For instance, there were
new loyal State governments to provide in those parts of the
South which had again come under control of the Union armies--no
easy matter, where every man, woman and child harbored angry
feelings against the North, and no matter how just and forbearing
he might be, his plans were sure to be thwarted and bitterly
opposed at every step.
There were serious questions, too, to be decided about negro
soldiers, for the South had raised a mighty outcry against the
Emancipation Proclamation, especially against the use of the
freed slaves as soldiers, vowing that white officers of negro
troops would be shown small mercy, if ever they were taken
prisoners. No act of such vengeance occurred, but in 1864 a fort
manned by colored soldiers was captured by the Confederates, and
almost the entire garrison was put to death. Must the order that
the War Department had issued some time earlier, to offset the
Confederate threats, now be put in force? The order said that for
every negro prisoner killed by the Confederates a Confederate
prisoner in the hands of the Union armies would be taken out and
shot. It fell upon Mr. Lincoln to decide. The idea seemed
unbearable to him, yet, on the other hand, could he afford to let
the massacre go unavenged and thus encourage the South in the
belief that it could commit such barbarous acts and escape
unharmed? Two reasons finally decided him against putting the
order in force.
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