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 (
Col. Serrell). His detail was dated May 7, 1862, S. O. 84 Dept.
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
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Yankees really meant to sell them to
Cuba, and the like.
The mildest 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, in my regiment, who always prided himself on this service, and used to sign himself by the very original title, “No. 1, 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 the able-bodied men on certain plantations, and bring them to the camp.
The immediate consequence was a renewal of the old suspicion, ending in a wide-spread 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 desertion.
It
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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 5, 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 five hundred colored people, and not a single white man.
The black soldiers were sent down on the
Ben De 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 guerillas 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.
Twenty-five 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 Gould, 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
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time, my servant.
“Uncle York,” as we called him, was as good a specimen of a saint as I have ever met, and was quite the equal of
Mrs. Stowe'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 colored soldiers, and a posse of sailors.
In one place, he found by a creek a canoe, with a tar-kettle, and a fire burning; and it was afterwards discovered that, at that very moment, the guerillas were hid in a dense palmetto thicket, near by, and so eluded 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 Kennon, who had not then escaped from slavery, was present when they reached the main-land; and he described them as being tattered and dirty from head to foot, after their efforts to escape their pursuers.
When the troops under my command occupied
Jacksonville, Fla., 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 have 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
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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 shod 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 main-land; 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 authority to organize five thousand colored troops, and that he (
Trowbridge) should be senior captain of the first regiment.
This was accordingly done; and Company A of the First 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 was November 15, 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 colored 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
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into the service of the
United States; the first company muster bearing date, November 7, 1862, and the others following in quick succession.
The second regiment in order of muster was the “First Kansas colored,” dating from January 13, 1863.
The first 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 organization back to May, 1862.
My muster as colonel dates back to November 10, 1862, several months earlier than any other of which I am aware, among colored regiments, except that of
Colonel Stafford (First Louisiana Native Guards), September 27, 1862.
Colonel Williams, of the “First Kansas colored,” was mustered as lieutenant-colonel on January 13, 1863; as colonel, March 8, 1863.
These dates I have (with the other facts relating to the regiment) from
Colonel R. J. Hinton, the first officer detailed to recruit it.
To sum up the above facts: my late regiment had unquestioned priority in muster over all but the
Louisiana regiments.
It had priority over those in the actual organization 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 first detachment of the Second South Carolina Volunteers (
Colonel Montgomery) went into camp at
Port Royal Island, February 23, 1863, numbering one hundred and twenty men. I do not know the date of his muster; it was somewhat delayed, but was probably dated back to about that time.
Recruiting for the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts (colored) began on February 9, 1863, and the first squad went into camp at Readville, Massachusetts, on February 21, 1863, numbering twenty-five men.
Colonel Shaw's commission (and probably his muster) was dated April 17, 1863.
(Roport of
Adjutant-General of
Massachusetts for 1863, pp. 896--899.)
These were the earliest colored regiments, so far as I know.
