Chapter V: Department of the Gulf (1)

When Admiral Farragut's fleet anchored at New Orleans, and Butler occupied the city, three regiments of confederate negro troops were under arms guarding the United States Mint building, with orders to destroy it before surrendering it to the Yankees. The brigade, however, was in command of a Creole mulatto, who, instead of carrying out the orders given him, and following the troops out of the city on their retreat, counter-marched his command and was cut off from the main body of the army by the Federal forces, to whom they quietly surrendered a few days after.

General Phelps commanded the Federal forces at Carrolton, about seven miles from New Orleans, the principal point in the cordon around the city. Here the slaves congregated in large numbers, seeking freedom and protection from their barbarous overseers and masters. Some of these poor creatures wore irons and chains; some came bleeding from gunshot wounds. General Phelps was an old abolitionist, and had early conceived the idea that the proper thing to do was for the government to arm the negroes. Now came his opportunity to act. Hundreds of able-bodied men were in his camps, ready and willing to fight for their freedom and the preservation of the Union. The secessionists in that neighborhood complained to General Butler about their negroes leaving them and going into camp with the Yankees. So numerous were the complaints, that the General, acting under orders from Washington, and also foreseeing that General Phelps intended allowing the slaves to gather at his post, issued the following order:

"NEW ORLEANS, May 23, 1862.

"GENERAL:--You will cause all unemployed persons, black and
white, to be excluded from your lines.

"You will not permit either black or white persons to pass
your lines, not officers and soldiers or belonging to the
navy of the United States, without a pass from these
headquarters, except they are brought in under guard as
captured persons, with information, and those to be examined
and detained as prisoners of war, if they have been in arms
against the United States, or dismissed and sent away at
once, as the case may be. This does not apply to boats
passing up the river without landing within the lines.

"Provision dealers and marketmen are to be allowed to pass
in with provisions and their wares, but not to remain over
night.

"Persons having had their permanent residence within your
lines before the occupation of our troops, are not to be
considered unemployed persons.

"Your officers have reported a large number of servants.
Every officer so reported employing servants will have the
allowance for servants deducted from his pay-roll.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

B. F. BUTLER.

"Brig.-Gen. PHELPS, Commanding Camp Parapet."

This struck Gen. Phelps as an inhuman order, though he obeyed it and placed the slaves just outside of his camp lines. Here the solders, having drank in the spirit of their commander, cared for the fugitives from slavery. But they continued to come, according to divine appointment, and their increase prompted Gen. Phelps to write this patriotic, pathetic and eloquent appeal, knowing it must reach the President:

"CAMP PARAPET, NEAR CARROLLTON, LA., June 16, 1862.

"Capt. R. S. DAVIS, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, New Orleans.
La.:

"SIR: I enclose herewith, for the information of the
major-general commanding the department, a report of Major
Peck, officer of the day, concerning a large number of
negroes, of both sexes and all ages, who are lying near our
pickets, with bag and baggage, as if they had already
commenced an exodus. Many of these negroes have been sent
away from one of the neighboring sugar plantations by their
owner, a Mr. Babilliard La Blanche, who tells them, I am
informed, that 'the Yankees are king here now, and that they
must go to their king for food and shelter.'

"They are of that four millions of our colored subjects who
have no king or chief, nor in fact any government that can
secure to them the simplest natural rights. They can not
even be entered into treaty stipulations with and deported
to the east, as our Indian tribes have been to the west.
They have no right to the mediation of a justice of the
peace or jury between them and chains and lashes. They have
no right to wages for their labor; no right to the Sabbath;
no right to the institution of marriage; no right to letters
or to self-defense. A small class of owners, rendered
unfeeling, and even unconscious and unreflecting by habit,
and a large part of them ignorant and vicious, stand between
them and their government, destroying its sovereignty. This
government has not the power even to regulate the number of
lashes that its subjects may receive. It can not say that
they shall receive thirty-nine instead of forty. To a large
and growing class of its subjects it can secure neither
justice, moderation, nor the advantages of Christian
religion; and if it can not protect _all_ its subjects, it
can protect none, either black or white.

"It is nearly a hundred years since our people first
declared to the nations of the world that all men are born
free; and still we have not made our declaration good.
Highly revolutionary measures have since then been adopted
by the admission of Missouri and the annexation of Texas in
favor of slavery by the barest majorities of votes, while
the highly conservative vote of two-thirds has at length
been attained against slavery, and still slavery
exists--even, moreover, although two-thirds of the blood in
the veins of our slaves is fast becoming from our own race.
If we wait for a larger vote, or until our slaves' blood
becomes more consanguined still with our own, the danger of
a violent revolution, over which we can have no control,
must become more imminent every day. By a course of
undecided action, determined by no policy but the vague will
of a war-distracted people, we run the risk of precipitating
that very revolutionary violence which we seem seeking to
avoid.

"Let us regard for a moment the elements of such a
revolution.

