Blue coats now trampling the streets where Jeff Davis was inaugurated
Paroled Union soldiers roaming the streets, especially offensive to Confederate soldiers’ loved ones
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch January 17, 1863:
Are the Yankees in possession of Montgomery?
–The Montgomery Advertiser says:
The question was quite seriously mooted yesterday and the day before whether the Yankees or the Confederates were in possession of the capital city of Alabama. Those who argued that the enemy held the city pointed to the blue coats, which were to be seen in profusion in the market, in the stores, about the hotels, and on the streets, as an argument in their favor. If they were not masters of the city, but prisoners, as some contended, what reasonable excuse could be offered for their being allowed to roam through the town without a guard? They evidently had the best of the argument; still, there were those who could not believe Montgomery had been tamely surrendered. On application to the Yankees themselves for information it was found that they claimed to be prisoners, taken near Murfreesboro’, and paroled. Some of them said they were desirous of leaving here as soon as possible, in order to go home to their families; others were not yet satisfied with the success of the efforts to subjugate the South, and wished to get another opportunity to murder Southern men; while others still professed themselves so much enamored of the “Sunny South,” that they would be willing to remain, in case they could obtain employment as mechanics at the rate of five or six dollars per day. All of them seemed to enjoy their liberty immensely, and doubtless thought the Southern Confederacy was not such a terrible monster after all. Seriously, however, the practice of allowing Yankee prisoners to perambulate the streets of our cities and towns, except when necessary for their transit from one railroad depot or steamboat landing to another, either with or without a guard, is disgraceful. Their presence is an offence to the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the men whom these wretches came South to murder, and their eyes should not be pained with the spectacle where it is possible to be avoided. The Yankees taken in arms against us should be treated humanely.–A brave and generous people will treat their prisoners in no other way. They should be hold as prisoners, however, be closely guarded, and allowed no opportunities for mingling promiscuously with the people, or of effecting their escape. Unless this is done we may look for abolition emissaries throughout the South, incendiarism, robbery, outbreaks and murders. Will the proper authorities give their attention to this matter?
source of proto-carpetbaggers?
