The Black Phalanx Part 12

TOTAL, 178,975.

The losses these troops sustained from sickness, wounds, killed in battle and other casualties incident to war, was 68,178.

The aggregate negro population in the U. S. in 1860 was 4,449,201, of which 3,950,531 were slaves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHALANX SOLDIERS ORGANIZING AND DRILLING.]

FOOTNOTES:

[15] General:--The exigencies of the service require that an inspection should be made of the Armies, military posts and military operations in the West; you will therefore make arrangements immediately to perform that service. Without entering into any minute details, I beg to direct your attention to the following subjects of investigation:

First. On arriving at Cairo, you will make a careful examination of the military condition of that post, in the various branches of service, and report to this Department, the result of your investigation, suggesting whatever in your opinion, the service may require. You will observe particularly the condition of that cla.s.s of population known as contrabands; the manner in which they are received, provided for and treated by the military authorities, and give such directions to the Commissary and Quartermaster Departments, and to the officers commanding, as shall, in your judgement, be necessary to secure to them humane and proper treatment, in respect to food, clothing, compensation for their service, and whatever is necessary to enable them to support themselves, and to furnish useful service in any capacity to the Government.

Second. You will make similar observation at Columbus, Memphis and other posts in your progress to the Headquarters of General Grant's Army.

Third. The President desires that you should confer freely with Major General Grant, and the officers with whom you may have communication, and explain to them the importance attached by the Government to the use of the colored population emanc.i.p.ated by the President's Proclamation, and particularly for the organization of their labor and military strength. You will cause it to be understood that no officer in the United States service is regarded as in the discharge of his duties under the Acts of Congress, the President's Proclamation, and orders of this Department, who fails to employ to the utmost extent, the aid and co-operation of the loyal colored population in performing the labor incident to military operations, and also in performing the duties of soldiers under proper organization, and that any obstacle thrown in the way of these ends, is regarded by the President as a violation of the Acts of Congress, and the declared purposes of the Government in using every means to bring the war to an end.

Fourth. You will ascertain what military officers are willing to take command of colored troops; ascertain their qualifications for that purpose, and if troops can be raised and organized, you will, so far as can be done without prejudice to the service, relieve officers and privates from the service in which they are engaged, to receive commissions such as they may be qualified to exercise in the organization of brigades, regiments and companies of colored troops. You are authorized in this connection, to issue in the name of this department, letters of appointment for field and company officers, and to organize such troops for military service to the utmost extent to which they can be obtained in accordance with the rules and regulations of the service. You will see, more over, and expressly enjoin upon the various staff departments of the service, that such troops are to be provided with supplies upon the requisition of the proper officers, and in the same manner as other troops in the service.

Very Respectfully Your Obedient Servant, EDWARD M. STANTON, _Sec. of War._

BRIG. GEN. L. THOMAS, Adjt. Gen'l. U.S. Army.

[16] Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson in an appendix to his "Army Life in a Black Regiment," gives some account of the organization of negro troops, from which is condensed the following:

"It is well known that the first systematic attempt to organize colored troops during the war of the rebellion was the so-called "Hunter Regiment." The officer originally detailed to recruit for this purpose was Sergeant C. T. Trowbridge, of the New York Volunteer Engineers (Col.

Serrell.) His detail was dated May 7, 1862, S. O. 84, Dept. South.

"The second regiment in order of muster was the First Kansas Colored, dating from January 13, 1863. The first enlistment in the Kansas regiment goes back to August 6, 1862; while the earliest technical date of enlistment in my regiment was October 19, 1862, although, as was stated above, one company really dated its organization back to May, 1862. My muster as Colonel dates back to November 10, 1862, several months earlier than any other of which I am aware, among colored regiments, except that of Col. Stafford, (First Louisiana Native Guards,) Sept. 27, 1862. Colonel Williams, of the First Kansas Colored, was mustered as Lt. Colonel on Jan. 13, 1863; as Col., March 8, 1863.

These dates I have (with the other facts relating to the regiment) from Col. R. J. Hinton, the first officer detailed to recruit it.

"The first detachment of the Second South Carolina Volunteers (Col.

Montgomery) went into camp at Port Royal Island, February 23, 1863, numbering one hundred and twenty men. I do not know the date of his muster; it was somewhat delayed, but was probably dated back to about that time.

"Recruiting for the Fifty-Fourth Ma.s.sachusetts (colored) began on February 9, 1863, and the first squad went into camp at Readville, Ma.s.sachusetts, on February 21, 1863, numbering twenty-five men. Col.

