Here is the quote from Prof. Jordan's book, following some comment. Joan Logan Brooks
Weitzel was removed from his Richmond post by Edwin Stanton because Stanton believed Weitzel was "too nice" to the Richmond population. Maybe there was a
Federal legislator or two who wanted him in trouble?
Here are the quotes, as referenced by Prof. Jordan:
Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia by Ervin L. Jordan,
Jr., University Press of Virginia, 1995:
pages 293-294:
"Black soldiers restrained their enthusiasm and went to work. They
reestablished order, rounded up drunken troublemakers, extinguished fires,
shared their rations with the jubilant but starving freed slaves, and guarded
city streets and surviving buildings. They were detailed to guard white women
and children, and there were no complaints of black misbehavior. White
Richmonders were surprised that the black soldiers were well behaved,
drilled, equipped and clothed.
One of the war's countless ironies occurred when the wife of General Robert
E. Lee was dismayed to find that a black cavalryman had been posted outside
her East Franklin Street home by order of the Union provost marshal. Elderly
and crippled with arthritis, she had decided to stay in the city while her
neighbors successfully extinguished the flames of the Great Richmond Fire as
the blaze inched toward her home. She complained that his presence in her
front yard was a premeditated insult. Major General Weitzel, commander of the
25th Corps occupying the city, angrily denied accusations that he replaced
the black guard with a white soldier at her request and swore he would never
do anything so prejudicial as long as he commanded black soldiers." (7)
page 384, note (7):
James I. Robertson, Jr., ed., "English Views of the Civil War: A Unique
Excursion to Virginia, April 2-8, 1865," VMHB '77 (1969), 210; Blackett,
"Thomas Morris Chester," 293, 299; Henry Chapin to his father, Richmond, 21
April 1865, 10310-G, UVA; "Testimony of Major-General Godfrey Weitzel," Negro
Military Service, roll 4, frames 0143-45"
[My note:
VMHB is "Virginia Magazine of History and Biography."
UVA is "Manuscripts Division, Special Collections Department, University of
Virginia Library, Charlottesville."
Negro Military Service is "The Negro in the Military Service of the United
States, 1636-1886. National Archives Microfilms Publication, Washington, D.
C. 1963. M-858 (formerly Microcopy T-823), 5 rolls."
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