Recommendation of
Salem Poor a free Negro
for his Bravery at ye Battle
of Charlestown
leave to withdraw it
Although histories have been written of the members and actions of Col. Frye's regiment and Capt. Ames's company, of which Salem Poor was a member, the account given of him shows that the story of his life was not known. It is, however, noted in Miss Bailey's "History of Andover" that he was a slave, owned by John Poor. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, when Lieut. Col. Abercrombie, of the British forces, sprang upon the redoubt, while the Americans were running in retreat, and exclaimed, "The day is ours," Salem Poor turned, aimed his gun and felled with a bullet the English leader. The deed was considered by the officers of the regiment to be one of great bravery, as their petition to the General Court of Massachusetts shows.
Other colored men serving at the Battle of Bunker Hill were Titus Coburn, Alexander Ames, Barzillai Lew, all of Andover; Cato Howe of Plymouth, and Peter Salem.
Among those who gave valued services in the Continental Army was Deborah Gannett. She assumed the dress of a man, and under the name of Robert Shurtliff, enlisted in the fourth Massachusetts Regiment, Captain Webb, serving in the ranks without once revealing her sex from May 20, 1782, to October 23, 1783, a period of seventeen months. By an act of the legislature, Jan. 20, 1792, she was paid £34 by the State for her services.
The extract below is from a discussion of the questions of pension and bounty for Negro soldiers by James Croggon. It appeared in the Washington Star.
"January 21 Gen. Jackson read an address to each of the commands which had taken part in the battles, reviewing the campaign, and saying of the engagement of January 8 that the loss of the enemy was more than 3,000 while the American loss was but thirteen—"a wonderful interposition of heaven! An unexampled event in the history of war!" Gen. Jackson characterizes the event.
"In his general orders of January 21, prior to breaking camp, Gen. Jackson complimented the various regiments and commands, saying of the two bodies of colored volunteers: 'They have not disappointed the hopes that were formed of their courage and perseverence in the performance of their duty. Majs. Lacoste and Daquin, who commanded them, have deserved well of their country.'
"Rewards Held Up
"Yet, although these colored troops were commended for their coolness and bravery under fire, especially in the memorable engagement of December 23 when they were attached to Coffee's brigade, which opened the series of battles, recognition for their services, by way of pension and bounty, was withheld for several years after their discharge from the service and then was granted only after an opinion had been given by William Wirt, Attorney General of the United States at that time, that they might legally be so recompensed.
"When the colored troops enlisted the act of Congress of December 24, 1811, provided a bounty of $16, with three months' pay, and a grant of 160 acres of land to those who had served five years, the same amount of land to the heirs of those killed in battle, and the same amount of land to the heirs of those who had died in the service after having served five years. The act of January 11, 1812, carried like provisions, and the act of December 10, 1814, again carried the provisions, except that the amount of land granted was doubled.
"After the colored troops were mustered out, application was made in their behalf for recognition under these acts, especially for the bounty of 320 acres of land, but it was not until 1823 that their claims were recognized.
"Jackson Praised Troops
"This apathy and long delay ensued notwithstanding the fact that under date of December 27, 1814, Gen. Jackson had reviewed the first engagement in a report in which he spoke highly of the men of color attached to Coffee's brigade. He said in this engagement a number of prisoners were taken, and the British loss was about 100. On the night of the 23d of December, in the engagement below New Orleans, the British left 100 killed, and 230 wounded, their loss in prisoners taken making their total loss that night about 400.
"Again, reporting on the battle of January 8, Gen. Jackson said that the enemy advanced in two strong columns, and that 'they were received with a firmness which defeated all their hopes. For upward of an hour the firing was incessant, but the enemy at length fled in confusion from the field, their losses including Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham.' Under date of January 19 Gen. Jackson informed the War Department that the enemy had decamped, leaving eighty of their wounded and fourteen pieces of heavy artillery, and that he believed Louisiana was then 'clear.'
"Attorney General's Opinion
"It was to J. C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, that William Wirt, then Attorney General, wrote, under date of March 27, 1823, declaring that it was not, in his opinion, in the power of the government to deny the colored troops and their heirs the emoluments of their service in the army. Mr. Wirt's letter is as follows:
"'Sir: Had I been called on a priori to give a construction to the several acts of Congress, which are the subject of Mr. Cutting's letters of the 21st of May, 1821, and 30th of January, 1823, of Maj. Charles J. Nourse's of the 20th of January, 1823, and Mr. J. W. Murray's of the 22d of December, 1822, I should have had no hesitation in expressing the opinion that it was not the intention of Congress to incorporate negroes and people of color with the army, any more than with the militia of the United States. But the acts of Congress, under which this body of people of color are understood to have been raised during the late war, uses no other terms of description as to the recruits than that they shall be 'effective, able-bodied men' (act 24th December, 1811), 'for completing the existing military establishment,' and act 11th January, 1812, 'to raise an additional military force,' of 'free, effective, able-bodied men' (act December 10, 1814), 'making further provision for filling the ranks of the army of the United States.'
"All Requirements Fulfilled
"As either of these descriptions was satisfied by the persons of color in question; as the recruiting officers, who were quoad hoc the agents of the United States, recruited these persons on a contract for the pay and bounty stipulated by law, as the officers of government recognize them as a part of the army, by their regular returns of this corps, who received, till the close of the war, the same pay and rations with other troops, were subject to the same military law and performed the same military services, it seems to me that a practical construction has been given to the law in this particular, from which it is not in the power of the government justly to depart.
"I think, therefore, that they ought to receive the promised land bounty. But, without some further and more explicit declaration of the purpose of Congress, I would not recommend a repetition of such contracts on any future occasion on laws worded like those under consideration; by which I mean, not merely the three laws which I have cited, but the whole military system of the United States, militia included."
Mrs. R. L. Pendleton has published the new edition of the Life and Works of Phillis Wheatley by G. Herbert Renfro. This volume contains a sketch of G. Herbert Renfro and a much more detailed sketch of the life of Phillis Wheatley by this writer. It contains the correspondence of the poetess and a larger number of her poems than we find in some of the other editions of her works. The book is well printed and nicely bound and may be purchased for the small sum of $1.50 from R. L. Pendleton, 1216 You St., Washington, D. C.
Longmans and Company have published A. J. McDonald's Trade, Politics and Christianity in Africa and the East. It is a valuable contribution to the British colonial policy.