THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ
of men who had but recently surrendered their arms as Confederate soldiers. Two days before my arrival at Vicksburg, General Slocum had issued a “General Order” in which he directed the district commanders under him not to permit within their districts the organization of such military forces as were contemplated by Governor Sharkey's proclamation. The reasons for such action given by General Slocum in the order itself, were conclusive. While the military forces of the United States sent to the State of Mississippi for the purpose of maintaining order, of executing the laws of Congress and the orders of the War Department, had performed their duties in a spirit of conciliation and forbearance and with remarkable success, the provisional governor, on the alleged ground that this had not been done to his satisfaction, and without consulting the Department Commander, had called upon the late Confederate soldiers, fresh from the war against the National Government, to organize a military force intended to be “independent of the military authority now present, and superior in strength to the United States powers on duty in the State.” The execution of this scheme would bring on collisions at once, especially where the United States forces consisted of colored troops. The crimes and disorder, the occurrence of which the provisional governor adduced as his reason for organizing his State volunteers, had been committed or connived at as the record showed, by people of the same class to which the Governor's volunteers would belong. The commanding general as well as every good citizen earnestly desired to hasten the day when the troops of the United States could with safety be withdrawn, but that day would “not be hastened by arming at this time the young men of the State.”
General Slocum—by the way be it said, not at all an old anti-slavery man, but a Democrat in politics—was manifest
[ 190 ]
