following to say when the Third North Carolina left Macon. But
the Journal's article was evidently written in a somewhat of a
wish-it-was-so-manner, and while reading this article we ask our
readers to withhold judgment until they read Prof. C.F. Meserve on the
Third North Carolina, who wrote after investigation.

The Journal made no investigation to see what the facts were, but
dwells largely on rumors and imagination. It will be noted that
President Meserve took the pains to investigate the subject before
writing about it.

The Atlanta Journal says:

A HAPPY RIDDANCE.

The army and the country are to be congratulated on the mustering out
of the Third North Carolina Regiment.

A tougher and more turbulent set of Negroes were probably never gotten
together before. Wherever this regiment went it caused trouble.

While stationed in Macon several of its members were killed, either by
their own comrades in drunken brawls or by citizens in self-defense.

Last night the mustered-out regiment passed through Atlanta on its way
home and during its brief stay here exhibited the same ruffianism and
brutality that characterized it while in the service. But for the
promptness and pluck of several Atlanta policemen these Negro
ex-soldiers would have done serious mischief at the depot. Those who
undertook to make trouble were very promptly clubbed into submission,
and one fellow more obstreperous than the rest, was lodged in the
station house.

With the exception of two or three regiments the Negro volunteers in
the recent war were worse than useless. The Negro regulars, on the
contrary, made a fine record, both for fighting and conduct in camp.

[Illustration: THIRD NORTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS AND OFFICERS.]

The mustering out of the Negro volunteers should have begun sooner and
have been completed long ago.

* * * * *

WHAT PRESIDENT CHARLES FRANCIS MESERVE SAYS.

President Charles Francis Meserve, of Shaw University, says:

"I spent a part of two days the latter part of December at Camp
Haskell, near Macon, Ga., inspecting the Third North Carolina colored
regiment and its camp and surroundings. The fact that this regiment
has colored officers and the knowledge that the Colonel and quite
a number of officers, as well as many of the rank and file, were
graduates or former students of Shaw University, led me to make
a visit to this regiment, unheralded and unannounced. I was just
crossi