Can we listen to such a statement and not feel indignant at the levity with which human freedom is treated?
Yet similar cases multiply. There is the provost-marshal of Louisville, who seems to be a disgrace to our army, if we may believe the following report.
Here Mr. Sumner quoted at length the description of his conduct: making colored people “his subjects of oppression and inhuman treatment”; “ordering his provost guards to flog all colored persons out after dark”; “now being revenged on the colored people for their faithfulness to the Union cause.”[307]
But, Sir, an incident has occurred under General Buell’s command which cannot be read without a blush. Here it is, as described in the letter of a soldier who was more than a witness, even a party to it. I find this letter in a newspaper, but it has been furnished to me in manuscript by the person to whom it is addressed.
“Camp Andy Johnson, near Nashville,
Tennessee, March 8, 1862.
“My dear Parents,— … A great outrage was perpetrated in our camp yesterday, as follows.
“A black boy, named Henry, has been at work for the Colonel for some days. His owner came after him while we were camped on the other side of the river, but the boys hooted him out of camp. The negro said he would sooner be killed on the spot than go back with his master, even if he knew he would not be punished. His master, he said, was a Secessionist, and had kept him (the boy) on some fortifications down the river at work for four mouths.
“Nothing more transpired concerning his return until yesterday. While the greater part of the regiment were out on picket, the boy’s owner came with two sentinels of the provost guard from the city, and, after chasing the poor frightened boy through the camp several times,—he drawing a knife once, and the sentinel knocking him down with his musket,—they captured and delivered him to his owner, who stood waiting outside the lines. The latter paid the catching sentries fifteen dollars each, and led Henry away with him unmolested, flourishing a pistol at his head as he went. They had no order—at least, showed none—for the boy from head-quarters, and the Lieutenant-Colonel of our regiment, who was in command, need not have delivered him up without such an order, yet allowed him to be caught, and the Major forbade our boys from giving him any assistance. One of the sentinels was from a Kentucky, and one from an Indiana regiment.…
“The former master of our boy will not get him without an order, and an imperative one, I believe; and if one is given for him,—his master having been a strong and active Secessionist, a quartermaster for the Southern army, in fact,—I have about concluded to follow it by immediate resignation, and this, whether the order be for him or any other negro. The order would make it an official act. What do you think my duty would be in the premises?”
Of General Buell I know nothing personally; but such an incident must fill us with distrust. He may possess military talent, he may be a thunderbolt of war; but it is clear that he wants that just comprehension of the times and that sympathy with humanity without which no officer can do his complete duty.