Part 40

The people of Loudoun, of course, shared in these early misgivings, but here, as elsewhere, the negroes, as a whole, manifested no outward signs of disaffection. History must record to their credit and praise that while actual warfare was being waged on the soil of Loudoun they quietly awaited the final issue of the fiery struggle.

Entire communities of women and children were left in their charge, while all able-bodied white men were away on the battlefield, and the trust was faithfully kept. Instances of criminal acts were so rare that at this period none are recalled, and while this fidelity is proof of the peaceable character of the negro, it is also evidence for their owners that slavery had produced no personal hostilities between the two races in Loudoun County, and that the treatment of the negro by his owner under the law had been such as to maintain between them personal attachment and mutual confidence. Many negroes accompanied their owners to the seat of war, not to take part in battle, but to serve in semi-military duties without exposure to danger. Some of them marched in Maryland and Pennsylvania with the armies of Lee, voluntarily returning, although they might have remained in the free States without hindrance. They are still proud of the conduct of their race in those days of anxiety and peril.

The proclamation of President Lincoln was regarded in Virginia as a strictly political war measure, designed to place the cause of war distinctly upon the sole question of slavery for an effect to be produced upon foreign countries and with the purpose of making use of negroes as soldiers in the Federal army. The issue of negro freedom had not been distinctly made until this proclamation created it. Hitherto it had been understood that, at the furthest, the Federal authorities would insist only on restriction of slavery to the limits where it already existed and a gradual emancipation upon payment of the value of slaves held at the beginning of the war. But now it was settled that the United States proposed to enforce by arms an instantaneous emancipation without compensation.

Close of the War.

The half-clad and impoverished southern armies, after four years of valiant fighting, were no longer able to withstand the superior numbers that had confronted them with merciless regularity in every important conflict of the war, and, in April, 1865, the struggle ceased with the complete subjugation of the Southland.

All that the States-rights supporters had prophesied would be accomplished if unresisted; all that the Unionists had indignantly denied to be the objects of the war was accomplished: the South was conquered, State sovereignty repudiated, the slaves were freed, and the recognition of negro political equality forced upon the nation.

Neighborhood strifes and animosities had been engendered in every village and hamlet, and in nearly every household mothers wept for the lost darlings asleep in their unmarked graves. The women and children, hearing with a shock of the surrender, experienced a terrible dread of the incoming armies. The women had been enthusiastic for the Confederate cause; their sacrifices had been incalculable, and to many the disappointment and sorrow following defeat were more bitter than death. The soldier had the satisfaction of having fought in the field for his opinions and it was easier for him to abide by the decision of arms.

But the terms of peace had scarcely been signed when the great popular heart of the State swelled with generous and magnanimous rivalry in an effort to repair the past. The soldiers who had fought and striven under the successful banners of the Union came back with no bitterness in their hearts, with no taunts on their lips. The war-worn exiles of the Southern army, long before formal permission had been given by either the State or Federal Government, were summoned home and received with open arms and affectionate greetings by both the Union and States-rights men. The people of the entire State seemed to remember with sorrowful pride the noble men who had died gallantly in the ranks of either army. Over their faults was thrown the mantle of the sweet and soothing charities of the soldier's grave; and, on all sides, there was manifested unstinted admiration for the valor with which they had borne the dangers and privations of the war.

RECONSTRUCTION.

After the Surrender.

If the era of Reconstruction which followed the tragic drama of civil war lacked the fierce element of bloodshed, it was none the less painful and protracted. It was a gloomy period through which the people of Loudoun, in common with other communities of the Southland, were compelled to pass, and there was no appeal and no alternative save submission.

The conditions in the South in this decade were radically different from those in the North. As a result of the war, the markets of the South were destroyed, investments in slaves were lost, and land improvements deteriorated. The close of the war found the planters bankrupt, their credit destroyed, and agriculture and all business paralyzed by lack of working capital. Vast areas of land went out of cultivation, the reported acreage of farm land in all the Southern States was less in 1870 than in 1860, and the total and average values of land everywhere decreased.

The paroled Confederate soldier had returned to his ruined farm and set to work to save his family from extreme want. For him the war had decided two questions--the abolition of slavery, and destruction of State sovereignty. Further than this he did not expect the political effects of the war to extend. He knew that some delay would necessarily attend the restoration of former relations with the central government, but political proscription and humiliation were not anticipated.

