A Union Officer in the Reconstruction

by De Forest, John W.; Croushore, James H.; Potter, David Morris

• ISBN13: 9780807121832
• ISBN10: 0807121835
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

Beginning in 1866, John William De Forest served fifteen months as an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in Greenville, South Carolina. After leaving the army, he wrote a series of magazine articles giving a full and realistic account of the bureau's operation as it intersected with the daily lives of freedmen. In 1948 the articles were compiled in A Union Officer in the Reconstruction, reprinted here for the first time. A companion volume to De Forest's Civil War memoir, A Volunteer's Adventures, it offers a deft analysis of the structure of postwar southern society and gives a firsthand description of the impact of emancipation, defeat, military rule, and social and economic disorganization.

Table of Contents

Introduction	v	(24)
Author's Preface	xxix
CHAPTER I A Report of Outrages--The case of Cato Allums. Largent and Joly, bushwhackers. Texas Brown and his gang. A harborer of bushwhackers.	1	(24)
CHAPTER II A Bureau Major's Business and Pleasures--A sham bureau officer. Nature of complaints. Specimen cases. Transportation. Red tape. Brother officials. The pleasures of office.	25	(24)
CHAPTER III Applicants for Bureau Rations--Two sisters. Mothers and daughters. "Poor-white trash." "Poor black'uns." Objections to a distribution. More "poor-white trash." Impoverished gentry. Native views concerning rations.	49	(20)
CHAPTER IV Drawing Bureau Rations--Army bookkeeping. An issue of clothing. Calls for corn. Cataloguing misery. An issue of corn. Accounting for corn. Results.	69	(22)
CHAPTER V The Man and Brother--A remarkable complaint. A "nigger" graveyard. Uncle Dudley. Cox, Lynch, and Company. Lack of practical arithmetic. Too much amusement. Native opinions of "niggers." Chastity and temperance. Honesty. Lying. Negro testimony. Outrages against whites. Outrages against freedmen.	91	(21)
CHAPTER VI More Man and Brother--Domestic affections. Desire for education. A Negro philanthropist. Social status. Mixed bloods. Political qualifications. A Negro revolution. High taxes and low wages. Migration. Prospects of the race.	112	(23)
CHAPTER VII The Low-Down People--Morality. Drunkenness. Idleness and improvidence. Beggary. Vagrancy. Social degradation. Pugnacity. Ferocity. History of a family. Future possibilities.	135	(24)
CHAPTER VIII Semi-Chivalrous Southrons--The mountaineers. A Union soldier of the mountains. A planter-Unionist. A Unionist widow. The Unionists as a party.	159	(14)
CHAPTER IX Chivalrous Southrons--Self-respect. Pugnacities. Courage in the field. Virility. Courtesy.	173	(16)
CHAPTER X More Chivalrous Southrons--Generosity. Honor. Intellectual traits. Political opinions. Political feeling. Financial condition. Southern individuality.	189