“[General Order No. 1.]
“Summit, Miss., Nov. 28, 1865.
“In obedience to an order of His Excellency, the Governor of Mississippi, I have this day assumed command of all the militia in this section of the State, with head-quarters at this place. And whereas it has been reported to me that there are various individuals, not belonging to any military organization, either State or Federal, who are engaged in shooting at, and sometimes killing, the freedmen on private account; and whereas there are other white men reported as the attendants of, and participants in, the negro balls, who, after placing themselves upon a social equality with the people of color, raise quarrels with the freedmen, upon questions of social superiority already voluntarily waived and relinquished by them in favor of the negro, by which the peace of the country is broken and the law disregarded; I therefore order the arrest of all such offenders, by the officers and soldiers under my command, and that they be taken before some civil officer having power to commit to the county jail, for the purpose of awaiting the action of the Grand Jury.
“Men must quit blacking themselves, and do everything legally.
“Oscar J. E. Stuart,
“Q. M. G. and Col. Com. Militia.”
The objection here seems to be to shooting the freedmen “on private account,” or doing anything “illegally,” thus taking the proper work of the militia out of its hands.
There were no doubt serious apprehensions in the minds of the people on the subject of negro insurrections. But a great deal that was said about them was mere pretence and cant, with which I have not seen fit to load these pages. There was not, while I was in the South, the slightest danger from a rising of the blacks, nor will there be, unless they are driven to desperation by wrongs.
I remember two very good specimens of formidable negro insurrections. One was reported in Northern Mississippi, and investigated personally by General Fiske, who took pains to visit the spot and learn all the facts concerning it. According to his account, “a colored man hunting squirrels was magnified into a thousand vicious negroes marching upon their old masters with bloody intent.”
The other case was reported at the hotel in Vicksburg where I stopped, by a gentleman who had just arrived in the steamer “Fashion” from New Orleans. He related an exciting story of a rising of the blacks in Jefferson Parish, and a great slaughter of the white population. He also stated that General Sheridan had sent troops to quell the insurrection. Afterwards, when at New Orleans, I made inquiry of General Sheridan concerning the truth of the rumor, and learned that it was utterly without foundation. The most noticeable phase of it was the effect it had upon the guests at the hotel table. Everybody had been predicting negro insurrections at Christmas-time; now everybody’s prophecy had come true, and everybody was delighted. A good deal of horror was expressed; but the real feeling, ill-concealed under all, was exultation.