Part 11 (2/2)
”In view of the small force under your command, and the inability of the Government at the present time to increase it, in order to guard the plantations and settlements occupied by the United States, from invasion, and to protect the inhabitants thereof from captivity and murder by the enemy, you are also authorized to arm, uniform, equip, and receive into the service of the United States, such number of volunteers of African descent as you may deem expedient, not exceeding five thousand, and may detail officers to instruct them in military drill, discipline and duty, and to command them. _The persons so received into service, and their officers, to be ent.i.tled to, and receive, the same pay and rations as are allowed, by law, to volunteers in the service._”
As to the white officers they were paid in full, but the privates and non-commissioned officers were allowed but $10 per month, three of which were deducted on account of clothing. In several instances the paymaster not having received special instructions to that effect, disregarded the general orders, and paid the negro soldiers in full, like other volunteers; but the order was generally recognized, though many of the regiments refused to receive the $7 per month, which was particularly the case of regiments from the Northern States. The order at one time in the Department of the Gulf, came very near causing a mutiny among the troops, because white troops, and conscripts at that, and those who had done provost duty about the cities, were paid $16 per month,--Congress having raised the pay,--while the Phalanx regiments in the field and fortifications were offered $7. The dissatisfaction was so strongly manifested as to cause twelve members of the Phalanx to lose their lives, which were not the only ones lost by the bad faith on the part of the Government. However, in no instance did the Phalanx refuse to do its duty when called upon, and at the sound of the long roll, though the black flag was raised against them, and many of their families were suffering at home, their patriotic ardor never abated in the least. At the North, provisions were made by the States to relieve the families of the brave men. Ma.s.sachusetts sent paymasters to make good the promises of the Government, but the deficiency was rejected. Her regiments, although a year without pay, refused to accept, and demanded full pay from the Government. The loyal people of the country, at public meetings and the press,[19] severely criticised the Government, while the patriotic black men continued to pour out their blood and to give their lives for liberty and the Union.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SCENE AT NEW BERNE, N. C.
Enthusiasm of the Blacks at the prospect of their being allowed to enlist as U.S. Soldiers.]
The matter being one for Congress to adjust, Henry Wilson, of Ma.s.sachusetts, on the 8th of Jan. 1864, introduced in the Senate of the United States, a bill to promote enlistments in the army, and in this measure justice to the black soldiers was proposed. After months of debate, it was finally pa.s.sed; not only placing the Phalanx soldiers on a footing with all other troops, but made free, the mothers, wives and children of the n.o.ble black troops.
The fight of the Phalanx for equal pay and allowance with the white troops, was a long one. The friends of the black soldiers in Congress fought it, however, to the successful issue. Senator Wilson, of Ma.s.sachusetts, took the lead in the matter in the Senate, as he did in the amending of the enrolling acts, and the act calling out the militia, whereby negroes were enrolled.
In the winter of '64 Gen. Butler began the organization of the Army of the James and the enlistment of negro troops. A camp was established near Fortress Monroe, where a great many men enlisted. The Secretary of War gave permission to the several Northern States to send agents South, and to enlist negroes to fill up their quotas of troops needed. Large bounties were then being paid and many a negro received as much as $500 to enlist; while many who went as subst.i.tutes received even more than that. The recruiting officers or rather agents from the different States established their headquarters largely within Gen. Butlers departments, where negro volunteers were frequently secured at a much less price than the regular bounty offered, the agent putting into his own pocket the difference, which often amounted to $200 or even $400 on a single recruit. To correct this wrong, Gen. Butler issued the following order:
HEADQUARTERS DEP'T. VIRGINIA & NORTH CAROLINA,
GENERAL ORDERS, IN THE FIELD, Va., _August 4th, 1864._ No. 90.
With all the guards which the utmost vigilance and care have thrown around the recruitment of white soldiers, it is a fact, as lamentable as true, that a large portion of the recruits have been swindled of part, if not all, of their bounties. Can it be hoped that the colored man will be better able to protect himself from the infinite ingenuity of fraud than the white?
Therefore, to provide for the families of the colored recruits enlisted in this Department--to relieve the United States, as far as may be, from the burden of supporting the families,--and to insure that at least a portion of the bounty paid to the negro shall be received for his use and that of his family;
_It is ordered_: I--That upon the enlistment of any negro recruit into the service of the United States for three (3) years, by any State agent or other person not enlisting recruits under the direct authority of the War Department, a sum of one hundred (100) dollars, or one-third (1/3) of the sum agreed to be paid as bounty, shall be paid if the amount exceeds three times that sum, into the hands of the Superintendent of Recruiting, or an officer to be designated by him, and in the same proportion for any less time; and no Mustering Officer will give any certificate or voucher for any negro recruit mustered into the service of the United States, so that he may be credited to the quota of any State, or as a subst.i.tute, until a certificate is filed with him that the amount called for by this order has been paid, to the satisfaction of the Superintendent of Recruiting of the district wherein the recruit was enlisted; but the mustering officer will, in default of such payment, certify upon the roll that the recruit is not to be credited to the quota of any State, or as a subst.i.tute.
