SPREAD OF SMALL POX PREVENTED
A colored servant, from the North, of one of the officers of the 3rd N.Y. Heavy Artillery, was one day sent to me by the Surgeon of the regiment, after he, the servant, had broken out with the Small Pox. I found that I could get no doctor, either in the army or in the town, to see to him, and the negroes had the greatest dread of this disease. After being compelled to nurse him myself, at no little trouble of changing my clothes each day that I visited him, for fear the blacks would catch it, I was led to inquire as to how many of them had ever been vaccinated; and found, to my surprise, that hardly one of them replied in the affirmative. Finding that some of the Surgeons of the Army had a good supply of vaccine matter, I stated the fact to Dr. Clark of Worcester, Mass., and he kindly offered and immediately proceeded to vaccinate all the refugees in Newbern.
After a vain search of several days for a nurse, at last, I found an old black woman who had had the small pox, and she consented to take charge of him. I had him conveyed to a hut on the outskirts of the town, some distance from our office. One very rainy day the old nurse came all dripping with wet and bent with age, to get some comforts for her patient, and on my pittying her forlorn condition and admiring her faithfulness, she exclaimed with an earnestness and pathos, I shall long remember. "Yes! The blessed Jesus did not die on the cross for the white man only!"
THE OLD NURSE
HOSPITAL FOR FREEDMEN FOUNDED
This case of small pox, above referred to, induced me to apply to General Burnside to have an hospital for the blacks under Government employ, established, and he at once gave his consent; and General Foster issued an order for Dr. Clark to take charge of it. About one hundred patients were successively cared for in it, and a few died. Most of the medicines were furnished by some liberal people at the North, through an application made to them by Mr. B. R. Larned, the General's private secretary.
With the exception of my excellent Assistant, M . Mendell a soldier detailed from a Massachusetts Regimen' I had colored help for every purpose. My Assistant Secretary, Amos Yorke, from whom I give a letter in another page, was an intelligent and worthy Christian. Another, Samuel Williams, of l whom I have previously spoken as guide to a regiment, was out-door overseer At times, he had charge of three hundred men, and they rarely ever quarrelled. His father, Jacob Coonce, was store-keeper. He was intelligent and trustworthy: thousands of dollars worth of goods went through his hands, in small parcels, and were conscientiously accounted for.
CHOPPING WOOD AND COOKING FOR THE HOSPITAL
THEIR USEFULNESS AS SERVANTS, ETC.
One of the services, most generally useful, rendered by the freedmen in North Carolina, and I presume it is the same wherever the Union army has gone, has been their work about the camps. As servants to the officers and men, in waiting upon them, cooking, splitting wood, as teamsters, hostlers, porters, &c., who can estimate the amount of good they have done, or the number of lives they have saved. This labor, too, was generally performed with so much cheerfulness and good humor, that they were very popular in the army.
SCHOOLS FOR WHITE CHILDREN
Having charge of the poor white people, I had opened a school for the instruction of their children, in which I had engaged a young lady teacher, a resident of the town, to instruct about seventy white children. This school, together with nearly all that I was privileged to do for the poor white people, was a source of constant joy to me. It was the delight also of many of the officers of the Union Army, and was visited by them, Generals Burnside and Reno, contributing something to its support. I could say much of the gratitude and affection with which the officers and men of the Union Army were received by the poor white people of Newbern, and of the estimable character of many of them; but, I am writing in this report, only of the blacks.
SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED -- COLORED SCHOOLS
The colored refugees evinced the utmost eagerness to learn to read. I had taken with me some spelling books and primers, and these were seized with great avidity. The sutlers also sold large numbers of these and other books.
With the consent of Gen. Foster two evening schools for the colored people were commenced by me, over eight hundred pupils, old and young, attended nightly, and made rapid progress. In the larger school of six hundred, I placed those who did not know the alphabet, who could hardly spell; in the smaller of two hundred, I had the most advanced, those who could read. Some of the scholars in this latter school were very bright, and among the young women were a number of quadroons, some quite beautiful.
In the school for those who could read and write which usually had an attendance of between one and two hundred. I used books, slates, &c, with teachers placed over classes.
The two African churches at Newbern, were used for our school rooms. I took a large white cotton sheet, and with black ink wrote in large letters some brief passage from the scripture, such as "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you," and suspending it over the pulpit, where all could see it, with a large pointer I made them all go over, first the letters, then the syllables, then the whole sentence together, and usually in half an hour, I could get the whole school to know it by heart.
The exercises were opened with a prayer and a hymn, and closed with a single verse and the benediction.
The soldiers in the New England regiments kindly volunteered as teachers. I had some thirty or more from the 25th Massachusetts Volunteers. Some of these young men were graduates of the first colleges in the North.
These schools had been under way about six weeks when Governor Stanley arrived. On his making known to me his opposition to their continued existence, I stopped them.
