Custer Praises Slave Help in Civil War!

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On March 10, 1866 George Armstrong Custer appeared before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in Washington D.C. to give his testimony on what he had experienced in Texas and Louisiana since the end of the Civil War. His seven pages of testimony was largely in response to the committee's questions as to loyalty of white people in those two states where Custer had been stationed. In the next to last question to him, Custer was asked about the loyalty and help or harm of negroes during the late war...



Question. During the war did you find in your operations negroes who were unwilling to
assist the federal government, or who attempted to mislead or do you any injury ?


Answer. " I have had many opportunities of judging of that, by having command of cavalry,
atnd generally being in advance of the army, in search of information as to the strength, posi
tion, and intentions of the enemy. It was necessary to inquire of the inhabitants of the
country through which we marched, and I cannot call to mind an instance of a negro mis
leading us or giving us false information. It was in fact very seldom that I inquired of any
but negroes, because the whites could not be relied upon ; being unfriendly, they would mis
lead us, if the opportunity offered ; but the negroes were always friendly, and gave us all the
information in their power. As far as knowledge of roads and people was concerned, they
seemed to be more correct and better, informed than the whites. I never found a negro who
was not thoroughly loyal and friendly to the Union army. They were willing to do any
thing to aid them. At the battle of Trevilian Station, I was ordered with my command to
move by a by-road and attack the enemy in the rear. No man in my command knew the
road, and no white man in that portion of the country would have been willing to give me
the information. A negro guided me to the point I desired to reach. And this occurred in a
large number of cases within my experience. I could not repeat the number of cases. I
almost invariably had negro guides, and I never hesitated to place the most implicit confi
dence in them. They would sometimes ride or walk miles to give us information which they
thought would be valuable to us, such as of the position of the enemy s forces, or of their trains,
which we might desire to capture. They would count the guns and troops as they passed
a certain point, and they would give us the number with remarkable accuracy."



SEE: Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, at the first session, Thirty-ninth Congress 1866
 
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