"Many of the slaves here have been sold away from the border
States as a punishment, being too refractory to be dealt
with there in the face of the civilization of the North.
They come here with the knowledge of the Christian religion,
with its germs planted and expanding, as it were, in the
dark, rich soil of their African nature, with feelings of
relationship with the families from which they came, and
with a sense of unmerited banishment as culprits, all which
tends to bring upon them a greater severity of treatment and
a corresponding disinclination 'to receive punishment'. They
are far superior beings to their ancestors, who were brought
from Africa two generations ago, and who occasionally
rebelled against comparatively less severe punishment than
is inflicted now. While rising in the scale of Christian
beings, their treatment is being rendered more severe than
ever. The whip, the chains, the stocks, and imprisonment are
no mere fancies here; they are used to any extent to which
the imagination of civilized man may reach. Many of them are
as intelligent as their masters, and far more moral, for
while the slave appeals to the moral law as his vindication,
clinging to it as to the very horns of the altar of his
safety and his hope, the master seldom hesitates to wrest
him from it with violence and contempt. The slave, it is
true, bears no resentment; he asks for no punishment for his
master; he simply claims justice for himself; and it is this
feature of his condition that promises more terror to the
retribution when it comes. Even now the whites stand
accursed by their oppression of humanity, being subject to a
degree of confusion, chaos, and enslavement to error and
wrong, which northern society could not credit or
comprehend.

"Added to the four millions of the colored race whose
disaffection is increasing even more rapidly than their
number, there are at least four millions more of the white
race whose growing miseries will naturally seek
companionship with those of the blacks. This latter portion
of southern society has its representatives, who swing from
the scaffold with the same desperate coolness, though from a
directly different cause, as that which was manifested by
John Brown. The traitor Mumford, who swung the other day for
trampling on the national flag, had been rendered placid and
indifferent in his desperation by a government that either
could not or would not secure to its subjects the blessings
of liberty which that flag imports. The South cries for
justice from the government as well as the North, though in
a proud and resentful spirit; and in what manner is that
justice to be obtained? Is it to be secured by that wretched
resource of a set of profligate politicians, called
'reconstruction?' No, it is to be obtained by the abolition
of slavery, and by no other course.

"It is vain to deny that the slave system of labor is giving
shape to the government of the society where it exists, and
that that government is not republican, either in form or
spirit. It was through this system that the leading
conspirators have sought to fasten upon the people an
aristocracy or a despotism; and it is not sufficient that
they should be merely defeated in their object, and the
country be rid of their rebellion; for by our constitution
we are imperatively obliged to sustain the State against the
ambition of unprincipled leaders, and secure to them the
republican form of government. We have positive duties to
perform, and should hence adopt and pursue a positive,
decided policy. We have services to render to certain states
which they cannot perform for themselves. We are in an
emergency which the framers of the constitution might easily
have foreseen, and for which they have amply provided.

"It is clear that the public good requires slavery to be
abolished; but in what manner is it to be done? The mere
quiet operation of congressional law can not deal with
slavery as in its former status before the war, because the
spirit of law is right reason, and there is no reason in
slavery. A system so unreasonable as slavery can not be
regulated by reason. We can hardly expect the several states
to adopt laws or measures against their own immediate
interests. We have seen that they will rather find arguments
for crime than seek measures for abolishing or modifying
slavery. But there is one principle which is fully
recognized as a necessity in conditions like ours, and that
is that the public safety is the supreme law of the State,
and that amid the clash of arms the laws of peace are
silent. It is then for our president, the commander-in-chief
of our armies, to declare the abolition of slavery, leaving
it to the wisdom of congress to adopt measures to meet the
consequences. This is the usual course pursued by a general
or by a military power. That power gives orders affecting
complicated interests and millions of property, leaving it
to the other functions of government to adjust and regulate
the effects produced. Let the president abolish slavery, and
it would be an easy matter for congress, through a
well-regulated system of apprenticeship, to adopt safe
measures for effecting a gradual transition from slavery to
freedom.

"The existing system of labor in Louisiana is unsuited to
the age; and by the intrusion of the national forces it
seems falling to pieces. It is a system of mutual jealousy
and suspicion between the master and the man--a system of
violence, immorality and vice. The fugitive negro tells us
that our presence renders his condition worse with his
master than it was before, and that we offer no alleviation
in return. The system is impolitic, because it offers but
one stimulent to labor and effort, viz.: the lash, when
another, viz.: money, might be added with good effect. Fear,
and the other low and bad qualities of the slave, are
appealed to, but never the good. The relation, therefore,
between capital and labor, which ought to be generous and
confiding, is darkling, suspicious, unkindly, full of
reproachful threats, and without concord or peace. This
condition of things renders the interests of society a prey
to politicians. Politics cease to be practical or useful.

"The questions that ought to have been discussed in the late
extraordinary convention of Louisiana, are: _First_, What
ought the State of Louisiana to do to adopt her ancient
system of labor to the present advanced spirit of the age?
And _Second_, How can the State be assisted by the general
government in effecting the change? But instead of this, the
only question before that body was how to vindicate slavery
by flogging the Yankees!

"Compromises hereafter are not to be made with politicians,
but with sturdy labor and the right to work. The interests
of workingmen resent political trifling. Our political
education, shaped almost entirely to the interest of
slavery, has been false and vicious in the extreme, and it
must be corrected with as much suddenness, almost, as that
with which Salem witchcraft came to an end. The only
question that remains to decide is how the change shall take
place.