Shaw's commission--and probably his muster--was dated April 17, 1863.

(Report of Adjutant General of Ma.s.sachusetts for 1863, pp. 896-899.) These were the earliest colored regiments, so far as I know."

[17]

GENERAL ORDERS} WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 143. } _Washington_, May 22, 1863.

I.--A Bureau is established in the Adjutant General's Office for the record of all matters relating to the organization of Colored Troops. An officer will be a.s.signed to the charge of the Bureau, with such number of clerks as may be designated by the Adjutant General.

II.--Three or more field officers will be detailed as Inspectors to supervise the organization of colored troops at such points as may be indicated by the War Department in the Northern and Western States.

III.--Boards will be convened at such posts as may be decided upon by the War Department to examine applicants for commissions to command colored troops, who, on application to the Adjutant General, may receive authority to present themselves to the board for examination.

IV--No persons shall be allowed to recruit for colored troops except specially authorized by the War Department; and no such authority will be given to persons who have not been examined and pa.s.sed by a board; nor will such authority be given any one person to raise more than one regiment.

V.--The reports of Boards will specify the grade of commission for which each candidate is fit, and authority to recruit will be given in accordance. Commissions will be issued from the Adjutant General's Office when the prescribed number of men is ready for muster into service.

VI.--Colored troops may be accepted by companies, to be afterwards consolidated in battalions and regiments by the Adjutant General. The regiments will be numbered _seriatim_, in the order in which they are raised, the numbers to be determined by the Adjutant General. They will be designated: "---- Regiment of U. S. Colored Troops."

VII.--Recruiting stations and depots will be established by the Adjutant General as circ.u.mstances shall require, and officers will be detailed to muster and inspect the troops.

VIII.--The non-commissioned officers of colored troops may be selected and appointed from the best men of their number in the usual mode of appointing non-commissioned officers. Meritorious commissioned officers will be ent.i.tled to promotion to higher rank if they prove themselves equal to it.

IX.--All personal applications for appointments in colored regiments, or for information concerning them, must be made to the Chief of the Bureau; all written communications should be addressed to the Chief of the Bureau, to the care of the Adjutant General.

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND. _a.s.st. Adjt. General._

[18] I attempted to pa.s.s Jackson Square in New Orleans one day in my uniform, when I was met by two white soldiers of the 24th Conn. They halted me and then ordered me to undress. I refused, when they seized me and began to tear my coat off. I resisted, but to no good purpose; a half a dozen others came up and began to a.s.sist. I recognized a sergeant in the crowd, an old shipmate on board of a New Bedford, Ma.s.s., Whaler; he came to my rescue, my clothing was restored and I was let go. It was nothing strange to see a black soldier _a la Adam_ come into the barracks out of the streets. This conduct led to the killing of a portion of a boat's crew of the U. S. Gunboat _Jackson_, at Ship Island, Miss., by members of a Phalanx regiment stationed there.

[19] The injustice done the Phalanx, in discriminating between the Northern and Southern negro, may be clearly seen by the following letters:

"NEW VICTORIES AND OLD WRONGS.--_To the Editors of the Evening Post_: On the 2d of July, at James Island, S. C., a battery was taken by three regiments, under the following circ.u.mstances:

"The regiments were the One Hundred and Third New York (white), the Thirty-Third United States (formerly First South Carolina Volunteers), and the Fifty-Fifth Ma.s.sachusetts, the two last being colored. They marched at one A. M., by the flank, in the above order, hoping to surprise the battery. As usual the rebels were prepared for them, and opened upon them as they were deep in one of those almost impa.s.sable Southern marshes. The One Hundred and Third New York, which had previously been in twenty battles, was thrown into confusion; the Thirty-Third United States did better, being behind; the Fifty-Fifth Ma.s.sachusetts being in the rear, did better still. All three formed in line, when Colonel Hartwell, commanding the brigade, gave the order to retreat. The officer commanding the Fifty-Fifth Ma.s.sachusetts, either misunderstanding the order, or hearing it countermanded, ordered his regiment to charge. This order was at once repeated by Major Trowbridge, commanding the Thirty-Third United States, and by the commander of the One Hundred and Third New York, so that the three regiments reached the fort in reversed order. The color-bearers of the Thirty-Third United States and of the Fifty-Fifth Ma.s.sachusetts had a race to be first in, the latter winning. The One Hundred and Third New York entered the battery immediately after.

