Chapter XVIII: Employment of Negroes as Soldiers (2)

California -
Nevada -
Oregon -
Washington Ter. -
Delaware 954
Dist. Columbia 3,269
Kentucky 23,703
Maryland 8,718
Missouri 8,344
West Virginia 196
------
Total, Border States 45,184

Alabama 4,969
Arkansas 5,526
Florida 1,044
Georgia -
Louisiana 3,486
Mississippi 17,869
North Carolina 5,035
South Carolina 5,462
Tennessee 20,133
Texas 47
Virginia -
------
Total, Southern States 63,571

STATES AND TERRITORIES.--(_Continued._)

Colored Troops furnished
1861-'65.
Indian Nation -
Colored Troops[96] -
-------
Grand Total 173,079
At Large 733
Not accounted for 5,083
Officers 7,122
-------
Total 186,017

Notwithstanding the complete demonstration of fact that Negroes were required as United States soldiers, there were many opposers of the movement. Some of the best men and leading journals were very conservative on this question. An elaborate and cautious editorial in the "New York Times" of February 16, 1863, fairly exhibits the nervousness of the North on the subject of the military employment of the Negro.

"USE OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS.

"One branch of Congress has rejected a bill authorizing the
enlistment of negro soldiers. Mr. Sumner declares his intention
to persist in forcing the passage of such a law by offering it as
an amendment to some other bill. Meantime the President, by laws
already enacted, has full authority over the subject, and we can
see no good object to be attained by forcing it into the
discussions of Congress and adding it to the causes of dissension
already existing in the country at large.

"A law of last Congress authorized the President to use the
negroes as laborers or _otherwise_, as they can be made most
useful in the work of quelling the rebellion. Under this
authority, it is understood that he has decided to use them in
certain cases as soldiers. Some of them are already employed in
garrisoning Southern forts, on the Mississippi River, which
whites cannot safely occupy on account of the climate. Governor
Sprague has authority to raise negro regiments in Rhode Island,
and has proclaimed his intention to lead them when raised in
person, and Gov. Andrew has received similar authority for the
State of Massachusetts. We see, therefore, not the slightest
necessity for any further legislation on this subject, and hope
Mr. Sumner will consent that Congress may give its attention,
during the short remainder of its session, to topics of pressing
practical importance.

"Whether negroes shall or shall not be employed as soldiers,
seems to us purely a question of expediency, and to be solved
satisfactorily only by experiment. As to our _right_ so to employ
them, it seems absurd to question it for a moment. The most
bigoted and inveterate stickler for the absolute divinity of
slavery in the Southern States would scarcely insist that, as a
matter of right, either constitutional or moral, we could not
employ negroes as soldiers in the army. Whether they are, or are
not, by nature, by law, or by usage, the equals of the white man,
makes not the slightest difference in this respect. Even those at
the North who are so terribly shocked at the prospect of their
being thus employed, confine their objections to grounds of
expediency. They urge:

"1st. That the negroes will not fight. This, if true, is
exclusive against their being used as soldiers. But we see no way
of testing the question except by trying the experiment. It will
take but a very short time and but very few battles to determine
whether they have courage, steadiness, subjection to military
discipline and the other qualities essential to good soldiership
or not. If they have, this objection will fall, if not then
beyond all question they will cease to be employed.

"2d. It is said that the whites will not fight with them--that
the prejudice against them is so strong that our own citizens
will not enlist, or will quit the service, if compelled to fight
by their side,--and that we shall thus lose two white soldiers
for one black one that we gain. If this is true, they ought not
to be employed. The object of using them is to strengthen our
military force; and if the project does not accomplish this, it
is a failure. The question, moreover, is one of fact, not of
theory. It matters nothing to say that it _ought_ not to have
this effect--that the prejudice is absurd and should not be
consulted. The point is, not what men _ought_ to do, but what
they will _do_. We have to deal with human nature, with
prejudice, with passion, with habits of thought and feeling, as
well as with reason and sober judgment and the moral sense.
Possibly the Government may have made a mistake in its estimate
of the effect of this measure on the public mind. The use of
negroes as soldiers may have a worse effect on the army and on
the people than they have supposed.

