Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1910-09-24
HE'S HAwA1rs CHIEF JUSTICE
He Commanded Negro Troops Once,
Says They're Brave.

II e were not that Gen. Alfred
s. HartweI is Chief Justice OF the
Supreme Court OF Hawaii and az the
height Of a distinguished career one
might almost be tempted 20 call him
a soldier Of fortune. so varied and
unusual have been his experiences.
Gen. Hartwell is a Harvard man.
He commanded negro troops en- the
civil war Then he got appointed IS
a Judge In a foreign kingdom. Sew
eral years later he became a member
of the Kings Cabinet. with the rank
OF Attorney General. and now for
several years he has been Chief
Justice OF an American Territory.
Gen. Hartwell and his two daugh-
tiers reached New York night before
last from a three months European
trip. He is leaving for Honolulu IN
day OF two. He looks happy and
says he is
There may be places more boauti-
fui than Hawaii" said the General
at the Manhattan Hotel yesterday.
but 7 don't know them. I have al
ways had ont there En- my forty-two
years residence all the blessings one
could ask for.
II was graduated at Harvard in
the class OF 1855 with Gen. William
Henry Fitzhugh Lee. James May OF
Petersburg. Va, William Elliott OF
South Carolina. afterward in Con
gress. all OF whom fought I'm the
Confederate army and Henry Adams.
who / think wrote the best history
OF the United States. Twenty mem
bers OF my class fought on one side
or the other in the civil war. Oar
first scholar. Jimmie LoVell. a
nephew OF James Russell Lowell. was
killed in Virginia.
when the war broke out I got =
commission as Captain OF the Fifty
fourth Massachusetts negro regiment
OF which the famous Robert Shaw
was Colonel. Later ] was made Col
onel OF the Fifty-ffth, and in the
latter part OF the war I got a brigade
in which there were both white and
colored troops.
do 7 consider that black soldiers
make good fghters2 Well, they are
just what their officers are.
The COnfederates regarded their
fighting abilities so highly that at
least two attempts were made TO get
authority to enlist negro regiments.
After the war Col. Seabury, who. as
] recall, was chief OF Lees stan. told
me that he had proposed TO get up a
negro regiment. that Lee had sent 10
Jefferson Davis for the necessary au-
thority, but that Davis had refused.
Gen. Pat Cleburne made a similar
proposal.
las TO the bravery of the colored
soldier and his endurance, one man,
a sergeant in the Fifty-fifth, was hit
in the leg at the battle of Honey Hill,
South Carolina, and the Lieutenant
Colonel told me he saw him leaning
on his rife and still giving the usual
cry, Give 'em hell" The officer
told him go to the rear. but the ser
geant Insisted on staying where he
was
after the war, this man-his
name was Mitchell-was elected to
the Legislature. When. James Russell
Lowell was making inquiries about
him told him this incident Well
said Mr.. Lowell, any man who under
such circumstances would prefer TO
stand and shout "Give 'em hell" 10
seeking a more comfortable place in
the rear can be trusted in a state
legislature
After the surrender at Appomat-
lux i NdS SldllOHeO IN the interior Oh
South Carolina with white and black
regiments. The Southern people were
very much disturbed when they heard
that / was going TO send small de-
tachments OF negro troops around
through the country to keep order.
But when the regiments were order
ed north some OF the South CAROLYN
ians expressed the wish that the ne
groes could stay with them. They said
these negro soldiers had taught the
negroes OF that section TO understand
that instead of getting forty acres and
a mule they would have TO work for
a living, as they themselves did in
the North.
The only battie1ag captured from
the Confederates in the siege OF
Charleston was taken by the negro
soldiers on James Island. Tt was of
silk and was embroidered Presented
by the ladies Of Eutaw Springs to the