Today in History:

1257 Series I Volume XLVIII-I Serial 101 - Powder River Expedition Part I

Page 1257 Chapter LX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.

MACON, March 25, 1865.

Major-General DODGE,

Kansas City:

I go to Saint Joseph to-night, and will so arrange as to send the balance of the Forty-third Missouri to Kansas City.

CLINTON B. FISK,

Brigadier-General.


HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI,
Macon, Mo., March 25, 1865.

JAMES E. YEATMAN, Esq.,

Law Commissioner, Saint Louis, Mo.:

DEAR SIR: I have yours of the 22nd instant, and will cheerfully do all I can to restore the family circle of the Monroe County freedwomen. Slavery dies hard. I hear it s expiring agonies and witness its contortions in death in every quarter of my district. In Boone, Howard, Randolph, and Cavalry the emancipation ordinance has caused disruption of society equal to anything I saw in Arkansas or Mississippi in the year 1863. I blush for my race when I discover the wicked barbarity of the late masters and mistresses of the recently freed persons of the counties heretofore named. I have no doubt but that the monster, Jim Jackson, is instigated by the late slave owners to hang or shoot every negro he can find absent from the old plantations. Some few have driven their black people away from them with nothing to eat or scarcely to wear. The consequence is, between Jim Jackson and his collaborators among the first families, the poor blacks are rapidly concentrating in the towns and especially at garrisoned places. My hands and heart are full. I am finding homes for them in Northwest Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and Iowa. There is much sickness and suffering among them; many need help. Is there any fund that you can appropriate a small sum from to aid me in the deportation of the families I can't provide for in Missouri? I am retaining all in Missouri that I can get work for in quiet localities. We ought not to spare a single pound of our industrial element. We need to import rather than deport manual labor. I hope the waters will soon grow still, and Missouri in peace be permitted to pursue her way in the golden path of freedom and empire. It looks well all around the rapidly-concentrating lines. Sherman's conquering legions are marching on; redemption draweth night. All hail the Republic!

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CLINTON B. FISK,

Brigadier-General.

PLEASANT HILL, March 25, 1865.

Colonel POTTER,

Fort Leavenworth:

Send all the horses you have to General Blunt as soon as possible. General Mitchell has ordered purchase of 200 tons of hay at fort Kearny to replace what was burned.

G. M. DODGE,

Major-General.


Page 1257 Chapter LX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.