14                   THE BLACK BRIGADE.

 both sexes, have encouraged you with their smiles and words of
 approbation; the soldiers have welcomed you as co-laborers in
 the same great cause.  But a portion of the police, ruffians in
 character, early learning that your services were accepted, and
 seeking to deprive you of the honor of voluntary labor, before
 opportunity was given you to proceed to the field, rudely seized
 you in the streets, in your places of business, in your homes,
 every-where, hurried you into filthy pens, thence across the
 river to the fortifications, not permitting you to make  any
 preparation for camp-life. You have borne this with the ac-
 customed patience of your race, and when, under more favor-
 able auspices, you have received only the protection due to a
 common humanity, you have labored cheerfully and effectively.
   "Go to your homes with the consciousness of having per-
formed your duty-of deserving, if you do not receive, the pro-
tection of the law, and bearing with you the gratitude and
respect of all honorable men. You have learned to suffer and
to wait; but in your hours of adversity, remember that the
same God who has numbered the hairs of our heads, who
watches over even the fate of a sparrow, is the God of your
race as well as mine. The sweat-blood which the nation is
now shedding at every pore is an awful warning of how fearful
a thing it is to oppress the humblest being.  Until our country
shall again need your services, I bid you farewell."

  Although the service of the Black Brigade was in 1862,
during which time the Hon. David Tod was Governor of Ohio,
the following report was made by Colonel Dickson to his suc-
cessor in office, Hon. John Brough. The report was also read
in the Ohio Legislature, and ordered to be placed on the record.
  The muster-roll contains no names of persons who did not
serve in the Brigade during and after the second week, it not
having been made up until that time.

THE BLACK BRIGADE-ITS SERVICES IN THE SIEGE OF CINCINNATI.
To His  Excellency, John Brough, Governor of Ohio:
  I beg leave to present to you, for preservation in the archives
of the State, the accompanying enrollment of the Black Brigade
of Cincinnati, serving in the defense of that city, in 1862.




			

OHS Archives/Library Pamphlet Collection

Black Brigade of Cincinnati: Being a Report of Its Labors and a Muster-Roll of Its Members; Together with Various Orders, Speeches, Etc. Relating to It.

H.