No apology can be necessary for the publication of the following
pages, as it is no unworthy or mercenary object they seek to obtain.
They have been elicited by request of numerous friends of the officers
of this regiment and of the colored troops, designed for their own
use; and their object is not simply to give succinct statements of
individual military history, or of any single command of the Colored
Troop, but to furnish, also, at the same time, an unanswerable
argument on the subject of this Troop, as an element in the military
service on the side of Freedom and the Union; their extraordinary good
discipline, efficiency and bravery, and the fact that they are very
susceptible of intellectual and moral culture. We present it in
compliance with the request that has been made, subservient to this
purpose.
J. M. MICKLEY,
_late Chaplain of the Regiment_.