Reconstruction in Texas. With the Democrats regaining control of the state
senate, Ruby decided not to run for reelection in 1873. Believing his political
prospects better, he moved back to Louisiana, where he worked as a surveyor for
New Orleans, agent for the Internal Revenue department, and editor of a local
paper until his death from malaria in 1882. Although known as a radical carpet-
bagger (a label applied to about any Republican), his “personal qualities of tact
and diplomacy . . . soft ened” some of his harshest critics.
Another “carpetbag” agent was Ira Hobart Evans. A Vermont resident and
an offi
cer in several black units in the Army of the James, Evans served in the
honor guard for President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral cortège. For his actions at
Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, in the closing days of the war, he received the Medal of
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Who Were the Subassistant Commissioners?
13
Honor in 1895. He became a SAC in 1867, but resigned in disgust with superiors
in late January 1868. Evans bounced around as a rancher along the Texas coast
and as an Internal Revenue agent along the Texas border and coast until fellow
Republican and gubernatorial candidate Edmund Jackson Davis convinced
him to run for a seat in the next legislature. In 1870 his fellow legislators elected
him speaker of the House of the Twelft h Legislature, thus making him the
youngest ever to hold that position in Texas. Th
e amity, however, did not last
long, for he soon angered his own party by siding with the Democrats in oppo-
sition to a controversial election law. Th
is break with the party resulted in his
ouster from the speakership. Aft er serving the remainder of his term, he left
political offi
ce and worked for the Texas Land Company along with various
railroads. His interest in the freedmen always remained, as he lent his support
to the all- black Tillotson College in Austin. He served on its board for four
decades. With failing health (a heart condition), Evans, on the recommenda-
tion of his doctor, moved to San Diego in 1920, where he died two years later.
Charles F. Rand, from Batavia, New York, entered service for the Union with
the 12th New York Volunteers. Congress offi
cially recognized him as the fi rst
man to volunteer for the Civil War, when President Lincoln issued a call for
volunteers aft er Confederates fi red on Fort Sumter in April 1861. When an offi
-
cer came to Batavia soliciting volunteers, Rand, stepping from the crowd, said,
“I will.” He served heroically, even winning the Medal of Honor at Blackburn’s
Ford, Virginia, in July 1861. As his “regiment broke in disorder,” Rand remained
in action, facing the fi re of an entire Confederate company. With bullets whiz-
zing all around, he continued to load and fi re at the enemy. Impressed by this
courage, Confederates withheld their fi re from the lone gunmen and allowed
him to retreat. Wounded in action at Gaines Mill in June 1862, Rand had a
portion of the right humerus bone “excised.” Doctors removed the head of the
bone and four inches of the shaft so that the arm “hangs by the muscles and liga-
ments.” Confederates captured the wounded soldier, and he spent three months
in Libby prison. Aft er being exchanged, he continued service in the Veteran
Reserve Corps and fi nished the war on assignment at Douglas Hospital, where
he became interested in medicine. Aft er the Bureau, he enrolled at Georgetown
Medical College and was graduated in 1870, practicing medicine in the nation’s
capital. He died in 1908 and, because he was the fi rst to volunteer for the war
eff ort, was buried in plot No. 1 at Arlington National Cemetery. Th
ese case stud-
ies highlight something worth noting: most were simply average nineteenth-
century people who, although a few may have achieved extraordinary feats
during the war, lived rather inconspicuous lives.
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14 “A
Stranger Amongst Strangers”
Th
e types of jobs agents in Texas held aft er the war ran the gamut for
nineteenth- century America (see Table 1- 3). In all, agents followed twenty- nine
diff erent occupations, ranging from contractor to law enforcer, from merchant
to farmer, from editor to minister, from seaman to clerk. Of those whose occupa-
tions could be ascertained according to the 1870 census (n=139), 64.7 percent of
the men listed a professional or personal service occupation (n=90). Th
at equals
almost four times the state average (17.2 percent), but the high number of U.S.
military personnel in the table explains this. Twenty- nine men (20.9 percent)
listed an occupation in the agricultural sector, signifi cantly lower than the state’s
average approximating 70 percent and the Union army’s 40 percent. Th
ose who
listed a trade or a commercial job equaled 10.1 percent (n=14) and manufacturing
4.3 percent (n=6). Th
e former was almost two times the state’s average (5.7 per-
cent), but the latter was slightly less than the state’s 6.7 percent.
Of those who cited a professional or personal occupation in the 1870 census
(n=90), Bureau men in Texas cited the United States Army most oft en as their
employer (n=52, or 37.4 percent of 139). (When adjusted for those who served
during the war [but not aft erward] and for those who were still in the army in
1880 but could not be located in the 1870 census, the number who served in mili-
tary service increases greatly [n=182, or 76.2 percent of 239 Bureau agents in
Texas.]) Th
e diff erence can best be explained by the high number of offi
cers
(either in the volunteer or regular army) in the Bureau in the state. From the
entire population of agents who served in Texas (n=239), offi
cers represented
more than 66 percent (n=160), all of whom attained the rank of 2nd lieutenant
Table 1- 3 Occupation of Subassistant Commissioners in Texas
Number of
Percentage of
Percentage
Occupationa
Bureau Agents
Bureau Agents
of Texans
Professional/Personal Services
.
.
Agricultural Industry
.
.
Trade and Commerce
.
.
Manufacturing and Mechanical
.
.
n=
a Th
e occupations are as follows: professional and personal services include military, legal profes-
sions, which includes attorneys, law/district clerks, judges, and sheriff s, physicians/druggists,
ministers,
domestics, insurers, academics, journalists/editors, and governmental employees.
Agriculture includes all occupations pertaining to farming, including a beef manager, farmers,
farm hands, and planters. Th
ose within the trades and commerce are merchants, grocers, book
dealers, printers, a painter, a seaman, a real estate agent, and a hotel keeper. Manufacturing
includes a miner, a cooper, mill/paper manager, railroad worker, and a box shop employee.
Note: Texas’s averages are from Ninth Census, Wealth and Industry, 3:808–823.
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Who Were the Subassistant Commissioners?
15
or higher. Characteristics of ideal offi
cers—maturity, leadership, bravery, and
the ability to abide by military protocol—could only be a benefi t to agents, and
the Bureau’s belief that offi
cers possessed these qualities perhaps infl uenced
their appointments. Th
e high percentage of military personnel and experience
compares closely to the fi ndings in other state studies of the Freedmen’s
Bureau. Considering that nearly three- quarters of Texas Bureau agents enlisted
in the armed forces during the war and the agency came under military con-
trol, this hardly seems novel. But it appears that military service helped with
an appointment and might be, like birthplace, a good indicator of Union
sentiment.
J. B. Kiddoo, Gregory’s successor, believed the soldiers to be loyal, above
reproach, and unlikely to cheat the freedpeople because he “is being paid his
regular salary.” With agents receiving no pay until the summer of 1866, Kiddoo
believed civilian agents to be lazy and possibly shirkers. Personnel and appli-
cants alike knew the importance of military service. Charles Haughn, a man
headquarters called one of the “most effi
cient and reliable of the Bureau agents,”
understood the preference when he informed superiors about the large pool of
discharged soldiers in his subdistrict. “Th
ere are many discharged soldiers
here,” he wrote, “but all of them are addicted to the use of intoxicating liquor.”
One former soldier, who never received an appointment, noted in his applica-
tion “I think one that served during the whole war . . . should have precedence
over one who [did not].” William H. Sinclair, a SAC and later Bureau inspector
in Texas, presumed an application would be declined, for he had “never served
in the army during the war. . . . ”
Other reasons, perhaps, help explain the high percentage of military men in
the Bureau in Texas. In their groundbreaking study, LaWanda and John Cox
found offi
cials recognized the “prestige of the uniform aided the eff ectiveness of
Bureau work,” since these men “were more easily held to required military disci-
pline and responsibility than were civilians.” In the initial Bureau bill in 1865,
Congress did not allocate funds to pay civilian agents. Th
us out of necessity, the
agency had to turn to the military for personnel. Commissioner Howard initially
hesitated to appoint civilian agents, because he did not want to spend money on
their salaries.
Another reason might be the organization itself. Th
irty- one agents, includ-
ing the fi rst two assistant commissioners, at one time or another, served as
offi
cers in regiments of the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.). Th
at means
nearly one in fi ve agents (n=31, or 17 percent) whose military status could be
confi rmed (n=182) served as offi
cers in all- black regiments—that percentage
greatly increases when applied to those who could be found in the 1870 but not
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16 “A
Stranger Amongst Strangers”
the 1860 census (n=52, or 45.6 percent). Th
e willingness of a white man to work
with and lead black troops into combat was not lost on Bureau offi
cials or those
wanting an appointment. In addition to a man’s possible “humanitarian” and
“liberal” spirit, offi
cials also believed those who commanded black regiments
“pretty thoroughly acquainted with their [blacks’] nature. . . .”