"We are not without examples and precedents in the history
of the past. The enfranchisement of the people of Europe has
been, and is still going on, through the instrumentality of
military service; and by this means our slaves might be
raised in the scale of civilization and prepared for
freedom. Fifty regiments might be raised among them at once,
which could be employed in this climate to preserve order,
and thus prevent the necessity of retrenching our liberties,
as we should do by a large army exclusively of whites. For
it is evident that a considerable army of whites would give
stringency to our government, while an army, partly of
blacks, would naturally operate in favor of freedom and
against those influences which at present most endanger our
liberties. At the end of five years they could be sent to
Africa, and their places filled with new enlistments.

"There is no practical evidence against the effects of
immediate abolition, even if there is not in its favor. I
have witnessed the sudden abolition of flogging at will in
the army, and of legalized flogging in the navy, against the
prejudice-warped judgments of both, and, from the beneficial
effects there, I have nothing to fear from the immediate
abolition of slavery. I fear, rather, the violent
consequences from a continuance of the evil. But should such
an act devastate the whole State of Louisiana, and render
the whole soil here but the mere passage-way of the fruits
of the enterprise and industry of the Northwest, it would be
better for the country at large than it is now as the seat
of disaffection and rebellion.

"When it is remembered that not a word is found in our
constitution sanctioning the buying and selling of human
beings, a shameless act which renders our country the
disgrace of Christendom, and worse, in this respect, even
than Africa herself, we should have less dread of seeing the
degrading traffic stopped at once and forever. Half wages
are already virtually paid for slave labor in the system of
tasks which, in an unwilling spirit of compromise, most of
the slave states have already been compelled to adopt. At
the end of five years of apprenticeship, or of fifteen at
farthest, full wages could be paid to the enfranchised negro
race, to the double advantage of both master and man. This
is just; for we now hold the slaves of Louisiana by the same
tenure that the State can alone claim them, viz: by the
original right of conquest. We have so far conquered them
that a proclamation setting them free, coupled with offers
of protection, would devastate every plantation in the
State.

"In conclusion, I may state that Mr. La Blanche is, as I am
informed, a descendant from one of the oldest families of
Louisiana. He is wealthy and a man of standing, and his act
in sending away his negroes to our lines, with their clothes
and furniture, appears to indicate the convictions of his
own mind as to the proper logical consequences and
deductions that should follow from the present relative
status of the two contending parties. He seems to be
convinced that the proper result of the conflict is the
manumission of the slave, and he may be safely regarded in
this respect as a representative man of the State. I so
regard him myself, and thus do I interpret his action,
although my camp now contains some of the highest symbols of
secessionism, which have been taken by a party of the
Seventh Vermont volunteers from his residence.

"Meantime his slaves, old and young, little ones and all,
are suffering from exposure and uncertainty as to their
future condition. Driven away by their master, with threats
of violence if they return, and with no decided welcome or
reception from us, what is to be their lot? Considerations
of humanity are pressing for an immediate solution of their
difficulties; and they are but a small portion of their race
who have sought, and are still seeking, our pickets and our
military stations, declaring that they can not and will not
any longer serve their masters, and that all they want is
work and protection from us. In such a state of things, the
question occurs as to my own action in the case. I cannot
return them to their masters, who not unfrequently come in
search of them, for I am, fortunately, prohibited by an
article of war from doing that, even if my own nature did
not revolt at it. I can not receive them, for I have neither
work, shelter, nor the means or plan of transporting them to
Hayti, or of making suitable arrangements with their masters
until they can be provided for.

"It is evident that some plan, some policy, or some system
is necessary on the part of the government, without which
the agent can do nothing, and all his efforts are rendered
useless and of no effect. This is no new condition in which
I find myself; it is my experience during the some
twenty-five years of my public life as a military officer of
the government. The new article of war recently adopted by
congress, rendering it criminal in an officer of the army to
return fugitives from injustice, is the first support that I
have ever felt from the government in contending against
those slave influences which are opposed to its character
and to its interests. But the mere refusal to return
fugitives does not now meet the case. A public agent in the
present emergency must be invested with wider and more
positive powers than this, or his services will prove as
valueless to the country as they are unsatisfactory to
himself.

"Desiring this communication to be laid before the
president, and leaving my commission at his disposal, I have
the honor to remain, sir,

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. W. PHELPS, _Brigadier-General._"

On the day on which he received this letter, Gen. Butler forwarded to Washington this dispatch:

"NEW ORLEANS, LA., June 18, 1862.

"Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

"SIR:--Since my last dispatch was written, I have received
the accompanying report from General Phelps.

"It is not my duty to enter into a discussion of the
questions which it presents.

"I desire, however, to state the information of Mr. La
Blanche, given me by his friends and neighbors, and also
_Jack_ La Blanche, his slave, who seems to be the leader of
this party of negroes. Mr. La Blanche I have not seen. He,
however, claims to be loyal, and to have taken no part in
the war, but to have lived quietly on his plantation, some
twelve miles above New Orleans, on the opposite side of the
river. He has a son in the secession army, whose uniform and
equipments, &c., are the symbols of secession of which
General Phelps speaks. Mr. La Blanche's house was searched
by the order of General Phelps, for arms and contraband of
war, and his neighbors say that his negroes were told that
they were free if they would come to the general's camp.

