36 



ARMY, UNITED STATES 



of continental European powers. All of these per- 

 sons were voluntary immigrants into the United 

 States. They enlisted after their arrival on our 

 shores, of their own free accord, within our own lim- 

 its and jurisdiction and not in any foreign country. 

 The Executive Government has no knowledge of the 

 nature of the special inducements which led these 

 volunteers to emigrate from their native countries, 

 or of the purposes for which they emigrated. It has, 

 however, neither directly nor indirectly invited their 

 immigration by any offers of employment in the mili- 

 tary or naval service. When such persons were 

 found within the United States, exactly the same in- 

 ducements to military service were open to them 

 which, by authority of law, were offered at the same 

 time to citizens of the United States. 



******** 

 It is a notorious fact, manifest to all the world, 

 that a vigorous and continual tide of emigration is 

 flowing from Europe, and especially from portions 

 of the British empire, and from Germany and Swe- 

 den, into the United States. This immigration, 

 like the immigration which preceded it, results 

 from the reciprocal conditions of industrial and so- 

 cial life in Europe and America. Of the mass of im- 

 migrants who arrive on our shores, 'far the largest 

 number go immediately into the occupations of 

 peaceful industry. Those, on the contrary, who are 

 susceptible to the attractions of military life, volun- 

 tarily enter the national service with a similar class 

 of our own native citizens, upon the same equal in- 

 ducements and with the same patriotic motives. 

 There is no law of nations and no principle of in- 

 ternational comity which requires us to refuse their 

 aid in the cause of the country and humanity. 



Until 1864 the inferior standing of colored 

 troops in the army with respect to bounty, pay, 

 and pensions remained unchanged, notwith- 

 standing the protest of the Secretary of War 

 and other officials against the injustice thus 

 done to men who shared all the dangers and 

 privations of the war, and who were also liable 

 to draft. The Army Appropriation Bill, passed 

 in June, 1864, disposed of this vexed question 

 by putting the colored soldiery on a footing 

 with the white troops. The following are the 

 sections of the bill relating to the subject: 



2. All persons of color who have been, or may be, 

 mustered into the military service of the United 

 States, shall receive the same uniform, clothing, 

 arms, equipments, camp equipage, rations, medical 

 and hospital attendance, pay, and emoluments, other 

 than bounty, as other soldiers of the regular or vol- 

 unteer forces of the United States of a like arm of 

 the service, from and after the 1st of January, 1864. 

 And every person of color who shall hereafter be 

 mustered into the service shall receive such sums in 

 bounty as the President shall order in the different 

 States and parts of the United States, not exceeding 

 one hundred dollars. 



3. All persons enlisted and mustered into the ser- 

 vice as volunteers under the call dated October 17, 

 1863, for three hundred thousand volunteers, who 

 were at the time of enlistment actually enrolled and 

 subject to draft in the State in which they volun- 

 teered, shall receive from the United States the same 

 amount of bounty, without regard to color. 



4. All persons of color who were free on the 19th 

 day of April, 1861, and who have been enlisted and 

 mustered into the military service of the United 

 States, shall from the time of their enlistment be en- 

 titled to receive the pay, bounty, and clothing 

 allowed to such persons by the laws existing at the 

 time of their enlistment ; and the Attorney-General 

 of the United States is hereby authorized to deter- 

 mine any question of law arising under this provis- 

 ion; and if the Attorney-General aforesaid shall 



determine that any of such enlisted persons are en- 

 titled to receive any pay, bounty, or clothing, in 

 addition to what they have already received, the 

 Secretary of War shall make all necessary regula- 

 tions to enable the pay department to make payment 

 in accordance with such determination. (See CON- 

 GUESS, U. S.) 



An order was soon after issued from the 

 "War Department to pay colored soldiers six 

 months 1 full wages for the period embraced be- 

 tween January 1st and July 1st, 1864; and in 

 August the Attorney-General, in accordance 

 with the provisions of section 4, decided that 

 colored men volunteering prior to 1864, were 

 entitled to the same pay, bounty, and clothing, 

 as other volunteers. By section 14 of the act 

 of July 4, 1864, the widows and children of 

 colored soldiers dying in battle, or of wounds or 

 disease contracted in the military service, were 

 declared entitled to pensions, provided such 

 widows and children were free persons. 



During the year colored troops continued to 

 be enlisted into the army, principally in the 

 Southern States, although several regiments, 

 whose organization had commenced in the 

 North in 1863, departed previous to July for 

 the seat of War. If the statement of the Soli- 

 citor of the War Department, quoted above, 

 may be relied upon, upwards of 100,000 of this 

 class of troops were enlisted in 1864. Opin- 

 ions diifered quite as much as in 1863, upon 

 the propriety, politically considered, of employ- 

 ing negroes as soldiers, and upon their value in 

 a military aspect ; but toward the close of the 

 year, in view of their soldierly conduct on 

 various trying occasions, it seemed to become 

 the settled conviction that they would form a 

 useful branch of the service. The Corps d'Af- 

 rique organized by Gen. Banks in 1863, and 

 intended to comprise about 15,000 men, waa 

 described in May, 1864, by an army corre- 

 spondent in Louisiana, as greatly depleted in 

 numbers by disease, by discharges for physical 

 incapacity, and by desertions, and in con- 

 sequence thoroughly demoralized. The ro.te 

 of mortality among the men was said to have 

 been unprecedented in the history of the war, 

 and their idle, wasteful, and slovenly habits, it 

 was alleged, made them unfitted for soldiers. 

 On the other hand Adjutant-General Thomas, 

 who had devoted several months of the pre- 

 vious year to organizing negro regiments in 

 the South, and who had conceived a high opin- 

 ion of their capacity, was amply confirmed in 

 his views by his experience of 1864, and urged 

 the necessity of enlisting more of this class of 

 troops, as also of raising their pay. He also 

 issued the following order imposing upon negro 

 troops their proportionate share of military duty: 



The incorporation into the army of the United 

 States of colored troops renders it necessary that 

 they should be brought, as speedily as possible, to 

 the highest state of discipline. 



Accordingly, the practice which has hitherto pre- 

 vailed, no doubt from necessity, of requiring these 

 troops to perform most of the labor on fortifications, 

 and the labor and fatigue duties of permanent sta- 

 tions and camps, will cease, and they will be onlj 



