EMPLOYMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS.
ENLISTMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS DENOUNCED IN THE SOUTH--NEGRO
ASSISTANTS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES--CONFEDERATE THREATS AGAINST NEGRO
SOLDIERS AND THOSE WHO LED THEM--DEMOCRATIC JOURNALS IN THE NORTH
DENOUNCE THE ENLISTMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS--INTENSITY OF FEELING ON
THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY--INTERESTING CRITICISMS BY COUNT
GUROWSKI--BLACK SOLDIERS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR--BRAVERY OF COLORED
TROOPS--OPINION OF COL. THOMAS W. HIGGINSON--AN INTERESTING
STORY--NEGRO SENTINELS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES.
The year 1863 began with several events of the first importance. On
December 31st and January 2d there was a great battle in the West,
which has just been described. On New Year's Day the final
proclamation of emancipation was issued, and measures were taken for
the immediate enlistment of black troops. On that day, also, in the
State of New York, which furnished one-sixth of all the men called
into the National service, the executive power passed into hands
unfriendly to the Administration.
The part of President Lincoln's proclamation that created most
excitement at the South was not that which declared the freedom of the
blacks--for the secessionists professed to be amused at this as a
papal bull against a comet--but that which announced that negroes
would thenceforth be received into the military service of the United
States. Whatever might be said of the powerlessness of the Government
to liberate slaves that were within the Confederate lines, it was
plain enough that a determination to enlist colored troops brought in
a large resource hitherto untouched. Military men in Europe, having
only statistical knowledge of our negro population, and not
understanding the peculiar prejudices that hedged it about, had looked
on at first in amazement, and finally in contempt, at its careful
exclusion from military service. The Confederates had no special
scruples about negro assistance on their own side; for they not only
constantly employed immense numbers of blacks in building
fortifications and in camp drudgery, but had even armed and equipped a
few of them for service as soldiers. In a review of Confederate troops
at New Orleans, in the first year of the war, appeared a regiment of
free negroes, and early the next year the legislature of Virginia
provided for the enrolment of the same class.
[Illustration: THE COOK.]
[Illustration: EVENING AT A NEGRO CABIN.]
But the idea that emancipated slaves should be employed to fight
against their late masters and for the enfranchisement of their own
race, appeared to be new, startling, and unwelcome; and the
Confederates, both officially and unofficially, threatened the direst
penalties against all who should lead black soldiers, as well as
against such soldiers themselves. General Beauregard wrote to a friend
in the Congress at Richmond: "Has the bill for the execution of
Abolition prisoners, after January next, been passed? Do it, and
England will be stirred into action. It is high time to proclaim the
black flag after that period. Let the execution be with the garrote."
Mr. Davis, late in December, 1862, issued a proclamation outlawing
General Butler and all commissioned officers in his command, and
directing that whenever captured they should be reserved for
execution, and added, "That all negro slaves captured in arms be at
once delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective
States to which they belong, to be dealt with according to the laws of
said States," and, "That the like orders be executed with respect to
all commissioned officers of the United States, when found serving in
company with said slaves." The Confederate Congress passed a series of
resolutions in which it was provided that on the capture of any white
commissioned officer who had {236} armed, organized, or led negro
troops against the Confederacy, he should be tried by a military court
and put to death or otherwise punished.
Democratic journalists and Congressmen at the North were hardly less
violent in their opposition to the enlistment of black men. They
denounced the barbarity of the proceeding, declared that white
soldiers would be disgraced if they fought on the same field with
blacks, and anon demonstrated the utter incapacity of negroes for war,
and laughed at the idea that they would ever face an enemy. Most of
the Democratic senators and representatives voted against the
appropriation bills, or supported amendments providing that "no part
of the moneys shall be applied to the raising, arming, equipping, or
paying of negro soldiers," and the more eloquent of them drew pitiful
pictures of the ruin and anarchy that were to ensue. Representative
Samuel S. Cox, then of Ohio, said: "Every man along the border will
tell you that the Union is forever rendered hopeless if you pursue
this policy of taking the slaves from the masters and arming them in
this civil strife."
It is impossible at this distance of time, and after the question of
slavery in our country has been so thoroughly settled that nobody
disputes the righteousness and wisdom of its abolition, to convey to
younger readers an adequate idea either of the diversity of opinion or
the intensity of feeling on the subject, when it was still under
discussion and was complicated with great military and political
problems. Not only before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued,
but for a considerable time afterward, these opinions were tenaciously
held and these feelings expressed. The so-called conservatives of the
Northern States constantly affirmed that abolitionists of whatever
degree, and active secessionists, were equally wrong and blameworthy;
that the latter had no right to break up the Union for any cause, and
that the former had no right to emancipate the slaves even to save the
Union. They assumed that the Constitution of the United States was
perpetual, perfect, and infallible for all time, and ignored the
natural antagonism between the systems of slave labor and free labor.