"That thereupon the negroes, under the lead of Jack,
determined to leave, and for that purpose crowded into a
small boat which, from overloading, was in danger of
swamping.

"La Blanche then told his negroes that if they were
determined to go, they would be drowned, and he would hire
them a large boat to put them across the river, and that
they might have their furniture if they would go and leave
his plantation and crop to ruin.

"They decided to go, and La Blanche did all a man could to
make that going safe.

"The account of General Phelps is the negro side of the
story; that above given is the story of Mr. La Blanche's
neighbors, some of whom I know to be loyal men.

"An order against negroes being allowed in camp is the
reason they are outside.

"Mr. La Blanche is represented to be a humane man, and did
not consent to the 'exodus' of his negroes.

"General Phelps, I believe, intends making this a test case
for the policy of the government. I wish it might be so, for
the difference of our action upon this subject is a source
of trouble. I respect his honest sincerity of opinion, but I
am a soldier, bound to carry out the wishes of my government
so long as I hold its commission, and I understand that
policy to be the one I am pursuing. I do not feel at liberty
to pursue any other. If the policy of the government is
nearly that I sketched in my report upon the subject and
that which I have ordered in this department, then the
services of General Phelps are worse than useless here. If
the views set forth in his report are to obtain, then he is
invaluable, for his whole soul is in it, and he is a good
soldier of large experience, and no braver man lives. I beg
to leave the whole question with the president, with perhaps
the needless assurance that his wishes shall be loyalty
followed, were they not in accordance with my own, as I have
now no right to have any upon the subject.

"I write in haste, as the steamer 'Mississippi' is awaiting
this dispatch.

"Awaiting the earliest possible instructions, I have the
honor to be,

"Your most obedient servant,

"B. F. BUTLER, _Major General Commanding._"

Gen. Phelps waited about six weeks for a reply, but none came. Meanwhile the negroes continued to gather at his camp. He said, in regard to not receiving an answer, "I was left to the inference that silence gives consent, and proceeded therefore to take such decided measures as appeared best calculated, to me, to dispose of the difficulty." Accordingly he made the following requisition upon headquarters:

"CAMP PARAPET, LA., July 30, 1862.

"Captain R. S. DAVIS, A. A. A. General, New Orleans, La.:

"SIR:--I enclose herewith requisitions for arms,
accouterments, clothing, camp and garrison equipage, &c.,
for three regiments of Africans, which I propose to raise
for the defense of this point. The location is swampy and
unhealthy, and our men are dying at the rate of two or three
a day.

"The southern loyalists are willing, as I understand, to
furnish their share of the tax for the support of the war;
but they should also furnish their quota of men, which they
have not thus far done. An opportunity now offers of
supplying the deficiency; and it is not safe to neglect
opportunities in war. I think that, with the proper
facilities, I could raise the three regiments proposed in a
short time. Without holding out any inducements, or offering
any reward, I have now upward of three hundred Africans
organized into five companies, who are all willing and ready
to show their devotion to our cause in any way that it may
be put to the test. They are willing to submit to anything
rather than to slavery.

Society in the South seems to be on the point of
dissolution; and the best way of preventing the African from
becoming instrumental in a general state of anarchy, is to
enlist him in the cause of the Republic. If we reject his
services, any petty military chieftain, by offering him
freedom, can have them for the purpose of robbery and
plunder. It is for the interests of the South, as well of
the North, that the African should be permitted to offer his
block for the temple of freedom. Sentiments unworthy of the
man of the present day--worthy only of another Cain--could
alone prevent such an offer from being accepted.

I would recommend that the cadet graduates of the present
year should be sent to South Carolina and this point to
organize and discipline our African levies, and that the
more promising non-commissioned officers and privates of the
army be appointed as company officers to command them.
Prompt and energetic efforts in this direction would
probably accomplish more toward a speedy termination of the
war, and an early restoration of peace and unity, than any
other course which could be adopted.

"I have the honor to remain, sir,
very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. W. PHELPS, _Brigadier-General._"

This reply was received:

NEW ORLEANS, July 31, 1862.

"GENERAL:--The general commanding wishes you to employ the
contrabands in and about your camp in cutting down all the
trees, &c., between your lines and the lake, and in forming
abatis, according to the plan agreed upon between you and
Lieutenant Weitzel when he visited you some time since. What
wood is not needed by you is much needed in this city. For
this purpose I have ordered the quartermaster to furnish you
with axes, and tents for the contrabands to be quartered in.

"I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"By order of Major-General BUTLER.

"R. S. DAVIS, Capt. and A. A. A. G.

"To Brigadier-General J. W. PHELPS, Camp Parapet."

