A Great Upheaval

A Great Upheaval. . , Thousands of refugee slaves came with the Union army into Helena and they continued to come. Helena became an island of freedom in a slave state., The Union Army Recruits Freedmen , In the spring of 1863, changes in federal policy allowed Freedmen to enlist in the Union army. Over 2,000 men in Helena volunteered. United States Colored Troops guarded plantation workers, and manned the batteries and Fort Curtis. They fought in the Battle of Helena in 1863 and in a desperate action at Big Creek in the summer of 1864., The Union Occupation Brings Change , The Union occupation changed Helena in ways that no one could have anticipated. Confederate sympathizers saw their worst fears realized. For many, most shocking was the changed status of their former slaves. Freedmen could walk the streets in Helena without a pass, they worked for a wage, and by 1868 they could vote. , A Society Transformed , Former masters often expressed feelings of betrayal when their former slaves chose freedom. In her diary Mary Sale Edmonson recorded the death of "our faithful, beloved Davy," a slave: "...the last of the family of a faithful upright servant-whose ancestors have belonged to my ancestors for almost a hundred years.", She then names three others, writing that they "... are the only ones of all my father's well cared for, well taught servants who have withstood the temptation constantly employed by Yankee Abolitionists, for more than a year, to leave him and us., But Freedmen, now able to leave positions of servitude, did just that. , [Photo captions] , Bottom left: At the Battle of Big Creek, less than 400 United States Colored Troops held off 1,200 Confederates for several hours. , Bottom right: Many Freedmen seized the long-denied opportunity to learn to read and write offered by schools that Northern charities established.