II--The amount as paid to the Superintendent of Recruiting shall be turned over, on the last day of each month, to the Superintendent of Negro Affairs, to be expended in aid of the families of negro soldiers in this Department. The certificates filed with Commissary of Musters will be returned to said Superintendent of Negro Affairs, on the first day of every month, so that the Superintendent may vouch for the accounts of the Superintendent of Recruiting, for the amounts received by him.
And the Superintendent of Negro Affairs will account monthly to the Financial Agent of this Department for the amounts received and expended by him.
III--As there are unfilled colored Regiments in this Department sufficient to receive all the negro recruits therein, no negro male person above the age of sixteen (16) years, shall be taken out or attempted to be taken out of this Department, either as a recruit, as officer's servant, or otherwise, in any manner whatever, without a pa.s.s from these Head Quarters. Any officer, Master of Transportation, Provost Marshal, or person, who shall aid, a.s.sist or permit any male negro of the age of sixteen (16) years or upwards, to go out of this Department, in contravention of this order, will be punished, on conviction thereof before the Provost Court, by not less than six (6) months imprisonment at hard labor, under the Superintendent of Prison Labor, at Norfolk, and if this offence is committed by or with the connivance of any Master of Steamboat, Schooner, or other vessel, the steamboat or other vessel shall be seized and sold, and the proceeds be paid to the Superintendent of Negro Affairs, for the use of the dest.i.tute negroes supported by the Government.
By command of Major General B. F. BUTLER:
_R. S. DAVIS, Major and a.s.st. Adjt. General._
OFFICIAL: H. T. SCHROEDER, Lt. & A. A. A. Gen'l.
OFFICIAL: WM. M. PRATT, Lt. & Aide-de-Camp.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MUSTERING INTO SERVICE
Phalanx soldiers taking the oath of allegiance to the United States.]
The chief result of Butler's order was the establishment of the Freedmens' Savings Bank. At the close of the war, there were in the hands of the Superintendent of Negro Affairs, eight thousand dollars unclaimed bounties, belonging, the most of it without doubt, to _dead men_; it was placed in a bank at Norfolk, Va. This sum served as a nucleus for the Freedmens' Bank, which, after gathering large sums of the Freedmens' money, collapsed suddenly.
At Camp Hamilton several regiments were organized, including two of cavalry. The general enlistment ordered by the War Department was pushed most actively and with great results, till more than one hundred and seventy-eight thousand, by the records, were enlisted into the army.
The opposition to negro soldiers did not cease with many of the Union generals even after the Government at Was.h.i.+ngton issued its mandate for their enlistment and impressment, and notwithstanding that the many thousands in the service, with their display of gallantry, dash and courage, as exhibited at Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend, Wagner, and in a hundred other battles, had astonished and aroused the civilized world.
In view of all this, and, even more strangely, in the face of the Fort Pillow butchery, General Sherman wrote to the Was.h.i.+ngton authorities, in September, 1864, protesting against negro troops being organized in his department. If Whitelaw Reid's ”Ohio in the War,” is to be relied upon, Sherman's treatment of the negroes in his march to the sea was a counterpart of the Fort Pillow ma.s.sacre. His opposition was in keeping with that of the authorities of his state,[20] notwithstanding it has credited to its quota of troops during the war 5,092 negroes, but one regiment was raised in the State, out of a negro population of 36,673 by the canvas of 1860.
According to the statistics on file in the Adjutant General's office, the States are accredited with the following number of negroes who served in the army during the Rebellion:
ALABAMA, 2,969 LOUISIANA, 24,052 NEW HAMPs.h.i.+RE, 125 Ma.s.sACHUSETTS, 3,966 CONNECTICUT, 1,764 NEW JERSEY, 1,185 DELAWARE, 954 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 3,269 NORTH CAROLINA, 5,035 SOUTH CAROLINA, 5,462 FLORIDA, 1,044 TENNESSEE, 20,133 MICHIGAN, 1,387 INDIANA, 1,537 MISSOURI, 8,344 IOWA, 440 KANSAS, 2,080 COLORADO TERRITORY, 95 MISSISSIPPI, 17,869 MAINE, 104 VERMONT, 120 RHODE ISLAND, 1,837 NEW YORK, 4,125 PENNSYLVANIA, 8,612 MARYLAND, 8,718 VIRGINIA, 5,723 WEST VIRGINIA, 196 GEORGIA, 3,486 ARKANSAS, 5,526 KENTUCKY, 23,703 OHIO, 5,092 ILLINOIS, 1,811 MINNESOTA,104 WISCONSIN, 165 TEXAS, 47 NOT ACCOUNTED FOR, 5,896
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