T. G. Steward - The Colored Regulars in the United States Army

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"Do you think I'll make a soldier?" is the opening line of one of
those delightful spirituals, originating among the slaves in the far
South. I first heard it sung in the Saint James Methodist Church,
corner of Spring and Coming Streets, Charleston, South Carolina,
immediately after the close of the war. It was sung by a vast
congregation to a gentle, swinging air, with nothing of the martial
about it, and was accompanied by a swaying of the body to the time of
the music. Occasionally there would be the "curtesys" peculiar to the
South Carolina slave of the low country, which consists in a stooping
of the body by bending the knees only, the head remaining erect, a
movement which takes the place of the bow among equals. The older
ladies, with heads adorned with the ever-present Madras kerchief,
often tied in the most becoming and tasteful manner, and faces aglow
with an enthusiasm that bespoke a life within sustained by visions of
spiritual things, would often be seen to shake hands and add a word of
greeting and hope which would impart a charm and meaning to the
singing far above what the humble words of the song without these
accessories could convey. As the rich chorus of matchless voices
poured out in perfect time and tune, "Rise, shine, and give God the
glory," the thoughts of earthly freedom, of freedom from sin, and
finally of freedom from the toils, cares and sorrows of earth to be
baptized into the joys of heaven, all seemed to blend into the many
colored but harmonious strain. The singing of the simple hearted
trustful, emancipated slave! Shall we ever hear the like again on
earth? Alas, that the high hopes and glowing prophecies of that
auspicious hour have been so deferred that the hearts of millions have
been made sick!

Of the songs that came out of slavery with these long suffering
people, Colonel Higginson, who perhaps got nearer to them in sentiment
than any other literary man not really, of them, says: "Almost all
their songs were thoroughly religious in their tone, however quaint
their expression, and were in a minor key both as to words and music.
The attitude is always the same, and, as a commentary on the life of
the race, is infinitely pathetic. Nothing but patience for this
life--nothing but triumph in the next. Sometimes the present
predominates, sometimes the future; but the combination is always
implied."

I do not know when this "soldier" song had its birth, but it may have
sprung out of the perplexity of the slave's mind as he contemplated
the raging conflict and saw himself drawn nearer and nearer to the
field of strife. Whether in this song the "present predominates," and
the query, therefore, has a strong primary reference to carnal weapons
and to garments dyed in blood; whether the singer invites an opinion
as to his fitness to engage in the war for Freedom--it may not be
possible to determine. The "year of Jubilee," coming in the same song
in connection with the purpose for which the singer is to be made a
soldier, gives clearer illustration of that combination of the present
and future which Mr. Higginson says was always present in the
spirituals of that period, if it shows no more. When it is remembered
that at that time Charleston was literally trodden under foot by black
soldiers in bright uniforms, whose coming seemed to the colored people
of that city like a dream too good to be true, it is not hard to
believe that this song had much of the present in it, and owed its
birth to the circumstances of war.

Singularly enough the song makes the Negro ask the exact question
which had been asked about him from the earliest days of our history
as a nation, a question which in some form confronts him still. The
question, as the song has it, is not one of fact, but one of opinion.
It is not: Will I make a soldier? but: Do you think I will make a
soldier? It is one thing to "make a soldier," another thing to have
men think so. The question of fact was settled a century ago; the
question of opinion is still unsettled. The Negro soldier, hero of
five hundred battlefields, with medals and honors resting upon his
breast, with the endorsement of the highest military authority of the
nation, with Port Hudson, El Caney and San Juan behind him, is still
expected by too many to stand and await the verdict of thought, from
persons who never did "think" he would make a soldier, and who never
will think so. As well expect the excited animal of the ring to
_think_ in the presence of the red rag of the toreador as to expect
_them_ to think on the subject of the Negro soldier. They can curse,
and rant, when they see the stalwart Negro in uniform, but it is too
much to ask them to think. To them the Negro can be a fiend, a brute,
but never a soldier.

