a fair division of time offered speakers of the op-
posing party. But in the rank and file there was apathy and dis-
content. This feeling took shape in the Canton convention, or
conference, which protested against running the Democratic or-
ganization for establishing a state Republican party.

The radical Republican convention met September 29th. It
was largely attended. The delegates were inspired by the confi-
dence of victory, which had grown up with the knowledge that
the administration support had been so openly declared on their
side. Gen. Jas. L. Alcorn was nominated for Governor by ac-
clamation. The ticket was, like the other, made representative
of its various constituents ; the northern new comers, the home

378 Mississippi Historical Society.

whites and the negroes — the latter being given the same place,
secretary of state, accorded by the Dent party. The platform- de-
clared for ratification of the constitution as exercised by the
President. Gen. Ames was quoted as declaring that "it was his
intention to carry the election against the Dent ticket if he had to
march his troops from precinct to precinct to efiFeot it." This dec-
laration was formally called to the notice of the President by
the chairman of the Dent executive committee. Ames entered
an evasive and general denial. Thereupon the charge was laid
before the President, with specifications and affidavit of those be-
fore whom the statement was made. An investigation was asked,
but the President took no account of the request and the incident
was closed.

The spectacle presented by the two tickets was a peculiar one.
In a supreme struggle against a party composed of negro voters
and led by Northern adventurers, the white people had for the
head of their ticket, a Northerner who was not even a bona fide
resident of the state. With an undying repugnance to recognition
of the negro as a voter they were pledged to vote a negro into
a high state office. The inconsistency of such a ticket was
matched, by having at the head of the one which had for its
cardinal principle negro political equality, a large and a typical
slave holder — one of the haughtiest of the class. As a prominent
and popular leader of the old Whig party, Gen. Alcorn had fig-
ured conspicuously in ante-bellum politics. He was a ready and
able debater and possessed many strong qualities of leadership.
Dominated by ambition and egotism above any fixed political
principles, he was just the man for the hour — to throw off the
thralldoras of traditions and castes, to subjugate pride of race,
and take up with the new order which promised him position
higher than he had won under the old. He had been a member
of the memorable convention which carried the state out of the
Union. Though an opponent of secession, when the ordinance
was presented he had given in his adhesion in a dramatic speech
announcing that "He had crossed the Rubicon and joined the le-
gions in the march on Rome." The heroic phrase proved only
figurative, as while possessed of high courage and eager for mil-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 373

itary glory, opportunity, or want of talent, failed to place him
in the van of any marching column. His war services were com-
prised in a short and rather inglorious campaign, the first year of
the war, at the head of a brigade of state troops. He failed in
seeking a commission in the regular Confederate service, and
was embittered by the denial, which he attributed to political hos-
tility and envy. The advent of reconstruction found him a vic-
tim of disappointment and resentment toward the broken leaders
of the Confederate cause. In the 1865 policy of propitiation of
the North, by selecting for leaders men who had stood aloof dur-
ing the strife of war, he was chosen as one of the state's United
States senators. From the first he favored compliance with the
congressional terms of reconstruction. And now that the de-
feat of the Democratic Presidential ticket had swept away all
opposition, his opportunity was come. It was a different "Rubi-
con" into which he now plunged. The "legions" he led upon
"Rome" were like the dissolute and servile bands of Catiline
rather than the true and tried soldiers who followed the fortunes
of Caesar.

The selection of the slaveholder as leader of the negroid party
was a shrewd play against the white liners led by a Northern Re-
publican. It was trick against trick, and as usual when honest
men are matched against tricksters, they are easy prey. The pol-
icy of both parties fixed the contest in the white counties. Organ-
ization and discipline through the oath bound loyal leagues had
fixed and solidified the big negro majorities in the black belt.
Hence the only hope of success for the Dent ticket lay in a full
white vote, and the persuasion of the negroes to stay away from
the polls in the white districts as in 1868. The prospect of
achievements on that line were not encouraging. Gen. Alcorn's
appeal to the whites was consummately artful and insidious. On
the stump he was at his best, as he had few equals in appealing to
passion and prejudice — in diverting attention from real to false
issues. His aim in this canvass was to turn thought away from
the odious and repugnant things with which he had identified him-
self, by exciting and vitalizing hostility toward the Democratic
leaders, for secession, war and ruin. While assailing the con-

374 Mississippi Historical Society.

duct of the war he incidentally aired his personal grievances, and
posed as a victim of Jeff Davis' animosity toward the Whigs. He
was replied to with utmost severity. His chief antagonist on
the stump was the Democratic nominee for attorney general,
General Robert Lowry. He did not mince words in arraigning
Gen. Alcorn for turning against his race and state. The press
of the state was sweeping and bitter in its denunciations. All the
charges that scorn and spite could suggest were rung on his pal-
try military career. But the leader of the "legions who were
marching on Rome" was not to be diverted from his line of
campaign. He had bargained high, and counted not the cost.
The public opprobrium his speeches aroused was such that few
men would have dared. But they served the end designed. While
winning the confidence of radicalism, they were equally effective
in promoting dissension among the white voters on the old party
lines. Blinded to the shackles of shame and spoliation behind Al-
corn's election, rein was given among the white voters to di-
vision and dissension on the old lines of party division, which he
drew with consummate cunning.

Judge Dent won the favor of his supporters by a canvass that
was marked by dignity and a right appreciation of his anomalous
position. His speeches did not lack force or manliness. Yet
while he won the good opinion of the thoughtful, it was impos-
sible to inspire hope or enthusiasm for his cause. His candidacy
never emerged from the cloud of discouragement by which the
President had overcast it. To further take the heart out of his
canvass the radical organ, the Pilot, announced that he was in-
eligible, and the certificate would be issued his opponent accord-
ingly, even if Dent received a majority at the polls. As military
governor Ames had this power, and his own chances for the
senate supplied the incentive. As he was restricted by no scruples,
the eflfect of such a scheme sprung upon an already distracted
party may well be imagined. Under the circumstances the mil-
itary despot and partisan could easily afford to promulgate a fair
election order — promising to both parties a show of representa-
tion in polling and counting the vote. But the registration books,
polling lists, ballots and returns were all to be sent up to head-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 375

quarters for tabulation and promulgation of the result. It was
perfectly apparent that it was designated to give the certificates
to the radical candidates. The unprincipled partisanship of the
military commander and the national administration left no hope
of defeating the radical ticket. The situation was reflected in the
insolence of the negro population. Race collisions, which no ef-
forts were made to prevent, grew to serious and dangerous extent
in a number of places. Dry Grove, in Hinds county, was ter-
rorized for days by a negro mob which robbed and insulted the
whites and murdered several. In east Mississippi, near Meridian,
a negro militia company held possession and exercised surveil-
lance over the little town of Newton for a week. Appeals to
Ames for relief were practically disregarded.

In Sunflower county the infamous rule of Ames caused a trag-
edy which caused extreme resentment. A negro agitator named
Combash, who had figured as a delegate in the black and tan con-
vention, surrounded himself with a marauding band of vaga-
bonds. Thus attended he campaigned in and demoralized the
plantations of Sunflower and adjacent counties. He thus be-
came an actual nuisance and menace. As in the Dry Grove in-
stance Ames pretended to interpose to suppress Combash. But
when the troops he sent to Sunflower returned without making
arrests the disorders were aggravated. When the situation be-
came unendurable a few of the leading citizens gathered to take
action for relief from it. A notice to Combash to disband his
gang being met with defiance, a race conflict ensued. A dozen or
so resolute men led by Dr. TuUy Gibson attacked and routed
them and in the fray several negroes were killed. Combash fled the
country and the disturbance ceased. The white leader at once
reported to Gen. Ames in person, offering himself for trial. He
was told to go back home and he would be notified if further steps
were to be taken in the matter. After some time had elapsed Dr.
Gibson had occasion to go from his plantation to the nearby land-
ing on the Yazoo river. When near there he met a squad of
soldiers. Quickly divining that they represented the "notice"
Ames had promised to send him, he turned his horse across the
road and challenged their purpose. He was told by the deputy
U. S. marshal in charge that he had a warrant for his arrest. Dr.

I

376

Mississippi Historical Society.

Gibson was a man of high spirit and resolute courage. His valor
had been proved on many battle fields. Outraged by the resort to
force when he had engaged to appear for trial whenever sum-
moned, apprehensive of personal indignities which he feared
more than death, he called to the officer that "he did not have men
enough to take him forcibly — to go back and get a regiment."
Perceiving that their man who was armed with a Winchester
rifle, meant resistance to the death, the squad was turned about
and marched back to the landing, with him following. Having
transacted his business Dr. Gibson rode home unmolested. The
next morning while sitting at breakfast with his wife, mother and
sister he saw the party of soldiers entering his gate. Taking up
a pistol he stepped out on the gallery and opened fire. Led by the
deputy marshal, a notorious bully named Gainey, all ran, leaving
two on the ground wounded. One instead of following his leader
and the rest out of the gate sought shelter behind the house.
This was not perceived by Dr. Gibson, who stepping in the house
to get his rifle, was fired on through an open window and killed.

The election was held as ordered in the president's proclama-
tion, November 30th, and resulted as pre-arranged. There was a
total vote cast of 114,283 — the head of the radical ticket polling
76,186, and of the conservative Republican 38,097. The total vote
was six thousand less than that of the year before, when Gov.
Humphreys beat the carpet bag candidate for governor 8,000
votes. All of the radical congressional nominees were elected,
and a large majority of the legislature. As S. S. Cox says in
Three Decades of Federal Legislation, "the result of the election
showed that President Grant's letter to Judge Dent had the de-
sired effect." With the adoption of the constitution the crime of
reconstruction was completed. Only the finishing touches of con-
gressional acceptance and radicalism remained to be done.

A great change came over the spirit of the whites. With that
quick recognition of the fact accomplished, and adaptation to
their terms and conditions, which marks the political genius of
the Anglo-Saxon race, the white people of the South accepted
the situation, with earnest and honest intent to make the best of
it. The task to which they set themselves was a hard one. It in

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 377

fact called for the performance of such impossible things as
making bricks without straw ; hardest of all, the duties of citizen-
ship called upon them to handle pitch and avoid defilement.
Whatever may be written to the contrary, it is the testimony of
this writing that the white people of Mississippi fairly and faith-
fully strove to find and develop political faculty in the negro, and
integrity in the carpet bagger. They tried to believe and to prove
that such elements could yield good government. There being
no turn in the lane visible, hoping against hope was the alterna-
tive of despair. The fate that compelled these delusions to be
hugged was harder than war and its ruin. The spectacle of a
people in such toils of social debasement and soul torment ex-
cited no compunction or compassion in the Northern people, con-
trolled as they were by leaders possessed of the twin devils of
partisan lust and sectional hate.

The "Loyal League" device of reconstruction malignancy and
ingenuity is thus described in a paper on "reconstruction in East
Mississippi," by W. H. Hardy — a prominent and patriotic white
line leader of that period :

The Loyal League was a secret, oath-bound organization, and
lodges were organized all over the country and every male negro
from eighteen to seventy years old, and every white man who
would take the oath, was eligible to membership. Only a few
white men became members, but nearly all the male negroes
within the ages stated, were initiated into its mysteries.

The initiation was, to the negro, very solemn and impressive.
They usually met on Saturday night at the cabin of some promi-
nent negro, or in some vacant outhouse. Armed sentinels were
posted on all the approaches to the house. In the center of the
room, which was rarely capable of holding one-fourth of the
number assembled, was placed a table, or old goods box, on the
center of which rested an open Bible, and a deep dish or saucer
filled with alcohol and myrrh, which was lighted ; above this altar,
so-called, was suspended a United States flag, and also a sword.
The candidate was Windfolded outside and was led in by the arm
and required to kneel at this "altar" and place his hands upon the
open Bible. The president of the League called upon the chap-

378 Mississippi Historical Society.

lain to pray. He invoked the divine blessing upon the "poor
benighted brother who was about to pass from the night of bond-
age in slavery into the marvelous life and light of freedom.
Sbor-t passages from the account of Moses leading the children
of Israel from Egyptian bondage were then read, when the can-
didate was catechised, something after this fashion — (a prompter
answered the questions, and the candidate was required to repeat
the answers) :

"What is your name ?"

"Jim Cruise."

"Are you a white or colored man ?"

"A colored man."

"Were you born free, or a slave?"

"A slave."

"Are you now a slave or a freedman?"

"A freedman, thank God."

"Who freed you?"

"Abraham Linkum, bless God!"

"Who helped him to free you?"

"The army and the Publican party."

"Who fought to keep you in slavery ?"

"The white people of the South, and the Democratic party."

"Who then are your best friends ?"

"The Publican party and Northern soldiers."

"Whom do you want to hold all the offices in this state and
govern it, make and execute its laws ?"

"The Publicans, the friends of the poor colored man."

"Suppose the Democrats carry the elections and get back into
power, what would become of you and all the colored people in
the state?"

"We would be put back into slavery. God forbid !"

All — Amen ! and amen ! !

An oath was then administered to the candidate which he was
required to repeat after the prompter :

"I, Jim Cruise, do solemnly swear on the holy Bible, in the
presence of God and these witnesses, that I will ever remain
true and loyal to the Republican party; that I will always vote

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 379

the Republican ticket; that I will keep secret all the signs, pass
words, and grip of the Loyal League ; that I will obey all the
laws, rules, resolutions, and commands of the League of which
I am a member; that I will forever reverence the name and
memory of Abraham Lincoln, the author and father of my free-
dom, and that I will observe and keep in holy remembrance each
anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and that I will
teach my children to do so. That I will never knowingly vote
for any Democrat for any office lest I be put back into bondage
and slavery. That I will never disclose the name of any mem-
ber of this League, or of any League of which I may become a
member, nor tell the place of meeting of the same; that I will not
testify against any member of this, or any Loyal League, concern-
ing anything done by the League or its order, or the order of any
of its officers.

"For a violation of this oath, or any part of it, for the first
offense, I agree to receive fifty lashes on my bare back ; and one
hundred lashes for the second offense; and for the third, to be
secretly shot to death by any member of the League appointed
for that purpose, so help me God !"

The blindfold is then removed and the candidate receives the
following lecture :

"My Brother : You have just been brought from the darkness
of bondage and slavery to the glorious light of freedom. You
behold above you the flag of freedom, beneath whose folds the
soldiers of the Union marched and fought; and the sword, the
implement with which they struck from your hands the chains
of slavery, and made you a free man. You behold on your left,
a pot of sweet incense which constantly rises toward heaven.
So let your gratitude, sweetened with humanity, and strengthened
with courage, ever ascend to God in acknowledgment of the
blessings of freedom."

"He was then invested with the grip, sign of recognition, pass
word, and sign and cry of distress."

The boundless influence of such a ritual over the negro will
readily be seen. Even fools who have railed out on the Southern
men of the period for "standing aloof," and not taking the freed-

380 Mississippi Historical Society.

men from the control of the carpet bagger will read the answer
to their folly in it. Backed up by the President and the army, the
"Loyal League" leaders were secure against all peaceable resist-
ance.

The idea of postponing the election that it might not interfere
with the cotton crop had worked ill. The excitement and dis-
turbance of the "Loyal League" organization and installations of
members produced universal industrial demoralization through-
out the summer and fall months. The condition led to agitation
and consideration of the proposition to introduce Chinese on the
-plantations to take the place of the negroes. A convention was
held in Memphis, in June, which adopted resolutions favorable
to the change. Meetings were held throughout the cotton and
sugar belts. The movement was arrested, however, by govern-
ment action. Secretary Boutwell, of the treasury, instructed
Collector Casey of the port of New Orleans to "use all vigilance
to prevent this new modification of the slave trade." Ministers
and consuls were directed to use their influence against the coolie
trade. In a speech in Vicksburg, August 27, 1869, Gen. W. R.
Miles described the Chinese laborer as he had seen them on a
mission to Cahfornia of investigation. He said: "I made ar-
rangements to send to China and to contract with as many as
transportation could be furnished for. Some eight or ten thou-
sand might have been obtained for the next crop. But just as
this arrangement had been completed Mr. Secretary Boutwell's
letter to the collector at New Orleans was published. This letter
seemingly forbids the coming to this country of any number of
Asiatics under contract for a term of years, and in consequence
the party who was to go out to China suggested that he could
not encounter the rfsk of the great outlay for chartering and
provisioning ships for these laborers so long as it was probable
or even possible the government would interfere with his deliv-
ering them in fulfillment of the foreign contract." It was fortu-
nate, perhaps, that this intended swap of the black devil for the
yellow witch was thwarted.

By proclamation December 20th the military governor called
the legislature to meet January 11th, 1870. The interim was en-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 381

livened by a whimsical disagreement between General Ames and
Governor-Elect Alcorn, over "special order No. 277," as follows:

"Headquarters 4th Military Division.

"Jackson, Miss., Dec. 23, 1869.
"The following named persons are hereby appointed to office in
the state of Mississippi:

"Jas. L. Alcorn, governor; Jas. Lynch, secretary of state, vice
Henry Musgrove, whose resignation is hereby accepted; Henry
Musgrove, auditor of public accounts, vice Thos. T. Swan, whose
resignation is here accepted; Jushua S. Morris, attorney gen-
eral.

"By command of

"Brevet Maj. Gen. Ames."
"Wm. Atwood, Aide de Camp."

This incident was enlivened by Governor Alcorn, who declined
the appointment in a letter of gallery play phrases. "The fitness
of things forbade his acceptance, coming as the appointment did
from the military authorities and subject for its support to the
military powers, while he held in immediate prospect the posi-
tion of civil governor by that sanction most acceptable to his in-
stincts as an American citizen, that of popular choice. I may
perhaps be indulged in the frank confession that under the fel-
lowship of error and chastisement by which I am bound to the
Southern people, I am constrained by an irresistible force of my
heart to draw back from lot or part in their government by any
other right than their own consent." This patriotic pose was
worse than sham — every line was a mock upon the verities. The
"popular choice" boast was but a stalking horse for the repro-
bated "military support," as the two governors and the public
knew. While the virtue assumed was too thin to impose on any,
it appealed to Alcorn's love for theatrical effects. The preten-
tious professions of devotion to the Southern people aroused
radical apprehensions and Democratic hopes, which both proved
illusive. The effect was not lost upon the governor's party lead-
ers,'who found a strong motive to elect him to the senate as a
riddance from the governorship.

The legislature was convened January 11th, 1870, as called by

382 Mississippi Historical Society.

the military governor. Its proceedings were restricted to the
preliminaries prescribed, of ratifying the 14th and 15th amend-
ments and electing United States senators. In character and
composition the body reflected the triumph of reconstruction, and
the debasement of the state. Of thirty-three senators, seven were
Etemocrats. Five were negroes, and the remainder carpet bag-
gers and native radicals. Of one hundred and seven representa-
tives, twenty-five were Democrats and eighty-two Republicans.
The black counties were represented chiefly by negroes. Warren,
Adams, Washington and other river counties were solidly black.
As a rule this was by agreement — the carpet baggers taking for
their share the places of profit and pelf. After organization, a
message was received from the military governor calling for the
ratification of the amendments, as prescribed. This was eflFected
January 15th. There were eight votes against the 14th amend-
ment and only one in opposition to the 15th. On its face the fact
of only one vote against the instrument of negro suffrage, which
the state had resisted so long and stubbornly, seems curious.
Trifling as the circumstance is, it was sufficiently consequential
as a reflection of opinion to call for explanation, which is simple.
In the South the struggle against radicalism had been fought
to a finish — resistance was not only subdued, there was an earnest
and widespread design to make the best of the negro citizenship
as prescribed by the reconstruction leaders. This feeling was
testified in the solid vote for the 15th amendment. At the same
time the Northern states were intensely worked up over the rati-
fication which would force the repugnant medicine on them which
the reconstruction laws had already forced down the Southern
throat. In effect the amendment only applied in the North, the
Southern states constitutions having incorporated what it pre-
scribed. For various reasons this was not regarded with positive
aversion in the South. In the first place it effected uniformity —
what was law for the South was made law for the North. When
it proved evil there would thus be the larger chance for repeal.
But mainly there was the motive of resentment for the pitiless
and malevolent policy of burying a war devastated land under a
load of outrage, wrong and humiliation from which there could

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 883

be no lawful extrication. That feeling generated a good deal of
satisfaction in seeing the poisoned chalice carried to the lips of
those who forced it on the South. By overwhelming majorities
the Northern states had rejected negro suffrage amendments to
their own state constitutions, while fixing the same on the South
by the bayonet. They had not calculated that while usurping
power over the South, the Republican party would coerce the
North. But so it resulted, for the Northern radical legislatures
felt compelled to ratify the amendment which congress demanded,
although the negro suffrage it imposed had been rejected by their
constituents at the polls. Thus it was that the Democratic minor-
ity of the Mississippi legislature of 1870 did not feel called on to
express disapproval of the amendment.

The election of United States senators resulted according to
the stipulations. Ames was rewarded with one of the seats for
the unscrupulous use of his authority and power as military gov-
ernor, and the other fell to Alcorn in consideration of his political
value as a Southern Republican. There was factious op-
position to Ames, and the Democratic minority voted for General
Lowry. The vote for Alcorn was practically unanimous. As
his termi did not begin until March, 1871, there was a short term
of a year to fill. After a heated contest it went to a Kansas
mulatto preacher, the Rev. H. R. Revels. The carpet baggers
did not concede the place willingly, but there were enough ne-
groes to make the refusal of the least of the three places trouble-
some. There was thought to be policy in giving a senatorship to
the slave race. And thus it was settled that each of the three
constituent elements of the Radical party were recognized in the
distribution of the Mississippi senatorships — the Southern rene-
gade, the Northern adventurer, and the negro. Having concluded
the labors allotted as preliminary to the state's readmission, the
legislature adjourned pending action by congress.

A bill for readmitting Mississippi to the Union was reported to
congress by Chairman B. F. Butler of the reconstruction com-
mittee February 3d. It was modeled after the act which the
President had approved a week before, restoring Virginia to rep-
resentation in congress. That act imposed other conditions than

384 Mississippi Historical Society.

those prescribed under the 14th amendment, which had sufficed
for the states already readmitted. The members of the legisla-
ture were required to take the iron clad oath, provisions
adopted to make the negro's right of voting more secure and irre-
pealable — to inhibit the state in future from changing its consti-
tution in this respect. On page 531 of "Three Decades of Fed-
eral Legislation," by S. S. Cox, is to be read that "there was a
proposition to impose other and harder conditions, but it is prob-
able that the presence of a man of African descent with a certifi-
cate of election as United States senator turned the scale in favor
of the bill" ; without the "harder conditions." In brief, the effort
was to take the state in on probation. As illustrated by Butler,
reconstruction was to be operated as a game of set-back euchre —
to set back the state to military rule if she misbehaved. The pol-
icy was thus stated by Senator Morton, in the debate which
raged fiercely for two weeks: "I think that the experience of
the last eighteen months has brought congress to the point that
we should declare that we accept of the legal consequences of
the doctrine of reconstruction. I know the common idea was,
without consideration, that when these states were once restored
to representation they passed entirely from under the jurisdiction
of congress and we were done with them. That was illogical as
experience has now shown. We must follow the doctrine of re-
construction to its consequences, and if necessary we must deal
with these states after they have been readmitted."

Three measures of readmitting Mississippi were proposed and
debated. The Democrats urged restoration without other condi-
tions than those required of the states already reconstructed. The
Republicans were divided between the Virginia act, and the Mor-
ton-Butler "harder conditions." From the latter the more cau-
tious, feeling that the limit of popular approval had been reached,
shrank, fearing a further strain upon the constitutional institu-
tion of a union of coequal .states. Thus the state was admitted
under the Virginia conditions. They were illogical and illusory,
as the future proved. The extremists detected the fatal weakness
of the reconstruction fabric, and that the prop provided in the
Virginia law was a delusion and a snare. It took but a few years

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 385

to verify their foresight. The easy overthrow of the negro car-
pet bag governments as soon as the mihtary support was with-
drawn, they would have guarded against, by reserving the power,
in the case of Mississippi, of "deahng with the states after they
were readmitted."

Discussion of the bill to readmit Mississippi elicited a signifi-
cant and interesting statement from Senator Trumbull, the chair-
man of the Senate judiciary committee, upon a motion to remit
the "harder conditions" that had not been exacted from the other
states. He said "the committee believed congress had no power
to impose such conditions ; that they have no binding force ; that
their effect is evil and evil only; that it is keeping up a distinc-
tion in regard to the states which could do no good and may do
much harm. I believe that when a state is entitled to representa-
tion in this Union it becomes one of the states of the Union, and
is a full and complete state with all in all respects."

The act restoring Mississippi to representation was passed Feb-
ruary 17th. Upon the request of her congressional delegation
President Grant delayed signing the act until February 23d. It
was provided that the legislature should meet the second Tuesday
after the bill should be adopted. By a war department order the
fourth military district ceased to exist February 28th. Thus the
second state to secede, Mississippi was the last, save Texas, to
be taken back in the Union. The circumstances and the manner
of her restoration left little disposition for rejoicing. While the
Morton-Butler plan failed, the relentless spirit displayed in the
debate, and through the radical press deepened the discourage-
ment and unrest of the Southern people over the future. The
war was five years in the past, but distrust and apprehension of
the test of the readjustments of peace hung like a pall over the
country. The last act of the military government was to remand
the famous and fateful case of E. M. Yerger, for killing Colonel
Crane, the military mayor of Jackson, to the state authorities.

The act restoring the state to representation being passed, the
representatives were sworn in. In the senate objections were
raised. It was contended that the certificate of the military gov-
ernor did not fulfill the legal requirements. In the case of the
25

386 Mississippi Historical Society.

negro, Revels, the motion to refer to the judiciary committee sig-
nally failed. The circumstance of a negro in the seat of Jefferson
Davis appealed powerfully to the imagination. It was greeted in
the North as the fulfillment of historic revenge, an event of
retributive justice, and as driving the iron in the very soul of the
old South. Senator Revels was in reality less a subject of humili-
ation and loathing than the election of the military despot who
had consummated the degradation. True, there were unsavory
publications concerning the Kansas mulatto, which had the effect
of making the knife of historic revenge cut both ways. To defeat
his admission the light was turned on his previous life. It was
published in the papers of the times that as preacher in charge of
a St. Louis church he had led a scandalous life. During a riot in
the church which he provoked his head was broken with a beer
bottle. He transferred his ministerial activities to Leavenworth,
Kansas, where he became involved with the church funds. Being
accused of appropriating $1,160, Revels sued one of his congre-
gation leaders for libel. The verdict went against him, and he
again changed his location. The New York Herald Washington
correspondent published that if Revels were a white man his
chances for admission to the senate would have been destroyed.
But a negro in the Jeff Davis seat was an appeal that rose above
everything. A celebrated correspondent of the time — replying to
those who spoke of Revels as a mere "thousand dollar Darky" —
said "I see in him a three thousand million darky. I hear in his
voice the thunders of Donelson, and Shiloh, and Vicksburg, and
Gettysburg, and in his footsteps the tread of mightier armies than
Napoleon marshaled for the conquest of Europe. The election
of Revels is the net proceeds of war and bloodshed. He repre-
sents the assets and liabilities of the four years' struggle. He is
the Union's fruits of union and victory, whereof we have heard
so much." There was truth in this rhapsody. But it was a truth
that mocked the sentiment to which it appealed. The "assets"
were worthless, while the liabilities linger a heavy incumbrance
and an insoluble problem. "The fruits of union and victory"
proved "dead sea apples."
A touch of bathos was given the incident by Senator Simon

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 387

Cameron, of Pennsylvania. It recalled to his memory, or imagi-
nation, a conversation with Jefferson Davis, when the Southern
senators withdrew from the senate, in 1861. He said that he told
the Mississippi senator that "when his seat was filled again it
would be by a negro." And then the Pennsylvania Simon re-
peated the "nunc dimittis" of that "just and devout" Simeon, who
exclaimed upon the coming of the Savior. "Now, Lord, lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen salva-
tion." Being written to concerning this revelation, a letter from
Mr. Davis was published denying that any such conversation had
been had with him. He wrote that "Senator Cameron made no
remarks to me at the time, of my withdrawal, other than the ex-
pression of good wishes." To this the explanation was made for
Mr. Cameron that he made the remark at a breakfast to which he
had been invited by Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis, in his letter, dated
March 23d, 1870, said : "Men had not then reached the degree of
stultification which caused the withdrawal of the states to be
called rebellion. And the only remark, so far as I know, made
by any senator which had the least partial bearing was the ex-
pression of Senator Hale, of New Hampshire, that "he expected
us all soon to come back." It is due Senator Revels, the soon for-
gotten cause of so much sentimental glow, that his brief sena-
torial career was unmarked by offensiveness or show of bitter-
ness toward the people of Mississippi. He was subsequently
appointed president of the state negro college by a Democratic
governor, and acquitted himself creditably in that position.

The case of Ames hung fire. As great as was the disease and
the disorder of the times, his title to the senatorship was repug-
nant to all sane and decent sense of right and propriety. Every
senator felt that he was making a record of violation and stulti-
fication of sense of duty and senatorial dignity in voting to admit
the holders of the following certificate :

"I, Adelbert Ames, Brevt. Major General U. S. A., provisional
governor of Mississippi, do hereby certify that Adelbert Ames
was elected United States senator by the legislature of this state
for the unexpired term which commenced on the 4th day of
March, 1869, and which will end on the 4th day of March, 1875.

388 Mississippi Historical Society.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused
the great seal of the state of Mississippi to be affixed this 25th
day of January, 1870. A. Ames,

Brevt. Major General U. S. A.,
Provisional Governor of Mississippi."

Under the pretext of his non-citizenship of the state, the judi-
ciary committee reported adversely to the right of General Ames
-tc a seat in the senate. This was hailed with great gratification
to the people of Mississippi. But the rejoicing was premature
and probably injudicious. It doubtless won votes for the object
of their detestation. While his case hung fire for quite a while,
he was finally admitted to his seat in the senate. The party lash,
and the desire to get rid of a nauseous dose by swallowing it,
outweighed the committee report. The dishonor of voting in the
holder of such a certificate was emphasized by the publication of
the following letter from the military governor of Texas :

"To the Texas Journal: As a response to unanimous applica-
tions to permit the use of my name as a candidate for the United
States senate I have the honor to request the publication of this
note: I am not a candidate for any civil position whatever, and
have never authorized the use of my name in such connection.
The proper discharge of my duties has required of me the per-
formance of many acts of a political character, but my conviction
of right and sense of propriety would preclude the acceptance on
my part of any political office at the present time, under existing
circumstances, at the hands of the legislature of Texas. I have,
to be sure, resided in the state with trifling exceptions for more
than three years, but this residence has been as an officer of the
2iTmy, charged in addition to ordinary dutie« of my profession,
with the reconstruction laws of congress. Nothing but the ex-
istence of an unprecedented emergency could warrant the govern-
ment in placing in the hands of a single individual the vast power
entrusted by these laws to district commanders. I doubt whether
a residence under such circumstances constitutes an inhabitant of
the state in the sense in which the phrase is used in the constitu-
tion of the United States. There are other matters pertaining to
the question, but I forbear to lengthen this note. I fully appre-
ciate the kindness of friends who would confer upon me this dis-
tinguished honor, but decline to permit the use of my name in
connection with any civil position.

"Very respectfully,

"J. S. Reynolds."

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 389

Gov. Alcorn's position was anomalous and somewhat ambigu-
ous. His relations with the white people of Mississippi were
peculiar and uncertain at this time. He was no mere renegade.
In accepting tTie lead of the piratical spoilers he had held himself
at a high valuation. A dignity that was inborn set off by an
imperious nature kept them at a distance in public. While there
had been bitter passages with the Democratic campaigners, he
had been extended a certain tolerance by his old Whig comrades.
Against judgment and evidence they had trusted his motives.
And now had the time of the test of their trust come on. The
result of the election had not been defeat simply, it was destruc-
tion of the Democratic organization. The situation left Governor
Alcorn a free hand, save for the constraints of his own views of
what was policy. He was to be governor for two years with the
patronage of every country office to dispose of. His full term
thereafter in the United States senate was fixed. Not unnaturally
there arose dreams, and expectations that his power would be in-
terpreted as an opportunity for recrossing the Rubicon — of serv-
ing the semblance of reconstruction as a cloak for the reality of
white rule. The thought took the shape of a scheme for raising
the dead — of restoring the ante-bellum Whig-Democratic party
lines. A letter setting out the plan was written the governor by
one of his old Whig friends. His reply, which was published,
showed that the appeal touched his vanity, which was large. But
it destroyed all hopes of a rehearsal of a Coriolanus role. He said
"if the Whigs came over to him they will do so in good faith as
members of the great Republican party of the state and nation.
. . . I certainly have no enemies to punish. I wish it dis-
tinctly understood, however, that I have on the other hand a
large number of friends to reward. ... I intend never to
abandon the man who stood by me in the day of trial. ... If
any further information on the points you and your friends raise
be necessary, for their guidance and yours I shall be happy to
give it without reserve." This was looked upon by the public
generally as a distinct, and a not unmerited, snub.

The legislature met Tuesday, March 8th, and Governor Alcorn
was inaugurated on the 10th. In his address he announced that

390 Mississippi Historical Society.

"the muse of history closes today a chapter of passion, bloodshed,
and social revolution, and proceeds to write down the facts of
this inauguration as the first event of a new chapter — a chapter
which with her pen of light she heads by halcyon words of peace
and hope." The message fairly bristled with pretentious phrases
and the personal pronoun "I." He lured himself with a glittering
array of economic generalities whose burthen was the exchange
of political abstractions to which the Southern statesmen of the
past were devoted, for the "Northern school of statesmanship,
the fosterage of material interests, presented to us on an occa-
sion of profound humiliation under the apple tree of Appomat-
tox." "The old constitutional parties of the country being dead,
. . . the propriety of this occasion does not, therefore forbid
my dealing with the two old parties of the South as freely as I
might with Egyptian mummies. The Democracy of the South
is seen to stand drawn up across the road of Southern progress."
He pronounced the dissolution of the dying Democracy as "a con-
summation devoutly to be wished by all those independent think-
ers who, though acting with it, fall not behind that capacity for
instruction which has raised the people of Austria from the
depths of crushing defeat. Who are the natural successors in
this state of the men whose statesmanship has been stamped by
the condemnation of war? What class of thinkers of the South
represent that of the North? Is it not the class which battled
against Southern theories?"

Environed as the state was by gloom and menace, kicking the
dead lion of Democracy was as besotted as it was ignoble. There
were few of the old Whigs so blind to the darkening realities,
or so gangrened by a dead partisanship, as to enjoy the statement
that the dissolution of the organization which alone fed the hope
of raising the state from a base rule, was a consummation de-
voutly to be wished. For the dissension it sought to spread
among the whites, the Governor's tirade against Democracy was
agteeable to the vultures he had led to the sack and spoil of Mis-
sissippi. The claim of the succession for the old Whigs excited
their derision. They had slain the heir and intended to own the
inheritance. In the exuberance of his fancy for mock heroics,

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 391

the Governor paid the following high flown tribute to the hour
and the man of destiny: "A son of American liberty, whose
heart is glowing with the blood of 1776, I may, therefore, be
pardoned for feeling struggling the first utterance on this occa-
sion the profound emotion with which I received from the hand
of a conqueror the crown of civil law that I bind, this blessed
hour, upon the queenly brow of Mississippi." The people of
Mississippi had small share in this "profound emotion." They
felt that they were simply swapping the devil for the witch. And
as for the carpet bag crew, it was fitting that the pearl cast before
them should be paste. At the very time of this boasted crowning
of the queenly brow of Mississippi, congress was debating and
the President was favoring a bill for the relegation of Tennessee,
Georgia and North Carolina to military rule; for suppression of
resistance of the whites of certain counties to outrage done under
such a "crown of civil law," as had been bound upon the "queenly
brow of Mississippi." In connection with the bill before congress
the passage in the Governor's inaugural recommending and urg-
ing provision for "a militia in the interest of a strong govern-
ment," aroused decided forebodings among the white citizens.
They knew by the deeds of violence and rapine perpetrated in
Arkansas, Tennessee and Carolina, what such a militia organi-
zation pointed to. They also knew, now, that Grant stood ready
to back up with Federal power any extent of rapine and outrage
by the Southern reconstruction Governors. He seemed embit-
tered by conscience stings, for his apostacy from conservatism. A
certain incident in connection with the death of Gen. George A.
Thomas reflected the extreme partisan rancor to which the Presi-
dent had surrendered. Being next in order of succession, when
another officer was appointed to succeed General Thomas, Gen-
eral Hancock, who had rejected radicalism with aversion, asked
an explanation. He had been Grant's most distinguished and
trusted corps commander in his 1864 campaign against Lee. But
it did not save him from the following offensive reply, through
General Sherman: "I am requested by the President to state
that there is nothing in your personal relations with General

392 Mississippi Historical Scx;iety.

Grant or in your official relations to his administration, that could
justify your promotion now, or lead you to expect it hereafter."

The new constitution provided that the terms of office of all
county, township and precinct officers expired on the day of the
signing of the act restoring the state to the Union, and the vacan-
cies were to be filled on that day, or as soon thereafter as possible,
by the Governor. Here lay a great leverage of power and influ-
ence, and the seeds of factional strife as well. In the dispensation
of patronage that followed, no higher motive was looked for, or
perceived, than to reward partisans and build up an Alcorn p^rty.
The first commission issued was the mayoralty of Vicksburg.
As the constitution did not specify municipal appointments, and
as the appointee was a carpet bagger and a stranger, it caused
bitter criticism. A factional line between Governor Alcorn and
the Ames, or carpet bag, element cropped out in the election of a
state printer. In the contest the Governor's candidate was
beaten. But the resolution declaring the result failed to receive
the executive approval and another election was required. The
issue threatened a party split. A levee of the negro members was
held at the executive mansion, and addressed by the Governor.
He appealed to them to stand by him and he would stand by them.
There was a compromise, however. The state printing job was
one of the most sought for prizes in the reconstruction states.
Its possibilities of pelf were too great to risk in a party contest,
so there was a compromise. The carpet bag investors in the
printing plant contented themselves with the business end of the
venture and the Governor was given the editor. Under this
arrangement there was smooth sailing, and the state footed the
bills.

An exciting incident of the period was the escape of E. M.
Yerger, who had killed the military mayor, Colonel Crane, the
year before. His execution under the sentence of a military
court having been averted by the U. S. supreme court, the case
had been made a pawn on the political chess board. At the
time of his escape he was waiting upon a long deferred applica-
tion for release under a habeas corpus application. The court
officials, in their transitory state, were afraid to try, or to release,

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily.- 393

him. When the information of his escape reached the legislature,
a resolution was introduced in the senate by the carpet bag sena-
tor from Yazoo, A. T. Morgan, requiring the governor to oflfer
a reward of $25,000 for his capture. One for $1,000 was pub-
lished and soldiers scoured the country for the fugitive. At the
end of a week he presented himself at the jail voluntarily, and in
a letter to the governor said he had no intention of evading trial.
The application for release on bail was soon after granted by
Chief Justice Shackelford. A resolution calling on the governor
to remove him was introduced by the same Senator Morgan. It
was referred to the judiciary committee, which reported adversely
on it, for technical reasons. Judge Shackelford passed out of
office in the meanwhile. His friends claimed he was not included
in the court of new judges because he released Yerger, while his
enemies said he released him because he had learned he would
not be reappointed. The excitement over a fatefuUy famous
case was intensified about this time by a like tragedy. In exe-
cuting an arbitrary arrest the military marshal of the city, Ser-
geant Tuck of the 16th infantry, who had been selected and de-
tailed for the position on a reputation for exceptional daring,
was shot and killed by an old and highly respected citizen of
Jackson.

The governor's judicial appointments formed the question of
chief interest in the beginning of his administration. It was not
one which he could dispose of with a free hand, altc^ether. The
senate, with its majority of aliens and negroes, had to be reckoned
with in the selection of "men whom society could not afford to
ignore." With this fact in mind it is to be recorded as truth that
the judges and chancellors, as a whole, came up to the measure
of expectation. With few exceptions they were old residents of
the state. Of the three supreme court judges, two were home
men of high standing, and one. Judge H. F. Simrall, was recog-
nized as among the leading lawyers of his day. One of the three
was an ex-Union soldier. While his rating in the profession was
not high, he was a man of integrity and reputable character. In
the drawing of terms, the long one, for nine years, fortunately
fell to Judge Simrall. Certain of the appointments of district

394 Mississippi Historical Society.

judges and chancellors were unfit. The river district above
Vicksburg was especially afflicted, though this was the result of
compelling circumstances and not the executive choice. He ap-
pointed the holding judge, B. F. Trimble, who was a lawyer of
superior ability. But his confirmation was defeated. C. C.
Shackelford, an old citizen of the state, but a non-resident of the
district, was then appointed. He at once passed under the influ-
ence of corrupt and partisan officials. Becoming estranged from
and despised by the bar and the citizens, he became an embittered
despot. The district was almost as unfortunate in its chancellor.
The governor appointed his brother-in-law, Chancellor Harmon,
a lawyer of ability and a graduate of the state university. But
he soon resigned and left the state. He was succeeded by E.
Stafford, the editor of the state organ. He was without profes-
sional standing or capacity, and his appointment burlesqued the
governor's announcement that he would give the state a judiciary
of men "learned in the law above his fellows, and whom society
could not afford to ignore." No other district was so afflicted in
its judges, though the Natchez district circuit judge, A. Alder-
son, was in the Shackleford-Stafford class.

As to Governor Alcorn's selections for the county officers, they
beggar description. It is not enough to say that not the slightest
regard was bestowed on the popular wish, or the qualification
of his appointees. All of the pride in choosing capable men, or
care of appearances, was exhausted in the judiciary. In the rest
there was no other thought than to reward or create personal
followers. Not even residence was considered. Bonds of straw
were the rule. Men were appointed to important offices in coun-
ties where they were utter srtangers, just as Ames had done.
Raymond, of Hinds, was made sheriff of Warren, and Lake, of
Warren, was appointed sheriff of Hinds. Negro justices of the
peace and supervisors were common in the black counties. Quite
a number were made sheriffs, clerks of the courts, treasurers and
assessors. The sheriff's offices of Bolivar and Washington coun-
ties were disposed of under circumstances that index the motive
of selections. Governor Alcorn appointed a personal friend,
General P. B. Starke, to the former county. But the carpet bag

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily, 395

incumbent and applicant, one of the shrewdest and most resource-
ful of his class, secured an adverse vote in the senate on his con-
firmation. He subsequently stipulated with the Governor for the
better paying county of Washington. He was informed that this
had been promised to Doctor Stites, a negro member of the
house, who had "stood by the Governor." Webber thought he
could fix that. He was told by the Governor that if he could do
this satisfactorily to Stites he could have Washington county.
The two called at the executive office together and informed the
Governor it was all fixed satisfactorily, and Webber's commis-
sion was issued accordingly as sheriff of a county where he was
a total stranger. He afterwards boasted that he had procured
an office worth $20,000 a year by a cash outlay of $200. In the
six years that he was sheriff, and deputy of a negro, he robbed
Washington county of not less than $200,000 — probably leading
all the rest in the amount of his gains. The people of Greenville,
the capital of Washington county, were made to drink of the cup
of shame and humiliation. To head off the complete Africaniza-
tion of their government, the white men joined with the moderate
and inoffensive radicals, black and white, in petitioning for a
ticket made up of that element. It did not contain the name of
a single Democrat. The mayor asked was a supporter of the
Governor. The white signers of the petition included some of
his oldest and most devoted friends. He gave the town a govern-
ing board with a majority of negroes, and a negro marshal. The
consequence was several years of misrule, of disorders and rob-
bery.

Extreme dissatisfaction and distrust prevailed among the tax-
payers of the levee district comprising the three counties of Boli-
var, Washington and Issaquena. Before the war the entire Mis-
sissippi Delta had been incorporated for overflow protection. But
the district formed was dissolved in war's ruin. The task of re-
building the broken and wasted levees with slaves emancipated,
plantations overburdened with debt, and a shifting, demoralized
labor system, seemed so hopeless that all of the counties save
those named shrank from it. They were incorporated with power
to issue a million dollars of bonds for levee building, in 1865.

396 Mississippi Historical Society.

Under a board composed of the most responsible planters, with
Gen. S. G. French, of Washington county, for president, there
had been issued half a million of the bonds authorized, and the
proceeds expended in levees, up to May, 1869. The revenues of
the district had been judiciously and economically applied. There
was no popular complaint or dissatisfaction, and the board's ad-
ministration had been warmly approved by General Gillem. In a
purely partisan spirit the commissioners and other board officials
were removed by Gen. Ames, the district placed under a board
with a majority of unworthy and dishonest members.

Then ensued an administration of waste and corruption which
became so scandalous that the Washington county commissioners
resigned. Governor Alcorn's attention was called to the situation.
It was shown that the Ames board had in a little over a year sold
bonds in excess of the legal limit by over $200,000. In four years
of the French bo^rd there had been paid out a total for salaries
and commissions of $47,861. In one year and four months their
successors had expended on the same account $52,825. The gov-
ernor promptly and properly removed the commissioners and
appointed a board with half its members representative planters.
^ A bill legalizing the excessive bond issuance was vetoed in a mes-
sage which severely arraigned the Ames board. So far the gov-
ernor's action was heartily approved by the taxpayers. He went
further, however, and attacked the law of 1865 and the system of
overflow protection it devised. The cotton tax was not only pro-
nounced to be in conflict with the governor's views of sound pol-
icy, but, usurping the provision of the courts, he declared it
unconstitutional. This went far to do away with the popular
approval of the arraignment of the board's record. While the
validity of the cotton tax, which alone could be depended on for
a levee fund, was not affected, the attack upon it impaired the
district credit and depreciated the bonds.

^Governor Alcorn saved the taxpayers of the state, and espe-
cially the black districts, from a deep laid scheme of robbery,
under cover of a bill "to provide for a general system of railroad
incorporation," which he vetoed June 20th. It provided for vot-
ing and issuing bonds by municipalities and counties, to select

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 397

groups of irresponsible paper promoters of wild cat roads. "You
give in trust," reads the message, "for two years absolutely and •
for ten years provisionally, all the hopes of railroad development
in strips of twenty miles wide through the state, to men you hold
subject to no duty, to no test of financial responsibility. Under
the bill before me any party of five may sketch out a railway sys-
tem for a large area of the state." Upon commencement of any
five mile line, within two years from the incorporation of any
such party of five, and any sort of completion of the line in ten
years, "the company will have acquired without any condition
whatever of construction, or otherwise, an absolute right to pre-
clude the construction of any road within the scope of its network
of branches for the whole term of its corporate existence— ninety-
nine years." Only by the aid of the solid Democratic minority,
and the force of the appointing prerogative, was this iniquitous
measure beaten.

Another equally praiseworthy veto, of a printing bill, was cred- '
ited to the Governor July 1st. The bill was twofold of design.
One object was to starve out the Democrat local press by requir-
ing all official publications to be made in certain named "loyal" pa-
pers— one in each circuit court district. In anticipation of such a
bill, which was authorized under the constitution, papers with no
other chance or expectation of life, than forced patronage, had
been established all over the state. In the most of these mush-
rooms some member of the legislature was interested, "the howl
that was raised when the bill was disapproved by the Governor
may be imagined. A strong but vain effort was made to build up
a vote to carry it over the veto. The incident contributed largely
toward estranging from the Governor the leaders of his party,
with whom he had never been in complete unison.

On the 21st of July the legislature adjourned, having bestowed
on the state a system of governmental extravagance beyond com-
parison with all before it. The highest cost of the legislative
department in any session before 1870 was that of 1855-60, which
was $77,567. That of 1870 was $258,400. The executive depart-
ment cost from May, 1867, to May, 1868, was $20,571 ; for 1870,
including $50,000 secret service fund, $74,200. Public printing

398 Mississippi Historical Society.

from May, 1865, to May, 1868, was $18,675 ; for 1870, $52,876.
The cost of property assessment from May, 1867; to May, 1868.
was $28,066; for 1870 $175,000. These figures illustrate
the increase in all the departments and offices, state, county and
municipal. They are taken from page 371, report of the joint
select committee to inquire into the condition of the late insurrec-
tionary states, made to congress February, 19, 1872. After ad-
journment the Democratic legislative majority issued an address
to the people of the state. In this it was said, "our efforts were
necessarily confined to preventing unjust legislation. Although
we have no brilliant triumphs to record, we yet feel warranted in
claiming that our influence for good has not been entirely unfelt.
. . . By firmness and unanimity of action, and at the same
time by conciliation, we have to some extent checked the mad
career of the majority. Many harsh measures have been enacted.
Many grievous burdens have been placed on the people. Many
iniquitous schemes have been consummated. Taxation is vastly
increased. A costly school system has been legislated into exist-
ence, looking mainly to the white property owners for support,
while the whites are virtually excluded from participation in its
benefits. In this and other measures of the radical party its lead-
ers have aimed to compel social equality between the races re-
gardless of natural distinctions and the time honored uses of
society based upon them. . . . Claiming to be representative
of the people, a radical legislature has postponed an election of
county officers ... to retain their terms of office for their
retainers and partisans." This address closed with an appeal for
recognition of the great responsibility resting upon their constitu-
ents and fellow citizens "to shield the state from the fate marked
out for her in the examples of our sister Southern states. No
middle course is left between decided action on the one hand and
prolonged degradation on the other." The closing passage quoted
was meant to close up the divisions among the whites which liad
been caused by attraction to Alcorn, the home radical candidate,
and repugnance to Dent, the non-resident conservative.

The most evil act, in principle, of the session of this legis-
lature, was the one to organize the militia of the state. Recog-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 399

nizing the weakness of the government resting upon negro
suffrage, and created under protection of Federal bayonets,
i€ was designed to supply the place of that prop by a state
military organization. This had been resorted to in other
Southern states and with atrocious results in Arkansas,
the Carolinas and Tennessee. Under Governors Clayton,
Holden and Brownlow certain counties had been harried
into serious revolt. They had been invaded by militia and the
people subjected to brutal outrage. Many had been driven into
exile or murdered. In South Carolina, Governor Scott had or-
ganized a negro militia force which had threatened race war. In
spite of these examples Governor Alcorn had, in his inaugural,
urged "the establishment of a militia in the interests of a strong '
government." The power conferred on the commander-in-chief,
the Governor, by the measure enacted, was a menace to all gov-
ernment of law. All persons within military age were required
to be listed by the county assessors and organized into companies,
regiments, brigades and divisions. Within and independent of
this general provision, it was enacted that companies might be
formed by "voluntary enlistment." But such organizations might
be disbanded by the Governor, or abolished by the legislature, and
were subject to the orders of the regular militia brigade com-
manders. The cloven foot of the law was in section 35, authoriz-
ing "the commander in charge to organize and equip not to exceed
one regiment of cavalry, to be composed of not more than twelve
companies, and one battery of artillery, of not more than six
pieces for each division." Coupled with an executive contingent
fund of $50,000, the menace to the liberties and lives of the citi-
zens in such a provision is apparent. It was a device of absolute
despotism. There was no condition, no disorder or violence to
furnish excuse for a law so repugnant to the principles and insti-
tutions of a republic.

This law, so pregnant with evils, was urged by Governor Alcorn
in the knowledge that he would in a year turn it over to a carpet .
bag successor. While the abhorrent uses provided were not ful-
filled, the following from an article in the administration organ —
when personal hostility to the Governor by members of his party

400 Mississippi Historical Society.

threatened defeat of the militia bill — exposes the partisan calcula-
tion in it : "The militia bill cannot be placed in abeyance, for the
carrying of one state in the West by the opposition is all that is
necessary to influence the passions of Democrats to a point at
which it might become wise to back the power of the government
by preparation for physical force." In this will be perceived an
insidious appeal to a government of predatory aliens to make hay
while the sun shone — to prepare for holding their ill-gotten power
by force. The militia law was coupled with another quite as
vicious in principle. While the state had not been wholly free
from violence theretofore, up to the time the legislature adjourned
the secret order known as Ku-Klux was a myth within the
state. But the fame of its deeds in other states against
radical oppression had spread abroad. And taking time by the
forelock the legislature passed an act providing severe punishment
for any one convicted of appearing in public, or prowling or
traveling in any mask or disguise. The Ku-Klux had first ap-
peared in middle Tennessee, as a protection from the outrages of
Brownlow's militia. He had issued a proclamation that his
troops would not be punished for what they should do to rebels.
And taking advantage of this license all manner of crimes were
perpetrated by the militia and the negroes, who were thus incited
to robbery, murder and rape. While the order spread to the east-
ward— in the Carolinas, Alabama and Georgia — it did not organ-
ize in Mississippi, where there was no such provocation for it,
until the latter part of 1870.

The white men of the state were greatly discouraged and de-
pressed by their environments, and prepared to submit to a great
deal of humiliation and wrong from their government. But
there was a resolute spirit under the submissions. It was de-
termined for one thing that there should be no repetition in Mis-
sissippi of such militia outrages as had been inflicted on other
states, without resistance to the last degree. To meet lawfully
the evil intended under the militia law, white companies, consti-
tuted of ex-Confederate soldiers chiefly, were promptly formed,
throughout the state, under the provision for "voluntary enlist-
ments." They chose company officers and tendered their services

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 401

to the Governor. The move was one that was not counted on, and
notice was served on such organizations by the adjutant general,
who was also Governor Alcorn's private secretary, that "while a
partisan spirit will not be permitted in the militia, the force must
be true to the cause of law and order. The primary conditions
of the organization impresses the Governor with the conviction
that he must see to it that officers shall not be men so blinded by
political passions as to render a faltering obedience to that sub-
ject of the reverence of all good citizens — the lawful authority
of 'the powers that be.'" The circular containing this hint was
followed up by a statement published that the Governor would
not recognize the white volunteer organizations, which were ob-
viously designed as protection against the force contemplated in
the law. But their prompt formation carried a lesson that was
not lost on the state's alien rulers. Alcorn appointed officers of a
character that would not "falter in obedience and reverence to
the powers that be." They were thus sketched in a state news-
paper (Vicksburg Herald) account:

"Divers eminent rogues are nominated as major generals.
Others less eminent, though not less roguish, as brigadiers. Still
less widely known patriots as majors and colonels. And on the
heads of the riff raff generally descends a bounteous share of cap-
tains, commissaries and corporal's warrants. All this hierarchy
and the scum forming the rank and file are to be clad in United
States uniforms and made to resemble as closely as possible the
United States artillery sent into North Carolina by President
Grant. . . . Fruitful as war is in diabolical inventions, the
great strife between France and Prussia has developed no such
scurvy novelty as Alcorn's 'sedentary militia.' "

Education of the negro children was a cardinal tenet of Radical
politicians. Their professed theory was that book learning alone
was needed to qualify and capacitate the enfranchised race for all
the duties and responsibilities of equality in citizenship. In fact,
with the carpet bag legislator, a lavish scheme of common schools
was the strongest card for winning the negro vote — of building
an impassable wall between that vote and the old white citizens.
Thus the law passed by the legislature of 1870 provided extrava-
26

402 Mississippi Historical Society.

gantly for the common schools. Building school houses was one
of the main "pulls" for plundering the taxpayers. There was, of
course, no requirement for separate race schools. Many, prob-
ably most, of the county superintendents in the black counties
were negroes from the North. Still there were no mixed schools.
This was recognized by carpet baggers and negroes as impossible.
Out of this recognition on the one hand, and the contradiction
that would lie in writing the words "white" and "black" in the
law, a modus vivendi was agreed upon and provided. It was
made the duty of the county school directors of any district "to
establish an additional school in any sub-district thereof, when-
ever the parents or guardians of twenty-five children of legal
school age residing therein made written application for estab-
lishment of the same." This device worked satisfactorily until
the time came for the situation and all of its accessories to
change. In the meantime there was no eflfort to force mixed
attendance — the negroes had the regular schools and the whites
the "additional." There was a disquieting report that the new
board of university trustees would direct the admission of negro
students. In consequence of the report a letter was addressed to
the chancellor of the university asking what action would be
taken, if application for such admissions were made. A reply
signed by the whole body of professors was published, in which
it was announced that no negro students would be entered in the
university, and if the board of trustees made an issue of the mat-
ter they would resign rather than yield upon it. A copy of the
correspondence being sent to the Governor, he gave out a long
and curiously involved reply, concluding as follows :

"University education for the colored people is, you are aware,
held by one political party in the state, a question simply of time.
On the other hand, you must know also that another political
party in the state scouts university education for the colored
people as an absurdity; the appearance of feeling which the in-
quiry of Judge Hudson has brought out unnecessarily in the an-
swer of the faculty, leads me to doubt for the first time, the pres-
ent accomplishment of my profound wish to raise our university
education out of the injurious influences of party politics. While

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 40?

I staJid firm in my anxiety to maintain the university of Oxford,
a subject of lionorable tradition of my own race, my conscience
would forbid, even though my ability could compass, its main-
tenance as such, if its administrators should be found from time
to time, outside the sphere of their high and honorable duties,
holding langiiage inspired by the passions of race or party. The
affections of many of the brightest intellects that adorn Missis-
sippi cluster around your institution; but I must caution you
those affections will be stung with grief as surely as tomorrow's
sun will rise, if the trustees and faculty fail in the duty of purg-
ing its halls of the old vice that has haunted them so long— politi-
cal faction.

I have the honor to be, with assurances of the highest regard,
Your very obedient servant,

J. L. Alcorn.

P. S.^ — ^The governing party of this state is committed directly
and by inference to the maintenance of the university of Ox-
ford ; it is so committed in its acceptance of my messages ; it is
so committed in its policy on public education ; it is so committed
in the men by its own act and concurrence to administer the
affairs of the university as trustees. If any doubt can remain
after all of this as to the intention of retaining the university for
the whites, then tell the doubters to await legislative action in
the matter of establishing a similar school for the use of the peo-
ple of color.
Dr. J. N. Waddell, Chancellor Oxford University.

The courage to practice what they preached was not wholly
wanting from the carpet bag law makers of the state. It was dis-
played signally by one of the leaders. Senator A. T. Morgan, of
Yazoo, who at the close of his legislative labors caused a signal
sensation by marrying a colored woman. The ceremony was per-
formed by one of the numerous negro preachers of the legisla-
ture. In a notice of the affair, published in a Jackson paper, it
was stated that after visiting his parents, Senator Morgan and
bride would join his friend, Senator Ames, and bride, in a North-
ern tour. The incident was a subject of national note. There
was a song much in vogue at the time, which was known as "Shoo
Fly." A paper published in the home of Morgan's parents closed

404 Mississippi Historical Society.

an abusive and derisive notice of his wedding by the following im-
provisation of a famous ditty:

There's nigger in the air,

I see him on the wing,
There's nigger everywhere

I hear the angels sing.

O sober nig and tight,
O nigger high and low,

O nig, nig left, and nig, nig right
•. And nig wherever we go.

t>.,: , Shoo Fly!

Another ripple was caused on the surface of events in the first
session of the Hinds circuit court. The grand jury having before
it the appearance bonds of E. M. Yerger, the slayer of military
mayor, Colonel Crane, and of George E. Sizer, who had killed
military marshal, Sergeant Tuck, was in doubt about indicting
the former, as he had already been tried by the military court.
Under a peremptory order from Circuit Judge Brown an indict-
ment was found for manslaughter. While an order to a grand
jury was a shock to all who preserved respect for the institutions
of law, it was consistent with a deeply diseased period.

In his melodramatic and bombastic inaugural address Governor
Alcorn had said: "From me individually the colored people of
Mississippi have every reason to look with a profound anxiety
for the realization of their new rights. In the face of memories
that might have separated them from me as the wronged from
the wronger, they offered me the guardianship of their new and
precious hopes, in a trustfulness whose very mention stirs my
nerves with emotion. In response to that touching reliance, the
most profound anxiety with which I enter my office as Governor
of the state, is that of making the colored man the equal before
the law of any other man — the equal not in dead letter, but in
living fact." In the redemption of this pledge to make negro
equality a "living fact," and to build himself a leadership upon
the shifting sands of a negro following. Governor Alcorn had
outraged the rights as well as the sentiments of his own people,

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 405

in the appointment of a horde of venal and ignorant negroes to
office.