In June, 1862, the conservative members of Congress held a meeting,
and adopted a declaration of principles which included the following:
"At the call of the Government a mighty army, the noblest and most
patriotic ever known, sprung at once into the field, and is bleeding
and conquering in defence of its Government. Under these circumstances
it would, in our opinion, be most unjust and ungenerous to give any
new character or direction to the war, for the accomplishment of any
other than the first great purpose, and especially for the
accomplishment of any mere party or sectional scheme. The doctrines of
the secessionists and abolitionists, as the latter are now represented
in Congress, are alike false to the Constitution and irreconcilable to
the peace and unity of the country. The first have already involved us
in a cruel civil war, and the others--the abolitionists--will leave
the country but little hope of the speedy restoration of the Union or
peace, if the schemes of confiscation, emancipation, and other
unconstitutional measures which they have lately carried, and
attempted to carry, through the House of Representatives, shall be
enacted into the form of laws and remain unrebuked by the people. It
is no justification of such acts that the crimes committed in the
prosecution of the rebellion are of unexampled atrocity, nor is there
any such justification as State necessity known to our government or
laws."
On the other hand, at a great mass meeting held in Union Square, New
York City, July 15, 1862, a series of resolutions was adopted which
included the following:
"That we are for the union of the States, the integrity of the
country, and the maintenance of this Government without any condition
or qualification whatever, and at every necessary sacrifice of life or
treasure.
"That we urge upon the Government the exercise of its utmost
skill and vigor in the prosecution of this war, unity of design,
comprehensiveness of plan, a uniform policy, and the stringent use of
all the means within its reach consistent with the usages of civilized
warfare.
"That we acknowledge but two divisions of the people of the United
States in this crisis--those who are loyal to its Constitution and
every inch of its soil and are ready to make every sacrifice for the
integrity of the Union and the maintenance of civil liberty within it,
and those who openly or covertly endeavor to sever our country or to
yield to the insolent demand of its enemies; that we fraternize with
the former and detest the latter; and that, forgetting all former
party names and distinctions, we call upon all patriotic citizens to
rally for one undivided country, one flag, one destiny."
The extreme of opinion in favor of immediate and unqualified
emancipation, and of employment of colored troops, with impatience at
all delay in adopting such a policy, was represented picturesquely, if
not altogether justly, by Count Gurowski. Adam Gurowski was a Pole who
had been exiled for participating in revolutionary demonstrations, and
after a varied career had come to the United States, where he engaged
in literary pursuits, and from 1861 to 1863 was employed as a
translator in the state department at Washington. He was now between
fifty and sixty years of age, and was a keen observer and merciless
critic of what was going on around him. He had published several books
in Europe, and his diary kept while he was in the state department has
also been put into print. It is exceedingly outspoken in every
direction; and though it is often unjust, and represents hardly more
than his own exaggerated eccentricity, yet in many respects he struck
at once into the heart of important truths which slower minds
comprehended less readily or less willingly. The following extracts
are suggestive and interesting. Their dates range from April, 1862, to
April, 1863.