To John G. Whittier and to William C. Nell are we indebted for the
earliest recital of the heroic deeds of the colored American in the
Wars of the Revolution and 1812. Whittier contributed an article on
this subject to the "National Era" in 1847, and five or six years
later Nell published his pamphlet on "Colored Patriots," a booklet
recently reprinted by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is a
useful contribution, showing as it does the rising and spreading
abroad of that spirit which appreciates military effort and valor; and
while recognizing the glory that came to American arms in the period
described, honestly seeks to place some of that glory upon the
deserving brow of a race then enslaved and despised. The book is
unpretentious and aims to relate the facts in a straight-forward way,
unaccompanied by any of the charms of tasteful presentation. Its
author, however, is deserving our thanks, and the book marks an
important stage in the development of the colored American. His mind
was turning toward the creation of the soldier--the formation of
armies.

There are other evidences that the mind of the colored man was at this
time turning towards arms. In 1852 Doctor Pennington, one of the most
learned colored men of his times, having received his Degree in
Divinity from Heidelberg, delivered an address before a mass
convention of colored citizens of Ohio, held in Cleveland, in which he
spoke principally of the colored soldier. During the convention the
"Cleveland Light Artillery" fired a salute, and on the platform were
seated several veteran colored men, some of them, particularly Mr.
John Julius, of Pittsburg, Pa., taking part in the speech-making. Mr.
Nell says: "Within recent period several companies of colored men in
New York city have enrolled themselves a la militaire," and quotes
from the New York Tribune of August, 1852, as follows:

"COLORED SOLDIERS.--Among the many parades within a few days
we noticed yesterday a soldierly-looking company of colored
men, on their way homeward from a target or parade drill.
They looked like men, handled their arms like men, and
should occasion demand, we presume they would fight like
men."

In Boston, New Haven, New Bedford and other places efforts were made
during the decade from 1850 to 1860 to manifest this rising military
spirit by appropriate organization, but the efforts were not always
successful. In some cases the prejudices of the whites put every
possible obstacle in the way of the colored young men who attempted to
array themselves as soldiers.

The martial spirit is not foreign to the Negro character, as has been
abundantly proved in both ancient and modern times. Williams, in his
admirable history of the Negro as well as in his "Negro Troops in the
Rebellion," has shown at considerable length that the Negro has been a
soldier from earliest times, serving in large numbers in the Egyptian
army long before the beginning of the Christian era. We know that
without any great modification in character, runaway slaves developed
excellent fighting qualities as Maroons, in Trinidad, British Guiana,
St. Domingo and in Florida. But it was in Hayti that the unmixed Negro
rose to the full dignity of a modern soldier, creating and leading
armies, conducting and carrying on war, treating with enemies and
receiving surrenders, complying fully with the rules of civilized
warfare, and evolving finally a Toussaint, whose military genius his
most bitter enemies were compelled to recognize--Toussaint, who to the
high qualities of the soldier added also the higher qualities of
statesmanship. With Napoleon, Cromwell and Washington, the three great
commanders of modern times who have joined to high military talent
eminent ability in the art of civil government, we must also class
Toussaint L'Ouverteur, the black soldier of the Antilles. Thiers, the
prejudiced attorney of Napoleon, declares nevertheless that Toussaint
possessed wonderful talent for government, and the fact ever remains
that under his benign rule all classes were pacified and San Domingo
was made to blossom as the rose. In the armies of Menelek, in the
armies of France, in the armies of England, as well as in the
organization of the Zulu and Kaffir tribes the Negro has shown himself
a soldier. If the Afro-American should fail in this particular it will
not be because of any lack of the military element in the African side
of his character, or for any lack of "remorseless military audacity"
in the original Negro, as the historian, Williams, expresses it.