While less avaricious than their carpet bag allies, the negroes
were more shameless and offensive. It was not long before the
Governor was confronted by the evil fruits of a wretched policy,
in reports of their abuses of authority and peculations. Lawless
acts and offensive displays of authority by negro police officers,
were only prevented from spreading to race conflict by the
mingled forbearance and resolute temper of the severely tried
white people. Two of his "living facts" gave a particularly
satirical color to the Governor's emotional rhetoric. These were
Jno. D. Werles, state librarian, and W. H. Furniss, circuit clerk
of Warren county, negroes. Shortly after the legislature ad-
journed they were detected in carrying on a thriving trade in
library books. In their generosity one set of Mississippi reports
was presented to Professor Langston of the Howard negro col-
lege at Washington, the alma mater of the firm. A lot of books
were recovered from the trunk of Senator Morgan, the miscege-
nationist. As librarian, Werles was ex-officio custodian of the
capitol, and sold off the metal fixtures about the building, includ-
ing the two bronze eagles on the entrance gates. The pair of
rascals were removed from office, but there was no further pun-
ishment, as at this time official stealing was rife all over the state.
Werles simply transferred the scene of his activities to the Wash-
ington county court house. He was a most gifted court clerk,
and thief, and in the ensuing years proved himself invaluable to
the carpet baggers in their plunder of the county. Another sensa-
tion was caused by the exposure, by the attorney general, of an
attempt on the part of the state superintendent of education to
engineer a gigantic school book robbery. But the scheme was
simply changed from a wholesale to a retail swindle, through the
county superintendents.

The congressional elections of 1870 were looked to with more
of hope than expectation of relief. The disappointments attend-
ing the results in 1866 and 1868 had taught the South that the
Northern majorities were thoroughly committed to the radical
policy of humiliation and punishment. While there was no doubt

406 Mississippi Historical Society.

that when made aware of the base workings of that policy there
would be a revolt at the polls, the lesson had not yet been learned.
There was no sign of reaction in the proceedings of the congres-
sional session, which had been expressed in virtually compulsory
adoption of the 15th amendment, and the extremely harsh and
prescriptive act for its enforcement. This was shaped and fin-
ished after extensive debate and approved May 31st. The law
made it a misdemeanor and punishable by excessive fine and im-
prisonment to "prevent, hinder, control or intimidate or to at-
tempt to hinder, etc., by means of bribery, threats, or threats of
depriving of employment, occupation or ejectment from houses,
lands, or other property, or threats in renewing labor contracts or
leases ; any one from exercising or in exercising the right of suf-
frage, to whom the right was secured or guaranteed by the 15th
amendment. The intent of this act, as declared by historian Jas.
G. Blaine, was "to protect the right of every man to vote, and was
enacted with especial care to avert the dangers already develop-
ing against free suffrage ; to prevent the dangers more ominously
though more remotely menacing it." The endeavor to build a
citizenship of popular government upon such despotic contriv-
ances for keeping the white race in order, could only have been
conceived in the madness and the blindness of sectional partisan-
ship and spite. The very assumption of the necessity for such
safeguards of the right of suffrage was a confession of impoten-
cy. It was as void of wisdom and foresight as damming the
stream without provision for the flood and its fury which the ob-
struction but intensified. But it none the less proclaimed the
continued ascendancy of the passions of war, which five years
had not seemed to abate. During this whole congress other
measures for disciplining and dragooning the Southern states
were debated — measures which President Grant's readiness to
furnish troops to their governors rendered unnecessary. The
Georgia case was an especial provocation of sectional wrath. The
action of the legislature of that state, in the expulsion of the ne-
gro members and the rejection of the 15th amendment by the
white majority, had exposed the rottenness of the reconstruction
fabric. An act had been promptly passed prohibiting the exclu-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 407

sion of members of the legislature on account of color. Georgia
was thrust back into the outer darkness until the legislature had
been re-assembled and revoked the expulsion of the negroes and
the rejection of the amendment.

In the election of 1870 Mississippi had no part. As the legis-
lature had refused to provide for selections of local officials by
popular choice, the voters had no opportunity of "turning the
(appointee) rascals out." By a convenience of construction, and
a mere certificate from Gen. Ames, it was held that congressmen
elected the year previous had been chosen for the ensuing full
term as well as the piece of one. Partisanship was at fever heat
in the North in the election. President Grant showed an alarming
readiness to use troops about the polls. In New York advantage
was taken of certain signs of turbulence, and five thousand troops
were ordered to the city. This menace was met by an order of
the Democratic Governor for ten thousand state troops to concen-
trate there. The President also ordered troops to Philadelphia
and Wilmington, Delaware. As far as their numbers would permit,
the Southern garrisons were distributed at the larger negro voting
precincts. The President's action was severely assailed in the
ensuing messages of the Governors of both New York and Penn-
sylvania. In Louisiana there were a number of riots, and some
bloodshed. Two signal results of the election was the complete
redemption of Alabama from radicalism, and the failure of the
Republicans for the first time since 1861 to secure a two-thirds
house majority. But this failure which would have changed the
whole course of legislation in the previous administration was of
no consequence under one in full sympathy with the radical ma-
jority. This proved as implacable as ever when congress as-
sembled. An ill-timed resolution in the senate for restoration of
Ar]in<^tcn to Mrs. R. E. Lee caused the leaders to vie with each
other in firing the Northern heart by denunciations of Southern
traitors. Senator Sumner said he was present when Secretary of
War Stanton issued the order for a soldiers' cemetery at Arling-
ton; "for the purpose, as Stanton said, of forever prohibiting its
restoration to the Lee family." There was no recommendation of
a general amnesty in the President's message, which had been

408 Mississippi Historical Society.

revoked when proclaimed by Andrew Johnson two years before.
It was published that the President had intended including such a
measure in the message, but had forgotten to do so while writing
it. He remembered, however, to assail "the states lately in re-
bellion" for denying "in exceptional cases," a free exercise of
the elective franchise, and "thereby reversing the verdict of the
people." In the first half of the session a number of proclama-
tions were issued denouncing lawlessness in the South — disorders
produced by corrupt and tyrannical rule. The President exhibited
his hostility toward the South by a message of exceeding in-
justice to her people. This was a list of "outrages" committed,
made up from reports on file in the war department. While cov-
ering the whole period from the close of the war, omission of
dates left an impression of recent occurrence and Southern sav-
agery extremely prejudicial to a sorely beset section. The pur-
pose of such a message was revealed in another enforcement act,
creating Federal, and partisan, election control through supervi-
sion of the polls. This was aimed as much at Northern Demo-
cratic cities, as at the Southern states.

The state legislature met on the first Tuesday of January, 1871.
There was quite an addition to the Democratic minority, as there
had been an election, Dtecember 20th, to fill near twenty vacancies
caused by appointments of members to judgeships, etc. All
white counties and districts returned Democrats, Lowndes, a black
county, also elected a Democratic representative. The legislature
and the public were treated to a characteristic message from Gov.
Alcorn. He welcomed the law makers "to do what remains to be
done of the work of reconstruction. * * * Evil auguries had
anticipated your last assemblage. They are hushed now into a
silence more ready to do you justice. And the humbling of past
injustice is but due to our fair deserts. Many of your enactments
did not, it is true, meet my own convictions of policy and right,
where I felt my deference for the opinion of your honorable
bodies confronted by my allegiance to a vital principle. I owe you
the tribute of the confession that you were ever ready to pay gra-
cious courtesy to my conscientious dissent. But taking as a
whole the product of our official concurrences as embodied in the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeUy. 409

laws of 1870, I owe you the duty of declaring that, when it is
remembered that you came together at the bidding of a revolu-
tion; that several had but just been inducted into freedom when
you were called on to legislate ; that very many of you, though
free from birth had had no experience in the affairs of govern-
ment ; and that but comparatively few of you had ever sat in a de-
liberative assembly, you showed in the work of last session a mod-
eration and wisdom highly creditable." * * * Precedent
would teach me to devote myself here to discussion of principles
of government. The speculative statesmanship of the South hav-
ing had its day and result, I feel it my duty to direct your consid-
eration to, solely, the urgent questions our own direct interests
* * * of gathering up and rebuilding whatever those ob-
stacles may have left us." To illustrate what was left to build
upon, the governor had prepared at very great labor and incorpor-
ated in his message a mass of statistics showing the decline in
values from 18G0 to 1870 — taking a group of counties for his
theme. "The picture," he said, "is one that no man of right feel-
ing could contemplate without a sense of the melancholy." But
the material decay was more than offset, the message argued by
"encouragement to men who doubted the practicability of edu-
cating the great body of our labor to the moral level of freedom."
To sustain this view the issuance of marriage licenses to negroes
was cited; the number of negro churches; of negro preachers
and of teachers of schools ; of shops and stores kept by negroes.
Here was found "a direct rebuke to the despondent." Industrial
statistics occasioned in the governor "a pleasure hardly less than
surprise." He found "the most surprising evidence of negro
thrift. * * * The industry and thrift of the negro is devel-
oping with extraordinary rapidity the production of a mass of
property owners who constitute an unimpeachable guarantee that
reconstruction goes forward to the consolidation of a society in
which the reward of labor goes hand in hand with the safety of
property."

The "speculative statesmanship" which Gov. Alcorn derided in
1870 has been finely avenged upon the architects and forecasters
of reconstruction. A withered fruitage confounds the coloring of

410 Mississippi Historical Society.

hope and cheer he so fatuously indulged. Viewed in the larger
historic perspective, in the measurement of the eternal verities,
war's ravages, the wreck and ruin involved in the destruction of
the old order, made a less "melancholy picture" than that which
destiny wreaked upon the new. This very remarkable message
ran into a treatise upon the beauties of economics of govern-
ment which the administration was achieving. The Governor
unctuously, though flimsily, figured out a comparison between ex-
penditures of 1861 and 1870. Some hundreds of thousands of
excess in the latter year was set down to "the necessities of the
time and the result of the political facts." He complacently re-
marked that it was cheaper to tear down a government than to
build up one. In spite of his partisan zeal and cunning, there was
difficulty in explaining the increase in the cost of public printing
from $8,000 in 1861, to $52,000 in 1870. The legislative clerical
force which cost $5,861 in 1865 ran up to $28,201 in 1870. In
the conclusion of his labored and lengthy argument, the governor
said he was "happy to report that the providence of the adminis-
tration of 1870 compares, as a whole, to some advantage with that
of 1861. The governor's "speculative" figuring could not disguise
from the taxpayers the fact that they were being ruthlessly rob-
bed— all over the state, in every county, city and town, Alcorn's
appointees were feathering their nests. The laudatory claims of
the message were contradicted by the fruits of the first year of
test of reconstruction completed. During military rule, until the
wholesale removals and appointments under Ames, in 1869, lo-
cal taxation and expenditures were administered honestly. Rob-
bery was in full blast, in 1870. The Natchez Democrat stated
that Adams county taxes had been increased to $28.75 per thous-
and, and in Natchez joined to the city tax the rate was $41.25.
Warren county afifairs were administered at a cost of $34,043 in
1867 ; in 1870 it was $136,000. The Holmes county tax collection
which was $26,000 in 1860, was $88,000 in 1870. In Issaquena
county the tax rate, e^cclusive of that for levees, was $45 on the
thousand. Among the items of allowance by the board of super-
visors was the sheriff's monthly wash bill. Local administration
generally is reflected in the current accounts of Vickburg's "im-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 411

provement" expenditures. The published proceedings tell of a
meeting in the board of mayor and aldermen for "consideration
of the bids of Martin Keary and P. L. Meath, in the contract to
improve the wharf landing. The bid of Meath was shut out upon
the point that his proposal was tendered after the prescribed hour
and that "a competent engineer had estimated that it would cost
the amount of his bid, $87,500, to do the work." A minority of
the aldermen insisted on acceptance of Meath's bid because it was
$39,000 less than Keary's and his bond was better. Meath's at-
torney was refused his request to speak in defense of his client's
bond and the contract was let to Martin Keary, one of the most
noted corruptionists and public works extortioners of the time.
The mayor of Vicksburg, a carpet bagger named Webber, was
appointed, as stated in a preceding chapter. He was a stranger
to the people when appointed and coming among them with an
unsavory reputation which he lived up to and verified. During
the administration of Mayor Webber Vicksburg was loaded with
near half a million of debt for Keary's contracts for "improving"
the streets, landing, and sewerage.

While Gov. Alcorn had in retain'ng them in the offices faith-
fully carried out his compact with the reconstruction mercenaries,
he had not won their trust or favor. Ambition, and hatred of the
old Democratic leaders of the state, bad prepared him for "the
covenant with hell." But he could not divest himself of a certain
scorn for HIS tools, which was repaid by the carpet baggers in
ill-disguised hate for THEIRS. Having given him his consider-
ation, a seat in the senate, his appointments being all given out,
they were desirous to have the governor vacate the executive
chair. Upon a report that he would not resign immediately upon
the beginning of his term in the senate there was a move to force
him to do so. To have him show his hand, he was formally no-
tified of his election, in the first days of the legislature session.
He responded eflFusively but failed to disclose his intentions.
March 4th having passed and the governor showing no intention
of resigning to take his seat in the senate it was treated as vacant
by a resolution, which passed both houses, to hold an election for
senator. One ballot was held in the house, after which the fight

418 Mississippi Historical Society.

was called off on a pledge of the governor to resign in December,
to which date congress had adjourned. Neither party cared to
push hostilities to extremities. The governor's position had just
been greatly strengthened by a supreme court decision, affirming
his right to removals from office. There was in the decision a
power of reward and punishment that greatly toned down oppo-
sition to the governor. The white people of the state viewed the
matter of his continuing in the governorship with much indiffer-
ence. There had been complete disillusion of expectations that he
would lift his administration above its source — disillusion fully
shared in by Gov. Alcorn's friends and intimates of the old Whig
party. "Acts he had favored, especially the militia and the public
schools bill, and his scandalous appointees, had caused deep re-
sentment and aversion towards one whom all had hoped to regard
with gratitude and trust.

Nor had Gov. Alcorn preserved himself from suspicion that
he was defiled by the pitch he handled. The legislature of 1870
had voted him a special contingent fund, of $50,000, "to be ac-
counted for to the legislature at its next regular session or at any
time the legislature may require." That act was approved April
6th. On June 14th he approved an amendment to it — authorizing
its use "in the secret service of the state; and such part as used
by him he shall not be required to account for when in his opinion
the disclosure of the appropriation should be withheld." It never
was accounted for, and no knowledge ever leaked out of how
more than a fifih of it was ever expended. There was the scandal
of a sum of $30,000 borrowed from McComb, the president of
the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern railroad. Of this
repayment was claimed in a reply of the state official organ to
published criticism of the transaction. But this did not remove
the common belief that the loan was connected with the approval
of an act empowering the governor to transfer the stock of the
state in that road, and all other roads in the state, to the New
Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern. Vide acts of 1871, section
13, page 179. There were severe charges against the Richardson
convict lease, which the governor was urged by the state press to
veto, and which he permitted to become a law. The following is

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 413

quoted from the testimony in the Ku Klux investigation, of the
Hon. J. F. Sessions, a member of the legislature of 1870 and
1871, and a man of irreproachable character. "It was commonly
supposed and generally believed that the passage of the bill was
secured by bribery. The substance of it was that the penitentiary
should be leased for a period of fifteen years. Richardson to be
paid $18,000 per annum. * * * There was great competition
for the contract. * * *

Other parties proposed to pay the state for the labor of the con-
victs." For the notorious Jones pardon the governor was severe-
ly censured. According to the story as published a Coahoma
planter named John Jones had killed a man named Allen; some
years before his pardon. For this he was indicted and employed
Alcorn to defend him. The result of his trial was a hung jury —
it standing eleven for conviction. The case came up at the Coa-
homa court, in 1870, held by Judge C. C. Shackelford. Gov. Al-
corn attended the trial and agreed with the judge upon a plea of
guilty. Jones was immediately granted a pardon. Gov. Alcorn
was called upon in the press to deny or admit the facts as stated,
and if he did not receive, for getting Jones out of the trouble, a
contingent fee of a plantation valued at $75,000. There was no
reply published from the governor.

One of the chief duties of this legislature was the consideration
and adoption of the new code, prepared and submitted by three
commissioners appointed by the Governor. His selections had
been beyond criticism. Two of the commissioners, Judges John-
ston and Campbell, were among the ablest and most respected
members of their profession, while the other, Judge Lovering,
was a lawyer of more than ordinary ability. The product of
their labors, the code of 1871, was, under the code commission
law, subjected to revision of the supreme judges. In his message,
passing it up to the legislature Governor Alcorn dwelt upon the
new system of society, which "should be made to impress itself
upon the code." Naturally the instrument was fully expressive
of this idea. The court system was wholly remodeled. While
there were many changes for the mere sake of innovation, the
material modifications were to formulate the new status of the

414 Mississippi Historical Society.

negro population — to abolish all statutory provisions and phrases
in conflict with emancipation, enfranchisement and civil equality.
At this early day the question of race mingling in places of pub-
lic assemblage, on cars, boats, theatres, was a matter of consider-
ation and contention. And a law had been passed at the previous
session providing a heavy penalty against any official of a railroad
or steamboat who compelled passengers to occupy any particular
car or part of car, stage coach, or steamboat, on account of race
or color. In an effort to secure some working plan or modifica-
tion of this law at the 1871 session, Gov. Alcorn brought about a.
meeting of high railroad officials and the negro members, at the
executive mansion. There was an offer of separate cars of like
quality, which was scornfully rejected by the negro legislators
who were mostly Northern adventurers. A Vicksburg Herald ac-
count of the conference said "the blacks were very insolent in
their demands, claiming the right to go into the ladies' cars."
But there was less friction than was supposed. At this period
any disposition among the negro masses toward social equality
was dormant. Besides there were few railroads, and the negro
travel was small. The river boats, which were the chief means
of travel in the black belt disregarded the law, and practically
without question. This was because the old race relations, of
deference and obedience by the negroes and kindly feeling and.
consideration by the whites survived, and governed personal in-
tercourse. The few attempts of negro leaders to exercise their
rights under the law were summarily suppressed.

In the session of 1870 Gov. Alcorn had addressed the legisla-
ture a message urging an amendment to an act of 1867, providing
for payment of the ante helium levee debts. Under that law all
claims were required to be presented to a board of which Gov.
Alcorn was prsident, as he had been of the ante bellum board. It
was called the liquidating levee board. The claims were required
to be presented within a prescribed time and exchanged, upon ap-
proval, for bonds of the liquidating board. An acreage tax of 5
cents per acre on the front, and 3 cents on the back, county lands
was provided for their payment. Under the operations of this
law claims to the amount of near a million dollars had been ap-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 415

proved and bonds issued for them. Of the total near half had
been liquidated and returned when Gov. Alcorn's message ap-
peared. It alleged failure of a number of the military sheriffs to
collect the tax, and legislative provision was asked to enforce
collections and correct the inequality of some counties paying and
some defaulting. This was well, but it was a Grecian horse. En-
veloped within it was a pressing call that the books be reopened
for presentation of claims which had been disallowed and barred.
"In opening the books," the message said, "care should be taken
that we do not open the door to fraud." The message was ig-
nored by the legislature to which it was addressed. But in the
session of 1871 an act was passed in accordance with the terms it
presented. It provided for an audit commissioner who should
have his office at Jackson, remote from the district and the people
in interest. A non-resident of the district was appointed — one
wholly unacquainted with the levee affairs, or the horde of claim-
ants that descended upon him. While seemingly rigid require-
ments of proof was prescribed, the commissioner validated and
registered claims to the amount of nearly half a million dollars
that ought to have been tested in the courts which the claimants
had kept out of. A large proportion of the increase was believed
to be fraudulent and all were outlawed by non-compliance with
the law of 1867, or rejection by the home board of which Gov.
Alcorn was president. It was all looked upon as a great wrong
and one that suggested corrupt influence. But there was no re-
course— for the time public sentiment was paralyzed and per-
verted. Under the operations of the Alcorn law speculators
bought up the liquidating bonds at as low as 10 cents on the dol-
lar, which was the ruling price until the restoration of represen-
tative government. By the use of extraordinary activity and ef-
fort a bill which contemplated vast robbery in the Greenville le-
vee district was defeated at this session of the legislature. But
one incorporating the upper Delta counties, called district No. 1,
was passed. It authorized the issuance of a million dollars of-
bonds, which part of the law was complied with. But the pro-
ceeds of the bond sales were stolen almost totally and openly. So
flagrant was the steal, and such a mere pittance was expended in

416 Mississippi Historical Society.

levee building that payment of the taxes to meet the terms of the
bonds was resisted, and is in liquidation to this day.

The reconstruction legislature finally adjourned May 13th,
1870. Having provided for the election of a new legislature in
the closing days of the session a legislative apportionment bill was
passed which went to the limits of partisanship, and caused ex-
treme resentment toward Governor Alcorn, for approving it.
Under the apportionment embraced in the constitution the de-
cided majority of both house and senate was vested in the black
constituencies. This was increased in the legislative apportion-
ment, and in the most obnoxious manner. The then sparsely set-
tled white counties of southeast Mississippi were formed into leg-
islative districts, the principle of county representation being
overthrown. Out of eight of these counties four legislative dis-
tricts were formed, with one member each. The four member-
ships taken from them were placed to increase the representation
of the black counties. White counties were linked with black,
so as to defeat their candidates for the senate. In fact the leg-
islative membership was so apportioned that nothing short of a
revolution could divest the radicals of a majority. Having thus
fittingly terminated a career, a riotous adjournment followed.
But before returning to their constituencies the majority were
treated to a "blow out" at the Governor's mansion, which was
thus referred to by the Jackson Clarion: "In this disorder the
mongrels adjourned to the executive mansion where a social
equality orgy was celebrated and the quarrels which had disturbed
the 'eminent man' (Alcorn) and his carpet bag and African al-
lies, were drowned in the flowing bowl. And thus this libel upon
representative government wound up its career."

While the state found relief in the adjournment of the legislat-
ure, every county court house sheltered a robbers' den. So rank
had become the official corruption in Washington county that in
July the demand upon Gov. Alcorn for investigation and remov-
als resulted in a show of action. To probe charges made plainly
and with circumstance, by the county paper, the Greenville Times,
ex-Judge Grafton Baker, an old and respected citizen, was com-
missioned by the governor to take testimony and make a report.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeUy. 417

He opened court and called for the production of proof. The
matter was taken seriously, all of the leading members of the
bar volunteering for the prosecution. The trial lasted a week,
establishing by the records the truth of everything charged. Rob-
bery and corrupt appropriation of the public funds was shown to
pervade the whole conduct of affairs. Nearly every coun-
ty and town official was convicted of embezzlement or some form
of thieving from the taxpayers. This involved the sheriff, the
treasurer, assessor, district attorney, clerks, board of county and
city administrators — all officials, in fact, were implicated. Judge
Baker discharged his commission honestly and faithfully. He
carried with him to Jackson sufficient proof of malfeasance in of-
fice to call for the removal of all the incumbents, provided the
commission of investigation was honestly issued. His report was
submitted to the governor and there it rested. The only action
had under it was the removal of Sheriff Webber, who had se-
cured his appointment by bargain as related in a preceding chap-
ter. He was neither more nor less guilty than the rest. This fact
was so significant that it came to be believed that the investigation
was covertly designed to secure a pretext for the removal of
Webber who was one of the proprietors of the organ of the
Ames faction, then engaged in assailing Gov. Alcorn. But worst
of all, giving the Washington county complainants a stone instead
of the bread for which they asked, the negro Stites, from whom
he had, with the governor's knowledge and approval, bought the
office the year before, was appointed to the office. The appoint-
ment was regarded with aversion and dread. For it was a part
of the creed of a desperate condition, one easily understood, that
any white man, however odious, was preferable as sheriff to any
negro however unobjectionable individually. The result was that
the white citizens joined Webber in defeating the efforts of the
negro appointee in making his bond. This had to be approved
by the county board of supervisors, all negroes except one. But
they were easily reached by Webber, who continued to hold the
office.

When this legislature met official abuses and corrupt practices
was bearing the fruit of disorders, in spots. And in a message
27

418 Mississippi Historical Society.

February 14th, Governor Alcorn informed the legislature that
"in apprehension of organized resistance of the law in eastern
counties of the state I took steps for the organization of a militia
in these counties." What he had done was to send Major Gen-
eral E. Stafford, a "pot valiant" carpet bagger and editor of the
official journal, and "Colonel" Ireland, commonly styled "big yal-
ler," to organize companies of whites and blacks respectively.
After performing that duty the doughty pair had rendered an ex-
pense account. This, as related in the message, "the auditor of
public accounts labors under some difficulty as to the obligation
resting on him under my certificate of account presented by the
paymaster. He appears to think that while I am authorized by
law to call out the militia, I can do so but by his consent to pay
the bills." It was upon this issue that the legislature was invoked.
The response was an appropriation of $3,000. There was no con-
templation of "organized resistance of the law," but on March 6th
there was a serious clash at Meridian between the white citizens
and certain notoriously lawless negroes. The story of this mur-
derous riot, which was investigated by a committee of congress,
as well as Governor Alcorn, is carried in the author's previous
contribution — "The Enfranchisement Act of 1871 and the Ku
Klux Klan in Mississippi" — in Vol. IX of the Historical Society
Series.

The first work of the 1871 campaign by the radicals was a set-
tlement of the war within their camp — a test of strength between
Alcorn and Ames. Pleading for endorsement of the Governor, his
organ urged the convention "not to forget that he is essential to
our success;" and that "by unity alone could the party have
strength for permanence." Perhaps the most convincing argu-
ment used was that "the result of the election may render it ab-
solutely necessary for Governor Alcorn to forego his senatorial
honors and to continue the vigorous and masterly Governor of
Mississippi." The Radical convention met August 30th, with Al-
corn and Ames both in attendance. There were no officers to
nominate — the convention being called for adoption of resolutions
and the selection of an executive committee for the campaign for
election of a new legislature. The negro was more in evidence

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 419

in this vulture's swarm than in any previous one, and they were
very turbulent. But the troubled waters were quieted under the
recognition that unity was necessary to success. Alcorn and
Ames both addressed the convention. The keynote of the conven-
tion was harmony. But when Alcorn was consulted about a res-
olution endorsing Ames with him, he refused — saying if he was
endorsed Ames must not be, and if the convention gave its en-
dorsement to Ames he would not have it. His command of pat-
ronage and position, the fear of his threat to give up the senator-
ship and continue Governor was resistless. So Ames and his fol-
lowing pocketed their chagrin and bided their time. The Clar-
ion published a tabulated statement the day the convention met
exhibiting that for the year preceding the Pilot, the official jour-
nal, had drawn out of the treasury $160,500. This was perhaps
the material issue between the paper and the governor. On the
same day it threw a brick in the Alcorn camp by challenging the
editor of the Alcorn organ to deny that he had been a member
and a high officer in the Ku Klux Klan. The Pilot retorted by
saying that "as the figures of the public printing had been fur-
nished by the Governor to the columns of a Democratic paper, will
he not favor that paper with a list of the expenditures of the se-
cret service fund ? There has been about $55,000 drawn from the
treasury on account of that fund, which the public would like to
see the vouchers for." The public wish for a sight at these
vouchers remained ungratified.

His administration having been endorsed by the Radical con-
vention, a letter was addressed Gov. Alcorn by a number of prom-
inent Democrats asking that he agree to a joint canvass of the
state with Gen. Robert Lowry; that the voters might have the
opportunity of passing on it. After some dodging and sparring
an agreement for such joint debate at five places in the state was
published September 20th. The following statement of the issues
to be discussed was tendered by the governor: "First, that the
maintenance of the Republican party is essential to the peace,
prosperity and order of the state. Second, that the restoration of
the Democratic party would by placing the state in discord with
the national government endanger all the progress we have made

420 Mississippi Historical Society.

in return to our old place in the Union. Third, that the Repub-
lican party has been a faithful administrator of the affairs of the
state, and has administered those affairs with integrity and econ-
omy unequalled by any other administration of the affairs of the
state for the last forty years." Contradicted as it was by every
feature and fact of public affairs, this insolent claim occasioned
the deepest resentment. Sorely oppressed and plundered by the
basest tools of reconstruction, holding rule over them by Alcorn's
commissions, it was regarded as a mockery of their distresses.
His speeches during the campaign were marked by the same of-
fensive and unfeeling contempt for the wrongs suffered at the
hands of his following.

In spite of an earnest and patriotic struggle the election went
against the Democrats. The radicals secured a majority in both
brarches of the Legislature, but in the representatives it was by
one so narrow that only the grossly unfair apportionment saved it.
In nearly all of the white counties local government was rescued
from the aliens. Federal troops were freely used and contributed
largely to the result by keeping up the intimidations of the Ku
Klux campaign. Raids and arrests were made on the most trif-
ling cases and complaints. On receipt of news of an assassina-
tion in Leflore County, a company of infantry was hurried there
from Jackson. At Winona it was learned that the victim was a
white man and a Democrat and his assassins negroes, whereupon
the soldiers were sent back. The negroes were voted solidly as
organized in their Loyal Leagues. Disorder and demoralization
prevailed to a greater extent than ever before. Excited and in-
flamed by the speeches of Governor Alcorn and others, to look
upon Democratic success as tantamount to their reduction to a
condition approaching slavery, they were greatly wrought up.
Rioting and violence were narrowly averted in a number of
places. The Governor, who led the radical campaign, was met at
various places by General Lowry, Colonel Lamar, Judge H.
Chalmers and Hon. E. Barksdale, who exposed the falsity of his
assertions, his sham and shady record. A dramatic incident oc-
curred at Meridian, in the joint debate between the Governor and
Editor Barksdale of the Clarion. From his seat the Governor de-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 421

nied a charge that the editor of his official journal, the man he
had appointed Superintendent of the State lunatic asylum, had
been an active member and a high official of the Ku Klux.
Barksdale thus met his denial :

"Sir, for two months past I have made this charge and Dr.
Compton himself has not denied it. Now you have undertaken to
do for him what he has not done for himself. To settle this ques-
tion I will make this proposition. I will again make the charge
and if Dr. Compton does not deny it, or if he does deny it and I
will prove it, will you pledge yourself to dismiss him from office
and the organship of your party?"

The offer was received in silence and confusion, to which the
attention of the audience was directed with telling effect. It con-
stituted a peculiar aggravation of Governor Alcorn's part in the
outrageous Ku Klux prosecutions, that Dr. Compton, his most
trusted friend and counsellor, had been the organizer of the order
in his section, in 1867, and active in inducing men not only in his
own but adjoining counties to join it. The fact had been charged
and substantiated, in Alcorn's presence, through witnesses by
G)lonel Lamar, at Holly Springs, where Mr. Compton lived.

While a great strain upon the patience of the white people of
Mississippi, the 1871 election passed, as above stated, without
riot. To this statement there is just one sinister exception. A
few days before the election, October 21st, a white man named
Lee was brutally murdered by a negro mob of nearly a thousand,
which was being addressed by the carpetbag county leaders and
candidates at Artesia, in Lowndes County. The affray so faith-
fully reflects the prevailing political condition of the South that
the testimony of two eye-witnesses before the congressional com-
mittee is quoted. Sheriff -elect Hiram W. Lewis testified:

"Mr. Bliss, candidate for the Legislature, had just got up;
had not spoken more than a sentence, when a voice was heard di-
rectly on the left hand of my buggy, saying: 'Are you a white
man?' I looked and saw it was a white man in the midst of the
crowd, the only white man in several rods of the buggy. I
hunched Mr. Bliss and told him to pay no attention and he kept
right on. In a minute or two I heard the report of a pistol i»

4:^2 Mississippi Historical Society.

that direction. I looked and saw this man running. I called as
loud as I could to let himi go. But the colored men took after
him. One colored man standing in the buggy called as loud as he
could, three or four times 'to catch him.' All at once there were
five or six shots fired in rapid succession. He dropped instantly
and was dead. A number of colored men came to me that night
and told me they saw him when he pulled his pistol and fired
quickly at Mr. Bliss or myself in the buggy. They told me he
began to fire at them when he found out he could not escape."

Dr. Oscar C. Brothers of Artesia testified as follows :

"In the afternoon my attention was called by the sound of a
drum and fife and yelling coming up the railroad. It was a party,
numbering I suppose six or eight hundred. A freedman, Levi
Jones, was mounted at the head of the column. It was divided off
in companies, each having its commander riding with a sword.
One company seemed to be armed with guns. Lewis was about
the center in a buggy, Bliss in a carriage. The speaking began in
front of the station. A friend suggested we get on our horses
and ride up and hear what they had to say. We rode in among
the mounted men with guns. We were about twenty paces from
the speakers. After about three minutes I saw smoke from a
gun, heard the sound and am satisfied it was a gun. Then I
heard the yell : 'White man, kill him, kill him.' The crowd from
the buggy west seemed to shove in that direction with one ac-
cord, accompanied with a firing of six or seven guns or pistols.
As soon as that was over some one hoUored : 'Boys, to your wag-
ons and get your guns.' I saw parties take three or four guns
from a wagon. A negro took out a carpet sack of what I sup-
posed to be pistols. I said: 'For God's sake don't take those pis-
tols out.' His reply was: "I'll be damned if I am not going to
take those pistols out.' I dismounted and went to the dead man.
I found there Mr. Lewis and Mr. Bliss. I said to Mr. Lewis:
'Can't you disperse this crowd? Already one innocent man has
been killed. If you don't I will telegraph to Columbus and West
Point and get men to disperse them.' He said : 'Yes, I can dis-
perse them.' He said or did something and the crowd dispersed
like magic. He had the most complete control over the negroes.
I am no more afraid of the negroes than I am of you gentlemen.
I have been raised with them. But if Lewis had said: 'Kill Dr.
Brothers,' I would have been killed in a twinkling. Senator, if
he had said kill Senator Pratt, it would have been enough. But
if they wanted to borrow a horse or a piece of tobacco they
would not go to Lewis. They would come to me."

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 423

The testimony of Lewis and Bliss conflicted with that of Eh".
Brothers as to whether Lee was armed. Dr. Brothers referred
the committee to the testimony on the inquest and aslted to have
the magistrate and the other witnesses summoned. He said its
record would show that "one freedman only testified that Lee
had a pistol, and other freedmen and white men testified he did
not. And that the magistrate threw the one man's testimony
out."

Circuit Judge Orr, whose court was in session and investigat-
ing the Artesia riot, testified that he "did not think Lee had fired
a pistol or was armed. He instructed the sheriff to proceed to
the scene and make arrests of those guilty of the murder, of
whom the coroner's jury had returned a verdict against six,
named, and others unknown. The sheriff arrested and jailed
sixty-four, including Lewis and Bliss. This included witnesses
as well as those charged with the crime. "The sheriff informed
me of what he had done," testified Judge Orr, "and I informed
him he had misconstrued my instructions. At once all but
eleven were discharged." But this did not save the luckless
sheriff. Under the partisan cry raised he was summarily re-
moved by Governor Alcorn and hauled off to Oxford under one
of G. Wiley Wells' charges of "violating the Enforcement Act."
The affair created no little excitement in Lowndes and adjoining
counties — white men banded and moved toward Artesia, under
the reports of danger of massacre of whites. But United States
troops were hurried to the scene and they returned home. The
Columbus Index said :

"All is quiet along the Potomac to-day, though last night we
were excited by a report that 500 negroes were marching from
Aberdeen to burn the city and release the prisoners charged with
the Artesia murder. The negroes are angry and excited while
the whites are calm and ready for anything that may transpire."

The excitement did not subside with the conclusion of the
election. The habit of parading under arms, with beat of drum
and flying banners, the negroes were loath to lay aside. It was
doubly dangerous in its tantalizing offensiveness to the whites.

424 Mississippi Historical Society.

In Oktibbeha the nuisance became so incessant and intolerable
that warrants of arrest were issued by a United States commis-
sioner for the League leaders, and placed in the hands of a dep-
uty United States marshal to serve. This caused a great up-
roar. All the Leaguers of the county were gathered to resist
the arrest. They entered the little town of Starkville in military
array. In an attempt to disperse them the carpetbag sheriff, a
brother of Governor Powers, was badly wounded and several
negroes were shot. The whites being totally unprepared for
strife the town was menaced with outrage and sack. During
the night armed squads rode in from every direction and afforded
safety.

Out Heroding the radical Herods in an effort to justify his
embracery of negro equality of citizenship, Alcorn arrogantly
and offensively declared in his campaign address that "South-
ern people surrendered all rights of citizenship, all rights of
property, when they laid down their arms. If the government
had put to the sword every white man, if the guillotine had been
moved by steam, no voice in all the world would have been raised
in your behalf. Look at the treatment of the commune by the
French government. The world endorses that, and would have
endorsed similar treatment of ourselves. What right have we
to talk of the constitutions." There was no lack of hot rejoinder
to such offensive and inflammatory reviling. The following res-
olution adopted in what was described as the largest meeting of
white men in Vicksburg expressed the common sentiment the
Governor aroused against him, for his Ku Klux proclamation
and his campaign speeches seeking to place the white men of the\
South beneath the negroes in the scale of American citizenship/
"Resolved, that we regard Jas. L. Alcorn as an open and avowed
enemy of his race; that we denounce him as a corrupt tool of a
vindictive and relentless policy ; as the friend and abettor of the
vilest set of villains that ever preyed upon a peaceful people;
that we utterly repudiate and condemn the doctrine as enunciated
by him that nothing short of the gallows is a fit punishm.ent to
a free and high spirited people ; and that we hereby deny that he
is in any way, a representative or an exponent of the feeling and

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 425

sentiments of the upright and honorable people of Mississippi."
This is a bitter and a sweeping arraignment. But it cannot
be said to go beyond the justification of facts as recorded.

In spite of an earnest and patriotic struggle the election went
against the Democrats. The radicals secured a majority in both
branches of the legislature, but in the representatives it was by
one so narrow that only the grossly unfair apportionment saved
it. In nearly all of the white counties local government was res-
cued from the aliens. Federal troops were freely used and con-
tributed largely to the result by keeping up the intimidations of
the Ku Klux campaign. Raids and arrests were made on the
most trifling cases and complaints. On receipt of news of an
assassination in Leflore county, a company of infantry were hur-
ried there from Jackson. At Winona it was learned that the vic-
tim was a white man and a Democrat, whereupon the soldiers
were sent back. The negroes were voted solidly as organized
in their Loyal Leagues. Disorder and demoralization prevailed
to a greater extent than ever before. Excited and inflamed by
the speeches of Gov. Alcorn and others, to look upon Democratic
success as tantamount to their reduction to a condition approach-
ing slavery, they were greatly wrought up. Rioting and violence
was narrowly averted in a number of places.

Alcorn's retirement as Governor was viewed without regret
from any class or quarter. Odious and oppressive as his admin-
istration had been, the cup ran over in the campaign in which he
exerted himself in vindication of his record, and to perpetuate
radicalism in the state. How the white people of the state looked
upon the change from him to Governor Powers is to be read
in the press comments of the time, of which the following from
the West Point Citizen is a true reflection: "We know Gover-
nor Powers, and although a carpet bagger we really believe he
will make us an infinitely better Governor than Alcorn. He has
no chronic hates to avenge, no old political enemies to punish
nor ambitious projects to carry out as did Alcorn. In short, if
our rulers must be carpet baggers or scalawags, let us have the
least of the two evils— the carpet bagger. May the good Lord
deliver us from being ruled by such a miserable political Esau

h

426 Mississippi Historical Society.

as the scalawag." Had all the carpet baggers been of the class
of Governor Powers, the rule would have held good. But with
negro equality bigots and South haters such as Ames, it failed.
He never ceased to regard the white people of Mississippi as
conquered rebels. Holding them as outside the pale of Ameri-
can citizenship and entitled to no sympathy in their distress, and
being without color prejudice, he divided the population into two
classes — ^the loyal blacks, and the disloyal whites. Alcorn, who
divided the honors of reconstruction in Mississippi with Ames,
was wholly different. He had race pride and strong sectional
proclivities. But with him all was secondary and subject to
boundless egotism, selfish ambition and bitter resentment. After
having gratified and satiated all of these unworthy and sordid
motives through persecutions of his own people as relentless as
Saul of Tarsus, he entered upon his reward and seat in the
United States senate. Finding Ames, whom he despised, and
who held him in utter distrust and detestation, in high favor with
the administration, he took his place with the "liberals." They
displayed their feeling toward each other in speeches of ex-
treme crimination and recrimination, for which their detestable
records afforded fine themes.

The clash between Alcorn and Ames came over the bill to ex-
tend the suspension of the right of habeas corpus. The suspen-
sion was a provision of the Ku Klux act of the year before,
which was by its terms limited to the life of the session of con-
gress then sitting. In the course of his speech, repelling the
charge of party treachery, Alcorn drew this picture of the fruits
of his administration, which while showing there was no call for
such a law, justifies the comment that "his glory was his shame."

"In all those Mississippi river counties, for three hundred
miles, not a man holds an office unless he holds it at the will of
the colored people, and a majority of the offices, I will say two-
thirds of the offices, are in truth and in fact held by the colored
people. Is it possible that the courts cannot administer justice
in a society like this? Is it possible that the county in which I
live, where the colored population is seventy-six per cent of the
whole; in the county below me, where it is eighty per cent; in

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 427

tlie county below that, where it is eighty-three per cent ; and in
the county below that, where it is ninety per cent of the whole ?
Colored men sit upon juries, and it is frequently the case that
the jury is entirely composed of colored men. Colored men are
overseers of the roads. A colored man is the sheriff of Attala
county, appointed by myself. A colored man is elected sheriff
of Issaquena county; a colored man is elected sheriff of Adams
county ; a colored man is elected sheriff of Jefferson county, and
colored men are nominated sheriffs in several other counties in
the state of Mississippi; and yet it is said justice cannot be ad-
ministered there, when every judge who sits upon the bench is
a Republican, appointed by a Republican Governor and confirmed
by a Republican senate."

In his boastful claim of having Africanized government in the
river counties. Governor Alcorn did not exaggerate. In Wash-
ington county in the 1871 election the negroes had so developed
under radical tutelage that they almost crowded their carpet bag
tutors away from the pie counter. They elected a colored sheriff,
both court clerks, the assessor, the coroner, four out of five sup-
ervisors and nine out of ten justices and constables. The white
radicals had not willingly accepted such a distribution of the offi-
ces. A hostility was engendered out of which the resident whites
had sought to profit. But the black leaders felt too secure in
their strength at the polls to listen to appeals of moderation —
while disposed to throw off the carpet bag yoke they had not
outgrown any of their distrust of the ex-slave owners. The elec-
tion over, however, they were confronted with the obstacle of
bond making. The situation and the proposition is revealed in
the following from the Greenville Times: "Let our colored
friends observe that their white candidates have made their
bonds. Now while soliciting native white property owners to
make your bonds just remember that we asked you to allow us
two members of the board of supervisors that our property
rights might be represented. In the face of this request you
have elected a board from no one of whose members could dam-
ages for wrongful or unlawful acts be recovered. And now you
turn to us, in your straits. We make you this proposition, be-

I

428 Mississippi Historical Society.

fore the cost of another election is incurred. Make two of your
supervisors resign and let us nominate their successors. Then
satisfy us as to your deputies and we will make your bonds."

This proposition meeting with no favor, to defeat the instal-
lation in the ofifice of sheriff and tax collector of a turbulent and
dissolute mulatto, a semi-alliance was effected between the white
citizens and the carpet baggers. The immediate effects of this
arrangement was to continue the carpet bag control of the levee
board, which the negro leaders had planned to possess, and to
secure for the white citizens representative city government for
Greenville.

In a special election to fill the Washington county vacancies
occasioned by the failure of negroes to make official bonds, the
issue of especial interest was over the sheriff's office. The can-
didates were the negro elected at the regular election, who had
failed to make his bond, and the hold-over carpet bag incumbent.
The whites supported the latter. Under their newly modified
relations with his class they dominated the situation to an extent,
through the matter of making bonds. This was an advantage
that was fully appreciated, as the following from the Greenville
Times shows: "We have no candidate. The Republicans con-
trol the matter and all we ask is an honest man and a good bond,
and we are determined to have the latter. If necessary we will
bring every bond that may be accepted by the board of super-
visors, before the chancellor for his decision upon its solvency."
The election was duly held, and controlling the election
officials the carpet bag candidate was given the certificate ;
one half the precinct boxes being thrown out over quibbles
and technicalities. Regarding the case as one where the
ends justified the means, the whites looked on complacently.
There were threats of resorting to violence — runners were
sent out summoning the negro men to come to Greenville
armed. But lacking white leadership the movement fell through.
In a way that was non-political the negro leaders had their re-
venge. At this time many counties in the state, especially in the
river section were worked up over elections for subscriptions to
various speculative railroad lines. To secure the needed votes

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 429

called for much paying of court to those who claimed influence
over the negro vote. The necessities of a policy that was held
as vital to material progress and prosperity involved certain ex-
ceedingly distasteful condecensions and concessions towards as
rascally and insolent a gang of negro upstarts as ever reconstruc-
tion aggregated in a county. And after all, the sacrifice of self-
respect and race pride was "love's labor lost." Posterity will
never measure all the trials and humiliations to which the white
men of the reconstruction days were subjected and patriotically
endured.

Possession of the board of supervisors, the clerks' offices and
the public administration afforded opportunities of warrant issu-
ance that were taken advantage of by the negro officials to an
extent that threatened to wreck the county finances. The Wash-
ington county board of supervisors raised the 1872 tax rate of
$8.10 per thousand of values to $14.75 for 1873. The total state
and county tax levy was $23.25 per thousand, compared with a
total the year before of $14.10. Warrants for many thousands of
dollars were wasted on mere pretenses of roads, bridges, school
houses, a jail building and official stationery. Under color of a
law for copying out worn record books half a dozen negro
scribes were set to work indiscriminately transcribing books and
documents at a dollar a page. Learning of a warrant issuance
on this account of several thousand dollars, tax payers secured
an injunction which forced the culprits to disgorge their pelf,
and a practice of limitless robbery was annulled.

The auditor's report was not refreshing to the tax payers of
the state. It exhibited an excess in the costs of administering
the state government over revenue receipts of $400,000. Such
a showing in the face of a tax rate far beyond all precedent told
its own story of waste and corruption. To provide for a deficit
an increase of taxation was asked and enacted. The rate for
this state taxation was raised from 30 to 70 cents per $100 ad
valorem — an increase of more than 100 per cent. An additional
and special tax was levied of 50 cents on the $100 to pay interest
on bonds issyed in lieu of a floating debt. The auditor's report
■was further illuminated by a statement of $75,000 of known de-

430 Mississippi Historical Society.

faults of tax collectors and an unknown larger amount. In a
contemporary speech in the United States Senate, Senator Al-
corn had stated that of the United States internal revenue col-
lections in Mississippi, not one-tenth had been paid into the treas-
ury. At the same time his appointees in every county were steal-
ing all they could lay their hands on. Such was reconstruction
in Mississippi in 1872. Having had a taste, the negro officials
were, if possible, more unblushing and shameless in preying on
the public than their carpet-bag teachers. The thievings of a ne-
gro member of the Warran County Board of Supervisors were
so irregular and flagrant that the radical organ joined in de-
nouncing his rascalities. For this the editor was severely cow-
hided by his brother in black. The paper denounced the flagel-
lation as "an unprovoked assault and a source of mortification to
the editor to come in contact with so disreputable a fellow."

The legislature met with both the senatorial rivals, Alcorn and
Ames, present, striving for points of leadership. In the senate
a follower of the former was elected president. In the house
factional lines quite disappeared in the effort and success of the
negro members, numbering forty-five, in securing the caucus
nomination for one of their race. This almost led to the election
of a Democrat, as the carpet baggers were at heart averse to such
distinction for a negro. It was looked on as a bitter pill that had
to be swallowed. So narrow was the Republican majority that
it was increased by contests, unseating the Democrats from the
counties of Marshall, Lauderdale. Copiah and Chickasaw. The
message of Governor Powers confirmed the good impressions
and hopes of his administration. It was practical, patriotic and
wholly void of partisanship. He particularly urged legislation
breaking up the issuance of warrants upon state and county
treasurers when there was no funds on hand with which to pay
them. Warrant issuances at discretion was the common method
of financing public affairs, and robbing the people. It was piling
up debts that threatened total extinction of state and county
credits, and virtual bankruptcy. The message recommended that
members of county boards of supervisors, which boards pos-
sessed practically unlimited powers of contracting debts and is-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 431

suing warrants, be required to give bonds. Other reforms in
the line of economy and honest administration were suggested.
He vetoed the scandalous and corrupt penitentiary bill of the
previous session which his predecessor failed to veto and dared
not approve. He, a carpet bagger, placed the seal of condemna-
tion on the despotic and atrocious Alcorn "picked cavalry" bill
policy, and the tyrannical Ku Klux houndings, by the declaration
that "there had been no riots or disturbances which the civil
authorities have not been able to suppress, since ihe adjournment
of the legislature;" and that "the state of the government was
peace."

The legislature adopted a congressional apportionment bill
which was as partisan as it could be made. The districts were so
constructed as to give decisive black majorities in all save one, in
which the white counties of the northeastern portion of the state
were bunched. The most exciting incideht of the session was the
passage by both houses of a civil rights bill so extreme that its
enforcement would have been certainly attended by riots. But
after final passage and enrollment the bill disappeared so myster-
iously that no tracing of it was left behind. While they voted
for the bill the white Radicals were so notoriously opposed to it
that they were openly and abusively charged with its theft. A
copy was prepared and certified by the clerk of the house, but the
senate secretary refused to sign it. Placed on passage again, the
measure went through the house, but enough carpet-bag senators
dodged as to beat it by a majority of one.

Among the matters that commanded particular interest in the
legislature of 1872 was the award of the public printing, and the
disposal of the state penitentiary. Throughout the reconstruction
period the former had held a chief place in the scandals of the
times. A year before Gov. Alcorn had removed the public print-
ers, and appointed men on whose devotion to his political for-
tunes he could rely. When the legislature met and held an elec-
tion for the office his appointee was defeated by a combination
of Democratic members with the Ames radicals, and the old
printing company restored under an agreement of division of the
profits with the state Democratic organ. As this action bore no

432 Mississippi Histxwical Society.

appearance of public advantage Democratic participation in it
caused much adverse criticism. March 25th Governor Powers
addressed the legislature on the subject in a message in which he
said : "For the third time during the present session I call your
attention to the necessity of materially reducing the rates on pub-
lic printing. The enormous outlay under existing laws amounts
to squandering the public revenues. * * * Having thus
briefly pointed out some of the gross outrages that is practiced
under the provisions of the law regarding the rates of public
printing I await the result of your further deliberations."

Upon adjournment of the legislature an address was issued
by the Democratic members, urging county organizations "with
a view of securing an active and successful campaign in the ap-
proaching Presidential and congressional election." An executive
committee was appointed as follows : Robert Lowry, chairman ;
J. M. Stone, J. F. Sessions, A. T. Roane, A. L. Gaines, S. A. D.
Steele, J. R. Mcintosh, John Calhoon, R. M. Leavell, T. S. Ford,
and H. M. Street, secretary. At a subsequent meeting of the
committee a state Democratic convention was called for June
26th. At this time the liberal Republican opposition to Grant's
re-election was being urged. At a meeting of certain leaders of
the movement in Cincinnati, May 3d, Horace Greeley of New
York, and B. Gratz Brown of Missouri, had been proposed for
the nomination of President and Vice President. The platform
was designed to enlist all who opposed the reconstruction policy
of the Republican party, and the rebuke of the manifold scandals
and abuses which marked Grant's administration. All citizens, re-
gardless of previous party affiliations, were urged to join in the
movement, which was quite imposing in appearance, from the
number of prominent Republicans at the head of it. Hopeless
of the election of a Democratic candidate, the movement ap-
pealed very strongly to the South; in spite of the inconsistency
of voting for a ticket headed by one who had achieved national
reputation and prominence as editor of the most inveterate and
influential abolition paper in the North. But he had been among
the first and boldest of his class to call for a halt in the prescrip-
tive reconstruction policy. His courage and magnanimity in

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 4S3

signing Jefferson Davis' bond had moved Southern people pro-
foundly. Of the honesty and patriotism of his leadership of the
Liberal cause there could be no question.

There were nevertheless many leading Democrats to whom
the Greeley departure was repugnant. They were, as a rule, old
men upon whom the force of sentiment and association of former
days bore most heavily. The state Democratic convention as-
sembled as called, June 20th, and selected delegates to the na-
tional convention at Baltimore — instructing them to vote for the
nomination of Greeley and Brown. Hopeless of carrying the
state, there was an absence of popular enthusiasm and aggres-
siveness. Nor was there much food for hope in the general re-
sult. The visible tokens of strength and force were too apparent
in the South, and the North was not yet ripe for revolt. The de-
termination to win by any means was proclaimed. The Chicago
Tribune, the leading Republican paper of the West, said, "If a
majority is cast for Grant well and good. But if not, the vote of
the recalcitrant states can be thrown out in the electoral college."
There was nothing in the history of the party or the candidate
to repel belief in their capability to carry out such a menace. The
nomination at Baltimore, July 9th, was harmonious and unani-
mous in the nomination of Greeley and Brown. The chairman
of the Mississippi delegation. Judge H. H. Chalmers, in casting
the vote of the state, said : "Mr. Chairman — It is inscribed above
your head, 'Peace and good will.' Mississippi accents the in-
scription as the watchword of the campaign and casts her vote
for the illustrious apostle of peace, Horace Greeley." The plat-
form promulgfated by the Liberal Republicans gathering at Gn-
cinnati, was adopted. Greeley's letter of acceptance was pitched
solely against the reconstruction policy of his party.

Thus was launched the campaign of the opposition, with its
prematurely bom slogan of peace and good will — destined to be
withered under the fierce glare of Ku Klux discolorations. "Since
the close of the rebellion," screamed the Washington Chronicle,
the administration org^n, "not less than 23,000 persons black
and white have been scourged, banished and murdered by the Ku
Klux Klans of the South. The victims of the horrible barbarity
28

434 Mississippi Historical Society.

have been Republicans — not a single E>emocrat has suffered."
Secretary Boutwell made a speech in North Carolina which, as
reported by the New York Herald opposed "the clasp of hands
across the bloody chasm of war, and the burial of the bitter ani-
mosities of the past. No ; rather let the North keep alive the ani-
mosities and hatreds that led to rebellion until the chasm shall
be filled, it may be, with the mangled victims of a more cruel
war, a war of races." As North Carolina had been worse
scourged under the Ku Klux law than any other state the Aug-
ust election there was looked after by the administration with
especial concern. The state was deluged with special deputy
U. S. marshals. In a letter from the state at the close of the cam-
paign, H. V. Redfield, a famous correspondent of the times wrote
his paper, the Cincinnati Commercial : "With pardon and the
Radical party on the one hand and the Albany penitentiary on
the other, the Ku Klux is not long in making up his mind how
he will vote." Nevertheless, in spite of the full exercise of such
influences. Radicalism sustained a complete and final defeat in
North Carolina. The result was counted as a reflection of na-
tional sentiment, and that it would have decided effect upon
Northern opinion.

In a speech. Senator Morton of Indiana, proposed the follow-
ing sentiment: "That the rebel soldiers shall never occupy the
same proud position before the law and before the country as
that which is occupied by the loyal soldiers." "Go and cast your
vote for a violator of women, a burner of school houses, a deso-
lator of churches," says Ben Butler in a speech, "or for Horace
Greeley. It means all the same." So-called Rebel archives were
purchased from a so-called Confederate official. In the hands of
a congressional committee with the venomous Zack Chandler
chairman, spurious revelations of atrocious plots during the war
against Northern cities and citizens were published. The follow-
ing is an extract of the inflammable stuff to keep alive the pas-
sions to which Boutwell and Butler appealed : "A secret session
of the Confederate Congress was held for the purpose of consid-
ering claims of a noted chemist now, it is said, editing a ram-
pant Greeley paper, who had invented the most remarkable life

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 488

destroying agency ever known. He exhibited a phial containing
a colorless liquid, which he claimed he could cast into the center
of the hall and kill every man on the floor in two minutes. A
number of cats were placed in an apartment and the phial upset.
All the cats were instantly killed. The committee to which the
test was referred reported on it satisfactorily, a bureau was
formed and the chemist made brigadier general, and placed at
its head. But the collapse of the war prevented the use of the
engine of destruction upon the Northern cities." Tracts of such
false stuff were issued for stirring sectional passions. The whole
fever of the campaign was directed on that evil line, and with
telling effect. The defeat of Greeley and Brown was overwhelm-
ing. Again the Radicals were given the power of two thirds ma-
jority in both houses of Congress. To all appearances the re-
election of Grant had left the black states of the South more
hopelessly prostrate before their radical rulers than ever.

It is probable that no other nomination would have prevailed
against Grant and the Radicals in 1872. But no other looked so
weak and vulnerable in the after glow. In that light such a se-
lection is a marvel only to be understood through the utter de-
pression and despondence of the Democratic party, though the
explanation does not justify it to reason. Greeley was simply
sprung upon the country by a grouping of patriotic but badly
balanced egotists. He was presented in a chorus of eloquent
and fervid editorials by Samuel Bowles of the Springfield Re-
publican, C. A. Dana of the New York Sun, Henry Watterson
of the Courier-Journal and Murat Halstead of the Cincinnati
Commercial— all famous and trained journalists of their day.
Their resounding periods and catchy phrases summoned the op-
position to concentrate on the man who most appealed to Repub-
lican tradition and Southern gratitude; and the opposition lead-
ers and organizations responded to the cry of "Anybody to beat
Grant." There was a show of enthusiasm at first that seemed
to afford basis of hope— hope that proved wholly delusive and
barren.

Every element counted on to give Greeley's candidacy strength
was turned against him. An original abolitionist, one who had

4S6 Mississippi Historical Society.

spent his life in urging the liberation of the blacks, the vote of
the race was massed against him. He wa? anathematized by Gar-
rett Smith and Wendell Phillips as an apostate — an enemy of
the negroes the latter told them, "whose election they should
make a cause for a race war." A power during the war on whom
Lincoln and Stanton leaned, he was denounced as a traitor in
soldiers conventions. The prohibitionists whose cause his pow-
erful paper had upheld, held conventions to solidify the temper-
ance vote for his opponent whose inebriety was notorious. A
father of protection, the manufacturers of Pennsylvania and
New England declared against him en masse. A champion of
the national credit against those who proposed to settle the war
debt in fiat paper, Wall street furnished the money for his de-
feat. All of the various classes and interests he had labored for
turned against him, and the fiercest of all was the harpies of sec-
tional hate he had nurtured and cultured. Like Acteon's dogs
they hunted him to the death, for changing from malignancy to
mercy for the South. Greeley's death in less than a month after
the election was unspeakably sad and shocking. "Amid treach-
eries and desertions," wrote the Albany Argus, "his ambition
frustrated, his honest heart insulted, his hopes of his country
turned to despair, a life of labor with a pen that had lost its
place and command, his household desolated by death, he bowed
down, his heart broken and his brain crazed, and sunk in death."
Nothing but a sectional rancor that the future generations of
Americans will find difficulty in comprehending, can explain the
utter failure of effect of the appeal to the North for liberation of
the South from the abhorent thralldom to reconstruction mis-
rule. In its after election comment Horace Greeley's paper, the
Tribune, said "the great mass of our people feel no sympathy for
those they still regard as rebels. On the contrary they hold that
these have been treated more leniently than they deserve." This
was unquestionably true. And until "lack of sympathy for
rebels" was worked to cloak outrages and scandals so flagrant
that it touched the pride and outward show of self righteousness
to the quick," the great mass of Northern people" was deaf to all
appeals. But joined with this fact there was another that can-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 437

not fail of recognition in locating the cause of Greeley's over-
whelming defeat. His strength of intellect, honesty and patriot-
ism were conceded by all fair critics. But he was most widely
known by eccentricities and fads, for extremes of radicalism,
that were held to so unfit him for the presidency that his candi-
dacy was as repugnant to the business interests, as his past poH-
tics were to Democratic principles. The business view was thus
stated by the New York Herald: "The alleged abounding cor-
ruption and despotic acts of the administration, are as feathers
in the balance against the weighty financial interests of the coun-
try and the public services of General Grant; and against the
prevailing conviction that while there is no danger of any violent
convulsion or shock in his re-election, our whole monetary and
business system from the banks of Wall street to the vineyards
of California can be thrown into chaos by a too hasty change of
the head of the national government."

