Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to inform this House if Gen. Hunter, of the Department of South Carolina, has organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers for the defense of the Union, composed of Black men (fugitive slaves), and appointed the Colonel and other officers to command them. 2. Was lie authorized by the Department to organize and muster into the Army of the United States, as soldiers, the fugitive or captured slaves? 3. Has he been furnished with clothing, uniforms, etc., for such force? 4. Has he been furnished, by order of the War Department, with arms to be placed in the hands of these slaves? 5. To report any orders given said Hunter, and correspondence between him and the Department.Secretary Stanton replied3 that Gen. Hunter had not been authorized to organize and muster into the service of the United States either fugitive or captured slaves, nor had he been furnished with clothing or arms for such slaves; and further, that the Government's orders to and correspondence with Gen. Hunter on this subject could not be published at this time without prejudice to the public welfare. But, some dayslater,4 he made a further report, covering a letter5 from Gen. Hunter, in reply to one addressed6 to him by the Adjutant-General, asking for information on the subject; wherein Gen. H. makes answer to Mr. Wickliffe's several inquiries as follows:
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and arming became the order of the day, a number of Blacks quietly hired a public hall and commenced drilling therein, in view of the possibility of a call to active service, they were promptly notified by the Chief of Police that they must desist from these military exercises, or he could not protect them from popular indignation and assault.
They had no choice but to do as they were bidden.
Gen. Hunter, while in command at Hilton Head, was the first to direct the organization of colored men as soldiers, soon after issuing his order of general Emancipation throughout his department, already recorded.1 This movement elicited2 from Mr. Wickliffe, of Ky., in the House, the following resolution of inquiry:
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