The Washington herald., 1915-01-31
FEDERALS TRY TO ENLIST
NEGRO REFUGEES.
January rs.

recruiting agents IN the department OIL
the South-embracing the Federal terri
tory of the Atlantic seaboard, including
Savannah-were endeavoring to enlist ne
gro refugees in order to raise the re-
Quired quota of troops of the Northern
States.
The activities of these agents soon
produced strained relations with the Fed
oraI military commanders in that section.
In order to secure the required number
Of Cnlistments various means were en-
plOyed. Some of the agents secured their
men by threats. while others did not
hesitate to impress. or shanghai" them.
The recruiting of negro regiments to
fill the quota required by the national
government of each of the Northern
States allowed thousands of able-bodied
white citizens to remain at home. The
leading commanders deprecated il in a
belief that it would materially weaken
the armies, and because they believed it
unfair to those whites who had fought
through the war.
When we reached Savannah" wrote
Sherman in his Memoirs we were be-
set by ravenous State agents from Hilton
Head, who enticed and carried away our
servants, and the corps of pioneers which
We had organized. and which had done
such excellent service.
i never denied the slaves a full oppor-
ltillNN iOI voluntary tilliSlllltillr Dul ulu
prohibit force being used, for l knew
that the State agents were more influ-
enCed by the profit they derived from
the large bounties then being paid
than by any love of country or of the
colorcd race"
Poor Pay and No BOuntfes.
After the negroes enlisted they did
not receive fair treatment from the
government At first the negro troops
had been paid the same amount ana
given the same rations as the white
troops, with whom they were serving
Later in the war the Federal authori-
ties had reduced their pay from $13 to
80, and subsequently TO s.. Bounties
were refused them.
The white officers of the coIored rcgi-
ments made a spirited protest to Wash
ington and finally managed to secure
full pay and bounties for such of their
men as had been free on April 70. 1861.
and consequently were not indebted to
the government for their freedom.
This state of affairs naturally was
the cause of considerable feeling
among the blacks. Those who had en-
tered the service and risked their lives
in the cause of the Federal government
saw others of their race who had fail
ed to do so prospering and gaining
HOSStSSlOH VI the ldUuS set dSlOe lot
the use of the negroes. The soldiers,
on the contrary. being unable to save
a dollar-not to mention being unable
to support their families-were in no
better position after several years of
service than on their first day of free
dom.
In one instance company of the
Third South Carolina Negro Regiment
headed by Sergeant William Walker.
tent "on the avowed ground that they
were released from duty by the re-
fusal OF the government to fulfill its
share of the contract" Walker was
arrested. tried as rinEleader. and, be-
ing convicted. was shot to death.
Tales of the Refugees.
Yet in spite of the general feeling
that the government was unfair TO
them, the negro troops were willing
workers and good fighters. They were
fighting for the cause" and for
"Marse Linkum." The suffering and
hardships so many of them mad suf-
fered led them to appreciate their
liberty and to willingly struggle to
gain it for their brothers" whom
they had left behind on the pIanta-
tions.
81 used to think" wrote Col
Thomas Wentworth Higginston, who
commanded black troops. that
should not care to read Uncle Toms
Cabin in our camp; il would have
seemed tame. Any group of men in
a tent would have had more exciting
tales to tell. l needed no fiction
when l had Fanny Wright, for in
stance. daily passing to and fro be-
fore my tent, with her shy little girl
to her skirt.
Fanny was a modest little mulatto
woman, a soldiers wife, and a com
pany laundress. She had escaped from
the mainland in a boat. with that child
and another. Her baby was shot dead
in her arms. and she reached our line
with one child safe on earth and the
needful (t.. give any elementary instruc-
tions in eSdrage to Fanny's husband,
you may be sure.
There was another family of brothers
in the regiment named Miller. Their
grandmother, a fine-lOoking old woman.
nearly seventy, l should think, but erect
as a pine tree. used sometimes to come
and visit them. She and her husband
had once tried to escape from a planta-
tion near Savannah. They had failed.
and had been brought back; the husband
white men on the plantation were view
ing the punishment, she was collecting
her children and grandchildren, TO the
number of twenty-five. in a neighbor-
ing marsh, preparatory to another at
Tempt that night.
They found a f1atboat which had
been rejected as unseaworthy, got on
ooard-still under the old woman's or
iers-and drifted forty miles down the |
river to our lines. TrowbridCe Uieut. |
Col Charles T. Trowbridge of the
First South Carolina RegimenD hap
oened to be on board the gunboat |
which picked them up. and said that |
when the fiat" touched the side of the |
'essel, the grandmother rose to her
,ull height with her youngest grand |
,hild in her arms, and said only, NV
iod! are we free?' BY one of those coin |
.idences of which life is full, her hus-
band escaped also, after his punish
nent, and was taken up by the same |
yunboat."
1t was a curious commentary on hu-
nan nature that the government
which liberated the slaves should have
their being pressed into
service on a basis that de-
'rived them OF material equality with |
white soldiers.