Calculations that the Alcorn-Ames feud would influence the
1872 election in Mississippi failed. While siding with the Liber-
als in the Senate, Alcorn declared for Grant, though he took no
part in the canvass. There were bitter contests in the district
conventions over nominations for Congress — the holding mem-
bers being opposed by negro aspirants. Only one, John R.
Lynch, the speaker of the representative house, won over carpet-
bag shrewdness and bribes. The most popular and eloquent of
his race, Secretary of State James Lynch, was beaten after a
stirring canvass in the Vicksburg district by George C. McKee.
A negro paper thus commented upon his defeat and death, which
were close together in time: "As with a magic wand he swayed
and moved the masses whilst a candidate for the nomination.
But it was snatched from him by the demon of corruption. He
never recovered from the blow and when he fell, he fell a vic-
tim to the ingratitude of his own race. The arrow hurled against
his manly breast and deep into his heart lost nothing of its sting
because it was gilded with gold. Shame, shame upon the colored
people that they permitted the most gifted orator of his race to
be thus stricken down. James Lynch was killed by the carpet-
baggers, and the whole race, as a political power, will soon be

438 Mississippi Historical Society.

destroyed by the same instrumentality, and will deserve it, if
they continue to follow the evil advice of the scoundrels who are
now filling their pockets ; preparing to run off from Mississippi
and follow the Landons, the Perces, Packards, and Hallidays
and a host of other carpet-baggers and rascals who have already
run away." Prophetic words.

While the enforcement act of 1871 had served its purpose and
expired by limitation, the south was plainly shown that Grant's
second administration would be modelled on his first, deaf to ap-
peals for justice against wrongs and crimes of corrupt and of-
fensive alien rule. Secretary of War Belknap, in his 1873 re-
port, deplored that a sixth of the army was held in the South,
when all was needed on the western frontier. In his message to
congress, President Grant gave his indorsement anew to the
law and the policy which held such a body of troops in the South.
He said he "could not question the necessity and salutary effect
of recent enactments to enforce the rights of citizens to vote in
the Southern states, and to enforce the provisions of the 14:th
amendment to. the constitution." "There would," he said, "be
no change in his determination to enforce with vigor such acts
as long as conspiracies and combinations therein named disturbed
the peace of the country." The election being over and radical-
ism triumphant, no more was said or heard of these "conspiracies
and combinations," transparent pretexts for using force in es-
tablishing radicalism for four years more. Prospects for regain-
ing representative government in the black states were black
indeed, at the beginning of 1873. Though Mississippi was
blessed by comparison with South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana
and Arkansas, where strife and disorder, as well as corruption,
prevailed. Writing up the South Carolina condition at this per-
iod, H. V. Redfield, a famous correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial said: "I asked General Wallace of Union county
if he saw any light ahead. 'None whatever,' he replied. 'It is
all dark.' General Wallace is one of the few Democrats of the
legislature, and his fine head and honest face looks out of place
among the riff-raff of carpet-baggers, ignorant negroes and gen-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 439

eral slush and scum that make up so large a part of the South
Carolina legislature. Wallace was a Confederate general."

In Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama state governments, beaten
at the polls, were pinned to power by Federal bayonets. North
Carolina escaped by the skin of her teeth. Alabama's lot was
peculiarly hard, as she had been released from carpet-bag rule
by the election of a Democratic governor and legislature in 1870.
Under the influence and the potential pressure of the United
States troops in the state capital she was remanded to radicalism.
In Louisiana a Democratic governor and legislature were elected
through a war to the knife struggle between Warmoth and Kel-
logg, leaders of the rival factions of their party. In Arkansas
a liberal Republican, Brooks, had been elected governor through
the same influence — radical dissensions. In both states the re-
sult was annulled by Federal troops — with blind and brutal des-
potism President Grant ordered the military commanders to up-
hold the defeated candidates. The event in Louisiana was sig-
nalized by the most despotic and infamous abuse of authority of
which a Federal court was ever guilty — the famous "midnight
order" of the drunken and disreputable Judge Durell. This
directed the United States marshal, Packard, to take possession
of the state house, or in fact the state government. With a bat-
talion of United States troops, the order was executed between
midnight and dawn — the building being so held for two months.
To plead for justice and peace a delegation of 100 leading and
non-partisan citizens of the state, headed by ex- Justice Camp-
bell of the United States supreme court, was sent to Washington.
Advised of their coming. Grant's brutal and south-hating At-
torney General, George H. Williams, wired the chairman as fol-
lows : "Your visit with 100 citizens will be unavailing so far as
the president is concerned. His decision is made and will not
be changed. The sooner it is acquiesced in, the sooner good or-
der and peace is restored."

Not willing to take such a decision as final from any other
mouth than the President's, the committee proceeded to Wash-
ington and had its audience, which was chilling and without

440 Mississippi Historical Society.

show of courtesy. The following account of the incident was
published at the time.

"By special favor they were admitted into the President's
room. As they entered they were received by the Attorney Gen-
eral with slack courtesy and ominous scowl. They were ob-
structed in their advance to the President by this churlish official,
who stopped to chat and exchange some jocular remarks with
certain Bohemians of the radical press who were skirmishing
around. Finally, however, the committee was introduced to his
excellency, who made a very scant bow, and coldly shook hands
with the members. Then Judge Campbell, with impressive so-
lemnity and great clearness, stated the objects of their mission,
with characteristic force and distinctness presented the case of
our people and state. The President listened in a cold and in-
different style and when Judge Campbell ceased he proceeded
to give the answers which are already known to the world. They
were given in the style of a boy reciting a speech committed to
memory, and which sounded very much as if read from manu-
script. Judge Campbell replied in his solemn and impressive
manner. As he warmed up with the recital of the wrongs of
our people and the great dangers threatening them, tears rose
in the eyes of the venerable jurist and patriot. During his elo-
quent remonstrance the President never raised his eyes from the
floor nor looked in the faces of the speaker and committee. It
was all in vain. The impassive high official was unmoved by the
piteous narrative — and all the while the Attorney General scowled
on the body of citizens as if they were so many intruders and
felons, who, not being politicians and office-seekers, jobbers and
contractors, had no business in that place and presence. And
thus, never were citizens repelled from the presidential mansion
with more discourtesy, or ever departed therefrom with deeper
humiliation, than the committee of our best citizens, after pre-
senting to the chief magistrate the humble prayer, that he should
use his great power to protect them in their sacred rights of
American citizens."

Seeking to avert utter despair the committee thus toned down
the result of their mission in a report to the people of Louisiana :

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 441

"We have the assurance of both the President and his Attorney
General that an investigation by Congress will meet with no op-
position from the administration. The President, while main-
taining the propriety of the course he has pursued, has not pro-
fessed to consider this action as finally decisive of the vital ques-
tions at issue in the politics of the state." Small crumb of com-
fort as this was, it was instantly snapped up by the Attorney
General, who gave the Associated Press the following rude and
uncalled for denial: "The report of the committee that the
President regards his recognition of the existing government as
provisional and temporary, is not true. The recognition is final
and will be adhered to unless Congress otherwise provides." It
so was — the decision was adhered to even after a senate com-
mittee with a majority of radicals on it had denounced the gov-
ernment the President had been so prompt to recognize and in-
stal. This was done in the report on the contest for a seat in
the senate between the persons chosen by the rival governments,
which report is here quoted from: "In this connection it is the
committee's painful duty to express their opinion of the action
of Judge Durell. A proceeding so manifestly illegal has never
come before Congress for its consideration, in connection with
a court of the United States, and the committee fails to find
words with which to express their abhorrence of the action of
Durell." Reviewing the situation as presented to Congress the
report said: "It now becomes necessary for Congress to decide
which of two courses to pursue — first to declare the election re-
sult as returned by the Lynch board illegal ; second, that no Re-
publican government exists in Louisiana." It was argued that
the result of the first course would be to overthrow the Kellogg
government, for it is demonstrated that if the Federal interfer-
ence were withdrawn it could not exist ten days. Upon argu-
ment supporting the view submitted the report declared it "the
duty of Congress to act in the premises," and the following
resolution was recommended for adoption: "Resolved, That
there is no state government existing in Louisiana."

Before Congress had time to take action on this report which
pointed to an act setting aside both governments of Louisiana,

442 Mississippi Historical Society.

and ordering an election under Federal direction and authority,
President Grant addressed a message to Congress in which while
professing to favor action he said if no legislation was adopted
the power of the government would be used in sustaining the
Kellogg government; which the committee had decided had no
legal standing or existence. This was notice to the radical lead-
ers that no legislation was needed — that the President could be
relied on to save the party policy and ends. The message was
accepted as such notice — when the report of the committee on
privileges and elections came up it was defeated and the Kel-
logg government virtually sustained. But the people of Louisi-
ana refused to acquiesce in the outrage upon them — the McEn-
ery government continued to insist upon recognition of its title.
They refused to pay taxes to authority that had no other hold
upon power than that given by Federal bayonets. Violence and
disorder were frequent throughout the state — in one riot, in
Grant parish, nearly a hundred negroes were slain. But there
was good out of the evil. More than from all other causes,
Northern conscience was aroused and turned against the abomi-
nations of reconstruction by the fruit of bloodshed and strife that
flowed from Durell's infamous midnight order, and the recogni-
tion of the government it created by President Grant.

While the events of a neighboring state do not directly pertain
to Mississippi reconstruction history, the' digression is justified for
the light it sheds over the Southern policy of Grant's administra-
tion. As developed in the installation of the Kellogg usurpation
it was the paramount topic of Southern thought. And when the
deed was done and clinched, the depths of despondency was cast
over the South. The feeling that prevailed is reflected in the fol-
lowing from a comment in the Greenville Times, upon the Presi-
dent's action, and the decision of the United States Supreme
Court that it had no justification to annul the Durell order by a
writ of prohibition. "This is only another of the many defeats
the Southern states have met with, in their endeavors to avert
the consequences of military conquest. The question again comes
up, 'What is to be done about it?' Appeal to the ancient land-
marks, the constitution and laws will not serve — ^their safe an-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 443

chorages have been swept away. * * * In a time of dire per-
il the French nation was nerved to great deeds, by Danton's im-
passioned call 'To Dare! To Dare ! And again to Dare !' But
with the South it is a question of endurance— to endure, to endure
and continue to endure. This is the answer, and God strengthen
us the only answer, to the question. With a foreboding of the
evil days in store for his people, Gen. Lee at the close of the war,
enjoined that "it must not be doubted that human capacity was
equal to human calamity."

A faithful portrayal and damning indictment of reconstruction
is quoted from a speech at this period in congress by Representa-
tive Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana:

Sir, the absolute destruction of free institutions from the Pen
tomac to the Rio Grande commenced with the earliest dawn of
peace. Sherman received Johnston's surrender upon the precise
basis on which the war had been prosecuted at every stage. He
stipulated that the soldiers of the south should lay down the arms
of their unequal warfare, return to their states, whose existence
had not then been denied, and resume the pursuits of industry
where they had left off, subject only to the destruction of slavery,
which was wrought by the movements of armies and not by proc-
lamations. He had more than a thousand precedents in the de-
liberate and recorded actions of this government for his conduct.
He was sustained by both branches of congress in innumerable
ways ; by four years of incessant and voluminous legislation, by
the enactment of apportionment laws throughout the states whose
people were in rebellion, by districting them for judicial ptxr-
poses, by levying upon them direct taxes as members of the union
under the constitution, by the constant reception of their represen-
tatives on this floor and in the senate, by the most solemn and
binding joint resolutions, and by e-^ery other mode in which this
department of the government can commit, was upheld by ev-
ery document also to which the name of the executive was at-
tached during the war ; by every message inaugural, proclamation
and order of that proHfic period. The courts added their weighty
sanction, from those of the lowest and feeblest jurisdiction to
those of the loftiest pretentions and powers. No government in

444 Mississippi Historical Society.

the widespread history of the nations of the earth was ever under
voluntary and self-imposed obligations of greater force and mag-
nitude. The word and the honor of the republic had been plight-
ed over and over again to its own citizens and in the sight and
hearing of the civilized world. The moment, however, that re-
sistance ceased and the way was open for the pent-up purposes
of revolution, centralization and rapine, the party in power broke
with shameless haste its most sacred faith, flung aside the mask
it had worn for years, admitted that its previous pretensions and
promises were fraudulent, and clamored with ferocity against the
hero of the march to the sea, who to be true and sincere had acted
on them. The terms which Sherman gave to a fallen foe had of-
ten been tendered to that foe before he fell ; but they were now
madly thrust aside in the hour of victory, and the general himself
denounced far and wide as a traitor to his country. The hue and
cry was raised against him as if he was a fleeing fugitive from
justice. That memorable and disgraceful outburst cannot be cov-
ered with obHvion. It more resembles the enraged scream of a
beast of prey about to be bafiled out of its victim than the reas-
onable expression of human beings. The victim, however, was
surrendered to the clutches of an inflamed and victorious party,
and the work of demolition and ruin was at once commenced.
From turret to foundation you tore down the government of
eleven states. You left not one stone upon another ; you rent all
their local laws and machinery into fragments and trampled up-
on their ruins. Not a vestige of their pillars, their rafters, their
beams and their deep-laid corners — the work of a wise and de-
voted generation of the past, were all dragged away, and sites
where they once stood left naked for the erection of new and dif-
ferent structures. You removed the rubbish, pushed the army
into the vacant ground, established provisional governments as
you would over territory just acquired by conquest from a foreign
power, and clothed brigadier and major generals with extraor-
dinary functions as governors.

This was the beginning of the present organizations ; the odi-
ous and unsightly fabrics which now cumber the earth, and which
stand as the open, reeking and confessed shambles of corruption,

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 445

pollution and revolting misrule. They embraced not one single
element of popular consent. They are the hideous offspring of
your own unnatural and unlawful force and violence. The great
body of the people of that unfortunate section had no more share
in the rebuilding of the local governments than the sepoys of East
Indies have in the affairs of the British Empire. They were ex-
cluded from all participation in the most elaborate and iniquitous
scheme of legislation of which history makes record.

The first duty of the provisional governments which you estab-
lished was to call conventions to frame new constitutions for these
old states, and to prepare them for readmission into that union
from wTiich you had sworn so often and so solemnly that no state
could ever withdraw. These conventions were provided with the
laws enacted here. The number and the quality of the delegates
to them were here specified. Who should be eligible and who in-
eligible was your work and not the work of the people who were
to be governed. You not only said who should be elected, but
you likewise determined who should elect them, you fixed the
qualifications and the color of the voters. You purged the bal-
lot box of the intelligence and the virtue on which alone popular
liberty can be safely founded, and you admitted in their stead
■ the suffrage of the most ignorant and unqualified race now inhab-
iting the globe. In the reorganization of all the states whose pres-
ent condition is matter of such sore complaint and such bitter ac-
cusations, the dominant party here and in those states excluded
from office and deprived the people of the services of every man
who by his talents, industry, and integrity had sufficiently ac-
quired the confidence of his fellow citizens before the war to be
made governor, secretary, auditor or treasurer of state, attorney
general, judge, clerk or reporter of supreme court; superinten-
dent of public instructions, member of either branch of congress
or of the legislature of his state ; clerk, sheriff, treasurer, auditor
or recorder of his coimty; judge of probate court whose juris-
diction follows the inevitable footsteps of death, and whose func-
tions are those of benevolence toward the orphans and the widows
of the human race; justice of peace, or constable of his township,
or notary public. Every man who had been called in former

446 Mississippi Historical Society.

days to fill any of these stations, and many more that might be
enumerated, and, who during the conflict between the sections,
was clothed with the slightest responsibility or charged with the
smallest official duty by those with whom his destiny and his home
had fallen, had marked by a blight of ineligibility, and like the
leper of old it was made a crime for the people to again reach
forth to him the hand of friendship, confidence and support. Ev-
en the sacred instincts of human nature became disqualifications
for office, the ties of kindred criminal under this new and revolt-
ing system. He who gave a cup of cold water and a crust of
bread to his thirsty and famished son, under arms for a cause
which he believed to be right, and for which he was willing to die,
was branded with dishonor and driven out from the councils of
his countrymen. The loving mother who sheltered her weary and
wounded boy, laid him in his own familiar bed at home once
more, kissed his feverish lips, wiped away the gathering dews of
death, and with a broken heart closed his dear eyes forever, was
condemned for these acts of angelic ministry, and incurred the
penalties of confiscation. He who dismounted and gave his horse
to a brother in a moment of danger in close pursuit, the sister
who wrought and sent clothing to him on the toilsome march ; the
maiden who prayed for her lover as he lay dying in the Wilder-
ness, or at Stone river, all fell under a common curse. Even the
white-haired grandmother of four score years, whose youthful
husband was at the Cowpens, Eutaw Springs and Yorktown, or
maybe fought under Jackson at New Orleans in the war of 1812,
was deprived of her pension that small morsel of bounty from an
ungenerous government, if her heart was extended in sympathy
to her children on the plains of the South. A more sweeping and
universal exclusion from all the benefits, rights, trusts, honors,
enjoyments, liberties, and control of a government was never en-
acted against a whole people without respect to age or sex in the
annals of tlie human race. The disgraceful disabilities imposed
on the Jews for nearly 1800 years by the conquering monarchs
were never more complete or appalling. Who denies a single
statement I make? I challenge and defy contradiction. Every
fact that I here proclaim is contained in the laws and in the re-

1

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 447

corded transactions of this government, and will constitute, "af-
ter some time be passed" and the passions of the present have
subsided, the most frightful and crushing arraignment which his-
tory ever summed up against a ruling political party.

I call upon the Republican party to assume its just responsi-
bility and not to shrink back now from the bad eminence it has
attained in the conduct of Southern affairs. To it much has been
given, and from it much is demanded. More than the ten talents
have been entrusted to its care, and the present and future gen-
erations will exact a rigid account at its hands. But now as the
ghastly and hideous results of its control in the South appear on
every square mile of that oppressed and plundered sections, it
starts back with horror and disclaims its own offspring, the fruits
of its own unholy rapine and lust. With pale lips and affrighted
mien it ejaculates : "Thou canst not say I did it." But the deeds
which it has committed are of imperishable infamy, and they will
not down at its bidding, nor can all the waters of the ocean wash
away their guilty stains.

Having, however, now shown where the absolute, thorough and
minute management of every interest, right and privilege of the
Southern states and their people have been lodged during the
whole process of pulling down and rebuilding their local govern-
ments, I shall proceed next to call upon the results which have
followed :

(Here follows a fervid recital in detail of the plunder of each
separate state of the eleven, with the quoted table) :

Alabama — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war, $5,-
939,654.87 ; debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, $38,381,967.37.

Arkansas — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war, $4,-
036,952.87 ; debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, $19,761,265.62.

Florida — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war, $221,000;
debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, $15,763,447.54.

Georgia — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war, nominal ;
debts and liabilities June, 1871, $50,137,500. (See statement of
Mr. Angler, treasurer of Georgia.)

Louisiana — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war, $10,-

448 Mississippi Historical Society.

099,074.34; debts and liabilities June 1, 1871, including the excess
of expenditures over the receipts $50,540,206.91.

North Carolina — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war,
$9,699,500 ; debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, $34,887,467.85.

South Carolina — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war,
$5,000,000; debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, $39,158,914.47.

Mississippi — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war nomin-
al ; debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, about $2,000,000.

Tennessee — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war, $20,-
105,606.66 ; debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, $45,688,263.46.

Texas — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war, nominal;
debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, $20,361,000.

Virginia — Debts and liabilities at the close of the war, $31,938,-
144.59; debts and liabilities January 1, 1872, $45,48o,542.21.

If we turn from the far off regions of antiquity to the imme-
diate present, still we find no parallel to the evil administrations
of the South.

With what a clamor the corrupt practices of four or five iKen
in the city of New York have been hailed for many months past.
The air has been vocal, the press has resounded ; the telegraph
has been made weary of its daily burden and the accusing voice
of self-righteous indignation has been universal and unceasing.
The Democratic party, it is true, crushed these men in an instant,
but still the story of their offenses salutes us everywhere. And yet
their work of extortion, compared to that in the South, is the mote
to the beam, and the mole hill to the mountain, the speck in the
sky to the cloud that overspreads and darkens the whole heavens.
Their crimes, too, have a still further mitigation in the compari-
son. If they enriched themselves, they at least did not take all.
They made New York the wonder and the glory of modern civil-
ization, they bestowed upon them in return a city more magnifi-
cently adorned with public works than Rome or Paris in their
days of pride, of pomp and of power. Her glorious parks, her
vast avenues, her newly-opened, solid and far-reaching streets,
will testify to after ages that her officials bequeathed to her some

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 449

compensation for the wrongs inflicted upon her good name. No
such conduct illuminates a single page of the present epoch in the
South. You look in vain from Hampton Roads to the Bay of
Galveston for a single monument erected to the public good by
that party which has so sternly and so corruptly governed in all
that widespread region.

No colleges, seminaries or schools founded and endowed
with the treasures that have been stolen ; no lofty edifices or dur-
able roads constructed; no massive bridges thrown across wide
rivers ; no parched plains irrigated and made productive ; no rice
swamp ditched and redeemed for cultivation ; no canals cut in or-
der to connect the natural channels of trade and commerce; no
rivers improved or harbors made more spacious and secure ; none
of these works of utility and patriotism relieve the monotonous
desolation which unholy avarice and unrestrained oppression has
stamped upon the South. She has nothing to mitigate her degra-
dation. She has been stripped and robbed and left by the way-
side; her effects, moneys and credits have been transported to
other states and climes, to return to her no more forever. Her
well-flavored and fat-fleshed kine, feeding in her meadows, have
been devoured. The fogs, the darkness, the lict and locusts left
more blessings behind them in Egypt than this portion of the re-
public has received from its modern rulers.

Sir. I challenge the darkest annals of the human race for like
outrages to them which have been perpetrated on eleven Ameri-
can states. Ireland has been made to enrich many a lawless lord
lieutenant sent over by England to govern that beautiful but un-
happy island. The stories of her wrongs have been said and sung
in every hamlet in the civilized world, yet her contributions to
the cause of a wicked government have been mere pittances com-
pared to what the South has been compelled to make. Seventy
years before the birth of Christ, Sicily was ravaged and despoiled
by a consul of Rome. Though more than nineteen centuries have
come and gone since, yet the name of Verres retains all its fresh-
ness of immortal infamy. He was prosecuted by the authority of
the Roman senate, and fled for an asylum to strange and foreign
lands. He died miserably in exile and his dishonored dust was
29

450 Mississippi Historical Society.

not permitted to mingle with the soil of the Roman republic. We
find, however, in Middleton's Life of Cicero that all the pecula-
tions, extortions, bribes and larcenies charged upon Verres dur-
ing his entire administration of Sicily did not exceed $2,000,000 ;
equal to only one third of the amount for which the Tribune of
New York says Governor Scott fraudulently issued the bonds of
South Carolina in a single transaction.

The basest Roman consul whose name is preserved on the pages
of the historian becomes respectable by the side of Southern gov-
ernors under the present policy of this government. The crimes
of Warren Hastings, as the ruler of distant and conquered col-
onies, have long been the theme of swelling themes and lofty dec-
lamation. There has been much in his situation to extenuate his
offenses.

He was charged by his government to hold its valuable posses-
sions on the opposite side of the globe. He was in the midst of
fierce, revengeful and undying hostilities. He was surrounded
by a race with which he had no bond or tie of blood or language.
It was perfidious and cruel, and mocked at the faith of treaties.
But even admitting that his guilt was as great as it was painted by
the flaming imagination of Burke or the impassioned rhetoric of
Sheridan, yet all the burdens he imposed upon all the East In-
dies do not equal those which have been fastened upon the two
states of Georgia and Louisiana alone since the disastrous dawn
of reconstruction.

Sir, on the facts which I have stated I invoke the judgment of
the country."

Mississippi's escape, as shown in the Voorhees table of state
debts, from the enormous bond issues which bore so heavily on
the other Southern states, was due to a "repudiation" blacklist,
handed down from long before the war. In all of the money
markets the name of the state was taboo. This prevented the re-
construction officials from selling state securities abroad. Ap-
parently this furnishes one instance when good fruit came from a
bad tree. Though estoppal in one way, was a stimulus to devis-
ing many other schemes of robbery by the carpet bag plunder-
bund. An interesting story of the repudiation handicap is fur-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 451

nished in a letter, dated December 1877, from Senator Lamar to
Senator Gordon — which is quoted^ — explaining the inexpediency
of sending him to the Paris exposition on a special commission
for urging Southern investments:

"A very intelligent traveler, one who has held very conspicuous
positions abroad, has urged that I go in the capacity of special
commissioner. But I happen to know that I am not the man.
While in Europe for the Confederacy I was consulted every day
by Messrs. Mason, Slidell and our financial agents in London and
Paris. The greatest obstacle in the way of the financial recogni-
tion of our Confederacy was that our president was from Mis-
sissippi, to which the odium of repudiation was attached. I re-
member the chief man in charge told Mr. Mason: "Sir, you can-
not float your loan unless your Confederacy disavows the repudi-
ation of Mississippi." Now if I were to go there my time would
be more occupied in explaining this matter of repudiation than in
pushing the enterprise."

The Mississippi legislature met Jan. 31st, 1873. Gov. Powers'
message was devoted to the routine of affairs, and recommenda-
tions looking to their improvement. Among these were amend-
ments to the constitution providing for biennial legislative ses-
sions, and restrictions upon the debt contracting powers of cities.
A reduction of over $100,000 in the items of public printing and
legislative costs was claimed. The opening of the message was
as follows: "Mississippi stands among her sister states as an
example of reconstruction based on reconciliation, by a full and
just recognition of the rights of all her citizens." This observa-
tion was doubtless prompted by the entire absence in Mississippi
of the political strife prevailing in the then adjoining states of
Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas. The session of the legisla-
ture was not marked by any scandals of magnitude. A civil
rights bill which had failed in the preceding legislature, was en-
acted to the exceeding great joy of the carpet bag mulattoes.
They raised a few disturbances and lawsuits in testing the rights
it conferred. But receiving no encouragement or countenance
from the negroes generally, such activities soon died out and the
law became a dead letter. Among the petty peccadilloes of the

452 Mississippi Historical Society.

legislature was the creation of a commissioner of investigation
in the person of a cornfield hand who represented Issaquena
county in the legislature. His salary was $2,000 a year, and the
fund at his disposal was $10,000. It was expended in office ex-
penses and clerk hire. The legislature adjourned at the close of
a three months session. An incident of note at the close of the
session was the presentation to the colored speaker of the house,
Jno. R. Lynch, of a gold watch, by members irrespective of party.
A resolution by a Democratic member testified to the speaker's
"ability, courtesy and impartiality." Under the prevailing cir-
cumstances this interchange was as creditable to the white Demo^
crats as to the negro speaker whom they praised.

The tranquillity prevailing spoke well for the administration of
Gov. Powers. But in the counties the extortionate and corrupt
practices were unchecked.

In his message the Governor had repeated his recommendation
of the previous session for placing members of the Board of Su-
pervisors under bonds; as a check upon loose and dishonest ad-
ministration of county finances. Local administration by irre-
sponsible non-taxpayers had depreciated county scrip all over the
state to fifty per cent or less of its face value. County debts had
been created, and a tax rate levied that was burthensome beyond
endurance. The bad situation was, of course more aggravated in
the negro counties. The following from the Greenville Times of
April 12, 1873, reflects black county administration generally :
"When attention is called to the meeting of the Board of Super-
visors, the county will be prepared for what follows. Accounts
amounting to over $10,000 were allowed, at least four-fifths of
which are wholly unwarranted by law and should have been en-
joined. One account is worthy of the attention of all as it beats
the precedents. This is a bill of stationery for the circuit clerk's
office amounting to $4,477.08. The chancery clerk was much
more moderate, as his stationery bill footed up only $1,080. A
bill for "incidentals" to the circuit clerk's office of $700 was al-
lowed. These are sample items, deemed sufficient to put the tax
payers in a thoughtful mood." These allowances were cited as a
text, and tax payers were strongly urged to effect a permanent

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 453

organization to defeat such raids by legal means which were ample
and available. The negroes were called on to note that "the pres-
ent administration of county affairs had cured the white citizens
of the fallacy, that under negro rule the county was better off
than when carpet baggers directed their government."

Under the inspiration of these exposures a Washington county
tax payers league was organized April 22d, 1873 — the first of
a number that sprang up all over the state — to check such rob-
beries as are here enumerated; a movement which culminated
two years later in the complete and final overthrow of alien rob-
ber rule. The platform of League purposes, published in the
Greenville Times of September 26th, declared for equal and
moderate taxation; economical and lawful expenditures of the
public funds of the county. An executive committee of ten mem-
bers was created, and all taxpayers of the county were urged to
join the league, measures being at once instituted to effect the
purposes declared. Two years before like steps had been initi-
ated against the carpet bag officials of the county. In both in-
stances the local bar generally, and its leaders especially, volun-
teered and patriotically rendered their services. On the former
occasions the radicals having a friend in the court, escaped
scathless. It was now different — court and carpet baggers
wanted their black rivals in rapacity taught a lesson. Court con-
vened with a grand jury in sympathy with enforcement of law.
Indictments were found promptly. The chief rascal, J. P. Ball,
president of the Board of Supervisors, etc., was convicted of em-
bezzlement and sent to the penitentiary. The junior Ball was
indicted. When his case was called for trial, L. B. VaUiant, one
of the counsel for the League, arose and said to the court : "Ow-
ing to your honor's adverse ruling on Ball senior's application
for change of venue, Ball, junior, applied to the ferryman for a
change to Arkansas; which application, I am informed, was
granted." The white citizens were greatly encouraged, and
under attachment proceedings of the Tax Payers' League many
thousands of dollars of county scrip illegally issued was recov-
ered. A lengthy summary of the results achieved in the Green-
ville Times of May 17th is condensed as follows: "It devolves

454 Mississippi Historical Society.

upon the Tax Payers League to continue to supply the means of
carrying on the war, so successfully instituted, on corrupt offi-
cials. Members must not delude themselves with the idea that
their work is as yet accomplished. It is only begun. Eternal
vigilance is the tax payer's only guarantee in these times." Es-
pecial praise was bestowed on the negro jurors and grand jurors
of the court term.

The organization of the Tax Payers League and the proofs
of earnest work brought the county scrip steals to an end ; though
it was a case of locking the stable door too late to restrain a flood
of unknown but ruinous volume of obligations. At the next
meeting of the Board of Supervisors W. G. Yerger, represent-
ing the Tax Payers' League, presented himself in that capacity.
His authority was recognized and no allowances issued until he
had passed on them as legal. Consequently, as noted in the
county paper, of $3,500 claims presented, $45 were allowed.
The Times said.; "Nothing is hazarded in stating that but for
the presence of our attorney and the conviction of Ball, every
dollar claimed would have been allowed, and no one knows how
much more besides."

In the 1873 state campaign Democratic despair was confronted
by radical assurance and arrogance. The whites were driven to
the ignoble policy of dependence upon such gain and betterment
as might be secured through the feuds and struggles of the ad-
versary. Of these there was no end. The mutual antipathies of
the two senators made both candidates for Governor, as a test
of claims of leadership of their party. Alcorn was not an avowed
candidate, until his party convention, he backed Governor Powers
for re-election. This would have been far more acceptable to
the white people than the administration of either Alcorn or
Ames. But under no circumstances could he have won a nomi-
nation to be awarded by the negroes. They had grown suspicious
of their white emancipators, and with cause. In their hearts
there were few of the Northern instruments of reconstruction
who did not despise and deride their own professions of race
equality. The negro was quick to detect the sham. In Ames,
however, they descerned a genuine lack of all sentiment of race

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeUy. 455

prejudice. His devotion to the establishment of negro political
dominance in Mississippi went hand in hand with his distrust and
fixed aversion of the South. Carpet bag rule was ameliorated to
a degree by the desire of social intercourse with the native whites.
This was almost invariable, but Ames was an exception — he
sought no favor and made no friends of them. Such a man was
invincible before a negro electorate, and the negro was distinctly
in the radical saddle in making up the incoming state adminis-
tration. They had been put off four years before with a single
representative on the ticket. They now realized their power and
demanded its full recognition. Among the first counties to hold
a convention was Warren. With Ames for Governor, negroes
were endorsed for Treasurer, Lieutenant Governor and Secretary
of State. A negro was nominated for sheriff, negroes for both
county clerkships, and treasurer. Under the pressure of pleas "to
give the Anglo-Saxon a fair deal," white men were nominated
for county assessor, and one of the four representatives in the
legislature.

The state convention assembled August 27th and nominated
Ames by an overwhelming majority — the count being Ames 187
and Powers 40. Three negroes were given places on the ticket.
On the day the nomination of Ames was made, the capitol was
placarded with announcements of a speech by Alcorn. He had
shrewdly avoided a direct test of his leadership in the convention.
Now that Powers had been defeated, made desperate by resent-
ment and pique, Alcorn took up the combat. He decided to lead
a battle against the convention nominee. His position, the argu-
ments of his speech, were so grotesquely contradictory that they
would have overwhelmed a man of less arrogance and conceit, in
ridicule and derision. An appeal for the support of a people
whom he had so outraged, would seem to be impossible of favor.
But those who indulge this view have but to remember that the
alternative was Ames and the negro. Nevertheless, it was among
the most ill-flavored of all hard trials and tests of a period of evil
environments that white men of Mississippi were constrained to
elect to support Alcorn. His speech abounded in shallowest so-
phistry and inconsequent pleadings. He afifirmed the "sincerity of

456 Mississippi Historical Society.

his allegiance to the Confederacy." When the war had ceased he
had "protested against making Lewis Dent, a non-resident, the
standard-bearer of the returning heroes to the Union' — holding it
more manly that one of our citizens should bear back to the na-
tion the allegiance of a conquered people. The whites refusing to
follow him he appealed to the negroes. The colored people had
followed him with a devotion he had never seen surpassed." Gov.
Alcorn's policy of propitiating the whites ani at the same time
holding the support of the negroes was sublime in egotism and
audacity. For the light it sheds upon the man and the times, his
speech, attempting to convert poison into antidote, is quoted
copiously :

"In Ames' capacity as military governor he was, in the minor
details of the government, a law unto himself. He manifested a
hatred to the whites of the state ; but his love for the colored peo-
ple had not caused him to enforce his civil rights. When I be-
came governor the colored man was not allowed to ride in the
first-class railroad cars. Why did he not enforce your civil
rights ? He had power to do so, and yet he did not. Soon after I
became governor you were riding in the cars like other people,
and this, too, without the aid of either legislation or the bayonet.
(Applause.) We entered on this privilege with the consent and
approbation of the white people of the state. I had appealed to
them in your behalf. I had appealed to the presidents of the dif-
ferent railroads. The justice and good sense of the appeal was
recognized, and from that day to this, this branch of your civil
rights has been respected. Again, colored men, you are told that
I am seeking to break up the Republican party, and to turn you
over to the Etemocrats. This is false. I seek to maintain it in the
control of the government for the good of the people. I see the
effort to create a distrust in your minds against me.

When I entered on my duty as governor the white people of
the state were estranged from me. I was compelled to put my
government in motion and had, necessarily to appoint many men
to office who I felt were unfit. I appointed many good men and
many bad ones, but before appointing to office, I made the legis-
lature vote me a secret service fund of $50,000 and at the same

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 457

time give me power to remove incumbents from office. I kept
spies on their tracks and with the power to remove I saved the
state from pkmder. The question is asked why I oppose Ames,
it being known that he could not have been elected to the senate
but for me. I shall give you the answer. Ames had denied that
he desired to go to the senate — pledged himself that he would not
be a candidate for c^ce. But when I came to Jackson he stated
to me the fact that my legislature was infected with thieves. He
gave me the names of many that he held to be of that class. I
will give you the name of one whom he designated as a consum-
mate rogue, who was then a member of the Mississippi senate ; to-
day he is your nominee for auditor of public accounts — this is no
other than W. H. Gibbs.

Musgrove, who is an honest and competent officer, was over-
ridden by the convention and this man Gibbs nominated in his
stead. Gibbs had made the attempt to rob the state, by approving
a fraudulent account of $20,000. Ames gave me the names of
many others who he said were no better. He said to me that these
men intended to plunder the state, and when they should find me
in the way they would make war on me by misrepresentations at
Washington. He stated that I would need a friend at Washing-
ton who knew these men and who could save my government
from the consequences of their misrepresentations. I was
alarmed at the picture ; I soon agreed to support Ames for senate.

He said he had no taste for political life; that he desired the
indorsement that he might be appointed a brigadier general in the
regular army. I agreed to do what I could to advance him.
Ames knew very well that his hope of continuance in the senate,
living as he did out of the state, could not be realized should the
two races become, as they should be, friends. When the state
should once find repose with a peaceable and contented people
they would deserve to be represented in congress by men of their
own state. Ames was not nor did he intend to be of this class.
Mississippi as a place of residence had no attractions for him. A
quasi state of war must be kept up or Ames could not hope to
be continued in place. He said that my purpose was — to make
peace between the races, to bring into the Republican party

458 Mississippi Histco-ical Scxriety.

the white people, the young white men of Mississippi, that the
government might be controlled by the colored people and
white people, by all the people of Mississippi." (Prolonged
applause.) "I repeat that Ames saw that if I should succeed,
his hope was lost. Citizen Ames paid a visit in 1870 to the
state, and soon after he came a distinguished colored man of
Mississippi — one that you all know, and one whose word you will
all take should what I state be denied — I shall at a future time
give his name — came to me with the intelligence that Ames had
sought an interview with him ; that Ames had proposed to make
war on Governor Alcorn. Governor Alcorn was seeking to en-
large the area of the Republican party ; that he was endeavoring
to induce the whites of Mississippi, the young men of the state,
to join that party. "Should be succeed in doing this," Ames said
to the colored gentleman, "you and I will be driven from the state.
We are both carpetbaggers, and an accession to the Republican
party is fatal to you and myself." I do not pretend to quote the
precise words, but I do not misrepresent the ideas Ames proposed
to this colored man that he (Ames) should represent the North-
ern element, and the colored man the colored element, by this
they could control the offices and ostracise the natives, the native
white Republicans. His proposition went further. It was that
the next legislature should, as far as it could, be made up of
Ames' friends, and at the first opportunity a resolution should be
passed by the legislature indorsing him and censuring me. This,
he said, would break me down in Washington, destroy my influ-
ence there, and enable him to control the Federal patronage. This
being done, continued Ames, I can come to Mississippi in 1873
and be nominated and elected governor of the state. I can then
fix the state permanently in the hands of the Northern men and
the colored men, to the exclusion of the natives, for all time to
come.

All southern thinking men would thus be crushed. The per-
son to whom this disclosure was made came to me with the report.
He wrote out a reply, which I read: he reproduced in that reply
Ames' propositions. His reply was to the effect that he wished to
have peace established between the races in Mississippi; that

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 459

Ames' proposition would continue the feuds and internal commo-
tions of the state ; that he was opposed to this ; that he believed I
was a friend to his race, and that he should continue to support
me in my effort to consummate a lasting brotherhood between
the races in this state. (Cheers.) The evidence which I have
of the truth of this disclosure rests on the confidence I have in the
truth of my friend, supplemented by the fact that the reply to
General Ames was given into my hands for the mail. I handed
it to my secretary and directed him to mail it to General Ames'
address.

And now today, my countrymen, Ames is here as a candidate
for Governor in following out his purpose, and should he be
chosen the war of races begins in this state. This means the de-
struction of all our hopes.

Colored men, what has Ames done for you? When here as
provisional governor, he was under the direction of the Secre-
tary of War, and received daily instructions as to his duty. Did
you ever see him incur a danger for your sake ? He tells you he
fought for you. Ah, the little man ! Had there not been a larger
one than he you would have been yet in your manacles. EHd he,
when here, ever risk himself beyond the reach of government
bayonets? Is he capable of rendering you service in the forum?
Colored men, did I not bear your banner in 1869 ? Did you see
irie in the fierce conflict? Did I assume danger for your sake?
You followed me then, stand by me now, and then you will stand
for your country's good. My countrymen, understand me when
I speak of the Northern men. Honest men are here in our midst
who are from the North. Some were civilians and some were
soldiers in the Federal army when the war went on. Now they
are here, honest and honored citizens; they have cast their for-
tunes with us. They have not come here to rob, but to enrich the
state ; to better their fortunes. We honor these men. while we de-
nounce the adventurer and the thief, be they black or white, from
the North or from the South, and, God helping us, we will drive
them from all places of public trust. (Prolonged cheering.)

4:60 Mississippi Historical Society.

To the white people of Mississippi we will appeal for support.
Come with us, you Democrats of the past. Why hesitate now?
Come, join with these Northern Republicans, who are with us,
and with the colored people who are for their country! Come,
young men of Mississippi, strike one blow for the peace and safety
of your state. Ames is the enemy of your state. In congress
he has traduced and slandered you. He said, when writing to the
colored man, Norris, that I was protecting the Democrats in the
murder of the colored people of the state by hundreds. To stir
the colored man's blood to hatred against the white race. He
knew the charge was false, that his letter was a lie, but his pur-
pose he was following up.

Elect him, my countrymen. Let him remodel your courts ; let
J. Wiley Wells and this poor creature. Hill, have his commission
for your robbery ; the legislature will pass the law, the corrupt
court will expound it, Ames' bayonets will enforce it. Our prop-
erty will be confiscated; our liberties, though guaranteed by the
constitution, will be usurped by the sword. The calamity will
come upon colored men and white men alike ; all are enslaved, all
impoverished and ruined.

Why, colored men, will you support Ames for Governor of
your state ? What has he done for you in Congress ? Go and find
one measure in Congress looking to the relief of the South which
had the support of Ames. I declare him to be, in my judgment,
the most vindictive man in Congress against the Southern whites.

God grant that we may be delivered from his grasp, from the
rain which he has in store for us all ! To avert this, I have an-
nounced myself as a candidate for Governor of your state. I am
a Republican of the true faith. I have not lost my faith. I have
only turned on plunderers and thieves. Come with me, men of
Mississippi ; you who love your state ; who would save her from
the bondholders ; who would save her from Ames ! Come and
help me save our wives and little ones from the "body of this
death." Come and let us execute a lasting bond of friendship
between the white people and the black people, and let us drive
from the state the political incendiary who comes to make war

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — MtNeily. 461

between our people ; who comes to rob us then spit upon us and
leave us.

God grant our deliverance !

The Democratic executive committee met in Jackson Augnst
14, 1873, and issued a call for a convention at Meridian, September
17th. A resolution was proposed by a member of the committee,
recommending county instructions "to disband the party and re-
lease its members from any further fealty to the Democratic
party." While rejected by the committee, the resolution was pub-
lished and furnished the basis of discussion through the state
press of the policy to be pursued — whether to nominate a ticket,
or disband and leave each individual to vote as he pleased. War-
ren county was among the first to hold a Democratic mass meet-
ing September 3d, urging a straight ticket and an active cam-
paign. Other counties were soon heard from, taking the opposite
position. The Hinds county convention, September 8th, attended
by the prominent Democrats of the capital city, sounded the key-
note of despair and lethargy, which had overcome the party lead-
ership especially. The following is quoted from the proceedings :
"The following resolutions, offered by Col. Jones S. Hamilton,
were adopted with great unanimity: 'Whereas it is the sense of
this convention that the majority of those who have heretofore
acted with the Democratic party in this county is in accord with
the resolutions offered in the state executive committee by the
Hon. S. S. Calhoon of Madison county, and whereas it is the
solemn conviction that any action of this convention looking to
placing a ticket in the field will be adverse to the best interests of
the state ; therefore be it resolved, that the delegates appointed to
the state convention be and are hereby instructed to vote against
any and all resolutions looking to the nomination of a state
ticket." In the state press there was voiced a very strong opposi-
tion to the course proposed in the resolution. A decided majority
of the state papers called for a ticket to be placed in the field.
For the sake of the record, and to avert the repugnance of voting
for distasteful candidates, this would have been best. But there
can be no severe condemnation of leaders who recomrnended party

462 Mississippi Historical Society.

non-action. The truer, manlier course was overshadowed by the
hopelessness of the contest. Like the Damoclean sword, the
heavy hand of Grant, which had fallen with such crushing effect
on Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama, the year before, overhung
the situation and forbade a struggle such as they had then vainly
made.

The convention met in Meridian and was called to order by
Chairman Rob't Lowry of the state committee. It was presided
over by Col. R. O. Reynolds of Monroe county. Less than two-
thirds of the counties were represented. A resolution by Hon.
H. M. Street, pledging all the delegates to abide by the action of
the convention, and to discourage a nomination by a part of the
party, was adopted by a vote of 118 to 29. The resolution an-
nouncing the decision of the convention, introduced by the Hon.
Jeff Wilson of Pontotoc county, was as follows : "Resolved, that
it is the sense of the conservative Democratic party in convention
assembled, that it is inexpedient to nominate a state ticket at this
time. Resolved that this convention do now adjourn sine die."
This resolution, so significant of the low state of the fortunes
and the spirit of the white people of Mississippi, was earnestly
opposed in a debate that lasted until after nightfall. It was then
voted upon and adopted by a vote of 99 to 45. The day follow-
ing the withdrawal of the Democratic organization from the field,
the Alcorn nominating convention was held in Jackson — the later
event being probably the sequel to the former. It was so accused
by the Republican state organ, which placed the stigma upon the
revolt, of the "Democratic Alcorn mass meeting." The attend-
ance was neither impressive nor inspiring. It was presided over
by Judge C. C. Shackleford, the most odious of all Alcorn's ju-
dicial appointments. A full list of candidates was named for the
state offices, headed by J. S. Alcorn for Governor. As a whole
the bolter's ticket was far preferable to the other. For one thing
it had two negroes on it, while the Ames ticket had three. But
these, with Alcorn, were sufficient to avert whatever vigor and
heartiness of Democratic support may have been counted on.

The policy of the Alcorn canvass was the same that had flashed
out fitfully in his administration — to draw a line between the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 463

home and the alien Republicans. This meant the negro and the
scalawag against the carpet-bagger, or Alcorn against Ames.
The platform sought to justify the bolt of the Alcorns, by de-
nouncing the regulars as " a class of irresponsible non-residents,"
who had "so prostituted and debauched the convention by open
bribery and unquestioned corruption as to make it the duty of all
honorable men to dissolve all connection with the corrupt indi-
viduals whose object is the plunder of the state." Adjournment
of the Alcorn convention was closely followed by a Powers diver-
sion. The governor addressed a note to the attorney general, who
like himself had been left off of both tickets, questioning the war-
rant for an election in 1873; and asking "an official opinion as
to when the next general election should be held." In compliance
with this request Attorney General Morris gave an opinion to
the effect that under the code and the constitution, when rightly
construed, there could be no general election in 1873. On Sep-
tember 30th, Gov. Powers adopted this opinion, to the ejctent of
issuing a proclamation declaring there could be no election until
November, 1874. The radical state organ, the Jackson Pilot,
promptly characterized the governor's action as "incendiary and
revolutionary," and called on the county registrars to go ahead
and hold the election. Had the governor been made of revolu-
tionary stuff his advantage of position and power would have
tempted him to boldly play up to his lead. But he was a conser-
vative. Made timid by the knowledge that Ames would have
President Grant's backing in a conflict, he virtually gave up his
case by calling the legislature in session to decide the question of
law, which the attorney general had already officially passed on.
This step — ^which was a confession of weakness — was distinctly
disastrous to the liberal, or Alcorn, ticket.

Joint debates between Ames and Alcorn were arranged at half
a dozen places in the state, beginning at Vicksburg, October 13th.
Their speeches consisted in self-laudation, and self- vindication
from the charges each brought against the other. In the war of
crimination and recrimination neither gained in reputation, and
least of the two Alcorn. His record was more vulnerable be-
cause there was more of it. Little concern was paid to the white

4^4: Mississippi Historical Society.

vote. Alcorn was a rough rider in these encounters, and a feature
of the Ames management was to dodge them, or create confusion
as to the hour, place and time of the speaking. After Ames
spoke the negroes were drilled to leave Alcorn to speak to empty
benches. At Greenville when Alcorn came to the town hall, he
learned his opponent was speaking at the court house. He went
there to meet him, but after exhausting the time Ames left with-
out waiting for Alcorn's reply, which was severe but wasted. As
election drew near it became evident that Ames would win on the
negro vote. He bid for it at a rate that no person seeking the
white support could compete with. At the same time Alcorn suf-
ficiently courted the blacks to repel thousands of white voters
from the polls, and who, alternatively, wished him elected. The
Greenville Times thus closed a comment on the speeches of the
two: "We again remark that, but for the issues involved, it is in
the matter of a choice of candidates, 'heads I lose and tails you
win.' " Under this view which was the common one, it required
a keener discrimination than the average voter exercised to enlist
any generally active support of the Alcorn ticket.

The canvass was described by H. V. R., one of the most noted
newspaper men of the day. Writing to his paper, the Cincinnati
Commercial, from Meridian on September 26th, he gave a graphic
sketch of the gloomy and perplexing political condition in the
state. Foretelling the success of the Ames ticket he wrote: "The
radicals have favored them for the legislature by putting out
negroes for that office in three out of four counties. The rage
of the negroes for office exceeds anything ever before exper-
ienced in the history of Mississippi. They have taken the reins
in their own hands, and bid defiance to carpet bagger and scal-
awag alike. As it is very likely the Ames ticket will prevail. I
confess the future of Mississippi looks rather dark. Negroes are
not fit to make laws. * * * Attorney General Morris wants
the Governor to take such action as shall be "decisive and effect-
ive," to stop the election. If the Governor should strike a bold
stroke and block the election, you will hear a howl from the radi-
cals that will reach to the lakes. They will cry rebel ! rebel ! and
several other cries, but that in particular. That one is always

I

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 465

foremost. A Southern rebel who can't cry "rebel" is not worthy
of belonging to the party. Powers is a weak man or he would
act at once. Every prompting of his heart favors a suspension of
the election, but he hardly dare take the step in the first place, and
does not know exactly how to do it in the second." It was com-
monly believed that after vindicating his leadership by being
elected Governor and serving a year, Ames would be returned
to the senate in 1875, leaving Mississippi under Davis — who was
his running mate as Lieutenant Governor — the remainder of the
term. Referring to this the quoted letter says : "While Ames is
providing for himself (in the senate), he can remain Governor
and senator at once, and the consequence is that the negro barber
Davis will be the real Governor of Mississippi. Beautiful pros-
pect ! Happy state."

The legislature met in special session pursuant to the Gover-
nor's call. His message comprised a lengthy argument against
the legality of the pending election. The representative house sur-
prised itself and the public by electing H. M. Street, a leading
Democrat, speaker. An election bill was introduced and promptly
passed by a decisive majority. It adopted the Governor's conten-
tion, postponing the election a year. But it was in the senate that
the test was to be had. Here the eflForts and influences of the
rival factions was exerted. Striving on one side was the Alcorn
following and the officials of the state government. On the other
was Ames and the regulars, backed up by the federal officials
of the state, and Grant's moral support from Washington. Al-
corn and Ames were on the ground directing the movements of
their forces from their respective headquarters. The poll of the
senate promised a close vote. The policy of the regulars was to
kill the bill by delay. until election day; which was close at hand.
The plan was made successful, through the threat of sterner
measures. To the weak and wavering there was applied menace
and intimidation. The United States district attorney was pub-
lished as saying that he held the authority of that unscrupulous
partisan. Attorney General Williams, to invoke the enforcement
act, "to arrest senators and others who opposed the election."
A detail of federal soldiers was made and held in readiness
30

466 Mississippi Historical Society.

to enter the legislature when called for by the United
States officials. Such intimidation recalled the scenes in New
Orleans under which the Kellogg-Pinchback regime was in-
stalled. There was no federal judge at Ames beck, as United
States Judge Hill emphatically and openly expressed his con-
demnation of the tactics which the other federal officials threat-
ened. But there is no room or reason to doubt that had not the
vote been staved off, if the movement to annull the election had
not failed, the result would have been consummated under the
shadow of the bayonets of the United States army. This caused
many of the white people to look with no regret upon the defeat
of the Powers-Alcorn plan ; Senator J. M. Stone and one or two
other Democrats, so voted, in the interest of peace and quiet for
the state.

In the election Alcorn was badly beaten. The total vote was,
Ames 69,653, Alcorn, 50,490. This was about the same major-
ity that Grant had over Greeley the year before. Whatever ne-
gro vote Alcorn got was offset by white absentees from the polls.
This was the especially unfortunate incident of the party dis-
bandment and demoralization as it caused the loss of a number
of Democratic legislative members. In the black counties the
negroes voted practically solid for Ames, so little lasting im-
pression had been made by Alcorn as their Moses. His own
county, and plantation went against him. As the negro candi-
dates ran considerably behind the head of the ticket a good many
whites must have voted for Ames. There was a good deal of
reproach and recrimination after the election, over the policy
adopted in the Meridian convention. Condemnation was accentu-
ated by elections in the north, which disclosed the first symptoms
of popular wrath against radicalism, and the corruption at Wash-
ington with which it went hand in hand during the Grant ad-
ministration. But just judgment of the Mississippi Democratic
policy of 1873 will weigh the temper of the times, the hard con-
ditions surrounding the whites. They entered the campaign with
the practical certainty of suppression by force of arms, if such
a campaign as 1868 was repeated. It is easy to criticise and cen-
sure, after failure has ensued — to forget that men summoned

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 467

to contend against an adverse fate may not choose their course,
or compel circumstances. "He must needs go that the devil
drives."

Governor Powers repudiated the election as illegal, and de-
clared he would hold the office against Ames. In the meanwhile
a test case had been raised before Judge Fisher of the 12th ju-
dicial district. He promptly decided the election was legal. An
appeal was taken to the supreme court, and in an interview with
the attorney general-elect on the Ames ticket, the governor pro-
posed an agreement by which both sides were to abide by its
decision. The proposition was declined. It was given
out through the radical organ that Ames would take the
office, however the court decided the issue. It was reported
and commonly believed that the president's pledge of troops was
back of the threat. There was some excitement, and bold talk,
of a collision should the supreme court hold the election void,
and Ames attempt to seize the government. But the court set-
tled the question by affirming the legality of the election. It was
subsequently published that two of the supreme judges had as-
sured Gov. Powers that their decision would be the other way.
This was believed to be the plan, but that it could not stand
against the menace of federal troops. The Jackson Democratic
paper, the Qarion, said: "Gen. Ames has said without reserva-
tion since the supreme court decision was pronounced that he
came from Washington under a pledge from Gen. Grant to put
him into office no matter how the court decided." This was not
inconsistent with the attitude of the president in the contempor-
ary Texas case, wherein a Democrat had been elected governor.
The carpet bag incumbent declared the election invalid and ap-
pealed to the supreme court of the state, which sustained him.
But his application to the president for support in holding the
office was refused, and the court decision fell to the ground.

There was confusion and strife in a number of counties, over
the result of the election. In Yazoo there was a bloody fray.
A. T. Morgan, an Ames adherent, was denied the sheriff's of-
fice to which he had been elected. He took possession lawlessly
and violently with a band of myrmidons and brutally murdered

i68 Mississippi Historical Society.

the incumbent, who was unarmed and a peaceful protestant
against the use of force in his dispossession of an office in which
was a large sum of money for which he had no receipt or secur-
ity. Morgan was arrested and sent to jail under a denial of
bail. Subsequently, because he would not yield to a threat and
give bail, Chancellor Drennan was removed. Or to be explicit,
as his nomination had not been confirmed, it was withdrawn by
Ames and a man named for the place who released Morgan. He
then was installed as sheriff. Before two years had passed he,
too, was made to yield it up to force with bloodshed of his sup-
porters.

There was scarcely a black county in the state that was not the
scene of local contention among the radicals on the color line.
There was a general tendency of the negro leaders to wrest the
offices from the carpet-baggers. By this election Warren was
added to the counties with negro sheriffs. In Washington a
peculiar state of confusion and contention ensued. On the pre-
text that the party nominees, all negroes, were tainted with lib-
eralism, the carpet-bag ring, which had been beaten in the con-
vention by the color line, put out a rival ticket headed by the
county boss, W. H. Bolton. His opponent, a mulatto named
Winslow, carried the county by a small majority. This result
was due to a combination with the white planters, by which they
secured three out of the five members of the board of supervi-
sors. This was an achievement of signal importance and value,
as it marked the end of corrupt county government. The de-
feated carpet bag candidate for sheriff instituted a contest of the
election and the colored brother would have fared badly, had not
another carpet-bagger, the alert and resourceful incumbent, L.
T. Webber, taken advantage of the situation to back him. This
resulted in giving Webber another term of the office, which he
had already held for four years in spite of the appointment of
one negro and the election of another, as deputy.

The chancery clerk's office was also contested, and the negro
elected finally tricked out of it. On trivial ground he was ad-
judged ineligible and the certificate given his opponent by Judge
Shackleford. Then the chancellor-, Stafford, decreed that the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 469

office was vacant and appointed his son to it. A bill was passed
hurriedly, ordering an election, which the board of supervisors
refused to provide for on the alleged ground of the invalidity
of the law. A mandamus was obtained against the white mem-
bers which not being obeyed, they were committed to jail for
contempt of court. They were ordered released on a habeas
corpus writ by the chancellor, which the sheriff declined to recog-
nize. The sheriff's arrest was ordered. One of the three ar-
rested supervisors, who was president, agreeing to re-submit the
election order, they were released and the election ordered. In
the final settlement the negro lost, and the carpet-bagger, W. H.
Bolton, was elected. Other violations of law were specified for
information of the grand jury ; including the "loss" of treasurer's
reports with thousands of uncanceled warrants.

In his outgoing message January, 1874, Gov.. Powers reviewed
the record of his administration with a satisfaction that was by
by no means unmerited. Taken as a whole he had given the state
as good government as could have been expected, in view of the
quality of his party and the political environments that beset
him. The state enjoyed freedom from the abuses and disorders
that marked the preceding and succeeding administrations. But
there was only partial basis for the claim of Gov. Powers that
"decided advancement had been made in all the departments of
government." While the financial statement showed a decreasecf
expenditure, it was not sufficient to stop the steady increase of
the deficit. He again urged discontinuance of the warrant sys-
tem, the equalization of assessments, but he was unable to point
out how taxes could be reduced. It is simple justice to say that
Gov. Powers was a well-meaning, but a weak executive.

Having perfected the plan of reconstruction by the full con-
ference and operation of negro political equality, the next step
in the abasement of the South was sought by Congress through
legislation for securing race civil equality. The policy was de-
clared in the close of the President's message as follows: "I
suggest for your consideration the enactment of a law to better
secure the civil rights which freedom should secure, but has not
effectually secured to the enfranchised slave." Thus was notice

470 Mississippi Historical Society.

served upon the white people that in paying the penalties of war,
the pound of flesh was to be exacted to the last ounce. In the
beginning of the session there was a temporary but a decided
diversion from Southern affairs, through the appointment by
the President of his South-hating Attorney-General Williams to
succeed to the vacant Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court,
occasioned by the death of Judge S. P. Chase. There had been
no greater shock to the public sense of fitness and decency than
this appointment, since Caligula made his horse a Roman consul.
The man's reputation was steeped in notorious corruption. When
these were published the Senate revolted, and the appointment
was revokad. The Cincinnati Commercial, a leading radical
paper, pronounced Williams' appointment "disgraceful and stu-
pid." There was a ludicrous, as well as a shameful, incident in
the filling of this high office. Williams being rejected, the Presi-
dent sent in the name of Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, and
there was no little opposition to the nominee, who had been a
prominent Democrat before the war and had presided over the
famous Baltimore convention of 1860. While the nomination
was hanging in the balance a letter was discovered in some
"rebel archives" that had been bought from a thrifty ex-official
of the Confederate service. It was from Judge Cushing to Pres-
ident Davis, introducing a young chemist as a suitable person for
employment in the ordnance department. It is needless to say
that this manifestation of a willingness to assist in the killing of
Union soldiers "cooked Cushing's goose." Admonished by his
experiences. President Grant then sent in a comparatively ob-
scure, but able, Ohio lawyer and jurist^ — Morrison Waite — who
was confirmed, Williams, unfortunately, remained attorney gen-
eral.

