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IS 4.2 Story of an Emigrant.
• 105
lie asked me with an injured look. The killing of his nesrro
for such an offence seemed so right and natural to him that
he was perfectly astonished when I informed him that lie
would have to answer to the charge of murder before a
military commission at Little Rock, where he was at once
sent for trial. What a great change in sentiment a quarter
of a century has produced ! Our children will never learn to
realize what a curse slavery was, even while some of them
were in their cradles.
"It has been said that the old soldiers occasionally did a
little foraging on their own hook, while in the enemy’s
country, and I rather think they did; but I wish to state most
solemnly, that whatever bad habits the boys mi»ht have
had in that respect before the surrender of the Confederate
army, they reformed at once after that event, most
thoroughly and sincerely, and during the whole summer of 1S65,
although scattered over a wide country, and almost free
from military duty and restraint, there was never a
complaint made against a man in my command, for depredation
of any kind, and I verily believe that the rights of property,
even down to the beloved shoat and chicken, were held as
sacred by the Union soldiers in our district during that time
as those rights are ordinarily held in any well-governed
country during times of peace. All things considered I am
fully convinced that the excellent conduct of our soldiers in
the South during the early days of reconstruction, when the
army took a prominent part in that work, did more to
establish law and order and to foster friendly and loyal
sentiments towards the Union, than all the laws and
constitutional amendments enacted for that purpose. Had the
great and noble Lincoln lived, or even if President Johnson had
remained true to the principles of his early life, and left the
Union soldiers at liberty to carry out the firm but humane
policy of reconstruction which they inaugurated under the
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