General Butler's effort to turn the attention of Gen. Phelps to the law of Congress recently passed was of no avail, that officer was determined in his policy of warring on the enemy; but finding General Butler as firm in his policy of leniency, and knowing of his strong pro-slavery sentiments prior to the war,--notwithstanding his "contraband" order at Fortress Monroe,--General Phelps felt as though he would be humiliated if he departed from his own policy and became what he regarded as a slave-driver, therefore he determined to resign. He replied to General Butler as follows:

"CAMP PARAPET, LA., July 31, 1862.

"Captain R. S. DAVIS, A. A. A. General, New Orleans, La.:

"SIR:--The communication from your office of this date,
signed, 'By order of Major-General Butler,' directing me to
employ the 'contrabands' in and about my camp in cutting
down all the trees between my lines and the lake, etc., has
just been received.

"In reply, I must state that while I am willing to prepare
African regiments for the defense of the government against
its assailants, I am not willing to become the mere
slave-driver which you propose, having no qualifications in
that way. I am, therefore, under the necessity of tendering
the resignation of my commission as an officer of the army
of the United States, and respectfully request a leave of
absence until it is accepted, in accordance with paragraph
29, page 12, of the general regulations.

"While I am writing, at half-past eight o'clock P. M., a
colored man is brought in by one of the pickets who has just
been wounded in the side by a charge of shot, which he says
was fired at him by one of a party of three slave-hunters or
guerillas, a mile or more from our line of sentinels. As it
is some distance from the camp to the lake, the party of
wood-choppers which you have directed will probably need a
considerable force to guard them against similar attacks.

"I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"J. W. PHELPS, _Brigadier-General._"

Phelps was one of Butler's most trusted commanders, and the latter endeavored, but in vain, to have him reconsider his resignation. General Butler wrote him:

NEW ORLEANS, August, 2, 1862.

"GENERAL:--I was somewhat surprised to receive your
resignation for the reasons stated.

"When you were put in command at Camp Parapet, I sent
Lieutenant Weitzel, my chief engineer, to make a
reconnoissance of the lines of Carrollton, and I understand
it was agreed between you and the engineer that a removal
of the wood between Lake Pontchartrain and the right of your
intrenchment was a necessary military precaution. The work
could not be done at that time because of the stage of water
and the want of men. But now both water and men concur. You
have five hundred Africans organized into companies, you
write me. This work they are fitted to do. It must either be
done by them or my soldiers, now drilled and disciplined.
You have said the location is unhealthy for the soldier; it
is not to the negro; is it not best that these unemployed
Africans should do this labor? My attention is specially
called to this matter at the present time, because there are
reports of demonstrations to be made on your lines by the
rebels, and in my judgment it is a matter of necessary
precaution thus to clear the right of your line, so that you
can receive the proper aid from the gunboats on the lake,
besides preventing the enemy from having cover. To do this
the negroes ought to be employed; and in so employing them I
see no evidence of 'slave-driving' or employing you as a
'slave-driver.'

"The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac did this very thing
last summer in front of Arlington Heights; are the negroes
any better than they?

"Because of an order to do this necessary thing to protect
your front, threatened by the enemy, you tender your
resignation and ask immediate leave of absence. I assure you
I did not expect this, either from your courage, your
patriotism, or your good sense. To resign in the face of an
enemy has not been the highest plaudit to a soldier,
especially when the reason assigned is that he is ordered to
do that which a recent act of congress has specially
authorized a military commander to do, _i. e._, employ the
Africans to do the necessary work about a camp or upon a
fortification.

"General, your resignation will not be accepted by me, leave
of absence will not be granted, and you will see to it that
my orders, thus necessary for the defense of the city, are
faithfully and diligently executed, upon the responsibility
that a soldier in the field owes to his superior. I will see
that all proper requisitions for the food, shelter, and
clothing of these negroes so at work are at once filled by
the proper departments. You will also send out a proper
guard to protect the laborers against the guerilla force, if
any, that may be in the neighborhood.

"I am your obedient servant,

"BENJ. F. BUTLER, _Major-General Commanding._

"Brigadier-General J. W. PHELPS, _Commanding at Camp Parapet._"

On the same day, General Butler wrote again to General Phelps:

"NEW ORLEANS, August 2, 1862.

"GENERAL:--By the act of congress, as I understand it, the
president of the United States alone has the authority to
employ Africans in arms as a part of the military forces of
the United States.

"Every law up to this time raising volunteer or militia
forces has been opposed to their employment. The president
has not as yet indicated his purpose to employ the Africans
in arms.

"The arms, clothing, and camp equipage which I have here for
the Louisiana volunteers, is, by the letter of the secretary
of war, expressly limited to white soldiers, so that I have
no authority to divert them, however much I may desire so to
do.

"I do not think you are empowered to organize into companies
negroes, and drill them as a military organization, as I am
not surprised, but unexpectedly informed you have done. I
cannot sanction this course of action as at present advised,
specially when we have need of the services of the blacks,
who are being sheltered upon the outskirts of your camp, as
you will see by the orders for their employment sent you by
the assistant adjutant-general.

"I will send your application to the president, but in the
mean time you must desist from the formation of any negro
military organization.

