[Sherman Logan]

The article, as all such articles do, implies that Sherman and other Army officials were providing “reparations” to compensate ex-slaves for their oppression.

In actual fact, all the army provided was “possessory titles,” not absolute titles for permanent ownership.

IOW, they were intended as a temporary measure to settle the blacks in situations where they could support themselves rather than being parasites on the army. It was never intended to be a permanent measure, unless of course Congress so decided. The Army had no authority to make permanent disposition of title to land, espcially after the war ended.

[Calvin Locke]

I've been watching a period cop show from Italy, and I looked up Il Duce's escapades in Ethiopia "née" Abyssinia, and it turns out a series of rulers tried to declare slavery illegal, and Mussolini ran into the same problem as the rest in that the former slaves showed up, and essentially said, "You're feeding us now..."

Sherman was making the best of the rough situation.

During WWII, Eisenhower & Co. didn't want to liberate Paris at the time for the same reason, a drain on resources.