26 



ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



as well in the free as in the slave States, were 

 declared to be available as soldiers. 



The initiative in raising colored regiments in 

 the free States was taken by Governor An- 

 drew of Massachusetts, acting in conformity 

 with the following order from the Secretary 

 of War : 



WAB XhtfAiiTJiENT, WASHINGTON CITY. ) 

 Jan. 2IMA, 1S63. ^ 



Ordered that GOVERNOR ANDREW, of Massachusetts, 

 is authorized, until further orders, to raise such num- 

 ber of volunteer companies of artillery for duty in the 

 forts of Massachusetts and elsewhere, and such corps of 

 infantry for the volunteer military service as he may 

 find convenient. Such volunteers to be enlisted for 

 three years, unless sooner discharged, and may include 

 persons of African descent, organized into separate 

 corps. He will make the usual requisitions on the ap- 

 propriate Staff Bureaus, and officers for the prop- 

 er transportation, organization, supplies, subsistence, 

 arms and equipments of such volunteers. 



[Signed] EDWIN M. STANTON, 



Secretary of War. 



Eecruiting offices were immediately opened 

 by the governor, and, as the colored popula- 

 tion of Massachusetts was inconsiderable, agents 

 were sent into neighboring States, where the 

 scruples of the people or of the executive pre- 

 vented the enlistment of troops of this class. 

 In reply to enquiries, Governor Andrew an- 

 nounced that these regiments would be num- 

 bered, organized, considered, and treated in ev- 

 ery respect precisely as other regiments previ- 

 ously sent into the field by Massachusetts ; and, 

 on the authority of the Secretary of War, he 

 pledged the honor of the United States to them 

 in the same degree and to the same rights with 

 all other troops. Other free States subsequent- 

 ly sanctioned the enlistment of colored soldiers, 

 including Khode Island, Pennsylvania, New 

 York, Ohio, and Kansas. 



The Government having matured its plans 

 with regard to the negro population whom the 

 progress of the war had brought within the 

 Union lines, Gen. Thomas, adjutant-general of 

 the United States, was despatched in March to 

 the Southwest, charged with the organization 

 of colored troops, and the establishment of a 

 labor' system in the Mississippi valley. In the 

 discharge of these duties he visited Memphis, 

 Helena, and other points on both sides of the 

 Mississippi as far south as Vicksburg, and 

 while at Lake Providence, Louisiana, delivered, 

 on April 8th, an address to the troops stationed 

 there, the following extracts from which de- 

 scribe one important object of his visit, and 

 unfold the policy of the Government at length : 



I came from Washington clothed with the fullest 

 power in this matter. With this power, I can act as 

 if the President of the United States were himself 

 present. I am directed to refer nothing to Washing- 

 ton, but to act promptly what I have to do, to do at 

 once to strike down the un Worthy and to elevate the 

 deserving. ***>* You know full well for 

 you have been over this country that the rebels have 

 sent into the field all their available fighting men 

 every man capable of bearing arms, and you know 

 they have kept at home all their slaves for the raising 

 of subsistence for their armies in the field. In this 

 way they can bring to bear against us all the strength 

 of their so-called Confederate States, while we at the 



North can only send a portion of our fighting force, 

 being compelled to leave behind another portion to 

 cultivate our fields and supply the wants of an im- 

 mense army. The administration has determined to 

 take from the rebels this source of supply to take 

 their negroes and compel them to send back a portion 

 of their whites to cultivate their deserted plantations ; 

 and very poor persons they would be to fill the place 

 of the dark-hued laborer. They must do this or their 

 armies will starve. 



**#*** 



On the first day of January last the President issued 

 his Proclamation declaring that from that day forward 

 all the slaves in the States then in rebellion should be 

 free. You know that vast numbers of these slaves are 

 within your borders, inside of the lines of this army. 

 They come into your camps andyou cannot but re- 

 ceive them. The authorities in Washington are very 

 much pained to hear, and I fear with truth in many 

 cases, that some of these poor unfortunates have, on 

 different occasions, been turned away from us, and 

 their applications for admission within our lines have 

 been refused by our officers and soldiers. This is not 

 the way to use freedmen. 



* * * * # 



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 en- 

 couraged 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 au- 

 thorized 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 commis- 

 sions. 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 Sec- 

 retary 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 

 commissions, because such men are unworthy the name 

 of soldiers. 



***** 



I would like to raise on this river twenty regiments 

 at least before I go back. I shall take all the women 

 and children and all the men unfit for our military or- 

 ganizations? and place them on these plantations ; then 

 take these regiments and put them in the rear. They 

 will guard the rear effectually. Knowing the country 

 well, and familiar with all the roads and swamps, they 

 will be able to track out the accursed guerillas and run 

 them from the land. When I get regiments raised you 

 may sweep out into the interior with impunity. Rec- 

 ollect, for every regiment of blacks I raise, I raise a 

 regiment of whites to face the foe in the field. This, 

 fellow-soldiers, is the determined policy of the admin- 

 istration. You all know full well when the President 

 of the United States, though said to be slow in coming 

 to a determination, when he 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. 



Under the impulse given by this action of the 

 Government, recruiting for colored regiments 

 proceeded with considerable activity in Tennes- 

 see, Mississippi, Louisiana, and North and South 

 Carolina, and before the close of the year was in 

 progress in parts of Virginia and other districts 

 in possession of the Federal arms, as also in 

 Maryland and in the District of Columbia. Gen. 



