Part 3 (1/2)
”To His Excellency Gen. Was.h.i.+ngton, Headquarters, New York.”
Occasionally the public would be startled by the daring and bravery of some negro in the American army, and then the true lovers of liberty, North and South, would again urge that negroes be admitted into the ranks of the army. When Lt.-Col. Barton planned for the capture of the British Maj.-Gen. Prescott, who commanded the British army at Newport R.
I., and whose capture was necessary in order to effect the release of Gen. Lee, who was then in the hands of the British, and of the same rank as that of Gen. Prescott, Col. Barton's plan was made a success through the aid of Prince, a negro in Col. Barton's command. The daring of the exploit excited the highest patriotic commendations of the Americans, and revived the urgent appeals that had been made for a place in the armed ranks for all men, irrespective of color. The Pennsylvania Evening _Post_ of Aug. 7th, 1777, gives the following account of the capture:
”They landed about five miles from Newport, and three quarters of a mile from the house, which they approached cautiously, avoiding the main guard, which was at some distance. _The Colonel went foremost, with a stout active negro close behind him, and another at a small distance; the rest followed so as to be near but not seen._
”A single sentinel at the door saw and hailed the Colonel; he answered by exclaiming against and inquiring for, rebel prisoners, but kept slowly advancing. The sentinel again challenged him and required the countersign. He said he had not the countersign; but amused the sentry by talking about rebel prisoners, and still advancing till he came within reach of the bayonet, which, he presenting, the colonel struck aside, and seized him. He was immediately secured, and ordered to be silent, on pain of instant death.
_Meanwhile, the rest of the men surrounding the house, the negro, with his head, at the second stroke, forced a pa.s.sage into it, and then into the landlord's apartment. The landlord at first refused to give the necessary intelligence; but, on the prospect of present death, he pointed to the General's chamber, which being instantly opened by the negro's head, the Colonel, calling the General by name, told him he was a prisoner._”
Congress voted Col. Barton a magnificent sword, but the real captor of Gen. Prescott, so far as known, received nothing. A surgeon in the American army, Dr. Thacher, writes, under date of Aug. 3d, 1777, at Albany:
”The pleasing information is received here that Lieut.-Col.
Barton, of the Rhode Island Militia, planned a bold exploit for the purpose of surprising and taking Maj.-Gen. Prescott, the commanding officer of the Royal army at Newport. Taking with him, in the night, about forty men, in two boats, with oars m.u.f.fled, he had the address to elude the vigilance of the s.h.i.+ps-of-war and guard boats; and, having arrived undiscovered at the quarters of Gen. Prescott, they were taken for the sentinels; and the general was not alarmed till the captors were at the door of his lodging chamber, which was fast closed. _A negro man, named Prince, instantly thrust his beetle head through the panel door, and seized his victim while in bed._ This event is extremely honorable to the enterprising spirit of Col. Barton, and is considered an ample retaliation for the capture of Gen. Lee by Col.
Harcourt. The event occasions great joy and exultation, as it puts in our possession an officer of equal rank with Gen.
Lee, by which means an exchange may be obtained. Congress resolved that an elegant sword should be presented to Col.
Barton, for his brave exploit.”
To recite here every incident and circ.u.mstance ill.u.s.trating the heroism and the particular services rendered the patriotic army by negroes, who served in regiments and companies with white soldiers, would fill this entire volume. Yet, with the desire of doing justice to the memory of all those negroes who aided in achieving the independence of America, I cannot forbear introducing notices,--gathered from various sources,--of some prominent examples.
Ebenezer Hill, a slave at Stonington, Conn., who served throughout the war, and who took part in the battles of Saratoga and Stillwater, and witnessed the surrender of Burgoyne.
Prince Whipple acted as bodyguard to General Whipple, one of Was.h.i.+ngton's aids. Prince is the negro seen on horseback in the engraving of Was.h.i.+ngton crossing the Delaware, and again pulling the stroke oar in the boat which Was.h.i.+ngton crossed in.
At the storming of Fort Griswold, Maj. Montgomery was lifted upon the walls of the fort by his soldiers, and called upon the Americans to surrender. John Freeman, a negro soldier, with his pike, pinned him dead to the earth. Among the American soldiers who were ma.s.sacred by the British soldiers, after the surrender of the fort, were two negro soldiers, Lambo Latham and Jordan Freeman.
Quack Matrick, a negro, fought through the Revolutionary war, as a soldier, for which he was pensioned. Also Jonathan Overtin, who was at the battle of Yorktown. The grandfather of the historian Wm. Wells Brown, Simon Lee, was also a soldier ”in the times which tried men's souls.”
”Samuel Charlton was born in the State of New Jersey, a slave, in the family of Mr. M., who owned, also, other members belonging to his family--all residing in the English neighborhood. During the progress of the war, he was placed by his master (as a subst.i.tute for himself) in the army then in New Jersey, as a teamster in the baggage train. He was in active service at the battle of Monmouth, not only witnessing, but taking a part in, the great struggle of that day. He was also in several other engagements in different sections of that part of the State. He was a great admirer of General Was.h.i.+ngton, and was, at one time, attached to his baggage train, and received the General's commendation for his courage and devotion to the cause of liberty. Mr.
