—-or anywhere else for that matter.
Only a couple of examples. For more reading go to —- http://confederatepows.southernheritageadvancementpreservationeducation.com/page.php?6
Official report relative to the conduct of federal troops in western Louisiana during the invasions of 1863 and 1864 Compiled from sworn testimony, under direction of Governor Henry W. Allen
Published 1865
Page 64 —
A Capt. De West, of Mower’s division, with two privates; after pilfering sundry inconsirerable articles, espied a silver watch on the persou of a Negro man. He was in his master’s yard, watching the extraordinary spectacle of white men stealing in the open day, little dreaming that his own watch was in any danger. They relieved him of the encumbrance very speedily. (Affidavit No. 9.)
A characteristic instance of their affectionate care for the blacks is developed in affidavit No, 4. The affiant, you will perceive, is a free Negress. —– She speaks with feeling of the loss of her sheets, table cloths and looking-glasses, her knives, forks and plates. Perhaps I shall be more graphic if I transcribe her own words. “The Yankees,” says the woman, ” came to my house the first day they entered town, and commenced stealing my poultry. On seeing me they asked who I was. I told them. They asked me who my master was. I said I had no master, that I was a free colored woman. They said I lied and that my master was hid. They commenced pillaging the house, taking out my knives and forks, plates, and table cloths, sheets, and looking glasses, and then palled down my house, which was a frame house- They asked me who the house belonged to. I told them it belonged to me, at which they cursed me, and called me liar again, and said niggers could not own property in the South, and before they stopped the house was cleaned pulled down, and even the bricks taken out of the chimney. My own clothes, and my daughter’s, a grown woman, were all taken by them—among them some merinos and lawns, and my husband’s gold watch, which I minded more than the clothes. My husband has been dead two years.”
Page 65 —
The daughter of this free Negress, (Affidavit No. 6), went on the same day to Gen. Mower, and told him his soldiers had stolen ” all her clothes, bonnets and jewelry.” She got no satisfaction, and made no further effort to recover them, nor did she get back anything. ” The Yankees said we should not have our things back; that they knew they were not ours, for colored people were not allowed to own so much property down here. * * * I went to Col. Shaw and told him the Union soldiers had killed and taken away my mother’s hog, and had taken all of her provisions, and wanted him to give me some. He said I could go and kill some of the rebels’ hogs ; that if I wanted to stay down here, I could get the rebels to feed me.”
The most horrible incident I read—
The Civil War reminiscences of Major Silas T. Grisamore, C.S.A.
By Arthur W. Bergeron
Page 123 – Passing into a sugar house nearby, I saw one of the most horrible sights I ever witnessed. There were about fifty Negro men and women lying around, some of them dead, others dying, some of them being eaten by worms before life was extinct, the whole scene presenting a panorama of fifth, destitution and misery, that it is to be hoped it will seldom be seen again in any country. The roads from Franklin to Tigerville, were lined with negroes half starved, destitute of clothing, and unable to help themselves. The only question of the poor wretches who had been two months experiencing Federal sympathy and charity, was the inquiry of their master was coming after them. Hundreds of them were taken back to their old homes and their lives thus saved by their former owners.”
All of this occurred when Yankees came to town waving the UNITED STATES flag
Cold Southern Steel 