"Mr. Blair [Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General] worse and worse; is
more hot in support of McClellan, more determined to upset Stanton;
and I heard him demand the return of a poor fugitive slave woman to
some of Blair's Maryland friends. Every day I am confirmed in my creed
that whoever had slavery for mammy is never serious in the effort to
destroy it. Whatever such men as Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Blair will do
against slavery will never be radical by their own choice or
conviction, but will be done reluctantly, and when under the
unavoidable pressure of events.... Mr. Lincoln is forced out again
from one of his pro-slavery intrenchments; he was obliged to yield,
and to sign the hard-fought bill for emancipation in the District of
Columbia. But how reluctantly, with what bad grace he signed it! Good
boy; he wishes not to strike his mammy. And to think that the friends
of humanity in Europe will credit this emancipation not where it is
due, not to the noble pressure exercised by the high-minded Northern
masses! Mr. Lincoln, his friends assert, does not wish to hurt the
feelings of any one with whom he has to deal. Exceedingly amiable
quality in a private individual, but at times turning almost to be a
vice in a man intrusted with the destinies of a nation. So he never
could decide to hurt the feelings of McClellan, and this after all
{237} the numerous proofs of his incapacity. But Mr. Lincoln hurts
thereby, and in the most sensible manner, the interests, nay, the
lives of the twenty millions of people.... The last draft could be
averted from the North if the four millions of loyal Africo-Americans
were called to arms. But Mr. Lincoln, with the Sewards, the Blairs,
and others, will rather see every Northern man shot than to touch the
palladium of the rebels.... Proclamation _conditionally_ abolishing
slavery from 1863. The _conditional_ is the last desperate effort made
by Mr. Lincoln and by Mr. Seward to save slavery. The two statesmen
found out that it was dangerous longer to resist the decided,
authoritative will of the masses. But if the rebellion is crushed
before January 1st, 1863, what then? If the rebels turn loyal before
that term? Then the people of the North will be cheated. The
proclamation is written in the meanest and the most dry routine style;
not a word to evoke a generous thrill, not a word reflecting the warm
and lofty comprehension and feelings of the immense majority of the
people on this question of emancipation. Nothing for humanity, nothing
to humanity. How differently Stanton would have spoken! General
Wadsworth truly says that never a noble subject was more belittled by
the form in which it was uttered.... The proclamation of September 22d
may not produce in Europe the effect and the enthusiasm which it might
have evoked if issued a year ago, as an act of justice and of
self-conscientious force, as an utterance of the lofty, pure, and
ardent aspirations and will of a high-minded people. Europe may see
now in the proclamation an action of despair made in the duress of
events.... Every time an Africo-American regiment is armed or created,
Mr. Lincoln seems as though making an effort, or making a gracious
concession in permitting the increase of our forces. It seems as if
Mr. Lincoln were ready to exhaust all the resources of the country
before he boldly strikes the Africo-American vein."
One hundred and seventy thousand negroes were enlisted, and many of
them performed notable service, displaying, at Fort Wagner, Olustee,
and elsewhere, quite as much steadiness and courage as any white
troops. If the expressions of doubt as to the military value of the
colored race were sincere, they argued inexcusable ignorance; for
black soldiers had fought in the ranks of our Revolutionary armies,
and Perry's victory on Lake Erie in 1813--which, with the battle of
the Thames, secured us the great Northwest--was largely the work of
colored sailors.
[Illustration: PLANTER'S RESIDENCE IN LOUISIANA.]
[Illustration: A "CONTRABAND."]
[Illustration: NEGRO CABIN ON SOUTHERN PLANTATION.]
The President recognized the obligation of the Government to protect
all its servants by every means in its power, and issued a
proclamation directing that "for every soldier of the United States
killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be
executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into
slavery, a rebel soldier {238} shall be placed at hard labor on the
public works." But such retaliation was never resorted to.
[Illustration: COLONEL ROBERT G. SHAW. (Commanding the Fifty-fourth
Massachusetts Colored Regiment.)]
Before the war it had been a constant complaint of the Southerners,
that the discussion of schemes for the abolition of slavery, and the
scattering of documents that argued the right of every man to liberty,
were likely to excite bloody insurrection among the slaves. And many
students of this piece of history have expressed surprise that when
the war broke out the blacks did not at once become mutinous all over
the South, and make it impossible to put Confederate armies in the
field. But it must be remembered, that although the struggle resulted
in their liberation, yet when it was begun no intention was expressed
on the part of the Government except a determination to save the
Union, and the war had been in progress a year and a half before the
blacks had any reason to suppose it would benefit them whichever way
it might turn. They were often possessed of more shrewdness than they
were credited with. Their sentiments up to the time of the
Emancipation Proclamation were perhaps fairly represented by one who
was an officer's servant in an Illinois regiment, and was at the
battle of Fort Donelson. A gentleman who afterward met him on the deck
of a steamer, and was curious to know what he thought of the struggle
that was going on, questioned him with the following result:
"Were you in the fight?"
"Had a little taste of it, sa."
"Stood your ground, did you?"
"No, sa; I runs."
"Run at the first fire, did you?"
"Yes, sa; and would ha' run soona had I know'd it war comin'."
"Why, that wasn't very creditable to your courage."
"Dat isn't in my line, sa; cookin's my perfeshun."
"Well, but have you no regard for your reputation?"
"Refutation's nuffin by de side ob life."
"Do you consider your life worth more than other people's?"
"It's worth more to me, sa."
"Then you must value it very highly?"
"Yes, sa, I does; more dan all dis wuld; more dan a million of
dollars, sa: for what would dat be wuf to a man wid de bref out of
him? Self-perserbashum am de fust law wid me."
"But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?"
"Because different men set different values upon dar lives: mine is
not in de market."
