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Browsing named entities in Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Massachusetts in the Army and Navy during the war of 1861-1865, vol. 1: prelminary narrative. You can also browse the collection for G. L. Stearns or search for G. L. Stearns in all documents.

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Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Massachusetts in the Army and Navy during the war of 1861-1865, vol. 1: prelminary narrative, Preliminary narrative. (search)
egiments of the year 1862. The first colored regiment recruited by any Eastern State was the 54th Mass. (Feb. 9, 1863), commanded by Col. R. G. Shaw, whose subsequent death and burial among his soldiers at Fort Wagner was the most picturesque and striking event in the whole career of this class of troops. This, like the 55th, consisted mainly of free negroes. Later, the large enlistment of colored troops in the slave States was mainly under the charge of Maj.-Gen. G. L. Andrews and Maj. G. L. Stearns, both Massachusetts men. Such also was Maj.-Gen. N. P. Banks, whose organization of the colored troops at New Orleans into the Corps D'Afrique, though in some respects injudiciously planned, His organization of regiments of only half the usual size, with a full complement of officers for each, was peculiarly unfortunate; for it created the impression that the new levies offered peculiar difficulties in respect to drill and discipline, an impression which proved quite opposite to the