tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954253475152445584.post8141258628459150198..comments2009-06-10T18:08:51.058-04:00J. A. Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02273572689694067573noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954253475152445584.post-10249593467083402242009-06-10T18:08:51.058-04:002009-06-10T18:08:51.058-04:00I've come across a counter to the 'scarcity of food' argument: "I suppose the rich georgia families who have lived off of the sweat of our brow have enough food in their fields to feed a few thousand Negroes! And the whole of Sherman’s army!' This comes from the Rev. Q. C. Quarles in the novel, on Nov. 29, 1864. Rev. Quarles was an actual slave living in Atlanta when Sherman's army moved through. Whether or not he accompanied the army on the march is not known, but in the novel, he does. His sentiment represents the feeling of some newly free people that they could and would live off of the land on which they had toiled unpaid for decades. Soldiers' accounts say that the Negro men formed their own foraging parties or accompanied the soldiers. These were not people just sitting around waiting for someone else to take care of them. They were the kind of people who would leave all they knew and perhaps loved for the promise of freedom. They may have even believed that leaving the farms and plantations of the South would help the Union effort. So why would the Union army treat them as encumberances when they were the Union's best friends in the South?J. A. Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02273572689694067573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954253475152445584.post-91547241502687367732009-06-10T00:42:34.796-04:002009-06-10T00:42:34.796-04:00I have read about that incident on Ebenezer Creek. That was nasty thing to do to the escaped slaves but I also understand that Sherman had just enough food to feed his own soldiers and his top priority was getting to Savannah and not freeing slaves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com