"But if you lost it, you would have the satisfaction of knowing that
you died for your country."
"What satisfaction would dat be to me when de power ob feelin' was
gone?"
"Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?"
"Nuffin whatever, sa: I regard dem as among de vanities: and den de
Gobernment don't know me; I hab no rights; may be sold like old hoss
any day, and dat's all."
"If our old soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the
Government without resistance."
"Yes, sa; dar would hab been no help for it. I wouldn't put my life in
de scale 'ginst any gobernment dat ever existed; for no gobernment
could replace de loss to me."
"Do you think any of your company would have missed you if you had
been killed?"
"May be not, sa; a dead white man ain't much to dese sogers, let alone
a dead nigga; but I'd a missed myself, and dat was de pint wid me."
Incidents like this were eagerly reported by journals that chose to
argue that the colored men would not fight in any case, and such
assertions were kept up and repeated by them long after they had
fought most gallantly on several fields. Somebody in describing one of
these battles used the expression, "The colored troops fought nobly,"
and this was seized upon and repeated sneeringly in hundreds of
head-lines and editorials, always with an implication that it was
buncombe, until the readers of those journals were made to believe
that such troops did not fight at all. The fact was that their
percentage of losses on the whole number that went into the service
was slightly greater than that of the white troops; and when we
consider that they fought with a prospect of being either murdered or
sold into slavery, if they fell into the hands of the enemy, it must
be acknowledged that they were entitled to a full measure of credit.
Immediately after the proclamation of emancipation was issued, Lorenzo
Thomas, adjutant-general of the army, was sent to Louisiana, where he
explained his mission in a speech to the soldiers, in the course of
which he said:
"Look along the river, and see the multitude of deserted plantations
upon its banks. These are the places for these freedmen, where they
can be self-sustaining and self-supporting. All of you will some day
be on picket-duty; and I charge you all, if any of this unfortunate
race come within your lines, that you do not turn them away, but
receive them kindly and cordially. They are to be encouraged to come
to us; they are to be received with open arms; they are to be fed and
clothed; they are to be armed. This is the policy that has been fully
determined upon. I am here to say that I am authorized to raise as
many regiments of blacks as I can. I am authorized to give
commissions, from the highest to the lowest; and I desire those
persons who are earnest in this work to take hold of it. I desire only
those whose hearts are in it, and to them alone will I give
commissions. I don't care who they are, or what their present rank may
be. I do not hesitate to say, that all proper persons will receive
commissions.
"While I am authorized thus in the name of the Secretary of War, I
have the fullest authority to dismiss from the army any man, be his
rank what it may, whom I find maltreating the freedmen. This part of
my duty I will most assuredly perform if any case comes before me. I
would rather do that than give {239} commissions, because such men are
unworthy the name of soldiers. This, fellow soldiers, is the
determined policy of the Administration. You all know, full well, when
the President of the United States, though said to be slow in coming
to a determination, once puts his foot down, it is there; and he is
not going to take it up. He has put his foot down. I am here to assure
you that my official influence shall be given that he shall not raise
it."
Major-Gen. B. M. Prentiss then made a speech, in which he said, that
"from the time he was a prisoner, and a negro sentinel, with firm
step, beat in front of his cell, and with firmer voice commanded
silence within, he prayed God for the day of revenge; and he now
thanked God that it had come."
General Prentiss, it will be remembered, had been captured at the
battle of Shiloh, and from this incidental testimony it appears that
he found the Confederates had negroes doing duty as sentinels at
least.
Col. Thomas W. Higginson, who saw much service in General Saxton's
department on the coast of South Carolina, and who there raised and
commanded a regiment of colored troops, wrote: "It needs but a few
days to show up the absurdity of distrusting the military availability
of these people. They have quite as much average comprehension as
whites of the need of the thing, as much courage I doubt not, as much
previous knowledge of the gun, and, above all, a readiness of ear and
imitation which for purposes of drill counterbalances any defect of
mental training. As to camp life, they have little to sacrifice; they
are better fed, housed, and clothed than ever in their lives before,
and they appear to have fewer inconvenient vices. They are simple,
docile, and affectionate almost to the point of absurdity. The same
men who stood fire in open field with perfect coolness, on the late
expedition, have come to me blubbering in the most irresistibly
ludicrous manner on being transferred from one company in the regiment
to another. This morning I wandered about where different companies
were target shooting, and their glee was contagious. Such exulting
shouts of 'Ki! ole man,' when some steady old turkey-shooter brought
his gun down for an instant's aim and unerringly hit the mark; and
then, when some unwary youth fired his piece into the ground at half
cock, such infinite guffawing and delight, such rolling over and over
on the grass, such dances of ecstasy, as made the Ethiopian minstrelsy
of the stage appear a feeble imitation."
