426 



FREEDMEN OF THE SOUTH. 



work, in cultivating the soil. There -was, in- 

 deed, employment sufficient for a considerable 

 number in acting as laborers, hostlers, cooks, 

 teamsters, &c., and for the women in washing 

 and other labor in the camps and at the hos- 

 pitals, but these employments were insufficient 

 for the vast multitude who were constantly 

 pouring into the army lines. 



The Government had hitherto discouraged 

 the organization of regiments of colored troops, 

 and had not favored their enlistment, even 

 when attempted in the Northern States. 

 There had been, it is true, two or three such 

 regiments formed, one in Kansas, and one or 

 two in South Carolina, but these had been con- 

 sidered by the Government doubtful experi- 

 ments. It was known that the Confederates 

 had, in a few instances, organized such regi- 

 ments, though their fear of their fidelity had 

 prevented them from doing so to any consider- 

 able extent. A black regiment had, how*ever, 

 been organized in New Orleans, and elsewhere 

 negroes had been in the Confederate ranks as 

 sharpshooters, sentinels, &c., though seldom in 

 any considerable numbers. Some of the bor- 

 der States, and Kentucky in particular, opposed 

 very strenuously the organization of colored 

 regiments, and she has maintained her opposi- 

 tion up to the present time. In most of the 

 States, however, after the issuing of the Eman- 

 cipation Proclamation, there was an increasing 

 feeling in favor of using the able-bodied ne- 

 groes as soldiers, to aid in the overthrow of the 

 Rebellion. It was urged in favor of this, that 

 they possessed the qualities of obedience, do- 

 cility, imitation, and emulation, which would 

 make them good soldiers ; that they were fa- 

 miliar with the country which was the seat of 

 war, and would be of great value as scouts ; 

 that they were inured to the climate, which 

 affected so seriously white soldiers, and that 

 their employment in this capacity would more 

 effectually cripple the resources of the Confed- 

 erates than any other measure, and would tend 

 to render further conflict on their part hope- 

 less. To the objections that they would be 

 guilty of great and horrible outrages upon the 

 weak and helpless families of the enemy, it 

 was answered that the negro was not vindic- 

 tive in his nature, and that from his ready 

 submission to his officers it was rather to be 

 expected that, under proper discipline, the 

 colored troops would prove more correct in 

 their deportment than white regiments. The 

 approach of a draft which would fall heavily 

 upon the workshops, manufactories, and farms 

 of the North, already depleted of ffieir opera- 

 tives to such an extent as greatly to enhance 

 the price of skilled labor, led to the conviction 

 on the part of the great body of the people of 

 the North, that these thews and sinews thus 

 at their command and for the most part ready 

 and willing for their service, might as well be 

 employed, so far as they would go toward fill- 

 ing up the ranks of the armies east and west, as 

 their own. (See ABMY OF THE UITITED STATES.) 



The Government had arrived at similar conclu- 

 sions early in the year. They had, indeed, been 

 foreshadowed in that passage of the Emanci- 

 pation Proclamation, in which the President 

 had said : 



"And I further declare and make known 

 that such persons of suitable condition will be 

 received into the armed service of the United 

 States to garrison forts, positions, stations and 

 other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in 

 said service." 



On the 20th of January an order was issued 

 from the War Department authorizing Gover- 

 nor Andrew, of Massachusetts, to raise regi- 

 ments of African descent. In March the ad- 

 jutant-general, Gen. L. Thomas, was sent to 

 the "West to organize colored regiments from 

 the freedmen who were coming in large num- 

 bers into the Union lines from Cairo to Natch- 

 ez. At Helena Gen. Prentiss asked the privi- 

 lege of organizing a regiment (he did raise two, 

 which afterward proved the means of the pres- 

 ervation 'of that post), and Gen. Thomas grant- 

 ed his request. At Milliken's Bend, General 

 Thomas organized five regiments, at Grand 

 Gulf three more, and before leaving the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, as he was compelled to do by 

 severe illness, in June he had completed ar- 

 rangements for raising twenty colored regi- 

 ments. Meantime Gen. Banks had also been 

 active in the formation of what he denomina- 

 ted a Corps d'Afrique, a body of colored troops, 

 at first put under the command of Brigadier- 

 General H. E. Paine, and after he was severely 

 wounded in the assault on Port Hudson, under 

 that of Brig.-Gen. Ullmann. Over 15,000 of 

 these troops were mustered into the service in 

 the Department of the Gulf. In the Depart- 

 ment of the South three regiments were or- 

 ganized at Hilton Head before June, and sever- 

 al others later in the year. Several regiments 

 were also raised in North Carolina, in Norfolk, 

 Virginia and its vicinity, in Washington, D. C., 

 and in Maryland. At the close of the year the 

 number of colored troops in the United States 

 service exceeded 50,000. They were with very 

 few exceptions officered by whites, and the ap- 

 plicants for commands in these regiments un- 

 derwent a very severe and critical examination 

 by a board of army officers, of which General 

 Silas Casey was president. More than half the 

 applicants were rejected, and of those received, 

 by far the greater part were assigned to a rank 

 materially below that for which they applied. 

 The result has been that no regiments in the 

 volunteer army have been under the command 

 of more efficient and thoroughly competent offi- 

 cers than those composed of " soldiers of Afri- 

 can descent." On the 22d of May, a bureau 

 of colored troops was organized in the War 

 Department. A Commission of Inquiry in re- 

 gard to the numbers, condition, capacity, and 

 future wants of the freedmen, consisting of 

 Robert Dale Owon, James McKaye, and Sam- 

 uel G. Howe, had been appointed by the Secre- 

 tary of War and made a preliminary report on 