"But this is a matter of opinion upon which men have differed.
Very prominent and influential persons, Governors of States,
Senators, popular Editors and others have predicted the best
results from such a measure, while others have anticipated the
worst. The President has resolved to try the experiment. If it
works well, the country will be the gainer. If not, we have no
doubt it will be abandoned. If the effect of using negroes as
soldiers upon the army and the country, proves to be depressing
and demoralizing, so as to weaken rather than strengthen our
military operations, they will cease to be employed. The
President is a practical man, not at all disposed to sacrifice
practical results to abstract theories.

"3d. It is said we shall get no negroes--or not enough to prove
of any service. In the free States very few will volunteer, and
in the Slave States we can get but few, because the Rebels will
push them Southward as fast as we advance upon them. This may be
so. We confess we share, with many others, the opinion that it
will.

"But we may as well wait patiently the short time required to
settle the point. When we hear more definitely from Gov.
Sprague's black battalions and Gov. Andrew's negro brigades, we
shall know more accurately what to think of the measure as one
for the Free States; and when we hear further of the success of
Gen. Banks and Gen. Saxton in enlisting them at the South, we can
form a better judgment of the movement there. If we get very few
or even none, the worst that can be said will be that the project
is a failure; and the demonstration that it is so will have
dissipated another of the many delusions which dreamy people have
cherished about this war.

"4th. The use of negroes will exasperate the South; and some of
our Peace Democrats make that an objection to the measure. We
presume it will; but so will any other scheme we may adopt which
is warlike and effective in its character and results. If that
consideration is to govern us, we must follow Mr. Vallandingham's
advice and stop the war entirely, or as Mr. McMasters puts it in
his Newark speech, go 'for an immediate and _unconditional_
peace.' We are not quite ready for _that_ yet.

"The very best thing that can be done under existing
circumstances, in our judgment, is to possess our Souls in
patience while _the experiment_ is being tried. The problem will
probably speedily solve itself--much more speedily than heated
discussion or harsh criminations can solve it."

It didn't require a great deal of time for the Black troops to make a good impression; and while the Congress, the press, and the people were being exercised over the probable out-come, the first regiment of ex-slaves ever equipped for the service was working a revolution in public sentiment. On the last day of January, 1863, the "New York Tribune" printed the following editorial on the subject:

"A disloyal minority in the House is factiously resisting the
passage of the Steven's bill, authorizing the President to raise
and equip 150,000 soldiers of African descent. Meanwhile, in the
Department of the South a full regiment of blacks has been
enlisted under Gen. Saxton; is already uniformed and armed, and
has been actively drilling for the last seven weeks. A letter
which we printed on Wednesday from our Special Correspondent, who
is usually well qualified to judge of its military proficiency,
says of this regiment that no honest-minded, unprejudiced
observer could come to any other conclusion than that it had
attained a remarkable proficiency in the short period during
which it had been drilled. We have in addition from an officer of
the regiment, who is thoroughly informed as to its condition, a
very interesting statement of its remarkable progress, and some
valuable suggestions on the employment of negro troops in
general.

"'This regiment--the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, Colonel
Thomas Wentworth Higginson--marched on the 17th for the first
time through the streets of Beaufort. It was the remark of many
bitterly pro-slavery officers that they looked "splendidly." They
marched through by platoons, and returned by the flank; the
streets were filled with soldiers and citizens, but every man
looked straight before him and carried himself steadily. How many
white regiments do the same? One black soldier said: "We didn't
see a thing in Beaufort; ebery man hold his head straight up to
de front, ebery step was worth a half dollar."

"'Many agreed with what is my deliberate opinion,' writes this
officer, 'that no regiment in this department can, even now,
surpass this one. In marching in regimental line I have not seen
it equalled. In the different modes of passing from line into
column, and from column into line, in changing front,
countermarching, forming divisions, and forming square, whether
by the common methods, or by Casey's methods, it does itself the
greatest credit. Nor have I yet discovered the slightest ground
of inferiority to white troops.

