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Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 2, Chapter 46: negro conditions during the Civil War (search)
chase every inch of confiscated and abandoned land in the hands of the Government in that State. All the soldiers desired to have the land on the expiration of enlistment. One regiment had in hand $50,000 for the purpose of buying five of the largest plantations on the Mississippi. It was at the time thought by many persons interested in the future of the freedmen that the abandoned and confiscable lands if used for them would afford a wholesome solution to the negro problem. On December 21, 1864, when the Confederate commander, General Wm. J. Hardee, withdrew his troops from Savannah, Ga., and our forces thus finishing Sherman's march to the sea, in joyous triumph came into the city, I saw plainly enough that the white people were overwhelmed with a sense of their defeat and helplessness. But it was the precise opposite with the slave inhabitants. It was a day of manifest joy, for wasn't it a visible answer to their longcontinued and importunate prayers? It was a positive d