the
negro soldiers in their frugality. After the enlistment of colored
troops became general, and they began to receive pay and bounties, the
officers commanding them readily discovered the necessity of providing a
better place for keeping the money paid them than in their pocket-books
and in the soldier's knapsack. Every payday these soldiers would carry
sums of money to their officers for safe keeping, until thousands of
dollars were thus deposited, which were often lost in battle. In August,
1864, General Rufus Saxton, military governor of South Carolina, after
mature deliberation as to the best means to be adopted for the safe
keeping of these soldiers' monies, established a bank in his department.
General Butler established a similar one at Norfolk, Va., about the same
time. At the organization of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust company,
chartered by act of Congress, these institutions transferred to the
Freedmen's Bank all the monies on deposit in them, as the war had
ceased, and the troops and officers were being mustered out of the
United States service. The Butler Bank at Norfolk in July, 1865,
transferred $7,890. In December the Saxton Bank at Beaufort transferred
$170,000. Thus the sum of $177,890, belonging to soldiers in two
departments only, was placed to their credit, subject to their order, in
the new national bank, called into existence by like motives. This bank
had branches at these places. Had similar banks been established in the
other departments an enormous sum would have been collected. The
Freedmen's bank, however, took the place of these military banks, and
had the confidence of the soldiers who continued to deposit in its
various branches throughout the south. When that institution collapsed
in 1874, of the many millions of dollars deposited in it, it is
estimated that two-thirds of the amount was the savings of the Phalanx.
There is now in the vaults of the national government more than a
quarter of a million of dollars belonging to the Phalanx, held as
unclaimed bounty and pay--an ample sum from which to erect a suitable
monument to commemorate the heroic devotion and patriotic endeavor of
those who fell in Freedom's cause. This money doubtless belongs to those
who on the battle-fields and in hospitals died for the country's honor.
These are some of the lessons taught by the history of the Black
Phalanx.

CHAPTER III.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The following publications have been of servi