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Chapter 6: the Colored troops — history of their organization — their losses in battle and by disease.
Wherever black regiments were engaged in battle during the
Civil War, they acquitted themselves in a manner which fully justified the policy of the
Government in enlisting their services.
In the future wars of the
Republic the colored
American will find himself entrusted with his full share of tie fighting.
And yet, the war for the
Union was not the first one in which the African fought for the Stars and Stripes.
Black faces were not uncommon among the ranks of the patriots in 1776.
The first man to fall in that struggle was the negro
1 who led the mob in its attack on the
British troops at the
Boston Massacre.
At
Bunker Hill, the free negroes fought intermingled with the whites; and, when
Major Pitcairn was killed, it was by a bullet from a negro's rifle.
At the
battle of Rhode Island,
Colonel Greene's black regiment repulsed three successive charges, during which they handled a Hessian regiment severely.
2 In the war of 1812,
General Jackson issued a proclamation authorizing the formation of black regiments, and, subsequently, in an address to the colored troops thus enlisted, acknowledged their services in unstinted praise.
But, at the time of the
Civil War the negro was closely associated in the public mind with the political causes of the strife.
The prejudice and opposition against the use of colored troops was so strong that the war was half finished before they were organized to any extent.
The first appearance of the negro in the military operations of that period occurred, September, 1862, in
Cincinnati, at the time of the threatened invasion by
Morgan's raiders.
A so-called Black Brigade of three regiments was then organized, and assigned to duty in constructing the fortifications and earthworks about
Cincinnati.
These men gave their services voluntarily, but were unarmed and without uniforms.
Their organizations, such as it was, existed for three weeks only, and had no connection with the movement for enlisting colored troops.
About this same time
General Butler took the initiative in the enlistment of colored men as soldiers, by organizing at new
Orleans the regiments known as the Louisiana Native Guards, one of which completed its organization in August, 1862, and was mustered into service on the 27th of the following month.
It was designated the First Louisiana Native Guard, and was the first black regiment to join the
Union Army.
The Second Louisiana Native Guard