[Illustration: COLORED INFANTRY AT FORT LINCOLN.]
The first regiment of colored troops raised at the North was the
Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, commanded by Col. Robert G. Shaw, who fell
at their head in the desperate assault on Fort Wagner. The
whole-heartedness with which, when once permitted to enlist, the
colored soldiers entered into the war, is {240} indicated by the fact
that their enthusiasm added not only to the muskets in the field, but
also to the music and poetry in the air. A private in the regiment
just mentioned produced a song which, whatever its defects as poetry,
can hardly be criticised for its sentiments.
Frémont told them, when the war it first begun,
How to save the Union, and the way it should be done;
But Kentucky swore so hard, and Old Abe he had his fears,
Till every hope was lost but the colored volunteers.
CHORUS.
Oh, give us a flag all free without a slave!
We'll fight to defend it as our fathers did so brave.
The gallant Comp'ny A will make the rebels dance;
And we'll stand by the Union, if we only have a chance.
McClellan went to Richmond with two hundred thousand brave;
He said, "Keep back the niggers," and the Union he would save.
Little Mac he had his way, still the Union is in tears:
_Now_ they call for the help of the colored volunteers.
_Cho._--Oh, give us a flag, etc.
Old Jeff says he'll hang us if we dare to meet him armed--
A very big thing, but we are not at all alarmed;
For he first has got to catch us before the way is clear,
And "that's what's the matter" with the colored volunteer.
_Cho._--Oh, give us a flag, etc.
So rally, boys, rally! let us never mind the past.
We had a hard road to travel, but our day is coming fast;
For God is for the right, and we have no need to fear;
The Union must be saved by the colored volunteer.
_Cho._--Oh, give us a flag, etc.
How many of them Jeff Davis did hang, or otherwise murder, will never
be known; but it is certain that many of those captured were disposed
of in some manner not in accordance with the laws of war. At the
surrender of Port Hudson not a single colored man was found alive,
although it was known that thirty-five had been taken prisoners by the
Confederates during the siege. It is no wonder that when they did go
into battle they fought with desperation. The first regular engagement
in which they took part was the battle of Milliken's Bend, La., June
7, 1863; concerning which an eye-witness wrote:
"A force of about five hundred negroes, and two hundred men of the
Twenty-third Iowa, belonging to the Second Brigade, Carr's division
(the Twenty-third Iowa had been up the river with prisoners, and was
on its way back to this place), was surprised in camp by a rebel force
of about two thousand men. The first intimation that the commanding
officer received was from one of the black men, who went into the
colonel's tent, and said, 'Massa, the secesh are in camp.' The colonel
ordered him to have the men load their guns at once. He instantly
replied: 'We have done did that now, massa.' Before the colonel was
ready, the men were in line, ready for action. As before stated, the
rebels drove our force toward the gunboats, taking colored men
prisoners and murdering them. This so enraged them that they rallied,
and charged the enemy more heroically and desperately than has been
recorded during the war. It was a genuine bayonet charge, a
hand-to-hand fight, that has never occurred to any extent during this
prolonged conflict. Upon both sides men were killed with the butts of
muskets. White and black men were lying side by side, pierced by
bayonets, and in some instances transfixed to the earth. In one
instance, two men--one white and the other black--were found dead,
side by side, each having the other's bayonet through his body. If
facts prove to be what they are now represented, this engagement of
Sunday morning will be recorded as the most desperate of this war.
Broken limbs, broken heads, the mangling of bodies, all prove that it
was a contest between enraged men--on the one side, from hatred to a
race; and on the other, desire for self-preservation, revenge for past
grievances and the inhuman murder of their comrades. One brave man
took his former master prisoner, and brought him into camp with great
gusto. A rebel prisoner made a particular request that his own negroes
should not be placed over him as a guard."
Capt. M. M. Miller, who commanded a colored company in that action,
said: "I went into the fight with thirty-three men, and had sixteen
killed, eleven badly wounded, and four slightly. The enemy charged us
so close that we fought with our bayonets hand to hand. I have six
broken bayonets to show how bravely my men fought. The enemy cried,
'No quarter!' but some of them were very glad to take it when made
prisoners. Not one of my men offered to leave his place until ordered
to fall back. No negro was ever found alive that was taken a prisoner
by the rebels in this fight."
[Illustration: THE "INTELLIGENT CONTRABAND."]
[Illustration]
{241}