"I am your obedient servant,

"BENJ. F. BUTLER, _Major-General Commanding._

"Brigadier-General PHELPS, _commanding forces at Camp Parapet._"

General Phelps' resignation was accepted by the Government. He received notification of the fact on the 8th of September and immediately prepared to return to his farm in Vermont. In parting with his officers, who were, like his soldiers, much attached to him, he said: "And now, with earnest wishes for your welfare, and aspirations for the success of the great cause for which you are here, I bid you good-bye." Says Parton:

"When at length, the government had arrived at a negro
policy, and was arming slaves, the president offered General
Phelps a major-general's commission. He replied, it is said,
that he would willingly accept the commission if it were
dated back to the day of his resignation, so as to carry
with it an approval of his course at Camp Parapet. This was
declined, and General Phelps remains in retirement. I
suppose the president felt that an indorsement of General
Phelps' conduct would imply a censure of General Butler,
whose conduct every candid person, I think, must admit, was
just, forbearing, magnanimous."

General Butler was carrying out the policy of the Government at that time, but it was not long before he found it necessary to inaugurate a policy of his own for the safety of his command. On the 5th of August Breckenridge assaulted Baton Rouge, the capital of the State, which firmly convinced General Butler of the necessity of raising troops to defend New Orleans. He had somewhat realized his situation in July and appealed to the "home authorities" for reinforcements, but none could be sent. Still, the Secretary of War said to him, in reply to his application: "New Orleans must be held at all hazards."

With New Orleans threatened and no hope of reinforcement, General Butler, on the 22d day of August, before General Phelps had retired to private life, was obliged to accept the policy of arming negroes. He issued the following order:

"HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
GENERAL ORDERS "NEW ORLEANS, August 22, 1862.
NO. 63.

"Whereas on the 23d day of April, in the year eighteen
hundred and sixty-one, at a public meeting of the free
colored population of the city of New Orleans, a military
organization, known as the "Native Guards" (colored,) had
its existence, which military organization was duly and
legally enrolled as a part of the militia of the State, its
officers being commissioned by Thomas O. Moore, Governor and
Commander-in-Chief of the militia of the State of Louisiana,
in the form following, that is to say:

"'THE STATE OF LOUISIANA.
[Seal of the State.]

"'By Thomas Overton Moore, Governor of the State of
Louisiana, and commander-in-chief of the militia thereof.

"'In the name and by the authority of the State of
Louisiana: Know ye that ----- ----, having been duly and
legally elected captain of the "Native Guards" (colored,)
1st division of the Militia of Louisiana, to serve for the
term of the war,

"'I do hereby appoint and commission him captain as
aforesaid, to take rank as such, from the 2d day of May,
eighteen hundred and sixty-one.

"'He is, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge
the duties of his office by doing and performing all manner
of things thereto belonging. And I do strictly charge and
require all officers, non-commissioned officers and privates
under his command, to be obedient to his orders as captain;
and he is to observe and follow such orders and directions,
from time to time, as he shall receive from me, or the
future Governor of the State of Louisiana, or other superior
officers, according to the Rules and Articles of War, and in
conformity to law.

"'In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be
made patent, and the seal of the State to be hereunto
annexed.

"'Given under my hand, at the city of Baton Rouge, on the
second day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-one.

[L.S.] [Signed,] THOS. O. MOORE.
"'By the Governor:
[Signed,] "'P. D. Hardy, Secretary of State.
[Endorsed.]

"'I, Maurice Grivot, Adjutant and Inspector General of the
State of Louisiana, do hereby certify that ---- ----, named
in the within commission, did, on the second day of May, in
the year 1861, deposit in my office his written acceptance
of the office to which he is commissioned, and his oath of
office taken according to law.

[Signed,] "'M. GRIVOT,
Adjutant and Inspector General, La.'

"And whereas, said military organization elicited praise and
respect, and was complimented in General Orders for its
patriotism and loyalty, and was ordered to continue during
the war, in the words following:

"'HEADQUARTERS LOUISIANA MILITIA,

"'Order No. 426.] "'Adjutant General's Office, March 24, 1862.

"'I.--The Governor and Commander-in-Chief, relying
implicitly upon the loyalty of the free colored population
of the city and State for the protection of their homes,
their property, and for Southern rights, from the pollution
of a ruthless invader, and believing that the military
organization which existed prior to the 15th of February,
1862, and elicited praise and respect for the patriotic
motives which prompted it, should exist for and during the
war, calls upon them to maintain their organization, and to
hold themselves prepared for such orders as may be
transmitted to them.

"'II.--The colonel commanding will report without delay to
Major General Lewis, commanding State militia.

"'By order of THOS. O. MOORE, Governor.

[Signed,] M. GRIVOT, Adjutant General.'

