LETTER XXXIX.
Benton Barracks Hospital,
April 4.
Dear Mother,—I received letters from grandmother
and Kittie on Saturday; they were very kind to
write, Kittie's letter I especially appreciated, it must
have taxed her eyes; she writes very entertaining
letters. She does not speak of having received my
letter; now I wrote to her, to Chauncy and Carrie;
have they got the letters? I should be pleased to
know. I am tired and have a stiff neck,—growing
rheumatic in my old age; Dr. Russell gave me some
liniment to rub on it.
I am busy, and hope I am of use. The colored men
have a hospital of their own now; the whole amphitheatre
is turned into a general hospital for colored
men, soldiers. But you have no idea of the opposition
it excites among the Copperheads. If you speak of
treating the colored people kindly in a general way, as
you speak of your cats and dogs, they have no objection;
but if you carry out before their eyes the fact of
their being freedmen, by treating them on an equality,
there is no end of the opposition. There are, in the
city of St. Louis, a number of intelligent colored
women,—ladies, in fact, many of them, well educated
and wealthy; lady-like in manners and conversation.
Now, mother, would you believe it? till very lately if
one of these women got into a street-car she must not
sit down inside, but stand on the platform among men
who would and often do treat them rudely. The only exception
made is this; these colored women have got up
a colored Union Society among themselves; it has been
in operation about six months. There has existed in
St. Louis, a Society for the colored among the white
ladies since the beginning of the war. These ladies
visit the hospital constantly, taking comforts to the
sick. The colored ladies wished the right of visiting
their soldiers in this hospital, and they have at last
obtained the privilege of riding
in the cars on
one day in
the week, viz. Saturday. Some of them coming out a
week ago were deliberately insulted by a white lady
who was coming out to visit our soldiers. This is the
state of things here.
Efforts are being made by every friend of the freedman
to give them their rights. Dr. Russell has been
fighting for it all winter; he has gained a great deal
for them, but it has awakened a spirit of opposition
that I had no conception of. It is not to be given up,
however. Mr. Yeatman, B. Gratz Brown, Senator
from St. Louis, Dr. Eliot, Stanton at Washington, all
have hold of this thing, all trying more or less to
have it righted. The names I have mentioned are but
a few of those who are working for this cause. We
have a great deal to do. I hope that the colored
people will have an equal right to all public conveyances
soon; I had quite an interesting conversation
with a Lieut-Colonel Clendennan this afternoon about
it. He is a firm Abolitionist, his men (colored) are
stationed at the barracks close by; when he comes out in
the cars he always insists that the colored soldiers shall
ride as well as the white men. He told me many things
which interested me very much; he is very handsome,
and his fine face lighted up as he talked of the poor
people he was working with and for. He told me an
amusing anecdote of a Confederate damsel who wished
to pass out of the way of those horrid Yankees; she was
passed through our lines some forty miles to Vicksburg.
It was during the siege. On getting in, she told the
commandant she wished to go to St. Charles. Why,
that was in possession of Colonel So-and-so, with a few
thousand Yankees, and so on at every place she named.
At last she exclaimed, "Where can I go to be out of the
way of the Yankees'?" "Go to the devil! Madam!"
I am glad some of the Confederates have a realizing
sense of their condition. One of my prayers is that
we may all be united again, in peace and good-will.