Charlton was about fifteen or seventeen years of age when placed in the army, for which his master rewarded him with a silver dollar. At the expiration of his time, he returned to his master, to serve again in bondage, after having toiled, fought and bled for liberty, in common with the regular soldiery. Mr. M., at his death, by will, liberated his slaves, and provided a pension for Charlton, to be paid during his lifetime.
”James Easton, of Bridgewater, a colored man, partic.i.p.ated in the erection of the fortifications on Dorchester Heights, under command of Was.h.i.+ngton, which the next morning so greatly surprised the British soldiers then encamped in Boston.”
”Among the brave blacks who fought in the battles for American liberty was Major Jeffrey, a Tennesseean, who, during the campaign of Major-General Andrew Jackson in Mobile, filled the place of ”regular” among the soldiers. In the charge made by General Stump against the enemy, the Americans were repulsed and thrown into disorder,--Major Stump being forced to retire, in a manner by no means desirable, under the circ.u.mstances. Major Jeffrey, who was but a common soldier, seeing the condition of his comrades, and comprehending the disastrous results about to befall them, rushed forward, mounted a horse, took command of the troops, and, by an heroic effort, rallied them to the charge,--completely routing the enemy, who left the Americans masters of the field. He at once received from the General the t.i.tle of ”Major,” though he could not, according to the American policy, so commission him. To the day of his death, he was known by that t.i.tle in Nashville, where he resided, and the circ.u.mstances which ent.i.tled him to it were constantly the subject of popular conversation.
”Major Jeffrey was highly respected by the whites generally, and revered, in his own neighborhood, by all the colored people who knew him.
”A few years ago receiving an indignity from a common ruffian, he was forced to strike him in self-defense; for which act, in accordance with the laws of slavery in that, as well as many other of the slave States, he was compelled to receive, on his naked person, _nine and thirty lashes with a raw hide!_ This, at the age of seventy odd, after the distinguished services rendered his country,--probably when the white ruffian for whom he was tortured was unable to raise an arm in its defense,--was more than he could bear; _it broke his heart_, and he sank to rise no more, till summoned by the blast of the last trumpet to stand on the battle-field of the general resurrection.”
Jeffrey was not an exception to this kind of treatment. Samuel Lee died on a tobacco plantation after the war.
The re-enslaving of the negroes who fought for American Independence became so general at the South, that the Legislature of Virginia in 1783, in compliance with her honor, pa.s.sed an act directing the emanc.i.p.ation of certain slaves, who had served as soldiers of the State, and for the emanc.i.p.ation of the slave Aberdeen.
James Armistead during the war acted as a scout and spy for LaFayette during his campaign in Virginia, and at one time gave information of an intended surprise to be made upon the forces of the Marquis, thereby saving probably a rout of the army. Armistead, after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, was returned to his master three years after the close of the war. He was manumitted by especial act of the Virginia Legislature, whose attention was called to the worthiness of the service rendered by Armistead.
The opposition to the employment of negroes as soldiers, by the persistency of its advocates and the bravery of those who were then serving in white regiments, was finally overcome, so that their enlistment became general and regulated by law. Companies, battalions and regiments of negro troops soon entered the field and the struggle for independence and liberty, giving to the cause the reality of freedmen's fight. For three years the army had been fighting under the smart of defeats, with an occasional signal victory, but now the tide was about to be turned against the English. The colonists had witnessed the heroism of the negro in Virginia at Great Bridge, and at Norfolk; in Ma.s.sachusetts at Boston and Bunker Hill, fighting, in the former, for freedom under the British flag, in the latter for liberty, under the banner of the colonies. The echoing shouts of the whites fell heavily upon the ears of the black people; they caught the strain as by martial instinct, and reverberated the appeal, ”_Liberty and Independence_.”
The negro's ancestors were not slaves, so upon the altar of their hearts the fire of liberty was re-kindled by the utterances of the white colonists. They heard Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, whose eloquence vehemently aroused their compatriots, and, like them, they too resolved to be free. They held no regular organized meetings; at the North they a.s.sembled with their white fellow-citizens; at the South each balmy gale that swept along the banks of the rivers were laden with the negro's e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns for freedom, and each breast was resolute and determined.
The advocates and friends of the measure for arming all men for freedom, were on the alert, and now the condition of the army was such as to enable them to press the necessity of the measure upon the attention of the American people. Was.h.i.+ngton needed reinforcements; nay, more, the perilous situation of the army as it lay in camp at Valley Forge, at the conclusion of the campaign of 1777, was indeed distressing. The encampment consisted of huts, and there was danger of a famine. The soldiers were nearly dest.i.tute of comfortable clothing. ”Many,” says the historian, ”for want of shoes, walked barefoot on the frozen ground; few, if any, had blankets for the night. Great numbers sickened; near three thousand at a time were incapable of bearing arms.”