THE WAUPACA REPUBLICAN

August 2, 1889

 

SAMBO AS A SOLDIER.

THE PART PLAYED BY THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAR.

 

Simon Cameron Was the First to Suggest His Enlistment – General Chetlain Organized the First Black Brigades – Over 200,000 Entered the Ranks, and They Made Average Good Soldiers.

 

            The first person to suggest recruiting and arming the Negroes of the South for service in the Union army was the late Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War under President Lincoln.  This was in 1862, and the question was considered by the President and Cabinet, resulting in its rejection.  President Lincoln did not think the scheme good policy, although personally in favor of it, for the reason that it would antagonize a large element in the army and throughout the North, who, although in favor of pushing the war and saving the Union, would bitterly oppose making soldiers of the Negro, as they considered it a white man’s war exclusively, in which the colored man must have no say.

            The President’s view of the matter was shared by a majority of the Cabinet, and the sub-ject was kept in abeyance until after the promulgation of the emancipation proclamation, when it was brought forward and adopted.

            Secretary of War Stanton, who had succeeded Cameron, was as heartily in favor of the move as the President himself, and lost no time in beginning active operations by placing General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General of the United States army, in charge of the work.

            This was early in 1863, and in the spring of that year General A. L. Chetlain, now a well-known resident of Chicago, then in command of the post at Corinth, acting under instructions from Gen. G. M. Dodge, commanding the district, raised a full regiment of freedmen, they being the first colored troops put in service north of New Orleans.

            In December, 1863, General Chetlain was commissioned a Brigadier General and ordered to report to General Grant, at Nashville, for assignment to duty.  Repairing to Nashville, he was informed by General Grant that he had a large and important work to be done in Tennessee and Western Kentucky, in the way of raising colored troops, which he wished him to superintend, as he believed him well qualified for the task of enlisting and organizing the freedmen into an avail-able and efficient body of soldiers.

            It may be stated that Generals Grant and Chetlain were well acquainted, they both having lived at Galena prior to the war, and, together with General Rawlins and others who afterward won fame in the army, raised the first company of volunteers sent to the war from that region, and which General Chetlain had the honor of commanding, General Grant, to whom the honor was first tendered, having declined.

            General Chetlain was informed by General Grant that the policy of putting colored troops in the service was not popular among army officers, and if he did not feel like assuming the responsibility of the work, he did not want him to take hold of it; that it was a task he felt a delicacy in ordering him to.

            Being assured by General Chetlain that he was there to obey orders, and that he need feel no delicacy in assigning him to any required duty, General Grant continued that he believed he (Chetlain) could make a success of the work, and if he did, it would be greatly to his credit; that he believed the black men of the South would make good soldiers if properly handled; that they would naturally lean on their officers much more than the white man; and, if given good officers, there would be little difficulty in transforming them into soldiers, in a reasonable length of time, that would be a credit to the army of the Union.

            How well Gen. Grant had gauged the quality of the freedmen and the man he chose to organize them into an army, is a matter of history.

            Other officer, high in rank, did not agree with Grant on this question, being free in asserting their belief that “Sambo” could not be transformed into a soldier under from one to two years’ drilling, and even then he would be of doubtful quality.  But Gen. Chetlain’s belief in the capacity of the Negro coincided with that of Grant’s and he at once entered heartily upon the work of recruiting. At the end of eight months he had in his command seventeen full regiments of infantry, two regiments of heavy, and two companies of light artillery.  These and all subsequent colored troops were officered by white men from the Union army, chosen by examining boards, comprised usually of seven army officers, before whom candidates had to present themselves properly vouched for as to good moral character and soldierly qualities.  After a rigid examina-tion, the board would give them such rank as their merits deserved.

            Under this merit system it frequently happened that a private from the ranks would receive a commission as Captain or Major, while some Lieutenant, who owed his present position to a political pull, was rejected.  Hence the colored troops were, as a rule, better officered than the majority of white volunteers, and any Union veteran who was an officer of colored troops during the war may justly feel proud of the fact, for it is proof positive that he possessed merit as a soldier, and did not in any way owe his position to favoritism.

            In June, 1864, central and eastern Kentucky was added to General Chetlain’s field of operations, with headquarters at Louisville.  Great opposition at once sprang up in Kentucky against the Government’s putting the blacks of that state in the army.  The people of the State considered it an unwarrantable proceeding on the part of the Government and a flagrant disregard of States’ rights, so dear to their hearts.  As Kentucky, being neutral ground, was not directly included in the emancipation proclamation, the people looked upon the enlistment of their slaves as a violation of rights not to be endured.  So bitter was the feeling against the movement and those engaged in it, that it was reported the Knight of the Golden Circle had under contemplation the assassination of General Chetlain.

            A large delegation of prominent Kentuckians hastened to Washington, and, with the members of Congress from that State, waited upon, or, rather, rushed upon, President Lincoln with such an array of appeals, protests and pleadings as to induce him to rescind the order for enlisting colored troops from their domain.

            General Chetlain thereupon returned to his former post, as Memphis, and continued oper-ations in Tennessee and Western Kentucky.

            Wherever the colored troops were tested in battle they were found to be at least up to the average as to efficiency and bravery, and, in not a few instances, proved themselves second to none.  One of many instances in proof of this was shown at the battle of Nashville, where a brigade of four regiments under command of Col. T. J. Morgan, who for several years after the war was a professor in the Baptist Theological Seminary at Morgan park, near Chicago, held the extreme left of the Union lines, forming a part of General Steedman’s command, and had the honor of charging the enemy’s several pieces of artillery, meeting with great loss to themselves in killed and wounded.

            In this charge one regiment lost no less than four color bearers; one after another of the color guard gallantly snatched up the flag when his predecessor fell the fourth man falling mortally wounded as he planted the colors on the enemy’s works.  After this feat Gen. Steedman, who had been skeptical as to the fighting qualities of the black men, was free to confess that he regarded them as brave and efficient in battle as the average white troops.

            It will be remembered that the colored regiment raised in Illinois in 1863 and commanded by Colonel Bross did some gallant work at Petersburg when the mines were exploded, at which time Colonel Bross was killed while gallantly leading the regiment.

            The Negro soldier had one peculiarity, differing from his white brother in that he seldom, if ever, when routed by the enemy, threw away gun or knapsack in his retreat.

            In the retreat after the battle of Guntown, in the summer of 1864, when Forrest completely routed the troops under General Sturgis, who retreated pell-mell ina sadly demoralized condition to Memphis, sixty miles away, the white soldiers threw away guns and knapsacks, while the darky invariably clung to his.  In fact, not a few of them came into Memphis carrying two guns each.  One of these, when accosted by an officer as to how he came by two guns, answered, “Why, boss, I done foun’ dis odder gun ‘longside da road, an’, seein’ it’s a good gun, tinks I’s done bring it ‘long, so it don’t done gone an’ be lost!”

            Wherever the colored troops were employed in forts, where heavy artillery was used, guarding supply depots, and doing other duty along the coast of defenses, they were found to per-form their duties most efficiently.

            In the autumn of 1864 General Lorenzo Thomas reported that there were on the rolls and fit for duty 179,000 colored troops in the service.  This would make an aggregate in round numbers of 200,000 enlisted men, no mean army of itself, and of which the colored men of the United States may justly feel proud.

            General Chetlain was brevetted Major General for his services in the raising of this army, and General Lorenzo Thomas, in his report to the War Department in 1865, paid him a high com-pliment for the manner in which he had carried out his orders.