Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1863-12-23
Shocking Scenes on the Confscated
Plantations.

otlOl III thc "CCOuuts uI'dll gwen III re-
gar6 to the condition of the negroes at
the various contraband camps in the Mis-
sissippi Valley. Cougregated at these de-
pos, without employment, deprived Of the
food to which they have been accustomed,
and often witEou! shelter or medical care,
these hapless creatures perish as if swept
of by pestilence. VIM. d. Butler, a dele
gate of the u. S. Christian Commission,
writes to Rev. DR.. W. G. Eliot as follows,
respecting the negroes who came into
Vicksburg after the surrender by Gen.
Pemberton, mostly from beyond jackson
"About the first of August the military
authorities became alarmed lest pesti-
lence should break out among them and
extend to the army. Peremptory orders
were issued to at once remove across the
river all negroes, of every age and sex,
whether sick or well who we're not in some
employment. One morning | went out
TO inform n certain Lieut.. W, who,
with an inadequate force, was executing
the order, that one Of them in the Baptist
Church was dead, and that another, a wo-
man, was lying behind a fence, dying
lie told me that he had detailed, for the
purpose ofremoving the negroes, 20 army
wagons that he had hauled them, well,
sick, and dead, with all their traps to the
river, where he had a steamer TO convey
them across to point opposite the lower
part of the city that he had ore wagon to
haul the dead, and that some days he
found as many as twenty; that in one
house he found six dead bodies, with liv-
ing ones sitting and lying around them,
apparently unconscious of their situation.
Holes we're dug on the rivers bank and
the dead buried. The searching out and
removal of these negroes consumed about
fifteen or twenty days. About three hun
dred were thus removed to the low grounds
opposite Vicksburg, and there left in the
weeds without any shelter, under the care
of a man who was appointed to organize
them into a camp, and separate small pox
cases from the rest-in general to do what
he could for their relief. He was soon ta-
ken sick, and a certain Captain - was
appointed to take charge of all the contra
bands in and around Vicksburg. The
captain was soon Frustrated by disease
and was conveyed across the river in :
skiti, whence he made his way TO a house
a Joining that of the United States Chris
tian Commission. Here he was invited to
our house, where he was still remaining
when left the city. The chaplain told
me that these negroes had suffered and
were still suffering untold want and wretch
edness that nearly 400 had died since
, he had taken charge Of them that from
l6 to 90 die daily. Sometimes they would
crawl off into the weeds and die, where
their bodies would he found only by the
That there was no white men with them
but nephew of his that rations were fur
nished them by the government, but some
. times he had difficulty in getting then,
over the river; that once they were five
days without receiving any food, and the
; negroes in their despair threatened tokil
t him, thinking the fault was his. He also
, stated that they had no shelter or tent,
= except brush, to shield them from the sun
or storm, or dews of night. Capt. A
stated that there were in this camp 1000
= at Young's Point, S,55l on Papaw Island
where he purposed gathering most o
them, $500; and on Blacks plantation
8 One morning went among the wretchec
! masses where they were hauled TO tn,
l. bank of the river, preparatory TO beinl
v sent across. ! tried in vain to find som,
= women who were able to work, as we wish
@ ed their labor at our house. All were eth
d er sick or taking care of the sick. saw
nothing but one sad scene Of misery.
hope you NAV be able to do more for thes
II suffering, ignorant beings than is in m.
: power to devise, and that God may bles
your efforts"
FAILURE or THE FREE LABOR COTTON PLASTA
+, TIoNs.
J, Correspondence Cincinnati Commercial, Rep.l
GooDMcn's LANDING, Sept. "a, 1868.
n "a ride over the adjoining plantation
= has satisfied me that cotton-planting b.
: Northern spectators is failure; not
a failure, probably on the part of the spec
in ulators, considering the high price ofcot
~ ton, but, so far as the development Of tn
ID country under the operation of free labo
d, is concerned, an utter failure. Sewers
" plantations will prove an exception 10 tn
general rule. Mr.. Groohon, on DR.. Ca,
sons plantation, Immediately adjoinin
N Goodrich's, has 1000 in cotton and 200i
corn. But for the favsges Of the arm
u worms (which are pretty general on a
the plantstions) he would have raised owe