"'So far is it from being true that the blacks as material
soldiers are inferior to white, that they are in some respects
manifestly superior; especially in aptness for drill, because of
their imitativeness and love of music; docility in discipline,
when their confidence is once acquired; and enthusiasm for the
cause. _They_ at least know what they are fighting for. They have
also a _pride_ as soldiers, which is not often found in our white
regiments, where every private is only too apt to think himself
specially qualified to supersede his officers. They are above all
things faithful and trustworthy on duty from the start. In the
best white regiments it has been found impossible to trust
newly-enlisted troops with the countersign--they invariably
betray it to their comrades. There has been but one such instance
in this black regiment, and that was in the case of a mere boy,
whose want of fidelity excited the greatest indignation among his
comrades.

"'Drunkenness, the bane of our army, does not _exist_ among the
black troops. There has not been _one_ instance in the regiment.
Enough. The only difficulty which threatened to become at all
serious was that of absence without leave and overstaying passes,
but this was checked by a few decided measures and has ceased
entirely.

"'When this regiment was first organized, some months ago, it had
to encounter bitter hostility from the white troops at Port
Royal, and there was great exultation when General Hunter found
himself obliged to disband it. Since its reorganization this
feeling seems to have almost disappeared. There is no complaint
by the privates of insult or ill-treatment, formerly
disgracefully common from their white comrades.

"'It has been supposed that these black troops would prove fitter
for garrison duty than active service in the field. No impression
could be more mistaken. Their fidelity as sentinels adapts them
especially, no doubt, to garrison duty; but their natural place
is in the advance. There is an inherent dash and fire about them
which white troops of more sluggish Northern blood do not
emulate, and their hearty enthusiasm shows itself in all ways.
Such qualities are betrayed even in drill, as anybody may know
who has witnessed the dull, mechanical way in which ordinary
troops make a bayonet charge on the parade ground, and contrasts
it with the spirit of those negro troops in the same movement.
They are to be used, moreover, in a country which they know
perfectly. Merely from their knowledge of wood-craft and
water-craft, it would be a sheer waste of material to keep them
in garrison. It is scarcely the knowledge which is at once
indispensable and impossible to be acquired by our troops. See
these men and it is easier to understand the material of which
the famous Chasseurs d'Afrique are composed.'

"General Saxton, in a letter published yesterday, said: 'In no
regiment have I ever seen duty performed with so much
cheerfulness and alacrity. * * * In the organization of this
regiment I have labored under difficulties which might have
discouraged one who had less faith in the wisdom of the measure;
but I am glad to report that the experiment is a complete
success. My belief is that when we get a footing on the mainland
regiments may be raised which will do more than any now in the
service to put an end to this rebellion.'

"We are learning slowly, very slowly, in this war to use the
means of success which lie ready to our hands. We have learnt at
last that the negro is essential to our success, but we are still
hesitating whether to allow him to do all he can or only a part.

"It will not take many such proofs as this black regiment now
offers to convince us of the full value of our new allies. But we
ought to go beyond that selfishness which regards only our own
necessities and remember that the negro has a right to fight for
his freedom, and that he will be all the more fit to enjoy his
new destiny by helping to achieve it."

On the 28th of March, 1863, Mr. Greeley sent forth the following able and sensible editorial on the Negro as a soldier:

"NEGRO TROOPS.

"Facts are beginning to dispel prejudices. Enemies of the negro
race, who have persistently denied the capacity and doubted the
courage of the Blacks, are unanswerably confuted by the good
conduct and gallant deeds of the men whom they persecute and
slander. From many quarters come evidence of the swiftly
approaching success which is to crown what is still by some
persons deemed to be the experiment of arming whom the
Proclamation of Freedom liberates.

