A Confederate Criticizes the Union Army of Occupation

Author:   Tobias Gibson
Date:1864

Annotation:

A supporter of the Confederacy criticizes the Union army of occupation.

Document:

I know you have reason to conclude that I have almost forgotten you, to judge by the infrequency of my letters to you, but nothing could be more erroneous than such an idea. When you knew how much trouble I had in 1861, that was nothing to my trials and troubles since [Union troops occupied the area]….

American ideas of liberty have totally changed since the Negro war organ [the occupation government] and education for them [the freedmen] is soon to be the order of the Day by Regular Military order. While as far as I know the white children are to grow up in ignorance or mix in the same cabin with the Negro with the same Yankee Marm for the teacher! How much farther this system is to go is broadly hinted at in the newspapers of the North with what real foundation I have as yet no means of judging but with the prevailing tendency to fanaticism at the North I would not be at all surprised if ‘miscegenation’ became the fashion as well as the Sentiment of those people….

We are fixed to our present boundaries by the lever of “military necessity.” And we only wish that we may be as well off as we are at the end of the present year. I dread the events of the immediate future filled as it is of potent events for good or evil to all. You no doubt look with painful anxiety to the fate of these last days in the conflict of arms, which cannot be very far off in the future.

Source: Gilder Lehrman Institute

Additional information: Tobias Gibson to his daughter Loula Gibson