hat "all able-bodied colored persons, not employed as aforesaid,"
will be immediately put to work in the Engineer's or the
Quartermaster's Department. On the 1st of November, Gen. Wool directed
that the compensation of "contrabands" working for the government
should be five to ten dollars per month, with soldier's rations. These
Negroes rendered valuable service in the sphere they were called upon
to fill.

In the Western army, Gen. James B. Steedman was the first man to
suggest the idea of employing Negroes as teamsters. He saw that every
Negro who drove a team of mules gave to the army one more white
soldier with a musket in his hands; and so with the sympathy and
approval of the gallant Gen. Geo. H. Thomas, Gen. Steedman put eighty
Negroes into uniforms, and turned them over to an experienced white
"wagon-master." The Negroes made excellent teamsters, and the plan was
adopted quite generally.

In September, 1862, an order from Washington directed the employment
of fifty thousand Negro laborers in the Quartermaster's Department,
under Generals Hunter and Saxton! This showed that the authorities at
Washington had begun to get their eyes open on this question. "And
while speaking of the negroes," wrote a "Times" correspondent, in
1862, from Hilton Head, "let me present a few statistics obtained from
an official source, respecting the success which has crowned the
experiment of employing them as free paid laborers upon the
plantations. The population of the Division (including Port Royal, St.
Helena and Ladies' islands, with the smaller ones thereto adjacent,
but excluding Hilton Head and its surroundings) is as follows:

"Effective 3,817
"Non-effective 3,110
-----
"Total 6,927

"The number of acres under cultivation on the same islands, is:

"Of Corn 6,444
"Of Cotton 3,384
"Of Potatoes 1,407

"A little calculation will show that the negroes have raised enough
corn and potatoes to support themselves, besides a crop of cotton (now
ripe) somewhat smaller than in former years, but still of very
considerable value to the Government."[88]

Gen. Mercer issued the following order at Savannah, Georgia, which
shows that the rebels did not despise the fatigue services of Negroes:

"C. S. ENGINEER'S OFFICE, }
"SAVANNAH, GA., Aug. 1, 1863.}

"The Brigadier-General Commanding d