[46] This letter is a copy of the original now in possession of Senator George A. Brooks. It has never before been published.
PART III.
MISCELLANY.
CHAPTER I.
THE BLACK PHALANX AT SCHOOL.
The esteem in which education was held by the soldiers of the Black Phalanx, can be judged of best by the efforts they made to educate themselves and to establish a system of education for others of their race. Doubtless many persons suppose that the negro soldier elated with his release from slavery, was contented; that his patriotism was displayed solely upon the field of battle, simply to insure to himself that one highest and greatest boon, his freedom. Such a supposition is far from the truth. The Phalanx soldiers had a strong race pride, and the idea that ignorance was the cause of their oppression gave zest to their desire to be educated.
When they found following the United States Army a large number of educated people from the North, establishing schools wherever they could in village, city and camp, and that education was free to all, there was awakened in the black soldier's breast an ambition, not only to obtain knowledge, but to contribute money in aid of educational institutions, which was done, and with liberal hands, during and subsequent to the war.