As ‘ Inspecting Officer’ on the contraband subject, Bryant directed a heated, lengthy report to the district commander, dated October 10, 1863, stressing the treatment of the contrabands on government-controlled camps, or among the wandering black population of northeast Louisiana.

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In his report, he recognized that the black people were always unfairly treated. Government officials were ignoring terms of contracts with them or not showing them even elementary principals of humanity. He reported that the black man was treated as a mere brute from whom the most amount of labor should be gained at the least possible expense, and not as a free citizen. He further stated that the government’s persistent declaration that the black man was a free man was nothing but words. The Bryant family interpretation of the ‘universal brotherhood of man’ philosophy had suffered little through generations of practice.

Four days later, Brigadier General J. P. Hawkins endorsed Bryant’s report and added a sardonic remark of his own. He stressed that the report did not begin to show all the hardships to which the free black people had been subjected ‘and if better policy for them cannot be introduced and humanity is a matter of consideration, we had better call back their former masters and let them take charge of them.’ The report found its way to General Sherman’s headquarters at Bridgeport, Tennessee, where it gathered dust for nearly three months, not received in the adjutant general’s office until January 6, 1864.

Meanwhile, the distress of the contrabands continued, and Bryant decided to appeal through the press. No other course lay open to him. He would call upon the man who, it is strongly suggested, had helped him during his year of sketching in New York, the one man he knew who shared his sentiments and was capable of bringing about changes.

William Cullen Bryant, Julian’s uncle and editor of the New York Evening Post, had long expressed himself on the intolerable condition of the black soldier. In his editorial on November 17, 1863, he called attention to the use of black troops for fatigue duty in the encampments near Charleston. He noted that these men were used only for digging trenches and taught nothing approximating military maneuvers. He was probably thinking of his nephew when he stated further that the white officers’ talents were being wasted, because they were used to supervise mere labors. ‘At this rate,’ he concluded, ‘the white officers should never be called captains, colonels &c, but overseers, taskmasters, drivers. The government should look to this.’

Possibly as a result of this editorial, the older Bryant printed an order December 2, 1863, from Commanding Officer Major General Quincy A. Gilmore that black troops would be given the same responsibilities, labor, treatment, and opportunities for drill and instruction as white troops. Bryant was encouraged, but once again, results came more quickly on paper than in actuality.

Julian Bryant had been mustered in as commander of the 1st Mississippi on November 30, 1863, when it was recognized as the 51st U.S. Colored Infantry. Just six days later, it saw action in Issaquena County, Mississippi. Then, in early 1864, Bryant began to recruit black soldiers for a new regiment, the 46th U.S. Colored Infantry. This would have consequences.

On January 22, 1864, Bryant wrote his uncle, hoping to convince him that their plan had not yet succeeded. In the letter [see the sidebar, 'A Letter to an Editor-Uncle'], he referred to the menial duties performed by black troops, tasks he termed insults because of the heroism they had shown in battle. In contrast, he stressed the idleness and lofty soldierly duties of the white troops. He stated that if his uncle would again editorialize on this subject, the public might force some action.

The editor reacted to this letter with the strongest editorial he had ever written. His nephew’s letter must have influenced it, because he constantly paraphrased it. The famous editor complained that, while the colored troops remained at work performing common laborer tasks, such as loading and unloading boats, the white troops lay idle or engaged strictly in military maneuvers. He reminded his readers that these black troops had fought heroically before they were even trained, and demonstrated what soldiers they could become if given the proper instruction and opportunity. This strong display of opinion, written on February 19, 1864, closed with a hope that the War Department’s attention be directed to this problem.

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