The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-07
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER
COL. SHAW AS THE BEST EXPONENT
OF THE MEANING OF THE WAR.
Interesting Information About the
coiored Troop~sip the Civil War
How They Were Recruited.
Boston TRANSCRIPT

the dedication of the long-delayed memo
rial to Col. Robert Gould Shaw, more
intensely interesting and timely pub
hcatlon than that, of the address of
Col n. p Hallowel on THE Negro as
Soldier in the War of the Rebellion, 5"
which was delivered some time since before
the Military Historical Society of Massa-
chusetts. Its publication now places at the
disposal of the public some timely informa-
ton and is a fitting contribution to the
thought of the hour. Some extracts from
It's pages are therefore given herewith. The
address opens with the following entertain
ing and suggestive personal Renaissance:
once upon a time at our old home in
Philadelphia, there were two little girls
whose names were Rebecca and Rosa. They
had Caucasian features, abundance of
long WaVy hair and compilations that We're
suggestive merely of a cline SUMMER than
our own. Taking one of their hands into
your own, your eye might have discov-
cred at the finger tips a color of a darker
nue. than the other parts. 1t was the fatal
single drop of negro blood that cursed the
whole beautiful fabric and made it possible
for these children to be fugitive slaves Hid
away in the barn of our country residence
was another fugitive-a TALL 1.-the, muscular
field by name, now forgotten, no doubt, but
then enjoying for a brief period a national
reputation. The police force of Philadel-
phia was watching for that man. The de-
tectives looked mysterious as they went
about on their false scents and failed to see
our Daniel as he passed on to the next sta
ton of the Underground Railroad comfort
ably seated in my mothers carriage, the
curtains drawn, my brother Edward on the
boX, quite ready to use his fiVe-shooter,
ana younger brother in the less heroic
part of driver.
The colored man as a soldier is then con-
sldered in the ensuing pungent paragraphs:
10 estimate the colored man as a soldier
1t is essential to recall his status before the
war, Tor the reason that his previous condi-
tlon OF slavery in the South, and his social,
pontlcal. commercial and religious oStraclsm
In the North, ought naturally, and in fact
does DO somewhat, to interpret his quail
ties when bearing arms. The subject is
complex. Is not the expression "a
colored soldier as vague as the expression
"a white soldier? l think it is. Had we
only to deal with the thick-lipped negro of
Congo, the subject would be simple enough.
But we are dealing now with the soldiers of
{. people in whose veins is an admiXture of
the blood of every nationality that is rep
resented on this continent. The blood that
coursed through the veins of our little slave
girls was, barring the one fatal drop, the
same blood that coursed through the veins
OF one of the proud families of Louisiana
to our New England colleges. 1t was not
the same thing-ninety- one-hundredths
of 1t was not-that flowed beneath the skin
OF Daniel Dangerfield, innocent as he was
apparently of any such admixture, and yet
it is all called negro"
Nicholas Said, private in our Fifty-f1fth
Massachusetts regiment was a native of
Bornou, Eastern Soudan, Central Africa
He was tattoOed on his forehead after the
manner of the ruling class of his tribe His
linguistic ability was very marked. In the
regiment he wrote and spoke huently the
English French, German and Italian lam
guages; while there is no doubt that he was
master of Kanouri CHS vernacular), Man
ORA, Arabic, Turkish and Russian-a total
of nine languages. The First Louisiana
Native Guards, mustered into the service
at New Orleans were recruited from the
free colored population of that city. They
are described as men of property and edu-
cation, 81 self-reliant and Intelligent class"
THE darkest of them" said General Butler
were about the complexion of the late Mr..
Webster" On the other hand, the First
South Carolina regiment had not one mu-
latto in ten, and all the enlisted men had
been slaves. Such, in part, were the heterO-
geneOus materials that made up our colored
regiments. Obviously it will not be safe to
draw many arbitrary conclusions and to
brand the whole as distinctively African.
The story of the recruiting of colored SOL
dierS is next told:
RECRUITING NEGROES.
The first systematic attempt to recruit
colored men in the war of the rebellion was
made by General Hunter at Hilton Head.
His effort was valuable an example of
how not to do it, Impatient at the slow
progress of his work he made the fatal
mistake of forcing the freedmen into the
ranks. While working on the plantations
they were rudely seized by squads of SOL
diers and taken into camp as prisoners.
Here they were told by their enemies that
they were to be returned to slavery or sent
to Cuba. There was no mutual confidence
between officers and men. Desertlons were
numerous, discomfort general In 1--WE
months the regiment was disbanded with
out pay One company however, MAIN
tanned it's organization. doing some good
work by hunting down and driving the
rebels from st. Simon's lsland-a job that
had been initiated by. the coIored residents
of the island themselves. twenty-five of
these natives had armed themselves, under
the command of one of their own number
ambuscaded and shot dead, probably the
first black man. says Col IT, w. Higgin-
son, whose recital l am following almost
literally, who fell under arms in the war
This was the first armed encounter, SO far
as known, 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. The
rebel leader, one Miles Hazard and his
party made good their escape. In the fol-
lowing year there was captured at the rail-
road station in Jacksonville, Fla. box of
papers. Among them was letter from
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.
The arming of slaves by Major General
Hunter and a similar movement initiated
by Brigadier General Phelps at New Or
leans stirred President Jefferson Davis to
the innermost recesses of his unhappy mind
On Aug. 90 1862, he directed that both gen.
erals should be no longer held and treated
as public enemies of the Confederate states
but as outlaws, and that in the event of the
capture of them or that OF any other COM
missioned officer employed in drilling, or
ganizng or instructing slaves with a view
TO their armed service in the war he should
not be regarded as a prisoner of war but
held in close confinement for execution as
a felon at such time and place as might be
ordered. On May 1, 1863, the Confederate
Congress passed an act which outlawed all
commissioned white officers who should
command negroes or mulattoes, whether
slaves or free, in arms against the Con-
federate States.
The attention of the country at large was
first seriously directed to the consideration
Governor John A. Andrew obtained an or
der from Edwin NJ. Stanton, secretary of
war, authorizing him to organize persons
or African descent into separate corps for
the volunteer military service.
STATIONS ESTABLISHED.
rs consequence, a line of recruiting
depots, running from Boston to ST Louis
in the West, and to Fortress Monroe in the
South, was established and maintained to
the close of the war. Two infantry regi-
ments. the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-ffth
and one cavalry, the Fifth were raised
and the ranks kept at the maximum num-
Der; a good piece of work, involving an i'm