Mississippi Bishop William Henry Elder and the Civil War by Starrett Ryan;Ellington Cleta;

Author:Starrett, Ryan;Ellington, Cleta;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

On August 4, 1863, twenty months before the untimely death of Minerva, Bishop Elder celebrated Mass in the morning in the Cooks’ parlor. The family, aided by the Sisters of Mercy, who stored their belongings and sometimes stayed at the Cooks’ home, had established an altar in the parlor when Vicksburg first began to be bombarded months earlier. Throughout the siege, the altar never moved. When the Federal troops finally took Vicksburg, they ransacked the house, and the nuns’ goods were stolen, damaged or strewn about the house.223

After Mass, Bishop Elder was visited by General Grant’s surgeon, Dr. Hewitt, the same man who pleaded with Union officers to not burn St. Peter’s church in Jackson. Hewitt brought with him a Catholic woman who had fallen away from the faith and now wished to return to Elder’s flock. The bishop spent a fair amount of time speaking with her. He then had a much deeper and personal conversation with his host, Jared Reese Cook, than he was able to the night before. Elder noticed that Cook “is a good deal depressed with the state of things but still bears all patiently.”224 As glum and depressing as Cook’s life was now, it would not begin to compare with the tragedy he and his family would soon endure.225

After his depressing meeting with Cook, Elder walked through the streets of Vicksburg. What he saw was painful. He had expected to see emaciated and downtrodden Mississippians who had just endured forty-seven days of a dehumanizing siege; indeed, he did see that. But he also witnessed the suffering and neglect of countless recently freed black people. He blamed the Federal bureaucracy for their predicament. Clearly frustrated, that evening, Elder ranted in his diary:

The negroes are dying in the streets of Vicksburg. The Federal Army expresses a willingness to feed all of them - but there is such a multiplicity of offices in the town that some of the Negroes can hardly find out who to apply to. But those who had plenty are exposed to sickness from change of place, & diet - & water & from want of some one to look after them. No exercise - no occupation - separated from old associations - naturally wanting in energy- no cleanliness- no foresight - no comforts - no medicines - Dr. Hewit [sic] says they suffer from homesickness, depression of spirits - & just give themselves up to sink.226

The destitution of the former slaves saddened the bishop, and he began to make inquiries on their behalf. He received no satisfactory answers. As far as Elder could surmise, the Federal government had no policy toward the former slaves of Vicksburg—or the South, for that matter. The Union officers seemed to believe their mission was to free the slaves, thereby depriving the Confederacy of their servitude. Beyond that, there seemed to be no clearly defined policy. As Elder claimed, “as far as the Fed. Govt. & Army prevail, the race will die out like that of the Indians.

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