The preceding pages of state reconstruction history connect
with the author's contribution to the Historical Society's work,
"Climax and Collapse of Reconstruction in Mississippi," pub-
lished in Vol. XII, covering the portentous years 1874^-76. That
contribution closed with the legislature's adoption of impeach-
ment articles, followed by the resignation of Governor Ames ;
and other acts and events, marking the end of carpet bag negro

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 471

rule. The succeeding pages of this contribution proceed from
the end of that narration to the final emergence from the recon-
struction toils through the constitutional convention of 1890.

The Republican state convention to choose delegates to the
national convention met early — on March 31, 1876, and while the
legislature was still in session. It was the last occasion on which
the band of beaten leaders ever foregathered in Mississippi.
With few exceptions all of the white contingent of the party had
their carpet bags packed for a hegira northwards. Departure
was only delayed on the campaign, which it was hoped would
result in the election of a radical President and house majority,
when plunder and pelf would again be sheltered in the South by
Federal bayonets. The 1875 "revolution" formed the chief
theme of the discussion. Abusive accusations and sanguinary
denunciations were interchanged between the factions, each ac-
cusing the other of responsibility for the ruin that engulfed all.
Bitter recriminations, too, were bandied on the color line, the ne-
groes resenting the policy that prevailed of relegating them to a
back seat in the choice of a presiding officer, and convention dele-
gates. An amendment for including Cardoza in the resolution
declaring that "the impeachment of Governor Ames was for po-
litical and partisan purposes," was voted down. The vicissitudes
and shadows of political doom that overhung them all brought
the convention to a semblance ef harmony in choosing delegates.
Ames and Alcorn, both absent, were chosen delegates at large, with
R. C. Powers and B. K. Bruce; Bruce being the only negro of the
list. A speech from the notorious Pinchbeck, whose claim to a
seat in the U. S. senate, from Louisiana, had just been voted
down, was the chief sensation. He thus revealed the expectation
on which the Republicans of the South based their hopes:
"The senate would soon send a committee to investigate the elec-
tion in this state and overturn the same, and perhaps reconstruct
the South. He was confident of final victory and would say now :
The whole North is alarmed about the Southern situation. But
all could rest assured, a Confederate Democracy will never rule
America."

The Democratic state convention met in Jackson June 14, 1876.

472 Mississippi Historical Society,.

For the first time in years, all the counties had delegates in at-
tendance. Different indeed was the situation and the environ-
ments from those which the gathering of the year before were
called upon to deal with. The Vicksburg Herald of June 15th
thus spoke of the convention :

"The Democratic state convention was very large, enthusias-
tic, intelligent, Gen. J. Z. George called the convention to order,
and was chosen temporary chairman. W. A. Percy of Washing-
ton county, was elected permanent president, amidst the firing
of cannon." The resolutions committee, Hon. E. Barksdale,
chairman, reported the following, which the convention adopted
as the state Democratic platform: "Resolved, That the Demo-
crats and conservatives, in convention assembled, proclaim their
heartfelt gratitude for the complete victory won for reform in
the election of 1875 over the incompetent, corrupt and proscrip-
tive political organization which had held unlimited control of
the state government for six years, and that they emphatically
repel the imputation that their triumph was won by any other
than the legal, honest and sincere efforts which the justice of
their cause and duty as freemen to maintain unimpaired their
inviolable righs, demanded them to make.

"Resolved, That in proof of the sincerity of the pledge of the
victorious party in that election to reduce expenditures to an hon-
est and economical standard, and elevate the scale of official
qualification, we point with pride to the acts of the legislature at
its late session, to which body the thanks of the whole people are
due for its faithful discharge of duty in xxwrecting the abuses of
the public service; in diminishing the burdens of taxation; in
dismissing supernumerary officials from the various branches
of the public service, who consumed the earnings of labor with-
out rendering an equivalent; in dispensing the blessings of just
laws without distinction of race, color or class ; in holding faith-
less public officials to strict accountability for their misconduct;
and especially does the popular branch of the legislature, which
standing as the grand inquest of the commonwealth, deserve
thanks for investigating the acts of the guilty officials whom they
arraigned for malfeasance, corruption and usurpation of uncon-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 473

stitutional powers and for driving them by the terrors of of-
fended law, into obscurity from the public trust they had vio-
lated."

The convention declared, further, its fidelity to the constitu-
tion of the United States and all the obligations it imposed, for
the doctrine of local self government, for free schools, free suf-
frage, and equal rights, for equal and exact justice to all; against
discriminating legislation, proscription, sectionalism and vindic-
tive policies ; for sacred maintenance of public faith, and all state
and national obligations, retrenchment and economy in all the
departments of the public service and for the JeflFersonian stand-
ard of qualification for office — "is he honest, is he capable, is he
faithful to the constitution." Delegates to the national conven-
tion and state electors were appointed, and a state committee,
composed in the main of that which officiated in the campaign
of 1875, with Gen. George for chairman, was appointed.

The election of 1876 was looked upon as a crisis in Southern
affairs. In portentous consequences it was regarded as in the
class of that of 1860; which precipitated secession and war, and
of that of 1866, when the Northern people declared in favor of
the reconstruction policy of congress. While great hope was
inspired by the election of a IDemocratic congress in 1874, the
virulent spirit toward the South that the reaction provoked in
tTie session of congress then sitting, caused the gravest fears of
what would follow the election of a radical President and house
majority. As the 1875 revolution in Mississippi was the chief
theme of radical denunciation in congress, and as the senate in-
vestigating committee reached Jackson the day the state conven-
tion met, apprehension and anxiety in the pending election was
especially acute in this state.

The paramount election issue as they bore upon Mississippi
was thus stated by Congressman Lamar, in an interview in the
New York Herald :

"Great as is the interest in the South in the Democratic con-
vention, she feels fully as deep an anxiety about the action of
the Republican, and for this reason : Whoever may be the nom-
inee at St. Louis the South feels sure that he will be a national

474 Mississippi Historical Society.

man and do justice to all sections. But if a narrow, sectional man
be nominated at Cincinnati his election, which is a possible event,
as all must admit, would be calamitous to the Southern people of
both races. It would prolong the rule of proscription and alien-
ation, and greatly delay the restoration of fraternal feeling and
national prosperity, to say nothing of constitutional government.
There are Republicans in the North of broad and generous views
whose nomination and election would be rnuch less disastrous to
the South, and who might therefore more nearly divide the vote
of those states. It is a matter of regret that the policy of that
party has up to this time forced the white people of the South,
who have the intelligence and wealth, and moral culture, into an
alliance with one of the great national parties exclusively. It is
an evil to any country, and especially to the South; but it is
forced upon her by the inexorable law of self preservation. We
would rejoice should the Republican party adopt a broad and
just national policy, even if by so doing it should carry a portion
of the Southern states. The South cherishes no schemes of sec-
tional ascendancy in the approaching Presidential contest. The
issues and conflicts about the area of slavery, the struggles for
the balance of power to protect slavery in the Union and the ten-
dencies to secession to maintain it out of the Union, have all
disappeared from American politics, and with them the aspira-
tions which they gave birth to."

The Republican national convention met in committee, June
14th. In the first section of the platform the Republican party
was "sacredly pledged to the permanent pacification of the South-
ern section of the United States, the complete protection of all
its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their rights. The power
to provide for the enforcement of the principles embodied in the
constitutional amendments is vested in the congress of the United
States, and we declare it to be the solemn obligation of the legis-
lative and executive departments, to thereto put in immediate and
vigorous exercise all their constitutional power for removing
any just causes of discontent on the part of any class, and se-
curing every American citizen complete liberty and exact equal-
ity in the exercise of all their civil, pohtical and public rights. To

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 475

this end we imperatively demand a congress and chief executive
whose courage and fidelity to these doctrines shall not falter un-
til these results are placed beyond dispute or recall."

There was no chance for any mistaken interpretation of the
meaning of this declaration. It pointed unmistakably to legisla-
tion for the relegation of Mississippi and other Southern states
that had passed from under the yoke, to the conditions from
which they had emancipated themselves — to another period of
carpet bag and negro rule, sustained by Federal bayonets. Such
was the issue of the election. It was somewhat ameliorated by
the nomination of Governor Hayes, a conservative Republican,
which was the outcome of a combination for the defeat of Mr.
Blaine; the leading candidate in the Cincinnati convention. But
this result was attended by the bitterest strife and resentment.
Blaine, who had become the idol of his party, took his reverse,
which he charged up to the revenge of the Grant 3rd tenners,
whose game he had blocked through the defeat of the force bill
the previous year, hard. He did not try to repress his feelings.
The following passage from a letter — replying to a request that
he use his influence in securing a certain appointment — was pub-
lished at this time: "I have no influence with the administra-
tion. No man has who is not a thief by instinct." The insult
was treasured up by Blaine's rival, the chief "influence" in the
closing year of Grant's administration. Senator Conkling. Sub-
sequently, after the Mulligan letters exposiu-e of Blaine's cor-
ruption, Conkling declined to support him for the Presidency,
as "he had long ceased to take criminal cases."

The Democratic national convention, while severely arraign-
ing the party in power for the misrule and abuses of reconstruc-
tion, pledged its acceptance of the constitutional amendments,
"as a final settlement of the controversy that engendered civil
war." The platform was exceedingly logical and virile, in its
exposures of the Republican record. S. J. Tilden, of New York,
and T. A. Hendricks, of Indiana, both men of high character,
invulnerable records and large experience in public aflfairs, were
nominated for president and vice president. Both were exceed-
ingly popular in their respective states. United themselves Dem-

4'5'6 Mississippi Historical Society.

ocrats calculated strongly on Republican division and defection,
for success. All of the Southern states were counted on, though
South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana were still under carpet
bag government. But Southern calculations that a campaign
would follow the nomination of so moderate a Republican as
Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes without the bayonet in the scale were
dispelled.

Through an order to the commander of the army. Gen. W. T.
Sherman, dated August 3d, the country was warned that
the administration was resolved to elect one more President
by the army. Mr. Pierrepont who had counselled the President
the year before to a strict observance of the constitution, was
no longer Attorney General — he having been succeeded by Judge
Alonso Taft. The order in question, coinmunicated through
Secretary of War Cameron to Gen. Sherman, read: "The Pres-
ident directs that you are to hold all the available force under
your command not engaged in subduing the savages on the fron-
tier, in readiness to be used upon the call or requisition of the
proper legal authorities for protecting all citizens, without dis-
tinction of race, color or political condition, in the exercise of
the right to vote as guaranteed by the 15th amendment, and to
assist in the enforcement of certain condign and effectual pun-
ishment upon all persons who shall attempt, by force, fraud,
treason, intimidation or otherwise, to prevent the free exercise
of the right of suffrage as provided by the laws of the United
States, and stationed so as to be able to render prompt assistance
in the enforcement of law. Such additional orders as may be
necessary to carry out the purposes of these instructions will be
given from time to time after consultation with the government
law officers."

This order evoked an outburst of severest criticism from the
Northern independent and Democratic press. Many, if not most,
of the Republican leaders condemned it as sure to lose more
votes in the North than it could gain in the South. It was in
plain disregard of the supreme court decision in the Grant par-
ish cases. An especial cause of popular hostility to the order
was that there was need for all the troops in the prosecution of

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 477

the war against the Sioux Indians, about which the public was
anxious and aroused by the Custer massacre. In a comment the
New York Herald said : "The order from Secretary Cameron to
Gen. Sherman shows that the administration has liad a very defi-
nite use to make of these troops all the time, and we at once see
why Crook may have been deliberately left without adequate sup-
port. It is expected that the five regiments will carry four South-
ern states by whipping the negroes into line and by terrifying the
"fiendish" whites into subjection. By keeping the outrage mill
grinding and sending cavalry platoons hither and thither it is
evidently hoped to revive race bitterness. This turning the army
of the United States into drummers for the negro vote would be
grotesque if it were not infamous. This is doubtless the work
to which Gen. Sherman referred when he said the "highest au-
thority" must answer why the troops could not be spared to fight
the Sioux."

The order formed the text for one of the letters of H. V. Red-
field, who was again writing up the South politically for his pa-
per, the Cincinnati Commercial. His letter was dated September
5th : "A regiment could have held Mississippi for the Republi-
cans at the last election, but all aid was resolutely withheld and
of course the state went Democratic. Now it will go Democratic
troops or no troops. ... In South Carolina, today, if the
general government would refuse to intervene one hundred men
could march from Augusta, move on Columbia without an hour's
detention from all the force that could be brought against them,
overturn the carpet bag-negro government, run off the officials
and inaugurate Wade Hampton. You remember how the Kel-
logg government in Louisiana fell over one morning when a few
armed men leaned up against it. The general government set
it up again and today it is like a doll baby leaning on props.
Withdraw the props, or merely say 'Hands oflf. Look out for
yourselves down there !' And it would fall like a block of cards."

Odious and repugnant as the President's order was, worse was
to follow. This came in a circular of instructions, from Attor-
ney General Taft, Sept. 3rd, to United States marshals, which
is quoted as follows: "In the present condition of legislation

478 Mississippi Historical Society.

the United States occupies a position toward voters and voting
which varies according as the election is for state and local offi-
cers only, or for member of congress and Presidential electors.
In the election at which members of the House of Representa-
tives are chosen, which by law also includes electors for Presi-
dent and Vice President, the United States secures voters against
whatever hinders or prevents them from a free exercise of the
elective franchise, extending that care alike to the registration
lists ; the act of voting and the personal freedom and security
of the voters at all times, as well against violence on account of
any vote he may intend to give as against conspiracy, because of
any he may already have given. * * * and any person who
by force violates those rights breaks the peace and it is your
duty to arrest him and to suppress any riots, incident to or threat-
ening the integrity of the election or the registration, to the end
that the will of the people in such elecion may be ascertained and
take effect, and that oflFenders may be brought before the courts
for punishment. Notorious events in several states which have
been in an unusual manner publicly reprobated, render it a grave
duty of all marshals, who have cause to apprehend a violation
of the laws of the United States, committed as above with the
pending election, to be prepared to preserve and restore such
peace. * * * Diligence requires that you be and continue
present in person or by deputy at all places of election or regis-
tration which you have reason to suspect that the peace is threat-
ened. * * * You will doubtless receive the countenance and
support of all the good citizens of the United States in your re-
spective districts. It is not necessary that it is upon such counte-
nance and support that the United States mainly rely in their
endeavor to enforce the right to vote, which they have given or
have secured. The present instructions are intended only to
counteract that partial malice, wrongheadedness or misconstruc-
tion which sometimes triumphs at critical moments over the con-
servative and, in general, prevailing forces of society and to
which the present and passing condition of the country gives
more than ordinary strength, and therefore requires the govern-
ment to particularly observe and provide against. You and each

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 479

of your deputies have a right to summon to your assistance in
preventing and quelling disorder every person in the district
above fifteen years, including the military, and of all denomina-
tions, militia, soldiers, marines, all of whom alike are bound to
obey you. The fact that they are organized as military bodies,
whether of the state or of the United States, under the immedi-
ate command of their own officers, does not in anywise affect
their legal character. They are still the posse comitatus. I need
hardly add that there can be no state law, or state official in this
country who has jurisdiction to oppose you in discharging your
official duties under the laws of the United States. If such in-
terference take place, a thing not to be anticipated, you are to
disregard it entirely. The laws of the United States are supreme,
so, consequently is the action of the officials in enforcing them.
There is, virtually, no officer of a state whom you may not, by
summons, embody into your own posse, and any state posse al-
ready embodied by a sheriff will, with such sheriff, be obliged
to, upon your summons, become a part of a United States posse,
and obey you or your deputies. * * * It is proper to advise
you that on preparing this circular I have considered recent im-
portant judgments given by the U. S. supreme courts upon the
acts of congress which regulate this general topic."

Familiarized as the American people had become with tyranny
under perverted construction or open subversion of law, the Taft
circular was conceded to have gone beyond all the rest. Under
his rendition of their authority. United States marshals, and their
meanest deputies, were raised above state and national officials
and laws. In a published interview Senator Bayard said: "No
document so partisan in character, so reckless of all constitu-
tional limitations upon power, so regardless of historical truth,
so utterly insubordinate to the decisions of the supreme court,
has in the history of our country issued from a department, not
only acting as all departments should act, under sanction of law,
but looked to by all other departments of the executive as itself
the fountain of law for them. My condemnation of Judge Taft's
order is completely justified by the opinion of Judge Evarts
(given on the same question in 1868, when he was attorney gen-

480 Mississippi Historical Society.

eral). Judge Taft's long, confused, order, opinion or whatever
you may call it, directly reverses American theory and seeks by
quibble, evasion and downright usurpation to place law under
the foot of the military, and if carried into effect would abso-
lutely annihilate every police power for the maintenarice of
state governments. ... He sees fit in clutching at power
to serve the ends of party, to omit the well recognized
and essential fact that neither the state nor the United
States can either directly or indirectly interfere with each
other in the exercise of their respective jurisdictions." The Taft
"order, opinion or whatever you may call it," Gen. Sherman
scotched with an order that "any officers commanding troops sum-
moned to aid marshals or sheriffs must judge for themselves,
whether the service is lawful or necessary and compatible with
the ordinary military duties. They must limit their action ab-
solutely to proper aid in the execution of the lawful precept ex-
hibited by the marshals or sheriff. If time permits, every de-
mand should be forwarded to the president for his orders. And
in all cases the highest officer whose order can be given in time
to meet the emergency will alone assume the responsibility of
action." Such was the show of popular approval of Gen. Sher-
man's order, that it incurred no rebuke from a superior author-
ity which it squarely antagonized and checked.

However heavily judgment of his course toward Southern
people during the war may rest upon Gen. W. T. Sherman, there
can be no over estimate of his service to them in the quoted or-
der. Most certainly the inhibition he imposed against the Taft
circular of instructions, his order forbidding the use of troops
according to its despotic and unlawful terms, saved Mississippi
from riot and bloodshed. Democratic determination to carry the
election was absolute and unquailing. To this spirit the presence
and the legal direction of troops was no barrier. But troops at
the beck and call of partisan and unprincipled marshals and
deputies would have been a different matter. Nor is it amiss to
remark that from the day of the surrender of the Confederate
armies, General Sherman's words and acts were consistent with
his 1876 order. He had no part in or sympathy with the South-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 481

ern reconstruction policy that congress and his former military
chief had wickedly imposed upon the conquered states.

A few days subsequently the following order was issued from
the War Department :

General W. T. Sherman, Commanding U. S. Army.

Sir : In view of the existing condition it is a possibility that
the proclamation of the President of this date may be disre-
garded. To provide against such a contingency you will immed-
iately order all the available force in the military division of the
Atlantic to report to General Ruger, commanding at Columbia,
South Carolina, and instruct that officer to situate his troops in
such localities that they may be most speedily and effectually
used in case of resistance to the authority of the United States.
It is hoped that a collision may be avoided ; but you will instruct
Gen. Rugar to let it be known that it is the fixed purpose of the
government to carry out fully the spirit of the proclamation, and
to sustain it by the military force of the general government,
supplemented, if necessary, by the militia of various states.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. D. Cameron,
Secretary of War.

After issuing his instructions to Southern United States
marshals. Attorney General Taft entered the canvass for the Re-
publican ticket. His speech at Cincinnati contained accusations
that drew forth a formal protest from Gov. Stone. Addressing
Mr. Taft he said : "I am more than willing, and have been able
to execute the laws of Mississippi and conserve the public peace.
There is neither intimidation nor threat of intimidation. Both
parties assemble in public meetings without let or hindrance, and
both parties canvass without interruption in every county. The
reports to the department of justice in regard to this state often-
times allege wrong in communities which receive their first inti-
mations of them in dispatches from the national capital. I am
aware evil minded persons misrepresent, but I think it unfair
that the state should be condemned by wholesale without a hear-
31

482 Mississippi Historical Society.

ing. I ask then as a matter of justice to Mississippi that you
give me names, dates and places of wrongs alleged to have oc-
curred in this state reported to your department. The perpetra-
tors are responsible to state authorities and I am able to bring
all such to justice and am determined to do so. I have done so
thus far, vague reports to your department notwithstanding.
Mississippi is quiet and orderly, affording ample protection for
all, and she should not be prejudiced in the eyes of the nation on
charges evidently made for political effect."

Gov. Stone's dignified and patriotic remonstrance did not elicit
the information asked for. But it was not lost on Northern sen-
timent. It contributed to the exposure of the partisan motive of
efforts for prejudicing the South in the eyes of the nation. The
fact of a state government both able and willing to preserve the
peace and punish its disturbers removed Mississippi from the
bayonet list of states.

After the national convention had placed its ticket in the field,
and proclaimed the party platform, the state Democratic com-
mittee met to organize for the campaign. By a chance coinci-
dence its address to the people was dated on the same day with
the President's ill-omened order; August 3rd. The following
passages are given from the address : "The success of the Dem-
ocratic conservative party in 1875 marks the beginning of a new
era in Mississippi. The power thus won has been used with mod-
eration and wisdom. Every pledge which the party made to
the people has been fully redeemed. The judiciary has been re-
formed. Judges and chancellors are men of learning, character
and ability. Justice is administered speedily. Crime is punished
and lawlessness suppressed. No citizen of any race or class can
justly say that he has been injured or offended, in any way by
the government; and there is none who does not feel more se-
cure in person and property than under radical rule. Taxation,
notwithstanding provision has been made for the payment of
the large debt created by the Republicans has been reduced
nearly one-half. Salaries and fees have been reduced, while the
service of officials has been greatly improved. The common
school system has been extended and cheapened. In short, in-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 483

stead of a corrupt and incompetent government at a cost entail-
ing taxation amounting to confiscation, we have now as the re-
sult of our success in 18~5, a peaceable and efficient administra-
tion, at a rate of taxation greatly reduced and still capable of
further reduction when we shall have paid off the debt created
by the Republican party. * * * The issue is now presented
to the people of the state whether they will surrender the great
truits of the victory of last year, will allow the state to again fall
into the terrible condition from which it has been reared, or by
a manly and vigorous effort place their fortunes and destinies
forever beyond the control of the men who caused so much ruin.
* * * If after having got possession of the government and
used our power wisely and for the public weal we cannot or do
not hold it, what prospect will there ever be again for fair and
honest government in Mississippi ? The radical leaders are de-
termined to leave no stone unturned, to spare no effort to wrest
the government from the honest and capable hands in which it
now is. Shall we be less energentic and earnest for good than
they for evil? The answer we seek to the question is the com-
plete and thorough organization of all good citizens for the ap-
proaching election."

The campaign was quite tame by comparison with that in the
other black states, and that Mississippi had gone through the
year before. Except in the river district there was no Republi-
can hope of electing a congressman from the state. And in that
one, where the Democrats had nominated Gen. J. R. Chalmers,
in spite of an overwhelming negro majority, all of the aggres-
siveness of the canvass was on the Democratic side. Troops
were stationed at a number of points in the state. In a few in-
stances deputy marshals sought to provoke the people as they
were directed to under the Taft circular. One of them, Deputy
W. D. Sprott, commanded the negroes of Claiborne county to at-
tend the speaking of the Republican candidate, Jno. R. Lynch,
armed. He was obeyed by them and a bloody collision was only
averted by the heart failure of his dupes, who left their arms
behind them before reaching town. Sprott rode away from them
when his scheme, which was proven to be a deep laid plot for

484 Mississippi Historical Society.

provoking a clash for political uses, failed. But it answered for
him to manufacture out of it a story of intimidation to be pun-
lished in Northern papers, and perchance to serve in a contest
procedure. Though as the troops at Port Gibson did not move
to rescue Sprott, who was arrested and bound over to appear be-
fore the grand jury, Attorney General Taft's theory of the su-
premacy of United States marshals and their deputies failed in
Mississippi. Several negroes were arrested and jailed also, and
out of Sprott's deviltry, there was subsequently a bloody se-
quence, in which two valuable citizens and officials were slain.

There was a show of rioting at Artesia in Lowndes county,
where, too, there was the appearance of the same conspiracy to
get up a race disturbance out of which a case could be made
against the election in Mississippi. The occasion was a joint dis-
cussion. The following account is taken, from the Columbus In-
dependent: Lee (radical) was to speak there and Capt. Hum-
phreys was to meet him. A few minutes after the Columbus
crowd, about forty arrived, and while Gen. Sharpe and one or two
others were arranging with the radical leaders for the meeting,
a club of blacks came marching through town all armed with
guns. Their leader was heard to cry out several times 'shoot the
first d — d white man that crosses our line." Close behind this
band came a wagon covered with straw followed by another band.
One or two white men advanced to the wagon to sea what was in
it. As they did so a negro guard rose up and presented his gun,
and then the fight commenced. Several rounds were fired, from
three to five negroes were wounded, the whites charged with pis-
tols and the poor dupes scattered like sheep — with their white
leaders, Lee, Frazee and H. R. Whitfield. Some forty stand of
arms were captured." The account says further that on receipt
of the news at Columbus, a few miles distant, the Columbus rifle
company and twenty United States regulars, under Lieuts. Bishop
and Fletcher, and some volunteers under Capt. Belcher, all went
to Columbus under Marshal W. T. Gibbs and the Federal com-
mandant of the garrison. No other instances of armed demon-
strations, or collisions were reported anywhere in the state.
Though in the Holly Springs district there was great forbearance

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 485

shown under the provocation of the inflammatory and incendiary
speeches of United States District Attorney Walton, who was the
Republican candidate for congress. In all six congressional dis-
tricts Democrats were elected, and the state gave the Democratic
electoral ticket a majority of near 60,000.

Returns showing Democratic majorities in the Northern states
of New York, Indiana, Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware,
signified Republican defeat. It was so accepted by the country on
election night, and was virtually conceded in a statement of the
Republican chairman of the national committee. Senator Zach-
ariah Qiandler, of Michigan. But on the morning after he saw
differently. The situation in the three Southern states that were
still under carpet bag government presented a loop hole of escape
from overthrow by manipulating the returns. On the face of the
returns all had, in spite of the use of troops, gone Democratic.
The plot was to go behind the returns, to revise them. Excluding
those states, the Democrats had 184 electoral votes, or only one
short of a majority. The Republicans, without them, had IGG,
or 19 short of a majority. That number the three states exactly
supplied. Thus situated, Chairman Qiandler formally announced
through the press that, "contrary to the general belief," Haye?
and not Tilden was elected; that the electoral vote was 185 Re-
publican to 184 Democrat. Coincident with this announcement
telegrams were sent to the capitals of the three states explaining
the situation and indicating the action expected of their returning
boards. To brace and back them up for the work of fabricating
]vepublican majorities. President Grant issued an order, Novem-
ber 10th, to Gen. W. T. Sherman, to "instruct Gen. Augur in
Louisiana, and Gen. Ruger in South Carolina, to be vigilant with
the force at their command to preserve peace and good order and
to see that the proper and legal boards of canvassers are un-
molested in the performance of their duties." Again: "Send all
troops to Gen. Augur he may deem necessary to ensure a quiet
and peaceable count of the ballots actually cast. They may be
taken from South Carolina unless there is reason to apprehend an
outbreak there." These orders expressed disfavor of "fraudu-
lent counting," and the patriotic words that "no man worthy of

4^86 Mississippi Historical Society.

the office of President should be willing to hold it if 'counted in' or
placed there by fraud." But this deceived no one as to the true
intent of the marshaling of troops around the partisan and rascal-
ly "legal boards." All perceived that a crisis of ominous and far
reaching national import was at hand. The action of the Presi-
dent and the situation were thus sketched in the Greenville Times :
"President Grant has never signalized his reputation more for
bold initiative than in this order. Had any man less prompt been
in the executive seat Tilden would now be the universally declared
next President. Had this order been deferred twenty-four hoursf
the admissions of Senator Conover, the leading Republican of
Florida, and the weakening courage of the Louisiana returning
board, confronted by decided and unquestioned Democratic ma
jorities, would have placed those states beyond their control. But
the chance was seen, and by the daring order for concentration of
the army at New Orleans, and Tallahassee and Columbia, it was
seized. In an interview the night of the election Mr. Hayes said :
"I think we are defeated. I am of the opinion the Democrats
have carried the country and elected Tilden. I don't care for my-
self, and the party, yes and the country, too, can stand it. I
grieve for the colored men of the South. That is the only rea-
son I regret that the news is as it is." It is not surprising that
he now says he "regards his election as safe." All the troops in
Mississippi have been ordered to New Orleans. Fourteen com-
panies are spared for Florida, to "secure a peaceable and quiet
count of the votes actually cast."

The dispatch of troops to the Southern storm centers was co-
temporary with a descent of a score or more of "visiting states-
men" from each of the two parties, composed in the main of con-
gressmen. In an invitation of the Democratic to the Republican
visitors the purpose of their attendance was stated to be "to ex-
ert such influence as we possess in behalf of fairness and impar-
tiality in canvassing the votes actually cast." The terms of the
rejection of the invitation but thinly veiled the partisanship
which aimed at a verdict regardless of fairness. The pretense
was kept up by the Louisiana returning board, in an invitation of
a committee oi five from each delegation to witness the fairness

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 487

of the vote The record of this body, especially its president,
J. Madison Wells, belied the pretense. It was a creation of law
to which court decisions had given unlimited succession, and abso-
lute power in passing upon election returns. The impending
tragedy, and its villainous dramatis personae were thus stated in
a letter from Mr. Lamar, who was one of the Democratic on-
lookers, to Gen. E. C. Walthall. "The proposition to place the
counting of the vote under a supervision of honorable men of
both parties from a distance, meets the cordial concurrence of the
entire community. The sending of troops here is regarded as a
guarantee of support and immunity to the returning board in the
action it is expected to take. Wells and Anderson are the prin-
cipals of the returning board— two colored persons being with
them. They are the same whose fraudulent returns in 1874 occa-
sioned the invasion of the legislature in 1874 by Gen. Sheridan.
Wells was rewarded by being made surveyer of the port. Kel-
logg, Packard, Wells and Anderson stand condemned as infam-
ous, and nothing but mistrust and discredit is attached to what
they say or do, and what they touch they contaminate. The order
to the army to concentrate in New Orleans is a step toward the
overturn of constitutional liberty and the establishment of military
despotism." In due time the Wells returning board proved their
reputation for infamy— the returns were so fabricated as to
change a Democratic majority on their face into a Republican;
and the Republican candidates were certified as elected. In Flor-
ida, where there had been no thought of a contest until one was
ordered by the Republican national committee chairman a like
scheme was effected.

In South Carolina there was no dispute of the election of the
Republican presidential electors. But the contest on the state
ticket and the legislature grew very acute. On the face of the
returns the Democrats elected Governor Hampton by a majority
of only 1,323, and the legislature by a majority of only one on
joint ballot. Upon application of the Democrats the supreme
court of the state ordered the board of canvassers to show cause
why they should not be confined to a declaration of the results on
the face of the returns; and to forthwith issue certificates accord-

488 Mississippi Historical Society.

ingly to senators and representatives. This order was disregarded
and certificates issued instead to the Republican contestants. For
this the canvassers were taken into custody, fined and sentenced
to imprisonment for contempt. In delivering the court's judg-
ment, Judge Willard thus fervently addressed himself to the situ-
ation : "As this case now stands an incident has occurred, rare in
the history of civiHzed society. Men clothed with civil authority
of limited character, subject to the courts of the land, have placed
themselves in defiance of the highest court in the state of South
Carolina, and are now jeopardizing the security of justice and the
security of peace. They are in an attitude of defiance, not only
against abstract law, but against its embodiment in this court.
They have brought political death, for a moment, upon the state
and upon the nation. They hold in their hands a fire brand and
they have applied it to the whole structure that covers us. I can-
not believe that when these gentlemen come to consider, when
they come tonight to ask the favor and protection of their God,
when they recall the sanctity of their oath of office, I do not be-
lieve they will longer resist the power of this court. This court
is clothed with majesty. We do not speak the voice of men; we
speak in judgment the voice of God. Every legal power will be
exhausted by the court to force from them what their conscience
does not yield, and whatever loyalty, fealty, and justice there is in
the community will be exerted to compel by force, what conscience
does not yield." Vain words — the men who had brought "politi-
cal death upon the state and upon the nation," were forthwith
discharged by United States Judge Bond under a habeas corpus
proceeding.

This action was taken November 27th, and the legislature was
to meet the next day and declare who was elected governor. On
that night, under orders from the secretary of war and upon ap-
plication of Gov. Chamberlain, troops occupied the state house at
Columbia. This was grossly usurpatory, as no condition, such as
the constitution prescribed, for the intervention of national power
and troops, existed. To an enquiry from a committee of the Dem-
ocratic members of the legislature of the purpose of his movement
Gen. Ruger replied that "troops are in the state house for the pur-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 489

pose of executing such orders as might be given. And * * *
if your body should appear for the purpose of entering the hall
of representatives and should be refused admission by those hav-
ing charge of the doors and such persons should apply to the
officer in command of the troops for assistance to prevent your
entering, the orders to the officer would require such assistance to
be rendered." The resulting popular indignation and excitement
from the action of the government and troops of the United
States to continue a detested state administration after its defeat
at the polls, was only kept in check by the earnest appeals of the
Democratic leaders ; especially Gen. Wade Hampton, the gover-
nor-elect. In a stirring address on the occasion related, urging a
great audience to repress their wrath and preserve the peace, he
assured them that their victory was assured — that "two months
ago I said I would submit my claims to the people of South Car-
olina, and that if elected by the eternal God I would have my
place. Since then in spite of fraud and falsehood, all the power
of the state government and the bayonets of President Grant I
have been chosen to be governor of South Carolina and governor
I will be. The ballot box has announced the people's verdict and
I will be their governor or they shall have a military governor."
Like a trumpet call these brave words rang through the nation,
and has passed into the classics of American heroics. The two
rival legislative bodies assembled, organized, the Democrats with
a constitutional quorum of representatives. Members of the Re-
publican body were allowed by the U. S. guards to occupy the leg-
islative halls, to which the Democrats were denied admission. But
November 30th the Democratic members entered and opened leg-
islative proceedings in the state house. When the Republicans ar-
rived there was a controversy for possession of the speaker's
chair, but no collision. This condition continued several days,
and then the sword was cast into the scales against the Democrats,
and they were again driven to hold their sessions outside of the
state house. December 6th the state supreme court decided that
the Democratic body was the lawful one. But under orders from
President Grant, who was published as having said "d — n the

490 Mississippi Historical Society.

supreme court of South Carolina" — Gen. Ruger disregarded the
decision.

In a speech in the senate at a subsequent date Senator Randolph
of New Jersey, said that he had borne a request from Gov.
Hampton to President Grant that he would, in deference to a de-
cision of the South Carolina supreme court, withdraw the troops
from the state house. "Imagine my astonishment and indigna-
tion," said the senator, "when in an angry and uncivil manner the
President replied, "I won't withdraw the troops. I don't regard
the decision of that court. If I had any message to send Gov.
Hampton, it would be that his message to me is an impertinence."
In the presence of an immense crowd from all portions of the
state Gen. Hampton was inaugurated governor, December 14th.
The Republican members of the legislature had installed Cham-
berlain some days previously. But under recognition of the
courts and the support of the taxpayers, the tangible forms and
attributes of government attached themselves to Hampton — noth-
ing but a vain show of government, under a guard of U. S. troops
remained of the opposition.

The events enacted at the three Southern state capitals were
noted with intense interest throughout the country. It was only
too apparent that a crime was being perpetrated, whose final con-
sumination might throw the nation into civil war and eventuate
in the rule of militarism. Many meetings were held and resolu-
tions of deprecation or denunciation voicing the public alarm
adopted. In his regular message to congress the anomalous and
threatening situation received no recommendation from Presi-
dent Grant. But orders for increasing the troops stationed at the
national capital and for certain repairs on the old war time fortifi-
cations guarding the approaches betrayed the trend of the mind of
the chief executive. The first action of importance of the house
of representatives was the appointment of three committees for
investigating the elections of South Carolina, Louisiana and Flor-
ida. In Louisiana the committee found a complicated and threat-
ening state of affairs. Two governors, Francis T. Nichols, Dem-
ocrat, and Stephen B. Packard, had been inaugurated. The pres-
ident at first adopted a neutral attitude between the two. But the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 491

Republican government being about to fall to pieces of its own
feebleness, neutrality was abandoned. And January 14th the
president wired an order to Gen. Auger as follows : "It has been
the policy of the administration to take no part in the settlement
of the question of the rightful government of Louisiana, at least,
not until the investigating committee now there has made their re-
port. But it is not proper to sit quietly by and see the state gov-
ernment gradually taken possession of by one of the claimants by
illegal means. ♦ * * Should there be a necessity for a recog-
nition of either, it must be Mr. Packard." This was succeeded by
a proclamation from Packard for the opposition "to desist and
disperse." An application to Gen. Auger to enforce the Packard
proclamation followed, but it was refused and the refusal was sus-
tained by the president. The time for the revolution had not
yet arrived, nor was the state government the stake on which to
hinge it.

In South Carolina the political status quo has been given. The
committee sent to Florida found comparative quiet. Under an
order of the supreme court of the state the board of commission-
ers was reconvened, December 28th, for a recanvass of the votes
on their face. The former count was so changed as to elect the
Democratic candidate for governor, but enough votes were again
rejected to give the majority to the Republican presidential
electors. The supreme court made another and a peremptory or-
der, for a count by the actual returns, but it was not complied
with. The Democratic governor was, however, inaugurated with-
out opposition.

From the issuance of the military orders by the President, No-
vember 10th, the country felt that a very grave crisis was im-
pending. On the face of the returns Tilden and Hendricks were
elected. This was so after South Carolina's electoral majority
was conceded to the Republicans. Counting Louisiana, where
there were charges of intimidation and fraud by and against both
parties, for the Republicans, the Democrats were still entitled to
the Presidency. For in the case of Florida, the contest was purely
despotic. Could partisanship have been banished there would
have been no obstacle in the way of a just and fair settlement of

I

4:93 Mississippi Historical Society.

the issue. Senator Lamar gave out an interview, December 10th,
which stated the simple and direct right manner of disposing of
the question. Asserting that the provisions of the constitution
were adequate for a safe settlement of all political questions, he
said:

"The houses will be bound under the constitution to meet in
the same chamber and perform the duties, and to exercise the
powers which the constitution devolves upon them, to examine
and ascertain the result of the election of President and Vice
President. Neither house can refuse to perform these duties
without abrogating its constitutional power and violating its con-
stitutional duty. In this august assemblage it is the condition of
our national life that the duties imposed shall be discharged in
a spirit of truth and patriotism, regardless of consequences to
party, but profoundly anxious for those that concern the whole
country. If, however, as the constitution contemplates in this as
well as in other cases requiring the cooperative action of the two
houses, they are unable to agree upon a decision whether either
candidate has been elected, it must follow that there can be no
constitutional ascertainment or judgment put upon record, that
anyone has received a majority of the electors appointed. It is in
effect a failure to elect. In such a case the constitution is clear.
It devolves upon each house to immediately proceed in their re-
spective duties — one to elect the President and other the Vice
President. Let the constitution be maintained inviolate, and
there need be no disorganizing collisions and no necessity for
resorting to force."

The action of the President and the expression of the Republi-
can leaders disproved any expectation of such a disposal of the
dispute. The plot was first disclosed in a statement published
from Murat Halstead, the bitterly intolerant editor of the Cincin-
nati Commercial, shortly after the election : "If Tilden is elected,"
he said, "there would be a desperate dispute between the two
houses of congress. The way is thus prepared for the acting
Vice President to assume the entire responsibility of counting
the electoral vote. The Democratic House will not consent to
that. At the critical moment President Grant is to appear in the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 493

scene as commander in chief of the army and navy, with a proc-
lamation." It soon became apparent that this usurpatory pro-
gramme had President Grant's approval. He was quoted in the
press dispatches to the effect that "he regarded the presiding of-
fier of the senate as required to count the electoral vote and an-
nounce the result, and that he should, if necessary, use the armed
forces of the United States to inaugurate and install the President
the presiding officer of the senate should declare elected. He
would not recognize any action the House might attempt under
the rule with regard to counting the electoral vote." Contem-
porary with this outgiving, troops were moved to strengthen the
garrisons at Washington.

In responding to the call of Ames for troops the year before,
President Grant planted himself squarely on the constitution. At
this crisis, which menaced the Republican ticket with defeat, he
displayed a readiness to use the army without regard to the con-
stitution; to go as far as partisan leaders demanded. Wholly
without warrant, upon the request of a candidate for congress,
he had ordered a company of soldiers to be sent to Petersburg, on
election day. For this the senate called for explanation, in a res-
olution severely characterizing the usurpation of authority in the
order. The President's reply doubtless expressed his real views
of such use of the military. Ignoring the principle involved, the
constitution's directions in such a case, he said : "It is well under-
stood that the presence of the United States troops at polling
places never prevented the free exercise of the franchise of any
citizen, of whatever political faith." In an interview with Con-
gressman Hewitt of New York and Senator Randolph of New
Jersey, Democrats of prominence, he charged that North Caro-
lina, Arkansas and Mississippi had been carried for the Demo-
crats by fraud and violence. And defended his order for sending
troops to South Carolina, as "otherwise Chamberlain would be a
fugitive as Ames was. Troops were necessary for protection
against political murders. He had ordered 800 troops to Wash-
ington and would increase the number if he deemed it necessary."

The situation appealed to Grant's military training and instincts.
Like Job's war horse, he scented the battle from afar. "The

494 Mississippi Historical Society.

presence of troops at the polls" which was a traditional appari-
tion of the subversion of the laws and liberties of the land, had no
terror for him. He displayed a readiness to play the man on
horseback that had a sobering effect on the waves of passion that
were running so high. The contrast between President Grant's
adverse response to the call of Gov. Ames for troops in 1875, and
his 1876 action was the theme of much comment. By Mississip-
pians his 1875 policy which made the Mississippi carpet bag gov-
ernor and his myriad of satellites "fugitives" was hailed with ap-
proval, as it deserved. It was thought Grant had at last realized
the woeful failure of the reconstruction policy and repented of his
share in its abominations. But the closely ensuing reversion to
the old rule proved that the good deed was due to no change of
heart. The motive has been revealed in the following from
"Facts of Reconstruction," by John R. Lynch, the able negro rep-
resentative from the Natchez district, who stood high in Repub-
lican counsels. In a call on the President soon after the over-
throw of the carpet bag regime in 1875, he asked Grant why he re-
fused the Ames' requisition for troops, which "seriously surprised
and sadly disappointed us." The President's reply as stated on
page 151 of said book, which corroborated as it was by his 1876
action, bears all the color of authenticity, is quoted :

"The President said that he was glad I had asked him the ques-
tion, and that he would take pleasure in giving me a frank reply.
He said he had sent Governor Ames' requisition to the War De-
partment with his approval and with instructions to have the
necessary assistance furnished without delay. He had also given
instructions to the Attorney-General to use the marshals and the
machinery of the Federal judiciary as far as possible in coopera-
tion with the War Department in an effort to maintain order and
to bring about a condition which would insure a peaceable and
fair election. But before the orders were put into execution a
committee of prominent Republicans from Ohio had called on
him. An important election was then pending in that State.
This committee, the President stated, protested against having
the requisition of Governor Ames honored. The committee, the
President said, informed him in a most emphatic way that if the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 495

requisition of Governor Ames were honored, the Democrats
would not only carry Mississippi, — a State which would be lost
to the Republicans in any event, — but that Democratic success in
Ohio would be an assured fact. If the requisition were not hon-
ored it would make no change in the result in Mississippi, but
that Ohio would be saved to the Republicans. The President as-
sured me that it was with great reluctance that he yielded, —
against his own judgment and sense of official duty, — to the ar-
guments of this committee, and directed the withdrawal of the
orders which had been given the Secretary of War and the At-
torney-General in that matter. * * * What you have just
passed through in the State of Mississippi is only the beginning
of what is sure to follow. I do not wish to create unnecessary
alarm, nor to be looked upon as a prophet of evil, but it is impos-
sible for me to close my eyes in the face of things that are as
plain to me as the noonday sun."

"It is needless to say that I was deeply interested in the Presi-
dent's eloquent and prophetic talk which subsequent events have
more than fully verified."

There was only too much proof that Republican leaders in-
tended going to the last extremes. Ben Butler declared that if the
House threw out Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida the sen-
ate would object to Mississippi and Alabama. On the same day
Senator Edmunds offered a resolution instructing the committee
on privileges and elections to inquire whether the rights of many
persons entitled to vote in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Lou-
isiana, Mississippi and South Carolina were denied or abridged in
the late elections. Upon false and irresponsible statements and
urgent requests of defeated Mississippi Republican leaders, wit-
nesses were summoned and testimony taken in Washington with a
view to throwing out the vote of the state. That this plan was
prepared for before the election there was abundant proof. No-
vember 1st, Attorney General Taft told the Chicago Times cor-
respondent that "outrage reports were coming in from the South."
And that "just now Mississippi sends in the most numerous out-
rage reports." The correspondent complacently remarked that
"this was in harmony with the new plan of the administration, to

r

496 Mississippi Historical Society.

have the vote of Mississippi thrown out." To supply the pretext
the United States marshal for the northern district, Pierce, wrote
the partisan and unscrupulous Globe-Democrat, November 5th,
asking that all "the prominent dailies be informed by telegraph
that Republicans are not going to be permitted to vote in Missis-
sippi. I have information from all points which leaves no doubt
that Democrats are going to carry the state with guns and pistols,
and shoot down colored men if they attempt to vote." The elec-
tion returns and the record of the campaign proved that this
statement and that of the Attorney General were malicious fabri-
cations for partisan ends.

Democrats did not tamely accept this despotic and partisan plan
for depriving them of the fruits of the victory they believed had
been fairly won. On December 13th, in a formal address, their
national committee announced the election of Tilden and Hen-
dricks ; claiming that it "only remained for the two houses, on
the second Wednesday of February, to give eflfect to the wish of
the people thus expressed in the constitutional mode." Public
meetings deprecating, or denouncing, movements and prepara-
tions that smacked of violence were adopted. One that attracted a
great deal of comment was held at Columbus, Ohio, a state that
had been saved to the Republicans at the election by a bare ma-
jority. It was "Resolved, that we regard the concentration of
the regular troops at Washington by the President on the eve of
the assembling of congress, as an act calculated to throw discredit
upon the disposition of the people to obey the law and to submit
to the results of the Presidential election as legally ascertained,
and to excite unnecessary alarm as to the stability of the republic,
thereby imperiling peace at home and public credit abroad."

When congress met it was confronted by a crisis thus described
in the opening sentence of chapter XXXVI of Union, Disunion,
and Reunion — Three Decades of Federal Legislation," by S. S.
Cox : "In the history of elective governments," it reads, "no such
strain was ever put upon human nature as that which tried the pa-
tience, forbearance, and patriotism of the people of this country
during the proceedings for the counting of the presidential vote
in 1876-1877. A case like that could never occur again without

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 497

sanguinary results." The chapter referred to and the succeeding
one presents a graphic history of the passage of congress and the
country through this crisis — a period which is briefly sketched in
this work, marking as it does the close of reconstruction. The
House, which was again Democratic, organized by electing Sam-
uel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania, one of the strongest characters
and most commanding figures of the times, as speaker. The first
action of that body, of importance, was the appointment of com-
mittees to proceed to the three states of South Carolina, Louisiana
and Florida, — each of which had sent in double sets of returns
of the election for Presidential electors, — to investigate and re-
port. The senate took like action. It is enough to say of these
committees that each took a vast amount of testimony, in the dis-
puted states. Testimony was also taken by the committee on
privileges and election at Washington. The most sensational dis-
closure was that of the Tallahassee telegraph operators who tes-
tified to receipt of the following:

"Washington, Oct. 8th.
To Governor Stevens, Tallahassee, Fla.

"Hold Florida for Hayes and Wheeler. Money and troops will
be sent.

"Z. CHANDLER."

On the same day the following from the same was sent: "We
are sure of so many votes and must have Florida, South Carolina
and Louisiana by fair means or otherwise. Send canvassers to
each county. Have seen the President and Secretary of War.
Money and troops will be sent."

"Tallahassee, Fla., Nov. 8th.
"To Z. Chandler : We cannot carry Florida for Hayes unless
we have troops and money immediately."

Required to answer if he had sent the message, Z. Chandler
put up a brazen front. Being pressed he said, "perhaps he had,"
but asked for more time to answer, which was granted. On a sub-
sequent day he plead his privilege as a cabinet minister. To the
32

498 Mississippi Historical Society.

question if he sent the messages quoted as a cabinet minister, he
being also chairman of the national committee, objection was
made and the incident was closed. But no further proof was
wanted that troops, and money, were "immediately sent," upon
consultation and with the approval of President Grant, to have
the state fraudulently counted for Hayes.

With apprehensions aroused by the alarming nature of the sit-
uation, and under the weighty pressure of petitions from all of
the Northern states and cities for a fair and peaceful settlement
of the controversies over the election, the Republican plan of an
arbitrary and unauthorized decision by the vice president lost
favor. Even if the Democrats should be coerced into yielding
to this claim of authority, no one who had patriotic reverence for
the constitution, who was more devoted to the welfare of the
country than the interests of his party, could contemplate a settle-
ment of the presidential succession deriving title through the
menace of the army, without shrinking and repugnance. This
feeling found expression December 14th in the appointment of a
house committee to consider the situation, and recommend a plan
of settlement that would be acceptable to congress. A few days
later the senate took like action, and the two committees, each,
took up the question. The committees would deliberate and frame
a plan, and then meet to submit it to a joint conference. Both
fenced for position — to secure whatever advantages they might
over the other. Not until January 17th was the subject thorough-
ly threshed out. Then an agreement as nearly equitable as pos-
sible was reached in a bill providing a method of counting the
electoral returns, with due provisions for deciding those that were
in dispute. The bill, signed by all the committee save Senator
Morton, provided that "no electoral vote from any state from
which but one return has been received shall be rejected." The
vote of states with two returns were to be referred to an electoral
commission whose decision might only be annulled by the con-
current vote of both houses. The crux of the question was the
commission tribunal — its constituted membership. On this hinged
the fortunes of the parties if not the fate of the country. To ob-
tain a commission that was absolutely equally balanced between

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 499

the two parties was not easy. A mixed commission of supreme
court judges, senators and representatives, five of eacii, was ac-
ceptable to all as a basis. Of course the senate would select
three Republicans and two Democrats, and the house three Demo-
crats and two Republicans. So far so good, but the rub was to
divide five judges equally between the two. On that problem
several sessions were wasted. At last four were decided upon —
two of whom were charged up to each party — and the four were
to select a fifth. It was commonly understood that Justice Davis,
a political neuter would be chosen as the fifth man. But just as
this agreement had been reached, he was elected senator by a
combination of the Democratic members of the Illinois legislature
with a handful of Republican independents. Thus Judge Davis
was eliminated and the choice of the four justices fell upon Jus-
tice Bradley, a "moderate Republican." This balance wheel was
accepted by the Democrats per force, and with many misgivings.
While partisans assailed the bill, the country breathed freely
after it was enacted. So far removed had its members been from
partisan politics, and so impartial had been the decisions of the
supreme court, that the plan for a balance of power composed of
associate justices inspired reliance. As high and as furiously as
the waves of passion were rolling, it was thought that here was
a rock of safety on which they would vainly beat. No tainted de-
cision was feared — whichever way it went it would carry a show
of right and justice that would command the respect and acquies-
cence of all. The bill was at once taken up in the senate. It was
opposed with, sectional bitterness by a number of Republican sen-
ators, led by Morton, Sherman, Blaine and Cameron. Senator
Morton denounced the commission plan as "yielding to Demo-
crats, a product of the Mississippi plan." He insisted on adher-
' ing to the right of the vice president to count the vote as certi-
fied by the state returning officers. Vigorous reply was made by
Edmunds and Conkling, Republicans, and a number of Demo-
craic leaders. Senator Conkling mercilessly ridiculed the theory
of the vice president's right to count the vote. The bill passed
the senate by a vote of 47 to 17, January 25. All the nays save
one were Republicans. In the house there was more Democratic

500 Mississippi Historical Society.

opposition. But the bill passed the next day by a vote of 191 to
86; 18 of the latter being Democrats. It was promptly approved
by the President.

The popular doubt and distrust which naturally attended the
commission departure from the custom of counting the electoral
vote was quite submerged by the sense of relief in the extrication
of the country from a plainly perilous environment. The plan
adopted dispelled all apprehension of violence, or the settlement
of the Presidential succession by the army. The alternative mer-
its of the bill were most forcibly stated in a speech by Lamar.
The following is quoted from it :

"As I understand the measure it rests on three propositions :
First, that the President of the senate has not the right to decide
what votes to count and reject. Second that both the senate and
the house have the right to decide and direct what is the honest
count of legal votes ; that is, neither can surrender the right to
the other, and that there are differences of opinion as to the ex-
tent of this power, whether it is limited to the ascertainment of
the authenticity of the certified returns or extends to the right of
going behind them, it provides for a tribunal to decide those ques-
tions in cases of conflicting returns and to determine which is the
true, and which of the controverted votes are the proper ones to
be counted. * * * Now, Sir, if I had doubts of the plan
which I have not, I would accept it in preference to the alterna-
tive which is now before us. If no mode of adjusting the present
difference can be found, what is the result? Why, that the next
President will have to be inaugurated by a method and through
processes and agencies advocated and pressed by one party alone
with the view to a single object, and that is the consummation of
its own triumph, to which it believes itself entitled. However this
Presidential contested election may be ended, unless this bill
passes, one or the other party must determine and submit to what
it believes to be a fraudulent perversion of the law, constitution
and right, or resist by force. Either of these results would be an
incalculable calamity. * * * This bill avoids the necessity of
any submission of the defeated party by what it may consider
either fraud or force. The result whatever it may be, will have

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeiiy. 601

been reached by the patriotic consent of both parties. * * *
It leaves the framework of the constitution unshaken, the sanc-
tity of law inviolate."

On the day fixed by law the two houses met to count the elec-
toral vote. On no other like occasion was public expeptancy and
excitement so wrought up. For never before nor since has con-
gress been called upon to pass upon disputed returns. The presi-
dent of the senate, Senator Ferry of Michigan, with the speaker
of the house, Representative Randall, of Pennsylvania, by his
side, occupied the chair and opened the envelopes containing the
certificates of the states. After opening he handed them to the
appointed tellers, members of congress, who recorded the votes
of the states in alphabetical order. The proceedings were unin-
terrupted until Florida was called. Here two sets of returns
were announced, which under the law were referred to the elec- •
toral commission and the joint conferees took a recess pending
decision of the case. The commission took it up at once, and
the curtain raised on the first act of the tragedy. Each party was
represented by an array of the best legal talent of the land, who
battled over the case of Florida for a week when it went to the
commission. Each of fourteen members gave his opinion and
voted on party lines — seven Democrats sworn to render true and
impartial judgment declaring for Tilden and Hendricks electors,
and seven Republicans for Hayes and Wheeler. The vote of the
fifteenth member is thus described by S. S. Cox: '"Justice Brad-
ley alone remains to be heard from. All eyes are turned on the
juryman. Chosen as he has been to enact the role of the non-par-
tisan, is he not still a judge? The Democrats of the commission
l6ok with some confidence, to Judge Bradley. Would he decide
on merely partisan lines. Would his party bias bend his judg-
ment on a question involving the most stupendous consequences
ever within the jurisdiction of a court? Pale and trembling Judge
Bradley unfolds his manuscript. He begins to read. He is im-
pressed, apparently, with a sense of the overwhelming responsibil-
ity resting upon his conscience and conduct. As he reads Demo-
cratic hopes grow brighter and brighter. Justice will dawn at
last with Auroral splendor. Alas! The drift of his argument

502 Mississippi Historical Society.

leads to but one conclusion. The end is not the fruit of the prom-
ised exordium. Florida's vote we all know belongs to Tilden.
Change! The wind suddenly veers and Mr. Justice Bradley ac-
complishfes a dexterous non sequitur. He closes with the an-
nouncement that his vote must be given to counting Florida for
Hayes."

The decision of the majority was based on the contention that
the commission had no authority "to hear evidence aliunde, or in
other words to hear evidence outside the certificate of the gover-
nor of the state of Florida based on the determination of the can-
vassing board as to the vote of the state." When it was an-
nounced that the merits of the case were not to be considered,
that the evidence taken by the congressional committee, was waste
paper, a storm of wrath and execration burst forth. Democrats
asserted that the very terms of the law creating the commission
provided for decision upon the merits as disclosed behind the face
of the returns — the cry of trick and fraud was sounded through
the land. Justice Bradley, who haggled and paltered before join-
ing in the decision was the especial object of denunciation, and
to the day of his death he was stigmatized as "aliunde Joe." The
Florida decision, in its gross disregard of the facts, proved the
depth of the Republican plot for the Presidency. The decision of
the commission was referred to each branch of congress. It was
sustained in the senate by the solid vote of the Republican ma-
jority. The solid vote of the Democratic house majority rejected
it. As it could only be overruled by the concurrent vote of the
two, it stood.

It may seem strange that after Florida, Democratic hope
could survive. But, after the commission had again convened to
determine the Louisiana disputed returns, the Wells returning
board frauds were so palpable and extensive that it was doubted
by many that the state could be counted for Hayes and Wheeler.
The chief feature of the session was the appearance of ex-Sena-
tor Carpenter, one of the foremost reconstruction leaders, in the
list of Democratic counsel. In his prefatory remarks he said: "I
believe that the accession of the Democratic party to power
would be the greatest calamity that could befall the people, ex-

War and Recoonstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 603

cept one ; and that one greater calamity would be to keep it out
Dy fraud and falsehood. I appear here for ten thousand legal
voters of Louisiana who, without accusation or proof, indictment
or trial, notice or hearing, have been disfranchised by four vil-
lains, incorporated with perpetual succession, whose official title is
the returning board of Louisiana." But the dice were loaded —
on Feb. IG the blow fell. On the same aliunde pretext, by the
same 8 to 7 vote, Louisiana went the way of Florida. Again the
two houses voted, the senate for and the house against, conciu--
rence in the commission's decision. In rage and desperation at
the toils in which they had been snared Democrats talked of de-
laying the completion of the count until beyond the 4th of March,
which would have thrown the election in the house, or the country
into revolution. But temperate counsels prevailed. In caucus
the Democrats adopted a resolution deprecating "dilatory opposi-
tion to the orderly execution of the law creating the commission,
whose decision in accordance with the provisions of said law shall
be received and acted on. But this resolution is accompanied
with the solemn and earnest protest of the Democratic party
against the gross and shameless violation of law, truth, and jus-
tice, contained in the decision of the majority who signed the
same in the case of Florida and Louisiana."

The next case on which the two houses divided was that of
one of the Oregon electors. The Democratic governor of the
state having refused a certificate to one of the Republicans, who
had received a majority at the polls, on the allegation of his in-
eligibility, issued it to the Democratic candidate with the highest
vote. On this one vote the Presidency depended. If the eight of
the commission adhered to its "aliunde" rule Tilden would be
elected. But they made a lightning change of tactics and gave
Oregon's four votes to Hayes. The Democratic seven, consist-
ently with their record in the Florida and Louisiana disputes, also
voted to reject a claim that, while valid on its face, was contra-
dicted by the count. But the feeling of being wronged ran all the
Higher among Democrats, from the partisan shift of the majority
position in the Oregon case to meet the ends of party. And when
the commission by the usual 8 to 7 vote, veered back to its "al-

504 Mississippi Historical Society.

iunde" moorings in the case of South Carolina, the revival of the
plan to resort to filibustering to defeat the count was almost re-
sistless. The South Carolina case being closed March 1st, only
two days intervened, after which, unless settled, the law provided
that the house should elect the President. The temptation was
great and the excitement intense. But only a minority of the
Democrats yielded to passion, and obstructed the count, by dilia-
tory objections to the last. In the case of one of the Wisconsin
electors, who was clearly ineligible, the house voted to reject.
But the senate refusing to concur, it did not go to the commission.
And after an all night sitting. President Ferry of the senate an-
nounced the conclusion of the count, and called on the tellers "to
ascertain and deliver the result." Whereupon Senator Allison de-
clared that Hayes and Wheeler had received 185 electoral votes,
and Tilden and Hendricks 184.

