GENERAL CHARLES HALPIN
In a sketch of the life of General Charles Halpin, (Private Miles O’Reilly) occur the following verses. “Sambo’s Right to Get Kilt” was written to accustom the Northern soldiers to the presence of the negro. They had so strong a prejudice against the negro that they did not like him even to be killed in the company of white soldiers. Its effect was astonishing and its argument was unanswerable, and negro soldiers were ever after held in the respect due to their orderly conduct. General Butler considered them a necessity of Northern success, mainly due to the wonderfully skilled pen of General Halpin, who died at the early age of thirty-seven, at the height of literary honor.
SAMBO’S RIGHT TO BE KILT
Some tell us ’tis a burnin’ shame
To make the naygars fight;
An’ that the thrade of bein’ kilt
Belongs but to the white.
But as for me, upon me sowl!
So liberal are we here