History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume II Part 38

"Eighth. If a person shall within ten days after the filing of said rolls, make a claim for the service of any person so enlisted, the board shall proceed to examine the proof of t.i.tle, and, if valid, shall award just compensation, not exceeding three hundred dollars for each slave enlisted belonging to the claimant, and upon the claimant filing a valid deed of manumission and release of service, the board shall give the claimant a certificate of the sum awarded, which on presentation shall be paid by the chief of the Bureau.

"Ninth. All enlistments of colored troops in the State of Maryland, otherwise than in accordance with these regulations, are forbidden.

"Tenth. No person who is or has been engaged in the rebellion against the Government of the United States, or who in any way has or shall give aid or comfort to the enemies of the Government, shall be permitted to present any claim or receive any compensation for the labor or service of any slave, and all claimants shall file with their claim an oath of allegiance to the United States. By order of the President.

"E. D. TOWNSEND, "_a.s.sistant Adjutant-General_."

This order was extended, on October 26th, to Delaware, at the personal request of Governor Cannon.

On the 12th of November, 1863, the Union League Club of New York City appointed a committee for the purpose of recruiting Colored troops.

Col. George Bliss was made chairman and entered upon the work with energy and alacrity. On the 23d of November the committee addressed a letter to Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, stating that as he had no authority to grant them permission to enlist a Negro regiment; and as the National Government was unwilling to grant such authority without the sympathy and a.s.sent of the State government, they would feel greatly obliged should his excellency grant the committee his official concurrence. Gov. Seymour a.s.sured the committee of his official inability to grant authority for the raising of Colored troops,--just what the committee had written him,--and referred them to the National Government, on the 27th of November. The committee applied to the authorities at Was.h.i.+ngton, and on the 5th of December, 1863, the Secretary of War granted them authority to raise the 20th Regiment of United States Colored Troops. Having secured the authority of the Government to begin their work, the committee wrote Gov.

Seymour: "We express the hope that, so far as in your power, you will give to the movement your aid and countenance." The governor never found the time to answer the request of the committee!

The work was pushed forward with zeal and enthusiasm. The Colored men rallied to the call, and within two weeks from the time the committee called for Colored volunteers 1,000 men responded. By the 27th of January, 1864, a second regiment was full; and thus in forty-five days the Union League Club Committee on the Recruiting of Colored Regiments had raised 2,000 soldiers!

Out of 9,000 men of color, eligible by age--18 to 45 years--to go into the service, 2,300 enlisted in less than sixty days. There was no bounty held out to them as an incentive to enlist; no protection promised to their families, nor to them should they fall into the hands of the enemy. But they were patriots! They were willing to endure any thing rather than the evils that would surely attend the triumph of the Confederacy. They went to the front under auspicious circ.u.mstances.

The 20th Regiment, under the command of Col. Bartram, landed at Thirty-Sixth Street, was headed by the police and the patriotic members of the Union League Club, and had a triumphal march through the city.

"The scene of yesterday," says a New York paper, "was one which marks an era of progress in the political and social history of New York. A thousand men with black skins and clad and equipped with the uniforms and arms of the United States Government, marched from their camp through the most aristocratic and busy streets, received a grand ovation at the hands of the wealthiest and most respectable ladies and gentlemen of New York, and then moved down Broadway to the steamer which bears them to their destination--all amid the enthusiastic cheers, the encouraging plaudits, the waving handkerchiefs, the showering bouquets and other approving manifestations of a hundred thousand of the most loyal of our people.

"In the month of July last the homes of these people were burned and pillaged by an infuriated political mob; they and their families were hunted down and murdered in the public streets of this city; and the force and majesty of the law were powerless to protect them. Seven brief months have pa.s.sed, and a thousand of these despised and persecuted men march through the city in the garb of United States soldiers, in vindication of their own manhood, and with the approval of a countless mult.i.tude--in effect saving from inevitable and distasteful conscription the same number of those who hunted their persons and destroyed their homes during those days of humiliation and disgrace. This is n.o.ble vengeance--a vengeance taught by Him who commanded, 'Love them that hate you; do good to them that persecute you.'"

The recruiting of Colored troops in Pennsylvania was carried on, perhaps, with more vigor, intelligence, and enthusiasm than in any of the other free States. A committee for the recruiting of men of color for the United States army was appointed at Philadelphia, with Thomas Webster as Chairman, Cadwalader Biddle, as Secretary, and S. A.

Mercer, as Treasurer. This committee raised $33,388.00 for the recruiting of Colored regiments. The 54th and 55th Ma.s.sachusetts regiments had cost about $60,000, but this committee agreed to raise three regiments at a cost of $10,000 per regiment.

The committee founded a camp, and named it "Camp William Penn," at Shelton Hill, near Philadelphia. On the 26th of June, 1863, the first squad of eighty men went into camp. On the 3d of February, 1864, the committee made the following statement, in reference to the raising of regiments:

"On the 24th July, 1863, the First (3d United States) regiment was full.

"On the 13th September, 1863, the Second (6th United States) regiment was full.

"On the 4th December, 1863, the Third (8th United States) regiment was full.

"On the 6th January, 1864, the Fourth (22d United States) regiment was full.

