"May be not, sa; a dead white man ain't much to dese sogers, let alone a dead nigga; but I'd a missed myself, and dat was de pint wid me."
Incidents like this were eagerly reported by journals that chose to argue that the colored men would not fight in any case, and such assertions were kept up and repeated by them long after they had fought most gallantly on several fields. Somebody in describing one of these battles used the expression, "The colored troops fought nobly," and this was seized upon and repeated sneeringly in hundreds of head-lines and editorials, always with an implication that it was buncombe, until the readers of those journals were made to believe that such troops did not fight at all. The fact was that their percentage of losses on the whole number that went into the service was slightly greater than that of the white troops; and when we consider that they fought with a prospect of being either murdered or sold into slavery, if they fell into the hands of the enemy, it must be acknowledged that they were entitled to a full measure of credit. Immediately after the proclamation of emancipation was issued, Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant-general of the army, was sent to Louisiana, where he explained his mission in a speech to the soldiers, in the course of which he said:
"Look along the river, and see the multitude of deserted plantations upon its banks. These are the places for these freedmen, where they can be self-sustaining and self-supporting. All of you will some day be on picket-duty; and I charge you all, if any of this unfortunate race come within your lines, that you do not turn them away, but receive them kindly and cordially. They are to be encouraged to come to us; they are to be received with open arms; they are to be fed and clothed; they are to be armed. This is the policy that has been fully determined upon. I am here to say that I am authorized to raise as many regiments of blacks as I can. I am authorized to give commissions, from the highest to the lowest; and I desire those persons who are earnest in this work to take hold of it. I desire only those whose hearts are in it, and to them alone will I give commissions. I don't care who they are, or what their present rank may be. I do not hesitate to say, that all proper persons will receive commissions.
"While I am authorized thus in the name of the Secretary of War, I have the fullest authority to dismiss from the army any man, be his rank what it may, whom I find maltreating the freedmen. This part of my duty I will most assuredly perform if any case comes before me. I would rather do that than give commissions, because such men are unworthy the name of soldiers. This, fellow soldiers, is the determined policy of the Administration. You all know, full well, when the President of the United States, though said to be slow in coming to a determination, once puts his foot down, it is there; and he is not going to take it up. He has put his foot down. I am here to assure you that my official influence shall be given that he shall not raise it."
Major-Gen. B. M. Prentiss then made a speech, in which he said, that "from the time he was a prisoner, and a negro sentinel, with firm step, beat in front of his cell, and with firmer voice commanded silence within, he prayed God for the day of revenge; and he now thanked God that it had come."
General Prentiss, it will be remembered, had been captured at the battle of Shiloh, and from this incidental testimony it appears that he found the Confederates had negroes doing duty as sentinels at least.
Col. Thomas W. Higginson, who saw much service in General Saxton's department on the coast of South Carolina, and who there raised and commanded a regiment of colored troops, wrote: "It needs but a few days to show up the absurdity of distrusting the military availability of these people. They have quite as much average comprehension as whites of the need of the thing, as much courage I doubt not, as much previous knowledge of the gun, and, above all, a readiness of ear and imitation which for purposes of drill counterbalances any defect of mental training. As to camp life, they have little to sacrifice; they are better fed, housed, and clothed than ever in their lives before, and they appear to have fewer inconvenient vices. They are simple, docile, and affectionate almost to the point of absurdity. The same men who stood fire in open field with perfect coolness, on the late expedition, have come to me blubbering in the most irresistibly ludicrous manner on being transferred from one company in the regiment to another. This morning I wandered about where different companies were target shooting, and their glee was contagious. Such exulting shouts of 'Ki! ole man,' when some steady old turkey-shooter brought his gun down for an instant's aim and unerringly hit the mark; and then, when some unwary youth fired his piece into the ground at half cock, such infinite guffawing and delight, such rolling over and over on the grass, such dances of ecstasy, as made the Ethiopian minstrelsy of the stage appear a feeble imitation."
| COLORED INFANTRY AT FORT LINCOLN. |
The first regiment of colored troops raised at the North was the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, commanded by Col. Robert G. Shaw, who fell at their head in the desperate assault on Fort Wagner. The whole-heartedness with which, when once permitted to enlist, the colored soldiers entered into the war, is indicated by the fact that their enthusiasm added not only to the muskets in the field, but also to the music and poetry in the air. A private in the regiment just mentioned produced a song which, whatever its defects as poetry, can hardly be criticised for its sentiments.
| Frémont told them, when the war it first begun, How to save the Union, and the way it should be done; But Kentucky swore so hard, and Old Abe he had his fears, Till every hope was lost but the colored volunteers. CHORUS. Oh, give us a flag all free without a slave! We'll fight to defend it as our fathers did so brave. The gallant Comp'ny A will make the rebels dance; And we'll stand by the Union, if we only have a chance. McClellan went to Richmond with two hundred thousand brave; He said, "Keep back the niggers," and the Union he would save. Little Mac he had his way, still the Union is in tears: Now they call for the help of the colored volunteers. Cho.—Oh, give us a flag, etc. Old Jeff says he'll hang us if we dare to meet him armed— A very big thing, but we are not at all alarmed; For he first has got to catch us before the way is clear, And "that's what's the matter" with the colored volunteer. Cho.—Oh, give us a flag, etc. So rally, boys, rally! let us never mind the past. We had a hard road to travel, but our day is coming fast; For God is for the right, and we have no need to fear; The Union must be saved by the colored volunteer. Cho.—Oh, give us a flag, etc. |