The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-28
NEGRO UNION SOLDIERS.
Massachusetts, Part in Mastering
Them Into Service.

Fifty-ffth Ever Saw the Bay State.
First Enlisted by Gen. Butler in
1862 at Camp Parapet-His At
tempts to officer Them With Men of
Their own Race.
From the New York Times.
The interest with which everything re-
lating to the war eff secession is read
twenty nine years after it's close shows
how lasting was the impression it made
on those who were witnesses of many of
the events Of that stirring epoch That
some mistakes should be made in its his
tory might naturally be expected, but the
more important incidents should be easy
to remember. These observations are
made because the other day it was stated
in Boston journal that the first negro
regiments ever recruited and mustered
in the United States service were known
as the Fifty fourth ana F9fty-fifth Massa-
chusetts, commanded by Coils. Higginson
and Shaw, respectively. Though credited
to the quota of Massachusetts, in reality
these regiments had not twenty men in
them who ever saw that state.
The very first negro troops ever mus
IbTCu as OUlIGQ obhlbS volunteers were
enlisted at Camp Parapet about six miles
above the city of New Orleans in August,
1862, long before the emancipation procla-
nation was Issued and almost two years
before the two regiments mentioned We're
organi ed. They were recruited from an
immense camp Of ''cOntrabdnd" fugitives
that had gathered In the wake Of the
union army, and in order that they might
be kept under some kind of discipline and
Int
camp pending the orders of Mai Gen
Butler from Washington respecting the
disposition to be made of them. The force
recruited there consisted of three regi-
ments of 200 men each, and two batter.
les, and they were completely organized
within three weeks after the order for
their recruitment was issued.
A grave difficulty arose concerning
them in the beginning. Gen. Butler had
determined that they should be colored
regiments in fact as well as in name, and
he therefore temporarily directed colored
line and field officers to command them,
not doubling that the President and Sec
rotary of War would commission them
The most ariStocratic cOlored men in
Louisiana and there was then, and still
is, very curious colored aristocracy, ed
ucated and rich, living in and near New
Orleans-Were among the officers thus
acting pro TEN. The major of the
first colore1 regiment was a young
mulatto named Dumas, born in
New Orleans, who had had
a thorough military training at the Poly
technic School in Paris. HIS family had
always been free, were people of hand
some fortunes, owning numbers of slaves
some whittier than their owners, and the
younger members were educated in
France. A brother of B. f. Joubert, who
held a prominent federal appointment IN
der Grants administration in louisiana
was field officer Il. b. S. Pinchback,
afterward governor of the state, was a
captain, as was Massicot, criminal sheriff
under Gov, Warmoth regime, and Arts.
tide Marie, who is the richest of all the
type mentioned in Louisiana.
The government was not favorably dis
| posed toward Gen. Buffers startling
proposition. 1t was admitted that, as
enormous numbers of fugitive slaves
would rather go in the trains of the
union armies, it might be better if they
could be somehow utilized. One thing
was certain, they had to be fed. 1t was
not the intention of Gen. Butler at first
to equip them as regular combatants
They were to be used only as sappers and
miners and in the construction of heavy
| fieldworks. But the organization of the
army then did not admit of any such non
combatant corps, and they all had TO be
| armed-even working parties-for self
| defense. This was a small matter com
| pared to what happened when Gen. But
! ler'S recommendation of colored men
| for commissions came up at army head
| quarters. Then the row began in real
| earnest.
So strong was the feeling among the
white volunteers against association with
the negro upon any footing of direct or
implied equality that Mr., Stanton was
obliged to inform Gen. Butler that ne
groes could not be commissioned; that
! fhiS colored regiments were disposed to
remain in the service they might do so,
but they must have white officers and be
| brigaded by themselves. So the colored
officers quietly retired, whites were sub
stituted for them, and the next year the
colored brigade was put in the advance
| line at Port Hudson, and when the assault
| was ordered they We're literally blown
away. AS far as can be learned, they be,
haved well enough at first, aud it they
had been properly olficered, might have
stood the shock. But it was their first
| fight. Against them were their old white
masters, and the hereditary instincts of
! twenty generations cannot be drilled out
| of man, be he black or white, in six
! months So they got the worst of it.
When these regiments were finally mus
! tered in some of them were credited to
| MASSACHUSETTS. A story is told llluStra-
tive of New England thriftiness by for
mer officer on Gen Buffers staff. They
had several negro regiments ready to
muster, The rank and file neither knew
nor cared TO what state they were cred
tied, so each man made his mark on a
piece of paper when he was being mus
tered in. That was not part of the pro-
cess, though the man did not know it..
Ho was credited on the quota of a New
England stat, 4, and the bounty of $3.50 per
heau, amounting 70 Sl5U,UUU, was then di-
vided by-who knows This is one Of the
romances of the Flush times" in the de-
pirtment of the gulf in the years of
| lS62-63.
A prominent citizen of Louisiana, who
| has held many important positions in his
time under republican rule, made q for
| tune during the war in an unexl ettedly
| sudden way. In the year that turned the
scale OF the war a draft was ordered in
many of the northern and eastern states
and enormous bounties were offered to
procure enliStments or substitutes One
New England state was very much be.
hind in her quota, and certain towns were
called upon to furnish 1000 men. In des-
peration their agen S wandered around
among the contraband camps trying to
It'll the contract. The southern Louisiana
neg. speaks French, aud his character
istIcs were all colored by his association
with his American born master, to whom
French is the mother tongue. The south
west part of the state, which is almost