"The 1st and 2d South Carolina Volunteers, under Colonels
Higginson and Montgomery, have ascended the St. John's River in
Florida as far as Jacksonville, and have re-occupied that
important town which was once before taken and afterward
abandoned by the Union forces. Many of the negroes composing
these regiments had been slaves in this very place. Their memory
of old wrongs, of the privations, outrages and tortures of
Slavery, must here, if anywhere, have been fresh and vivid, and
the passions which opportunity for just revenges stimulates even
in white breasts, ought to have been roused more than in all
other places on the spot where they had suffered.

"If, then, Jacksonville were to-day in ashes, and the ghastly
spirit visions of '_The World_' materialized into terrible
realities, the negro haters would have no, cause to be
disappointed. '_The World_' hailed the alleged repulse and
massacre of the negroes and white officers--a report which it
invented outright, in sheer malignity, in order to forestall
public opinion by creating a belief in the failure of the
expedition--would have changed into agonized shrieks over the
outrages on its Southern brethren. The experiment of subjecting
negroes to military rules and accustoming them to those amenities
of civilized warfare which the rebels so uniformly practice would
again have been declared to be a hopeless failure; and for the
hundredth time the Proclamation and the radicals who advised it
would have been pilloried for public execration.

"Since, however, the contrary of all this is true, it may be
presumed by a confiding public which does not read it that '_The
World_' has honestly acknowledged the injustice of its slanders.
It is unpleasant to disabuse a confiding public on any subject,
but we who are sometimes obliged to look at that paper as a
professional duty, regret to say that we have not discovered a
single evidence of its repentance. The facts are, however, that
Colonel Higginson's men landed quietly at Jacksonville, marched
through its streets in perfect order, committed no outrages or
excesses of any kind, and by the testimony of all witnesses
conducted themselves with a military decorum and perfect
discipline which is far from common among white regiments in
similar circumstances. They have gone before this time still
further into the interior, and will doubtless do good service in
a direction where their presence has been least expected by the
Rebels. In the only instance in which the white chivalry ventured
to make a stand against them, the whites were defeated and driven
off the field by the Blacks.

"The truth is that the fitness of negroes to be soldiers has long
since, in this country and elsewhere, been amply demonstrated,
and the success of Col. Higginson's Black Troops is no matter of
surprise to any person tolerably well informed about the history
of the race. If it were in any sense an experiment, the only
thing to be tested was the obstinacy of our Saxon prejudice which
denied the possibility of success, and did what it could to
prevent it. But even Saxon prejudice must shortly yield to the
logic of facts."

In the face of the fact that the United States Government had employed Negroes as soldiers to fight the battles of the Union, there were men of intelligence who held that it was all wrong in fact, in policy, and in point of law. And this opinion attained such proportions that the Secretary of War felt called upon to request the opinion of Judge Advocate Holt. It is given here.

ENLISTMENT OF SLAVES.

In a letter to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, dated Aug. 20,
1863, Judge Advocate Holt said: "The right of the Government to
employ for the suppression of the rebellion persons of African
Descent held to service or labor under the local law, rests
firmly on two grounds:

"First, as property. Both our organic law and the usages of our
institutions under it recognize fully the authority of the
Government to seize and apply to public use private property, on
making compensation therefor. What the use may be to which it is
to be applied does not enter into the question of the right to
make the seizure, which is untrammelled in its exercise, save by
the single condition mentioned.

"Secondly, as persons. While those of African Descent held to
service or labor in several of the States, occupy under the laws
of such States, the status of property; they occupy also under
the Federal Government, the status of 'persons.' They are
referred to so _nomine_ in the Constitution of the United States,
and it is not as property but as 'persons' that they are
represented on the floor of Congress, and thus form a prominent
constituent element alike in the organization and practical
administration of the Government.

