To better explain the cause for the conditions existing with these garrisons: When the Federal Government sent their recruiting agents abroad, they accepted some of the worst element in Europe, as well as in this country, promising them large bounties, good wages and treatment, and all they could capture, hence a certain element in the army started in for plunder only, and with no other object. Some garrisons in the State had a band of plunderers with a desperate leader, as was the case at Brenham when it was burned and again at Hempstead at this time.
At the conclusion of the war the best element in the Federal Army, the brave and gallant men who won the fight, did not re-enlist, but returned to their homes to engage in peaceful pursuits and could never have been induced to assist in degrading their own race and color by elevating the negro over us, which was the avowed intention of the fanatical element of the North who were responsible for the war.
That gallant soldier and conscientious gentleman, General W. S. Hancock, in command of New Orleans, refused to do their bidding and was immediately superseded by General Sheridan, who proved a fit tool in their hands.
CHAPTER XXIII
Upon My Return From the Army I Find My Business Affairs in Bad Shape.
I returned from Johnston’s army, surrendered in North Carolina in the summer of 1865, to my home town, Hempstead, Texas, where I found my brother, six years younger than myself, who had also just returned from the army, and a younger sister, who had been boarding at a friend’s house during my absence in the army. We were orphan children.
On my return I found the business of Faddis & Graber, which I left in charge of R. P. Faddis, the senior partner, totally vanished. I had not even a change of clothing, of which I had left a trunk full. Brother had given them to needy Confederate soldiers.
After resting and recuperating for some months, a guest at the homes of different friends, awaiting an opportunity for business, I was persuaded by an old friend, Mr. Leander Cannon, to make my home at his house at Courtney, Grimes County, until I could secure something to do. Mr. Cannon before the war had the largest general mercantile business in the interior of the State, while I kept his books for him at Hempstead before I entered into business on my own account with Faddis, Mr. Cannon having sold out in the meantime.
After the return of the Confederate soldiers from the army, the first year, they were engaged in peaceable pursuits, trying to rebuild their lost fortunes and also to recuperate their health, which, in many instances, had been sacrificed in the army.
While so engaged, the Federal Government organized its Freedman’s Bureau, establishing its agencies in all the populous negro districts in the State, supported by the army. As heretofore stated, among these garrisons were a lot of desperate and bad men, bent on rapine and plunder, and they had the sanction of their officers, notably in the case of the town of Brenham, which they sacked and burned.
This aroused the resentment and desperation of the best people of Texas and very soon a thousand or more of the best citizens of the State collected and determined to wipe out this garrison. General Sheridan, in command of Texas and Louisiana, with headquarters at New Orleans, telegraphed Governor Throckmorton to proceed there at once and beg the people to desist and not to take any action until he could send a commission to investigate and secure the guilty parties for punishment.