The electoral commission having served its design passed out
of office and into history. Perhaps no other creation of law of
such high station, so loaded with responsibility and so trusted to
do justice, ever aroused such a storm of obloquy. And yet de-
testable as was the record of the majority eight, the act creating
such a tribunal was one of signal wisdom and patriotism. Noth-
ing can be more certain than that without the construction of
such a bridge across the 1876 crisis, the result it attained con-
formable to law would have been reached by methods flagrantly
usurpatory and through the use or the menace of the army. Nor
was the evil tree barren of other good fruit. Out of their in-
tense anxiety to consummate their plot, and without incurring
further odium, a change of Southern policy was forced, which
went far toward reconciling the Southern people to the crime of a
fraudulent President. It was freely alleged and believed, that
the opposition of Southern leaders to the inauguration of Hayes
was toned down, because of an agreement, or assurance, of such
change, toward the South. In the closing speech of the South
Carolina contest, the last of the three, that eminent lawyer and
eloquent debater Judge Jeremiah S. Black said: "We are prom-
ised, and I hope the promise will be kept, that we will have a
good government, fraudulent though it be ; that the rights of the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeUy. 505

states shall be respected and individual liberty be protected.
They offer us everything now. They denounce negro supremacy
and carpet-bag thieves. Their pet policy for the South is to be
abandoned."

This alleged "promise," and the considerations on which it
was made, became a source of much bickering and bitterness
within each of the two parties. And when the commission had
shown the cloven foot of partisanship by counting in the Repub-
lican ticket, there was an outbreak of critnination and recrimi-
nation among certain Democratic leaders that was as unjust as
it was unbecoming. The ignoble controversy raged long after
the settlement of the issue. The most unjust and unreasoning
reproaches were cast upon those who had favored the commis-
sion plan. Henry Watterson, then a member of congress, a man
of brilliant but erratic intellect and loose principles, went so far
as to charge that Mr. Tilden had been betrayed — that his recog-
nized representative at Washington, Congressman Hewitt of
New York, had suppressed a telegram from the Democratic can-
didate directing him to oppose the commission plan. His attack
was so vituperative that Mr. Hewitt, a man of irreproachable
character and exalted standing in his party counsels, set the story
at rest as follows : "Ever since I refused to listen to his insane
and ridiculous proposition to call out 100,000 men in order to put
Tilden into the White House, Watterson never ceased to mis-
represent my purposes, declarations and actions. With a malig-
nity he scarcely seeks to disguise, he has persistently accused me
of suppressing a telegram from Mr. Tilden in regard to the elec-
toral commission, whereas the fact is I never received from Mr.
Tilden a telegram on that or any other subject after the meeting
of congress in 1876, and Mr. Tilden assured me he never sent
any telegram to me. The facts presented plainly show that Wat-
terson relies more upon his imagination than his memory, in his
attacks on me."

Mr. Lamar came in for a large, if not a chief, share in the re-
proaches, both for adoption of the commission plan, and for op-
posing a revolt against its decisions. While the clamor rose high
at the time, there could be no doubt that the sober judgment of

506 Mississippi Historical Society.

patriotic men would sustain him. His idea of the Southern atti-
tude and policy in the emergency is to be read in the following
letter of counsel he wrote to a Louisiana colleague, E. John Ellis :

Washington, D. C, Feb. 20, 1877.

My Dear Ellis — I have just learned from unquestionable au-
thority that Foster said to a gentleman, my informant, that the
speech he made today, which so significantly hints at Hayes'
Southern policy, was after consultation with Mr. Stanley Mat-
thews, who is Hayes' brother-in-law, and Mr. Matthews told him
and urged him to say squarely that Hayes would have nothing
to do with or say to Packard. Foster said he would, but was
afraid to take too much on himself. Mr. Matthews reiterated
his desire. Foster further said he did not see the mode by which
Hayes could accomplish the practical recognition of Nicholls as
Governor, to which my informant replied, "Let him ask Nicholls
if I withdraw the army and gunboats, will you assure me you will
not establish your government by bloodshed and bloody retalia-
tion. If Nicholls makes the pledge, let him withdraw them."
Now, Ellis, this is the first thing I have ever heard as coming
from Hayes worth acting upon by any Southern man. We do
not want the offices, but we do want to get our states and our
people free from carpet bag government. Ought you not, if an
available opportunity offers, to spring forward at once and see
if you can't free your state ? I think you should at once see Mr.
Stanley Matthews and ask him if Hayes will give you some as-
surance that he will not maintain Packard in his domination of
our people." Such conference was held, according to the sub-
sequent testimony before the Potter committee, of E. A. Burke
of the Times-Democrat, between Mr. Ellis and himself on the
part of Louisiana, and Messrs. Matthews, Sherman and Foster;
and the required assurance and agreements made.

President Grant had already shown his recognition of the
change toward the South. February 19th in an interview in the
New York Tribune he virtually signed the political death warrant
of Gov. Chamberlain, of South Carolina. "In South Carolina,"
he said, "the contest had now assumed such a phase that the

Wax and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 507

whole army of the United States would not be adequate to en-
force the authority of Gov. Chamberlain. The people of the
state had resolved not to resort to violence, but had adopted a
much more formidable and effectual mode of resistance than
armed demonstration. They have refused to pay their taxes and
it would be useless to sell their property for nobody would buy
it. This state of affairs must inevitably result in the abandon-
ment of all efforts by Gov. Chamberlain himself in the exercise
of gubernatorial function." This was followed March 1st by
the following, in reply to a request from the Republican claim-
ant of the office of governor of Louisiana, for "recognition of
the state Government.

Washington, D. C, March 2, 1877.
To Gen. C. C. Ruger, Commanding Department at New Orleans :
The following duplicate has gone to Gov. Packard and is
hereby sent you for your information and government.

W. T. Sherman, General.

Washington, D. C, Executive Mansion, March 1.
Gov. S. B. Packard, New Orleans, La. :

"In answer to your dispatch of this date the President directs
me to say that he feels it his duty to state frankly that he does
not believe public opinion will longer support the maintenance
of a state government in Louisiana by the use of the military,
and that he must concur in that feeling. The troops will here-
after, as in the past, protect life and property from mob violence
when the state authorities fail, but under the remaining days of
his official life they will not be used to establish or to pull down
either claimant for control of the state. It is not his purpose to
recognize either claimant.

Acceptance of the abandonment of policy that was signified
in President Grant's communications with the carpet bag claim-
ants of South Carolina and Louisiana was extremely repugnant
to extremists of his party. They bitterly resented a bill consist-
ent with the new order, expressly forbidding the use of the army
in the Southern states that, while it had grown into custom under

608 Mississippi Historical Society.

President Grant's administration, grossly violated the spirit of
republican government as well as the constitution. The bill was
rejected in the senate, whereupon the house took the position that
there would be no appropriations for the army unless the South
was secured from the military tyrannies of the past. And the
session adjourned without the passage of the army appropriation
bill. It was this action of the Democratic house that forced the
President to call the extra session of 1877. In that, after a pro-
longed contest, an army bill was jiassed prohibiting the use of
troc^s as a "posse comitatus." This was looked upon as a sub-
stantial advance toward a return to constitutional government in
the South. There were other valuable provisions for curing gross
abuses in the army administration. But, led by Senator Blaine,
the Republican senate majority defeated the one which prohibited
the use of troops at the polls. That much of the reconstruction
policy was saved, lintil the special session of the 46th congress,
in March, 1879. The Democrats then having a majority in each
house, the abuse was corrected in a bill which provided that "no
' money appropriated in this act shall be apportioned for the trans-
portation, equipment, subsistence or compensation of any portion
of the army of the United States to be used as a police force to
keep the peace at the polls at any election held within any state."
The inaugural address of President Hayes was looked for with
eager expectancy, for the light it would shed upon his Southern
policy. While it contained no express pledges, the general tone
was most encouraging. As described by Mr. Blaine, in his twenty
years in congress, "it was made evident that he would adopt a new
policy in the South." The address confirmed belief that this "new
policy" would be ushered in and proclaimed in the withdrawal of
troops from South Carolina and Louisiana. That act and the
policy it would declare was all that was asked. With the order for
troops to be withdrawn from guarding the rotten shells of carpet
bag government at New Orleans and Columbia, the South would
at last feel restored to constitutional government and equality in
the Union. The prospect, however, did not please the Republi-
can leaders of the class of Blaine, Morton, Butler and Ben Wade.
Three days after inauguration, in one of his characteristic

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 509

speeches for exciting sectional passion, Senator Blaine express-
ing sympathy for "the heroic struggle of Packard and Cham-
berlain for civil liberty and constitutional government," sought
to scare the President back to the old radical line. The follow-
ing passage is quoted: "I stand here if I stand alone, to de-
clare that a vote not to recognize Packard is a vote that Hayes
has no title to the Presidency. And that you. Mr. Vice Presi-
dent, have no right to sit there." He said he had "heard it re-
peated about the corridors of the capitol, that it had been decided
that the Nicholls government would be recognized by the new
administration. Who had authority to say that? I deny it, not
that I have authority to deny it, but I deny it on the character,
the self respect and the common sense of President Hayes. There
is no power high enough to compromise the Republican party in
this respect." The bluff was as cunning as it was insolent.
Hayes was most awkwardly placed, a fact of which Blaine took
advantage. Only as a measure of expediency, and at the sacre-
fice of the Republican creed, was it possible to reconcile aban-
donment of Packard with the acceptance of the Presidency from
a returning board that gave him a larger majority than that of
the Republican Presidential electors. But the taunt, while it
stung, and may have caused delay and hestitancy in carrying out
the programme determined upon in Louisiana, was vain.

It was the manifest desire and contemplation of the new ad-
ministration to be relieved of the incubus of a Southern question
■ — to end the era of state governments depending upon the na-
tional military for existence. At the same time it was most de-
voutly wished that Packard and Chamberlain would clear out,
end this state of affairs, and relieve the President of the embar-
assment of throwing them over. Proving obdurate against per-
suasion, on April 3rd the South Carolina cloud was lifted by an
order for the withdrawal of the troops from Columbia. After a
few days of protesting, the end came peacefully, in the sur-
render and vacation of the capitol by Gov. Chamberlain, and the
no longer questioned possession of the state government by Gov.
Hampton. In Louisiana the situation was more complex, and
on the same day that the troops were ordered away from the

510 Mississippi Historical Society.

South Carolina capitol a commission was sent to New Orleans
to negotiate an end of the anomalous condition there. They
•found Governor Packard and his following disposed to make all
the use possible of their position. After several days of investi-
gation the commission reported that "the Packard government
had the de jure title, but that Gov. Nicholls was in complete de
facto sway over the whole state except the old hotel converted
by Packard into a state house." And that "it would not only
require the President's recognition to establish Packard in the
state but only by the use of a large force of troops to crush out
the acting government and the maintenance of garrisons in the
state during the whole of Packard's term. Furthermore that if
this were practicable it would involve a continuance of race con-
flicts, social and industrial disturbance and business depression
which characterized the Kellogg administration."

This report of the Louisiana situation was made by a commis-
sion with a Republican majority, including men of such promi-
nence as Gens. J. M. Hawley and Jno. M. Harlan. It was none
the less denounced by Republican extremists, Blaine, Morton,
Cameron, Boutwell and others. Under their counsel the Pack-
ard and Kellogg gang continued to stand out against all persua-
sions. "Packard is not going to be bluffed out like Chamber-
lain," Kellogg said in a published statement. "When the time
for action comes the White League will have a demon in the rear
to look after. Fifteen thousand negroes would respond to his
call. Every wench has her little bottle of coal oil and match
ready to set it ablaze as soon as the order is given that the time
is come to make the music lively." It was not the fault of the
Republican radicals that their scheme of Southern reconstruc-
tion was not carried to the extent of race war, with the atroci-
ties Kellogg threatened, of arson and murder of women and
children.

Patience growing strained, April 20th the President directed
the secretary of war to order the withdrawal of the troops from
the state house of Louisiana. It needed nothing more to effect the
final and complete dissolution of the last of the carpet bag gov-
ernments, which under the fostering care of the Republican party

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 611

and the protection of bayonets had been ruling over the South,
outraging her people, devouring their substance, prostituting
statehood, shaming the nation and scandalizing civilization, for
half a score of years.

Mr. Blaine never became reconciled to the withdrawal of troops
from the two states — to the abandonment in Louisiana and South
Carolina, of the reconstruction policy. In his twenty years in
congress, written many years afterwards, he thus recorded his
condemnation of the action in Louisiana, which had for its justi-
fication, as stated in the Hawley-Harlan commission, the "dis-
continuance of race conflicts, social and industrial disturbances
and business depression."

"The one special source of Republican dissatisfaction was the
intention of the President to disregard the state election in the
three states upon whose votes his own title depended. The con-
centration of iiitere.st was upon the state of Louisiana, where
Governor Packard was officially declared to have received a
larger popular majority than President Hayes. By negotiation
of certain commissioners who went to Louisiana under appoint-
ment of the President, the Democratic Governor Francis T.
Nichols, was installed in office and Gov. Packard was left help-
less. No act of President Hayes did so much to create dissatis-
faction within the ranks of the Republican party. No act of his
did so much to give color to the thousand versions that filled the
political atmosphere, touching a bargain between the President's
friends and some Southern leaders, pending the decision of the
electoral commission. The election of the President and the
electors of Mr. Packard rested substantially upon the same
foundation, and many Republicans felt that the President's
refusal to recognize Mr. Packard as Governor of Louisiana
furnished ground to his enemies for disputing his own
election. Having been placed in the Presidency by a title as
strong as could be conferred under the constitution and laws of
the country, it was in the judgment of the majority of
the Republican party an unwise and unwarranted act on the part
of the President to purchase peace in the South by surrendering
Louisiana to the Democratic party."

512 Mississippi Historical Society.

There was much to sustain Mr. Blaine's assertion, that "no
act of President Hayes d'd so much to create dissatisfaction
within the Republican ranks", as that in regard to Louisiana.
All was done that he, Chandler, and their class could do, to in-
crease the dissatisfaction. In the ensuing Maine Republican
convention, which Blaine dominated, the new shape of the South-
em issue was thus censured in a resolution adopted; "The Re-
publicans of Maine view with alarm the complete consolidation
of all political power in the Southern states in the hands of those
who precipitated the rebellion, while Union men are persecuted
into silence or banishment, the entire colored race practically dis-
franchised by force and fear. Thirty-five representatives in con-
gress and thirty-electoral votes apportioned to the South by rea-
son of this colored population are thus invested with the sole ag-
grandizement of Confederate power in the national government,
and late rebel soldiers are thus enabled to exert more than dou-
ble the political power of the Union soldiers." In his own state
President Hayes' policy was endorsed by the Republican conven-
tion. But this endorsement was succeeded by a convention of
the anti-Hayes Republicans, denouncing the administration's
Southern policy and the state convention for endorsing it. And
in the ensuing election Ohio was carried by the Democrats. The
Iowa convention was addressed by Governor Packard, and by
a vote of three to one resolutions endorsing the administration's
Southern policy were rejected. Wisconsin Republicans in con-
vention recorded their distrust of the President's Southern pol-
icy. A resolution in the special session of congress, offered by
Representative Goode, a Virginia member, endorsing the Presi-
dent's withdrawal of troops from the South as "wise, just and
constitutional" was opposed by Ben Butler and other Republican
members.

Conceding its honesty, nothing could have been of more evil
efifect upon the Southern states, and especially the negro, than
the repudiation of the policy of the administration by Blaine,
Butler and other Republican leaders. But for their misguided
agitation the negroes would have accepted the logic of the over-
throw of the hybrid governments. They were ready to let poli-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 513

tics slide, as they were brought to do some years later, until
drawn back into the maelstrom by such evil counsellors. In
speaking of the new Southern condition James Redpath, an ante
bellum abolitionist, said with exact truth: "It is wickedness to
try to keep up a Republican party in the South except on the
basis of a large native white vote. It will end only in still further
troubles to the poor misled and too grateful blacks. I am not
alone among the friends of freedom in believing they now owe
no allegiance to the Republican party. I asked Wendell Phillips
if he would blame them for refusing to remain in the Republican
party and joining the Democratic party. Certainly not; was his
prompt reply. I asked Senator Bruce and he said he could not
as a Republican senator publicly advocate this policy, but had
advised the colored politicians to make the best terms with the
Democrats they could." The wisdom of this view was written
too plain in the records of the past for any honest mind to repel.
Self-seeking Republicans, indifferent to the consequences upon
the "poor misled and too grateful negroes," only, rejected it.
To promote their own selfish ends they fed the fire of sectional
passion in the North, and kept the negroes in a stew in every
Federal election, thus still further widening the gulf of race es-
trangement. It was the part played by the negro dupes in this
period, that determined and unified the white men upon the pol-
icy of their complete elimination from politics.

Factious opposition did not swerve Mr. Hayes from adherence
to his policy of Southern placation. Having once set his course
away from the evil reconstruction policy he did not turn back to
it. In his first message to congress he said in discussion of the
Southern question: "The measures adopted by the administra-
tion have been subjected to severe and varied criticism. . . .
These measures are in my judgment, such as were most in har-
mony with the constitution and with the genius of our people
and best adapted under all the circumstances to attain the end
in view. . . . Tlie discontinuance of the use of the army for
the purpose of upholding local governments in two states of the
Union was no less a constitutional duty and requirement than it
was a much needed measure for the restoration of local self-gov-
33

614 Mississippi Historical Society.

ernment and the preservation of national harmony. The with-
drawal of the troops from such employment was effected delib-
erately, and with solicitous care for the peace and good order of
society and the protection of the property and persons and every
right of all classes of citizens." His defense of his action was
sustained by citing to the salutary changes that had followed —
"the general re-establishment of order and the orderly adminis-
tration of justice ; rare occurrence of instances of remaining law-
lessness; the disappearance of political turbulence and turmoil;
resumption of useful industry; strengthening of public credit in
the Southern states." Such utterances from the President of
the United States were strange to the Southern people, and
aroused their gratitude in proportion to their rarity.

The declaration upon the Southern policy in the message was
the signal for more censure from his party antagonists on that
issue. So incensed was W. E. Chandler, the chief instrument of
the Florida steal, at the course of events, that he published an
address to the Republicans of New Hampshire, peaching on the
plot for a President. He said the main issue of the campaign
"was the dangers of rebel rule and a solid South." He quoted
from Hayes' letter, written while under the impression that Til-
den was elected; where he said 'I do not care for myself but I
do care for the poor colored men of the South. Northern men
cannot live there. The Southern people will treat the constitu-
tional amendments as nullities and then the colored man's fate
will be worse than it was in slavery.' "Gov. Hayes not only
pledged himself to protect to the full extent of Federal power,
life, suffrage and political rights in the South, but was counted
in as President only by reason of such pledges given by Senator
Sherman and other Ohio emissaries who particularly and em-
phatically promised that he would recognize and maintain the
lawful government of South Carolina and Louisiana, and stand
by the governments of Packard and Chamberlain. Certain Dem-
ocrats in the House seeing by decisions of the electoral commis-
sion, which they had warmly supported under the electoral bill,
that Hayes would surely become President, conceived the idea
of saving something out of the wreck. They therefore threatened

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 515

by dilatory motions and riotous proceedings, to break up the
concert, and then opened up negotiations with timid and expect-
ant Republicans that Hayes should be declared and inaugurated
President and then withdraw the troops from the support of
Chamberlain and Packard. After the inauguration the bargain
was carried out."

In an interview in the Globe-Democrat of December 21st, Mr.
Blaine, laying pipe for his 1880 campaign, said: "Mr. Hayes
has undoubtedly placed himself in a position where he cannot
receive the cordial support of the Republican party. It is ab-
surd to suppose that there can be any harmony between him and
it so long as he pursues his present course. Many honest Repub-
licans believe the Southern people are loyal, but of this there
is serious doubt. It is true they are, according to all appearances
peacefully inclined and show a disposition to maintain the su-
premacy of the national government. But men who were in the
rebel army cannot so readily give up their faith. Their profes-
sions, in my opinion, are only skin deep. The Southerners are
lying low until they get on top. And should their party, the
Democracy, get into power in 1880, they will show a hand that
will surprise that class of Republicans who believe reconciliation
has been complete. The Southern people are not reconciled.
They are playing policy, and their purpose is to get possession
of the government and rule it as they did before the war, and
then all the established results of the war and reconstruction
would be set aside."

General Ben Butler said to the Boston Herald correspondent
at Washington: "I was in company with ninety-six representa-
tives recently. All but one condemned the President's Southern
policy. It has been a death blow to the party in that section.
The mischief he has done cannot be undone." In a six column
interview in the New York World Senator Conkling berated
President Hayes and the South most venomously. "No reason-
able man," he declared, "can doubt that there was some kind of
a bargain between the friends of Nicholls and that man Hayes,
and that Stanley Matthews and John Sherman were privy to it.
When the whole truth of the Louisiana business is known it will

516 Mississippi Historical Society.

sink this administration to the lowest depths of ignominy. The
President is a great friend to the South and has completely sur-
rendered to it." He spoke most rancorously of "the familiarity
of Gordon, Hill, Lamar and other Southern men at the White
House." Speaking of the imminence of a resort to violence
pending the electoral commission settlement, he made this inter-
esting revelation: "President Grant was at his wits end. He
confessed to me that he did not know what to do. He was gath-
ering troops at Washington, but did not know how far he could
depend on them. Gen. Sherman had told him the sympathies of
a large majority of the officers and men were with Tilden, and
that the army must not be depended on in such a crisis."

"I tell you, sir, that never in the history of this nation has there
been in the entire four years of an administration so much cor-
ruption, bartering of offices, rewarding of political favorites,
traffic with political leaders and bargain and sale of the electoral
franchise. People say that Hayes is a good man and means well,
but they do not know what they are talking about. When all
the facts are known about this administration no one will try
to excuse the man on account of his supposed goodness."

These attacks on the administration show that the Republican
leaders in congress were far from acceptance of the South's
overthrow of reconstruction. Such bitter enemies as Blaine and
Conkling, the undisputed rivals for leadership in the senate,
were as one upon undoing the President's work in South Caro-
lina and Louisiana, and using the army to reinstate the deposed
governors at any cost.

The aftermath of scandals and discord of the election of 1876,
and the extraordinary electoral commission settlement of its dis-
puted returns echoed and outcropped throughout the Hayes ad-
ministration. Arrested for trial for their crimes the members of
Louisiana returning board forfeited their bonds and sought
sanctuary in the custom house in New Orleans. Attempting to
execute a writ upon them, the sheriff of the parish was himself
taken into custody by the United States marshal, who was sup-
ported by a squad from a revenue cutter, and acted under advice
of the United States district attorney. The attorney general

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 517

of Louisiana, H. N. Ogden, addressed the United States Attorney
General, Jan. 26, 1878, as follows : "Four persons, J. Madison
Wells, Thos. C. Anderson, C. Cassenave and L. M. Kenner, who
are under an information for felony under the laws of the state,
forfeited their recognizance and have, I am informed, taken
shelter in the custom house of this city. Writs for their ar-
rest are in the hands of the sheriff and he went to arrest
them, understanding they were shut up in a room of that
building. He was about to force an entrance for the pur-
pose of arresting them when he was himself arrested, as
I am informed, upon an affidavit that he threatened to
open the door by force. I am not aware of any cession of exclu-
sive jurisdiction of this building, nor of any law that would give
immunity to offenders against state law, within its walls. Please
inform me whether the Federal government has authorized or
will sanction this conduct." The reply came promptly — the Unit-
ed States Marshal, Col. Jack Wharton, was instructed "not to
interfere with the execution of writs of the state courts." There-
upon the accused parties were taken into custody.

While the administration would not resort to reconstruction
methods and interpose for protection of the Louisiana returning
board, a letter of condolence was dispatched to Thos. C. Ander-
son, who had been placed on trial as follows : "The undersigned
feel it due to you under the circumstances, to assure you of our
unhesitating belief that you are altogether guiltless of any offense
against law; that you are falsely accused and maliciously perse-
cuted ; that we hereby tender our earnest sympathies and express
the hope that the sense of justice and love of peace of the people
of Louisiana will protect you and not permit the best interests
of the whole country to be disturbed by a revival of sectional ani-
mosities. In any event we are confident the American people will
redress any injustice of which you may be the victim." Signed
John Sherman, Stanley Matthews, J. A. Garfield, Eugene Hale,
Henry White.

Nevertheless, the jury brought in a verdict of guilty of forging
election returns against Anderson. This drew out a violent de-
nunciation from Secretary of State John Sherman, which closed

518 Mississippi Historical Society.

hy styling the conviction of one of his fellow conspirators and
tools in the theft of the Louisiana electoral vote, as "an unlooked
for and terrible commentary on the efforts of the President to
quell the turbulence and violence of Louisiana politics. It seems
to me an act of folly and madness." In a letter on the line of
that to Anderson, from Mr. Sherman and others, the President
submitted the case to the attorney general, asking his considera-
tion of the question of interference by the government in behalf
of the convict. Discussion of this question in the cabinet devel-
oped an acrimonious difference of views. Anderson was sen-
tenced to two years at hard labor in the penitentiary, a suspensive
appeal being granted. The state supreme court decided that the
paper changed was not a public document, and therefore could
not be forged, reversed the conviction and ordered the discharge
ol the prisoners. At a cabinet meeting this termination of the
incident elicited expressions of relief and satisfaction; the Presi-
dent speaking of it as "an indication of a proper state of feeling
in the South."

But relief from the haunting spirit of an evil event was of
short duration. The ghost next walked in Florida. There, too, in-
dictments were brought forth against officials who had fraudu-
lently changed the returns of certain counties so as to create the
Republican majority. To this aggravation there was added dis-
appointment in the bestowal of rewards. McLin, the secretary
of state who had certified the returns, was rewarded by the Pres-
ident's nomination to be associate justice of the territory of New
Mexico, but his confirmation was beaten in the senate. He and
S. G. Dennis, who had been chiefly instrumental in the fraud of
adding enough votes to those the Republican electors got to elect
Hayes and Wheeler, made written and sworn confession to the
steal of the state in April, 1878. This caused a great sensation.
They told the story in all of its details and particulars.

The Florida confessions brought to a head the talk of a con-
gressional investigation, which had grown out of the Louisiana
trials, and the statements in congressional debates over the 1878
elections in the two states. The resolution to investigate was in-
troduced by Representative Clarkson N. Potter, of New York,

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 519

who declared in offering it tliat the Democrats did not contem-
plate any attempt to unseat the President. A similar disavowal
was recorded in the shape of a resolution the house adopted al-
most unanimously. The investigation was ordered May 17, 1878,
by the house, upon a strict party vote. Yet while Republicans
voted in the negative, it was notorious that it was eagerly favored
by the anti-administration senators and congressmen of that party
— Blaine, Butler, Conkling and others who hoped that the prob-
ing would bring discredit on Hayes and his Southern policy.
Southern congressmen largely voted for it under silent protest,
knowing that for the political stir and unrest that would result
there would be, for their section, no compensation. The opposi-
tion to the investigation was pronounced through many Southern
papers, that contended it was not fair to President Hayes, who
should be upheld regardless of his tainted title, for his friendli-
ness to the South.

Moreover, the corroboration of circumstances, and documents,
convinced the public that the accusations were substantially
true. This belief was strengthened by the refusal of Sena-
tor Matthews to obey a summons before the committee, which
was placed in the worst possible light by Gen. Butler, who was a
member of the committee. He took the lead in bringing out evi-
dence that was most damaging to the administration. He ex-
torted from Gen. H. V. Boynton, correspondent of the Cincin-
nati Gazette, and an intimate friend of the President, that he had
protested against the appo ntment of Anderson, whose protest as
election superviior of East l-eliciana, had added several hundred
Republican votes to the returns. And that the President had re-
plied that Anderson "had performed good and honest service for
the Republican party, but he did not expect he would enter upon
his office. The President did not deny or affirm that Anderson
had been appointed for manipulating Democratic votes." But-
ler's cross examination so angered the witness that he said "the
other members of the committee were gentlemen, and Butler was
a rowdy." On the following day Gen. Boynton was again ques-
tioned by Butler touching a conversation with Gen. Harlan, con-
cerning the visit of the commission of which Harlan was a mem-

520 Mississippi Historical Society.

ber, to New Orleans, to effect a settlement between Packard and
Nicholls. the contestants for the Governor's office. The witness
stated that Gen. Harlan had told him that "if the Louisiana ques-
tion was settled .satisfactorily by the commission it m'ght promote
his, Harlan's chances for a place on the U. S. Supreme bench."

Of the Louisiana election the irrefutable proof was made that
for two days after the polls closed all of the Republican leader^
of the state admitted the success of the Democratic ticket, na-
tional and state, by a decided majority. That after it became
apparent that the election of a Republican President depended on
the state, deliberate preparations were made to remodel the re-
turns. To that end the parishes of East and West Feliciana were
singled out, and under distinct promises of reward their super-
visors "protested" the returns ; changing a Democratic majority
of 2,800 to one for the Republicans of 500. That even with this
change forged, it was discovered upon tabulation that, while
Packard and a Republican legislature was chosen, the Republi-
can election for President fell short of a majority. Then, to sup-
ply the needed addition, "protests" were resorted to by which
the votes of Richland. Lafayette and others were so doctored as
to yield a Republican majority. Or as Representative Morey,
carpet bagger, testified under examination by Gen. Butler : "In the
management of the case before the board we took Packard's vote
as the basis ; and the board threw out enough votes to elect Pack-
ard; and after this they threw out 1,513 votes to elect the Hayes
electors." That all of these acts of perjury and forgery were
known to John Sherman and others of the visiting statesmen —
John Sherman acting as the representative of Mr. Hayes, and in
that capacity pledging to the guilty agents of the plot protection
and rewards ; and that the promise was fulfilled in the appoint-
ment of every election supervisor and participant to Federal of-
fice ; all but two out of a hundred so slated actually entered upon
the offices to which they were so appointed. Goaded by the cross
questioning to which he was subjected Weber, a Felician super-
visor, said "if there was villainy it was on the part of Jno. Sher-
man and the visiting statesmen. H I am a rascal they were all
rascals — ^all of them." In a comment upon a summary of the tes-

I

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 521

tiniony and the secrets it unearthed, the Cincinnati Enquirer, a
Republican paper said : "When we listen to these shameless con-
fessions of the sort of rascality constantly pursued for 'the good
of the party,' we are suddenly and emphatically called upon to ad-
mire the heroic endurance and matchless calmness of the people
of Louisiana, under the most cruel persecutions which were car-
ried on for years without legislation or redress and with the
sanction and under the protection and power of the national
government."

The sub-committee in Florida took the testimony of Secretary
of State McLin, whose published confession had precipitated the
investigation. He furnished the committee a long list of ap-
pointments that had been given persons who manipulated the re-
turns of various counties. These included Gov. Stearns. McLin
himself had been appointed associate justice of the supreme
court of New Mexico, but his confirmation was beaten in the sen-
ate. It was after this that his conscience moved him to confess.
His confession confrere, L. G. Dennis, testified that he "had re-
fused, during the contest, to testify as desired by Governor Noycs,
of Ohio, because he was aware that 219 fraudulent votes hod
been added in Alachua county." Both witnesses testified that
Governor Noyes had represented Mr. Hayes in Florida, and that
he certified the services performed in each case. McLin testified
that Gov. Noyes told him he was in Florida at the special request
of Mr. Hayes, and authorized to assure the election officials that
they would be provided for according to their deserts. The Gov-
ernor, who crossed the ocean to testify that he did not go to Flor-
ida at the request or knowledge of Mr. Hayes, averred that his
only business there was "to see that there was a f^ir vote and an
honest decision." Such disinterested patriotism had been appro-
priately rewarded with the appointment of minister to France.
W. E. Chandler took the stand to swear that there "had never
been a fairer result obtained by fairer means, than in the Flor-
ida election." In his view the only sinner was the President, for
not perpetuating the carpet bag governments in South Carolina
and Louisiana.

Naturally resentful of the exposures of the Potter committee

522 Mississippi Historical Society.

investigation, whicli had but acided to liie taint of his title, the
tone of the President's message when congress met, in Decem-
ber, 1878, showed less tolerance than had marked his previous ex-
pressions. He "urged upon congress to supply any defects in leg-
islation for compelling obedience to laws aimed at the protection
of the right of suffrage." In quick response Senator James G.
Blaine opened the senate proceedings the following day with a
resolution for "enquiry and report whether at the recent election
the constitutional rights of American citizens were violated in
any state in the Union," etc. The usual sectional debate, de-
signed to rekindle passion and prejudice toward the South, en-
sued. In the stir of the evil embers, Senator Thurman thus im-
pressively referred to Republican accusations against the "solid
South" : "Let me tell you. Sir, that millions of the money of the
people of the United States were expended by the freedmen's
bureau agents in getting every colored man in the South in the
Loyal Leagues, and swearing him never to vote for a Democrat.
That is where the color line started. That institution took charge
of the negro at the ballot box ; took charge of him in the cotton
field; took charge of him in his cabin, his churches, everywhere.
It superintended his labor contracts, spent money, and property
that was called captured and abandoned, property that was sur-
rendered to it, and millions of money directly appropriated out
of the treasury of the United States. It was that bureau and its
agents that first drew the color line. And yet when the whites
of the South, when the men owning the property, and having the
intelligence, saw their very social system menaced with destruc-
tion, saw their very households threatened with ruin under an
inundation of jsarbarism directed by the most unscrupulous of
men, and when they naturally came together, when they naturally
un'ted as people menaced with danger ever will unite, then a cry
is raised against the solid South. This system of legislation that
begun ten years ago is bearing its fruit, and it is not by any addi-
tional penal laws that you can better the condition of the country."
The Democrats protested against, but did not oppose the Blaine
resolution. Nor did the Republican, while adopting it, show any
great relish for the investigation which all saw was meant espe-

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 533

cially to promote the President'al aspirations of the author of the
proposition. Senator Teller was made chairman of the commit-
tee, which decided to take testimony in New Orleans, Charleston
and such other points as the committee should choose. Being
called on for a list of witnesses, Senator Blaine furnished them
from Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi and Arkansas. Tes-
timony was chiefly taken in Louisiana, where the election of
congressmen had been vigorously contested and where there had
been no little violence and bloodshed. In Mississippi, where the
Democratic candidates had been efected without serious opposi-
tion, there was no grounds of contest and no testimony of conse-
quence was taken. January 20th, 1879, a resolution was intrc^-
duced by Chairman Potter of the investigating committee, recit-
ing that certain alleged telegrams have been published indicating
that "attempts were made after the election in 1876, to influence
by money or other fraudulent methods the vote of electors or
tlie actual canvassing officers in Florida, South Carolina, Lou-
isiana and Oregon. Therefore the committee on election frauds
be requested to enquire into the same. * * * ^jj^j jq appro-
priate the sum of $10,000 for the purpose of defraying the ex-
penses of such invest'gation." Certain of these cipher dispatches
had been published in the New York Tribune so as to reflect upon
the head of the Democratic ticket. This led to the publication in
the New Orleans Times Washington correspondence of a story to
the effect that these dispatches had been excluded from consider-
ation in the investigation preceding the electoral commission com-
promise. They had been called for from the Western Union by
the senate committee. But before delivery to the committee they
were given to the chairman, Senator Morton. Selecting those
which implicated the Democrats, the senator designed a sensa-
tional exposure. But he was informed by Zach Chandler, Grant's
secretary of the interior, that it had come to him that David Dud-
ley Field, of the Democratic house committee, had obtained pos-
session of documents that were infinitely more damaging to the-
Republicans ; and that an attack on that line must be dropped.
At the same time Mr. Field had revealed his scheme to his col-
leagues. Wli'le they were felicitating themselves on exploding a

524 Mississippi Historical Society.

veritable mine under the enemy, they were astounded by being-
called off the hunt; as Mr. Field revealed to him, "through or-
ders he had received from a very high personage in New York" ;
and that it was a point where "both sides would let up."

Under this agreement the cipher dispatch scandals had lain
dormant for two years. In the debate the adoption of the resolu-
tion to investigate was urged by Mr. Hewitt as an act of justice to
Mr. Tildcn. "Let him," said the champion of the Democratic
leader, "have an opportunity to confront his accusers, his traduc-
ers, before a competent tribunal. Let the man who of right
should occupy today the executive chair go on the witness stand
and satisfy the people that at least one of the candidates of two
great parties is not a miserable trickster, willing to make bar-
gains for the highest office in the gift of the people." While the
Republican floor leader. Gen. Ben Butler, made a show of op-
posing the adoption of the resolution, it was not resisted with any
vigor by the Republicans. They probably saw better than Mr.
Hewitt the way the chips would fly. The country already knew
of the Republican frauds in carrying the three disputed states.
That knowledge had been thoroughly disseminated, and digested.
But the disclosure that Democrats who possessed Mr. Tilden's
confidence had sought to change the fraudulent findings by brib-
ery, came in the nature of a revelation. In the prolonged inquiry
that followed, in spite of all efforts to explain it away, the cipher
telegrams proved this to have been attempted in all three of the
disputed Southern states, and in Oregon as well. One of the par-
ties engaged in trying to right one wrong by another, was a
nephew of the Democratic leader named Pelton. Testifying he
stated that "Mr. Tilden had not the least idea of what was going
on," and when he learned of it "he was exceedingly annoyed and
denounced my action in the matter severely." Mr. Tilden ap-
peared before the committee with a denial of any knowledge of
the transmission of the cipher dispatches — that there "never was
an hour or a minute when he entertained a thought of seeking
certificates by venal inducements." But under the cross examina-
tion of Thos. B. Reed, his denial of all knowledge of the bribery
scheme did not dispel prejudicial impressions.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 525

For its effect on the Democratic party fortunes, the Potter
committee probing was a doubtful move at best. Its policy had
been questioned by the wisest of the Southern leaders in the be-
ginning. They held that, having won back local government,
their states most needed a surcease of the long running sore of
sectional agitation — that no possible result of the investigation
could be compensation for keeping alive the passions and pre-
judices through which politicians of the Blaine type kept alive
Northern animosities toward the South. The certain interruption
of friendly relations with the President alone' was no light consid-
eration. And when the investigation wound up in the cipher dis-
patch conclusion, there were few who failed to see that a blunder
had been committed — one which went far to offset in public senti-
ment the odium under which the Republicans labored, for a stolen
Presidency.

Other causes conspired to prolong the disturbed state of South-
ern affairs. When congress met, December, 1878, the negroes of
the river section of Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas were
greatly exercised by a migratory movement to Kansas. They
passed up the river by hundreds to St. Louis, where they took
rail for Kansas and the adjacent states. For a while there was
the gravest concern felt by the planters. Under the fever of the
impulse it looked like the negroes would all leave. The motive
of the exodus was much discussed, and variously accounted for.
Three main causes were given for it ; political discontent, low
prices of cotton and the land offerings of certain railroads. These
all operating on the negro love for change and novelty led them
to leave the plantations at ruinous sacrifice of property and with-
out thought or care of the conditions awaiting them. Knowing
that the negro laborers were going to certain disappointment and
disaster, and feeling keenly the loss and ruin which menaced
themselves, the planters resorted to rigid measures for repression
of the exodus. After thousands had left the boats refused to take
any more. Camps on the river bank were then broken up by
officers of the law, and the campers dispersed and were compelled
to return to the plantations.

Such repressions of the negro emigration raised a great out-

526 Mississippi Historical Society.

cry, in the North. The halls of congress rang with stories of the
"cruelties, the oppression," from which the "wards of the nation"
sought to flee. Republicans grew eloquent in ringing the changes
on the hardened hearts of the Egyptians of the South, who would
not let the freednien pass out of the land of bondage, and across
the Red Sea to the Promised Land of Freedom. A Minnesota
senator, Windom, championed the cause of the negroes in a reso-
lution, which read as follows:

"That with a view of a peaceful adjustment of all questions
relating to suffrage, effectual enforcement of constitutional and
national rights, promotion of the best interests of the whole coun-
try and the elimination of sectionalism from politics, a committee
of seven senators charged with the duty of inquiring as to the ex-
pediency and practicability of encouraging and promoting by all
just and proper methods partial migration of colored persons
from those states where they are not now allowed to freely and
peacefully exercise and enjoy their constitutional rights as Amer-
ican citizens, to such states as may desire to receive them and will
protect them in said rights."

There were not wanting those who recklessly overlooked the
disastrous consequences, the great suffering that was certain to at-
tend this ill-conducted and aimless drift by the negroes of the
lower South into the cold climate of the upper Missouri states.
Circulars both inflammatory and seductive, were distributed
among the negroes to urge them to leave the South. Public meet-
ings were held and subscriptions raised, to promote the migra-
tion. Bob Ingersoll, the eloquent orator and famous atheist, con-
tributed $1,000 and pledged half his income for five years, to the
emigration fund. Politicians urged it as a means of reducing the
next Southern census, and the representation of the negro states
of the South. Approving the wisdom of the resolution the Chi-
cago Tribune said : "The removal of the discontented blacks, de-
spised, outraged, oppressed and deprived of their political rights,
would quickly fnduce the tyrannical whites to treat the negroes
remaining among them with more consideration." The New
York Tribune unctuously quoted Senator B. K. Bruce of Mis-
sissippi, as assuring Senator Windom of the migration of 100,000

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 527

able-bodied negroes under the encouragement and aid his resolu-
tion offered. "Such men," said the Tribune, "are the sinews of
the South, and their withdrawal from that section would be a
serious matter for it." It so appeared to the river planters them-
selves, as well as to those who gloated over their misfortune and
calamity. As much constancy and fortitude as they had dis-
played throughout the most trying dozen years of their history,
this departure of the negroes cast a deeper gloom than any of the
many previous hard blows of fate. But nature came to their
rescue. Before the exodus had run its course it was checked by
the most pitiful letters from the Kansas emigrants, telling of
the rigors of a climate but little colder than the welcome of the
people among whom they were stranded. The most of the vic-
tims of their own delusion and the Windom resolution, returned
to the plantations, money for transportation being furnished by
the planters through St. Louis merchants. The stories they told
had its effect in restoring contentment among the whole popula-
tion.

The Democrats' renewed effort in this session to prevent the
use of troops at the polls, by a clause in the army appropriation
bill repealing section 2002 of the revised statutes ; which gave such
authority. In this shape the bill passed the house. The senate
striking it out, and no agreement being had on the bill, congress
again adjourned without making provision for maintenance of the
army. The legislative executive and judiciary appropriations
had also failed in the same way; the house having attached
clauses repealing the iron clad and the jury test oaths, and the
right of attendance of deputy United States marshals and super-
visors at the polls. This failure necessitated another special ses-
sion in the Hayes administration. Hence the 46th congress,
memorable for having a Democratic majority in both houses, was
called for March 18th. The bills that had failed in the preceding
session, with the provisions that had caused their veto were intro-
duced. Proceedings in the senate began in a resolution by Sen-
ator Hoar, declaring the procedure proposed to be "unconstitu-
tional and revolutionary." This pretentious phrase had the ef-
fect of initiating the usual partisan and inflammatory debate.

528 Mississippi Historical Society.

Having run its course the bills, as adopted in Democratic caucus,
passed the two houses by a strict party vote. April 29 the Presi-
dent submitted his veto of the army bill in quite a lengthy mes-
sage. He cited especially to the act as it was passed in the pre-
vious congress, declaring the military posse comitatus to be un-
lawful ; and quoting from the arguments of Democrats to sustain
his claim, that nothing more was needed to allay apprehension of
military interference at elections.

The bill being passed again, so drawn as to meet the objec-
tions specified in the message, it was again vetoed. May 12th, by
the President. He was careful in his vetoes to pay due tribute to
the intense hostility of the American people to the mere sugges-
tion of military interference in elections. "No soldiers," he said,
"should be present at the polls to take the place of the ordinary
civil police." But he would not consent to the annulment of the
"ancient and fundamental law," authorizing the employment of
troops, as prescribed in section 5298 ; which is now "proposed
to abrogate at certain places and on certain days." For the third
time the bill was passed, with the restriction whittled down to
conform to the words of the message; that "no portion of the
appropriation carried should be used for pay' of transportation,
equipment, or subsistence of any troops used as a police force to
keep peace at the polls." In this shape it was approved by the
President, though passed on a strict party vote. It was in the
closing days of the debate on the army bill that the celebrated
clash arose between Senators Lamar and Conkling, the story of
which is yet a familiar one in Mississippi. The scene, however,
was only incidental to the pending bill, in the long debate on
which Mr. Lamar took no part.

The legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill, with
the disputed provisions relating to the jury test oath and deputy
United States marshals and supervisors of election at the polls,
was passed, by a party vote. It was vetoed May 29th in a lengthy
message. Being passed again, in another shape, there was an-
other veto June 23d. Passed again, there was a final veto, June
30th. The bill was then passed, omitting the vetoed clauses,
without further contention over the issue. The result was the

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 629

continuance of the practice of appointing United States deputy
marshals and supervisors at the polls, when Federal officials were
elected. The policy of the Democrats in forcing this special ses-
sion was gravely questioned, especially as it proved practically
fruitless. The Republican leaders, Blaine, Hoar, Garfield, Conk-
ling and the rest, made full use of the occasion to place the South
in the worst light possible — to impress the Northern people with
the belief that the inspiration of the measure sought was hos-
tility to the Federal government and the oppression of the negro.
In the next session of congress the Democrats renewed the con-
test for repealing all vestiges of the reconstruction machinery;
for prohibiting the attendance of deputy United States marshals
and supervisors at elections. This drew from the President a
veto May 4, 1880, of an appropriation bill which contained such
provision. This was followed by another veto, June 15th, of a bill
which sought to make such election deputies appointive by the
Federal circuit courts, instead of the marshals. Thus the law was
maintained unchanged for years longer.

Democratic persistence in the policy of complete exclusion of
Federal officials from the election machinery was, in the prevail-
ing state of national politics, easy of prejudicial perversion. It,
in fact, furnished to Republican leaders their chief store of argu-
ment before Northern voters. It may have been inexpedient for
Democratic congressmen to have given them such advantage.
Nevertheless, efforts to repeal the statutory provisions that had
been essential to, though insufficient for perpetuating, the recon-
struction scheme, were right in principle and purpose. The law
as it stood continued to be the cause of constant irritation and
sometimes collision. It kept up race friction — under the tutelage
of Blaine, and his class of agitators, the negro was encouraged
to hug the delusive hope of a restoration of Republican sway in
the South. That end was kept constantly before the country by
resolutions, "force bills" and platform pledges. Fortunately, for
the years of this transitory period, while the Southern states were
undergoing recuperation from misgovernment, there was always
a Democratic majority in one or both branches of congress, to
34

53P Mississippi Historical Society.

defeat reactionary legislation. But the agitation and the menace
gave enduring potency to the poison of negro suffrage.

Nearing the conclusion of this chapter of our history,
a brief retrospection is deemed appropriate. Appomattox,
the overthrow of the Confederate forces in the field of war,
gave full effect to the proclamation of freedom for the slave. The
conclusion of the war made him a freedman in fact; broke the
chains of his servitude and so left him with his status as a citizen
to be defined by the state in which he dwelt. Under the ensuing
provisional government as proclaimed and authorized by the
President, negro freedom was ratified. Due legislation was en-
acted for protection of his rights of life and property. His infer-
iority was both recognized and guarded against oppression, in
the statutes of the Southern states, and under the guardianship
and tutelage of the national bureau. That disposal of the prob-
lem was brief. It was not permitted to pass through the experi-
mental stage. While harmonious and acceptable as an expedient
within, it was vexed and warred against from without until it
was overthrown and swept away, to make room for the partisan
device that was to follow.

The second change in the negro's status came with en-
franchisement through act of congress ; fixed in Southern states'
constitutions constructed and held under military order and bayo-
net protection. It was made general and clinched in the adoption
of the 15th amendment to the Federal constitution. Thereunder
the negro learned his lessons of citizenship in text books of the
most rancorous sectionalism and South hate. His whole nature
was changed by witnessing the use of the resistless national, civil
and military power, for founding government in the Southern
states upon the array of the solid, "loyal," black voters against
the white "disloyal." After some years of corruption and crime,
of an abomination of misrule that is an eternal stain on the men
and the party that operated it, that scheme broke down of the sheer
impossibility of negro political equality. Then the law of gravity
asserted itself and the pyramid of society again rested on base in-
stead of apex. In the homely phrase that was current, the bot-
tom rail was no longer on top.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 631

The third change in the negro as a political force was wrought
through campaigns that were called revolutionary. In law his
voting privilege was not touched. In fact, no longer operated
under the shadow of Federal bayonets, it was throttled. But while
Southern governments based on negro suffrage had passed, the
baleful influence of that suffrage survived. The body politic
proved unequal to elimination or assimilation of the unholy Af-
rican leaven. Surviving the destruction of the reconstruction
scheme, the negro voter remained a convenient quantity for un-
scrupulous and unworthy Southern white office seekers to strive
for. Against appeals from that class worthy leadership was
shown to be as powerless over the negro masses as in the days
when contending with the carpet baggers. The experiences of
this period proved that, such was the force of inherent vices and
ineradicable weakness, the incorporation of the negro as a whole-
some factor in the American political system was as impossible
as to mix oil and water. Through the force of public sentiment
and the white nomination methods, evil uses of the negro vote
were kept in suppression, as far as possible. But this was only
effected in certain counties at the cost of strife which planted bit-
terness and estrangement among the whole white population.
With each succeeding election after 1875, restiveness and revolt
against the party bonds became more menacing. That white
solidity which was the sole guarantee of security against relapse,
was shaken. Counting out or suppressing the lawful negro vote
when cast for a white bolter with a personal white following,
always threatened and sometimes involved riot and bloodshed.

Under such pressure of campaign turmoil and violence, with
the incident of serious industrial disturbance, it seemed that the
state, particularly the black counties, were tending to a worse con-
dition than that from which they had just emerged. It was plain
that something had to be done, some form of change to a lawful
riddance of the negro vote in lieu of the unlawful methods which
had grown to be so alarming. Thus it was that agitation for a
constitutional convention with the view of nullifying, as far as
lay in the power of the state, the 15th amendment to the Federal
constitution. The question came up, indeed, in the first legisla-

532 Mississippi Historical Society.

ture after 1876. December 1st, 1877, the Vicksburg Herald said :
"The state papers are very generally discussing the necessity of
a state constitutional convention for Mississippi. Some think
there is very urgent need for it, while others oppose the proposi-
tion." The Herald, and the Jackson Clarion, the two most widely
circulated and influential papers in the state, opposed it. So did
the Democratic leaders generally. Col. W. A. Percy, representa-
tive from Washington county, then leader of the Delta section
in the 1875 revolution, was an exception to the rule and return-
ing home from the legislative adjourmnent he said : "The fail-
ure to provide for a convention to reform the constitution was a
mistake. Now, while our people are united, is the time to put
our house in order." Bills introduced in the legislature January,
1878, in the senate by Gen. A. M. West of Holly Springs
and in the house by Hon. H. M. Street of Meridian,
failed to pass. The iron was not yet hot — the time to take ad-
vantage of the supreme court declaration that there was "nothing
in the Federal constitution or its amendments to guarantee the ne-
gro political suffrage" was in the future.

As time passed and the ease of holding what had been won
was experienced, apprehensions were lulled and the warning
voice of the thoughtful passed unheeded. But the delusive sense
of security was fleeting — relegated to "the silence of the covered
furrow," the South's problem germinated a brood of secondary
ills quite as deadly to the Commonwealth as the monstrosity of
an unrestricted negro suffrage. In the decade of 1880 to 1890 it
became apparent that the "Mississippi plan" of dealing with
black majorities would, unless checked, pollute the very sources
of representative government. Symptoms of the diseased politi-
cal condition grew so acute that the demand for suffrage restric-
tion to effect an electorate under which there could be white su-
premacy through honest elections became quite imperative. The
agitation for a Constitutional Convention was revived and grew
very urgent. Responding to this sentiment the Legislature, in
1886, adopted a resolution calling such a Convention, which was
vetoed by Governor Lowry. In 1888 another resolution was
adopted, one inviting discussion of the question in the ensuing

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 533

campaign for the election of a Legislature and State officers. A
Constitutional Convention was therefore made a direct issue in
the canvass of 1889. Ex-Governor Stone, a candidate for Gov-
ernor, declared he would approve a bill for a Convention if
passed. In September Senator George, in a speech at Greenville,
declared himself in favor of a Constitutional Convention, and this
was followed by a counter declaration at Macon by his colleague,
Senator Walthall. The question thus became a pronounced one
in our State politics.

Just at this time the demand for relief from the intolerable
Reconstruction status was intensified from another source. The
election of Mr. Qeveland in 1884 by the Solid South and a small
group cf Northern States had been bitterly resented in the North,
almost to the point of a repetition of the Tilden count-out. After
the election Mr. Blaine delivered a speech at Augusta, Me., that
literally electrified his party. Realizing that the fabric woven
out of negro suffrage was crumbling away, the defeated candi-
date sounded the keynote of a further interposition of the Federal
power into Southern political affairs. The popular response to
his impassioned and powerful appeal to sectionalism was exceed-
ingly ominous to those who looked beyond the exultations of
the Democratic victory. They felt that had the Augusta speech
opened and shaped the campaign of 1884 instead of closed and
echoed it, the result might have been different. And that the
wind then sowed would be the whirlwind of 1888. It was not
permitted to lull in the interim, and the agitation on sectional lines
became acute in that year. On the issue of suppression of the
negro vote "a free ballot and a fair count," the national cam-
paign was pitched and won — the Republicans declaring for more
stringent laws of Federal election contest.

In January, 1889, Mr. Harrison having been elected President,
this policy found expression in the Lodge force bill. Its intro-
duction was accompanied by appearances of party favor which in-
dicated its passage upon the assembling of the new Congress.
Such an outlook gave rise to the gravest fears and most depress-
ing forebodings of another revival of Reconstruction ills and dis-
orders. The files of current newspaper publications will disclose

534 Mississippi Historical Society.

the wide prevalence of such a belief. Frank Carpenter, a Wash-
ington press correspondent of national reputation, thus related a
meeting with Justice Lamar while the force bill was up for de-
bate in the Senate:

"His bad health was not bettered by the gloomy view he takes
of the South and its future. He told me he thought Mississippi
would eventually be a negro State and the whites forced to emi-
grate ; the influence of the present administration is in favor of
the blacks at the expense of the whites, and the whites will not
permit black rule. The outlook of the South seems as dark as
can be, and what will be the future God only knows."

While this reads in the light of the present like an over-dark-
ened reflection, it did not much exaggerate the then burthens of
thought. In a published letter from a citizen of the State to one
of its Congressmen, this passage, suggested by the Lodge bill,
occurs :

"It is as though the hand of time were set back twenty years.
If there is less of heat of passion, there is deeper and more
malign intent. Sectional pacification seems drifting away."

Such apprehensions formed a potential influence for State
suffrage restrictions. It was urged in Mississippi as the part of
wisdom to imbed such restrictions in her organic law before the
passage of a "force bill" could be effected, and the State politi-
cal power again be subverted through act of Congress and mili-
tary despotism.

Such were the antecedent influences that produced the 1890
Constitutional Convention and dictated its action. Succeeding
the call of the Legislature, the Democratic State committee or-
dered a Convention to nominate the fourteen delegates at large to
be elected under the law. Like action was taken by the county
committees. Nominations were effected harmoniously in the
main, especially by the State Convention. In the meantime, be-
tween the passage of the act and the meeting of the Convention,
there was general discussion by the State press of plans and
lines of action. Divergencies of views were various and

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi — McNeily. 535

quite radical, so much so as to give rise to no little discourage-
ment among promoters of the Convention and predictions from
pessimists that it would dissolve in discord and failure. The
gravest obstacles were due the acute differences in the social con-
ditions and political elements of the white and black counties.
Tn the former there was not only no correlative urgency for suf-
frage restrictions, but actual repugnance to any interference with
the political equalities in which the white people and their fathers
had been reared. Though in their environments the white people
of the blacki belt had the acute sympathies of their white county
brethren. There was, moreover, a profound general appreciation
of the contaminating evils of the black county political disorders
upon the whole State. These influences won the assent of the
white counties for a Constitutional convention that would as
far as possible annul voting privileges created by the war amend-
ments and the re-construction acts. By various devices that pur-
pose was effected, care being exercised by the convention to
restrict such defranchising articles to those who had been en-
franchised under the revolutionary enactment of a bitterly sec-
tional Congress. It was feared that the action of the convention,
which was violently assailed in Congress and by a partisan press,
would be annulled by Federal interference. Passing undisturbed,
however, other southern states in the ensuing years followed in
the pathway Mississippi had blazed.

In a previous contribution to the State Historical Society by
this author, the work of the constitutional convention, which was
assembled August 11th, 1890, and adjourned after a three
months session, has been written. With its adjournment the state
entered upon a new political era. In a way the convention
marked the passing of the old south — giving place in state gov-
ernment to the men of the post-bellum generation. The conven-
tion indeed was the state's last deliberative body, with a majority
of Confederate soldiers. The consummation was a fitting ter-
mination of a sketch of the quarter of a century of history, which
they directed and dominated.

AN INCIDENT OF THE BATTLE OF MUNFORDVILLE,
KY., SEPTEMBER 14TH, 1862

Prepared by E. T. Sykes, then Capt. of Co. "K", lOth Miss.

Infantry, Chalmers' Brigade, Polk's Corps,

Army of Tennessee.

The particulars and origin of the battle of Munfordville, Ky.,
Sept. 14th, 1862, as known to me, a participant therein, and in
what is styled "Bragg's Kentucky Campaign," were as follows:
Gen. Bragg beginning said campaign by crossing the Tennessee
river, Polk's corps at "Harrison's Landing" about nine miles
north of Chattanooga, and Hardee's Corps crossing lower down,
where, at each place of crossing the troops of the respective corps
rested several days for bathing, et cet., preparatory to their long
march ahead, — moved from thence up the well watered Sequat-
chie valley to the village from whence the road leading across
Walden Ridge to the vicinity of Sparta, Tenn., nestled. Resting
at the said village for the night, and complying with orders to
fill canteens and husband the water in the passage, next day, of
the mountain some twenty miles across, the troops descended the
ridge during the following night at a sparkling little stream near
Sparta, where tents were erected and camps maintained for a
day and night. Then resuming the line of march, and after
crossing the State line between Tennessee and Kentucky, desig-
nated by a large, embellished signboard, the troops finally reached
Glasgow, Kentucky.

Approaching the latter place via a long, straight, and broad
lane, in extension of its principal street in front of, and directly
faced by the courthouse, the Confederate column led by the lOth
Miss. Regmt., in column of fours with extended intervals, and

(536)

1

Battle of Munfordville, Ky. — Sykes. 687

"Arms at Ease," and its band playing "Dixie," was greeted by
an outpour of sympathizing citizenry, waving Confederate flags
and shouting greetings to the marching column of "Gray."

Resting at Glasgow with his main forces. Gen. Bragg ordered
Chalmers' Brigade of Mississippians forward to the railroad at
Cave City, and Duncan's Brigade of Louisianians to Glasgow
Junction next south, with orders to intercept and cut off Buell's
communications northward by rail, to Louisville — the latter col-
umn being then en route from Nashville.

Gen. Chalmers surprised and captured the telegraph operator
at Cave City, as well as the depot supplies at that place ; but ow-
ing to information furnished the enemy by Union sympathizers
residing in the neighborhood, he did not succeed in capturing any
train of cars.

While at Cave City Cien. Chalmers was informed by Col.
Scott, commanding a regiment of cavalry operating in the vicin-
ity of Munfordville, that the enemy — about 1800 strong and
represented to consist of new, or raw recruits, — was near that
place, to-wit, at the railroad crossing on Green river, fortified and
protecting the iron bridge spanning the river ; and Scott offering
to cooperate, if he (Chalmers) would move to that place pre-
pared for action, induced the latter to move forward on the
night of the 13th — and this without orders from, or information
first furnished his commanding officer — presumably, and as be-
lieved by all concerned, in the hope and expectancy, by coup de
maitre of winning promotion, cost what it may in the loss of
men.

