d there, whom they
had known all their lives, and who had generally borne a good character,
than to be in the power of entire strangers. Certainly the men deserved
the confidence, for there was scarcely an exception to their good
behavior. I think they thoroughly felt that their honor and dignity were
concerned in the matter, and took too much pride in their character as
soldiers,--to say nothing of higher motives,--to tarnish it by any
misdeeds. They watched their officers vigilantly and even suspiciously,
to detect any disposition towards compromise; and so long as we pursued
a just course, it was evident that they could be relied on. Yet the spot
was pointed out to me where two of our leading men had seen their
brothers hanged by Lynch law; many of them had private wrongs to avenge;
and they all had utter disbelief in all pretended loyalty, especially on
the part of the women. One man alone was brought to me in a sort of
escort of honor by Corporal Prince Lambkin,--one of the color-guard, and
one of our ablest men,--the same who had once made a speech in camp,
reminding his hearers that they had lived under the American flag for
eighteen hundred and sixty-two years, and ought to live and die under
it. Corporal Lambkin now introduced his man, a German, with the highest
compliment in his power: "He hab true colored-man heart." Surrounded by
mean, cajoling, insinuating white men, and women who were all that and
worse, I was quite ready to appreciate the quality he thus proclaimed. A
colored-man heart, in the Rebel States, is a fair synonyme for a loyal
heart, and it is about the only such synonyme. In this case, I found
afterwards that the man in question, a small grocer, had been an object
of suspicion to the whites from his readiness to lend money to the
negroes, or sell to them on credit; in which, perhaps, there may have
been some mixture of self-interest with benevolence.

I resort to a note-book of that period, well thumbed and pocket-worn,
which sometimes received a fragment of the day's experience.

_"March 16, 1863._--Of course, droll things are constantly occurring.
Every white man, woman, and child is flattering, seductive, and
professes Union sentiment; every black ditto believes that every white
ditto is a scoundrel, and ought to be shot, but for good order and
military discipline. The Provost Marshal and I steer between them as
blandly as we can. Such scenes as succeed each other! Rush of indignant
Africa