Governor of Iowa to the General-in-Chief of the Army

[Des Moines] Iowa  August 5 1862

General   You will bear me witness I have not trouble on the “negro” subject but there is as it seems to me so much good sense in the following extract from a letter to me from one of the best colonels this state has in the service that I have yielded to the temptation to send it to you–  It is as follows.  “I hope under the confiscation and emancipation bill just passed by Congress¹ to supply my regiment with a sufficient number of ‘contrabands’ to do all the ‘extra duty’ labor of my camp.  I have now sixty men on extra duty as teamsters &c. whose places could just as well be filled with niggers–  We do not need a single negro in the army to fight but we could use to good advantage about one hundred & fifty with a regiment as teamsters & for making roads, chopping wood, policing camp &c.  There are enough soldiers on extra duty in the army to take Richmond or any other rebel city if they were in the ranks instead of doing negro work.”

I have but one remark to add and that in regard to the negroes fighting–  it is this–When this war is over & we have summed up the entire loss of life it has imposed on the country I shall not have any regrets if it is found that a part of the dead are niggers and that all are not white men–

. . . .

Samuel J Kirkwood