In our own Revolutionary War, the Negro, then but partially civilized,
and classed with "vagabonds," held everywhere as a slave, and
everywhere distrusted, against protest and enactment, made his way
into the patriot army, fighting side by side with his white
compatriots from Lexington to Yorktown. On the morning of April 19th,
1775, when the British re-enforcements were preparing to leave Boston
for Lexington, a Negro soldier who had served in the French war,
commanded a small body of West Cambridge "exempts" and captured Lord
Percy's supply train with its military escort and the officer in
command. As a rule the Negro soldiers were distributed among the
regiments, thirty or forty to a regiment, and did not serve in
separate organizations. Bishop J.P. Campbell, of the African Methodist
Church, was accustomed to say "both of my grandfathers served in the
Revolutionary War." In Varnum's Brigade, however, there was a Negro
regiment and of it Scribner's history, 1897, says, speaking of the
battle of Rhode Island: "None behaved better than Greene's colored
regiment, which three times repulsed the furious charges of veteran
Hessians." Williams says: "The black regiment was one of three that
prevented the enemy from turning the flank of the American army. These
black troops were doubtless regarded as the weak spot of the line, but
they were not."

The colony of Massachusetts alone furnished 67,907 men for the
Revolutionary War, while all the colonies together south of
Pennsylvania furnished but 50,493, hence the sentiment prevailing in
Massachusetts would naturally be very powerful in determining any
question pertaining to the army. When the country sprang to arms in
response to that shot fired at Lexington, the echoes of which,
poetically speaking, were heard around the world, the free Negroes of
every Northern colony rallied with their white neighbors. They were in
the fight at Lexington and at Bunker Hill, but when Washington came to
take command of the army he soon gave orders that no Negroes should be
enlisted. He was sustained in this position by a council of war and by
a committee of conference in which were representatives from Rhode
Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and it was agreed that Negroes
be rejected altogether. The American Negro's persistency in pressing
himself where he is not _wanted_ but where he is _eminently needed_
began right there. Within six weeks so many colored men applied for
enlistment, and those that had been put out of the army raised such a
clamor that Washington changed his policy, and the Negro, who of all
America's population contended for the privilege of shouldering a gun
to fight for American liberty, was allowed a place in the Continental
Army, the first national army organized on this soil, ante-dating the
national flag. The Negro soldier helped to evolve the national
standard and was in the ranks of the fighting men over whom it first
unfolded its broad stripes and glittering stars.

[Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
without a footnote anchor:

"To the Honorable General Court of the Massachusetts Bay:

"The subscribers beg leave to report to your Honorable
House, which we do in justice to the character of so brave a
man, that, under our own observation, we declare that a
Negro man called Salem Poor, of Col. Frye's regiment, Capt.
Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved
like an experienced officer, as well as an excellent
soldier. We would only beg leave to say, in the person of
this said Negro centres a brave and gallant soldier. The
reward due to so great and distinguished a character we
submit to the Congress.

"Cambridge, Dec. 5, 1775."

These black soldiers, fresh from heathen lands, not out of
slavery, proved themselves as worthy as the best. In the
battle of Bunker Hill, where all were brave, two Negro
soldiers so distinguished themselves that their names have
come down to us garlanded with the tributes of their
contemporaries. Peter Salem, until then a slave, a private
in Colonel Nixon's regiment of Continentals, without orders
fired deliberately upon Major Pitcairn as he was leading the
assault of the British to what appeared certain victory.
Everet in speaking "of Prescott, Putnam and Warren, the
chiefs of the day," mentions in immediate connection "the
colored man, Salem, who is reported to have shot the gallant
Pitcairn as he mounted the parapet." What Salem Poor did is
not set forth, but the following is the wreath of praise
that surrounds his name:

Jona. Brewer, Col. Eliphalet Bodwell, Sgt.
Thomas Nixon, Lt.-Col. Josiah Foster, Lieut.
Wm. Precott, Col. Ebenr. Varnum, 2d Lieut.
Ephm. Corey, Lieut. Wm. Hudson Ballard, Capt.
Joseph Baker, Lieut. William Smith, Capt.
Joshua Row, Lieut. John Morton, Sergt. (?)
Jonas Richardson, Capt. Richard Welsh, Lieut.]

