on, you must protect the Loyal,
and, should the occasion offer, at once suppress Servile Insurrection."
"General Orders No. 33," issued from "Headquarters Department of
Washington," July 17, 1861, "By command of Brigadier General Mansfield,
Theo. Talbot, Assistant Adjutant General," were to this effect:
"Fugitive Slaves will under no pretext whatever, be permitted to reside,
or be in any way harbored, in the quarters or camps of the troops
serving in this Department. Neither will such Slaves be allowed to
accompany troops on the march. Commanders of troops will be held
responsible for a strict observance of this order." And early in August
a Military order was issued at Washington "that no Negroes, without
sufficient evidence of their being Free or of their right to travel, are
permitted to leave the city upon the cars."
But Bull Run did much to settle the Military as well as public mind in
proper grooves on this subject.
Besides employing Negro Slaves to aid Rebellion, by the digging of
ditches, the throwing up of intrenchments, and the erection of
batteries, their Rebel masters placed in their hands arms with which to
shoot down Union soldiers at the Battle of Bull Run, which, as we have
seen, occurred on Sunday, July 21, 1861--and resulted in a check to the
Union Cause.
The terror and confusion and excitement already referred to, that
prevailed in Washington all that night and the next day, as the
panic-stricken crowd of soldiers and civilians poured over the Long
Bridge, footsore with running, faint with weariness, weak with hunger,
and parched with thirst and the dust of the rout, can hardly be
described.
But, however panicky the general condition of the inhabitants of the
National Capital, the Congress bravely maintained its equanimity.
In the Senate, on the day following the disaster, a bill touching the
Confiscation of Property used for insurrectionary purposes being up for
consideration, the following amendment was offered to it:
"And be it further enacted, That whenever any person claiming to be
entitled to the Service or Labor of any other Person under the laws of
any State, shall employ such Person in aiding or promoting any
Insurrection, or in resisting the Laws of the United States, or shall
permit him to be so employed, he shall forfeit all right to such Service
or Labor, and the Person whose Labor or Service is thus claimed shall be
thenceforth discharged therefrom, any law to the co
|