‘But I want you to go home and work hard and take care of your families. Work early and late, and get up at night and see if your crops are growing. Above all things avoid political discussions. If any man says “nigger” to you, swear that you never knew or saw one in your life. We have talked about the niggers for forty years, and have been out-talked. We have fought four years for the niggers, and have been d——d badly whipped, and now it is not “your put.” The Yankees have won the nigger and will do what they please with him, and you have no say in the matter. If they want him they will take him; and if they say that you must keep him, you have to do it, and no mistake. I tell you that you have no say in the matter, and you oughtn’t to have any. Go home and stay there. Don’t go anywhere but to mill. Don’t go to church, for the minister will put knots and mischief in your heads, and get you into trouble. Be good citizens, and then those of you who have been good, honest and brave soldiers need have nothing to fear; but I warn those of you who have been nothing but sneaking, cowardly jayhawkers, cutthroats and thieves, that a just retribution awaits you, and I hope to God that the federal authorities will hang you, wherever and whenever they find you, and they will do it, sure.
✻✻✻✻✻
‘Do not complain if you are not permitted to have a voice in elections and civil affairs. You have forfeited all such rights, and it now becomes you to submit to such laws and regulations as the federal authorities may deem proper to enact. I believe and know that they will do the best they can for you, especially if you show henceforth that you now desire to merit their confidence by strict obedience to the laws where you may reside.
‘We are conquered and subjected; we have no rights, but must accept such privileges and favors as the government may see proper to bestow upon us. Again I say, go home; attend to your business, and try to raise a new generation of boys that shall become better men than you have been.’
“Jeff. Thompson lived many years after that day, a good and loyal citizen. He was a brave and generous man, and had always treated our prisoners with humanity whenever they had fallen into his hands. His advice to his soldiers echoed the sentiments of the better class of the rebels in the district at that time.
“We remained there the whole summer, always impatient to be mustered out and return to our own homes, but never deviating from the orderly and friendly position first taken. Many of the men formed friendships and other connections that have lasted ever since. Some of them returned after their muster out, and are still counted among the best citizens of that state; some formed engagements with the country girls, and went back to marry them. One of my young captains, a fine St. Paul boy, brought with the regiment to Minneapolis, as his bride, the most beautiful woman, as well as the most bitter rebel, of that portion of Arkansas, and I am glad to say that, although she soon returned with her gallant husband to her native state, where they still reside, she is now, and has been ever since, as true and loyal to our banner and our cause as any of our Northern wives and mothers.
“I would not have it understood that all our work was so pleasant and peaceful. Sometimes we had to deal with tough cases of both sexes, and then the iron hand of power was freely used to restrain, but seldom to punish. As a relic of old slave times I will relate one incident of many that came under my observation.
“One day a very tidy negro woman came and reported that her late master had recently killed her husband. I sent for the former master. He was a leading physician, a man of fine address and culture, who lived in an elegant mansion near the city. He sat down and told me the story, nearly word for word as the woman did. It was substantially as follows: Tom, the negro, had been his body-servant since both were children, and, since his freedom, still remained in the same service. Tom had a boy about eight years old. This boy had done some mischief, and I (said the doctor) called him in and gave him a good flogging. Tom was outside and heard the boy scream, and after a while he pushed open the door and took the boy from me, telling me that I had whipped him enough. He brought the boy into his own cabin, and then started for town. I took my gun and ran after him. When he saw me coming he started on a run and I shot him, of course. ‘Wouldn’t you have done the same?’ he asked me with an injured look. The killing of his negro for such an offence seemed so right and natural to him that he was perfectly astonished when I informed him that he would have to answer to the charge of murder before a military commission at Little Rock, where he was at once sent for trial. What a great change in sentiment a quarter of a century has produced! Our children will never learn to realize what a curse slavery was, even while some of them were in their cradles.
“It has been said that the old soldiers occasionally did a little foraging on their own hook, while in the enemy’s country, and I rather think they did; but I wish to state most solemnly, that whatever bad habits the boys might have had in that respect before the surrender of the Confederate army, they reformed at once after that event, most thoroughly and sincerely, and during the whole summer of 1865, although scattered over a wide country, and almost free from military duty and restraint, there was never a complaint made against a man in my command, for depredation of any kind, and I verily believe that the rights of property, even down to the beloved shoat and chicken, were held as sacred by the Union soldiers in our district during that time as those rights are ordinarily held in any well-governed country during times of peace. All things considered I am fully convinced that the excellent conduct of our soldiers in the South during the early days of reconstruction, when the army took a prominent part in that work, did more to establish law and order and to foster friendly and loyal sentiments towards the Union, than all the laws and constitutional amendments enacted for that purpose. Had the great and noble Lincoln lived, or even if President Johnson had remained true to the principles of his early life, and left the Union soldiers at liberty to carry out the firm but humane policy of reconstruction which they inaugurated under the inspiration of Grant and Sherman, we would have had not only a united country, but a loyal and law abiding people in the South a quarter of a century ago, because the Union soldier was the best citizen and the best teacher of good citizenship. Armies of other nations have achieved victories as great as ours, other soldiers than ours have been patient, obedient, enduring and brave, but none in the world’s history have shown such greatness in civic virtues as the Union soldiers of the war of the Rebellion.
“In the beginning of September, 1865, the regiment was ordered home, and on September 16th it was mustered out at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, on which occasion the following general order was read: