gro company_
from Nashville, Tenn.

_The Memphis Avalanche_ and _The Memphis Appeal_ of May 9, 10, and 11,
1861, gave notice of the appointment by the "Committee of Safety" of a
committee of three persons "to organize a volunteer company composed of
our patriotic freemen of color of the city of Memphis, for the service
of our common defense."

A telegram from New Orleans dated November 23, 1861, notes the review by
Governor Moore of over 28,000 troops, and that one regiment comprised
"_1,400 colored men_." The _New Orleans Picayune_, referring to a review
held February 9, 1862, says: "We must also pay a deserved compliment to
the companies of free colored men, all very well drilled and comfortably
equipped."

It is a little odd, too, that in the evacuation of New Orleans a little
later, in April, 1862, all of the troops succeeded in getting away
except the Negroes. They "got left."

It is not in our line to speculate upon what would have been the result
of the war had the South kept up this policy, enlisted the freemen, and
emancipated the enlisting slaves and their families. The immense
addition to their fighting force, the quick recognition of them by Great
Britain, to which slavery was the greatest bar, and the fact that the
heart of the Negro was with the South but for slavery, and the case
stands clear. But the primary successes of the South closed its eyes to
its only chance of salvation, while at the same time the eyes of the
North were opened.

In 1865, the South saw, and endeavored to remedy, its error. On March 9,
1865, the Confederate Congress passed a bill, recommended by General
Lee, authorizing the enlistment of 200,000 Negroes; but it was then too
late.

The North came slowly and reluctantly to recognize the Negro as a factor
for good in the war. "This is a white man's war," met the Negroes at
every step of their first efforts to gain admission to the armies of the
Union.

To General David Hunter, more than to any other one man, is due the
credit for the successful entry upon the stage of the Negro as a soldier
in this war.

In the spring of 1862, he raised and equipped a regiment of Negroes in
South Carolina, and when the fact because known in Washington and
throughout the country, such a storm was raised about the ears of the
Administration that they gracefully stood aside and left the brave
general to fight his enemies in the front and rear as best he might. He
was quite capable to do both,