Report on the Condition of the South

by Carl Schurz

[General Orders No. 22.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI,

Vicksburg, Miss., August 24, 1865.

The attention of district commanders is called to a proclamation of the provisional governor of the State of Mississippi, of the 19th instant, which provides for the organization of a military force in each county of the State.

While the general government deems it necessary to maintain its authority here by armed forces, it is important that the powers and duties of the officers commanding should be clearly defined.

The State of Mississippi was one of the first that engaged in the recent rebellion. For more than four years all her energies have been devoted to a war upon our government. At length, from exhaustion, she has been compelled to lay down her arms; but no orders have as yet been received by the military authorities on duty here, indicating that the State has been relieved from the hostile position which she voluntarily assumed towards the United States.

The general government, earnestly desiring to restore the State to its former position, has appointed a provisional governor, with power to call a convention for the accomplishment of that purpose. Upon the military forces devolve the duties of preserving order, and of executing the laws of Congress and the orders of the War Department. The orders defining the rights and privileges to be secured to freedmen meet with opposition in many parts of the State, and the duties devolving upon military officers, in the execution of these orders, are often of a delicate nature. It has certainly been the desire of the department commander, and, so far as he has observed, of all officers on duty in the State, to execute these orders in a spirit of conciliation and forbearance, and, while obeying implicitly all instructions of the President and the War Department, to make military rule as little odious as possible to the people. While the military authorities have acted in this spirit, and have been as successful as could have been anticipated, the provisional governor has thought proper, without consultation with the department commander or with any other officer of the United States on duty here, to organize and arm a force in every county, urging the "young men of the State who have so distinguished themselves for gallantry" to respond promptly to his call, meaning, thereby, that class of men who have as yet scarcely laid down the arms with which they have been opposing our government. Such force, if organized as proposed, is to be independent of the military authority now present, and superior in strength to the United States forces on duty in the State. To permit the young men, who have so distinguished themselves, to be armed and organized independently of United States military officers on duty here, and to allow them to operate in counties now garrisoned by colored troops, filled, as many of these men are, not only with prejudice against those troops and against the execution of the orders relative to freedmen, but even against our government itself, would bring about a collision at once, and increase in a ten-fold degree the difficulties that now beset the people. It is to be hoped that the day will soon come when the young men called upon by Governor Sharkey and the colored men now serving the United States will zealously co-operate for the preservation of order and the promotion of the interests of the State and nation. It will be gratifying to the friends of the colored race to have the assurance in an official proclamation from the provisional governor, that the day has already arrived when the experiment can be safely attempted. But as the questions on which these two classes will be called to co-operate are those with regard to which there would undoubtedly be some difference of opinion, particularly as to the construction of certain laws relative to freedmen, the commanding general prefers to postpone the trial for the present. It is the earnest desire of all military officers, as it must be of every good citizen, to hasten the day when the troops can with safety be withdrawn from this State, and the people be left to execute their own laws, but this will not be hastened by arming at this time the young men of the State.

The proclamation of the provisional governor is based on the supposed necessity of increasing the military forces in the State to prevent the commission of crime by bad men. It is a remarkable fact that most of the outrages have been committed against northern men, government couriers, and colored people. Southern citizens have been halted by these outlaws, but at once released and informed that they had been stopped by mistake; and these citizens have refused to give information as to the parties by whom they were halted, although frankly acknowledging that they knew them.

Governor Sharkey, in a communication written after his call for the organization of militia forces was made, setting forth the necessity for such organization, states that the people are unwilling to give information to the United States military authorities which will lead to the detection of these outlaws, and suggests as a remedy for these evils the arming of the very people who refuse to give such information.

A better plan will be to disarm all such citizens, and make it for their interest to aid those who have been sent here to restore order and preserve peace.