The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 3, Volume 2. Page: 51
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UNION AUTHORITIES. 51
purposes of the Treasury Department, which had taken charge and
supervision of these plantations, having the support and countenance
in such design of the President and the War Department.
Mr. Pierce says:
With the week closing yesterday (May 10) the planting of the crops has substan-
tially closed. Some 6,000 or 8,000 acres, by a rough estimate, have been planted.
The corn, vegetables, and cotton are up and growing. The season of cultivating has
come, and without proper cultivation the crops planted will come to nothing, and
the money expended by Government, as well as the labor, will be useless. All the
hands, with few exceptions, now on the plantations are useful for the cultivation of
the growing crops, and only a few can be taken from them without substantial
injury. Under these circumstances it is proposed to take from the plantations all
able-bodied men between eighteen and forty-five, leaving only women and children
and old or sick men to cultivate the crops. There is no exception even for the plow-
man or the foreman. * * * But the order has other than financial and industrial
results. The cultivation of the plantations was a social experiment which it was
important to make. It is a new and delicate one and entitled to a fair trial. The
conscription of these laborers will at once arrest it and disorganize and defeat an
enterprise thus hopefully begun.
The writer proceeds to deplore, to General Hunter, the probable
effect upon the minds of these negroes in transporting them, without
their consent and against their will, to Hilton Head, to organize them
as recruits; states that they are ignorant, suspicious, and sensitive;
that they have not acquired such confidence in white men, nor so far
recovered the manhood which two centuries of bondage have rooted
out, as to realize that they have a country to fight for. He avers also
that these forced enlistments will give color to the assurances of their
masters that it was the purpose of the Union troops to take them to
Cuba. He concludes this letter by stating that while he yields obedi-
ence to the order, he had felt compelled to state in what manner it
appeared to him to conflict with the policy of the Government and the
duties with which he had been charged.
Nos. 7 and 8 are communications from two superintendents of plan-
tations describing the manner of mustering the negroes and the
scenes of distress and weeping and wailing which occurred on the
separation of these negroes from their families. One of the superin-
tendents, Mr. Wells, says:
This conscription, together with the manner of its execution, has created a sus-
picion that the Government has not at heart the interest of the negroes it professed
to have, and many of them sighed yesterday for the "old fetters " as being better
than the "new liberty."
No. 6 is another letter from Mr. Pierce to General Hunter, also
describing the scenes last referred to and showing generally the dis-
quieting effect of this order upon the negro population. Mr. Pierce
says:
The superintendents aided in the execution of this order with moral influence and
physical assistance, some of them walking many miles in the night to guide the
soldiers, but they all expressed great sorrow at what has been done and feel that
the hold which they had been slowly and carefully getting on their people has been
lessened.
No. 1 is a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury by Mr.
Pierce, the agent of the Treasury Department, recapitulating all the
circumstances relating to his knowledge of and connection with this
order and circumstantially detailing what transpired in an interview
with General Hunter on the subject.
No. 9 is a letter from the Treasury Department transmitting all
these documents to the War Department for consideration, and call-
ing attention especially to the report of Mr. Pierce (No. 1), dated May
12, 1862.
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United States. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 3, Volume 2., book, 1899; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth139264/m1/60/: accessed May 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.