Marching rapidly during the night of the 13th, he reached the
vicinity of the fortified position of the enemy about sunrise on
the morning of the 14th. The enemy's pickets were rapidly
driven in; and forming line of battle, with Walthall's regi-
ment (29th Miss.) on his right, and Smith's (10th Miss.) on
his left — ^the 7th, 9th, and 44th Miss. Regiments covering the
interval between the two, and supported by Ketchum's Alabama
Battery in rear of the center — the 10th Miss, was ordered by
Gen. Chalmers to attack, unsupported, the fortified position on
the enemy's right. The advance of the 10th Miss, was through

538 Mississippi Historical Society.

an opening about half a mile in width, and under fire of the
enemy's artillery and small arms from behind, what proved for-
midable intrenchments and earthworks.

Before the advance was ordered, Col. Smith called his captains
to the center and front, and after pointing through the haze of
the early morning to the enemy's fortifications, on the top of
which bayonets bristled in the rays of the morning sun, as also
pointing to a fence skirting an abattis of fallen timber, he said
that the order to advance would be "By the right of companies
to the front, quick time." Continuing, he enjoined upon the cap-
tains the necessity of preserving the intervals between the sev-
eral formations, so that on reaching the fence which the heads
of companies should throw down, and passing through the order
would be given, "Companies into line," thus forming the regi-
mental front. Then giving the command, "Captains to your
posts," next came the command, "By the right of companies to
the front, forward, quick time, march !" For a while, the ad-
vance and attack gave promise of success.

Soon Walthall's 29th Miss., which was the only other regi-
ment that was at said time ordered to advance, reached the wide
and deep ditch around Fort Craig — a strong fortification on the
enemy's extreme left — and was preparing to cross it, when Col.
Scott, who had agreed with Chalmers to cooperate in the attack,
took position and imprudently opened fire from an eminence sev-
eral hundred yards distant, throwing shell among Walthall's
men, and causing them to retire. The 10th Miss, had in
the meantime reached the ravine where was an abattis
of beech trees that had been felled about 75 yards in front
of the enemy's fortified right, covering the railroad bridge, and
prevented the further advance of the Confederates. Protecting
themselves as best they could, the Confederates were soon able to
silence the enemy's fire from their fortifications. In this position
both sides remained nearly two hours doing virtually nothing,
save only an occasional shot — the men of the 10th Miss., not be-
ing able, on account of the timber to their right, and the con-
formation of the ground, to see or hear from their center regi-
ments which, with the battery had in the meantime moved for-

Battle of Munfordville, Ky.—Sykes. 889

ward and taken position in prolongation of their right, or even
from the extreme right regiment.

About that time the enemy exhibited from an embrasure of
his fortifications in my immediate front, a flag of truce, when
it was — due to igfnorance of its sacredness — wilfully fired on by
one Jim Franks, a private in the company on my left. Taking in
the situation, and first placing the defiant Franks in charge of
two men with orders to shoot him if he again attempted to fire
on the "flag," I assured the bearer of the flag that it would be
respected, at which the officer bearing it, — a young First Lieuten-
ant, and Adjutant, of the Third Kentucky Cavalry, advanced and
as the Colonel (Smith) was lying helpless with a mortal wound,
the Lieut.-Colonel (Bullard) lying lifeless near by, and the Major
(Barr) was temporarily acting on Gen. Chalmer's Staff, it de-
volved upon me as senior officer present in its immediate front
to meet the flag — which I did about midway between the oppos-
ing lines. The officer, a well dressed, handsome and intelligent
gentleman, apparently about my own age (I had not changed
clothes since crossing the Tennessee river, and necessarily, in
appearance presented quite an unfavorable contrast), informed
me that Gen. Qialmers had sent a flag in on our right demand-
ing an unconditional surrender of the Federal forces ; that com-
pliance with the demand had been refused, but that an armistice
for the purpose of removing the dead and wounded ' from the
field indefinite as to length of pendency, had been agreed on;
but that ten minutes' notice would be given before the with-
drawal of the flag. I thereupon returned to my regiment and
communicating these facts to the officers and men, returned to
the place of the pending flag. The men of the 10th Miss,
promptly began the removal of its dead and wounded, carrying
them to the crest of the ridge from whence we had that morning
begun the advance — the relief party continuing its work until
our dead and wounded, as also everything of value, had been
removed.

During the pendency of the "Flag of Truce," the young of-
ficer who accompanied it — then my new-found friend — being
supplied with a canteen of the "liquid fluid that cheers and some-

540 Mississippi Historical Society.

times inebriates," but in this instance only mellowed the soul and
sublimated the lips with words of "social commune" — we pro-
ceeded to partake of its stimulating contents. During said time,
the young officer presented me with his engraved card, which I
have ever since regretted losing, and as I was unprepared to
return the courtesy in kind, I did the next best thing, by merely
writing my name on a card of his handed me for that purpose;
at the same time mutually exchanging deep felt and sincere ex-
pressions and regards, and promising needed protection, should
the fortune of war make either a captive of the other's army.

After more than an hour's interval, notice was brought to us
that, within ten minutes time the flag would be withdrawn.
Thereupon, with genuine courtesy and thoughtful consideration
for his necessitous and new made Confederate friend, he asked
me which I preferred, "whiskey or brandy?" As laconically,
yet as graciously as possible, I replied in the language of the
Irishman, "either is good enough for me." Thereupon, he wrote
a note and sent it by one of his guard to his Commissary, or
surgeon it may have been addressed, in the fortifications, and
soon a flask of brandy was presented to me, with the jocular,
but considerate remark, indicative of the courtly gentleman that
he was, "That you may know it is all right, I take a bumper of
it to your health ;" after which we separated with mutual best
wishes each for the other.

I will explain in this connection that, on rejoining my com-
mand I found that the dead of the regiment were being hastily
buried, and that orders were given for the command to return
to Cave City. Observing my Colonel (R. A. Smith) lying near
by and suffering excruciating pain produced by the wound that
morning received in front of the enemy's fortifications, and
though I knew him to be absolutely temperate, I insisted on his
taking a drink of the brandy. At first refusing the proiTered
brandy, but finally consenting to my request, when observing
that it was of such benefit to him, I left the canteen with its con-
tents with those who were to remain with the chivalric Colonel,
who I never saw again. On our return to the place with Bragg's
army two days (16th) after, the Colonel was a corpse.

Battle of Munfordville, Ky.—Sykes. 641

As to the above related incident with the young officer who
bore the flag of truce, and whose card I inadvertently lost, I have
since made inquiry to learn his name and residence, but without
success until during the last U. C. V. Reunion held at Chatta-
nooga in May 1913, when it occurred to me to inquire of my
post bellum friend in the person of Gen. John T. Wilder, who
commanded the Federal forces at Munfordville at the time stated.
Soon after the war Gen. Wilder moved to and engaged in man-
ufacturing in the city of Chattanooga, and has continuously
since resided there. He is now, and for years past has been one
of the three Commissioners of the Chickamauga National Mili-
tary Park.

I no sooner asked Gen. Wilder if he recalled the name of the
officer who bore the flag of truce on the occasion named, than
he replied : "Why yes, it was W. A. Bullitt, then First Lieuten-
ant and Adjutant of the 3rd Ky. Cavalry, who since the war be-
came the acknowledged leader of the legal profession in the city
of Louisville. That he was of the distinguished family whose
name a county of Kentucky bears, and one of three brothers,
two of whom served in the Confederate Army." I wished the in-
formation that we might correspond and recall memories of the
incident, and I imagine, it would serve as a reminder to both
of the coming resurrection day.

Thus it was, that on my return home from Chattanooga, I
wrote and addressed to Mr. Bullitt a letter covering the circum-
stances of our meeting under the flag of truce, to which I re-
ceived no reply, the reason being as I soon thereafter learned,
the addressee had died. No pleasure could have been greater to
me than that of calling upon Mr. Bullitt and renewing our ac-
quaintance formed under the circumstances mentioned, during
one or more of my post-bellum visits to Louisville, had I known
of his living there.

In the above mentioned conversation with Gen. Wilder, he
further informed me that Gen. Buckner accompanied the "Flag
of Truce" on the night of Sept. 16th, bearing Gen. Bragg's de-
mand of him for an unconditional surrender of his forces, to
which demand he declined to accede. He stated his reply to

5i2 Mississippi Historical Society.

Buckner's reasons why he should comply with the demand, to
have been, that the only terms to which he would agree were,
that he "should be permitted to carry his men to the Ohio River
and there disband them!" After some parleying between them,
Buckner said if Wilder would consent to be blindfolded he would
escort him to Gen. Bragg's headquarters, where Buckner felt
assured Wilder would be convinced of the utter futility of not
surrendering as demanded. Making no objection to being blind-
folded he was accordingly escorted to Gen. Bragg's headquar-
ters. The latter on being informed of Wilder's presence and
reason therefor, brusquely said to Buckner, "No modification of
the proposed terms will be made, and, if they are not accepted,
I will kill every one of them when I open with my guns in the
morning." Still, Wilder could not be induced to accept the prof-
fered terms, whereupon, he and Buckner returned to the point
of meeting, but before finally separating, Buckner — evidently
solicitious for a modification of the proposed terms, requested
Wilder to remain there until he could return to Bragg's quarters
and try again for some modification. Doing so, and again inter-
viewing Bragg, he secured the terms finally agreed on, and re-
turning to the flag, so informed Wilder.

The modified terms were substantially, or in effect equivalent
to those first suggested by Wilder, as the only terms upon which
he would surrender without a fight. However, it appears from
the communications of Wilder of Sept. 16th and 17th, appear-
ing on page 971, Serial No. 22, War of the Rebellion, that he in
effect, made an "unconditional surrender." But I assume from
what Gen. Wilder told me, and from what I witnessed on the
morning of the 18th, he must have been given assurances that
the courtesies of war would be extended him. For early that
morning. Wilder marched his command by Fort Craig where
my Company was stationed, with all the honors of war-drums
beating and colors flying, with side-arms and private property.
Wilder's Report. Serin! N^o. 22. p. g62, Army of the Rebellion.

I deem it not out of place to state, and to use a common ex-
pression, my being "taken aback" when reaching my regiment
after retiring from the flag of truce to learn of Gen. Chalmers'

Battle of Munfordville, Ky. — Sykes. 543

preparation for a hasty retreat ; for, pending the flag of truce,
Lieut. Watt L. Strickland, aid-de-camp on the Staff of Gen.
Chalmers came up and calling me to one side, confided the in-
formation that Gen. J. K. Jackson was advancing and was then
near by with his division of infantry, and that on his arrival, the
attack would be renewed and pressed to a successful end. It
appears that this, as it proved — ^misinformation — had been in-
directly communicated to Col. Wilder at the time of the demand
made for his surrender, and if true, it was an unpardonable mili-
tary ruse on the part of Chalmers to extricate his brigade from
the perilous situation in which he had unnecessarily placed it.

The fact is, the truth had dawned upon Gen. Chalmers that he
had been misinformed by Col. Scott as to the number and char-
acter of the troops he had so unadvisedly, and without orders
from his superiors, attacked with the delusive hope of capturing.
Instead of fresh, raw recruits, those defending the Munfordville
fortifications, etc., were seasoned troops of the veteran type.
They were composed of the 17th, 60th, 67th, 68th, and 69th In-
diana Infantry, a Company of Louisville Cavalry, and a part of
the 4th Ohio, and a section of the 13th Indiana Battery, num-
bering in all something more than 1800 men at the beginning of
the attack, but reinforced during its progress by 6 companies of
the 50th Indiana under Col. C. L. Dunham, thus making their
aggregate force 2,122, as reported — also 10 guns — the whole
commanded by John T. Wilder, Colonel, Seventeenth Indiana
Volunteers.

Under the foregoing state of facts, Wilder felt justified in re-
fusing to accede to Chalmers' demand to surrender, and the lat-
ter, taking advantage of the situation, resorted to the unjusti-
fiable ruse aforesaid.

In Gen. Chalmers' report of the foregoing engagement, made
two days (Sept. 16) thereafter, and to be found on pp. 971-973
of Serial No. 22, "War of the Rebellion," the following appears
as a part of the third paragraph on page 972, in an attempt to
palliate his action. He wrote:

"I fear that I may have incurred censure at headquarters by
my action in this matter, but with the information in my posses-

544 Mississippi Historical Society.

sion I felt that it was my duty to make the attempt and I could
only believe that the result would be successful. * * * In
addition to this, their artillery refused to reply to ours except by
an occasional shot until ours had been moved up within a few
hundred yards of them. These facts, connected with the inform-
ation which I had previously received, forced me to the belief
that the enemy were preparing to retreat, or that they would be
easily forced to surrender."

Upon said report. Gen. Bragg on reaching Knoxville, Tenn.,
under date of November 3rd (p. 980 of said Serial No.) made
the following indorsement:

"This attack was unauthorized and injudicious ; but the con-
duct of the troops and Commander in action reflects credit on
both, and adds but another proof to the many of their dis-
tinguished gallantry. The loss of the gallant and admired Colo-
nel Smith, with the other valuable officers and men of this dis-
tinguished brigade, will be mourned by their comrades and the
country.

Braxton Bragg,
General Commanding."

Gen. Bragg's estimate of Colonel Smith may be seen from the
following letter:

Superintendent's Office,
Water Works Dep't Commerc'l Bank,

New Orleans, Jan'y 22, 1868.

Dear Sir; It affords me great pleasure to receive your note
of the 4th inst., enclosing the carte de visite of my late friend
and fellow-soldier. Colonel Robert A. Smith, Tenth Mississippi
volunteers. Entering the service at an early age, without mili-
tary experience or education, the Colonel fell in the gallant dis-
charge of an almost desperate assault, in less than eighteen
months, esteemed and honored for his acquirements and heroic
deportment. To me his loss was severe, for I had looked to him
for support, in a much higher and extended command.

Please convey my thanks to the Colonel's brother for this
mark of kind remembrance, and believe me, truly,

Braxton Bragg.
To Chas. L. Gaston, Esq'r, Jackson, Miss.

Battle of Munfordville, Ky. — Sykes. 5*6

After the withdrawal of Chalmers, Col. Dunham, being- the
senior officer present, assumed command of the Federal forces
defending the place, and was in command when two days later
(the 16th) Gen. Bragg moved with his army and surrounding
the Federals then further reenforced and numbering over 4,000,
late the same evening demanding their unconditional surrender.
The demand being declined by EVunham then in command, was
on its renewal that night, to-wit, at 2 A. M. of the 17th, after
some parleying as to terms, accepted by Col. Wilder, who fol-
lowing a council cf their officers, held soon after Dunham's dec-
lination, had, by orders of Maj.-Gen. Gilbert commanding at
Louisville, superseded Dimham in the command. Then it was
that in return for and in recognition of the gallant fight made by
the Tenth Miss. Regmt. on the 14th previous, it was sent in to
receive the surrender — my company (K) being stationed at and
in command of Fort Craig, wliere was stored commissary sup-
plies in great and acceptable abundance.

As the Federal forces were being marched at 6 A. M. out to
the road where they laid down their guns, and in doing so passed
near by F"ort Craig, I recognized the officer who had treated me
so courteously and generously on the 14th, when under the flag
of truce. Approaching and addressing him, it was soon mutually
recognized that my intercession in his behalf was rendered un-
necessary by the terms of the surrender. For, after being pa-
roled under the directions of Maj.-Gen. Buckner, just released
by exchange from his imprisonment as a Fort Donalson captive,
the Federals were marched back under escort to Gen. Buel about
15 miles on our left flank, and turned over to him.

It will interest many Confederates — particularly those who
were prisoners at Camp Morton Prison, Ind., in 1863, whilst com-
nxanded by Col. Richard Owen, to be reminded, if they ever knew
the considerate fact, that, among the prisoners surrendering
under Gen. Wilder, was this dearly beloved Colonel, and his two
sons, who, because of his humane and benevolent guardianship
of the Confederate prisoners under his charge at Fort Morton,
in striking contrast to the cruel and inhuman treatment of other
commanders of Northern prisons. Gen. Bragg, as soon as he was
35

546 Mississippi Historical Society.

apprised of the facts, gave the Colonel and his sons their liberty,
without any qualifying conditions.

Before the war Colonel Owen was a professor in the faculty
of the Western Military Institute in Nashville, and it is said that,
the cadets there "recognized in him the same qualities of kind-
ness and firmness that later came into play in his treatment of
Confederate prisoners under his charge," and which called forth
from his Southern admirers after more than fifty years, the trib-
ute of an unprecedented memorial, in the form of a heroic bust,
which by permission of the authorities of Indiana, now occupies
a niche in its state-house, with the following inscription:

"Col. Richard Owen
Commandant Camp Morton Prison, 1862
Tribute by Confederate Prisoners and Their Friends for
His Courtesy and Kindness."

In the engagement on the 14th, the Tenth Mississippi lost more
than did any other Regiment of the brigade. My company (K),
had 6 killed, and 25 wounded — a half dozen -of the latter dying
soon after from their wounds. The killed of Company K were
Ira Cole, A. T. Johnson, P. L. Kelly, W. R. Turner, Wm. M.
Drury and J. J. Keith, all from Tippah County, Mississippi.

And in this connection I think it appropriate to record the
conscientious candor and freedom from disguise that character-
ized my First Lieutenant, W. P. Stewart, to do his duty in every
time of need. Lieutenant, later Captain, Stewart, was noted for
his piety and good works among the soldiers of his regiment, and
a leader in all religious gatherings of the boys, but he confided
to me that he distrusted his own courage, and feared he
would prove unable to face danger when the time came
for a display of it on the battlefield. Thus he quietly
suflfered until after his first test on the battlefield of Mnnfordville,
Ky., when with elation he told me, that having been tested and
proven worthy, he was then satisfied; for he then realized that
with the help of God, he could face with composure the ordeal

Battle of Munfordville, Ky.—Sykes. 547

of battle. He added that, "When the regiment (lOth Miss.) be-
gan the advance on the enemy's works, and he observed the
enemy awaiting our approach with their bayonets glistening in
the sun of the early morn, he thought his trembling limbs would
fail him, "but he began and continued to pray to the Lord to give
him courage to do his duty, and for every step forward to the
close of the advance, he felt that the good Lord was hearing and
answering his prayer."

I never saw my faithful Lieutenant after my resignation of
the Captaincy of Company K, to accept position as Adjutant-
General on the Staff of Brig.-Gen. E. C. Walthall, and I was
succeeded in command of said company by my worthy First
Lieutenant. However, I would occasionally hear of him through
others, and from them learned that after the war he practiced
the profession of medicine in Tippah County, up to the time of
his failing physical and mental health.

Of my quondam friend and faithful First Lieutenant I enter-
tained the tenderest regards, and since his death, have felt that
his soul has been in the keeping of his God, whom, through life
on earth, he so faithfully served.

And here let me add, that the account given of the battle of
the 14th of September, in the American Cyclopaedia, Vol. 16, p.
797; and p. 146 of the American Annual Cyclopaedia of 1863,
is but a meager and misleading version. In verification of this,
one has only to read the two citations made, to see that Brig.-
Gen. James R. Chalmers commanding his brigade of Mississip-
pians was the sole attacking force. At said time. Gen. Duncan
with his brigade was at Glasgow Junction, more than 20 miles
South; and that General was for the first time near Munford-
ville, when on the morning of the 16th he joined the main ad-
vancing column of Confederates, and as the senior of Chalmers
took command of the leading brigades composed of his own and
Chalmers'.

I have been credibly informed that Col. Dunham was more
of a politician than a military man, and like some others of both
armies, was much addicted to the excessive use of stimulants,
and for that reason was required to turn over the command to

648 Mississippi Historical Society.

Col. Wilder on the evening of the 16th. Had he been otherwise,
and had the proper foresight been exercised, there is no sufficient
reason for the final capture by P5ragg of the Federal forces at
Green River on the morning of the 17th of September, 1862. Had
Col. Wilder remained in continuous command of the Federals
from the evening of the 14th, to the evening of the 16th, I do
not believe such a result would have followed. From Wilder's
known and well earned military reputation throughout the re-
mainder of the war it is believed he would have anticipated re-
sults and withdrawn his troops on the approach of Bragg's army
— at least, have done so before his position was hopelessly sur-
rounded, and a surrender inevitable.

For a more accurate and detailed account of this engagement
I refer the inquiring ones to an address delivered by the writer
September 14, 1884, on the unveiling of the monument erected
on that battlefield by the late Mr. James Smith of Glasgow, Scot-
land, in honor of the memory of his gallant young brother. Col.
Robert A. Smith, of the Tenth Miss. Infantry, who fell on that
field 23 years before. The address is to be found in Vol. XH of
"Southern Historical Papers," pp. 471-4r83. published by Rev.
J. William Jones, D. D., Secretary, Southern Historical Society,
Richmond, Va., December, 1884. Also see Serial No. 22, "War
of the Rebellion."

^

THE ELEVENTH MISSISSIPPI REGIMENT AT
GETTYSBURG.

By Baxter McFarland, Aberdeen, Mississippi.

Soldiers of the 11th Mississippi Regiment have known for
over fifty years that the official reports (contained only in Medi-
cal Returns) of its losses in the battle of Gettysburg on July 3,
1863, are inaccurate and incomplete. As there given, the casual-
ties were 32 killed and 170 wounded.

The purpose of this article is to record more fully and in de-
tail the losses sustained by each company of the regiment in that
world famous battle, and to give more general publicity to facts
shown by the official reports of commanding dficers in the bat-
tle, published in the War Rebellion Records, principally in Serial
Nos. 43 and 44, which are of much importance to the truth of
history relating to the Eleventh and other commands that day on
the "left".

When it left home in April, 1861, I was a member of Company
H of the regiment, and was with it as First Sergeant, and Lieu-
tenant until about the first of June, 1863, when I was promoted
and transferred to the Army of Tennessee, and was therefore
not with the 11th regiment at Gettysburg, but I knew its mem-
bers— many were college mates-^and have kept more or less in
touch with most of the survivors since the war closed. Company
losses have often been talked over with survivors of the com-
panies, the fate of individuals discussed — in many cases repeat-
edly, not only with survivors but with members of their families.
Survivors of each company, except A and B, have carefully and
fully gone over their company losses, man by man ; have exhaus-
tively examined every source of information and secured every
scrap of evidence bearing upon its losses in that battle, the re-
sults of which have been available to me. I have corresponded
with many survivors of the companies ; have had access to com-
pany rolls, lists, histories, memorials and much data; have thor-
oughly searched every source of information, carefully weighing

(549)

550 Mississippi Historical Society.

it all, and am quite sure that the casualties herein given are prac-
tically correct — if anything are under, rather than over the real
losses.

The Eleventh Mississippi Regiment was in Davis' brigade,
Heth's division, A. P. Hill's corps, but was left at Cashtovvn,
Penn., to guard the division wagon trains and did not rejoin the
brigade until the night of the 2nd of July. The losses here given
were therefore all sustained in the battle of July 3rd.

The charge on Cemetery Ridge was made by Pickett's and
Heth's divisions, aligned in front with supports. Pickett's di-
vision of three brigades was formed with Kemper's on the right,
Gamett's on the left, in front, and Armistead's in support ; Wil-
cox's and Perry's brigades being ordered to move on his right
rear. Heth's division, Brig. Gen. Pettigrew commanding, on
Pickett's left, was formed in the following order : Archer's bri-
gade. Col. B. D. Fry commanding, on the right, and Brocken-
brough's brigade on the left of the division ; Pettigrew's brigade,
Col. Marshall commanding, in the right center, and D^vis' bri-
gade in the left center. Heth's division was supported by Scales'
and Lane's brigades, Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble commanding,
on its right rear.

Davis' brigade was formed in the following order ; the 55th
North Carolina on the right, and the 11th Mississippi on the left,
with the 2nd and 42nd Mississippi regiments in the center.

The line of advance was not parallel with the enemy's line,
which receded toward its rear, forming an angle; furthermore,
there was a bend to the west in Seminary Ridge behind which
the troops were placed for protection before the advance, and
wTien the column moved up to the crest of the Ridge and began
the assault, Pettigrew's division, especially its left, and its sup-
ports, had much further to march under fire to reach the enemy's
works in its front than did the division upon the right and its
support, but in compliance with orders they "spread their steps",
(as Gen. Longstreet states in "From Manassas to Appomattox",
pages 389 and 393) moving rapidly, and soon gained correct
alignment with Pickett's division, but still having further to go
than had that division on account of the angle in the enemy's

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg — McFarland. 551

line. The bend to the left in the line first above mentioned gave
rise, doubtless, to the error that Pettigrew's division, or part of
it, "supported" Pickett's division in the charge, the left of Pet-
tigrew's division bending back as if in echelon, in conforming to
the lines of the Ridge.

Pettigrew's division when ordered forward ascended to the
wooded crest of Seminary Ridge and began the advance over
the open plain, its supports following upon its right rear. Gen.
Davis states, Rebellion War Records, Serial No. 44, pages 650
and 6-51, that when about three-quarters of a mile from the fnem.y
it came upon a post and rail fence, its left then being "perpendic-
ular to the (left) front" of Howard's 11th (Federal) corps, —
Maj. T. W. Osborn commanding batteries of Howard's Corps,
Serial No. 43, p. 745, — when the left of the division received a
diagonal fire from at least 32 guns of these batteries massed upon
Cemetery Hill, but clambering rapidly over the fence, quickly
restoring the somewhat disordered alignment, it had advanced
but a short distance further when all the batteries of the enemy
upon the front and right opened upon the assaulting column with
75 or 80 more guns, and after this converging artillery fire from
front and both flanks, the division moved steadily on, passing
over several other post and plank fences, past the Emmettsburg
road, at or near which the left brigade of Pettigrew's division
was broken and driven back, leaving Davis' brigade, especially
the 11th Mississippi regiment on its left, to bear alone the storm
of death dealing missiles from Osborne's 32 or more guns, and
a deadly flanking musketry fire from the left, besides that from
the front and right of all arms, until it reached the wall.

In advancing, the assaulting column, as its ranks rapidly
thinned, steadily closed, Pettigrew to the right upon Pickett, the
division of direction, the latter to the left, as the line constantly
shortened, to preserve the relative alignment as to the indicated
point of attack — the "copse of wood" near the salient.

The retiring of the left brigade of the division and the rapid
contraction of the lines enabled the enemy to concentrate the
whole of his fire, front and flanks, in ever increasing volume
upon the oncoming Confederate column as it boldly advanced

552 Mississippi Historical Society.

until it became appalling-ly destructive, and only a few of the
heroes in gray passed through it unscathed to the stone wall.
To fill out the line when Brockenbrough was driven back, Lane's
and Lowrance's brigades, under orders from Gen. Longstreet to
Gen. Trimble, moved obliquely from the rear to the left front un-
til the right of Lowrances's brigade "touched the wall", but be-
cause of the diagonal direction followed its left and Lane's
brigade did not reach the wall. But Gen. Lane states that his
brigade was within a few yards of it when they fell back. Low-
rance's report. Serial No. 44, pp. 656 and 657 ; Gen. Lane's report
lb., pp. 671 and 672.

Gen. Lane states that "Lowrance's brigade and my own took
position on the left of the troops still contesting the ground" ;
and that, suffering from a heavy artillery fire from his right and
an enfilading infantry fire on his left, he withdrew his brigade,
"^the troops on my right having already done so". Maj. Engel-
hard states, page 659, that the division (Trimble's) moved rap-
idly up, connecting with troops on the right still fighting, and
that the division moved in an oblique direction, as does Lowrance,
pp. 671, 672.

When within musket range of the wall. Gen. Hayes command-
ing Federal division, states. Serial No. 43, p. 453, that his men
"in four lines rose up behind our wall" and poured terrible vol-
leys into the thinned ranks, which was returned by Davis' bri-
gade as it steadily pressed on, firing as it went, then charging
with a yell the few undaunted survivors impetuously rushed
through the "hell of fire" of all arms to and near the wall, con-
tinuing the battle there at close quarters for a short time in front
of Smyth's, Bull's and part of Carroll's brigades.

Col. F. M. Green and Maj. R. O. Reynolds, the only field offi-
cers present, were wounded. All the captains, save one, who is
said to have been wounded, and nearly all the lieutenants and
non-comhiissioned officers present were killed, wounded or cap-
tured ; the brave colorbearer, Billy O'Brien, was killed near the
wall, and the colors were planted upon it by private Joseph G.
Marable, later Lieutenant in Co. H, and both were captured.
Capt. W. T. Magruder (brother of Maj. Gen. Magruder), A.

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg— McFarland. 553

A. G. of the brigade, was killed on the wall ; Capt. Thomas C.
Holliday (who succeeded Capt. Magruder as A. A. Gen. of the
brigade and was killed May Gth, 1864, at the Wilderness) of the
brigade staff was wounded, and it has been stated that another
member of the staff was wounded. Capt. Magruder was killed
upon the wall near the Bryan barn whilst cheering the men over
the wall. After a short and bloody struggle to carry the works,
the few gallant survivors, realizing the utter hopelessness of the
unequal conflict, were ordered to retreat, and made their way
back under a deadly fire to the position from which the charge
began, where the very few officers were busily engaged in re-
storing order and the surgeons in sending to hospitals the
wounded (many of whom escaped to the rear) in anticipation of
an attack by the enemy, until the night of the 4th, when the army
began a retrograde movement and for many weary days there
was no time or opportunity to ascertain the losses. The hasty
company lists forwarded to become the basis of the routine cas-
ualty returns of the Medical Department were, under the circum-
stances and conditions surrounding the regiments of the bri-
gades, admittedly inaccurate and incomplete, but were allowed
to stand, imperfect as they were, and were soon lost sight of
in the pressure of other great events.

Some of the other commands, however, rectified this in offi-
cial brigade or regimental reports of the campaign, in which the
losses shown were invariably much greater than those found in
the Medical returns, and of course are accepted as the real cas-
ualties of those commands instead of the Medical returns, the
inaccuracy of which they conclusively prove. The unfortunate
absence of the usual official statements of casualties and the
overwhelming evidence of the inaccuracy of the Medical returns,
has impelled a resort in part to other evidence, that of partici-
pants, verba! and written, which is original testimony of the
highest nature, to give the Eleventh Mississippi regiment what
it is justly entitled to and richly deserves, a correct statement
of its losses in one of the great battles of the world to hand
down to posterity along with those passed down by other gallant
participants, albeit in a different form.

554 Mississippi Historical Society.

The Medical returns show the killed and wounded of each
command in the battles, July 1-3, consolidated, and not each days
casualties separately. When comparing casualties it must be
borne in mind that the losses there given of the Eleventh are
those suffered July 3rd., only one day, as it was not in the bat-
tles of July 1st and 2nd, having joined the brigade July 2nd,
as previously stated. Gen. Davis did not give the losses of his
brigade in his report, nor are there any official reports containing
them known to the writer, except the Medical returns.

The fire, within easy range, of Maj. Osborne's 33 or more
guns, was an exceedingly trying as well as a terribly destructive
ordeal to which comparatively little consideration has been given
in the many things said and numerous articles written concerning
that immortal charge. In the controversies growing out of the
battle all the difficulties and dangers encountered and the losses
sustained in the charge by the gallant right division often and
eloquently have been recounted, but the left division, much of
it, has not been so fortunate; neither its heroic conduct nor its
appalling losses have received the public recognition which .long
ago should have been accorded and willingly would have been
extended, had full and truthful information been given, which
unfortunately has not been done. This is especially true of the
three Mississippi regiments in Davis' brigade, but the terrible
losses of the Eleventh afford irrefutable proof of valor and hero-
ism at least equal to that of any of the gallant commands in the
famous charge. The unflinching courage and noble conduct dis-
played by that fine old regiment in the long advance that hot
day under devastating fire converging from front and both flanks,
over an open plain for more than a mile, could not have been
surpassed by any troops in the world under like desperate condi-
tions.

Osborne's guns appear to have been directed almost exclusively
upon the two left brigades of Pettigrew until Brockenbrough
was broken and driven back, thereafter upon Davis' brigade
until it had almost reached the wall. He had at least 26 splendid
guns of his own, besides the First New Hampshire artillery, 6
guns, Capt. Frederick M. Edgell, Serial No. 43, pp. 892 and 893,

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg — McFarland. 555

who fired diagonally upon Pettigrew's left from Cemetery Hill.
Osborne states, Serial No. 43. p. 746 on page 750, that all the
force of his artillery was used upon Pettigrew's division, wholly
regardless of the firing Confederate guns.

In his report, on page 666, Gen. Lane says : "As soon as Petti-
grew's command gave back, Lowrance's brigade and my own",
etc., which includes Pettigrew's entire division. In this that gal-
lant General was mistaken, — only Brockenbrough's brigade had
then given back, the others moved on.

As stated, Lane and Lowrance, under Gen. Trimble, were sup-
porting Pettigrew's division, directed to march upon its right
rear and presumably did so, preserving proper distance, and if
any part of the leading division in their immediate front had
given back it was the duty of the support to have gone at once
to its assistance. These three front brigades, as shown by the
reports of their respective commanders, advanced rapidly and
steadily to the works of the enemy, but were so reduced and
weakened by the concentrated, converging fire of all arms that
they were wholly unable to take the strong well manned works,
and the few survivors retired to avoid destruction or capture.
The only brigade that "gave back" before reaching the wall was
Brockenbrough's on the extreme left, because of which Trim-
ble's division passed diagonally to the left front to take its place.
The two supporting brigades were some distance behind Pet-
tigrew's division — Gen. Trimble has stated 150 yards— when their
movement to the front to take the place of the broken left bri-
gade began, and the distance was still greater because of the ob-
lique or diagonal course they had to pursue.

Meantime, the division in their front was quickly advancing
and soon rushed to the wall, where it remained fighting a short
time before retiring, and by the time Trimble's division had ob-
liqued past the left of Pettigrew's three brigades in its front and
Lane had fired upon the enemy in his immediate front, "repeatedly
driving the cannoneers from their guns, breaking the lines of
infantry formed upon the crest and had advanced to within a
few yards of the stone wall", doubtless there were no Confeder-
ate troops on his right, as stated by him on page 666 ; Col. Low-

556 Mississippi Historical Society.

ranee, on Lanie's right, states that when his right had "touched"
the wall, his line then in oblique direction, there were no other
Confederate forces anywhere to be seen; pp. CTl, 672. Lane
did not reach the wall, but was within a few yards of it, he
states, when he "fell back," and only Lowrance"s right "touched"
it before he retired. The flag of the 3-lth North Carolina, Low-
rance's brigade, was captured by the 8th Ohio on the extreme
left.

Gen. Hancock states. Serial No. 43, p. 366, that he "had to
break the (his) line to attack the enemy in flank on^y right,
where the enemy was most persistent after the front attack was
repelled", and Maj. Engelhard, a staff officer, who wrote the re-
port of Gen. Pender's — later Trimble's — division, states, Serial
No. 44, p. 659, on p. 660, that the two left regiments of Lane's
brigade "advanced some minutes after the whole line had given
way", which two statements appear to sustain and explain the
opinions of Gen. Lane, Col. Lowrance, Serial No. 44, p. 671,
672, and Maj. Engelhard, p. 660, that the Confederate troops
upon tlieir right had then withdrawn.

Under the anguish of the awful destruction inflicted upon the
Eleventh by the almost unparalleled combined fire as it came
within musket range of the wall, it hastened forward and per-
haps came to and near the wall in advance of its comrades upon
the right. It is probably now impossible to ascertain precisely
when and how many movements took place, or whether they
were synchronous, or successive.

The reports of Maj. Jones, commanding Pettigrew's brigade.
Serial No. 44, p. 642, Lt. Col. Shepard, Archer's brigade
lb., p. 646, and Gen. Joseph R. Davis, lb., p. 650, show conclu-
sively that these three brigades of Pettigrew's division advanced
to the wall, a fact well known to the survivors who almost mi-
raculously did so. This fact is as well attested as any event of
the war, but the evidence, so far as the Eleventh is concerned,
is not all set forth in official reports.

But Gen. Davis positively states in his report that his command
advanced steadily, the alignment unbroken, except temporarily
when passing over the fences, then quickly restored, otherwise

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg — McFarland. 557

unchecked until it closed with the enemy, and that it rushed to
the wall. This of course does not apply to Brockenbrough. Gen.
Davis was in command of his own brigade from beginning to end
of the battle, better knew its movements than did officers of other
commands, and his statements, as between them are conclusive.
He wrote the report for the division because Gen. Pettigrew.
after being in command of it until the close of the battle, was
killed a few days later at Falling Waters, and it fell upon Gen.
Davis to prepare it. Gen. Pettigrew was one of the ablest and
bravest of the brigadiers of the Confederate army, and led his
division on the 3rd up to the wall, where he was painfully
wounded in the left hand by a piece of shell, but refused to re-
tire until the bloody conflict was over. His death at Falling
Waters was greatly deplored. Both he and Gen. Trimble ac-
companied their divisions upon the field and directed their move-
ments, the latter also being badly wounded near the wall, suffer-
ing amputation of a leg. and the staff of each were greatly ex-
posed, some being killed or wounded.

It is true that the left, all of it, including the supporting bri-
gades, were repulsed and "gave back", but Pettigrew's extreme
left brigade was the only part of the left, as an organization,
that was repulsed and "gave back" before the works of the
enemy were reached, statements or implications from any quar-
ter whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding — statements and
implications that as surely include Lane's and Lowrance's bri-
gades, under command of Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble, as they
do all of Pettigrew's division. The report of Maj. Gen. Howard
commanding the 11th Federal . Corps shows that when repulsed,
Brockenbrough's brigade scattered out to their left in his front,
and in every direction ; in the smoke they doubtless thus had
the appearance of a much larger body than a brigade, especially
from a distance, Serial No. 43. on page 374. It had only 25
killed in the battles of the 1st and 3rd of July.

Garnett's brigade, to the right of Pettigrew's division, when
about 75 paces from the wall was 50 or 60 yards in advance of
Kemper on its right, the left of the latter overlapping the former,
and when about 20 paces from the wall Garnett's brigade

558 Mississippi Historical Society.

"recoiled". At that moment Kemper came up on the right,
Armistead in rear, and all three brigades rushed to the wall. Re-
port of Maj. Chas. S. Peyton, commanding Garnett's brigade.
War Records, Serial No. 44, p. 385, on p. 386.

It seems, therefore, that at the instant of impact Pickett's di-
vision was in at least two lines throughout and to the extent
that Kemper overlapped Garnett it had three successive lines,
whilst Pettigrew's, because of the movement of its support to
the left front line previously mentioned, at the critical moment
of contact had no support whatever. In this formation Pick-
ett's division was a formidable body, in striking contrast with
the single line on his left, and strong enough for a small part
of it to pass over the works, through an interval in the enemy's
line abandoned at the approach of the charging column (Han-
cock's report, Serial No. 43, p. 367, on p. 374) and fight for a
few minutes, but the speedy arrival of reinforcements quickly
drove it back and off the field despite its gallantry, leaving the
heroic Armistead dead beyond the works, near Cushing's guns.

Webb's brigade on its front had only three regiments, the
106th Pennsylvania having been sent to General Howard. Of
these three the 69th and 71st Pennsylvania, the latter perhaps
on the rigiht, were behind the works, the 72nd Pennsylvania in
reserve behind or near the crest. When Pickett neared the wall
the 71st Pennsylvania and perhaps others of the front line fled
up the crest, causing much confusion in Webb's command, in
the midst of which Pickett's division struck the works, some of
it crossing through the vacated space. It thus appears that the
enemy force behind the works in Pickett's front as he approached
was in single line, was weaker than the force confronting Petti-
grew's division at the point of its attack, and that most of
this force was retreating in disorder, creating confusion in
Webb's brigade at the moment Pickett's division reached the
works, where it halted and fought the enemy, excepting those
who passed through the interval, until broken and driven from
the field under a destructive fire.

Had Pickett's division been strung out in single regimental
line as was the left, it is questionable whether it would have
driven the line in its front from the works — even whether it

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg — McFarland. 559

would have reached the wall. Maj. Chas S. Peyton, command-
ing Garnett's brigade, states, Serial No. 44, p. 386, that when
within 30 paces of the works, then being well in advance, Gar-
nett's brigade "recoiled" — this was about the time Gen. Garnett
fell — , but just in time to arrest its rearward movement and prob-
ably avert disaster, Kemper, his left overlapping the right of the
"recoiling" brigade, rushed up on its right and Armistead in its
rear, sweeping on, enfolding Garnett in their forward move-
ment with courage regained, and the gallant body in that forma-
tion pressed towards the breastworks, so impressing the defend-
ers behind it with its heroic bearing and combined strength that
when it had dashed on to within a short distance of the works
most of the enemy abandoned the hne and fled up the crest,
(Gen. Hancock's report, Serial No. 43, p. 374) and when the
three brigades reached the works, some of them — Gen. Webb
says, Serial No. 43, p. 428, over 100 — passed over the vacated
rail breastworks and fought inside, the others fighting outside,
but unable to withstand the overwhelming reinforcements they
were quickly driven out and from the works, not, however, un-
til 42 of their number lay dead and many wounded and captured
inside the works. The survivors retired under a destructive fire
of all anns, just as did the left when it was repulsed at the stone
wall and fell back.

The writer has been unable to find any report of Kemper's
brigade, but the reports of Federal officers in the brigades to
Webb's left, and Gen. Hancock, Serial No. 43, p. 367 on page
3,74, state that the right of Pickett's division, presumably Kem-
per's brigade, attacked and was driven from their fronts, flank-
ing to its left until finally it closed with the enemy as previously
stated, which was on Webb's front. Hall's report. Serial No.
43, p. 435. on page 439; Harrow's report, lb., p. 419; and re-
ports of commanding officers of their regiments in the same vol-
ume. Hall, to the left of Webb, had the 7th Michigan. 59th
New York Battalion (four companies) and the 20th Mass. on
his front line, and the 19th Mass. and the 42nd N. Y., the lat-
ter on the right, in reserve some distance in rear up the crest,
the 20th ?.fa=s. perhaps on the right of the front line next to

560 Mississippi Historical Society.

Webb's left, and when Pickett's division struck the works in
Webb's front the 20th Alass., 42nd N. Y., the 19th Mass. and
part of the 7th Mich, l.ft their lines in Hall's position and moved
rapidly to Webb's relief, as did Harrow's regiments, showing
that all of Pickett's division finally closed with the enemy upon
Webb's front.

Gen. Harrow, in his report states that the front of Webb and
Hall was 500 yards long. Serial No. 43, p. 419, and if Webb's
front was half, it was, say, 350 yards long — barely sufficient for
Pickett's division, in three brigade lines. Fry's (Archer's) bri-
gade, of Pettigrew's division, in front of Smyth's brigade. Hay's
division, was next to Pickett on his hit. This seems to make
it certain, as previously indicated, that Pickett was at least partly
in three lines close together, when he struck the works. If true,
as stated by the officers of those commands, that Kemper was
driven from their fronts, both Garnett and Kemper, as Gen.
Longstreet said of the left, also "staggered" and "wavered",
and but for the massed formation at the critical moment, might
not have reached the works, and had the three brigades been in
single line in front all might have met the same fate, judging
by what happened, according to accounts, to two of them.

From the reports it is evident that it was Kemper's purpose
to close with the enemy on Webb's left, but he was driven away
by the troops in his front, although they were not so strong as
those in front of Pettigrew, as has been shown, and none of
whom abandoned their positions, leaving a vacant interval for
ao: easy passage into their lines, the confusion attending which
would have greatly contributed to a momentary success also by
the left.

Hon. James M. Griifin of Co. H, when nearing the wall, firing
as he advanced with his company, had just fired and rammed
home a cartridge when the gallant colorbearer of the regiment,
Billy O'Brien, fell dead at his feet, and Griffin stooped to pick up
the flag, but Jo. Smith of the same company seized it first and
raised it; GriiBn made a few steps forward and while in the act
of capping his gun was severely wounded in the foot by a frag-
ment of shell from a gun on Cemetery Hill, and Jo. Smith fell

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg — McFarland. 561

■wounded about the same time, when William P. Marion of the
same company picked up the flag and had gone on a step or two,
when he was killed, then Joseph G. Marable of the sam« com-
pany raised the colors and planted them on the wall, falling
against it as he did so, stunned, but not much injured, and pres-
ently he and the flag were captured ; he afterwards escaped from
prison with W. D. Reid, 1st Sergt. of Co. H, wounded within
ten feet of the wall and captured, they having many adventures
and "hair breadth 'scapes" before getting back to the regiment.
Griffin whilst lying wounded on the field saw through the smoke
Pickett's division on his right as it charged, just as "he fell, the
ground where he fell being the highest. He was taken with two
others of Co. H in an enemy ambulance to a hospital of Gen. Hayes
(Federal) division, where they found Col. Hugh R. Miller com-
manding the 42nd Mississippi regiment mortally wounded, and
his son; Col. Miller died a few days later. Griffin's foot was
amputated, and the arm of one of his companions, Robt. B.
Marion, wounded near the wall, was amputated. He states that
many of the regiment were killed and wounded near the place
where he fell, and that along there and to the wall perhaps was
the most fatal part of the line of advance, as do many others.

A comparison of the killed and wounded of the Eleventh Mis-
sissippi with those of the regiments in Pickett's division, as
given in the Medical returns previously mentioned, Serial No.
44, pp. 329, 330, 333, shows that the killed and wounded of the
Eleventh exceeded in numbers the killed and wounded of any
one of the 15 regiments in Pickett's division. The 11th Miss,
lost, killed, 32; wounded, 170. The 38th Va. lost, killed, 26;
wounded, 147; and the 57th Va. lost, killed, 26; wounded, 95,
the two last in Armistead's brigade; the 24th Va., in Kemper's
brigade, lost, killed, 17; wounded, 111; these were by far the
greatest losses in killed and wounded in any of Pickett's regi-
ments, those in the remaining 12 regimients are much less. The
aggregate killed and wounded in Garnett's 5 regiments, omitting
staff, etc., is 324; the aggregate 11th Miss, is 202; aggregate
Kemper's 5 regiments, staff omitted, 462 ; aggregate Armistead's
\36

563 Mississippi Historical Society.

5 regiments, staff omitted, 574; aggregate Pickett's 15 regi-
ments, staff omitted, 1360 ; average to regiment, 90%.

Placing Pickett's force at 4900, the percentage of casualties
was 27%, exclusive of field and staff, and the average casual-
ties of the 15 regiments was slightly less than 91 to the regi-
ment; while the casualties of the 11th Miss. (202), was 58 per
cent. The casualties of the 11th Miss. (202), were nearly %
as many as the entire 5 regiments of Garnett, (324) ; were over
half as many as the 5th regiment of Kemper, (462) ; were over
^/j as many as the 5 regiments of Armistead, (574) ; and were
over ^/j as many as the casualties in Pickett's entire division,
(1360). The losses of the 11th Miss, and Pickett were all
sustained on July 3rd.

Lane's brigade, 5 regiments, on the 1st and 3rd, two days,
same returns, lost, killed, 41 ; wounded, 348 ; total, 389 ; Low-
rance's brigade, 5 regiments, on the 1st and 3rd, two days, lost,
killed, 102; wounded, 322; total, 424. Davis' brigade lost, 2nd
Miss., killed, 49 ; wounded, 183 ; 42nd Miss., killed, 60 ; wounded,
205; and 55th N. C, killed, 39; wounded, 159; on the 1st and
3rd, two days, including the 11th, killed, 32, wounded, 170, total,
202, in 1 day; aggregate, 2310.

The 2nd and 42nd Miss, and the 55th N. C, of Davis' bri-
gade, had been in the battle of July 1st and had suffered heavily
in killed and wounded, and the 2nd Miss, lost its left wing, under
the gallant Major (later Lt. Col.) John A. Blair, in a railroad
cut, where they were surrounded and compelled to surrender
seven officers and 225 men, according to the report of Col. Dawes,
of the 6th Wisconsin, in command of the enemy troops; Serial
No. 43, p. 275, on page 276. It has been stated that the 2nd
Miss., because of that and other heavy losses in the battle of the
1st, had only 60 men in the battle of the 3rd ; Archer's brigade,
on the 1st, lost Gen. Archer and many men captured, besides
many killed and wounded, and was very much reduced when it
went into battle on the 3rd. This is true of Pettigrew's brigade,
under Marshall, the 26th N. C. having lost over half on the 1st,
Lane's and Scales' brigades also suffered heavily on the 1st;
Pickett and the 11th Miss, alone were fresh.

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg — McFarland. 563

The Medical returns are used for the foregoing comparisons qf
casualties upon the supposition that it is about equally defective
as to each regiment, in the absence of general correct reports of
the regimental casualties.

As will be perceived, the corrected returns herein given of the
losses of the Eleventh Mississippi regiment greatly exceed those
stated in the Medical returns, and presumably corrected losses in
other regiments would show relatively the same ratio, — those of
the lltli Miss, and Pickett's 15 regiments having been sustained
on July 3rd, one day, besides which Pickett lost 1500 captured
un wounded.

This comparison, or aught here written, is not intended to
disparage in the least degree any command in the charge, but to
give the truth as the writer sees it, that justice may be done the
Eleventh and others engaged in the battle on the left. The Elev-
enth was made up in large measure from the choicest spirits in the
State, — intelligent, honorable and brave, and was a tried and
trained body that had won fame upon many bloody fields before
Gettysburg. It was the equal in intelligence and soldierly quali-
ties of any regiment in the charge, come from where it might.
In the last moments of that desperate battle, when being shot to
pieces as few regiments have ever been desolated by enemy fire,
the gallant fellows had the fine courage to risk escaping rather
than surrender, when to escape meant subjection for a mile to a
deadly fire from a triumphant enemy and looked like almost cer-
tain death, only 41 being captured unwounded, and 40 escaping
unhurt out of 350 entering the battle.

Gen. Longstreet states in his report. Serial No. 44, page 357, on
page 360, that "about the same moment" (that Pickett reached
the enemy's lines and a few passed through an abandoned inter-
val) "the troops that had before hesitated, broke their ranks and
fell back in great disorder, many more falling under the enemy's
fire in retiring than while they were attacking".

As Pickett's brigades were about the same time driven in dis-
order from the enemy's lines and retired under fire perhaps as de-
structive as that to which the left was exposed when retiring, the
statement that many more fell in retiring than while attacking

■564 Mississippi Historical Scxiety.

■was as applicable to Pickett's retreating troops as to those upon
the left, but the stricture was expressly limited to the latter.

In his report Gen. Lons^^^treet comments upon the "hesitating."
"wavering" columns of Gen. Pettigrew and Gen. Trimble, but
makes no reference whatever to the "recoil" of Garnett, or the
"repulse" of Kemper from the front of Hall's brigade upon
Webb's left. The language "the troops that had before hesitated,
broke their ranks and fell back in great disorder, many more fall-
ing under the enemy's fire retiring than while they were advanc-
ing", giving "the enemy time to throw his entire force upon
Pickett" etc., seems to suggest that the retreat of all Pettigrew's
and Trimble's troops was inexcusable, an unsoldierly desertion
of comrades in the charge, unnecessarily leaving them to the
mercy of the foe, which, as time passes, is shown to be more
and more harsh and unjust as it appears that when the wall was
reached these troops were practically exterminated whilst heroi-
cally struggling to accomplish a most desperate undertaking, and
that despite their great fortitude and courage and without fault
on their part the thin single line then remaining was utterly un-
able to carry the works held by a gallant enemy in superior num-
bers, and that, therefore, the only alternatives were to fight use-
lessly until annihilated, to surrender, or to try to escape, the few
survivors bravely choosing the latter as the noblest and most
soldierly course, but they had too much sense to sacrifice their
only chance by a Quixotic affectation of withdrawing slowly and
in perfect order under the tempest of deadly shot and shell poured
into them as they left the field, but rallied calmly on the line in
rear where the charge began.

Gen. Longstreet was an educated, trained and experienced
soldier, a very able commander, whose distinguished services to
the "Lost Cause" are and always will be cherished by all who
were attached to that cause. But Gen. Longstreet was only a
man, and as such was fallible. He was much disturbed by Gen.
Lee's rejection of his cherished plan to attack on the enemy's
right, and was manifestly distrustful of the attack as made. It
is plain that his sympathies and concern in that battle were cen-
tered about his own troops, and he was entirely capable of taking

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg — McFarland. 566

t:are of himself and his own. The left belonged to another
corps.

Had Gen. Longstreet been present at the wall when the gal-
lant troops on the left closed with the enemy he doubtless would
have ordered a retreat, as their utter destruction in .front of the
wall could have been of no advantage to the country, but a great
and irremedial loss to the army then greatly in need of tried sol-
diers, the supply of which was rapidly becoming exhausted, and
the cause then seemed far from being won or lost

These troops were no more supporting Pickett's division than
the latter was supporting them, and nothing in their relations up-
on that bloody field warranted implications of subordination in
any respect of one to the other. The "left", except one brigade,
retired from the field only when all, and much more, had been
suffered and done that could have been exi>ected of the bravest
and best soldiers in the world and when to remain longer was to
court instant destruction or capture, neither of which would have
been the part of patriotic citizens, or trained soldiers. They had
the courage to take the chance of falling under fire in retreat to
fight again for the cause they loved, and some passed through
and fought on many a field afterwards. The 11th, and all of
Davis' brigade who survived continued to the end.

It appears from official reports and from statements of sur-
vivors that the smoke from gim fire enveloped the field, obscur-
ing the movements of troops, which doubtless caused much misap-
prehension otherwise inexplainable, and led to many mistakes as
to movements and identities of different commands. Lines be-
came so shortened and thin as they neared the wall as to be nearly
or wholly undiscernible and indistinguishable in the smoke, even
near by, and much more so at a distance.

Company casualties were as follows :— Company C went into
the battle with an aggregate of ^9 ; killed, 9 ; wounded, 12— in-
cluding Capt. Geo. W. Shannon, 1st Lieut. Wm. Peel (captured
and died in prison), 2nd Lieut. Geo. M. Lusher (captured) and
3rd Lieut. Geo. F. Cole; captured unwounded, 4; total 25; es-
caped unwounded, 4.

566 Mississippi Historical Society!

Company D — aggregate in battle, 55 ; killed, 15 ; wounded, 26 ;
captured unwounded, 5 ; total, 46 ; escaped unwounded, 9.

Company E — aggregate in battle, 37; killed 15; wounded, 20
captured unwounded, 1 ; total, 36 ; escaped unwounded, 1. Capt
Halbert and Lieuts. Mimms and Goolsby were killed, and Lieut
W. H. Belton was severely wounded and discharged.

Company F — aggregate in battle, 34 ; killed, 9 ; wounded, 17
captured unwounded, 4; total, 30; escaped unwounded, 4; Capt
Thos. J. Stokes was wounded close to the wall and captured,
Lieut. Featherston was killed, and Lieuts. Chas. Brooks and
Woods were captured.

Company G, Skirmishers — aggregate in battle, 24; killed, 4;
wounded, 8 ; captured unwounded, 10 ; total, 22 ; escaped un-
wounded, 2. Capt. Nelms was wounded, and Lieut. Osborne
killed, the only officers present.

Company H — aggregate in battle, 37 ; killed, 12 ; wounded, 16 ;
captured unwounded, 5 ; total, 33 ; escaped unwounded, 4. Capt.
J. H. Moore and Lieut. T. W. Hill were killed, and Lieut. R. A.
McDowell was captured inside the works, — all the company offi-
cers present. Private Joseph G. Marable, after planting the regi-
mental flag upon the wall, was captured.

Company I — aggregate in battle, 45 ; killed, 14 ; wounded, 25 ;
captured unwounded, 3 ; total, 42 ; escaped unwounded, 3. Capt.
Baker Word was wounded, Lieut. W. P. Snowden was wounded
near the wall and captured, and Lieut. Wm. H. Clopton was
wounded and captured.

Company K — aggregate in battle, 39 ; killed, 9 ; wounded, 20 ;
captured unwounded, 3 ; total, 32 ; escaped unwounded, 7 ; Capt.
Geo. W. Bird was killed while cheering his men over the wall,
and Lieuts. John T. Stanford and A. G. Drake were wounded, —
all the officers present.

Company A (University Greys) and Company B (Coahoma
Invincibles) the former the right, the latter the left company of
the regiment, have furnished least data; but it appears from in-
formation obtained that the two had an aggregate in battle of 50 ;
that of these there were killed, 16; wounded, 22; captured un-
wounded, 6; total, 44; escaped unwounded, 6. Lieut. Wm. A.
Raines, Company A, was killed ; Lieut. A. J. Baker, same Com-

Eleventh Mississippi at Gettysburg — McFarland. 567

pany, was wounded 20 feet to the left of the "Bryan barn", with-
in 10 feet of the wall, and was captured ; Lieut. John V. Moore,
the only other commissioned officer of the company present, es-
caped. This company was composed of students at the Univer-
sity who came from all parts of the State, a few from other
States. Lieut. David Nunn of Company B was killed, and it is
believed Capt. Geo. K. Morton, same company, was badly
wounded, and that both are included in the casualties of that com-
pany.

The ten companies had in battle an aggregate of 350; killed,
103 ; wounded, 166 ; captured unwounded, 41 ; total company
casualties, 310; escaped unwounded, 40; besides field officers.
The mortally wounded are included with the killed. Some sup-
posed at the time to be missing and since ascertained to have been
killed or mortally wounded, are likewise included with the killed ;
others supposed to be missing and since ascertained to have been
wounded and captured, are included with the wounded. Com-
missioned officers, whether named or not, are included in the
casualties under the proper head.

All these casualties, except two killed and perhaps a few
wounded during the cannonading that preceded the charge, were
sustained in less than two hours — amounting to about 89 per cent,
of the company aggregate present upon the battle field.

The author wishes to express his appreciation of the kindly
assistance rendered in furnishing data for the preparation of this
article by the survivors of the Eleventh, and to acknowledge the
valuable aid derived from the admirable contribution by Hon.
William A. Love, "Mississippi at Gettysburg", to the Publications
of the Mississippi Historical Society, Vol. IX, page 25.

The official reports, Confederate and Federal, of commanding
officers in the battle of July 3rd, and others, have been thorough-
ly examined and carefully considered, and this article, except as it
relates to Company losses and personal incidents, is based upon
them. Much else that has been spoken and written concerning
the charge at Gettysburg also has been critically studied ; but
many speakers and writers have gone far afield and a very large
part of their contributions, whilst characterized by excellence of

568 Mississippi Historical Society

literary form, have little or no basis of historical truth, — no
small part of it being fiction, pure and simple.

Discrepancies and conflicts in the reports, where they exist,
have been dealt with as ever they are when found,^ — by balancing
relative weight and probability, which the writer has faithfully
endeavored to do, aided perhaps by long judicial experience in
dealing with and disposing of such testimony.

GENERAL INDEX

Adalrsville, First Mississippi cavalry
joined Johnston's army at, 94.

Adams, G. Gordon, United States
district attorney, letter from, to
President, tendering resignation,
370.

Africanized government in river
counties, claim of Alcorn, 427.

Alabama, First Mississippi cavalry
passes through, on way to Rome,
Ga., 93; Wilson's invasion of, 123.

Alcorn, retirement as governor, 425;
whites preferred Powers as gover-
nor, 425; takes seat in United
States senate, 426; decides to enter
gubernatorial contest against
Ames, 455; speech of, 456; loses
election, 466.

Alcorn, General, candidate of Na-
tional Republican party for gov-
ernor, 371.

Alcorn, Governor, inauguration of,
389; judicial appointments of, 393;
inaugural address, 404; not pre-
served from suspicion, 412; mes-
sage to legislature, session of 1870,
414; resolutions by large meeting
of white men denouncing, 424.

Alcorn, Jas. L., refuses appointment
as governor from military author-
ities, 381.

Alford, George W., wounded at An-
thony's Hill, 120.

Ames nominated for governor by
state convention, 455.

Ames and Alcorn, joint debates be-
tween, 463.

Ames, General, made provisional and
military governor, 356.

Ames, Gen. Adelbert, certificate of
election to United States senate,
387.

"Ammesty" proclamation, President
Johnson's, 280.

Amusements of soldiers while in
camp, 69.

Anderson, Thos. C, jury returns
verdict against, for forging Louis-
iana election returns, 517.

Antioch Church, First Mississippi
cavalry in camp at, 58.

Appendix A, roster of Company Q,
First Mississippi Cavalry, 138.

Appendix B, roster of Company F,
First Mississippi Cavalry, 140.

Appendix C, survivors of Noxubes
Squadron, October 1, 1917, 143.

Appomattox, last breath of vitality
left Confederacy at, 214.

