HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE Mississippi, In the Field, Big Shanty, June 21, 1864. General Lorenzo THOMAS, Chattanooga:
It has repeatedly come to my knowledge, on the Mississippi, and recently Colonel Beckwith, my chief commissary, reported officially that his negro cattle drivers and gangs for unloading cars were stampeded and broken up by recruiting officers who actually used their authority to carry them off by a species of force. I had to stop it at once. I am receiving no negroes now, because their owners have driven them to Southwest Georgia. I believe that Negroes better serve the Army as teamsters, pioneers, and servants, and have no objection to the surplus, if any, being enlisted as soldiers, but I must have labor and a large quantity of it. I confess I would prefer 300 Negroes armed with spades and axes than 1,000 as soldiers. Still I repeat I have no objection to the enlistment of Negroes if my working parties are not interfered with, and if they are interfered with I must put a summary stop to it. For God’s sake let the Negro question develop itself slowly and naturally, and not by premature cultivation make it a weak element in our policy. I think I understand the Negro as well as anybody, and profess as much conviction in the fact of his certain freedom as you or any one, but he, like all other of the genus homo, must pass through a probationary state before he is qualified for utter and complete freedom. As soldiers it is still an open question, which I am perfectly willing should be fairly and honestly tested. Negroes are as scarce in North Georgia as in Ohio. All are at and below Macon and Columbus, Ga. W. T. SHERMAN, Major- General, Commanding.