Governor Stanley was appointed Military Governor of North Carolina by President Lincoln in the early part of May 1862, and in his political policy he followed that of the Border States, which aimed to restore the Union and preserving slavery.
The closing of these schools is thus described by the Newbern correspondents of the Times, who writes under date of May 31, and from whose letter we copy:
CLOSING THE SCHOOLS FOR CONTRABANDS
"The schools established by Mr. Colyer for the instruction of the colored people were suddenly closed on Wednesday evening. It was the first administrative act of the new Governor, since whose advent the military authority seems, to a great extent, suspended. At the Methodist church in Hancock street in this citv. Mr. Colyer addressed the contrabands, saying:
"These schools are now to be closed, not by the officer of the army, under whose sanction they have been commenced, but by the necessity laid upon me by Governor Stanley, who has informed me that it is a criminal offence, under the laws of North Carolina, to teach the blacks to read, which laws he has come from Washington with instructions to enforce."
The teacher said he hoped that the schools would be closed only for a brief time, and exhorted them to submit patiently to the deprivation like good, law abiding people, such as they had always proved themselves to be. Those who followed the injunction before them, on the pulpit and trusted in the Saviour, who had given the command, would not only have this blessing restored to them, but must ultimately enjoy even greater blessings than this.
The old people dropped their heads upon their breasts and wept in silence; the young looked at each other with mute surprise and grief at this sudden termination of their bright hopes. It was a sad and impressive spectacle. Mr. Colyer himself could hardly conceal his emotion. A few moments of silence followed, when, as if by one im pulse, the whole audience rose and sang with mournful cadence, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," and then shook hands and parted.
The school at the Baptist Church, where the more advanced scholars were placed, was closed in a similar manner."
THE FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR COLORED PEOPLE IN NORTH CAROLINA
INDIGNATION OF THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH
This closing of the colored schools attracted great attention throughout the country, and on coming North soon after, on a brief leave of absence, I found that the Rev. Dr. Tyng, Mr. Caldwell, of Pennsylvania, and other active Christians, had called the attention of the Government to it.
The press was loud in its denunciations of Governor Stanley, and-of the Government for appointing men with such views, and I was called upon to address several public meetings, held for this special object.
The Governor had not only suggested to me to close my schools for the blacks, but had returned several fugitive slaves to their owners. Up to the time of Governor Stanley's arrival, the refugees had been all practically free, none had been returned to their masters by General Burnside, so that Governor Stanley's course appeared all the more odious.
This returning of the refugee slaves to their masters is thus described by Mr. Elias Smith of the N. Y. Times, writing from Newbern, May31st, 1862.
SENDING BACK THE BLACKS
"Yesterday the Governor was waited upon by large numbers of the residents, in and out of town, who congratulated him upon the auspicious beginning of his administration. Among others, several persons applied for the restoration of their fugitive property who have sought protection from the tyranny of the plantation within our lines. One Nicholas Bray, living a few miles from town on the Falmouth road, obtained an order to carry off his slave woman. With his wife he proceeded to a building where one of them was staying, and dragged her forth and drove away with her to the plantation. Her sister, a bright mulatto young woman of unusual attractions, hearing of the proceeding, was made almost frantic, and sought asylum at the only place she knew the headquarters of the poor. Elated at his success, Bray drove up and without ceremony began a search of the premises. Mr. Colyer at the time was away. Apprised of his coming, Harriet flew with lightning speed, and concealed herself in an out-building almost under the eaves of General Burnside's headquarters. Not finding the object of his search Bray drove off, probably to renew the search at a more convenient season. Harriet is only seventeen years of age, and Bray asserts that he has been offered fifteen hundred dollars for her."
FLIGHT OF THE NEGROES
"Bray is a brother-in-law of A. G. Ewbank, the quartermaster of the rebel militia lately in this place. He is a well known rebel; was mustered into the service, it is said, and only escaped taking part in the battle of Newbern on account of some alleged injury to his back. He promised to take the oath of allegiance.
Several other orders were given for the capture and taking away of slaves from the town. Four were reported to have been captured and carried out of our lines yesterday."
"Frightened at the turn of affairs, a number of the slaves who have congregated in the town had scattered like a flock of frightened birds. Some have taken to the swamps, and others have concealed themselves in out-of-the-way places. A perfect panic prevails among them. The greater part who were employed on the fortifications are so much alarmed at the prospect of being returned to their enraged masters, and being punished, that they are of little use as laborers.
It is believed that many will find their way to the rebel lines, and, in order to make friends with them, will reveal important facts touching the condition of affairs in this department. The slaves express the greatest horror at the prospect of being sent back to their old homes, and say that they will be unmercifully "cutup" for having absconded. One old man of sixty told me today that he would rather be placed before a cannon and blown to pieces than go back. Multitudes say they would rather die."
RAILROAD REPAIRING, ETC.
Copyright 
1998