Archer, Rev. S., incident related by.
illustrating stringency of General
Forrest's orders, 213.

Armies, home coming of Northern
and Southern, contrasted, 236; ex-
tract from speech of Henry W.
Grady, 264.

Armstrong's brigade all assembled
at West Point, Miss., 123.

Armstrong, Frank C, letter from,
in Montgomery's Reminiscences,
92.

Army records, Governor Clark ap-
points Col. J. L. Power superin-
tendent of, 260; quotation from
report of Colonel Clark, 261.

Army to be held in readiness to pro-
tect citizens in right to vote, 476.

Artesia riot, 421.

Atlanta, First Mississippi Cavalry
ordered to, 101; camp on battle-
field of, 101.

Attorney general renders opinion
that there can be no general elec-
tion until 1874, 463.

Authority, civil, first step for restora-
tion of. In South, 286.

Authority, confiict between civil and
military ofllcers as to, 333.

Anthony's Hill, Forrest's stand at,
south of Pulaski, 118; quotation
from Wilson's report pertinent to
flght at, 120.

570

Mississippi Historical Society.

Ball, J. P., convicted of embezzle-
ment and sent to penitentiary, 453.

Bancroft, Judge Young quotes from,
in support of claim that Missis-
sippi river was discovered at
Memphis, 154.

Banks, Genera], at New Orleans,
ordered to raise large military
force from colored population,
172.

Battleflag, ladies of Richland pre-
sent, to First Mississippi Cavalry,
83.

Beasley, Lieut. R. O., death of, 40.

Belmont, Mo., skirmish near, 24.

Biedma, Louis Hernandez de, nar-
rative of, DeSotb expedition, 145.

Blaine resolution for inquiry as to
violation of constitutional rights
of citizens to vote, 522.

Blaine, James G., speech at Augusta,
Maine, after President Cleveland's
election, 533.

Bobb, John, murdered by negroes,
200.

Bogler's Creek, Forrest selected
strong position at, 125; six-shoot-
ers against sabres in desperate
hand-to-hand encounter at, 126.

Booty captured by Confederates at
Holly Springs, 63.

Bourne, Dr. E. G., author of Spain
In America, 145; quoted by Judge
Young, 162.

Bourne, Edward Gaylord, Narratives
of DeSoto, edited by, 148.

Bragg, General, began Kentucky
campaign, 536; refuses to modify
terms of surrender, 542; Buckner
interviews, and secures modifica-
tion, 542.

Brown, Governor, of Georgia, evil
genius of the Confederacy, incited
legislature to declare suspension of
writ of habeas corpus unconstitu-
tional, 208.

Bullitt, W. A., bearer of flag of
truce, 541.

Burwell, Judge A., in Vicksburg
Herald, calls upon people to re-
flect upon course to be pursued,
218.

Butler, Benjamin P., becomes chair-
man of reconstruction committee,
857.

Butler, Gen. B. F., echoes Stevens'
policy for conflscation, 317.

O

Cameron, J. D., secretary of war,
order to General Sherman, 481.

Camp Goodwin, 17.

Canby, General, writes Stanton in
relation to relieving his depart-
ment of existing evil conditions,
225.

Carpet bag adventurers, bill passed
to make places for, 355.

Cassville, skirmi-sh at, 95.

Cavalry, First Mississippi, begins re-
turn to Mississippi, 44; camps on
Coldwater, 46.

Cemetery Ridge, charge on, 550.

Centennial Poem, 5.

Chalmers, unwelcome tidings from,
124.

Chalmers' Brigade, Bragg orders, to
railroad at Cave City, 537.

Chalmers, General, preparations for
retreat, 543; report of, 543.

Chalmers, Gen. Jas. R., letter from,
to Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, tells
story of a beaten people, 180.

Chandler, W. E., address to Republi-
cans of New Hampshire, 514.

Channing's, Dr. Edward, history of
the United States, map shown in,
fixing place of discovery of Missis-
sippi river in Tunica county. Miss.,
163.

Chase, Chief Justice, thinks time has
come to claim presidency, 273;
criticism of, by New York World,
277.

Chattahoochee, First Mississippi
Cavalry on the, 100.

Cheatham and Hood, controversy
between, 112.

Cheatham, General, General Hood
acknowledges injustice done to,
112.

Cheatham, General, meeting of Gen-
eral Grant and, 25.

Chess, Lieut. S. B. Day, Alec Mc-
Caskill, and J. G. Deupree, chal-
leged by three beautiful young
lady chess amateurs, 122; the
ladies win, 122.

Index.

671

Chickasaw Trail, common knowl-
edge that counties through which,
ran, is hilly throughout, 160.

Chinese, agitation to introduce. In
place of negroes on plantations,
380; government prohibits, 380.

Chisca, site of Indian village, claim-
ed as point where Mississippi
river was discovered, 149.

Citizens, meeting of disfranchised
loyal, 297.

Clark, Governor, Issues address con-
cerning surrender of Confederate
armies east of Mississippi, 223;
message to legislature, 226.

Clear Creek, First Mississippi Cav-
alry bivouacked on, 64.

Cleveland, President, elected by solid
South and small group of North-
ern states, 533.

Coidwater stampede, 48; description
of, by Lt. Col. Montgomery, 48.

Colored troops, casualties among,
266.

Columbia and Franklin, First Mis-
sissippi Cavalry between, 110; In-
vested by Forrest, 110.

Columbus, Ky., First Mississippi
Cavalry reach, and Gen. Leonidas
Polk assumed command, 22.

Columbus, Miss., capital of state
moved to, after Vicksburg cam-
paign in 1863, 204.

Combash (negro agitator) incident,
375.

Commercial-Appeal, answer of
Judge J. P. Young in, to Dr. Row-
land's article on Discovery of
Missis.sippi in same paper, 158.

Commercial-Appeal, letter in, writ-
ten by a member of Company E,
Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, 56.

Company F, First Mississippi Caval-
ry, roster of, 140.

Company G, First Mississippi Cav-
alry, roster of, 138.

Confiscation, New York Tribune con-
demns Thad Stevens' plan for, 316;
Gen. B. F. Butler echoes Stevens'
policy, 317.

Congress, act of July, 1864, limits
trade in cotton, 187; adjourned
meeting of, failed for lack of
quorum, 347.

Confederate army, urgent need of
men for, met by resolution waiv-

ing exemption of many previously
exempt, 205.
Confederacy, last breath of vitality
of, went out at Appomattox, 214;
unsettled condition prevailing in
Mississippi after collapse of, 243;
surrender of armies of, 266.
Constitutional convention, state, dis-
cussion of, for Mississippi, 532; of
1890, 534.
Constitution, ratification of, W. H.
Gibbs proclaims, 350; bill submit-
ted for resubmission of, 358.
Constitutions, elections for ratifica-
tion of, not held in Virgrinia and
Texas, 349.
Convention, Democratic National,
held in New York city July 4,
1868, 347; declares gratitude to
President Johnson, 347.
Convention, President directs that,
be called and election held, 297;
Governor Sharkey's proclamation
for, 301; election of delegates to,
302; personnel of, 303; General
Osterhaus invited to seat in, 305;
report of, 306; Judge Yerger pro-
nounces, adjourned, 312; criticism
of, 313.

Convention of 1871, Alcorn and
Ames contestants for governor,
419.
Cook, Miss Taylor, Incident in re-

grard to, 56.
Coon, Col. Datus, defeat of, 109.
Corinth, assault on, 52.
Corruption, official, in Washington

county, 416.
Cotton crop of 1864, ruined by army

worm, 189.
Cotton growers complain that gov-
ernment failed to protect them,
190.
Cotton question, difficulty between
military and financial depart-
ments on, 232.
Cotton, trade in, principal cause of
demoralization of war spirit in
river country, 177; evil recogrniz-
ed by General Grant, 177; trade
In, limited by act of congress of
July, 1864, 187; high prices of,
193; people debauched by trade
in, 194; quantity burned during
civil war moot question, 195; es-
timated more than 1,000,000 bales
burned, 196; planting of more

572

Mississippi Historical Society.

than three acres interdicted under
heavy penalties, 206; sale of, pro-
hibited, 231; treasury agents em-
ployed to ferret out Confederate,
232; "regulations" as to sale of,
233; explanation as to regulations
affecting sale of, 235; warning
published to persons purchasing,
236; warning to planters, 237;
frauds, 237.

County officers. Governor Alcorn's
appointments made without re-
gard for popular wish, 394.

Courts, civil, closed for lack of busi-
ness, 207.

Courts, military. General Slocum,
publishes order upon jurisdiction
of, 321.

Courts or court officials, Governor
Ames leaves state without 359.

Courts, provost, established at the
posts of Vicksburg and Natchez
by order of General Dana, 203.

Cox, S. S., quotation from, regard-
ing the counting of presidential
vote of 1876-77, 496.

Crops, disastrous season for, 337.

Currency, depreciated, gathering of
tithes of food products fixed fea-
ture growing out of, 209.

Dalton, capture of, 107.
Dana, C. A., letter to Stanton regard-
ing the evils of the cotton traffic,

178.
Davis' brigade. Eleventh Mississippi

regiment In, 550.
Davis' brigade, lost and wounded,

562.
Davis, plot to murder, 257; indicted

in Federal court. May, 1866, for

treason, 259.
Davis, General, states in his report

his command advanced steadily,

557.
Davis, Gen. Reuben, visits camp at

Richland and makes speech, 82;

published Reminiscenses of a Long

Life, after war, 82.
Davis, Jefferson, story of, continued,

263.
Davis' Mills, now Michigan City,

reached by Confederates Decem-

ber 21, 1862, 64; attack and loss,
64.

Davis, President, visits army at
Grenada, 58; reviews army, 58
Senator Phelan writes to, of influ
ences depopularizing war, 181
Judge R. S. Hudson reports con
fusion of military affairs to, 212
capture of, 248; plans to escape
thwarted, 248; accused of instigat-
ing assassination of Lincoln, 248;
placed in irons, 249.

Debts and liabilities of eleven South-
ern states, 447.

Deer Creek raid, account of, by Col.
W. D. Brown, 198.

De risle, map by, made in 1718,
150.

Democratic executive committee
meets at Jackson and issues call
for state convention, 461.

Democratic state convention meets
in Meridian, 462; meets in Jack-
son, June 14, 1876, 471.

Dent, Judge, In letter to Jeffords and
Moorman, assures them that he
would accept nomination as gover-
nor if offered, 336; President in
letter refuses support, 368.

Destitution after war, pathetic pic-
ture of, by Col. Dornblaser, 246.

"DeSoto at Chickasaw Bluffs," reply
by Judge J. P. Young to paper by
Dr. Dunbar Rowland, 149.

DeSoto, narratives of march, contain
earliest accounts of Lower South,
144; expedition, several satisfac-
tory and reliable records of, 145;
did he discover Mississippi river in
Tunica county, Mississippi, 145;
only four sources as to journey of,
claimed by Dr. Rowland, 150; cel-
ebrated painting of, in national
capitol at Washington, 157.

Deupree, First Lieutenant T. J., in
command of Noxubee Cavalry af-
ter death of Captain King, until
end of war, 108.

Deupree, Lieutenant, wins captaincy
by beating Capt Porter at chess,
115.

"DiscovBry of the Mississippi," ar-
ticle in Commercial-Appeal, by Dr.
Dunbar Rowland, 149 .

Duncan's brigade. General Bragg or-
ders, to Glasgow Junction, 537.

Index.

673

Dunham, Colonel, after withdrawal
of Chalmers, assumes command of
Federal forces at MunfordviUe,
645.

Election crimes in Louisiana, South
Carolina and Florida, 490.

Election forgeries, 520.

Election of 1871, lost by Democrats,
420.

Election of 1876, crisis In Southern
affairs, 473.

Election ordered by convention
passed off quietly, 346.

Election, Presidential, General Gil-
lem asked to issue order to en-
able Mississippi to participate in,
348.

Elections, proclamations for Mis-
sissippi and Texas, discussed, 365.

Electoral vote, counting of, 501;
Florida counted for Hayes, 502;
Louisiana counted for Hayes, 503;
Oregon counted for Hayes, 503;
Hayes declared elected President,
604.

Eleventh Regiment, company cas-
ualties, 565.

Eleventh regiment, terrible losses of,
afford proof of valor and heroism,
654.

Emancipation proclamation, extrem-
ists had contended for, from be-
ginning, 170; validity of, discussed
by Governor Sharkey, 291.

Encyclopedia of United States His-
tory, Harper's, quotation from, re-
lating to discovery of Mississippi
river, 163.

Enfranchisement of the negro, 530.

England, hope of South that,
would intervene, 80.

Europe, hope of South that England
and France would intervene in fa-
vor of Confederacy, 80.

Ewell, Gen. R. S., denies base cal-
umny that Lincoln's assassination
was planned and executed by Reb-
els. 217.

F, roster of Company, 140.

Fayette, First Mississippi Cavalry or-
dered to, 81.

Federal forces, surrender of, 646;
no reason for capture of, at Green
River, if foresight been exer-
cised by Colonel Dunham, 547.

First Mississippi Cavalry ordered to
New Madrid, Mo., 19; reach Col-
umbus, Ky., 22; first to meet
Grant's reconnoitering force, 24;
reorganization of, 41; election of
ofldcers, 41; ordered to report at
Abbeville, Miss., 42; ordered to re-
port to Col. Wm. H. Jackson, on
Coldwater river, 43; brigaded with
Seventh Tennessee regiment, 43;
begins return to Mississippi, 44;
camps on Coldwater, 46; further
reorganization, 66; ladles of Rich-
land present battleflag to, 83;
transferred to Mississippi, 85; or-
dered to report to Gen. S. D. Lee,
86; last battle fought by, 131.

Flag of truce, 539.

Flag presented to Noxubee Cavalry,
17.

Florida fraudulently counted for
Hayes, 498; confessions of elec-
tion frauds brought to a head —
talk of congressional investiga-
tion, 618.

Florence, Hood establishes head-
quarters at, 108.

Food, people urged to produce, and
cotton planting of more than three
acres interdicted, 206.

Foote, H. D., letter published in Ma-
con Beacon, 41.

Fort Craig, Walthall reaches, 538.

FoVrest, Campaigns of General, quo-
tation from, 118.

Forrest, General, chief command de-
volved upon, by departure of Gen-
eral Taylor, 127; address to his
command, paragraphs quoted, 137;
thoroughness of plan to check de-
moralization, 213; incident related
by Rev. S. Archer illustrating pol-
icy of, 213.

Forrest, Gen. N. B., given command
over a department to check
spread of demoralization, 210; or-
der by, in re, 210.

574

Mississippi Historical Society.

Forrest, Wyeth's Life of, interesting
Incident of battle of Murfrees-
borough related in, 114; quotation
from, relating to Hood's rear-
guard, 117; full account of Wil-
son's invasion of Alabama, 123;
tells of his (Forrest's) escape, 136.
Franklin, dash into, 71; letter relat-
ing to, published in Macon Beacon,
73; battle of, 113.
France, hope of South that, would

intervene, 80.
Fredman's Bureau, General Slocum
issues orders defining jurisdiction
of state, military and, 300; offi-
cers of, not to interfere with city
authorities in discharge of their
duties, 323; important change in
rules and regulations, 339; re-
•marks of General Slocum in re-
gard to, made in speech, 341.
Freedman's home at Davis Bend,

184.
Freedmen, Gen. L. Thomas com-
plains of maladministration of af-
fairs of, 185.
Freedmen may contract to labor,
326; New York Herald adminis-
ters ironic rebuke to critics of
President's policy In Mississippi
case, 338.
Furlough, Noxubee Squadron of Pin-
son's Regiment granted 20-day,
122.

G, roster of Company, 138.

Garcilosco, quotation from, 152.

Gentleman of Elvas, narrative of,
(De Soto expedition), 145.

Georgia case, 406.

Gettysburg, report of losses in battle
inaccurate and Incomplete, 549.

Gibson, Dr.' Tully, attempt to ar-
rest, ends in his death, 376.

Gillem, General, asked to make or-
der to enable Mississippi to par-
ticipate in presidential election,
348.

Glasgow, Ky., troops reach, 536.

Grady, Henry W., extract from
speech contrasting home coming
of Northern and Southern armies,
264.

Grain, distillation of, prohibited, 206.

Granger, General, outwitted, 68.
Grant's administration deaf to ap-
peals for justice, 438.
Grant captures Forts Henry and

Donelson, 27.
Grant's explanation of his motive in
change of policy toward Mississ-
ippi, 494.
Grant, General, meeting of General
Cheatham and, 25; communication
from, to General Halleck, asking
what to do with surplus negroes,
170; communication from, to Gen-
eral Steele, regarding raising of
colored troops, 174; President
Lincoln writes to, 174; calls civil
policy in Louisiana bad, 185; dis-
patch to Gen. E. O. C. Ord, result
of Lincoln's assassination, 215; re-
ply of Ord to, 216; withdraws dis-
patch to General Ord, annulling
order as to arrest of certain cit-
izens, leaving it as a suggestion
only, 216; election of, as Presi-
dent, 349.
Grant, President, enigma and disap-
pointment, 355; endorses admin-
istration of General Ames, 367;
letter to, from G. Gordon Adams,
United States district attorney,
tendering resignation, 370.
Greeley's candidacy, anathematized,

436.
Greeley, Horace, proposed for
nomination for presidency, 432;
nominated, 433.
Green, Col. F. M., wounded, 552.
Grierson, encounter with, 47.
Griffin, James M., lying wounded on
field, saw Pickett's division charge
on right, 561.
Grenada, President Davis visits army

at, 58.
Government, provisional — Narrative

brought up to period of, 346.
Government, restoration of civil, de-
lusion, 220; President Johnson
sounds first note of trouble in
store for South, 220.
Governor, provisional, Republican
plan asks for appointment of, 351.
GovBrnors, change in, 356.
Governors, provisional, time of ap-
pointment, 288.
Gunboats, Federal, attack Hickman,
Ky., 22.

I

Index.

575

Habeas corpus, difference of North
and South as to procedures In
suspending writ of, 208; boastful
words of Secretary of State Sew-
ard to Lord Lyons, British min-
ister, 208; clash between Alcorn
and Ames over bill to extend sus-
pension of right of, 426.

Habeas corpus, writ of. South clung
tenaciously to, weakening war
power, 207; limited suspension of,
authorized, 207; law repealed, 208;
not respected by Northern mili-
tary commanders, 209; President
Johnson holds It inexpedient to
suspend, 321.

Halleck, General-in-Chief, writes
Grant as to policy of government,
17.S.

Hardee, General, oflflcial report of
battle of Shiloh, 36.

Hatch, defeat of, 110.

Harris, Gov. Isham G., letter from,
to Gov. James D. Porter, 112.

Hayes, President, inaugural address
of, eagerly looked for, 508; first
message to congress, 513; not
swerved by factious opposition to
policy of Southern placation, 51-3;
berated by Chandler, Blaine, But-
ler, Conkling, and others, 515.

Hayes, President, attacks made on,
516.

Henderson, Col. H. A. M., In address
to returning soldiers, reflects pre-
vailing sentiment of Southern sol-
diers, 223.

Herald, Vicksburg, recruits adver-
tised for in, 175.

Hickman, Ky., First Mississippi Cav-
alry sent to, 22; attack on Hick-
man by Federal gunboats, 22.

High, Private, of Pontotoc Dra-
goons, killed by lightning, 80.

Hinds county convention adopts
resolutions against state conven-
tion placing state ticket in field,
461.

Hampton, Gen. Wade, inaugurated
governor of South Carolina, 490.

History for Ready Reference, Larn-
ed's, quotation from, relating to
discovery of Mississippi river, 163.

Holliday, Capt. Thos. C, killed
May 6, 1864, at battle of the
Wlldernes.s, 553.

Holly Springs, capture of, 69; quo-
tation from "Lost Cause," relat-
ing to, 60; booty captured, 63.

Hood and Cheatham, controversy be-
tween, 112.'

Hood, General, 272; acknowledges
injustice done General Cheatham,
112.

Hood's rear-guard undaunted and
firm, 117; praise of, in Wyeth's
Life of Forrest, 117.

Hubbard, J. M., letter from, In
Commercial-Appeal, 55.

Hudson, Judge R. S., writing to
President Oavis, reports confusion
of military affars, 212.

Humphreys, Gen. B. G., choice of
people for governor, 345.

Hunter, Gen. David, regiments of
negroes raised by, 169.

Hunter, Sergeant J. J., of Noxubee
Troopers, statement from Diary of,
relating to attack on Selma, 133.

Inca's (GarcUoso de la Vega) narra-
tive, critics have disparaged ac-
count of discovery of Mississippi,
152.

Injuries and Insults, citizens appeal
to military for relief from, 196;
spiteful reply to, by General Sher-
man, 196.

Insurrection, slave, document set-
ting forth plan for, falls Into
hands of Confederate government,
199.

Intervention, hope that England and
France would favor Southern
cause, 80; futility of hope for, 81.

Iverson, dispatch from, 103.

Jackson, Brig.-Gen. W. H., ranking
officer of cavalry corps, 76.

Johnson, President, correspondence
between Governor Sharkey and,
314; Senator Ben Wade heads
committee calling on, 218; friend-

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Mississippi Historical Society.

ly helpfulness of Generals Canby,
Dana, Slocum and Osterhaus anti-
dote for harshness of, 228; not
averse to hanging Jefferson Davis,
266; feud between Secretary
Stanton and, 268; attitude on ne-
gro suffrage issue, 268.

Johnston, Qen. Albert Sidney, ad-
dress to soldiers of the Army of
the Mississippi at battle of Shi-
loh, 30.

Johnston, General, battle order by,
read in every regiment, 5; re-
moval from command of Army of
the Tennessee, 100.

Johnston, Gen. Jos. E., conviction of
army that, ranked with Lee as one
of South's great commanders, 101;
letter from Gen. Jas. R. Chalmers
to, tells story of a beaten people,
180; surrenders on terms given
Lee at Appomattox, 220.

Johnston's, General, narrative, quo-
tation from, 100.

Jones pardon, governor severely cen-
sured, 413.

Jonesboro, First Mississippi Cavalry
joined Lewis' brigade at, 106.

Jordan's, Gen. Thomas, Campaign of
General Forrest, quotation from,
118.

Judicial appointments, Governor Al-
corn's, 393.

Jurisdiction, General Slocum issues
orders defining state, military and
Freedman's Bureau, 300.

Jury service, negroes held competent
for, 360.

Justice, committee of 100 Louisiana
citizens sent to Washington to
confer with President and plead
for, 439; report of committee, 441.

Kemper, purpose to close with
enemy on Webb's left, 560.

Kemper's brigade, author unable
to find any report of, 559.

Killed and wounded, comparison of,
661.

Kilpatrick, defeat of, 103.

King, Captain, killed, 108.

KIu-Klux-Klan, organized in Missis-
sippi in 1870, 400; Governor Al-
corn denies that Dr. Compton is a
member, 421.

Lane, General, quotation from re-
port of, 555.

Lane's brigade, lost and wounded,
562.

Lawlessness, Memphis Bulletin de-
scribes general nature of, 331.

Lee, mentioned, 81, 86, 92, 103, 106,
136, 216, 221, 391.

Lee, white man, murdered by ne-
gro mob a few days before 1871
election, 421.

Lee, General, application for par-
don, 283; letter to son, Gen. Cus-
tis Lee, 284; attack on, by Chicago
Republican, 296; mentioned, 443.

Lee, Gen. Custis, letter to, from his
father. Gen. R. E. Lee, 284.

Lee, Gen. S. D., First Mississippi
Cavalry ordered to report to, 86;
mentioned, 102, 116.

Lee, Mrs. R. E., resolution for res-
toration of Arlington to, 407.

Lee, R. E., attorney general orders
nolle pros orders entered against
indictment of, 354; failure of
President Grant's attempt to re-
vive indictment against, 357.

Lee, Robert E., conviction of army
that Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was
one of South's greatest command-
ers, ranking with, 101.

Letter from Capt. H. W. Foote in
Macon (Miss.) Beacon, 21.

Letter in Commercial-Appeal, writ-
ten by a member of Company E,
Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, 55.

Lewis, Theodore Hayes, most pains-
taking and accurate study of route
of DeSoto by, 146; quotation from,
146; Dr. Rowland refers to article
by, and quotes from, 150.

Lexington, First Mississippi Cavalry
ordered to join Jackson at, 81.

Lincoln, assasination of, misfor-
tune for South, 215; Secretary
of War Stanton originator of
charge that act was committed by
Rebels, 216; Gen. R. S. Ewell in

Index.

577

letter to Grant denies that assas-
sination was planned and execut-
ed by Rebels. 217; Rhodes' history
quoted, 217; radicals In congress
could not conceal grratiflcation
that Lincoln no longer in way,
218; prejudicial effects not at once
appreciated in the South, 218.
Lincoln, President, regarded opening
of Mississippi river most import-
ant to military operations of the
North, 168; writes to General
Grant, 174; assassinated, 215.
Lindsay, Colonel, ordered to Mon-
terey, 28; ordered to cut off
enemy's retreat at battle of Shl-
loh, 33.
Longstreet, General, comments of,

664.
Lost Cause, quotation from, in rela-
tion to capture of Holly Springs,
60.
Lost Mountain, First Mississippi on

top of, 97.
Louisiana, committee recommends
adoption of resolution that no
state government exists in, 441.
Louisiana election, 520.
Louisiana, public opinion no longer
supports maintenance of state
government in, by military, 507.
Louisiana situation, report of, 510;
troops ordered withdrawn from
state house of Louisluna, 510.
Loyal League, composed mostly of
negroes, 377; description of initia-
tion, 377; administration of oath,
378; penalty for violation of oath,
379.
Lynch, James, most popular and
eloquent of negro race, defeat and
death, 437.
Lynch, John R., quotation from
Facts of Reconstruction, 494.

M

Macon Beacon, letters published in,
from H. D. Foote, 41; regarding
battle at Thompson's Station, 69;
relating to battle at Franklin, 73.

Magruder, Captain, killed, 553.

Maps, evidence from, that Mississip-
pi river was discovered in Tunica
county, Mississippi, 161. |

Maps, old French and English, not
reliable guides, 153.

Marquette, discovery of MIssIssIddI
by, 163.

McFarland, Baxter, member of Com-
pany H, Eleventh Mississippi Reg-
iment, 549.

McGehee, Judge Edward, account of
treatment of, by negro soldiers,
from old letter from a member of
family, 202.

McLln, Secretary of State, published
confession of, precipitated investi-
gation of Louisiana election
frauds, 521.

Mechanicsburg, situation of Confed-
erate army, written in camp at,
and published in Montgomery's
Reminiscences, 77.

Medical returns, used for compari-
sons, 563.

Merchandising, trade permits Issued
for, 188.

Miles, General N. A., cruelty to Pres-
ident Davis, 251; complains is vic-
tim of base slanders regarding
treatment of President Davis, 253.

Military affairs, confusion in, 212.

Military, state and Freedman's Bu-
reau, General Slocum Issues orders
defining jurisdiction of, 300.

Military situation, December, 1862,
60.

Military supremacy, situation did not
call for prejudicial assertion of.
333; President Johnson sustains
Governor Sharkey, 334.

Militia, raising of. ordered by Gover-
nor Sharkey, forbidden by General
Slocum, 333; Slocum's order
countermanding Sharkey's procla-
mation ordered revoked by Pres-
ident, 334; Governor Alcorn, in
his inaugural, urged establish-
ment of strong, 399.

Miller, Lt.-Col. John H., tenders res-
ignation, 37; tribute by Col. Jos. E.
Deupree to, 37; facts concerning
his death, 38.
Mississippi, First Mississippi Cav-
alry back to, 76; country laid
waste by General Sherman in Jan-
uary, 1864, 203; causes that
brought, to economic collapse,
204; legislature called in special
session to relieve destitution of

578

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Mississippi Historical Society.

people, 209; take time to pay trib-
ute to habeas corpus fetich, 209;
futility of passage of act, 209; ap-
proximate estimate of strength
and losses of troops furnished by,
262; loss of population shown by
state census of, 265; Provisional
Governor Sharkey issues procla-
mation to citizens of, 290; peace
and quiet in. In contrast to that
of other states, 348; reconstruc-
tion in, laid aside for few remain-
ing days of Johnson's administra-
tion, 354; resolutions adopted,
favoring restoration of, 363; act
restoring, to representation, 385;
no part in election of 1870, 407;
election of 1871 passed without
riot, 421; blessed as compared
with other Southern states, 438;
future looked dark, 464.

Mississippi, north, conditions in.
212.

"Mississippi plan" of dealing with
black majorities, 532.

Mississippi river, discovered in Tuni-
ca county, Miss., at Willow Point,
145; Dr. Dunbar Rowland con-
tends, was discovered in Tunica
county. Miss., 150; quotations from
historians supporting claim of
Memphis as point of discovery,
154; Dr. Rowland cites eminent
authorities not in accord with
Memphis theory of discovery of,
162; claims of Dr. Rowland for
discovery of, in Tunica county
summed, 164; recovery of, held
vital by Washington government,
167; conquest of, by Federals
mortal wound to Southern cause,
167; control of, consummated by
capture of Vicksburg, 178.

Mississippi Squadron, sale of gun-
boats and other vessels composing,
298.

Missourians, though silent, sympa-
thized with South, 21.

Monette, Dr. John W., eminent his-
torian who wrote history of Miss-
issippi valley, 163.

Money, to supply sufficient, and ar-
rest depreciation, notes known as
cotton money. Issued, 206; cur-
rency depreciation tells of impend-

ing collapse of Southern cause,
207.

Montgomery, Colonel, letter written
by, showing prevailing sentiment,
in his communication as to out-
come of war, 80.

Montgomery's, Lieutenant-Colonel,
account of attack on Selma in his
Reminiscences, 129.

Montgomery's Reminiscences, situa-
tion of Confederate army, as writ-
ten in camp near Mechanicsburg,
77.

Morgan, Senator A. T., causes sen-
sation by marrying colored wo-
man, 403.

Moscow, assault on, 86; 40 members
of First Mississippi Cavalry killed,
88.

Murfreesborough, battle of, 114; In-
teresting Incident of, related by
W. A. Galloway, of Atlanta, 114.

Munfordville, Ky., battle of, partic-
ulars and origin, 536.

N

Narvaez,. after disastrous expedition
by Spaniards, vast region called
Florida neglected, 144.

Nashville, Forrest's march toward,
109.

Navy, sale of gunboats and other
vessels evidence that war was
over, 298.

Negro, distinctive policy in regard
to, 247; freedom of, 292.

Negro children, education of, tenet
of radical politicians, 401.

Negro insurrection never cause of
apprehension in South, 200. r

Negro insurrections. General Grant
writes to General Halleck in re-
gard to, 197.

Negro officials detected in carrying
on thriving trade in stolen prop-
erty, 405.

Negro political aspirations, first echo
of, 297.

Negro regiments, Gen. Godfrey Welt-
zel declines command of, 170.

Negro students, admission of, to uni-
versity, entire body of professors
announce that, will not be admit-
ted, 402; letter from Governor
I Alcorn in regard to, 402.

Index.

579

Negro suffrage, Northern states re-
ject, 383.

Negro troops, prejudice against, to
be overcome, 171; General Thomas
instructed by Stanton to visit
army under Grant and acquaint,
with government's purpose to use,
171.

Negroes, problem of disposing of
surplus, 170; communication from
Grant to Halleck relating to, 170;
orders issued to General Banks at
New Orleans to raise large mili-
tary force from colored popula-
tion, 172; 186,000 enlisted from
slave states, 174; terror Inspired
by arming, explained by letter
from General Hunter to Stanton,
176; policy of arming and organ-
izing under white officers, 200;
status of instructions by General
Canby as to, 229; addressed by
Gen. O. O. Howard, 327; return to
plantations, 348; cause of, cham-
pioned by Senator Windom of Min-
nesota, in resolution, 526; migra-
tion of, 526.

New Hope Church, battle of, 96.

Nolle pros orders, attempt to re-
voke, 357.

North Carolina, radicalism sustains
defeat In, 434.

North, political sentiment of, shown
by Judge Yerger, 319; tracts is-
sued to keep alive passions of,
against South, 434.

Noxubee Cavalry, 14; stay at Camp
Goodwin culminated in flag pres-
entation, 17; assigned as fourth
unit of First Battalion of Missis-
sippi Cavalry, 18; entrain for
Union City, Tenn., 18; list of
members who participated in bat-
tle of Shiloh, 36.

Noxubee Rifles, 13; first company to
leave for seat of war, 16; became
Company P in Eleventh Missis-
sippi Cavalry, 16.

Noxubee Squadron of First Missis-
sippi Cavalry, C. S. A., 12; organi-
zation of, 13; furloughed for 20
days, 122; survivors of, October 1,
1917, 143.

Noxubee Troopers, 13; tender serv-
ices to Confederate government,
39; officers of, 39; assigned to

First Mississippi Cavalry and
known as Company F, 39.

O

O'Brien, Billy, fell dead at feet of
James M. Griffin, 560.

Oppression, Southern, Grant accept-
ed presidency under adherence to
policy of, 350.

Official corruption in Washington
county, 416.

OM, General, reply to General
Grant's dispatch, ordering arrest
of certain citizens, 216.

Osband, General, report on enforced
adjournment of legislature, 227.

Outrages on citizens by colored sol-
diers, accounts of, published in
Vicksburg Herald, 201.

Owen, Col. Richard, memorial to,
in form of bust, by Confederat©
admirers, 646.

Palmetto, headquarters of Hood at,
107.

Pardon, full and unconditional, for
crime of treason, bestowed upon
all who had participated in rebel-
lion, 354.

Peace, terms of, subscribed to, by
General Sherman, too liberal, 221;
annulled by President Johnson,
221; reference to Sherman's
terms of, in Schofleld's Forty-six
Years, 222; memorandum of terms
of, 271.

Pettigrew, General, one of ablest
brigadiers of Confederate army,
567.

Phelan, Senator, writes to President
Davis of influences depopularlzlng
war, 181.

Pinson, Col. Richard Alexander,
birth, 9; early school days, 9;
elected member of state legisla-
ture on Whig ticket in late fifties,
10; enlisted in Confederate serv-
ice at beginning of Civil war, 10;
chosen captain in 1861, 10; elected
colonel following year, 10; serious-
ly wounded in 1862, 10; sleeted to

580

Mississippi Historical Society.

congress soon after war but not
allowed to serve, 11; entered cot-
ton business in Memphis, 11; mar-
ried In 1864, 11; died in 1873 of
cholera, 11.
Plantations, abandoned, General
Thomas issues intricate code of
instructions governing' conduct of,
ISb; General Tiiomas's sclieme of
occupation of, condemned by Gen-
eral Sherman, 186; abandoned, or-
ders issued controlling and regu-
lating, 187; regulations for con-
trol and management of, issued by
treasury department, 190.
Plantations, cotton, scale of wages
to be paid to labor, and penalties,-
191.
Pochahontas, affair at, 50.
Point de Ozlers (Willow Point),
place of crossing Mississippi river,
shown on De I'lsle's map (1718),
151.
Political aspirations, negro, 297.
Political condition, gloomy and per-
plexing, 464.
Political disorganization, doubt and

distrust completed, 362.
Political sentiment of North shown

by Judge Yerger, 319.
Polk, General, death, 98.
Pontotoc, First Mississippi Cavalry

in, 85.
Porter, Captain, loses at game of
chess and Lieutenant Deupree
wins the game and a captaincy,
116.
Porter, Gov. James D., letter to,

from Gov. Isham G. Harris, 112.
Powers, tranquillity prevailing dur-
ing administration spoke well tor,
452; repudiates election as illegal,
467.
Powers— Alcorn plan for postpone-
ment of election, defeat of, 466.
Powers, Governor, Issues proclama-
tion declaring that there will be
no election until November, 1874,
463; well meaning but weak ex-
ecutive, 469.
Printing, award of public, by legisla-
ture of 1872, 431.
Printing, public, difficulty in explain-
ing, 410.

Proclamation, emancipation, validity
of, discussed by Governor Shar-
key, 291.

Property not to be divided among
freedmen, 327.

Radical convention, administration

of Alcorn endorsed by, 419.
lladicallsm fought to finish in South,
382.

Railroads, repair of, 230; restoration
of, 298.

Ranjel, Rodrigo, official report of,
(De Soto expedition), best ac-
count, 145; narrative of discovery
of Mississippi by, best and most re-
liable, 159.

Rankin county. First Missisippi Cav-
alry in, 80.

Rebels, lack of Northern sympathy
for, 436.

Reconstruction, events of southern,
distinct and memorable era of his-
tory, 165; great question pending,
271; Lincoln's plan of, 272; Chief
Justice Chase's views on, 272; or-
ganized resistance to, waned and
weakened, 353; malignancy de-
scribed by W. H. Hardy, 377;
damning indictment of, by Dan-
iel W. Voorhees, 443.

Reconstruction acts, President John-
son assails, 349.

Reconstruction governors, Southern,
Grant ready to back up, 391.

Reconstruction ideas entertained by
Union soldiers prove to be falla-
cious, 219.

Reconstruction policy, submissionista
Claim presidential election popu-
lar endorsement, 352; President
Johnson issues address on last
day of his term in vindication of
his, 355.

Recruits advertised for, in Vicks-
burg Herald, 175.

Reminiscences of a Long Life, pub-
lished by General Davis after war,
82.

Republican (national) convention
meets in Jackson and nominates
Judge Dent for governor, S71; na-
tional convention, 474; radical

Index.

581

convention meets and nominates
Gen. Jas. L. Alcorn, 371; radical
party victorious at polls, 376.

Republican defeat, returns of Dem-
ocratic majorities showed, 485;
plot to revise returns, 485.

Republican state convention to
choose delegrates to national con-
vention, meets March 31, 1876,
471.

Republican ticket, success of na-
tional, 349.

Republicans, regular, meet in con-
vention, 363; resolutions adopted,
363.

Republicans, conservative, Messrs.
Jeffords and Wofford call on Pres-
ident in behalf of, 364; President
informs them of impartiality In
campalgm, 364.

Revels, Senator, Kansas mulatto, in
seat of Jefferson Davis, 386; after-
wards appointed president of the
State Negro College, 387.

Revenues, Governor Sharkey issues
proclamation to raise, to defray
expenses of provisional govern-
ment, 293.

Reynolds, J. S., refuses to permit
use of name as candidate for
United States senate, 388.

Reynolds, Major R. O., wounded,
552.

Richland Creek, Forrest makes
stand at, 117.

Richland, Gen. Reuben Davis visits
camp at, and makes speech, 82.

Richland, ladies of, presented new
battleflag to First Mississippi Cav-
alry, 83.

Rome, Ga., First Mississippi Cavalry
pass through Alabama on way to,
93.

Roster of Company G, 138; of Com-
pany F, 140.

Rowland, Dr. Dunbar, contends Miss-
issippi river was discovered at Wil-
low Point, in Tunica county. Miss.,
150; postulates laid down by, 150.

Rowland's, Dr. Dunbar, purpose to
correct error in presenting claims
of Tunica county, Mississippi, as
place of discovery of Mississippi
river, 151.

S
Salt, problem to furnish people with.

Saunders, Ned, raised a company of
scouts, 26.

Schurz, Major Gen. Carl, enters into
controversy of raising militia, 335-
dispatch to, from President John-
son, 336.

Secession of Southern states, 15

Secession, ordinance of, declared null
and void by convention, 309

Selma, General Forrest reported at
to departmental commander, 127-
General Wilson's attack on, 128-
account of, from Lleut.-Col. Mont-
gomery's Reminiscences, 129

seminary Ridge, Pettigrew's division
ascended to crest of, 561

Senate, United States, Ames and Al-
corn elected to, 383.

Sinclair, Thomas, negro, placed on
Republican ticket for secretary of
state, :wi.

Sharkey, Governor, criticism of, 294-
correspondence between Presil
dent Johnson and, 314; letter to
President from, protesting action
of General Slocum preventing or-
ganization of militia, 334; Presi-
dent sustains, 334.

Sharkey, Judge Wm. L., appoint-
ment of, as provisional governor,
288.

Sharkey, Provisional Governor, is-
sues proclamation to citizens of
Mississippi, 290.

Sherman, in rear of, 98.

Sherman, Armstrong obstructs ad-
vance of, 105; purpose to destroy
Macon railroad, 105.

Sherman, General, again invaded
Mississippi, 88; charged with as-
suming authority not vested In
him, 221; condemns General
Thomas's scheme for occupation
of river plantations, 186.

Sherman, Gen. W. T., service to
Southern people, forbidding use of
troops at election, 480.

Shiloh, battle of, 29; list of mem-
bers of Noxubee Cavalry who par-
ticipated in, 36.

Shiloh, official report of battle of, by
General Hardee, 36.

583

Mississippi Historical Society.

Slaves, arming of, and trading in
cotton, cast blight over Southern
people, 169; decision for arming
of, consummated in January, 1863,
170; impressment of, for military
labor, 205; resolution of legrisla-
ture subsequently adopted to re-
press abuses growing out of im-
pressment, 205.

Slocum, General, issues orders defin-
ing line of military, state and
Freedman's Bureau jurisdiction,
300; overriding of Governor
Sharkey, applauded by radical
press, 333; President sustains Gov-
ernor Sharkey, 334.

Smith, Col. R. A., death of, 540 .

Smith, Colonel, General Bragg's esti-
mate of, 544.

Soldiers, amusements while In camp,
59; negro, dread of, among women
and children, 202.

South, pitiful conditions in, 225; om-
inous outlook in, 248; problem of
restoration of civil authority In,
266; held in bitter hostility, 360;
white people of, accepted situation
as result of elections, 376; Presi-
dent exhibits hostility to, m mes-
sage of exceeding injustice, 408.

South Carolina, contest on state
ticket acute, 487; on orders from
secretary of war troops occupy
state house, 488; Gen. Wade
Hampton, elected governor, in
stirring address declares he will be
governor, 489. _

South Mississippi, First Mississippi
Cavalry in, December, 1864, 88.

Southern affairs, disturbed sUte of,

southern question. Hayes' adminis-
tration desirous to be relieved of
incubus of, 509.

Southern people defamed by men
sent to restore order and peace,
328

Southern sympathy, ample evidence
of, in the Jackson Purchase, 26.

Spain in America, by Dr. E. G.
Bourne, places the crossing of the
Mississippi river in Tunica county,
163.

Special session, legislature meets ln>
465; bill introduced postpones gen-
eral election for year, 465.

Stanton sends C. A. Dana to carry
out his malicious design, 249.

Stanton, Secretary, not moved by
pitiful conditions of South, 225;
evil genius to country, 279.

Stanton, Secretary of War, Gen. L.
Thomas writes to, 173; issues cir-
cular of policy toward abandoned
plantations, 184.

State, military and Freedman's Bu-
reau jurisdiction, General Slocum
issues orders defining, 300.

Steele, General, communication from
General Grant regarding raising
colored troops, 174.

Stephens, Vice President, denies that
war power is superior to civil
power, 208.

Stewart, First Lieut. W. P., tribute
to, 546; distrusts his own courage,
546.

Stevens, Thad, policy for confisca-
tion, 317.

Submissionists, position set forth,
862.

Suffrage, negro, cause of national
political discord, 266; General Cox
gives reasons for opposing, 278;
opposition to, in convention, 314.

Sugar Creek, Forrest retires in good
order to, 121.

Surrender, final, 137.

Taft, Attorney General, circular of
instructions from, to United States
marshals, 477.

Taxpayers League, Washington
county, 453; platform of, 453.

Tennessee election overthrows radi-
calism, 367.

Tennessee Valley, Ross and Pin-
son's regiments ordered to, 83.

Thomas, General, paragraph from
report of, in re Hood's rear-guard.
117; report of, to secretary of war,
on mission to army under Grant,
172; issues intricate code of in-
structions governing conduct of
abandoned plantations, 185.

Thomas, Gen. George H., compli-
mented cavalry in report, 109.

Thomas, Gen. L., quotation from let-
ter to Secretary of War Stanton,
173.

Index.

583

Thompson's Station, battle at, 66:
letter regarding, published in Ma-
con Beacon, 69.

Thurman, Senator, answers Republi-
can accusations against "solid
South," 522.

Tilden, elected President on face of
returns, 491.

Trade, permission to resume, with
outside world, handicapped, 230;
ail restrictions upon interstate, re-
moved, 299.

Troops, efforts of Democrats to pre-
vent use of, at polls, 527.

Union, terms of re-admission to, de-
basing, 166; bill to admit Mississ-
ippi to, 383; three measures of
readmitting, 384; admitted under
Virginia conditions, 384.

Upton, confederates clash with, 123;
Wyeth's description of, 124.

Valley of the Mississippi, Monette's,
standard work, 163; quotation
from, relating to discovery of Mis-
sissippi rivBr, 163.
Van Dorn's Army transferred to

Holly Sprngs, 54.
Van Dorn, cavalry command organ-
ized to be led by, 58; assassina-
tion of, 75; estimate of his charac-
ter in General Order No. 3, 76.
Van Dorn, General, outwits General

Granger, 69.
Vega, Garciioso de la. History of
Hernando DeSoto and Florida,
(DeSoto's expedition), account not
trustworthy, 145.
Vicksburg, fall of, 78; control of
Mississippi river consummated by
capture of, 178; confidence of peo-
ple lost after fall of, 180; loaded
with debt during administration
of Mayor Webber, 411.
Virginia, election, 359; admision of,

deferred, 365.
Volunteering, 16.

Von Holtz, Dr., culmination of issue,
and end of conflict between North
and South, summed up by, 165.

Voorhees, Representative Daniel W.,
quotation from speech in congress
making damning indictment of re-
construction, 448.

Walthall's regiment. 537.
War and Reconstruction in Missis-
sippi, recapitulation of chapters
previously published, 166.
War, sense of relief that end of, had

come, 214.
Washington county, special election
to fill vacancies, 428; peculiar
state of confusion existed in, 468.
Watson, Senator, letter from H. W.
Walter to. showing deplorable
state of affairs General Forrest
was expected to restore to order,
211.
Weitzel, Gen. Godfrey, declines com-
mand of negro regiments, 170.
West Point, Miss., Armstrong's bri-
gade all assembled at, 123.
Wheeler's Cavalry recalled from

Tennessee, 107.
White citizens, clash between ne-
groes and, 418.
Wheeler, telegram from, 103.
Wilson, Colonel, of Nineteenth Ten-
nessee, wounded. 111.
Wilson, quotation from report of,
pertinent to fight at Anthony's
Hill, 120.
Wilson, General, extract from his
report regarding position of For-
rest at Richland Creek, 117; at-
tack on Selma, 128; remained in
Selma a week, 136.
Wilson's Cross-roads, Forrest as-
saults the enemy at, 113.
Wood, C. W., case of, 344.
Wyeth's, Dr., description of the Con-
federate clash with Upton, 124.

Terger case, argument for removal
to supreme court, 861.

Yerger, E. M., stabs Col. J. G. Crane
to death, 361; escape of, exciting
incident of the period, 392; indict-
ed by grand jury for manslaugh-
ter, 404.

584

Mississippi Historical Society.

Terger, Judge, shows political senti-
ment of North, 319.

Young, Judge, reviews conclusions of
Dr. Rowland as to discovery of
Mississippi river, 152; questions
statement of Dr. Rowland as to
views of "some Memphians" as
to place of discovery of Mississ-
ippi river, 155; presents persuas-
ive fact pointing to Memphis as

place where DeSoto crossed Mis-
sissippi river, 156; to get at truth
of history writes article on De-
Soto at Chickasaw Bluffs in reply
to Dr. Rowland, 157.
Young's, Judge, weakness of, au-
thorities in support of conten-
tion that Memphis was place of
discovery of Mississippi river, 161.

INDEX

Abbeville, 42.
Aberdeen, 423.
Adams, 45.
Adams, Col. Wirt, 45.
Adams County, 410, 427.
Adams, Dan, 124, 125, 127.
Adams, P. M., 140.
Adams, Frank, 115, 138.
Adams, General, 46.
Adams, G. Gordon, 370.
Adams, J. B., 140.
Adams, L,. M., 140.
Adams, Sergeant Robert, 138.
Adams, Writ, 43, 77, 356.
Alabama, 80, 123.
Alcorn, 383, 398, 403, 413, 419
424, 426, 431 437, 454, 455*,
462, 463, 464, 466 471.
Alcorn, General, 372, 373, 374.
Alcorn, General James L., 364,
Alcorn, Governor, 381, 389, 392,
396, 399, 401, 404, 408, 409,
412, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418,
421, 423, 425, 427, 458.
Alcorn, J. K, 403.
Alcorn, Senator, 430.
Alderson, A., 394.
Alexander, 127.
Alford, G. W., 57.
Alford, George, 86, 120. 138.
Allen, 413.
Allen, John, 49.
Allison, Senator, 504.
Ames, 357, 361, 366, 375, 383,
392, 394, 410, 417, 418, 419,
430, 431, 437, 454, 455, 457,
459, 460, 463, 464, 465, 466,
468, 471, 493.
Ames, A., 388.
Ames, Adelbert, 370.
Ames, Brevet Major General, 38
Ames, General, 356, 360, 362,

367, 372, 381, 396, 407.
Ames, Governor, 470, 471, 494, 4
Ames, Governor General, 359.

420,
456,

371.
394,
411,
420,

387,
426,
458,
467,

1.
365,

95.

Ames, Major General Adelbert, S6S

Ames, Senator, 403.

Anderson, 487, 517, 518, 519.

Anderson, Benjamin, 140.

Anderson, Ephraim, 140.

Anderson, Thos. C, 517.

Angler, Mr., 447.

Antioch, 59.

Antioch Church, 58.

Appomattox, 390.

Archer, 550, 556, 562.

Archer, M., 140.

Archer, Reverend S., 213.

Armistead, 550, 558, 560, 562.

Armstead, Colonel Gordon, 298.

Armstrong, 47, 66, 67, 68, 71, 72, 94
95, 99, 100, 103, 104, 105, 106^
108, 109, 110, 111, 115, 118. 119,
121, 123, 125, 127, 128, 129, 130,
131, 136.

Armstrong, Brigadier General, 114.
Armstrong, General, 46, 96, 98, 133.
Armstrong, General Prank, 43, 92,

93.
Armstrong, William, 138.
Atterberry, C. S., 138.
Atwood, Wm., 381.
Augur, General, 485, 491.
Augur, Major General, 280.
Augustus, Corporal W. B., 138.
Aust, J. O., 140.

Badajoz, Xerez de, 144.

Bailey, James S., 305.

Baker, ex-Judge Grafton, 416.

Baker, Judge, 417.

Baker, Lieutenant A. J., 567.

Baldwin, Jno. D., 318.

Ball, 454.

Ball, I. H., 138.

Ball, J. P., 453.

Ballentine, 74, 75, 77, 92, 129, 135

Bancroft, 154, 161, 162.

Banks, General, 172.

586

Mississippi Historical Society.

Banks, General N. P., 168.

Barksdale, 261, 421.

Barksdale, Honorable E., 420, 472.

Barnard, Colonel N. B., 300.

Barnett, Nat., 135.

Barnett, Watt, 140.

Bal-nham, John, 138.

Barnhill, T. F., 140.

Barr, H. A., 304.

Barr, Major, 539.

Barrows, D. N., 322.

Barton, Thomas P., 138.

Basket, Clerk, 332.

Bassett, Captain, 44.

Bates, 97, 98, 113, 114.

Bates, General, 96.

Bat-es, Major General, 114.

Bayard, Senator, 479.

Bealle, 10«.

Bealle, Captain, 45.

Bealle, J. R., 39.

Bealle, Captain J. R., 44, 42.

Bealle, Captain John R., 46, 140.

Beasley, Adjutant W. E., 138.

Beasley, Jerry, 40.

Bea.sley, Little Jere, 61.

Beasley, R. O., 89.

Beasley, Second Lieut. H. O., 140.

Beasley, Sergeant William, 41.

Beasley, W. E., 37.

Beasley, William, 40.

Beasley, Wm. E., 84.

Beasleys, 14, 40, 84.

Beauregard, 29, 36, 39, 108.

Belknap, 164, 438.

Bell, Honorable John, 13.

Bell, Wm., 140.

Belmont, 23, 25.

Belton, Lieutenant W. H., 666.

Beltzhoover, 23, 24.

Benton, 20, 21.

Berry, B. F., 288.

Bethel, 41.

Bethune, W. L., 140.

Biedma, 147, 152, 155, 159.

Big Black, 78, 79.

Billups, Thos. C, 247.

Billups, T. C, 304.

Binford, Jno. A., 303.

Binion, A. D., 138.

Binion, Deal A., 143.

Binion, W., 138.

Bird, Captain George W., 566.

Bishop, 40.

Bishop, Corp. G. L., 140.

Bishop, Lieutenant, 484.

Black, Jeremiah S., 405.

Black, Joe, 140.

Blackwell, Nicholas, 305.

Blaine, 286, 475, 499, 510, 516, 519,

529, 533.
Blaine, James G., 283, 285, 406.
Blaine, Mr., 284, 511, 512, 515.
Blaine, Senator, 508, 509, 523.
Blaine, Senator James G., 522.
Blake, George B., 192.
Blair, General Frank P., 276.
Blair, John A., 562.
Blair, John M., 140.
Bliss, M., 421, 422, 423.
Bobb, John, 200.
Boggess, Thomas, 138.
Bolivar, 60, 61, 64, 65.
Bolivar County, 394, 395.
Bolton, W. H. 468, 469.
Bond, Charles T., 305.
Bond, U. S. Judge, 488.
Bonham, 37
Boone, Captain, 127.
Boswell, A. J., 37, 138.
Bourne, 161.
Bourne, Dr. E. G., 145.

Bourn«, Doctor Ed. Gaylord, 150,

163.
Bourne, Edward Gaylord, 148.
Bourne, Professor Edward Gaylord,
152.

Boutw«ll, 349, 365, 434, 510.

Boutwell, Chairman, 355.

Boutwell, George S., 260.

Boutwell, Mr., 357.

Boutwell, Lecturer, 280, 369, 434.

Bowles, 23, 25.

Bowles, Captain A. J., 19.

Bowles, Captain Jack, 49.

Bowles, Samuel, 435.

Boyles, 14.

Boyle, D. C, 140.

Boyle, Robert W., 138.

Boynton, General H. V., 519.

Bradley, Justice, 499, 501, 502.

Bragg, 41, 71, 536, 545.

Bragg, Braxton, 29.

Bragg, General, 33, 195, 537, 541,
542, 544.

Brandon, 79.

Brandon, General W. L., 301. .

Brandon, W. L., 305.

Bratton, Bishop, 89.

Breckenridge, General, 33.

Breckenridge, Honorable John C,
13, 29, 354.

Brewer, Colonel, 41.

Bridges, Thomas E., 140.

Index.

«8r

Bright, John M., 9, 268.

Brittain Lane, 44, 45.

Brockenbrough, 550, 652, 656 567

Brooks, 14, 439.

Brooks, James, 136.

Brooks, Lieutenant, Chas., 566.

Brooks, Sergeant J. F., 138, 140.

Brooks, Tom, 75.

Brooks, T. S., 86, 90, 120, 138, 143

Brothers, Dr., 423.

Brothers, Doctor Oscar C, 422

Brown, 433, 435.

Brown, B. Gratz, 432.

Brown, C., 141.

Brown, Circuit Judge, 404.

Brown, Colonel, 199.

Brown, Colonel W. D., 198.

Brown, ex-Senator, 362.

Brown, Governor, 208, 209, 279.

Brown, Jesse, 141.

Brown, John, 200.

Brown, Mr. 280.

Brown^ S. M., 141.

Brown, Rob. M, 305.

Brownlow, Governor, 399.

Bruce, B. K., 471, 526.

Bruce, Senator, 513.

Buchanan's, 13, 256.

Buchanan, Mrs. 38.

Buck, John B., 141.

Buckner, 642.

Buckner, General, 541.

Buckner, Major-General, 645.

Buell, 36.

Buell, General Don Carlos, 34.

Buford, 109, 110, 111, 113, 116.

Bullard, Lieutenant Colonel, 539.

Bullitt, W. A., 541.

Burke, 450.

Burke, E. A., 506.

Burke, J. D., 141.

Burwell, Judge A, 218, 219.

Bush, A. H., 14, 138.

Bush, Albert, 14, 138.

Bush, Anderson, 14, 138.

Bush, J. D., 14.

Bush, John D., 138.

Butler, 168, 355, 358, 434, 508, 619.

Butler, Ben., 357, 495, 612.

Butler, B. F., 383.

Butler, Captain, 332.

Butler, General, 170, 518, 620.

Butler, General Ben, 524.

Butler, General B. F., 317.

Byars, Eli J., 303.

Byhalia, 47.

Cade, Sergeant Jait D., 141.
Caesar, Julius, 85.
Cahlll, p. F. N., 138.
Cairo, 24, 50.
Caldwell, Robt. L., 138.
Calhoon, Honorable S. S., 461.
Calhoon, John, 432.
Callahan, Michael, 138.
Callahan, Mike, 37, 59.
Callicott, 240.
Cameron, 476, 499, 610.
Cameron, Colonel Hugh. 229.
Cameron, J. D., 481.
Cameron, Secretary, 477.
Cameron, Senator, 387.
Cameron, Senator Simon, 386.
Campbell, 216. 439.
Campbell, J. A., 215.
Campbell, Judge J. D., 271.
Campbell, Judge. 413. 440.
Campbell, Lewis D., 278.
Canby, 193.

Canby, General, 190, 224, 227 228
229, 231, 232, 241, 242, 284. 866.'
Canby, General E. R. S., 230, 238.
Canby, Major General. 137.
Carleton, Finnis E., 138.
Carlton, 2d Corp. F. E., 37.
Carpenter, 502.
Carpenter, Frank, 534.
Carter, J. Prentiss, 304.
Casey, 380.
Cason, Braxton, 304.
Cassenave, C, 517.
Caston. Mid. G., 138.
Cedar Creek. 17.
Chalk Bluff, 29.

Chalmers, 109, 110, 111, 113, 116.
119, 123, 124, 125, 129, 136, 537,
638, 546.
Chalmers, General, 181, 539, 543.
Chalmers, General Jas. R.. 180. 483,

547.
Chalmers, Judge H., 420, 433.
Chamberlain, 493, 508, 510, 514, 515.
Chamberlain, Governor, 4S5. 606.

507.
Champion. Captain, 44.
Chandler. 512.
Chandler. Captain, 46, 70.
Chandler, Captain J. R., 42.
Chandler. Senator Zachariah. 485.
Chandler, W. E., 514, 521.
Chandler. Zack, 434, 497. 52S.

588

Mississippi Historical Society.

Channing, Doctor Edward, 163.

Channing-, George, 138.

Channings, 161.

Charleston, 20.

Chase, Chief Justice, 260, 268, 272,

361, 362.
Chase, Judge, 274.
Chase, Judge S. P., 470.
Chase, Mr., 273, 275, 276.
Chattahoochee, 100, 107.
Chattanooga, 83, 84.
Cheatham, 25, 26, 31, 112.
Cheatham, General, 19, 22, 33.
Cheatham, General Franlt, 18.
Cheatham, W. A., 138.
Chicago, 40.
Chickasaw County, 430.
Chickamaugua, 92.
Chisca, 156.
Ohiwalla, 37, 39, 52.
Claiborne, 156, 161, 162, 483.
Claiborne, J. P. H., 154.
Clark, Charles, 224.
Clark, General, 81, 82.
Clark, General Chas., 284.
Clark, Governor, 209, 214, 223, 226,

227, 260, 311.
Clark, Joe, 198.
Clark, Math., 138.
Clark, M. J., 143.
Clarke, A. V., 138.
Clay, Clement C, 249.
Clayton, Geo. R., 247, 399.
Clear Creek, 64.
Clemments, Early C, 37, 138.
Cleveland, Mr., 533.
Clieuthe, J., 141.
Clinton, Sam, 56.
Clopton, Lieutenant Wm. H., 566.
Coats, James A., 138.
Coburn, 67, 68, 69.
Coburn, Colonel, 66.
Cockrum, 47.
CofCeeville, 60.
Coffin, Captain O. S., 246.
Colbert, Jack, 141.
Colbert, W. H., 138.
Coldwater River, 43, 47, 49.
Cole, 20.

