By Gary Farrow, Danville Historical Society
March 7,1863 North Star, Our Negro Troops
Our New Orleans correspondent confirms the rumors which have been current as to difficulties between the white and black regiments at Ship Island and Baton Rouge in the Department of the Gulf. We see no reason why this state of things should be allowed to spring up. White and black troops should not be brigaded together or stationed together. The Proclamation specified the use to which black troops should be primarily put, when raised, as “garrisoning forts and positions,” and there are forts enough in our hands in the Gulf Department to furnish duty for ten times the number of black troops we have there…
When the sickly weather comes on in the Gulf and on the river, our white soldiers will be glad enough to have this work taken off their hands by the acclimated negroes; and there will be no quarrelling for precedence in the duty.…
We need not doubt that Col. Higginson’s black battalion exhibited all the “fiery energy” which can be claimed for them: but the greater part of the men of the South will require a great deal of discipline and training before their fiery energy can be relied on in the field of battle.
The historical antecedents of the negro in this country are of anything but the fiery or energetic style. Some may bring forth trait and character that have been dormant for generations, but it will require time to bring them forth. Garrison duty, with occasional skirmishes, will furnish an excellent means of training to begin with.
At all events, there must on no account be occasion furnished for collisions between our white and black soldiers in that Department, where, of all others, the latter are most likely to be of permanent and almost indispensible service.
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March 14, 1863 North Star, Victory Wanted
Every indication now leads to the belief that the Government intends to quell this rebellion, if possible, by the strong arm of military force. To secure this end… a general bill has just been passed by Congress. There is no more raising of troops by voluntary enlistment…
The army now in the field, and the men hereafter to be raised…are to be composed of our free white population. Negro soldiers are apparently at a discount as both Houses of Congress have failed in passing a bill to employ them as soldiers although it is claimed that the act of the last Congress gives the President authority to use them.
The Emancipation policy has as yet proved of no account in aiding the ailing Federal cause, and the predictions of its ardent friends, that if this policy is inaugurated, our streets would swarm with volunteers, and that the negroes on the Southern plantations, hearing the notes of liberty, would rally to our standard seem far, very far from being realized.…
During the past twelve months, our military operations have been undecisive, if not actually disastrous. There have been bickerings and jealousies among the officers, removals of them, resignations and changes in their commands. In short the war has seemed to make no successful progress
…. Under these circumstances; what we most want is success in prosecuting the contest. If the war must continue, the Country demands that it be speedily crowned with single, decisive, overwhelming success…But let the war drag along as it has done as in the past without any prospective or actual success — let the same want of unanimity among the leading military men be manifested — let the same look of military vigor and skill be displayed.….
Our people will become discouraged, the Administration be greatly embarrassed, with a popular political reaction against it, that will sweep everything before it…the people… will not submit to the long continued prosecution of a war that is barren of victories.… There is an earnest longing among all loyal men that this [preserving the Union] result may be accomplished by a speedy and complete success of our arms.
The nation wants military success; the Government, the people want it; and even the rebels need it, to teach them that the contest must be speedily closed. Shall we have such a peace and such a victory? May time soon vouchsafe it.
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March 21, 1863 North Star, How They Treat Men at the South For Differences in Political Opinion
The Telegraph brings the following account of rebel atrocities at the South, inflicted by the secessionists upon those who dare to differ from them in political opinion. It is taken from a report of Brigadier General Dodge, writing from headquarters of Corinth, Miss., to Capt. R. M. Sawyer, A.A.G., Memphis: “I will state merely,” he says, “what I know to be true.”
Abe Canaki and Mr Mitchell were hung two weeks ago for being Union men. They lived in the Hackleton settlement, Marion County. Mr. Hampwork and his daughter of the same county were shot; The latter was instantly killed; the former is still alive but probably will die.
Peter Lewis and a brother of his neighbors, were hunted down by one hundred bloodhounds and captured.
The houses of Messrs. Palmer, Wellsby, Williams, Wrightmans and some thirty others were burned over their heads. The women and children were turned out of doors, and the community was notified that if they allowed them to go into other houses or fed them, or harbored them in any way, they would be treated the same way.
Mr Peterson, living at the head of Bull Mountain, was shot. “I am now feeding one hundred of those families, who with their women and children and some grey haired men and even crippled on crutches, were discovered and found their way here through the woods and by-ways without food. All this was done for the simple reason that they were Union men, or that they had relatives in our army. The statements of these people are almost beyond belief, did we not have the evidence before us.
I am informed by them that there are hundreds of loyal men and women in the woods of Alabama waiting for an opportunity to escape.”
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March 21, 1863 North Star, What the Proclamation Has Done
We never have believed in the potency of the President’s Emancipation Proclamation, to the same extent that many have. It has seemed to be too sweeping an edict — one that is impracticable to execute, and if executed to the full, would leave the freed negroes in a deplorable condition. Its tendency has also been to divide the North, and yet there seems to be no desirable result flowing from it. While all should be willing to give the experiment a fair trial, yet its efficiency some of the Republican journals have doubts. The Springfield Republican, one of the ablest Administration journals in Massachusetts, has an article on the subject, in which, among other things it says, “Well, it is more than…two months since the proclamation was formally made, and the negroes still remain quietly on the Southern plantations: and rebel armies have not dispersed to hunt flying negroes, but are larger and stronger than ever before; the market price of negroes is at its highest; the negroes within our lines show no passionate eagerness to fight and even Gen Hunter [strong advocate of using black troops] has been obliged to resort to forcible conscription to fill up his negro regiment, and that, too, where the experiment of making negro soldiers has been longest in operation.
Neither are the promises of the wonderful effect of the proclamation upon the people have of the North realized; Gov. Andrew’s [abolitionist Governor of MA] recruits do not throng the roads of Massachusetts and volunteering has been at a standstill.
As to the effect of the proclamation at the North, nothing be said, the enthusiasm it has evoked, has been on the wrong side;…Those who so vehemently and persistently urged its adoption, have had their way in the matter, and it is hoped that they are content, if anything can satisfy the Radicals. For ourselves we speak, in declaring that we must be willing that the measure should have a thorough trial and hope that good will result from it. But if it does not — if it utter fails in securing the end for which it was ostensibly inaugurated — the crushing of the rebellion and the restoration of the Union — what a fearful responsibility will rest upon the Radical politicians, who, seemingly for partisan purposes, secured its announcement.
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The Emancipation Proclamation is one of the most important milestones in the quest for human freedom. At the time pain and confusion ruled the land; insight and compassion were in short supply.