…was in the year 1862 the wife of S. Duncan Linton, and possessed of the “Richland Plantation” in said parish of East Baton Rouge. That she has a claim against the United States for stores and property taken by the United States troops, and used by them, off said plantation in the year 1862, at and during the second occupation in that year of Baton Rouge by United States troops under the command of General Thomas Williams,…
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Testimony of Marie P. Evans.
…Do you remember B. T. Beauregard, a colored man?—A. Yes, sir; the negroes used to call him Bosar. He was a mulatto.
Q. What did he do before and during the war?—A. He kept a little petty grocery at the forks of the road where we used to have to pass in the carriage always [in East Baton Rouge]. That is the reason I used to see him. He kept a few barrels of sugar sitting out before his store; and I remember he used to have the first hogshead of refined sugar at his store, or barrels of it, before it was sold out of the house, and it used to bo a great matter of regret to the engineer (who was a colored man) that he never could get a pound of sugar into the market before Beauregard had it in his store. Further than that, I don't know anything about him.
Q. Did you ever have any conversation with him ?—A. I never spoke to him in my life. It is not natural that I should. He was a very common negro man; not negro enough to be civil, and not white enough to be respectable.
Commissioner ALOIS:
Q. Was he a slave or free ?. He was free.
He had never been one of jour father's slaves ?.—A. No, sir; I don't know but what he might have been born free; I don't know.
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Testimony of Dr. Henry Perkins sworn and examined. Uncle of Mrs. Evans.
Q. Do you know a colored man there named B. T. Beauregard?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was he free before the war?—A. Yes, sir; he is a sort of a white colored man.
Q. What is his reputation for veracity?.—A. I am not prepared to say; 1 never knew much about him.
Q. Was he a member of any organization raised in aid of the war of the rebellion at any time that you know of ?—A. I saw him in line as a soldier.
Q. What kind of an organization was it ?—A. They were being drilled: it was an organization of colored men who were freed before the war; I think there were fifty or sixty of them; I happened to be driving by and they were on the commons, being drilled by Judge Taverock, aud they were in line; I think he was an officer.
Commissioner ALDIS:
Q. This was a confederate organization ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. When was it?—A. It was in 1862.
Q. Before or after General Williams came there?—A. It must have been in the fall of 1861, I think, before he came there.
Q. They were drilling them ?—A. Yes, sir: learning them the motions and maneuvers the soldiers go through with.
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Testimony of Ackley Perkins.
Q. Do you know B. T. Beauregard, a colored man?—A. Yes, sir; I knew him; I know he is a colored man; I know him passing about.
Q. Was he in the confederate service?—A. I saw him there drilling in it; I don't know whether he went off in it or not.
Q. When was that ?—A. In the spring of 1862; he was drilling there with a colored company; I saw them often drilling.
Commissioner ALUIS:
Q. Did they have guns ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. It was a regular military company ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. And in the confederate service?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. That was in the spring of 1862?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were there any slaves among them <—A. Yes, sir; they were all slaves; he was one himself. They were not slaves then; they were free people; freed before the war.
Q. Weren't any of them slaves ?—A. No, sir; I don't think there were any slaves; they were all free people.
COUNSEL:
Q. Did he seem to be an officer ?—A. I don't think he was; I don't know that he was; I cannot say that he was.
Commissioner FERKISS: Q. Did the confederates organize any colored troops ?—A. No, sir; none except those that were free; they organized those. I forget the captain's name. They had about sixty or seventy in the company.
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Testimony of Duncan Williams (colored) sworn and examined.
Q. Did you know one B. T. Beauregard ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Is he a colored man ?—A. Yes, sir,
Q. Did you ever see him in any military organization about the breaking out of the war or afterwards ?—A. Well, about the time the troops landed in New Orleans.
Q. What troops ?—A. The Union troops. When they landed in New Orleans he was in the service then.
Q. In what service?—A. Well, there wasn't but one service up there then; that was the rebel service.
Q. State what kind of an organization it was.—A. Well, they were drilling just like I saw the Union troops drilling there after the war.
Q. Was it a company ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Composed of what kind of men ?—A. They were democrats, I think.
Q. Were they white men or colored men ?—A. The captain was a white man, but the company were black men—free men before the war.
Q. Did they allow any slaves to go into the company ?—A. No, sir: nary a on
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David Upton