An effective force of 10,000 could have been formed from these troops and thrown upon the Stono. Sherman was a good and resolute soldier; his troops were in fine condition, and full of pluck and confidence. With Stevens and Wright to lead them, and the navy at his back, he would almost certainly have achieved success.[16]
But this promising movement was nipped in the bud by the untimely and unexpected arrival of Major-General David Hunter to supersede Sherman. Brigadier-General H.W. Benham accompanied Hunter as a kind of second in command. In fact, both officers were enfants terribles, whom the administration exiled to South Carolina to get rid of. Hunter had just been relieved from commanding in Missouri for an act of insubordination in issuing an emancipation proclamation in defiance of orders; and Benham, fresh from skirmishes in West Virginia, was in Washington, claiming everything in the way of credit, and loudly importuning the government for high command, when they were ordered to South Carolina.
Sherman turned over the command of the department, and sailed north on the 8th of April. Three days later Pulaski fell after a day and a half’s bombardment, and Benham made haste to claim the credit of the achievement due to Sherman and Gilmore.
General Hunter divided his department into the Northern and Southern Districts, and gave Benham the command of the former, comprising South Carolina, Georgia, and part of Florida, and nearly all the troops. About the middle of April General Wright returned from Florida with the greater part of his brigade, and took post on Edisto Island.
Hunter, a sincere, earnest, and patriotic man, was absorbed in the political and humanitarian aspects of the great struggle. He lost no time in issuing another emancipation proclamation. “Martial law and slavery,” so ran this unique document, “in a free country are altogether incompatible; the persons heretofore held as slaves are therefore declared forever free.” The same day he issued the following order to the commanding officers of the several posts and islands: “Sir, you will send immediately to these headquarters, under guard, all able-bodied negroes capable of bearing arms within your lines.” The six hundred forlorn and frightened darkeys, who next day were loaded on a steamer at Beaufort and shipped to Hilton Head, must have been sadly puzzled over their new-found forever freedom. But Hunter soon solved all doubts by throwing them into camp with uniforms on their backs, arms in their hands, white officers to drill them, black preachers to exhort them, and a cordon of white soldiers sentineling their camp to make sure they did not run away. Thus was raised the first negro regiment. Hunter, having proclaimed them free, felt no scruples in making them fight for freedom.
General Stevens, after obeying the order with a promptness altogether unexpected by General Hunter, and for which he was totally unprepared, remonstrated against it in a letter to General Benham, his immediate commander:—
“1. There is very little material for soldiers in the able-bodied men of color in this department. I have not yet been able to find a single man who would venture alone inside the enemy’s lines, although I have diligently sought to find such a man. Occasionally a negro has been used to accompany white men. They have great fear of the prowess of their masters, and of white men generally. They have the strongest local and domestic attachments, which make them very reluctant to leave their homes.
“2: They can be used to very great advantage in connection with and for the menial duties of the military service, and also as adjuncts of existing organizations; thus, as quartermasters’ employees, doing all kinds of labor, from mechanical to the merest drudgery work. As boatmen, also, and as laborers on the defensive works, as guides and scouts, they can render most effective service, and should be employed as adjuncts of existing organizations. In fixed batteries they could do the heavy work, moving the guns, and carrying the shot and shell. In engineering operations they could do the heavy labor, even some of the hard lifting and carrying in managing the pontoon equipage. Thus I conceive a great use can be made of the blacks in our military operations in devolving upon them the menial duties, and as strictly subordinate to existing organizations.”
These were precisely the views as to raising negro troops expressed not long afterwards by the distinguished general, W.T. Sherman.
The remonstrance seems to have had some effect, for General Hunter telegraphed, and afterwards wrote, General Stevens to say to the negroes that they were sent for to receive their free papers, and would have a chance to volunteer, if they wished, and that those who did not wish to remain would be sent back to their homes. In fact, the regiment was disbanded not long afterwards.