"Arriving there at sunrise (February 2, 1863), I made my way with Dr. Rogers to General Saxton's bedroom, and laid before him the keys and shackles of the slave prison, with my report of the good conduct of the men...
"Slight as this expedition now seems among the vast events of war , the future student of the newspapers of that day will find that it occupied no little space in their columns, so intense was the interest which then attached to the novel experiment of employing black troops. So obvious, too, was the value, during the raid, of their local knowledge and enthusiasm, that it was not impossible to find in its successes new suggestions for the war. Certainly, I would not have consented to repeat the enterprise with the bravest white troops, leaving Corporal Sutton and his mates behind, for I should have expected to fail....
" The memory of our raid was preserved in the camp by many legends of adventure , growing vaster and more incredible as time wore on,--and by the morning appeals to the surgeon of some veteran invalids , who could now cut off all reproofs and suspicions with 'Doctor, I's been a sickly pusson eber since deexpeditious.' Bur to me the most vivid memory was the flock of sheep that we 'lifted.' The Post Quartermaster discreetly gave us charge of them, and they rilled a gap in the landscape and the larder,--which last had before presented one unvaried round of impenetrable beef. .. I had been familiar, in Kansas, with the metaphor by which the sentiments of an owner were credited to his property, and had heard of a proslavery colt and an antislavery cow. The fact that these sheep were but recently converted from 'Se-cesh ' sentiments was their crowning charm."
P.47-8, ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK REGIMENT by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1866)
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK REGIMENT
"Arriving there at sunrise (February 2, 1863), I made my way with Dr. Rogers to General Saxton's bedroom, and laid before him the keys and shackles of the slave prison, with my report of the good conduct of the men...
"Slight as this expedition now seems among the vast events of war , the future student of the newspapers of that day will find that it occupied no little space in their columns, so intense was the interest which then attached to the novel experiment of employing black troops. So obvious, too, was the value, during the raid, of their local knowledge and enthusiasm, that it was not impossible to find in its successes new suggestions for the war. Certainly, I would not have consented to repeat the enterprise with the bravest white troops, leaving Corporal Sutton and his mates behind, for I should have expected to fail....
" The memory of our raid was preserved in the camp by many legends of adventure , growing vaster and more incredible as time wore on,--and by the morning appeals to the surgeon of some veteran invalids , who could now cut off all reproofs and suspicions with 'Doctor, I's been a sickly pusson eber since deexpeditious.' Bur to me the most vivid memory was the flock of sheep that we 'lifted.' The Post Quartermaster discreetly gave us charge of them, and they rilled a gap in the landscape and the larder,--which last had before presented one unvaried round of impenetrable beef. .. I had been familiar, in Kansas, with the metaphor by which the sentiments of an owner were credited to his property, and had heard of a proslavery colt and an antislavery cow. The fact that these sheep were but recently converted from 'Se-cesh ' sentiments was their crowning charm."
P.47-8, ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK REGIMENT by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1866)