The Ebenezer Creek Massacre: When Sherman Failed The Freedmen

 

December 9, 1864, The Union Army was supposed to be protecting and aiding the Freedmen of the south as they marched, unfortunately through panic and poor decision-making on this night dozens, perhaps hundreds of former slaves drown, or were shot to death, and more enslaved again under the Confederate forces.

In Sherman’s March to the Sea and his cutting across Georgia, it became inevitable the Union Army would collect refugees. On this date, the army was pursuing Confederate forces with Union POWs from Camp Lawton. Some 20 miles north of Savannah the Union army encountered a rain-swollen Ebenezer Creek a tributary of the Savannah River. By this time it is reported that the former slaves accompanying the army were at least 600 and might have been as much as 2000.

Knowing that they had to cross the raging creek because the Confederate forces had burned the bridge and complicating battle plans Confederate cavalry under General Joseph Wheeler was actively harassing Sherman’s rear guard.

Sherman’s corps commander Brevet Major General Jefferson C. Davis ordered the construction of a pontoon bridge across the creek and for his provost marshal to keep the Freedmen from crossing until the Confederate forces on the other side, which were not there, were dispelled. Once all of the 14,000 Union troops were across Davis ordered the pontoons cut loose. With the pressure of Wheeler coming up behind them panic rushed through the Freedmen and they rushed the water. Many drown, and others were crushed in the rush.

Some Union troops did fell trees to assist the Freedmen but Davis ordered them a shot if they continued and ordered them to march. When Wheeler’s men came up on the chaotic scene they opened fire. Davis's orders infuriated several of the Union officers who witnessed the ensuing calamity. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton received so much public pressure from the clergy that he brought the incident up with Sherman and Davis during a visit to Savannah in January 1865. Davis defended his actions as a matter of military necessity, with Sherman's full support.

 Veteran Col. Charles Kerr of the 16th Illinois Cavalry recalled the incident some 20 years after with disgust, “As soon as we were over the creek, orders were given to the engineers to take up the pontoons and not let a negro cross. . . . I sat upon my horse then and witnessed a scene the like of which I pray my eyes may never see again.”

 

Sources:

https://aaregistry.org/story/massacre-at-ebenezer-creek-a-story/

https://archive.vn/20130126024745/http://www.historynet.com/magazines/civil_war_times/3026396.html?page=1&c=y

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ebenezer-creek-massacre/

Forgotten History: The Jacksonville Mutiny and Executions

December 1, 1865, The Civil War had ended but even for Negro volunteers in the Union Army racism was an everyday reality. This was never more evident than the morning of October 29, 1865, an African-­American private in the Union army named Jacob Plowden stepped out of his tent at Camp Shaw in Jacksonville, Florida, to witness a horrific sight. On the parade ground, two white officers had tied a shirtless Black soldier by his thumbs to a scaffold. The man was dangling in agony, the toes of his feet barely touching the ground as his thumbs were pulled away from their sockets.

Plowden lost his temper. An ex-slave from Tennessee who had become a farmer in Pennsylvania before enlisting in the Union army in 1863, he was appalled to see black soldiers treated with the sort of brutality inflicted on slaves in the South. He roused his fellow soldiers in the 3rd Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops, shouting that he’d rather die than see any more men tortured.

Several dozen black soldiers advanced across the field toward the prisoner and the white officers, Lieutenant George Graybill and Lieutenant John L. Brower, the regiment’s commander. The army had been extreme with punishment to black soldiers, this was a reminder of a Freeman’s overall place in post-war society, particularly in Florida. When the black soldiers got within five yards, Brower drew his revolver and fired several shots at them, wounding one man in the chest and arm.

The soldiers ran back to their tents, quickly reemerged with their weapons, and began shooting at the white officers and others who came to their assistance. Brower was wounded in the thumb and collapsed in pain, one of many injuries suffered by participants on both sides in the melee. After brief but furious fighting, order was restored in the camp, and Plowden and others were arrested for what came to be known as the Jacksonville Mutiny.

The soldier that was being disciplined with the thumb screws was accused of stealing from the camp stores which was the reason for such rough treatment that these other men tried to interfere with what was deemed proper discipline by their superiors which led to the death sentences. Also, the camp was in Florida which was still considered in a state of rebellion as each state was signing the surrender papers and Florida had not yet. So discipline was considered extremely important. The speedy trials resulted in death sentences for six men

·       David Craig

·       Joseph Green

·       James Allen

·       Jacob Plowden

·       Joseph Nathaniel

·       Thomas Howard

The men were executed by firing squad, and as another insulting discipline, Black soldiers from the company were ordered to perform the execution.

The non-executed mutineers who received prison terms (up to 15 years) had their sentences commuted following a review in 1866. The rest of the regiment mustered out as scheduled at the end of October, two days after the Jacksonville Mutiny.

Sources https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4536&context=fhq