referred those whom he had personally
commanded. I preferred those who had been slaves, for their greater
docility and affectionateness, for the powerful stimulus which their new
freedom gave, and for the fact that they were fighting, in a manner,
for their own homes and firesides. Every one of these considerations
afforded a special aid to discipline, and cemented a peculiar tie of
sympathy between them and their officers. They seemed like clansmen,
and had a more confiding and filial relation to us than seemed to me to
exist in the Northern colored regiments.

So far as the mere habits of slavery went, they were a poor preparation
for military duty. Inexperienced officers often assumed that, because
these men had been slaves before enlistment, they would bear to be
treated as such afterwards. Experience proved the contrary. The more
strongly we marked the difference between the slave and the soldier, the
better for the regiment. One half of military duty lies in obedience,
the other half in self-respect. A soldier without self-respect is
worthless. Consequently there were no regiments in which it was so
important to observe the courtesies and proprieties of military life
as in these. I had to caution the officers to be more than usually
particular in returning the salutations of the men; to be very careful
in their dealings with those on picket or guard-duty; and on no account
to omit the titles of the non-commissioned officers. So, in dealing
out punishments, we had carefully to avoid all that was brutal and
arbitrary, all that savored of the overseer. Any such dealing found them
as obstinate and contemptuous as was Topsy when Miss Ophelia undertook
to chastise her. A system of light punishments, rigidly administered
according to the prescribed military forms, had more weight with them
than any amount of angry severity. To make them feel as remote as
possible from the plantation, this was essential. By adhering to this,
and constantly appealing to their pride as soldiers and their sense of
duty, we were able to maintain a high standard of discipline,--so, at
least, the inspecting officers said,--and to get rid, almost entirely,
of the more degrading class of punishments,--standing on barrels, tying
up by the thumbs, and the ball and chain.

In all ways we had to educate their self-respect. For instance, at first
they disliked to obey their own non-commissioned officers. "I don't want
him to play de white man ober me