The appointed time came, but instead of the draft, amid blazing roofs and falling walls, smoke and ashes, deafening reports of explosions, the frenzy of women and children, left alone not only by the negro conscripting officers and President Davis and his Cabinet, but by the army and navy; in the midst of such scenes, almost beyond description, the Black Phalanx of the Union army entered the burning city, the capitol of rebeldom, scattering President Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation to the intended confederate black army. For twelve squares they chanted their war songs, "The Colored Volunteers" and "John Brown," in the chorus of which thousands of welcoming freed men and freed women joined, making the welkin ring with the refrain,
"Glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah,
We is free to-day!"
The decisive events of the next few days, following in rapid succession, culminating with Lee's surrender, on the 9th of April, at Appomattox, left no time for further action, and when the war was over, with the important and radical changes that took place, it was almost forgotten that such projects as arming and freeing the negro had ever been entertained in the South by the Confederate Government.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] General William C. Wickham led the opponents of the project in a very bitter pro-slavery speech.
[42] It was upon the discussion of this bill that Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, made these significant statements and admissions:
"When we left the old government we thought we had got rid forever of the slavery agitation; but, to my surprise, I find that this (the Confederate) Government assumes power to arm the slaves, which involves also the power of emancipation. This proposition would be regarded as a confession of despair. If we are right in passing this measure, we are wrong in denying to the old government the right to interfere with slavery and to emancipate slaves. If we offer the slaves their freedom as a boon we confess that we are insincere and hypocritical in saying slavery was the best state for the negroes themselves. I believe that the arming and emancipating the slaves will be an abandonment of the contest. To arm the negroes is to give them freedom. When they come out scarred from the conflict they must be free."
[43] Of these twenty volunteers six of them are frequently to be met on the streets of Richmond, while some of them are members of the Colored State Militia of Virginia.
[44] The veterans of General Henry A. Wise's Legion adopted resolutions commending the scheme.
[45] On April 1st, 1865, quite a company of negroes, most of whom were pressed into the service, paraded the streets of Richmond.