Unlettered themselves, they became daily more and more deeply impressed, through their military associations, and by contact with things that required knowledge, with the necessity of having an education. Each soldier felt that but for his illiteracy he might be a sergeant, company clerk, or quartermaster, and not a few, that if educated, they might be lieutenants and captains. This was not an unnatural conclusion for a brave soldier to arrive at, when men no braver than himself, were being promoted for bravery.
Generally there was one of three things the negro soldiers could be found doing when at leisure: discussing religion, cleaning his musket and accoutrements, or trying to read. His zeal frequently led him to neglect to eat for the latter. Every camp had a teacher, in fact every company had some one to instruct the soldiers in reading, if nothing more. Since the war I have known of more than one who have taken up the profession of preaching and law making, whose first letter was learned in camp; and not a few who have entered college.
The negro soldier was not only patriotic in the highest sense but he was a quick observer of both the disadvantages and opportunities of his race. He recognized the fact that the general education of the white men who composed the Union army in contra-distinction to so many of those of the confederate army, gave them great prestige over the enemy. The ingenuity of the Yankee he attributed to his education, and he readily decided that he lacked only the Yankee's education to be his equal in genius. Great was the incentive given him by example, arousing his latent hope to be something more than a free man; if not that, his children might rise from the cornfield to the higher walks of life. Their thirst for a knowledge of letters was evinced in more ways than one, as was their appreciation of the opportunity to assist in providing for coming generations.
Colonel G. M. Arnold says:
"Aside from the military duties required of the men forming the Phalanx regiments, the school teacher was drilling and preparing them in the comprehension of letters and figures. In nearly every regiment a school, during the encampment, was established, in some instances female teachers from the North, impulsed by that philanthropy which induced an army of teachers South to teach the freedmen, also brought them to the barracks and the camp ground to instruct the soldiers of the Phalanx. Their ambition to learn to read and write was as strong as their love of freedom, and no opportunity was lost by them to acquire a knowledge of letters. So ardent were they that they formed squads and hired teachers, paying them out of their pittance of seven dollars per month, or out of the bounty paid to them by the State to which they were accredited. In a number of instances the officers themselves gave instructions to their command, and made education a feature and a part of their duty, thereby bringing the soldier up to a full comprehension of the responsibility of his trust. "Taps" was an unpleasant sound to many a soldier, who, after the fatigue and drill of the day was over, sat himself down upon an empty cracker box, with a short candle in one hand and a spelling book in the other, to study the ab, eb, ob's. When the truce was sounded after a day or night's hard fighting, many of these men renewed their courage by studying and reading in the 'New England Speller.' And where they have fought,—died where they fell, and their bodies left to the enemy's mercy, they often found in the dead soldier's knapsack a spelling-book and a Testament. At the siege of Port Hudson and Charleston, and of Richmond, agents of the Christian Commission and of various other societies, made a specialty of the spelling-book for distribution among the soldiers of the Phalanx, and upon more than one occasion have these soldiers been found in the trenches with the speller in hand, muttering, bla, ble."
The historian of the 55th Regiment says:
"A great desire existed among those who had been deprived of all educational privileges to learn to read and write, and through the kindness and labors of Dr. Bowditch and others, a school was established to teach those who desired to learn. Many availed themselves of this, and many were assisted by their company officers and their better informed fellow-soldiers, so that a decided improvement in this respect was effected among the men during their stay at Readville."
But it is not necessary to dwell upon the subject to show the eagerness of these soldiers to learn to read and write, as many of them did.
Lieutenant James M. Trotter,[47] in an article published in Mr. Fortune's paper, gives this graphic description of "The School-master in the Army":
"Of the many interesting experiences that attended our colored soldiery during the late war none are more worthy of being recounted than those relating to the rather improvised schools, in which were taught the rudimentary branches. One would naturally think that the tented field, so often suddenly changed to the bloody field of battle, was the last place in the world where would be called into requisition the schoolteacher's services; in fact it would hardly be supposed that such a thing was possible. Yet in our colored American army this became not only possible but really practicable, for in it frequently, in an off-hand manner, schools were established and maintained, not only for teaching the soldiers to read and write but also to sing, nor were debating societies, even, things unheard of in the camp life of these men. Besides in quite a number of the colored regiments military bands were formed, and under the instruction of sometimes a band teacher from the north, and at others under one of their own proficient fellow-soldiers, these bands learned to discourse most entertaining music in camp, and often by their inspiriting strains did much to relieve the fatigue occasioned by long and tiresome marches. But we are speaking now mainly of the work of the school-teacher proper. And what shall we say of the halls of learning in which were gathered his eager pupils? Well, certainly these would not compare favorably with those of civil life, as may well be imagined. As says Bryant, truly and beautifully, speaking of primitive religious worship: