 Appendix of Army Life in a Black Regiment This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by FNH. Army Life in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Appendix A. Roster of Officers 1st South Carolina Volunteers Afterwards 33rd United States Colored Troops Kernels T. W. Higginson 51st Massachusetts November 10, 1862, resigned October 27, 1864 W. M. T. Bennett 102nd USCT December 18, 1864 Mustard Out with Regiment Lieutenant Kernels Liberty Billings Civil Life November 1, 1862, dismissed by examining board July 28, 1863 John D. Strong, promotion July 28, 1863, resigned August 15, 1864 Chaz T. Trowbridge, promotion December 9, 1864, Mustard Out Majors John D. Strong, Civil Life October 21, 1862 Lieutenant Colonel July 28, 1863 Chaz T. Trowbridge, promotion August 11, 1863, Lieutenant Colonel December 9, 1864 H. A. Whitney, promotion December 9, 1864, Mustard Out Surgeons Seth Rogers, Civil Life December 2, 1862, and December 21, 1863 W. M. B. Crandall, 29th Connecticut, June 8, 1864 Mustard Out Assistant Surgeons J. M. Hawks, Civil Life October 20, 1862 Surgeon 3rd South Carolina Volunteers October 29, 1863 Thos T. Minor, 7th Connecticut, January 18, 1863, resigned November 21, 1864 E. S. Steward, Civil Life September 4, 1865, Mustard Out Chaplain, Jass H. Fowler, Civil Life October 24, 1862, Mustard Out Captains, Chaz T. Trowbridge, New York Volunteer Engineers October 13, 1862 Major, August 11, 1863 W. M. James, 100th Pennsylvania, October 13, 1862, Mustard Out W. J. Randolph, 100th Pennsylvania, October 13, 1862, resigned January 29, 1864 H. A. Whitney, 8th Maine, October 13, 1862 Major, December 9, 1864 Alex Heasley, 100th Pennsylvania, October 13, 1862 Kilda Augusta, September 6, 1865 George Dolly, 8th Maine, November 1, 1862, resigned October 30, 1863 L. W. Metcalf, 8th Maine, November 11, 1862, Mustard Out Jass H. Tonkin, New York Volunteer Engineers November 17, 1862, resigned July 28, 1863 Jass S. Rogers, 51st Massachusetts, December 6, 1862, resigned October 20, 1863 J. H. Thibodeau, Promotion January 10, 1863, Mustard Out George D. Walker, Promotion, July 28, 1863, resigned September 1, 1864 W. M. H. Danlinson, Promotion, July 28, 1863, Major, 128th USCT, May 1865, now the 1st Lieutenant, 40th US Infantry W. M. W. Sampson, Promotion, November 5, 1863, Mustard Out John M. Thompson, Promotion, November 7, 1863, Mustard Out Now 1st Lieutenant and Brevitt Captain, 38th US Infantry ABRW Jackson, Promotion, April 30, 1864, resigned August 15, 1865 Niles G. Parker, Promotion, February 1865, Mustard Out Chaz W. Hooper, Promotion, September 1865, Mustard Out E. C. Merman, Promotion, September 1865, resigned December 4, 1865 E. C. Robbins, Promotion, November 1, 1865, Mustard Out N. S. White, Promotion, November 18, 1865, Mustard Out 1st Lieutenant G. W. Dewhurst, Adjutant, Civil Life, October 20, 1862, resigned August 31, 1865 J. M. Binerham, Quartermaster, Civil Life, October 20, 1862, died from effect of exhaustion on a military expedition, July 20, 1863 G. M. Chamberlain, Quartermaster, 11th Massachusetts Battery, August 29, 1863, Mustard Out G. O. D. Walker, New York Volunteer Engineers, October 13, 1862, Captain, August 11, 1863 W. H. Danlinson, 48th New York, October 13, 1862, Captain, July 26, 1863 J. H. Thibodeau, 8th May, October 13, 1862, Captain, January 10, 1863 F. R. E. White, 8th May, November 14, 1862, resigned March 9, 1864 J. Pomeroy, 100th Pennsylvania, October 13, 1862, resigned February 9, 1863 J. F. Johnston, 100th Pennsylvania, October 13, 1862, resigned March 26, 1863 Jesse Fisher, 48th New York, October 13, 1862, resigned January 26, 1863 J. I. Davis, 8th May, October 13, 1862, resigned February 28, 1863 W. M. Stockdale, 8th May, October 13, 1862, resigned May 2, 1863 J. B. O'Neill, Promotion January 10, 1863, resigned May 2, 1863 W. W. Sampson, Promotion January 10, 1863, Captain, October 30, 1863 J. M. Thompson, Promotion January 22, 1863, Captain, October 30, 1863 R. M. Gaston, Promotion April 15, 1863, killed at Coose 4 Ferry, South Carolina, May 27, 1863 J. B. West, Promotion February 28, 1863, resigned January 14, 1865 N. G. Parker, Promotion May 5, 1863, Captain, February 1865 W. H. Hyde, Promotion May 5, 1863, resigned April 3, 1865 Henry A. Stone, 8th May, January 26, 1863, resigned December 16, 1864 J. A. Trowbridge, Promotion August 11, 1863, resigned November 29, 1864 A. W. Jackson, Promotion August 26, 1863, Captain, April 30, 1864 Chaz E. Parker, Promotion August 26, 1863, resigned November 29, 1864 Chaz W. Hooper, Promotion November 8, 1863, Captain, September 1865 E. C. Merriam, Promotion November 19, 1863, Captain, September 1865 Henry A. Beach, Promotion April 30, 1864, resigned September 23, 1864 E. W. Robbins, Promotion April 30, 1864, Captain, November 1, 1865 Asa Child, Promotion September 1865, musted out N. S. White, Promotion 1865, Captain, November 18, 1865 F. S. Goodrich, Promotion October 1865, musted out E. W. Hyde, Promotion October 27, 1865, musted out Henry Wood, Promotion November 1865, musted out 2nd Lt. J. A. Trowbridge, New York Volunteer Engineers October 13, 1862 1st Lt. August 11, 1863 Jass B. O'Neill, 1st U.S. Artillery October 13, 1862 1st Lt. January 10, 1863 W. W. Samson, 8th May, October 13, 1862 1st Lt. January 10, 1863 J. M. Thompson, 7th New Hampshire October 13, 1862 1st Lt. January 27, 1863 R. M. Gaston, 100th Pennsylvania October 13, 1862 1st Lt. April 15, 1863 W. H. Hyde, 6th Connecticut October 13, 1862 1st Lt. May 5, 1863 Jass B. West, 100th Pennsylvania October 13, 1862 1st Lt. February 28, 1863 Harry C. West, 100th Pennsylvania October 13, 1862 Resigned November 4, 1864 E. C. Merriam, 8th May, November 17, 1862 1st Lt. November 19, 1863 Chaz E. Parker, 8th May, November 17, 1862 1st Lt. August 26, 1863 C. W. Hooper, New York Volunteer Engineers February 17, 1863 1st Lt. April 15, 1863 N. G. Parker, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, March 1863 1st Lt. May 5, 1863 A. H. Terrell, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, March 6, 1863 Resigned July 22, 1863 A. W. Jackson, 8th May, March 6, 1863 1st Lt. August 26, 1863 Henry A. Beech, 48th New York, April 5, 1863 1st Lt. April 30, 1864 E. W. Robbins, 8th May, April 5, 1863 1st Lt. April 30, 1864 A. B. Brown, Civil Life, April 17, 1863 Resigned November 27, 1863 F. M. Gould, 3rd Rhode Island Battery, January 1, 1863 Resigned June 8, 1864 As a child, 8th May, August 7, 1863 1st Lt. September, 1865 J. T. Fordman, 52nd Pennsylvania, August 30, 1863 Killed at Walla Hala, South Carolina, August 26, 1865 John W. Selvidge, 48th New York, September 10, 1863 1st Lt. 36th U.S. Connecticut, March 1865 Moran W. Saxton, Civil Life, November 19, 1863 Captain, 128th U.S. Connecticut, June 25, 1864 Noun, 2nd Lt. 38th U.S. Infantry Nelson S. White, December 22, 1863 1st Lt. September, 1865 E. D. W. W. Hyde, Civil Life, May 4, 1864 1st Lt. October 27, 1865 F. S. Goodrich, 115th New York, May 1864 1st Lt. October, 1865 B. H. Manning, August 11, 1864 Captain, 128th U.S. Connecticut, March 17, 1865 R. M. Davis, 4th Massachusetts Cavalry, November 19, 1864 Captain, 128th U.S. Connecticut, March 17, 1865 Henry Wood, New York Volunteer Engineers, August 1865 1st Lt. November 1865 John M. Seekles, 1st New York Mounted Rifles, June 15, 1865 Mustard Out Appendix B. The First Black Soldiers It is well known that the first systematic attempt to organize colored troops during the War of the Rebellion was the so-called Hunter Regiment. The officer originally detailed to recruit for this purpose was Sergeant C. T. Trowbridge of the New York Volunteer Engineers, Colonel Cerrell. His detail was dated May 7, 1862, S. O. 84, Department South. Enlistments came in very slowly and no wonder. The White officers and soldiers were generally opposed to the experiment and filled the ears of the Negroes with the same tales which had been told them by their masters that the Yankees really meant to sell them to Cuba and the like. The Mardis threats were that they would be made to work without pay, which turned out to be the case, and that they would be put in the front rank in every battle. Nobody could assure them that they and their families would be freed by the government if they fought for it since no such policy had been adopted. Nevertheless, they gradually enlisted, the most efficient recruiting officer being Sergeant William Bronson of Company A and My Regiment, who always prided himself on this service and used to sign himself by the very original title, number one, African Foundations, in commemoration of his deeds. By patience and tact, these obstacles would in time have been overcome. But before long, unfortunately, some of General Hunter's staff became impatient and induced him to take the position that the blacks must enlist. Accordingly, squads of soldiers were sent to seize all able-bodied men of certain plantations and bring them to the camp. The immediate consequence was a renewal of the old suspicion, ending in a widespread belief that they were to be sent to Cuba as their masters had predicted. The ultimate result was a habit of distrust, discontent, and desertion, that it was almost impossible to surmount. All the men who knew anything about General Hunter believed in him, but they all knew that there were bad influences around him and that the government had repudiated his promises. They had been kept four months in service and then had been dismissed without pay. That having been the case, why should not the government equally repudiate General Saxton's promises or mine? As a matter of fact, the government did repudiate these pledges for years, though we had its own written authority to give them. But that matter needs an appendix by itself. The Hunter Regiment remained in camp on Hilton Head Island until the beginning of August 1862, kept constantly under drill, but much demoralized by the desertion. It was then disbanded except one company. That company, under command of Sergeant Trowbridge, then acting as captain but not commissioned, was kept in service and was sent, August 5th, 1862, to Garrison St. Simon's Island on the coast of Georgia. On this island, made famous by Mrs. Kemble's description, there were then 500 colored people and not a single white man. The black soldiers were sent down on the bendy ford, Captain Hallett. On arriving, Trowbridge was at once informed by Commodore Goldsborough, naval commander at that station, that there was a party of rebel guerrillas on the island and was asked whether he would trust his soldiers in pursuit of them. Trowbridge gladly assented and the Commodore added, if you should capture them, it will be a great thing for you. They accordingly went on shore and found that the colored men of the island had already undertaken the enterprise. 25 of them had armed themselves under the command of one of their own number whose name was John Brown. The second in command was Edward Gold, who was afterwards a corporal in my own regiment. The rebel party retreated before these men and drew them into a swamp. There was but one path and the Negroes entered single file. The rebels lay behind a great log and fired upon them. John Brown, the leader, fell dead within six feet of the log, probably the first black man who fell under arms in the war. Several others were wounded and the band of raw recruits retreated, as did also the rebels in the opposite direction. This was the first armed encounter so far as I know between the rebels and their former slaves and it is worth noticing that the attempt was a spontaneous thing and not accompanied by any white man. The men were not soldiers nor in uniform, though some of them afterwards enlisted in Trowbridge's company. The father of this, John Brown, was afterwards a soldier in my regiment and after his discharge for old age was for a time my servant. Uncle York, as we called him, was a good specimen of a saint as ever I met and was quite the equal of Mrs. Stowell's Uncle Tom. He was a fine looking old man with dignified and courtly manners and his gray head was a perfect benediction as he sat with us on the platform at our Sunday meetings. He fully believed to his dying day that the John Brown song related to his son and to him only. Trowbridge, after landing on the island, hunted the rebels all day with his coloured soldiers and a posse of sailors. In one place he found a creek and a canoe with a tar kettle and a fire burning and it was afterwards discovered that at the very moment the gorillas were hidden in a dense palmetto thicket nearby and so a looted pursuit. The rebel leader was one miles hazard who had a plantation on the island and the party escaped at last through the aid of his old slave, Henry, who found them a boat. One of my sergeants, Clarence Kennan, who had not then escaped from slavery was present when they reached the mainland and he described them as being tattered and dirty from head to foot and there are efforts to escape their pursuers. When the troops under my command occupied Jacksonville, Florida in March of the following year we found at the railroad station packed for departure a box of papers, some of them valuable. Among them was a letter from this very hazard to some friend describing the perils of that adventure and saying, if you wish to know hell before your time go to St. Simon's and be hunted ten days by niggers. I've heard Trowbridge say that not one of his men flinched and they seemed to take delight in the pursuit though the weather was very hot and it was fearfully exhausting. This was early in August and the company remained two months at St. Simon's doing picket duty within hearing of the rebel drums though not another scout ever ventured on the island to their knowledge. Every Saturday Trowbridge summoned the island people to drill with his soldiers and they came in hordes, men, women and children in every imaginable garb to the number of one hundred and fifty or two hundred. His own men were poorly clothed and hardly shot at all and as no new supply of uniform was provided they grew more and more ragged. They got poor rations and no pay but they kept up their spirits. Every week or so some of them would go on scouting excursions to the mainland. One scout used to go regularly to his old mother's hut and keep himself hid under her bed while she collected for him all the latest news of rebel movements. This man never came back without bringing recruits with him. At last the news came that Major General Mitchell had come to relieve General Hunter and that Brigadier General Saxton had gone north and Trowbridge went to Hilton Head in some anxiety to see if he and his men were utterly forgotten. He prepared a report showing the services and claims of his men and took it with him. This was early in October, 1862. The first person he met was Brigadier General Saxton who informed him that he had authored to organise 5,000 coloured troops and that he, Trowbridge, should be senior captain of the 1st Regiment. This was accordingly done and Company A of the 1st South Carolina could honestly claim to date its enlistment back to May, 1862 although they never got pay for that period of their service and their date of muster is November, 1862. The above facts were written down from the narration of Lieutenant Colonel Trowbridge who may justly claim to have been the first white officer to recruit and command coloured troops in this war. He was constantly in command of them from May 9, 1862 to February 9, 1866. Except the Louisiana soldiers mentioned in the introduction of whom no detailed reports have, I think, been published, my regiment was unquestionably the first mustered into the service of the United States, the first company mustered bearing date November 7, 1862 and the others following in quick succession. The 2nd Regiment in order of muster was the 1st Kansas Coloured dating from January 13, 1863. The 1st Enlistment in the Kansas Regiment goes back to August 6, 1862 while the earliest technical date of enlistment in my regiment was October 19, 1862 although, as was stated above, one company really dated its organisation back to May, 1862. My musterous colonel dates back to November 10, 1862 several months earlier than that of any other of which I am aware among coloured regiments except that of Colonel Stafford, 1st Louisiana native guards, September 27, 1862. Colonel Williams of the 1st Kansas Coloured was mustered as Lieutenant Colonel on January the 13th, 1863 as Colonel March 8, 1863. These dates I have with the other facts relating to the regiment from Colonel R. J. Hinton, the 1st officer detailed to recruit it. To sum up the above facts, my late regiment had unquestioned priority in the muster over all but the Louisiana regiments. It had priority over those in the actual organisation and term of service of one company. On the other hand, the Kansas Regiment had the priority in average date of enlistment according to the muster rolls. The 1st detachment of the 2nd South Carolina volunteers, Colonel Montgomery, went into camp at Port Royal Island February 23, 1863, numbering 120 men. I do not know the date of this muster. It was somewhat delayed but was probably dated back to about that time. Recruiting for the 54th Massachusetts Coloured began on February 9, 1863 and the 1st squad went into camp Redville, Massachusetts, on February 21, 1863, numbering 25 men. Colonel Shaw's commission and probably his muster was dated April 17, 1863. Report of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts for 1863, page 896 to 899. These were the earliest coloured regiments so far as I know. Appendix C. General Saxton's Instructions The following are the instructions under which my regiment was raised. It will be seen how unequivocal were the provisions in respect to pay upon which so long and wearier contest was waged by our friends in Congress before fulfilment of the contract could be secured. War Department, Washington City, D.C. August 25, 1862. General, your dispatch of the 16th has this moment been received. It is considered by the department that the instructions given at the time of your appointment were sufficient to enable you to do what you have now requested authority for doing. But in order to place your authority beyond all doubt, you are hereby authorised and instructed. First, to organise in any convenient organisation by squads, companies, battalions, regiments and brigades or otherwise, coloured persons of African descent for volunteer labours to a number not exceeding 50,000 and mustered them into the service of the United States for the term of the war at a rate of compensation not exceeding $5 per month for common labourers and $8 per month for mechanical or skilled labourers and assign them to the quartermaster's department to do and perform such labour's duty as may be required during the present war and to be subject to the rules and articles of war. Second, the labouring forces herein authorised shall under the order of the general-in-chief or of this department be detailed by the quartermaster general for labouring service with the armies of the United States and they shall be clothed and subsisted after enrolment in the same manner as any other person in the quartermaster's service. Third, in view of the small force under your command and the inability of the government at the present time to increase it in order to guard the plantations and settlements occupied by the United States from invasion and protect the inhabitants thereof from captivity and a murder by the enemy, you are also authorised to arm, uniform, equip and receive into the service of the United States such number of volunteers of African descent as you may deem expedient, not exceeding $5,000 and may detail officers to instruct them in military drill, discipline and duty and to command them. The persons so received into the service and their officers to be entitled to and receive the same pay and rations as are allowed by law to volunteers in the service. Fourth, you will occupy if possible all the islands and plantations here to fore occupied by the government and secure and harvest the crops and cultivate and improve the plantations. Fifth, the population of African descent that cultivate the lands and perform the labour of the rebels constitute a large share of their military strength and enable the white masters to fill the rebel armies and wage a cruel and murderous war against the people of the northern states. By reducing the labouring strength of the rebels their military power will be reduced. You are therefore authorised by every means in your power to withdraw from the enemy their labouring force and population and to spare no effort consistent with civilised warfare to weaken, harass and annoy them and to establish the authority of the government of the United States within your department. Sixth, you may turn over to the navy any number of coloured volunteers that may be required for the naval service. Seventh, by recent act of Congress all men and boys received into the service of the United States who may have been the slaves of rebel masters are with their wives, mothers and children declared to be forever free. You and all in your command will so treat and regard them. Yours truly, Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War Brigadier General Saxton. Appendix D. The Struggle for Pay The story of the attempt to cut down the pay of the coloured troops is too long, too complicated and too humiliating to be here narrated. In the case of my regiment there stood on record the direct pledge of the War Department to General Saxton that their pay should be the same as that of the whites. So clear was this that our kind paymaster Major W. J. Wood of the New Jersey took upon himself the responsibility of paying the price agreed upon for five months till he was compelled by express orders to reduce it from $13 per month to $10 and from that to $7 the pay of quartermasters men and day labourers. At the same time the stoppages from the pay rolls for the loss of all equipment and articles of clothing remain the same as for all other soldiers so that it placed the men in the most painful and humiliating condition. Many of them had families to provide for and between the actual distress the sense of wrong the taunts of those who had refused to enlist from the fear of being cheated and the doubt how much further the cheat might be carried the poor fellows were goaded to the utmost. In the 3rd South Carolina regiment Sergeant William Walker was shot by order of court-martial for leading his company to stack arms before their captain's tent on the avowed aground that they were released from duty by the refusal of the government to fulfill its share of the contract. The fear of such tragedies spread a cloud of solicitude over every camp of coloured soldiers for more than a year and the following series of letters will show through what weirisome labour the final triumph of justice was secured. In these labour the chief credit must be given to my admirable adjutant Lieutenant G. W. Dewhurst In the matter of bounty justice is not yet obtained there is a discrimination against those coloured soldiers who were slaves on April 19, 1861. Every officer who through indolence or benevolent design claimed on his muster rolls that all his men had been free on that day secured for them the bounty while every officer who like myself obeyed orders and told the truth in each case saw his men and their families suffer for it as I have done. A bill to abolish this distinction was introduced by Mr. Wilson at the last session but failed to pass the House. It is hoped that next winter may remove this last vestige of the weary contest. To show how persistently and for how long a period these claims had to be urged on Congress I reprint such of my own printed letters on the subject as are now in my possession. There are one or two of which I have no copies it was especially in the Senate that it was so difficult to get justice done and our thanks will always be a special to Hon. Charles Sumner and Hon. Henry Wilson for their advocacy of our simple rights. The records of those sessions will show who advocated the fraud. To the editor of the New York Tribune Sir no one can overstate the intense anxiety with which the officers of coloured regiments in this department are awaiting action from Congress in regard to arrears of pay of their men. It is not a matter of dollars and cents only. It is a question of common honesty whether the United States government has sufficient integrity for the fulfillment of an explicit business contract. The public seems to suppose that all required justice will be done by the passage of a bill equalizing the pay of all soldiers for the future. But so far as my own regiment is concerned this is but half the question. My men have been nearly 16 months in the service and for them the immediate issue is the question of arrears. They understand the matter thoroughly. If the public do not every one of them knows that he volunteered under an explicit written assurance from the ward department that he should have the pay of a white soldier. He knows that for five months the regiment received that pay after which it was cut down from the promised $13 per month to $10 for some reason to him inscrutable. He does not know for I have not yet dared to tell the men that the Master has been already reproved for by the pay department for fulfilling even in part the pledges of the ward department that at the next payment the $10 are to be further reduced to $7. And that, to crown the whole, all the previous overpay is to be again deducted or stopped from the future wages thus leaving them little more than $1 a month for six months to come unless Congress interfere. Yet so clear with the terms of the contract have an examine the original instructions from the ward department issued to Brigadier General Saxton military governor admits to me under date of December 4th 1863 that the faith of the government was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier enlisted under that call. He goes on to express the generous confidence that the pledge will be honorably fulfilled. I observe that everyone at the north seems to fill the same confidence but that meanwhile the pledge is unfulfilled. Nothing is said in Congress about fulfilling it. I have not seen even a proposition in Congress to pay the colored soldiers from the date of enlistment that same pay with white soldiers and yet anything short of that is an unequivocal breach of the contract so far as this regiment is concerned. Meanwhile the land sales are beginning and there is danger of every foot of land being sold from beneath my soldiers feet because they have not the petty sum which government first promised to use to pay. The officer's pay comes promptly and fully enough but this makes the position more embarrassing. For how are we to explain to the men the mystery that government can afford us a hundred or two dollars a month and yet must keep back six of their poor thirteen which was promised them? Does it not naturally suggest the most cruel suspicions in regard to us? And yet nothing but their childlike faith in their officers and in that incartinent soul of honor General Saxton has made their faith or kept them patient thus far. There is nothing mean or mercenary about these men in general. Convince them that the government actually needs their money and they would serve it barefooted and on half rations and without a dollar for a time. But unfortunately they see white soldiers beside them whom they know to be in no way their superiors for any military service receiving hundreds of dollars for re-enlisting for this impoverished government which can only pay seven dollars and thirteen to its black regiments. And they see on the other hand those colored men who refused to volunteer as soldiers and who have found more honest paymasters than the United States government now exulting in well-filled pockets unable to buy the little homesteads the soldiers need and to turn the soldiers' families into the streets. Is this a school for self-sacrificing patriotism? I should not thus speak urgently were it not becoming manifest that there is to be no promptness of action in Congress, even as regards the future pay of colored soldiers and that there is a special danger of the whole matter of arrears going by default. Should it be so it will be a repudiation more ungenerous than any which Jefferson Davis advocated or Sidney Smith denounced. It will sully with dishonor all the nobleness of this opening page of history and fix upon the north a brand of meanness worse than either Southerner or Englishman the mere delay in the fulfillment of this contract has already inflicted untold suffering has impaired discipline, has relaxed loyalty and has begun to implant a feeling of sullen distrust in the very regiment whose early career solved the problem of the nation created a new army and made a peaceful emancipation possible D. W. Higginson, Colonel commanding 1st South Carolina Volunteers, Beaufort SC January 22nd, 1864 Headquarters 1st South Carolina Volunteers Beaufort SC Sunday, February 14th, 1864 to the editor of the New York Times May I venture to call your attention to the great and cruel injustice which is impending over the brave men of this regiment. They have been in military service for over a year having volunteered every man without a scent of bounty on the written pledge of the war department that they should receive the same pay and rations with white soldiers. This pledge is contained in the written instructions of Brigadier General Saxton, military governor, dated August 25th, 1862. Mr. Solicitor Whiting, having examined these instructions, admits to me that the faith of the government was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier under that call. Surely if this fact were understood, every man in the nation would see that the government is degraded by using for a year forces of the brave soldiers and then repudiating the contract under which they enlisted. This is what will be done should Mr. Wilson's bill legalizing the back pay of the army be defeated. We presume too much on the supposed ignorance of these men. I have never yet found a man in my regiment so stupid as to not know when he was cheated. If fraud proceeds from the government itself, so much the worse, for this strikes at the foundation of all rectitude, all obligation. Mr. Senator Fessenden said in the debate on Mr. Wilson's bill January 4th, that the government was not bound by the unauthorized promises of irresponsible recruiting officers. But is the government itself an irresponsible recruiting officer? And if men have volunteered in good faith on the written assurances of the Secretary of War is not Congress bound in all decency either to fulfill those pledges or to disband the regiments? Mr. Senator Doolittle argued in the same debate that white soldiers should receive higher pay than black ones because the families of the latter were often supported by government. What an astounding statement of fact is this. In the white regiments in which I was formerly an officer the Massachusetts 51st 9 tenths of the soldiers' families in addition to the pay embounties drew regularly their state aid. Among my black soldiers with half pay and not a bounty not a family receives any aid is there to be no limit, no end to the injustice we heap upon this unfortunate people? Cannot even the fact of their being in arms for the nation liable to die any day in its defence secure them ordinary justice? Is the nation so poor and so utterly demoralized by its pauperism that after it has had the lives of these men it must turn round to filch six dollars of the monthly pay which the Secretary of War promised to their widows? It is even so if the excuses of Mr. Fressenden and Mr. Doolittle are to be accepted by Congress and by the people. Very respectfully your obedience servant T.W. Higginson, Colonel commanding 1st S.C. volunteers New victories and old wrongs to the editors of the evening post. On the 2nd of July at James Island, South Carolina a battery was taken by three regiments under the following circumstances The regiments were the 103rd New York White the 53rd United States formerly South Carolina volunteers and the 55th Massachusetts the two last being coloured They marched as one AM by the flank in the above order hoping to surprise the battery As usual the rebels were prepared for them and opened upon them as they were deep in one of those almost impassable southern marshes The 103rd New York which had previously been in 20 battles was thrown into confusion. The 33rd United States did better being behind The 55th Massachusetts being in the rear did better still All three formed in line when Colonel Hartwell commanding the brigade gave the order to retreat The officer commanding the 55th Massachusetts either misunderstanding the order or hearing it countermandered ordered his regiment to charge This order was at once repeated by major Trailbridge commanding the 33rd United States and by the commander of the 103rd New York so that the three regiments reached the fort in reversed order The colour bearers of the 33rd United States and of the 55th Massachusetts had a race to be the first in the latter winning The 103rd New York entered the battery immediately after These coloured regiments are two of the five which were enlisted in South Carolina and Massachusetts under the written pledge of the war department that they should have the same pay for the military services as white soldiers That pledge has been deliberately broken by the war department or by congress or by both Accept as to the short period since New Year's day every one of those killed in action from these two coloured regiments under a fire before which the veterans of 20 battles recoiled died defrauded by the government of nearly one half his petty pay Mr. Fessenden who defeated in the senate the bill for the fulfilment of the contract with these soldiers is now secretary was the economy of saving six dollars per man worth to the treasury the ignomy of the repudiation Mr. Stevens of Pennsylvania on his triumphal return to his constituents used to them this language he had no doubt whatever as the final result of the present contest between liberty and slavery the only doubt he had was whether the nation had yet been satisfactorily chastised for their cruel oppression of a harmless and long suffering race it was Mr. Stevens himself who induced the House of Representatives most unexpectedly to all to defeat the senate bill for the fulfilment of the national contract with these soldiers I should think he had excellent reasons for the doubt very respectfully T. W. Higginson Colonel 1st South Carolina Volunteers now 33rd US July 10th 1864 to the editor of the New York Tribune no one can possibly be so weary of reading of the wrongs done by the government towards the coloured soldiers as am I of writing about them this is my only excuse for intruding upon your columns again by an order of the war department dated 1st August 1864 it is at length ruled that coloured soldiers shall be paid the full pay of soldiers from date of enlistment provided they were free on April 19th 1861 not otherwise and this distinction is to be noted on the pay roles in other words if one half of a company escaped from slavery on April 18th 1861 they are to be paid $13 per month and allowed $3 and half per month for clothing if the other half were delayed two days they receive $7 per month and are allowed $3 per month for precisely the same articles of clothing if one of the former classes made for a sergeant US pay is put up to $21 per month but if he escaped two days later his pay is estimated at $7 it had not occurred to me that anything could make the pay roles of these regiments more complicated than at present or the men more rationally discontented I had not the ingenuity to imagine such an order yet it is no doubt in accordance with the spirit if not with the letter of the final bill which was adopted by congress under the lead of Mr Taddeus Stevens the ground taken by Mr Stevens apparently was that the country might honorably save a few dollars by docking the promised pay of these colored soldiers whom the war had made free but the government should have thought this through before it made a contract with these men and received their services when the war department instructed Brigadier General Saxton August 25, 1862 to raise five regiments of Negroes in South Carolina it was known very well that the men so enlisted had only recently gained their freedom but the instruction said the person so received into service and their officers to be entitled to and received the same pay and rations as those are allowed by law to volunteers in the service of this passage Mr Solicitor Whiting wrote to me I have no hesitation in saying that the faith of the government was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier enlisted under that call where is that faith of the government now the men who enlisted under the pledge were volunteers every one to get their freedom by enlisting they had it all ready they enlisted to serve the government trusting to its honor now the nation turns upon them and says you're part of the contract is fulfilled we have had your services if you can show that you had previously been free for a certain length of time we will fulfill the other side of the contract if not we repudiate it help yourselves if you can in other words a freed man since April 1961 has no rights which a white man is bound to respect he is incapable of making a contract no man is bound by a contract made with him any employer following the example of the United States government may make with him a written agreement receive his services and then withhold the wages he has no motive to honest industry or to honesty of any kind he is virtually a slave and nothing else to the end of time under this order the greater part of the country which constitutes its color regiments will get their pay at last and be able to take their wives and children out of the arms houses to which as Governor Andrew informs us the gracious charity of the nation has consigned so many for so much I am grateful but towards my regiment which has been in service and under fire months before a northern colored soldier was recruited the policy of repudiation has at last been officially adopted there is no alternative to the offices of South Carolina regiments there is no other session of Congress and meanwhile if necessary act as executioners for those soldiers who like Sergeant Walker refused to fulfill their share of a contract where the government has openly repudiated the other share if a year's discussion however has at length secured the arrears of pay for the northern colored regiments possibly two years may secure it for the southern T.W. Higginson Colonel 1st South Carolina Volunteers now 33rd US of 1864 to the editor of the New York Tribune Sir, an impression seems to prevail in newspapers that the lately published opinion of Attorney General Bates dated in July last at length secures justice to the colored soldiers in respect to who arrears of pay this impression is a mistake that opinion does indeed show that there was never any excuse for refusing them justice does not of itself secure justice to them it logically covers the whole ground and was doubtless intended to do so but technically it can only apply to those soldiers who were free at the commencement of the war for it was only about these that the Attorney General was officially consulted under this decision the northern colored regiments have already got their arrears of pay and those few members of the southern regiments who were free on April 1861 but in the south Carolina regiments this only increases the dissatisfaction among the remainder who volunteered under the same pledge of full pay from the war department and who do not see how the question of their status at some antecedent period can affect an express contract if in 1862 they were free enough to make a bargain with they were certainly free enough to claim its fulfillment the unfortunate decision of Mr. Solicitor under which all our troubles arose is indeed superseded by the reasoning of the Attorney General but unhappily this does not remedy the evil which is already embodied in an act of congress making the distinction between those who were and those who were not free on April 19th 1861 the question is whether those who were not free at the breaking out of the war are still to be defrauded after the Attorney General has shown that there is no excuse for defrauding them I call it defrauding because it is not a question of abstract justice but of the fulfillment of an express contract I have never met with a man whatever might be his opinions as to the enlistment of coloured soldiers who did not admit that if they had volunteered under the direct pledge of full pay from the war department they were entitled to every cent of it that these South Carolina regiments had such direct pledge is undoubted for it still exists in writing and by the secretary of war and has never been disputed it is therefore the plain duty of congress to repeal the law which discriminates between different classes of coloured soldiers or at least to so modify it as to secure the fulfillment of the actual contracts until this is done the nation is still disgraced the few thousand dollars in question are nothing compared with the absolute wrong done and the discredit it has brought both here and in Europe upon the national name T. W. Higginson late colonel first South Carolina volunteers now 33rd US Newport, Rhode Island December 8th 1864 petition to the Honourable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in congress assembled the undersigned respectfully petitions for the repeal of so much of section 4 of the act of congress making appropriations for the army and approved July 4th 1864 as makes a distinction in respect to pay due between those coloured soldiers who were free on or before April 19th 1861 and those who were not free until a later date or at least that there may be such legislation as to secure the fulfillment of the pledges of full pay from a date of enlistment made by direct authority of the war department to the coloured soldiers of South Carolina on the faith of which pledges they enlisted. Thomas went with Higginson late colonel first South Carolina volunteers now 33rd US Newport, Rhode Island December 9th 1864 Appendix E farewell address of Lieutenant Colonel Troutbridge Headquarters 33rd United States Coloured Troops late first South Carolina volunteers Morris Island South Carolina February 9th 1866 General Orders Number 1 Comrades the hour is at hand when we must separate forever and nothing can take from us the pride we feel when we look back upon the history of the first South Carolina volunteers the first black regiment that ever bought arms in defence of freedom on the continent of America on the 9th day of May 1862 at which time there was nearly four millions of your race in bondage sanctioned by the laws of the land and protected by our flag on that day in the face of floods of prejudice that well-nigh deluged every avenue to manhood and true liberty you came forth to do battle for your country and your kindred for long and weary months without pay or even privilege of being recognised as soldiers you laboured on only to be disbanded and sent to your homes without even a hope of reward and when our country necessitated by the deadly struggle with armed traitors finally granted you with opportunity again to come forth in defence of the nation's life the clarity with which you responded to gave abundant evidence of your readiness to strike a manly blow for the liberty of your race and from that little band of hopeful trusting and brave men who gathered at Camp Saxton on Port Royal Island in the fall of 1862 amidst the terrible prejudices that then surrounded us has grown an army of 140,000 black soldiers whose valour and heroism has won your race a name which will live as long as the undying pages of history shall endure and by whose efforts united with those of the white man armed rebellion has been conquered the millions of bond men have been emancipated and the fundamental law of the land has been so altered as to remove forever the possibility of human slavery being reestablished within the borders of redeemed America the flag of our fathers restored to its rightful significance now floats over every foot of our territory from Maine to California and beholds only free men the prejudices which formerly existed against you are well nigh rooted out soldiers you have done your duty and acquitted yourselves like men who actuated by such ennobling motives could not fail and as the result of your fidelity and obedience you have won your freedom and oh how great the reward it seems fitting to me that the last hours of our existence as a regiment should be passed amidst the unmarked graves of your comrades at Fort Wagner near you rest the bones of Colonel Shaw buried by an enemy's hand in the same grave with his black soldiers who fell at his side where in future your children and children's children will come on pilgrimages to do homage to the ashes of those who fell in this glorious struggle the flag which was presented to us by Reverend George B. Shiva and his congregation of New York City on the 1st of January 1863 the day when Lincoln's Immortal Proclamation of Freedom was given to the world and which you have borne so nobly through the war is now to be rolled up forever and deposited in our nation's capital and while there it shall rest with the battles in which you have participated inscribed upon its folds it will be a source of pride to us all to remember that it has never been disgraced by cowardly faltering in the hour of danger or polluted by a traitor's touch now that you are to lay aside your arms and return to the peaceful applications of life I abjure you by the associations and history of the past and the love you bear for your liberties to harbour no feelings of hatred towards your former masters but to seek in the paths of honesty virtue, sobriety and industry and by willing obedience to the laws of the land to grow up to the full stature of American citizens the church, the schoolhouse and the right forever to be free are now secured to you and every prospect before you is full of hope and encouragement the nation guarantees to you full protection and justice and will require from you in every return the respect for the laws and orderly deportment which will prove to everyone your right to have all the privileges of free men to the officers of your regiment I would say your toils are ended your mission is fulfilled and we separate forever the fidelity patience and patriotism with which you have discharged your duties to your men and to your country entitle you to a far higher tribute than any words of thankfulness which I can give you from the bottom of my heart you will find your reward in the proud conviction that the cause for which you have battled so nobly has been crowned with abundant success officers and soldiers of the 33rd United States Colour Troops and the South Carolina Volunteers I bid you all farewell by order of Lieutenant Colonel C.T. Trowbridge commanding regiment E.W. Hyde Lieutenant and act inagent end of appendix recording by FNH visit www.bookranger.co.uk