Cole, Captain, 23.
Cole, Captain A. B., 19.
Cole, Ira, 546.

Cole, 3rd Lieutenant Geo. F., 565.
Cole, Washington, 138.
Coleman, A. S., 63.
Coleman, C. M., 141.

Coleman, Wm. H., 141.
Collins, Mrs. Ottie Lyle, 122.
Columbia, 69, 70, 71, 72.
Columbus, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,

39.
Combash, 375.
Compton, Doctor, 421.
Compton, W. C, 304.
Conkling, 475, 499, 516. 519, 529.
Conkling, Senator, 515, 528.
Connor, W. D., 138.
Connor, W. S., 138.
Conover, 256.
Conover, Sanford, 255.
Conover, Senator, 486.
Conway, Roverend Thos. W., 241.
Cook, 202.

Cook, Captain J. B., 203.
Cook, J. R., 202.
Cook, Mrs. J. R., 202.
Cook, S. B., 201.
Cook, Taylor Miss., 56.
Cooke, Jay, 240.
Coon, 111.

Coon, Colonel Datus, 109.
Cooper, 321.
Cooper, Adjutant S., 76.
Cooper, Doctor, 252.
Cooper, Lundsford P., 304.
Cooper, Richard, 305.
Copeland, Miss, 214.
Copiah County, 430.
Coran, R. A., 141.
Corinth, 27, 35, 37, 39, 40, 41, 44, 47,

52, 53, 54, 55, 83.
Comado, 144.
Cornelius, R., 138.
Cortex, 144.

Cosby, 68, 71, 73, 76, 77.
Cosby, Brigadier General, G. B., 66.
Cosby, General, 82.
Cotton Gin. 39.
Cotton, I. B., 138.
Cotton, James, 141.
Cotton, John, 141.
Courtes, J., 37.
Cowpcns, 446.
Cox, 109.
Cox, Bugler, 57.
Cox, P. S., 37.
Cox, F. L. Bugler, 138.
Cox, General, 278.
Cox, S. S., 289, 376, 384, 496, 501.
Cox, W. A., 141.

Crane, Colonel, 361, 385, 392, 404.
Crane, Colonel Jos. G., 361.

Index.

589

Cranford, W. H., 138.

Craven, 73.

Craven, Captain, 54, 91, 130.

Carven, Captain L. Mirabeau, 141.

Carven, 1st Lieutenant Mirabeau. 42.
46.

Craven, Mirabeau, 39.

Craven, Surgeon, 252.

Crawford, A. B., 141.
Crawford, Ed. 96.
Crawford, G. W., 141.
Crawford, T. Q., 304.

Crawford, W. H., 37.
Croolc, 477.
Crosslands, 126, 126.
Crossley, J. W., 141.
Cruise, Jim, 378.
Crum, W. A., 305.
Cummings, M. C, 304.
Cushing, 558.
Cashing, Cabel, 470.
Custer, 477.

D

Dallas, John, 141.

Dana, 250.

Dana, C. A., 178, 249, 296, 435.

Dana, General, 193, 203, 218, 219,

222, 225, 228, 242.
Dana, Major General N. J. T., 188,

202.
Dancy, Henry, 141.
Danceyville, 64.
Daniel, H. M., 138.
Daniel, James, 138.
Daniel, J. T. 141.
Dantzler, A. J., 138.
Dantzler, Groves, 61.
Dantzler, G. H., 14.
Dantzler, Jack, 14.
Dantzler, J. L. Junior, 138.
Dantzler, J. L. Sr., 14, 138.
Dantzler, 3d Sergeant G. H., 36, 138.
Dantzler, Thomas, 143.
Dantzler, T. M., 14, 138.
Darrell, Judge, 439.
Davidson, General, 219.
Davis, 51, 64, 250, 252, 253, 255, 257,

261, 284, 465, 550, 551, 552, 554,

562.
Davis' Bridge, 10.
Davis, David, 141.
Davis, General Reuben, 82.
Davis, General Joe, 88, 556.
Davis, General, 554.

Davis, Jefferson, 26, 184, 195, 249
254, 256, 268, 269, 266, 364, 367.
374, 386, 387, 433.

Davis, John H., 141.

Davis, Justice, 499.

Davis, L. L., 304.

Davis, Mr., 2"5l, 260.

Davis, Mrs., 251.

Davis, President, 58, 98, 181, 207
208, 212, 248, 280, 311, 470.

Davis, Sergeant James M., 141.

Davis, Wm., M., 141.

Dawes, Colonel, 562.

Day, Lieutenant, 61, 76, 87, 132.

Day, Sam, 15, 87.

Day, S. B., 37.

Day, 2d Lieutenant S. B., 42, 138.

Day, Lieutenant S. B., 61, 86, 115,

122.
Deal, Nick, 138.

de Anasco, Juan, 156.

Dean, Wm. F., 141.

de Biedma, Louis Hernandez, 145,

150.
De Bow, J. B., 193.
del Inca, LaPlorida, 152.
De L'Isle, 147, 151, 161.
de la "Vega, Garciloso, 146, 149, 160,

152.
Deloach, Josiah, 43.
Denmark, 44, 45.
Dennis, General, 137.
Dennis, L. G., 521.
Dennis, S. G., 518.
Dennison, 259, 267, 269.
Dent, 365, 372, 373, 398.
Dent, Judge, 366, 367, 368, 369, 371,

374, 376.
Dent, Judge, Lewis, 364, 466.
Denton, Corporal Wm., 141.
Denton, Jonah, 141.
De Soto Hernando, 144.
De Soto, 144, 145, 146, 148, 149, 150,
151, 153, 154, 156, 156, 168, 169,
160, 161, 162, 163, 164.
Deupree, 57, 116, 120.
Deupree, Captain, 131.
Deupree, Captain T. J., 123, 132, 139.
Deupree, Doctor, T. J., 34.
Deupree, Doctor T. M., 14, 40, 141.
Deupree, 5th Sergeant W. D., 36, 37.
Deupree, 1st Lieutenant T. G., 42, 70.
Deupree, J. Ellington, 14, 16, 37,

139.
Deupree, J. Everett, 14, 139.
Deupree, J. G., 12, 14, 37, 60, 61,
86, 115, 122, 128, 139, 143.

590

Mississippi Historical Society.

Deupree, 3d Lieutenant Jos. L., 138.

Deupree, J. W., 14.

Deupree, Lieutenant J. L., 14, 15.

Deupree, Lieutenant, 75.

Deupree, Lieutenant T. J., 321, 108.

Deupree, Mr. J. E., 17, 32, 37, 143.

Deupree, 2nd Lieutenant T. J., 36.

Deupree, T. J., 14, 15, 115.

Deupree, W. Daniel, 14, 139.

Deupree, W. Drewry, 14, 61, 139.

Dickey, Colonel, 60.

Diggs, Willis, 141.

Dillard, Quartermaster T. B., 12.

Donelson, 386.

Doogran, J. L., 139.

Dooly, W. v., 87.

Dooly, Wm. W., 139.

Dorris, James H., 303.

Dornblaser, Colonel, 246.

Dorroh, J. W.. 141.

Douglass, Honorable Stephen A., 13.

Douglass, Jas. W., 139.

Douglass, Jim, 59.

Douglass, Sergeant Wm. W., 139.

Douglass, W. W., 87.

Dowd, C, 304.

Dowling, Charley, 39.

Dowling, 1st Lieut., Charl«s, 141.

Downing, 321.

Drake, A. G., 566.

Drake, M. A., 141.

Draper, S., 234, 239, 240.

Drennan, Chancellor, 468.

Duck River, 69, 70, 71.

Duke, Colonel William H., 11.

Duke, Mrs. Sina Bankhead, 11.

Duke, Miss Sina E., 11, 86, 92.

Duncan, 537.

Duncan, General, 547.

Duncan, J. F., 141.

Duncan, Wm. L., 305.

Dunham, Colonel C. L., 543, 545.

Durell, Judge, 441.

Durell, 442.

Dyer, J. B., 141.

a

East, Samuel, 139.

Eckert, T. T., 334.

Eckford, H. G., 139.

Eckford, 3rd Lieutenant Jas. W.,

139.
Eddlngs, W. W. 141.
Edgarton, J. W., 141.
Edgell, Captain Frederick M., 5B4.

Edmunds, 449.

Edmunds, Senator, 495.

Edwards, T. J., 139.

Edwards, W. A., 141.

Edwards, M. B, 141.

Edwards, N. J., 141.

Eiland, 1st Corp. L. E., 36.

Eiland, James O., 139.

Eiland, Lake Erie, 139.

Eldridge, Colonel Stuart, 241.

Ellery, 232.

Eliicott, Andrew, 162.

EUicott, 164.

Ellis. John E., 506.

Elvas, 146, 147, 155, 159, 160.

Engelhard, 556.

Engelhard, Major, 552, 656.

Erwin, C. H., 141.

Eutaw Springs, 446.

Evans, Captain, 213.

Evans, John W., 139.

Ewell, General, R. S., 217.

Evart, Judge, 479.

Pairforce, J. W., 139.

Falconer, Mayor, 346.

Fancher, Augustus A., 141.

Fancher, F. B., 141.

Fancher, J. F., 141.

Fancher, N. F. B., 141.

Fannin County, 17.

Fant, Gus., 135.

Farley, Geo. P., 304.

Farragut, 169.

Farrow, W. L., 139.

Fayette, 64, 81. ■

Fayetteville, 9.

Featherston, 119.

Featherston, Lieutenant, 566.

Featherstone, Mrs., 122.

Feliciana, 27.

Fernandez, Benedict, 145.

Ferrell, Assistant Surgeon, Doctor A. .

. C, 42.
Ferrell, Assistant Surgeon, H. H.,

141.
Ferris, Mr., 21, 41.
Ferry, President, 504.
Ferry, Senator, 501.
Field, 119.
Field, Mr., 524.
Fields, Captain Clay, 332.
Fillmore, President, 289.
Fisher, Judge, 227, 346, 467.

Index.

591

Fletcher, Lieutenant, 484.

Foote, 20, 25, 34.

Foote, Captain, 15, 18, 32, 33, 40.

Foote, Captain H. W., 21, 31, 36, 41,

115, 139.
Foote, Henry, 90, 139.
Foote, H. D., 41.
Foote, Judge H. William, 14, 122.
Foote, Lieutenant, 54, 75, 96, 122,

132.
Foote, Sergeant W. H., 36.
Foote, 3rd Lieutenant W. H., 42, 139.
Forbes, Colonel, 243.
Ford, Robert, 141.
Ford, T. S., 432.
Fore, Charles J., 198.
Forrest, 29, 36, 43, 60, 66, 67, 68,

71, 72, 75, 76, 90, 92, 109, 110,

111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118,

120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 129,

130, 131, 136, 138.
Forrest, Colonel Jesse, 212, 213.
Forrest, General, 86, 127, 211, 212,

213, 214.
Forrest, General N. B., 108, 137, 210.
Forrest, Nathan Bedford, 57.
Portress, Monroe, 58.
Foster, 506.

Foster, Major General, 199.
Franklin, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74,

113, 116.
Franks, Jim, 539.
Fraser, John, 135.
Prazee, 484.
Freeman, 67, 73.
Freeman, Assistant Surgeon E. B.,

141.
Freeman, Captain, 72.
Freeman, W. W., 141.
French, General, 107.
French, General S. G., 396.
Fry, 559.

Pry, Colonel B. D., 549.
Purniss, W. H., 405.

O

Gaines, A. L., 432.
Galney, 376.
Gainsville, 136.
Gaither, Wiley W., 304.
Galloway, Colonel Matt, 136.
Galloway, W. A., 114.
Garcilaso, 153, 155, 156.
Garfield, 67, 529.
Garfield, J. A., 517.

Garfield, James A., 66.

Qarman, M. M., 141.

Garnett, 650, 557, 559, 662, 564.

Garrison, 338.

Garrity, Mr., 201.

Garvin, G. P., 141.

Garvin, Robert, 139.

Gary, C. P., 141.

Gaston, Chas. L., 544.

George, General, 473, 538.

George, General J. Z., 472.

Georgia, 80.

Gettysburg, 549, 563, 567.

Gholson, Dabney, 135.

Gholson, Jason L., 141.

Gholson, N. H., 141.

Gibbs, Marshal W. T., 484.

Gibbs, W. H., 305, 457.
Gibson, Doctor, 376.
Gibson, Doctor Tully, 375.
Glfford, Jos., 141.
Gilbert, Major General, 646.

GiUem, General, 348, 350, 351, 362,
355, 356, 359, 396.

Gillespie, Lucullus, 141.

Gilmore, General Q. A., 248.

Girard, 107.

Glass, A. D., 139.

Glass, E. D., 139.

Gordon, 77.

Gordon, Colonel James, 65, 68.

Gordon, Senator, 451.

Goode, 512.

Goode, E. T., 304.

Goodwin, George H., 139.

Goodwin, G. W., 141.

Goodwin, T. J., 37.

Goodwin, Thomas J., 139.

Goolsby, Lieutenant, 566.

Gowan, T. R., 305.

Grady, Henry W., 264.

Grand Junction, 60.

Granger, 68, 71, 72, 73.

Granger, General, 69.

Grant, 24, 26, 27, 29, 34, 35, 53, 54,
55, 58, 60, 62, 78, 79, 83, 168,
278, 296, 347, 391, 392, 432, 433,
435, 437, 438, 462, 466, 475, 523.

Grant, General, 25, 170, 171, 173,
174, 177, 178, 179, 180, 185, 194,
196, 197, 199, 200, 215, 217, 221,
223, 270, 274, 275, 280, 284, 348,
349, 357, 437, 467.

Grant General U. S., 43.

Grant, J. A., 37, 139.

Grant, John, 141.

Grant, Lieutenant General U. S., 216.

592

Mississippi Historical Society.

Grant, President, 355, 357, 362, 363
365, 366, 369, 385, 401, 406, 407
439, 442, 463, 470, 485, 486, 489
490, 492, 493, 494, 498, 506, 508
516.

Grant, U. S., 368, 370.

Gray, Charley, 135.

Greely, 433, 435, 436, 437, 466.

Greely, Horace, 260, 432, 436.

Greeley, Mr., 316.

Green, Colonel P. M., 552.

Greenville, 396, 415, 416, 464.

Greenwood, J. E., 139.

Greer, A., 14, 37.

Greer, Alonzo, 139.

Greer, P. J., 14.

Greer, Pred J., 139.

Greer, P. B., 14, 37.

Greer, J., 37.

Greer, J. A., 14.

Greer, J. H., 14.

Greer, John H., 139.

Greer, Orderly Sergeant J. A., 42.

Greer, Sergeant Felix B., 139.

Greer, Sergeant Julius A., 139.

Gregory, G. W,, 141.

Grenade, 58, 60, 63, 65, 78.

Grierson, 65, 90.

Grierson, Colonel, 47, 49.

Grierson, General, 247.

Griffin, Honorable James M., 560.

Griffin, Wm., 304.

Griffith, 59, 261.

Griffith, Colonel, 68.

Gulley, H. J., 804.

Hahn, Governor, 270.

Hall>ert, Captain, 566.

Hale, Eugene, 517.

Hale, Senator, 387.

Haley, Andrew, 141.

Haley, Daniel D., 139.

Hall, 559, 563.

Hall, Alex. H., 304.

Hall, R. B., 139.

Halleck, 180, 249, 250.

Halleck, Chief, 173.

Halleck, General, 168, 170, 175, 179,

197, 248.
Halliday, 438.
Halsey, Mr., 214.
Halstead, Murat, 435, 492.
Hamburg, 21.
Hamilton, A. J., 288.

Hamilton, Colonel Jones S., 289, 461.
Hamilton, T., 139.
Hampton, General Wade, 489.
Hampton, Governor, 487, 490.
Hampton, Wade, 477.
Hancock, 557, 559, 301.
Hancock, General, 391, 556.
Hancock, Judge, 301.
Happen, T. W., 141.
Hardee, 36, 94, 98, 536.
Hardeman, 64.

Hardy, Asst. Surg. John E., 141.
Hardy, John C, 1, 39.
Hardy, J. E., 37.
Hardy, Louis W., 139.
Hardy, Wm. B., 141.
Hardy, W. H., 377.
Hare, Serg. Wm. P., 141.
Harlan, 259, 511.
Harlan, General, 519, 520.
Harlan, General John M., 510.
Harlan, Secretary, 268.
Harmon, Chancellor, 394.
Harper, A. C, 139.
Harper, John C, 139.
Harper, R. H., 139.
Harris, Governor Isham G., 112.
Harris, M. S., 141.
Harris, Noah, 141.
Harris, V. P., 141.
Harrison, 120, 306.
Harrison, A. T., 141.
Harrison, James A., 304.
Harrison, Mr., 633.
Harrison's Landing, 636.
Harrow, 559.
Hartley, S. B., 139.
Hatch, 65, 109, 110, 111.
Hatch, General, 243, 247.
Hatchie River, 44.
Hawley, 511.

Hawley, General J. M., 510.
Hays, General, 552, 560.
Hayes, 485, 497, 498, 601, 502, 503,
504, 506, 509, 516, 616, 518, 619.
Hayes, General Rutherford, B., 476.
Hayes, Governor, 475, 514.
Hayes, Mr., 486, 613, 520, 521.
Hayes, President, 608, 511, 512.
Haynes, A. S., 141.
Haynes, Corporal, H. C, 139.
Haynes, Hall, 104.
Haynes, H. C, 37.
Haynes, J. M., 141.
Haynes, Miss Mattie, 17.
Haynes, T. G., 141.

Index.

593

Head, James A., 304.
HemingTvay, Wm., 303.
Henderson, Colonel H. A. M., 223.
Hendricks, 491, 496, 501, 604.
Hendricks, T. A., 475.
Henly, G. H., 141.
Henley, Lieutenant, 108.
Henry, John, 141.
Hernando, 47, 49.
Herrin, Capt., 77, 80, 96.
Herrln, Captain, Qadl, 42.
Herrin, Colonel Gadl, 54.
Heth, 550.
Hewitt, 493.

Hewitt, Congressman, 505.
Hewitt, Mr., 524.
Hibbler, Corporal Rob., 139.
Hibbler, J. E., 139, 143.
Hibbler, Robert, 143.
Hibbler, Tol., 139.
Hickman, Ky., 22.
Higgrins, O. H., 139.
Higgins, O. M., 37, 141.
High, J. M., 141.
Hill, A. P., 549.
Hill, Doctor, 289.
Hill, H. R. W., 198.
Hill, J. B., 141.
Hill, J. C, 141.
Hill, Judge, 466.
Hill, J. v., 141.
Hill, Lieutenant T. W., 666.
Hill, R. A., 305.
Hinds, 394, 404.
Hinds, General Thomas, 78.
Hinds, Howell, 77, 78.
Hinton, George W., 139.
Hinton, G. W., 37.
Hinton, La Fayette, 141.
Hissing, Major, 322.
Hoar, 529.

Hoar, Attorney General, 357, J61.
Hoar, Senator, 527.
Hogg, Colonel, 44.
Holberg, 74.
Holberg, Jake, 86, 88.
Holberg, Sergeant Jacob, 139.
Holden, Governor, 399.
Holden, W. W., 286, 288.
•'s'lite. l^ieutenant, 229.
Holllday, Captain Thomas C, 552.
Holly Springs, 43, 50, 54, 55, 58, 59,
60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 211, 421, 484,
532.
Holman, J. N., 141.
Holmies, County, 410.

Holt, 257, 260.

Holt, Judge Advocate General Jo-
seph, 254, 26', 256.

Houston, Lock E., 304.

Hood, 93, 101, 103, 105, 106, 107
108, 109, lie, 1X1, 112, 118 116
117, 121.

Hook, 118.

Hooker, General, 226.

Horn, W. A. 141.

Korne, James A., 305.

Horner, James S., 304.

Hovey, General, 173.

Howard, 550.

Howard, Commander, 330.

Howard, General, 343, 344, 558.

Howard, General O., 193, 240 278
325, 327, 340. ' '

Howard, Major General, 346, 6B7.

Howard, Thomas, 141.

Howard, Treasury Agent, 233.

Howlaiid, Colonel, 242.

Howlette, H. C, 37, 139.

Howlett, Jack, 139.

Howze, H. S., 141.

Hubbard, J. M., 67.

Hudson, H. A., 139.

Hudson, J. B., 37.

Hud.son, John, 74, 307.

Hudson, J .'dge, 402.

Hudson, O. W., 141.

Hudson, R. S., 305.

Hudson, Judge R. S., 212.

Hudson, Sergeant Wm. J., 139.

Hudson, W. J., 37.

Hughes, 72.

Hughes, Thomas, 141.

Hughes, W. A., 37.

Hughes, Wm. A., 139.

Humphreys, 261.

Humphreys, Captain, 484.

Humphreys, General, 346.

Humphreys, Governor, 376.

Hunt, W. B., 141.

Hunter, 216.

Hunter, Corporal Henry M., 139.

Hunter, C. M., 14, 15.

Hunter, First Lieutenant C. M., 36.

Hunter, General 176.

Hunter, General David, 169.

Hunter, H. D., 14, 142.

Hunter, H. M., 14, 37.

Hunter, Honorable J. L., 13.

Hunter, J. W., 14.

Hunter, Lieutenant C, 91.

694

Mississippi Historical Society.

Hunter, Mr. J. J., 14, 75, 91, 102,

135.
Hunter, Sergeant, 134.
Hunter, Sergeant H. M., 142.
Hunter, Sergeant J. J., 133, 142.
Hunter, 3rd Lieut. C. M., 139.
Hunter, W. W., 142.
Hunter, W, 14, 37, 96.
Hunter, Willis, 139, 142.
Hurlburt, 53.

Hurlburt, General, 173, 176.
Hurlbut, Major General, 192.
Hurst, Colonel, 38.
Hurst, David W., 303.

Ingram, J., 139.
Ingersoll, Bob, 526.
Ireland, Colonel, 418.
Iverson, 103.
Irving, Theodore, 156.
Irwin, F. R., 142.

Issaquena, County, S9B, 410, 427,
452.

Jackson, 14, 18, 28, 37, 44, 45, 47,
51, 53, 55, 58, 59, 60, 61, 71, 72,
79, 81, 88, 89, 90, 95, 97, 100,
103, 105, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111,
113, 114, 116, 119, 123, 136, 207,
224, 227, 229, 230, 290, 291, 331,
349, 351, 361, 385, 393, 403, 415,
417, 420, 425, 446, 457, 473.

Jackson, Colonel, 33, 50, 52, 54.

Jackson, General, 65, 66, 73, 94, 103.

Jackson, General Andrew, 78.

Jackson, General J. K., 543.

Jackson, Sam, 42, 139.

Jackson, Tenn, 45, 53.

Jackson, W., 37.

Jackson, General W. H., 76.

Jackson, Wm. R., 189.

Jackson, Bill, 74.

Jackson, T. P., 142.

Jacobs, Lieutenant-Governor, 226.

James, Jno. S., 301.

Jarnagin, Chesley, 86.

Jarnagin, 4th Corporal J. C 37.

Jarnagin, H. L., 88.

Jarnigan, Hampton L., 304.

Jarnagin, J. C, 88, 139.

Jarnagins, 14.

Jefferson County, 427.

Jeffords, E., 369.

Jeffords, Judge E., 366.

Jeffords, Messrs., 364.

Jenkins, Cy, 49.

J«nkins, Cyrus, 139.

Jenkins, C. S., 37.

Jenkins, J. P., 142.

Jere, 70.

Johnson, 136, 218, 221, 252, 266, 269,

286, 296.
Johnson, Andrew, 234, 288, 316, 326,

337, 340, 367, 408.
Johnson, A. T., 546.
Johnson, B. W., 142.
Johnson, Corporal T. W., 142.
Johnson, General, 248.
Johnson, General Jos. E., 220.
Johnson, Governor Andrew, 173.
Johnson, Harvey P., 305.
Johnson, James, 288.
Johnson, Lawrence, 304.

Johnson, Lieutenant, 214.
Johnson, Mr., 198.

Johnson, President, 222, 253, 257,
258, 267, 274, 275, 278, 279, 280,
282, 283, 285, 289, 311, 313, 314,
317, 320, 334, 335, 336, 347, 349,
354, 355.

Johnson, President Andrew, 220.

Johnson, Robt. C, 303.

Johnson, Woodson, 139.

Johnson's Island, 33.

Johnston, 79, 92, 94, 97, 98, 101,
222, 307.

Johnston, Albert Sidney, 29, 30, 101.

Johnston, Amos R., 225, 304.

Johnston, General, 36, 77, 95, 100,
181, 221.

Johnston, General Jos. E., 180.

Johnston, Joseph E., 43, 76, 77, 101.

Johnston, Judge, 413.

Joiner, R. H., 37, 139.

Joiner, Wm., 142.

Jones, 413.

Jones, J. L., 142.

Jones L., 303.

Jones, Levi, 421.

Jones, Major, 74, 556.

Jones, P. H., 37.

Jones, R. H., 139.

Jordan, 67.

Jordan, J. J., 142.

Jordon, General, 119.

Jordon, General Thomas, 118.

Index.

695

Keary, Martin, 411.

Keating, 161.

Keating', Colonel J. M., 162.

Keating, J. M., 155.

Kelley, W. R., 142.

Kellogg, 439, 441, 442, 466, 477, 510.

Kemper, 550, 558, 560, 661. 564.

Kennedy, J. H., 305.

Kenner, L. M., 517.

Keown, Corporal Robert W., 139.

Keown, R. W., 37.

Kilpatrick, 104.

Kllpatrick, General, 108.

King, 67, 93, 104, 123.

King, Captain, 108, 115.

King, Captain James A., 139.

King, Captain J. A., 42.

King, Peyton, 304.

Kirby, General E., 238.

Labauve, C. F., 301.
Lafayette, 620.
Lagrone, N. C, 141.
Lake, 394.
Lamar, 600.

Lamar, Colonal, 420, 421.
Lamar, Congressman, 478.
Lamar, Justice, 534.
Lamar, Mr. 487, 505.
Lamar, Senator, 451, 492, 528.
l^mpkin, S. N., 303.

London, 438.

Lane, 550, 552, 656, 557, 588.

Lane, General, 555, 556.

Langston, Professor, 405.

Latt, 74, 75.

Lauderdale County, 430.

Lea, Pryor, Jr., 139.

Leavenworth, Kansas, 386.

Leavell, R. M., 432.

Lebanon, 32.

Led, Sergeant Joseph, 139.

Lee, 81, 92, 103, 106, 136, 216, 221
391, 421, 484.

Lee, General. 86, 283, 296, 443.

Lee, General Custer, 284.

Lee, General S. D., 86, 102, 116.

Lee, Mrs. R. E., 407.

Lee, Robert E, 101.

Lee, R. E., 364, 357.

Leflore, County, 420, 426.

Lester, Captain, 131, 132.

Lester, Captain W. V., 42.

Lewis, 106, 151, 153, 167, 428.

Lewis, Clarke, 139. 303.

Lewis, Hiram W., 421.

Lewis, Jno. B., 305.

Lewis, Mr. 148, 154.

Lewis, Professor, 164.

Lewis, Professor Theodora Hay«s,

168.
Lewis, Samuel P., 139.
Lewis, Theodore Hayea, 146, 150,

152, 157.
Lewisburg, 72.
Lexington, 28, 41, 81.
Ligon, Robert, Commissary, 42.
Lincoln, 13, 16, 169, 176, 185, 208,
209, 216 218, 220, 226, 258, 269,
272, 273, 279, 282, 2S6, 286, 436.
Lincoln, Abraham, 235 264, 379.
Lincoln County, 9.
Lincoln, Mr., 265, 257.
Lincoln, President, 167, 168, 173, 174,
200, 216, 222, 227, 248, 266, 267,
270, 271, 274.
Lindsay, A. J., 39.
Lindsay, Caleb, 304.
Lindsay, Colonel, 31, 32, 33, 34, 86.
Lindsay, Colonel A. J., 28, 41.
Lindsay, 1st Lieutenant H. M., 139.
Linthicum, Cad, 66.
Little, E. S., 141.
Little. Wm., 139.
Lockett, A. J., 139.
Lockett, James, 142.
Lockett, N. B., 142.
Logan, D. S., 142.

Logan, General Jno. A., 174, 860.

Logan, W. R., 142.

Long, 124, 126, 128.

Long, R. F., 142.

Longstreet, 92, 551.

Longstreet, General, 560, 660, 568,
564.

Loper, Joseph M., 304.

Louisville, Ky., 59.

Love, Honorable William A., 667.

Lovelace, W. T., 142.

Loveli, 52, 53, 55.

LKJvering, Judge, 413.

liOwndes County, 408, 421, 423, 484.

Lowrance, 552, 555, 556, 567, 661.

Lowrance, Colonel. 556.

Lowry, Qenenal, 888, 420.

Lowry, General Robert, 371, 374, 419.

Lowry, Robert, 432, 462.

596

Mississippi HistoricaJ Society.

Lucas, Fannie, 122.

Luke, James, 142.

Lusher, 2nd Lieutenant Geo. M., 565.

Lyle, 1st Lieutenant J. B., 142.

Lyle, Lieutenant 46.

Lyle, 3rd Lieutenant, 42.

Lyle, Pattie, 122.

Lynch, 441.

Lynch, Jas., 381, 437.

Lynch, John R., 437, 452, 483, 494.

Lynch, N., 37.

Lynch, Nicholas, 189.

Lyon, A. J., 37. 139.

Lyon, Aug-ustus, 139.

Lyon, M., 37.

Lyon, Major, 139, 229.

Lyons, Lord, 208.

Macon, 13, 16, 17, 18, 21, 26, 88, 533.

Mac CuUoch, Hugh, 259.

Madison, County, 461.

Magruder, Capt., W. T., 552.

Majee, T. H., 139.

Malone, Doctor, 301.

Malone, F. J., 304.

Maltby, General J. A., 202.

Maltby, General, 229.

Haltingly, 200, 201.

Manasses, 19.

Manry, James H., 804.

Marable, Joseph G., 552, 661, 566.

Marion, Robt. B., 561.

Marion, William P., 561.

Marshall, 46, 562.

Marshall, C, 199.

Marshall, Captain Charles, 42.

Marshall, Chief Justice, 289.

Marshall, Colonel, 550.

Marshall, County, 430.

Marshall, Doctor Charles K., 246.

Marshall, T. A., 305.

Marshall, W. H, 142.

Martin, General Wm. T., 306.

Martin, J. B., 142.

Martin, J. L., 142.

Martin, Major-General W. T., 301.

Martin, Mr. John, 46.

Martin, Reverend G. H., 16, 26.

Martin, Wm., Mc D., 305.

Martin, W. T., 303.

Marvin, Wm., 288.

Mason, 451.

Mason, Major, 112.

Mason, M. H., 297.

Mathews, Captain, 328.

Matthews, Lemuel, 304.

Matthews, Lieutenant, 46.

Matthews, Senator, 519.

Matthews, Stanley, 506, 515, 517.

Mauldin, 4th Sergeant F. M., 36.

Mauldiii, Frank, 139.

Mauldin, Jesse, 139.

Maxwell, Major Harvey, 332.

May, J. J., 37.

May, Joseph J., Corporal, 139.

Mayfield, 27.

Mayo, 216.

Mayo, Mayor, 215.

Mayson, Hamilton, 304.

McBride, Wm., 304.

McCardle, 361.

McCasklU, Alec, 115, 122.

McCaskill, A. B., 139.

McClelland, Rob. G., 140.

McComb, 412.

McCook, 103.

McCormick, J., 37.

McCormick, Joseph, 139.

McCulloch, 59, 60, 267, 269.

McCuUoch, Bob., 65.

McCulloch, Col. Bob., 58.

McCulloch, Hugh, 234.

McCulloch, Secretary, 252.

McCuUough, 44.

McCuUough, Bob., 43.

McCuUough, Mr., 253.

McCuUough, Secretary, 233.

McDavid, P., 139.

McDonald, Robert, 142.

McDowell, R. A., 566.

McFarland, A., 236.

McGehee, Jno. H., 328.

McGehee, Judge Edward, 202.

McHenry, Robert, 195.

Mcintosh, Dan., 139.

Mcintosh, J. R., 432.

McKee, George C, 437.

McKibbin, W. A., 142.

McLeod, 240.

McLeod, Randall, 142.

McLin, 518.

McLin, Secretary of State, 521.

McMackin, T. C, 303.

McMuUen, James D., 140.

McNeal, W. L., 142.

McN«ily, J. S., 165.

McPherson, 53, 90, 91.

McPherson, General, 197.

Meath, P. L., 411.

Mechanicsburg, 77, 78.

Medon, Lane, 44.

Index.

B97

Mellen, W. P., 185, 239.
Memming-er, C. S., 194.
Memphis, 11, 19, 24, 47, 50, 55, 61,

86, 131, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148,

149, 151, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158,

159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 168, 177,

178, 186, 193, 203, 211, 242, 246

331, 380.
Menasco, J. H., 142.
Menees, I. R., 140.
Meridian, 80, 90.
Michigan City, 64.
Middleburg, 44, 65.
Miles, Brigade General N. A., 250.
Miles, General, 249, 257, 252, 253.
Miles, General W. R., 380.
Miller, 27.

Miller, Captain John Henry, 18.
Miller, Captain Marsh, 22^ 23.
Miller, Colonel, 33, 34, 38.
Miller, Colonel Hugh R., 561.
Miller, John H., 37.
Miller, Lieutenant, 87.
Miller, Lieutenant Colonel, 26, 28.
Miller, Major, 20.
Miller, W. L., 142.
Milroy, 113. 114.
Mimms, Lieutenant, 566.
Minor, H. A., 140.
Misso, Roscoe, 142.
Mitchelle, Doctor, 161.
Mizener, 65.
Mobile, 17, 80.

Monette, Doctor John W., 163.
Monroe County, 462.
Montague, 74.
Montague, Charles, 140.
Monterey, 28.
Montgomery, 23, 25, 44, 46, 62, 94,

99, 130.
Montgomery, Ala., 15.
Montgomery Augustus S., 199.
Montgomery, Captain, 24.
Montgomery, Captain F. A., 19, 41,

43, 142.
Montgomery, Colonel, 45, 48, 50, 78,

80, 90, 92.
Montgomery, D. C, 142.
Montgomery, Doctor C. L., 42, 132.
Montgomery, Frank A., 39.
Montgomery. Lieutenant Colonel, 47,

77, 98, 129.
Montgomery, Robt. H., 304.
Montross, 233, 235, 237.
Montross, Assistant Special Agent,

232.
Moore, Captain J. H., 565.

Moore, Corporal Andy, 142.

Moore, Lieutenant John V., 667.

Moore, Thomas Q., 142.

Moore, W. A., 142.

Moore, Wm., 142.

Moorman, Colonel George, 865, 866.

Morey, 520.

Morgan, 468.

Morgan, A. T., 393, 467.

Morgan, Judge, 301.

Morgan, Samuel, 142.

Morgan, Senator A. T., 408.

Morgan, Senator, 393, 405.

Morphis, Jos. L., 306.

Morris, Attorney General, 4*8, 484.

Morris, Joshua S., 381.

Morris, S. M., 142.

Morris, Zebulon, 142.

Morrow, F. W., 142.

Morrow, Sergeant G. W., 142.

Morton, 113. 119, 499, 508. 510.

Morton, Captain, Geo. K., 566.

Morton, Senator, 384, 434, 498, 523.

Moscow, 64, 86, 87.

Mosely. J. T., 142.

Moulden, J. N.. 142.

Mudd, Major, 61.

Muhlenberg, Major. 252.

Mulligan, 475.

Munfordville, 546.

Murfreesboro, 114. 116. 138.

Muse. J. M.. 140.

Musgrove. Henry. 381.

N

Napoleon. 386.

Napoleon, Louis, 80.

Nashville, 75, 109, 111, 118, 114,

116, 138.
Natchez, 26, 189, 193, 208.
Neal, J. H., 140.
Neill, Colonel, 61.
Nelms, Captain, 565.
Nelson. 34.
New Albany, 65.
New Madrid, 19, 21.
Nicaragua, 26.
Nicholdson, F. G.. 142.
Nicholls, Francis T., 490.
NichoUs, Governor, 610.
Nickolls, 506, 509, 616, 620.
Nlles, Jason, 303.
Nix, David, Corporal, 142.
Norris, 460.

598

Mississippi Historical Society.

Noxubee, 39, 84, 85, 86, 90, 104, 106,

108, 110, 120, 122.
Noxubee County, 13, 15, 16, 33, 40.
Noxubee River, 17.
NoyBs, Governor, 521.
Nunn, Lieutenant David, 567.

O'Brien, 552.
O'Brien, Billy, 560.
Ogden, H. N., 517.
Osband, General, 227.
Osband, Colonel E. D., 220.
Osborn, 555.
Osborn, J. D., 226.
Osborn, Major T. W., 551.
Osborne, 551.
Osborne, Egrbert, 142.
Osborne, Lieutenant, 565.
Osborne, Major, 553.
Osborne, Reverend, 59.
Ord, General, 216, 355.
Ord, General E. O. C, 215.
Ord, Major General E. O. C, 216.
Orr, Judge, 423.

Osterhaus, General, 228, 229, 230,
299, 300, 305, 322, 331, 333, 340.
Owen, Colonel, 546.
Owen, Colonel Richard, 646.
Owen, J. G., 305.
Owen, Mrs. Connie Beasley, 85.
Owens, Francis A., 305.
Oxford, 19, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 403.

Pack, DaUls, 90, 140.

Pack, J. Li., 140.

Packard, 50, 438, 439, 487, 490, 491,

506, 511, 514, 515, 520.
Packard, Governor, 507, 510, 512.
Paducah, 26.
Pagan, W., 87.
Pagan, Billy, 74.
Pagan, William L., 140.
Palmer, 114, 119.
Palmer, General, 226.
Panola, 22.

Park, Serg«ant E., 142.
Parker, Wm., 140.
Parsons, L. E., 288.
Payne, R. C, 142.
Payne, W. U., 142.
Pearre, Corporal Jamea, 142.

Pearre, M. T., 142.

Peel, 1st Lieutenant Wm., 565.

Pelton, 524.

Pemberton, 60.

Pemberton, 78, 79, 179.

Pemberton, General, 77.

Pender, 556.

Pendleton, John, 140.

Pennypacker, General, 356.

Perces, 438.

Percy, Colonel W. A., 532.

Percy, W. A., 472.

Perdue, J. F., 142.

Perkins, L., 37.

Perkins, Lewis, 91, 140.

Permenter, J. S., 142.

Perry, Wm., 135.

Perry, W. W., 142.

Peters, Doctor, 75.

Peterson, S. M., 142.

Pettigrew, 550, 551, 555, 556, 557,

560, 562, 564.
Pettigrew, General, 550.
Pettus, Henry J., 140.
Petway, Sergeant M. L., 142.
Peyton, Ephraim G., 304.
Peyton, Major Chas. S., 558.
Ph«lan, Senator, 181, 182.
Phillips, 338.
Phillips, J. T., 142.
Phillips, Wendell, 436, 513.
Philipps, Richard W., 304.
Pickett, 550, 551, 558, 559, 561, 563,

565.
Pierce, 496.

Pierce, Corporal Jacob H., 140.
Pierce, John, 140.
Pierce, Nathaniel, 90, 140.
Pierce, Richard R., 140.
Pierce, Thomas M., 140.
Pierce, T. M., 37.
Pierrepont, Mr., 476.
Pillow, General, 22.
Pillow, General Gideon, 20.
Pinson, 43, 45, 46, 47, 51, 61, 77, 83,

94, 103, 104, 107, 114, 129, 130.
Pinson, Adjutant R. A., 23.
Pinson, Captain R. A., 41.
Pinson, Colonel, 10, 11, 42, 72, 73,

74, 77, 82, 84, 86, 87, 92, 100,

101, 102, 116, 131, 132.
Pinson, Colonel Dick, 93.
Pinson, Colonel R. A., 9.
Pinson, Elizabeth Dobbins, 9.
Pinson, Joel, 9.
Pittsburg, 41.
Pittsburgh Landing, 27, 36, 39.

Index.

599

Pizarro, 144.

Pocahontas, 50, 77.

Polk, 28, 88, 95, 536.

Polk, Colonel, 33.

Polk. General, 34, 89, 98.

Polk, General Bishop, 59.

Polk, General Leonidas, 22, 88.

Pontotoc, 37, 38, 65, 83, 85, 86, 92.

Pontotoc County, 9, 462.

Port Gibson, 484.

Port«r, 169.

Porter, Captain, 115, 116.

Porter, Governor James D., 112.

Porter, H., 140.

Porter, W. B., 37.

Potter, 506, 521, 525.

Potter, Chairman, 523.

Potter, Clarkson N., 518.

Potter, George L., 804.

Potter, Judge, 307.

Powell, 157.

Power, Colonel, 261, 262, 263.

Power, Colonel J. L., 260.

Powers, 455, 463, 465, 466.

Powers, J. L., 303.

Powers, Governor, 424, 425, 426,

430, 432, 451, 452, 454, 467,

469.
Powers, R. C, 471.
Pratt, Senator, 422.
Praytor, George W., 140.
Praytor, 3rd Corporal G. W., S7.
Prentiss, 30.

Prentiss, General, 33, 173.
Prentice, Geo., D., 226.
Price, 47, 52, 53, 56.
Prince, B., 142.
Pressley, David, 304.
Purdy, 28, 41.
Purdy's Corner, IS.
Putnam, L. D., 142.

Quin, James B., 804.

Raines, Lieutenant Wm. A., 566.

Ramsey, 161, 162.

Ramsey, J. G. M., 164.

Randall, 501.

Randall, Corporal N. R., 140.

Randall, J., 497.

Randall, John, 140.

Randall, W. R., 37.

Randolf, Senator, 490. 493.

Ranjel, Rodrigo, 145, 146. 147, 150,

151, 155, 159, 160.
Rawlins, General John A., 369.
Raymond, 394.
Kedfleld, 434.
\Redneld, H. V., 438, 477.
Redpath, James, 518.
Reed, Thos. B., 524.
Reid, A., 305.
Reid, W. D., 661.
Revels, Senator, 386, S87.
Revels, Reverend H. R., 383.
Reynolds, 106, 119.
Reynolds, A. E., 305.
Reynolds, Colonel R. O., 462.
Reynolds, General, 364.
Reynolds, J. S.. 388.
Reynolds, Major R. O., 552.
Richardson, 412, 413.
Richardson, Jacob, 297.
Richelet, 155. 156.
Richland, 82, 53, 520.
Ripley, 38, 50, 52, 53, 54, 65.
Rives, James, 115, 140.
Rives, B. C, 306.
Rives, Captain James, 39.
Rives, Captain J. H.. 142.
Rives, Robert O., 140.
Rives, Sergeant R. G., 142.
Roane, A. T., 432.
Robins, James, 142.
Robins, J. R., 142.
Robins, Winter, 142.
Robinson, J. W., 142.
Roddv, 121, 124, 125, 127, 128, 129,

134.
Roe, Lieutenant, 183.
Rogers, Nick, 142.
Rogers, H. C, Assistant Adjutant

General. 188.
Rogers, James, 142.
Rome, Ga., 75.
Rosecrans, 52, 66.
Rosecrantz, 44, 47.
Rose Hill, 70.
Ross. 61, 83, 84, 94, 104. 108. 110,

115, 118, 119, 121, 122.
Ross, Brigadier General, 114.
Ross, Colonel, 77.
Ross, Colonel Sul., 65, 82.
Ross, General, 103.
Ross, Lieutenant, 153.
Rowland, Doctor, 160, 162, 153, 164,

166, 157.

600

Mississippi Historical Society.

Rowland, Doctor Dunbar, 149.
Rowland, Dunbar, 144, 158.
Rowland, Mrs. Dunbar, 7.
Rucker, 110.
Ruff, P. M., 140.
Ruff, M., 37.

Rugrer, General, 481, 488, 490.
Ruger, General C. C, 507.
Rugg-les, General Daniel, 181.
Rushing:, Charles E., 304.
Rutherford Creek, 69, 70.
Rye, D. W., 142.

S

Sanders, Elijah, 303.

Sanders, Reuben T., 304.

Saunders, 321.

Saunders A. H., 142.

Saunders, F., 142.

Saunders, Ned, 26.

Saunders, R. T., 301.

Savanah, 41.

Scott, 637.

Scott, Colonel, 638, 643.

Scott County, 20.

Scott, Governor, 450.

Scales, 550, 662.

Schofleld, General, 110, 111, 112, 222,

273, 274, 275, 276.
Schurz, General, 268, 337.
Schurz, General Carl, 257, 235, 236.
Sears, 114.
Seddon, 199.

Sessions, Honorable J. F., 413.
Session, J. F., 304, 432.
Seward, 209, 259, 285, 286.
Seward, Secretary, 267.
Seward, Secretary of State, 208.
Sexton, General, 342.
Seymour, ex-Governor, 347.
Shackelford, C. C, 394.
Shacke'ford, Chief Justice, 393.
Shackelford, Judge, 468.
Shackelford, Judge C. C, 298, 413,

462.
Shannon, Captain Geo. W., 565.
Shannon, Marmaduke, 290.
Sharkey, Governor, 277, 289, 290,

291, 292, 293, 294, 300, 301, 313,

314, 321, 322, 323, 330, 331, 332,

333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 343,

346.
Sharkey, Governor Wm. L., 315.
Sharkey, Honorable N. L,., 297.
Sharkey, Judge, 227, 289, 295, 296,

399.

Sharkey, W. L., 316, 340.

Sharkey, Wm., L., 225, 286, 288, 324.

Sharpe, General, 484.

Shaw, Wiley, 135, 142.

Shea, 161.

Shea, John G., 148, 156.

Shea, John Gilmary, 154, 162.

Shepard, Colonel, 556.

Sheridan, 67, 450.

Sheridan, General, 487.

Sherman, 83, 84, 85, 88, 89, 90, 92,

94, 97, 98, 100, 101, 103, 105.

107, 108, 222, 279, 443, 444, 449,

506.
Sherman, General, 174, 175, 196,

197, 198, 220, 221, 223, 248, 273,

274, 276, 391, 477, 480, 516.
Sherman, General W. T., 186, 203,

275, 476, 481, 485.
Sherman, John, 515, 517, 520.
Sherman, Mr., 518.
Sherman, Senator, 514.
Sherman, W. T., 507.
Sherrod, George, 37.

Shiloh, 27, 31, 34, 36, 386.

Shipp, Barnard, 161.

Short, George E., 198.

Sickles, General Daniel E., 800.

Sikeston, 20.

Simmons, Captain J. L,., 42.

Simmons, J. S., 142.

Simmons, Major, 131.

Simmons, Wm. H., 140.

Simonton, Jno. M., 304.

Simrall, Judge, 353.

Simrall, Judge H. F., 352, 898.

Sims, Mr., 198.

Sinclair, Thomas, 371.

Sisk, W. A., 142.

Sizer, George E., 404.

Skinner, K. S., 140.

Skinner, Shelt, 120.

Skinner, J. L., 140.

Slaughter, Felix, 142.

Slaughter, Henry, 142.

Slidell, 451.

Slocum, 201, 232, 340, 343, 344.

Slocum, General, 200, 202, 228, 314,

316, 321, 324, 325, 333, 334, 336,

336.
Slocum, General H. W., 300.
Slocum, Major-General, 320.
Slover, A., 305.
Smith, 90, 114.
Smith, Colonel, 638, 539, 644.
Smith, Colonel R. A., 540.
Smith, E. C, 140.

Index.

601

Smith, 1st Lieutenant Scribner, 142.

Smith, General, 100, 332.

Smith, General John E., 246.

Smith, General M.,L.., 179.

Smith, G. W., 142.

Smith, Gerritt, 260, 436.

Smith, J. J. S., 142.

Smith, Jo., 561.

Smith, Lieutenant, 46.

Smith, Robert, 140.

Smith, 2d Lieutenant Scribner, 42.

Smyth, 559.

Snowden, Lieutenant Wm. H., 566.

Somerville, 51, 64.

Sorrell, J. P., 142.

Spann, Frank, 142.

Spann, John, 140.

Sparkman, Dempsy, 304.

Speed, 267, 269.

Speed, Attorney General, 254, 259.

Speed, Captain Frederic, 228.

Speed, Frederic, 370.

Spring Hill, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 73, 76,
76.

Sprott, 484.

Sprott, W. D., 483.

Stafford, 468.

Stafford, E., 394.

Stafford, Major General E., 418.

Stanford, John T., 566.

Stanley, 72, 73, 111.

Stanley, David C, 303.

Starkeg, 74, 75, 77, 78, 125.

Starke, General P. B., 894.

Starkville, 424.

Starnes, 71, 72, 73.

Starnes, Colonel, 67.

Stanton, 171, 173, 176, 178, 216, 221,
222, 225, 248, 250, 252, 253, 256,
258, 259, 260, 267, 268, 269, 279,
284, 286, 296, 320, 436.

Stanton, Edwin M., 184, 249.

Stanton, Frederick P., 157.

Stanton, Secretary of War, 407.

Staunton, Sergeant Thomas S., 142.

Staunton, Tommy, 104.

Steams, Governor, 521.

Steele, General, 174.

Steele, S. A. D., 432.

Stephens, Vice-President, 208, 209.

Stephenson,, Major-General, 116.

Stevens, 349, 355.

Stevens, Governor, 497.

Stevens, Lieutenant, 136.

Stevens, Lieutenant Tom, 128.

Stevens, Mr., 317.

Stevens, Orderly Sergeant Thomas,

42.
Stevens, Thad, 268, 316, 317.
Stevens, 3rd Lieutenant Thomas,

142.
Stevens, Thomas, 46.
Stewart, A. P., 103.
Stewart, Sergeant T. B., 142.
Stewart, W. P., 546.
Stites, 417.
Stites, Doctor, 395.
Stokes, Captain Thomaa J., 5<6.
Stone, 261.

Stone, Colonel Henry, 109.
Stone, Ex-Governor, 533.
Stone, Governor, 481, 482.
Stone, J. M., 432.
Stone, Samuel, 142.
Stone, Senator J. M., 466.
Stone, Wm. A., 304.
Stoneman, 103.
Strang*, Major, 114.
Street, H. M., 432, 465.
Street, Honorable H. M. 631.
Streight, 75, 76.
Strickland, J. N., 143.
Strickland, Lieutenant Watt L., 648.
Stricklin, W. L., 304.
Stuart, General J. E. B., 44.
Sumner, 268, 271, 338, 355.
Sumner, Senator, 267, 269, 407.
Sumter, 16.

Surratt, Mrs., 254, 256.
Suttrell, P. T., 140.
Swan, Thos. T., 381.
Swann, M., 143.
Swett, Charles, 305.
Swift, Doctor J., 140.
Swift, Robert B., 140.
Sykes, Corporal Smith, 143.
Sykes, E. T., 536.
Sykes, Major Lucius, 41.

Taft, 48S.

Taft, Attorney General, 477, 481,

484, 495.
Taft, Judge Alonso, 476, 479, 480.
Talmadge, Reverend T. DeWitt, 264.
Tappan, Colonel, 23, 24.
Tarbell, Judge, 367.
Tate, C. M., 140.
Tate, T. S., 301, 304.
Taylor, 73.
Taylor Captain, 126, 131.

W3

Mississippi Historical Society.

Taylor. Captain J. R.. 42-
Taylor, Captain R.H., J ( .
Taylor. Captain Tobe 22 107, 131.
Taylor. GeneTal. 195. 28&-
Taylor, General Dick. 93, !«. 127.
136 194 226, 284.

Taylor. Lieutenant General. 1S7, 222.

Taylor, Wm.. 140.

Teller. Senator. 628.

Terry, 29.

Texas. 68.

Tield, David ^^^'^y-^'\%^ 491. 492,

'^"'^T96%01.V02.t03.t04.505,524,

633.
Thomas, 116, 118, 326.
Thomas, B. B., 143.
Thomas, Colonel. 323. 327.
Thomas, D. N., 143-
Thomas. General, 111. 1". ^"'•

175, 245, 247.
Thomas, General George A.. 391.
Thomas. General George H.,

243- 171 176 183, 184,

Thomas. Lorenso, 171. 178. "

l*^" . i«« 191 240. 320,

Thomas, Samuel, 188, 191. ^«''.

323. 344.
Thomas, W. E.. 143-
Thompson. 66 69 1 ^^ ^^^

Thompson. Coionei j
Thompson, Jeff, i»-
Thompson. John W.. »•
Thompson. Robert, 140.
Thurman. Senator 522. _

Tomeny. Assistant Special -*

232.
Towrance. 552.
Trimble, 555.
Trimble, B. F.. 394.
Trimble, D. E.. 143. ^^^

Trimble. General, 552, 5»*- A^' ^
Trimble. Major General Isaac

550, 552.
Trotter. J. F.. 304.
Trumbull. Senator. 3»&.
Tuck. Sergeant. 393. 40«-
Tucker, General W. i -, ^*^-
TuUahoma, 71.
Tupper, Honorable T. C i*t-
Turner, Captain, 96.
Turner, Captain T. B.. 42.
Turner, Tom, 44.
Tuscumbia, 83, 84.
Tyler, Captain H. A.. 126.

Underwood, District Judge, 260.
Union City, 18.
Upton, 124, 126, 127.
Usher. 267, 269.

Valliant, L. B.. 453.
Vance, Governor, 208, 209
Van Dom, 43, 47, 52. 53. 54, 58. 60.
61. 63, 65. 66. 67, 68, 69, 70. 71.
72.' 73. 74, 75. 76.
Vicksburg, 50. 77. 78. 79 90 92 167
168. 169, 174, 175. 177. 178, 17».,
180 182, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189,
190 193, 194, 195, 196. 198. 200,
201 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 218.
220. 223. 224, 229, 235. 241. 242.
246 256. 277, 290, 298, 327, 331,
335, 336, 340. 342, 380, 386, 392,
394, 410, 411, 414, 424, 437, 463.
VlUipigue. General, 42.
Viney Grove Academy, 9.
Virginia, 81.
Von Holtz, Doctor, 165.
Voorhees, Daniel W., 443.

Wade, 355.

Wade, Ben. 508.

Wade. I^awrence T., 304.

Wade, Senator Ben, 218

Waddell, Doctor John M.. i».

Waddell, Doctor J. N., 403.

Wafford, Major Jeff, 370.
I Waite, Morrison, 470.

Walker, Corporal Benjamin. 143.

Walker, General, 26.
' Walker, R. I-. 87.

Walker, R. J- 140, 143.

Walker, L. N., 140.

Walker, W. J- 143.

Wall, Wm., 304.

Wallace, 439.

Wallace, General, 438.

Wallace, James M., 303.

Wallis, Major Jno. T., 21d.

Walter, H. W., 211.

Walthall, 119. 538. ^, v C

[Walthall, Brigadier General E. C,

547.

Index.

MS

Walthan, a«neral E. C, IIT, 48 T.

Walthall, Senator. 533.

Walton, U. 8. District Attorney, 486.

Warmoth. 439.

Warner, A.. 369,.

Warran County, 430.

Warren, 394.

Warren County, 410, 455, 468.

Warren, Oeneral, 202.

Warren, General G. K., 226, 899.

Warren, G. W„ 143.

Warren, J. B., 143.

Warren, W. E., 143.

Warren, W. 8., 148.

Washburn, General, 173, 242.

Washington County. 394, 395, 396.

403, 416. 417, 428. 453, 632.
Washington, General, 25, 336.
Watkins, 20.
Watson, Gus, 23, 24.
Watson, J. W. C, 304.
Watson. Senator, 211.
Watson. Sergeant John. 140.
Watterson, Henry, 435, 605.
Watts, Benjamin, 143.
Weatherby, Jim. 51.
Weathered, James, 143.
Weatherhead, J. D., 143.
Webb, 558, 559, 561, 563.

Webb, K. R.. 304.
Weber, 520.

Webber, 395, 411.

Webber, L. T., 468.

Webber, Sheriff, 417.

Webster, Daniel, 170.

Weinberg, Julius, 140, 143.

Weir, James, 305.

Weir, Robert, 140.

Weitzel. General, 171.

Weitzel, General Godfrey, 170.

Welch, Honorable Israel. 16.

Wellborne, Doctor S. G., 140.

Wellborne, Doctor Shell, 84.

Wellbourne, W. H.. 140.

Welles. 257. 259. 267, 286.

Welles, Navy Gideon, 258.

Welles. Secretary. 269. 270.

Wells, 502.

Wells, G. Wiley. 423.

Wells, J. Wiley, 460.

Wells, Madison J., 487, 517.

Wells, Secretary, 222.

Werles, Jno. D., 405.

Wesson, A. G., 37.

West, General A. M.. S32.

Weston. A. J., 140.

Wharton, Colonel Jack, 517.
Wheeler, 36, 49, 102, 10$. 106, 1»T,

108, 497. 501. 502. 504, 618.
Wheeler. Captain E. G.. 41.
Wheeler. Captain G. N.. 42.
Wheeler. Colonel, 55.
Wheeler, E. G., 143.
Wheeler. Major, 61, 74.
White, A. J., 143
White, Allen, 303.
White. Bob. 61.
White. Charles N.. 140.
White, Frank, 136.
White, Frank S., 143.
White, Henry, 517.
White, Jack, »«.

White, K. E., 37.

White. Orderly Sergeant R. E.. 140.

White. W. Q., 60, 1J6, 148.

Whltea 14.

Whitfield. 66. 67, 68, 71, 72. 76. 77.

Whitfield, H. R., 484.

Wicks, Joe, 56.

Wier, Captain, 15.

Wier. Captain G«orge T., IS.

Wier, Lieutenant, 40.

Wier, R. O., 19.

Wier, 2nd Lieutenant R. O., 140.

Wier, 3rd Lieutenant R. O., 36.

Wilcox, 549.

Wilder, 542.

Wilder, Colonel, 543, 545.

Wilder, General John T., 541.

Wilder, John, 143.

Wilder, William, 143.

Wilkinson, 116.

Wlllard, Judge, 488.

Willes, Navy Gideon, 266.

Williams, Attorney General. 466, 470.

Williams, Hampton, 15.

Williams, Henry, 140.

Williams, General George H., 439.

Williams, J. C, 37, 140.

Williams, John, 140, 143.

Williams, J. R., 143.

Williams, Lieutenant Hampton, 19.

Williama, 2nd Lieutenant Hampton,

140.
Williams, Sergeant D. A., 143.
Williams, W. L.. 143.
Wilson, 109, 110, 116, 118, 120, 123,

124.
Wilson, Colonel. 111.
Wilson. General, 117, 126, 128. 131,

136, 196, 238, 279, 280.
Wilson, Jeff., 462.

604

Mississippi Historical Society.

Wilson, J. H., 305.

"Wilson, Private, 56.

Wilson, T. E., 143.

Wilson, W. P., 37, 140.

Wimbish, J. D., 143.

Windom, 527.

Windom, Senator, 526.

Winona, 420.

Winslow, 468.

Winston, Hill, 7S.

W^irz, Captain, 254.

Wofford, 364.

WofCord, Major J. L., 363.

Wood, 345.

Wood, C. W., S44.

Woods, Lieutenant, 566.

Woodward, Colonel, 71.

Woodward, S. W., 305.

Woolsey, Robt. B., 308.

Wooten, J. S., 143.

Word, Captain Baker, 666.

Wright, E., 143.

Wright, 1st. Lieutenant J. J., 140.

WyUe, J. II., sot.

Yalobusha, 60.

Yancey, 80.

Yancy, Senator, 209.

Yates, 14, 37.

Yates, Adjutant Lawrence, 61, 136,

140.
Yates, H., 140.
Yazoo, 393, 403.
Yeatman, H. H., 235.
Yerger, 393.

Yerger, E. M., 361, 385, 392, 404.
Yerger, James R., 290, 301.
Yerger, Judge, 308.
Yerger, Judge J. Shall, 303, 305, 312.
Yerger, Judge Wm., 89, 319, 361.
Yerger, Mrs., 361.
Yerger, W. G., 454.
Yerger, Wm., 227, 289, 304, 307.
Yorktown, 446.
Young, 110, 114.

Young, Judge, 159, 160, 161, 162.
Young, Judge J. P., 144, 149, 168.

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