Negroes in Our Army. 227
South. The experience of this army during the heat of summer from Bowling Green, Ky., to Tupelo, Miss., is that the white man is healthier when doing reasonable work in the open field than at any other time.
It is said an army of negroes cannot be spared from the fields. A sufficient number of slaves is now ministering to luxury alone to supply the place of all we need, and we believe it would be better to take half the able-bodied men off a plantation than to take the one master mind that economically regulated its operations. Leave some of the skill at home and take some of the muscle to fight with.
It is said slaves will not work after they are freed. We think necessity and a wise legislation will compel them to labor for a living.
It is said it will cause terrible excitement and some disaffection from our cause. Excitement is far preferable to the apathy which now exists, and disaffection will not be among the fighting men. It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up, we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretence to estab- lish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of govern- ment, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.
We have now briefly proposed a plan which, we believe, will save our country. It may be imperfect, but, in all human probability, it would give us our independence. No objection ought to outweigh it which is not weightier than independence. If it is worthy of being put in practice, it ought to be mooted quickly before the peo- ple, and urged earnestly by every man who believes in its efficacy. Negroes will require much training, training will require time, and there is danger that this concession to common sense may come too late.
P. R. CLEBURNE, Major-General Commanding Division;
D. C. GOVAN, Brigadier-General; JOHN E. MURRAV, Colonel 5th Arkansas; G. F. BAUCUM, Colonel 8th Arkansas;
PETER SNYDER, Lieut. -Col. Commanding 6th and yth Arkansas;
E. WARFIELD, Lieutenant-Colonel 2d Arkansas; M. P. LOWRY, Brigadier- General;
A. B. HARDCASTLE, Colonel 32d and 45th Mississippi;
F. A. ASHFORD, Major i6th Alabama; JOHN W. COLQUITT, Colonel ist Arkansas;