No one thought of further opposition to Federal authority; the results of the war were accepted in good faith, and the people meant to abide by the decision of arms. Naturally, there were no profuse expressions of love for the triumphant North, but the people in general manifested an earnest desire to leave the past behind them and to take their places and do their duty as citizens of the new Union. Many persons were disposed to attribute their defeat to the will of the Almighty. Others believed that fate, destiny, or Providence had frowned upon the South, and this state of mind made them the more ready to accept as final the results of the war.

Such was the state of feeling in the first stage, before there was any general understanding of the nature of the questions to be solved or of the conflicting policies. News from the outside world filtered through slowly; while the whole County lay prostrate, breathless, exhausted, resting. Little interest was evinced in public questions; the long strain had been removed, and the future was a problem too bewildering even to be considered yet awhile. The people settled down into a lethargy, seemingly indifferent to the events that were crowding one upon another, and exhibiting little interest in government and politics.

There was a woeful lack of good money in the County and industry was paralyzed. The gold and silver that remained was carefully hoarded, and for months none was in circulation except in the towns. The people had no faith in paper money of any description and thought that greenbacks would become worthless in the same way as had Confederate currency. All sense of values had been lost, which fact may account for the fabulous and fictitious prices obtaining in the South for several years after the war, and the liberality of appropriations of the first legislatures following the surrender.

With many persons there was an almost maddening desire for the things to which they had once been accustomed, the traders and speculators now placing them in tempting array in the long-empty store window.

People owning hundreds of acres of land often were as destitute as the poorest negro. The majority of those having money to invest had bought Confederate securities as a patriotic duty, and in this way much of the specie had been drawn from the County.

Nearly all the grist-mills and manufacturing establishments had been destroyed, mill-dams cut, ponds drained, and railroad depots, bridges, and trestles burned. All farm animals near the track of the armies had been carried away or killed by the soldiers, or seized after the occupation by the troops. Horses, mules, cows, and other domestic animals had almost disappeared except in the secluded districts. Many farmers had to plough with oxen. Farm buildings had been dismantled or burned, houses ruined, fences destroyed, corn, meat, and other food products taken.

In the larger towns, where something had been saved from the wreck of war, the looting by Federal soldiers was shameful. Pianos, curios, pictures, curtains, and other household effects were shipped North by the Federal officers during the early days of the occupation. Gold and silver plate and jewelry were confiscated by the "bummers" who were with every command. Abuses of this kind became so flagrant that the Northern papers condemned the conduct of the soldiers, and several ministers, among them Henry Ward Beecher, rebuked the practice from the pulpit.

The best soldiers of the Federal army had demanded their discharge as soon as fighting was over, and had immediately left for their homes. Those who remained in the service in the State were, with few exceptions, very disorderly and kept the people in terror by their robberies and outrages.

Land was almost worthless, many of the owners having no capital, farm animals, or implements. Labor was disorganized, and its scant product often stolen by roving negroes and other marauders. The planters often found themselves amid a wilderness of land without laborers.

From this general gloom and despair the young people soon partially recovered, and among them there was much social gayety of a quiet sort. For four years the young men and young women had seen little of each other, and there had been comparatively few marriages. Now that they were together again, these nuptials soon became more common than conditions seem to have warranted.

This revival of spirits did not extend to the older people, who were long recovering from the shock of grief, and strain of war, much that had made life worth living being lost to them forever.

Conduct of the Freedmen.

Nearly every slaveholder, returning home after the fall of the Confederacy, assembled his remaining negroes and formally notified them of their freedom, and talked with them concerning its entailed privileges, responsibilities, and limitations. The news had, of course, reached them through other channels, but they had loyally awaited the home-coming of their masters, to whom they looked for a confirmation of the reports. Steady employment at a fixed wage was offered most of them, and, except in the vicinity of the towns and army posts, where they were exposed to alien influences, the negroes usually chose to remain at their work.

Many were satisfied with the old slavery quarters while others, for the taste of freedom that was afforded, established homes of their own at near-by points. There were two things which the negroes of the South felt must be done before they could be entirely free: They must discard their masters' names and leave the old plantations if only for a few days or weeks.

Among the most contented and industrious there was much restlessness and neglect of work. Hunting and fishing and frolics were the order of the day. Nearly every man acquired, in some way, a dog and gun as badges of freedom. It was quite natural that the negroes should want a prolonged holiday for the enjoyment of their new-found freedom; and it is really strange that any of them worked, for there obtained an almost universal impression--the result of the teachings of the negro soldiers and Freedmen's Bureau officials--that the Government would support them in idleness. But in the remote districts this impression was vague. The advice of the old plantation preachers held many to their work, and these did not suffer as did their brothers who flocked to the towns.