"These colored regiments are two of the five which were enlisted in South Carolina and Ma.s.sachusetts, under the written pledge of the War Department that they should have the same pay and allowances as white soldiers. That pledge has been deliberately broken by the War Department, or by Congress, or by both, except as to the short period, since last New Year's Day. Every one of those killed in this action from these two colored regiments--under a fire before which the veterans of twenty battles recoiled--_died defrauded by the Government of nearly one-half of his petty pay_.

"Mr. Fessenden, who defeated in the Senate the bill for the fulfillment of the contract with these soldiers, is now Secretary of the Treasury.

Was the economy of saving six dollars per man worth to the Treasury the ignominy of the repudiation?

"Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, on his triumphal return to his const.i.tuents, used to them this language: 'He had no doubt whatever as to the final result of the present contest between liberty and slavery.

The only doubt he had was whether the nation had yet been satisfactorily chastised for their cruel oppression of a harmless and long-suffering race.' Inasmuch as it was Mr. Stevens himself who induced the House of Representatives, most unexpectedly to all, to defeat the Senate bill for the fulfilment of the national contract with these soldiers, I should think he had excellent reasons for the doubt.

Very respectfully, T. W. HIGGINSON, July 10, 1864. _Col. 1st S. C. Vols. (now 33d U. S.)_

"_To the Editor of the New York Tribune_: No one can possibly be so weary of reading of the wrongs done by Government toward the colored soldiers as I am of writing about them. This is my only excuse for intruding on your columns again.

"By an order of the War Department, dated Aug 1, 1864, it is at length ruled that colored soldiers shall be paid the full pay of soldiers from date of enlistment, provided they were free on April 19, 1861,--not otherwise; and this distinction is to be noted on the pay-rolls. In other words, if one half of a company escaped from slavery on April 18, 1861, they are to be paid thirteen dollars per month and allowed three dollars and a half per month for clothing. If the other half were delayed two days, they receive seven dollars per month and are allowed three dollars per month for precisely the same articles of clothing. If one of the former cla.s.s is made first sergeant, his pay is put up to twenty-one dollars per month; but if he escaped two days later, his pay is still estimated at seven dollars.

"It had not occurred to me that anything could make the pay-rolls of these regiments more complicated than at present, or the men more rationally discontented. I had not the ingenuity to imagine such an order. Yet it is no doubt in accordance with the spirit, if not with the letter, of the final bill which was adopted by Congress under the lead of Mr. Thaddeus Stevens.

"The ground taken by Mr. Stevens apparently was that the country might honorably save a few dollars by docking the promised pay of those colored soldiers whom the war had made free. _But the Government should have thought of this before it made the contract with these men and received their services._ When the War Department instructed Brigadier-General Saxton, August 25, 1862, to raise five regiments of negroes in South Carolina, it was known very well that the men so enlisted had only recently gained their freedom. But the instructions said: 'The persons so received into service, and their officers, to be ent.i.tled to and receive the same pay and rations as are allowed by law to volunteers in the service.' Of this pa.s.sage Mr. Solicitor Whiting wrote to me: 'I have no hesitation in saying that the faith of the Government was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier enlisted under that call.' Where is that faith of the Government now?

"The men who enlisted under the pledge were volunteers, every one; they did not get their freedom by enlisting; they had it already. They enlisted to serve the Government, trusting in its honor. Now the nation turns upon them and says: Your part of the contract is fulfilled; we have had your services. If you can show that you had previously been free for a certain length of time, we will fulfil the other side of the contract. If not, we repudiate it. Help yourselves, if you can.

"In other words, a freedman (since April 19, 1861) has no rights which a white man is bound to respect. He is incapable of making a contract. No man is bound by a contract made with him. Any employer, following the example of the United States Government, may make with him a written agreement, receive his services, and then withhold the wages. He has no motive to honest industry, or to honesty of any kind. He is virtually a slave, and nothing else, to the end of time.

"Under this order, the greater part of the Ma.s.sachusetts colored regiments will get their pay at last, and be able to take their wives and children out of the almshouses, to which, as Governor Andrew informs us, the gracious charity of the nation has consigned so many. For so much I am grateful. But toward my regiment, which had been in service and under fire, months before a Northern colored soldier was recruited, the policy of repudiation has at last been officially adopted. There is no alternative for the officers of South Carolina regiments but to wait for another session of Congress, and meanwhile, if necessary, act as executioners for these soldiers who, like Sergeant Walker, refuse to fulfil their share of a contract where the Government has openly repudiated the other share. If a year's discussion, however, has at length secured the arrears of pay for the Northern colored regiments, possibly two years may secure it for the Southern.