"And whereas, said military organization, by the same order,
was directed to report to Major-General Lewis for service,
but did not leave the city of New Orleans when he did:

"Now, therefore, the Commanding General, believing that a
large portion of this militia force of the State of
Louisiana are willing to take service in the volunteer
forces of the United States, and be enrolled and organized
to 'defend their homes from 'ruthless invaders;' to protect
their wives and children and kindred from wrong and outrage;
to shield their property from being seized by bad men; and
to defend the flag of their native country as their fathers
did under Jackson at Chalmette against Packenham and his
myrmidons, carrying the black flag of 'beauty and booty;'

"Appreciating their motives, relying upon their 'well-known
loyalty and patriotism,' and with 'praise and respect' for
these brave men--it is ordered that all the members of the
'Native Guards' aforesaid, and all other free colored
citizens recognized by the first and late governor and
authorities of the State of Louisiana as a portion of the
militia of the State, who shall enlist in the volunteer
service of the United States, shall be duly organized by the
appointment of proper officers, and accepted, paid,
equipped, armed and rationed as are other volunteer troops
of the United States, subject to the approval of the
President of the United States. All such persons are
required at once to report themselves at the Touro Charity
Building, Front Levee St., New Orleans, where proper
officers will muster them into the service of the United
States.

"By command of Major General Butler:

"R. S. DAVIS, _Capt. and A. A. A. G._"

Notwithstanding the harsh treatment they had been receiving from Military-Governor Shepley and the Provost Guard, the rendezvous designated was the scene of a busy throng the next day. Thousands of men were enlisted during the first week, and in fourteen days a regiment was organized. The first regiment's line officers were colored, and the field officers were white. Those who made up this regiment were not all free negroes by more than half. Any negro who would swear that he was free, if physically good, was accepted, and of the many thousand slave fugitives in the city from distant plantations, hundreds found their way into Touro building and ultimately into the ranks of the three regiments formed at that building. The second, like the first, had all colored line officers; the third was officered regardless of color. This was going beyond the line laid down by General Phelps. He proposed that white men should take command of these troops exclusively. By November these three regiments were in the field, where in course of time they often met their former masters face to face and exchanged shots with them. The pro-slavery men of the North and their newspapers endeavored to make the soldiers in the field believe that the negroes would not fight; while not only the papers and the soldiers, but many officers, especially those from the West Point Academy, denounced General Butler for organizing the regiments. General Weitzel, to whose command these regiments were assigned in an expedition up the river, objected to them, and asked Butler to relieve him of the command of the expedition. Butler wrote him in reply:

"You say that in these organizations you have no confidence.
As your reading must have made you aware, General Jackson
entertained a different opinion upon that subject. It was
arranged between the commanding general and yourself, that
the colored regiments should be employed in guarding the
railroad. You don't complain, in your report, that they
either failed in this duty, or that they have acted
otherwise than correctly and obediently to the commands of
their officers, or that they have committed any outrage or
pillage upon the inhabitants. The general was aware of your
opinion, that colored men will not fight. You have failed to
show, by the conduct of these free men, so far, anything to
sustain that opinion. And the general cannot see why you
should decline the command, especially as you express a
willingness to go forward to meet the only organized enemy
with your brigade alone, without farther support. The
commanding general cannot see how the fact that they are
guarding your line of communication by railroad, can weaken
your defense. He must, therefore, look to the other reasons
stated by you, for an explanation of your declining the
command.

"You say that since the arrival of the negro regiment you
have seen symptoms of a servile insurrection. But as the
only regiment that arrived there got there as soon as your
own command, of course the appearance of such symptoms is
since their arrival.

"Have you not mistaken the cause? Is it the arrival of a
negro regiment, or is it the arrival of United States
troops, carrying by the act of congress freedom to this
servile race? Did you expect to march into that country,
drained, as you say it is, by conscription of all its
able-bodied white men, without leaving the negroes free to
show symptoms of servile insurrection? Does not this state
of things arise from the very fact of war itself? You are in
a country where now the negroes outnumber the whites ten to
one, and these whites are in rebellion against the
government, or in terror seeking its protection. Upon
reflection, can you doubt that the same state of things
would have arisen without the presence of a colored
regiment? Did you not see symptoms of the same things upon
the plantations here upon our arrival, although, under much
less favorable circumstances for revolt?

"You say that the prospect of such an insurrection is
heart-rending, and that you cannot be responsible for it.
The responsibility rests upon those who have begun and
carried out this war, and who have stopped at no barbarity,
at no act of outrage, upon the citizens and soldiers of the
United States. You have forwarded me the records of a
pretended court-martial, showing that seven men of one of
your regiments, who enlisted here in the Eighth Vermont, who
had surrendered themselves prisoners of war, were in cold
blood murdered, and, as certain information shows me,
required to dig their own graves! You are asked if this is
not an occurrence as heart-rending as a prospective servile
insurrection.

"The question is now to be met, whether, in a hostile,
rebellious part of the state, where this very murder has
been committed by the militia, you are to stop in the
operations of the field to put down servile insurrection,
because the men and women are terror-stricken? Whenever was
it heard before that a victorious general, in an
unsurrendered province, stopped in his course for the
purpose of preventing the rebellious inhabitants of that
province from destroying each other, or refuse to take
command of a conquered province lest he should be made
responsible for their self-destruction?