Although some agents never encountered a life- threatening situation in
their subdistricts, others literally took their lives in their hands. Th
ose stationed
in northeast Texas, along the Red River and the frontier, and in the triangular
“no man’s land” between San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville could
face great danger, particularly from Indians, outlaws, or both. Th
e work
required battle- tested men who would not wilt. “Occasional collision,” as one
agent recognized, is “unavoidable.” Th
concluded, “Th
e [Bureau agent] must be willing to carry his life in his hand. . . .”
Th
ose who served in the armed forces also had experience following orders.
Despite some leeway in their day- to- day operations, agents still had to abide by
Bureau and military policies and guidelines. With critics watching for a mis-
step, the agency could ill- aff ord carelessness. Th
ose with military service were
familiar with the ins and outs of military paperwork. Finally, appointing sol-
diers essentially married the Bureau with the army. Th
is allowed for protec-
tion, but it also was quite practical, since many in the North feared another
war. Th
is marriage then could be another means to prevent the former slave-
holding states of the Confederacy from rising like a phoenix. Whatever the
reason, the high number of soldiers suggests the Bureau was hardly engaged in
work to “revolutionize” the South, but probably something more moderate,
precise, and achievable.
Th
ese men’s military careers ranged from unremarkable to heroic and
included four winners of the Medal of Honor. Consider the career of William
Rufus Shaft er. He received the Medal of Honor for meritorious action at Fair
Oaks during the war, but had a relatively obscure career as a Bureau agent on
the Texas frontier. Following Reconstruction, however, his exploits and career
could hardly be called ordinary. He became a renowned Indian fi ghter in West
Texas, Arizona, and in South Dakota, where he commanded the expedition
responsible for returning the Indians back to the reservation aft er the Wounded
Knee massacre. In 1898, in spite of being considered incompetent, becoming the
target of Th
eodore Roosevelt’s backbiting and criticism, and being terribly over-
weight (305 pounds), he led the American expedition into Cuba during the
Spanish- American War. At the time, it was the largest force ever to leave Ameri-
can soil. He left Cuba in 1898 and served in the Department of California, re
tir-
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Who Were the Subassistant Commissioners?
17
ing from the military in 1901 and dying in San Francisco fi ve years later. Aft er a
distinguished service in West Virginia, the battles of Chickamauga in Georgia
and Chattanooga in Tennessee, and as a corps commander in the capture of
Mobile, Joseph Jones Reynolds headed the District of Arkansas at war’s end.
Transferred shortly thereaft er to Texas, he took over the Rio Grande military
subdistrict. Assigned to command the Department of Texas, he oversaw the
solidifi cation of Republican rule in Texas. Aft er a brief stint on the Montana
frontier, where superiors off ered him command of the ill- fated Little Big Horn
expedition (but which he declined because of poor health), Reynolds was court-
martialed for actions during another Indian campaign (subsequently found
guilty, receiving a suspended sentence) and retired shortly aft erward in 1877. He
died in 1899 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Although some were participants in some of the most famous battles of the
Civil War and subsequent Indian campaigns, the vast majority of men appointed
as agents had inconspicuous military careers and less- than- famous or historic
lives aft er their tenures. Th
e agent at Tyler, Gregory Barrett, entered military
service in a Maryland volunteer unit before transferring to the 26th Infantry
Regiment. A lieutenant at war’s end, he remained in the army for more than a
decade aft er Appomattox. Apparently he still yearned for martial life, because in
1884 he was recommissioned as a captain, dying on the fi eld of battle at Santiago
de Cuba in 1898. Oscar E. Pratt, a lieutenant colonel in the 7th U.S.C.T., partici-
pated in the “hotly contested battles around Richmond and Petersburg.” Luckily
he never received a serious wound, but the same cannot be said for several of his
hats and jackets. He had a relatively short stay as an agent in Indianola and even-
tually returned home to northwest New York to resume his medical studies. For
the next four decades, Pratt built a lucrative medical practice in New York, Illi-
nois, and Michigan and distinguished himself as the president and secretary of
several medical associations and societies. A native of Prussia, Jacob C. DeGress
was a cavalry offi