THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER.

HIS GOOD NATURE--HIS KINDHEARTEDNESS--EQUALLY AVAILABLE IN INFANTRY OR
CAVALRY.

The good nature of the Negro soldier is remarkable. He is always fond
of a joke and never too tired to enjoy one. Officers have wondered to
see a whole company of them, at the close of a long practice march,
made with heavy baggage, chasing a rabbit which some one may have
started. They will run for several hundred yards whooping and yelling
and laughing, and come back to camp feeling as if they had had lots of
fun, the white soldier, even if not tired, would never see any joke in
rushing after a rabbit. To the colored man the diversion is a delight.

In caring for the sick, the Negro's tenderheartedness is conspicuous.
On one of the transports loaded with sick men a white soldier asked
to be helped to his bunk below. No one of his color stirred, but two
Negro convalescents at once went to his assistance. When volunteers
were called for to cook for the sick, only Negroes responded. They
were pleased to be of service to their officers. If the Captain's
child is ill, every man in the company is solicitous; half of them
want to act as nurse. They feel honored to be hired to look after an
officer's horse and clothing. The "striker" as he is called, soon gets
to look on himself as a part of his master; it is no "Captain has been
ordered away," but "We have been ordered away." Every concern of his
employer about which he knows interests him, and a slight to his
superior is vastly more of an offence than if offered to himself.
Indeed, if the army knew how well officers of the colored regiments
are looked after by their men, there would be less disinclination to