"As a military question, perhaps, the more terror-stricken
the inhabitants are that are left in your rear, the more
safe will be your lines of communication. You say there have
appeared before your eyes the very facts, in terror-stricken
women and children and men, which you had before
contemplated in theory. Grant it. But is not the remedy to
be found in the surrender of the neighbors, fathers,
brothers, and sons of the terror-stricken women and
children, who are now in arms against the government within
twenty miles of you? And when that is done, and you have no
longer to fear from these organized forces, and they have
returned peaceably to their homes, you will be able to use
the full power of your troops to insure your safety from the
so much feared (by them, not by you) servile insurrection.

"If you desire, you can send a flag of truce to the
commander of these forces, embracing these views, and
placing upon him the responsibility which belongs to him.
Even that course will not remove it from you, for upon you
it has never rested. Say to them, that if all armed
opposition to the authority of the United States shall cease
in Louisiana, on the west bank of the river, you are
authorized by the commanding general to say, that the same
protection against negro or other violence will be afforded
that part of Louisiana that has been in the part already in
the possession of the United States. If that is refused,
whatever may ensue is upon them, and not upon you or upon
the United States. You will have done all that is required
of a brave, humane man, to avert from these deluded people
the horrible consequences of their insane war upon the
government. * * * *

"Consider this case. General Bragg is at liberty to ravage
the houses of our brethren of Kentucky because the Union
army of Louisiana are protecting his wife and his home
against his negroes. Without that protection he would have
to come back to take care of his wife, his home and his
negroes. It is understood that Mrs. Bragg is one of the
terrified women of whom you speak in your report.

"This subject is not for the first time under the
consideration of the commanding general. When in command of
the Department of Annapolis, in May, 1861, he was asked to
protect a community against the consequences of a servile
insurrection. He replied, that when that community laid down
its arms, and called upon him for protection, he would give
it, because from that moment between them and him war would
cease. The same principle initiated there will govern his
and your actions now; and you will afford such protection as
soon as the community through its organized rulers shall ask
it.

" * * * * In the mean time, these colored regiments of free
men, raised by the authority of the president, and approved
by him as the commander-in-chief of the army, must be
commanded by the officers of the army of the United States,
like any other regiment."

General Butler continued General Weitzel in command but placed the negroes under another officer. However, General Weitzel; like thousands of others, changed his mind in regard to the colored troops. "If he was not convinced by General Butler's reasoning," says Parton, "he must have been convinced by what he saw of the conduct of those very colored regiments at Port Hudson, where he himself gave such a glorious example of prudence and gallantry."

Notwithstanding these troops did good service, it did not soften or remove very much of the prejudice at the North against the negro soldiers, nor in the ranks of the army. Many incidents might be cited to show the feeling of bitterness against them.[22] However, General Butler's example was followed very soon by every officer in command, and by the time the President's Emancipation Proclamation was issued there were not less than 10,000 negroes armed and equipped along the Mississippi river. Of course the Government knew nothing of this.(?) Not only armed, but some of them had been in skirmishes with the enemy. That as a Phalanx they were invaluable in crushing the rebellion, let their acts of heroism tell. In the light of history and of their own deeds, it can be said that in courage, patriotism and dash, they were second to no troops, either in ancient or modern armies. They were enlisted after rigid scrutiny, and the examination of every man by competent surgeons. Their acquaintance with the country in which they marched, encamped and fought, made them in many instances superior to the white troops. Then to strengthen their valor and tenacity, each soldier of the Phalanx knew when he heard the long roll beat to arms, and the bugle sound the charge, that they were not to go forth to meet those who regarded them as opponents in arms, but who met them as a man in his last desperate effort for life would meet demons; they knew, also, that there was no reserve--no reinforcements behind to support them when they went to battle; their alternative was _life or death_. It was the consciousness of this fact that made the black phalanx a wall of adamant to the enemy.

The not unnatural willingness of the white soldiers to allow the negro troops to stop the bullets that they would otherwise have to receive was shown in General Bank's Red River Campaign. At Pleasant Grove, Dickey's black brigade prevented a slaughter of the Union troops. The black Phalanx were represented there by a brigade attached to the first division of the 19th Corps. When the confederates routed the army under Banks at Sabine Cross Roads, below Mansfield, they drove it for several hours toward Pleasant Grove, despite the ardor of the combined forces of Banks and Franklin. It became apparent that unless the confederates could be checked at this point, all was lost. General Emory prepared for the emergency on the western edge of a wood, with an open field sloping toward Mansfield. Here General Dwight formed a brigade of the black Phalanx across the road. Hardly was the line formed when out came the gallant foe driving 10,000 men before them. Flushed with two days' victory, they came charging at double quick time, but the Phalanx held its fire until the enemy was close upon them, and then poured a deadly volley into the ranks of the exultant foe, stopping them short and mowing them down like grass. The confederates recoiled, and now began a fight such as was always fought when the Southerners became aware that black soldiers were in front of them, and for an hour and a half they fought at close quarters, ceasing only at night. Every charge of the enemy was repulsed by the steady gallantry of General Emory's brigade and the black Phalanx, who saved the army from annihilation against a foe numbering three to one. During this memorable campaign the Phalanx more than once met the enemy and accepted the face of their black flag declarations. The confederates knew full well that every man of the Phalanx would fight to the last; they had learned that long before.

Negroes enlisting in the army, and being examined by surgeons.]