_The Pay of the Men.--Government refuses to keep its Promise.--Efforts
of Gov. Andrew to have Justice done.--Complaint of the Men.
--Mutiny.--Military Murder.--Everlasting Shame._
When the War Department commenced recruiting colored men as soldiers
in Massachusetts, New Orleans, and Hilton Head, it was done with the
promise that these men should receive the same pay, clothing, and
treatment that white soldiers did. The same was promised at Camp William
Penn, at Philadelphia. After several regiments had been raised and put
in the field, the War Department decided to pay them but ten dollars per
month, without clothing. The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers,
and the Fifty-fifth, were both in South Carolina when this decision was
made; yet the Government held on to the men who had thus been obtained
under false pretences. Dissatisfaction showed itself as soon as this was
known among the colored troops. Still the blacks performed their duty,
hoping that Congress would see that justice was done to them. The men
refused to receive less than was their just due when the paymaster came
round, as the following will show:--
“_Hilton Head, S.C., Feb. 6,1864_.
“Samuel Harrison, Chaplain of the Fifty-fourth Regiment Massachusetts
Volunteers (colored troops), asks pay at the usual rate of
chaplains,--one hundred dollars per month and two rations, which, he
being of African descent, I decline paying, under Act of Congress, July
17, 1862, which authorizes the employment of persons of African descent
in the army. The chaplain declines receiving any thing less.
“_Paymaster, United-States Army.”_
It was left, however, for Massachusetts to take the lead, both by her
governor, and by her colored soldiers in the field, to urge upon the
Congress and the Administration the black man’s claims. To the honor of
John A. Andrew, the patriotic Chief Magistrate of the Bay State during
the Rebellion, justice was demanded again and again. The following will
show his feelings upon the subject:--
His Excellency Gov. Andrew, in a letter dated Executive Department,
Boston, Aug. 24, and addressed to Mr. Frederick Johnson, an officer in
the regiment, says,--
“I have this day received your letter of the 10th of August, and in
reply desire, in the first place, to express to you the lively interest
with which I have watched every step of the Fifty-fourth Regiment since
it left Massachusetts, and the feelings of pride and admiration with
which I have learned and read the accounts of the heroic conduct of
the regiment in the attack upon Fort Wagner, when you and your brave
soldiers so well proved their manhood, and showed themselves to be
true soldiers of Massachusetts. As to the matter inquired about in your
letter, you may rest assured that I shall not rest until you shall
have secured all of your rights, and that I have no doubt whatever of
ultimate success. I have no doubt, by law, you are entitled to the same
pay as other soldiers; and, on the authority of the Secretary of War, I
promised that you should be paid and treated in all respects like other
soldiers of Massachusetts. Till this is done, I feel that my promise
is dishonored by the Government. The whole difficulty arises from a
misapprehension, the correction of which will no doubt be made as soon
as I can get the subject fully examined by the Secretary of War.
“I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
“_JOHN A. ANDREW,_
“_Governor of Massachusetts._”
The subjoined letter, from a soldier of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts
Volunteers, needs no explanation:--
“We are still anticipating the arrival of the day when the Government
will do justice to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Regiments, and pay
us what is justly our due.
“We have fought like men; we have worked like men; we have been ready at
every call of duty, and thus have proved ourselves to be men: but still
we are refused the thirteen dollars per month.
“Oh, what a shame it is to be treated thus! Some of us have wives and
little children, who are looking for succor and support from their
husbands and fathers; but, alas! they look in vain. The answer to the
question, ‘When shall we be able to assist them?’ is left wholly to the
Congress of the United States.
“What will the families of those poor comrades of ours who fell at
James’s Island, Fort Wagner, and Olus-tee, do? They must suffer; for
their husbands and fathers have gone the way of all the earth. They have
gone to join that number that John saw, and to rest at the right hand of
God.
“Our hearts pine in bitter anguish when we look back to our loved ones
at home, and we are compelled to shed many a briny tear. We have offered
our lives a sacrifice for a country that has not the magnanimity to
treat us as men. All that we ask is the rights of other soldiers, the
liberty of other free men. If we cannot have these, give us an honorable
discharge from the United-States service, and we will not ask for pay.
