OUR FEDERAL FRIENDS AND THE COLORED BROTHER.
The bewilderment of the negroes in the great social upheaval that came with peace was outdone by that of the white people. The conditions of the war times had been peaceable and simple compared with the perplexities of existence now precipitated upon us. The Confederacy’s 175,000 surrendered soldiers—and these included the last fifteen-year-old boy—were scattered through the South, thousands of them disabled for work by wounds, and thousands more by ill-health and ignorance of any other profession than that of arms. The Federal soldiers garrisoned all important places. A travesty of justice was meted out by a semi-civil military authority. Every community maintained an active skirmish-line against the daily aggressions of the freedmen and the oppressions of the military arm. Large sums were paid by citizens to recover property held by the enemy; and, for a time, the people paid a per cent. out of every dollar to the revenue office for a permit to spend that dollar at stores opened by Yankees—our only source of supply.
Few persons had property readily convertible into greenbacks, and Confederate money was being burned or used by the bale to paper rooms in the home of its possessor. No man knew how to invest money that had escaped the absorption of war, and when he did invest it he usually lost it. For the next ten years what the sword had not devoured the “canker worm” (cotton worm, with us) ate up.
The people were in favor of reorganizing the States in accord with the Union. But the iniquities of carpet-bag governments and the diabolisms of “black and tan” conventions for a long time kept respectable men out of politics. It was indeed too “filthy a pool” to be entered. At a longer perspective this seems to have been a mistake. If the best men of the country had gone into the people’s service—as did General Longstreet with most patriotic but futile purpose—they might have arrested incessant lootings of the people’s hard-wrested tax-money and the nefarious legislation that enriched the despised carpet-bagger and scalawag—present, like the vultures, only for the prey after the battle. So many men, however, had been disfranchised by reason of Confederate service that it is doubtful if enough respectability was eligible for office, to have had any purifying effect on public affairs.
In this crisis our Northern friends advised us after the following fashion. Major A. L. Brewer, Mr. Merrick’s uncle, who had belonged to Sherman’s army, sent me, in 1865, a letter from New Lisbon, Ohio:
“My dear Carrie,—Your devotion to Edwin makes you very dear to me. You know my attachment to him and that I regard him as a son. He was always my favorite nephew. Since the war is over I trust that he will now take the oath of allegiance, and should he need any aid I can render it. The Secretary of War, Postmaster-General, Senators Nolle and Sherman of Ohio, and many others, are my staunch friends.
“As far as suffering is concerned you have had your share; but I would gladly have endured it for you if I could have saved my dear boy Charlie, who fell in battle. He was noble and brave, and my heart is chilled with grief for his loss.
“This was a foolish, unnatural war, and after four years of bloodshed and destruction I rejoice that it is over, and that discord will never again disturb the peace in our country. But the authors of the rebellion have paid dearly for their folly and wickedness. When I reflect upon the misery brought about by a few arch villains, I find it hard to control my feelings;—I should feel differently had they been the only sufferers. When I look upon the distress which has fallen upon the masses in the South, I have no sympathy for the instigators of the war.
“But, my dear, you have fared better than many who came within my observation; as I followed Sherman, I have seen whole plantations utterly destroyed, houses burnt and women and children driven into the woods without warning. The torch was applied to everything. Sometimes the women would save a few things, but in most cases they went forth bareheaded to make the ground their bed and the sky their roof. The next day when the hungry children came prowling around our camps in search of something to eat, the Federal soldiers who left wives and children at home, and who had the hearts of men, were sorry for them. But such is the cruelty of war and military discipline.”
Captain Charles B. White, a West Point officer in the United States service in New Orleans, wrote my daughter Clara, after his return to New York, in this manner: “I find your experiences in the kitchen very amusing. Our Northern ladies have an idea that you of the South know nothing practically of housekeeping. Quite erroneous is it not? I have been for some time in Boston and find the girls here prettier as a class, than those of any other city I have visited, not excepting Baltimore. They are so sensible and self-assisting. You see that army people look at the practical side of life. As our salaries are not large it is essential that our domestic establishments should be as good as possible with the least outlay of cash. We are therefore compelled to think of our future life companions in the light of these considerations.