"On the 3d February, 1864, the Fifth (25th United States) regiment was full.

"August 13th, 1863, the Third United States regiment left Camp William Penn, and was in front of Fort Wagner when it surrendered.

"October 14th, 1863, the Sixth United States regiment left for Yorktown.

"January 16th, 1864, the Eighth United States regiment left for Hilton Head.

"The 22d and 25th regiments are now at Camp William Penn, waiting orders from the Government."

The duty of recruiting "Colored troops" in the Department of the c.u.mberland was committed by Secretary Stanton to an able, honest, and patriotic man, Mr. George L. Stearns, of Ma.s.sachusetts. Mr. Stearns had devoted his energies, wealth, and time to the cause of the slave during the holy anti-slavery agitation. He was a wealthy merchant of Boston; dwelt, with a n.o.ble wife and beautiful children, at Medford.

He had been, from the commencement of the agitation, an ultra Abolitionist. He regarded slavery as a gigantic system of complicated evils, at war with all the known laws of civilized society; inimical to the fundamental principles of political economy; destructive to republican inst.i.tutions; hateful in the sight of G.o.d, and ever abhorrent to all honest men. He hated slavery. He hated truckling, obsequious, cringing hypocrites. He put his feelings into vigorous English, and keyed his deeds and actions to the sublime notes of charity that filled his heart and adorned a long and eminently useful life. He gave shelter to the majestic and heroic John Brown. His door was--like the heavenly gates--ajar to every fugitive from slavery, and his fiery earnestness kindled the flagging zeal of many a conservative friend of G.o.d's poor.

Such a man was chosen to put muskets into the hands of the Negroes in the Department of the c.u.mberland. His rank was that of major, with the powers of an a.s.sistant adjutant-general. He took up his headquarters at Nashville, Tennessee. He carried into the discharge of the duties of his important office large executive ability, excellent judgment, and rare fidelity. He organized the best regiments that served in the Western army. When he had placed the work in excellent condition he committed it to the care of Capt. R. D. Mussey, who afterward was made the Colonel of the 100th U. S. Colored Troops.

The intense and unrelenting prejudice against the Negroes, and their ignorance of military tactics, made it necessary for the Government to provide suitable white commissioned officers. The prospect was pleasing to many young white men in the ranks; and ambition went far to irradicate prejudice against Negro soldiers. Nearly every white private and non-commissioned officer was expecting the lightning to strike him; _every_ one expected to be promoted to be a commissioned officer, and, therefore, had no prejudice against the men they hoped to command as their _superior_ officers. To prepare the large number of applicants for commissions in Colored regiments a "Free Military School" was established at No. 1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Secretary Stanton gave the school the following official endors.e.m.e.nt in the spring of 1864.

"WAR DEPARTMENT, } "WAs.h.i.+NGTON CITY, March 21, 1864. }

"THOMAS WEBSTER, ESQ., _Chairman_, "1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

"SIR: The project of establis.h.i.+ng a free Military School for the education of candidates for the position of commissioned officers in the Colored Troops, received the cordial approval of this Department. Sufficient success has already attended the workings of the inst.i.tution to afford the promise of much usefulness hereafter in sending into the service a cla.s.s of instructed and efficient officers.

"Very respectfully, "Your obedient servant, "EDWIN M. STANTON, "_Secretary of War_."

In reply to a letter from Thomas Webster, Esq., Chairman, etc., of the Recruiting Committee, General Casey sent the following letter:

"WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C., March 7, 1864.

"DEAR SIR: Yours of the 4th instant is received, and I have directed the Secretary of the Board to attend to your request.

"It gives me great pleasure to learn that your School is prospering, and I am also pleased to inform you that the Board of which I am President has not as yet rejected one of your candidates. I am gratified to see that the necessity of procuring competent officers for the armies of the Republic is beginning to be better appreciated by the public.

"I trust I shall never have occasion to regret my agency in suggesting the formation of your School, and I am sure the country owes your Committee much for the energy and judgment with which it has carried it out. The liberality which opens its doors to the young men of all the States is n.o.ble, and does honor to those citizens of Philadelphia from whom its support is princ.i.p.ally derived.

"Truly yours, "SILAS CASEY, "_Major-General_.

"TO THOMAS WEBSTER, ESQ., _Chairman_, "1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia."

In reference to applicants the following letter was written by the Adjutant-General:

"GENERAL ORDERS, } "No. 125." }

"WAR DEPARTMENT,"

"ADJUTANT-GEN.'S OFFICE, "WAs.h.i.+NGTON, March 29, 1864.

"Furloughs, not to exceed thirty days in each case, to the non-commissioned officers and privates of the army who may desire to enter the Free Military School at Philadelphia, may be granted by the Commanders of Armies and Departments, when the character, conduct, and capacity of the applicants are such as to warrant their immediate and superior commanders in recommending them for commissioned appointments in the regiments of colored troops.

"By order of the Secretary of War.

"E. D. TOWNSEND, "_a.s.sistant Adjutant-General_."

The organization of the school was as follows:

_Chief Preceptor._

JOHN H. TAGGART

(Late Colonel 12th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Corps), _Professor of Infantry Tactics and Army Regulations_.