"The obligation of all persons--irrespective of creed or
color--to bear arms, if physically capable of doing so, in
defence of the Government under which they live and by which
they are protected, is one that is universally acknowledged and
enforced. Corresponding to this obligation is the duty resting on
those charged with the administration of the Government, to
employ such persons in the military service whenever the public
safety may demand it. Congress realized both this obligation on
the one hand, and this duty on the other when, by the 12th
section of the Act of the 17th of July, 1862, it was enacted that
'the President be and is hereby authorized to receive into the
service of the United States for the purpose of constructing
intrenchments, or performing camp service or any other labor, or
any military or naval service for which they may be found
competent, persons of African Descent, and such persons shall be
enrolled and organized under such regulations not inconsistent
with the Constitution, and the laws, as the President may
prescribe.'

"The terms of this Act are without restriction and no distinction
is made, or was intended to be made, between persons of African
Descent held to service or labor or those not so held.

"The President is empowered to receive them all into the military
service, and assign them such duty as they may be found competent
to perform.

"The tenacious and brilliant valor displayed by troops of this
race at Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend, and Fort Wagner, has
sufficiently demonstrated to the President and to the country,
the character of service of which they are capable. In the
interpretation given to the Enrolment Act, free citizens of
African Descent are treated as citizens of the United States, in
the sense of the law, and are everywhere being drafted into the
military service.

"In reference to the other class of persons of this race--those
held to service or labor--the 12th section of the Act of July
17th is still in full force, and the President may in his
discretion receive them into the army and assign them to such
field of duty as he may deem them prepared to occupy. In view of
the loyalty of this race, and of the obstinate courage which they
have shown themselves to possess, they certainly constitute at
this crisis in our history a most powerful and reliable arm of
the public defence. Whether this arm shall now be exerted is not
a question of power or right, but purely of policy, to be
determined by the estimate which may be entertained of the
conflict in which we are engaged, and of the necessity that
presses to bring this waste of blood and treasure to a close. A
man precipitated into a struggle for his life on land or sea,
instinctively and almost necessarily puts forth every energy with
which he is endowed, and eagerly seizes upon every source of
strength within his grasp; and a nation battling for existence,
that does not do the same, may well be regarded as neither wise
nor obedient to that great law of self-preservation, from which
are derived our most urgent and solemn duties. That there exists
a prejudice against the employment of persons of African Descent
is undeniable; it is, however, rapidly giving way, and never had
any foundation in reason or loyalty. It originated with and has
been diligently nurtured by those in sympathy with the Rebellion,
and its utterance at this moment is necessarily in the interests
of treason.

"Should the President feel that the public interests require he
shall exert the power with which he is clothed by the 12th
section of the Act of the 17th of July, his action should be in
subordination to the Constitutional principle which exacts that
compensation shall be made for private property devoted to the
public uses. A just compensation to loyal claimants to the
service or labor of persons of African Descent enlisted in our
army, would accord with the uniform practice of the Government
and the genius of our institutions!

"Soldiers of this class, after having perilled their lives in the
defence of the Republic, could not be re-enslaved without a
national dishonor revolting and unendurable for all who are
themselves to be free. The compensation made, therefore, should
be such as entirely to exhaust the interest of claimants; so that
when soldiers of this class lay down their arms at the close of
the war, they may at once enter into the enjoyment of that
freedom symbolized by the flag which they have followed and
defended."

The Negro was now a soldier, legally, "constitutionally." He had donned the uniform of an American soldier; was entrusted with the honor and defence of his country, and had set before him liberty as his exceeding great reward. Rejected at first he was at last urged into the service--even _drafted_! He was charged with the solution of a great problem--his fitness, his valor. History shall record his deeds of patriotism, his marvellous achievements, his splendid triumphs.

FOOTNOTES:

[91] Charleston Mercury, April 30, 1861.

[92] They were, no doubt, from Massachusetts.

[93] New York Herald, Tuesday, August 5, 1862.

[94] Greeley, vol. ii, pp. 517, 518.

[95] Many of these had previously been in the three months', nine months', and three years' service, from which they had been honorably discharged.

[96] This gives Colored Troops enlisted in the States in rebellion; besides this, there were 92,576 Colored Troops (included with the white soldiers) in the quotas of the several States.