“We came here to fight for liberty and country, and not for money (we
would scorn to do that); but they promised us, if we would enlist, they
would give us thirteen dollars per month.
“It was all false. They only wanted to get the halter over our heads,
and then say, ‘Get out if you can.’
“Sir, the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Regiments would sooner consent to
fight for the whole three years, gratis, than to be put upon the footing
of contrabands.
“It is not that we think ourselves any better than they; for we are not.
We know that God ‘hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell
on all the face of the earth;’ but we have enlisted as Massachusetts
Volunteers, and we will not surrender that proud position, come what
may.”
Sergt. William Walker, of Company A, Third South-Carolina colored
troops, feeling that he and his associates were unjustly dealt with,
persuaded his company to go to their captain’s tent, and stack their
muskets, and refuse duty till paid. They did so, and the following was
the result:--
CONDEMNED AND SHOT FOR MUTINY.
“Sergt. William Walker, of Company A, Third South-Carolina colored
troops, was yesterday killed, in accordance with the sentence of a
court-martial. He had declared he would no longer remain a soldier for
seven dollars per month, and had brought his company to stack their arms
before their captain’s tent, refusing to do duty until they should
be paid thirteen dollars a month, as had been agreed when they were
enlisted by Col. Saxon. He was a smart soldier and an able man,
dangerous as leader in a revolt. His last moments were attended by
Chaplain Wilson, Twenty-fourth Massachusetts, and Chaplain Moore, of
the Second South-Carolina colored troops. The execution took place at
Jacksonville, Fla., in presence of the regiments there in garrison. He
met his death unflinchingly. Out of eleven shots first fired, but one
struck him. A reserve firing-party had been provided, and by these he
was shot to death.
“The mutiny for which this man suffered death arose entirely out of the
inconsistent and contradictory orders of the Paymaster and the Treasury
Department at Washington.”--_Beaufort (S.C.) Cor. Tribune._
The United-States Paymaster visited the Department three times, and
offered to pay laborers’ wages, of ten dollars per month, to the
Massachusetts Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth, which to a man they refused,
saying, “‘Tis an insult, after promising us a soldier’s pay, and calling
upon us to do a soldier’s duty (and faithfully has it been performed),
to offer us the wages of a laborer, who is not called upon to peril his
life for his country.” Finding that the Government had tried to force
them to take this reduced pay, Massachusetts sent down agents to make
up the difference to them out of the State Treasury, trusting, that, ere
long, the country would acknowledge them as on an equality with the rest
of the army. But, in a manner that must redound to their credit, they
refused it. Said they, “‘Tis the principle, not the money, that we
contend for: we will either be paid as soldiers, or fight without
reward.” This drew down upon them the hatred of the other colored troops
(for those regiments raised in the South were, promised but ten dollars,
as the Government also took care of their families), and they had
to bear much from them; but they did not falter. Standing by their
expressed determination to have justice done them, they quietly
performed their duties, only praying earnestly that every friend of
theirs at the North would help the Government to see what a blot rests
on its fair fame,--a betrayal of the trust reposed in them by the
colored race.
When they rushed forward to save our army from being slaughtered at
Olustee, it was the irrepressible negro humor, with something more than
a dash of sarcasm, that prompted the battle-cry, “Three cheers for Old
Massachusetts, and seven dollars a month!” (Three dollars were reserved
by Government for clothes.)
Another soldier, a member of the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts, complains as
follows:--
“Eleven months have now passed away, and still we are without our pay.
How our families are to live and pay house-rent I know not. Uncle Sam
has long wind, and expects as much of us as any soldiers in the field;
but, if we cannot get any pay, what have we to stimulate us?
“To work the way this regiment has for day’s, weeks, nay, months, and
yet to get no money to send to our wives, children, and mothers, who are
now suffering, would cause the blush of shame to mantle the cheek of a
cannibal, were he our paymaster.
“But we will suffer all the days of our appointed time with patience,
only let us know that we are doing some good, make manifest, too, that
we are making men (and women) of our race; let us know that prejudice,
the curse of the North as slavery is the curse of the South, is
breaking, slowly but surely; then we will suffer more, work faster,
fight harder, and stand firmer than before.”