It is in place here to mention a legion of free mulattoes and blacks
from the Island of St. Domingo, a full account of whose services is
appended to this section, who fought under D'Estaing with great
distinction in the siege of Savannah, their bravery at that time
saving the patriot army from annihilation.

When the Revolutionary War had closed the brave black soldier who had
fought to give to the world a new flag whose every star should be a
star of hope to the oppressed, and whose trinity of colors should
symbolize Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, found his race, and in
some instances himself personally, encased in a cruel and stubborn
slavery. For the soldier himself special provision had been made in
both Northern and Southern colonies, but it was not always hearty or
effective. In October, 1783, the Virginia Legislature passed an act
for the relief of certain slaves who had served in the army whose
"former owners were trying to force to return to a state of servitude,
contrary to the principles of justice and their solemn promise." The
act provided that each and every slave who had enlisted "by the
appointment and direction of his owner" and had "been received as a
substitute for any free person whose duty or lot it was to serve" and
who had served faithfully during the term of such enlistment, unless
lawfully discharged earlier, should be fully and completely
emancipated and should be held and deemed free in as full and ample
manner as if each and every one of them were specially named in the
act. The act, though apparently so fair on its face, and interlarded
as it is with patriotic and moral phrases, is nevertheless very narrow
and technical, liberating only those who enlisted by the appointment
and direction of their owners, and who were accepted as substitutes,
and who came out of the army with good discharges. It is not hard to
see that even under this act many an ex-soldier might end his days in
slavery. The Negro had joined in the fight for freedom and when
victory is won finds himself a slave. He was both a slave and a
soldier, too often, during the war; and now at its close may be both a
veteran and a slave.

The second war with Great Britain broke out with an incident in which
the Negro in the navy was especially conspicuous. The Chesapeake, an
American war vessel was hailed, fired upon and forced to strike her
colors, by the British. She was then boarded and searched and four
persons taken from her decks, claimed as deserters from the English
navy. Three of these were Negroes and one white. The Negroes were
finally dismissed with a reprimand and the white man hanged. Five
years later hostilities began on land and no opposition was manifested
toward the employment of Negro soldiers. Laws were passed, especially
in New York, authorizing the formation of regiments of blacks with
white officers. It is remarkable that although the successful
insurrection of St. Domingo was so recent, and many refugees from that
country at that time were in the United States, and our country had
also but lately come into possession of a large French element by the
Louisiana purchase, there was no fear of a servile insurrection in
this country. The free colored men of New Orleans, under the
proclamation of the narrow-minded Jackson, rallied to the defence of
that city and bore themselves with commendable valor in that useless
battle. The war closed, however, and the glory of the Negro soldier
who fought in it soon expired in the dismal gloom of a race-slavery
becoming daily more wide-spread and hopeless.

John Brown's movement was military in character and contemplated the
creation of an army of liberated slaves; but its early suppression
prevented any display of Negro valor or genius. Its leader must ever
receive the homage due those who are so moved by the woes of others as
to overlook all considerations of policy and personal risk. As a plot
for the destruction of life it fell far short of the Nat Turner
insurrection which swept off fifty-seven persons within a few hours.
In purpose the two episodes agree. They both aim at the liberation of
the slave; both were led by fanatics, the reflex production of the
cruelty of slavery, and both ended in the melancholy death of their
heroic leaders. Turner's was the insurrection of the slave and was not
free from the mad violence of revenge; Brown's was the insurrection of
the friend of the slave, and was governed by the high and noble
purpose of freedom. The insurrections of Denmark Vesey in South
Carolina, in 1822, and of Nat Turner, in Virginia, in 1831, show
conclusively that the Negro slave possessed the courage, the cunning,
the secretiveness and the intelligence to fight for his freedom.
These two attempts were sufficiently broad and intelligent, when taken
into consideration with the enforced ignorance of the slave, to prove
the Negro even in his forlorn condition capable of daring great
things. Of the probable thousands who were engaged in the Denmark
Vesey insurrection, only fifteen were convicted, and these died
heroically without revealing anything connected with the plot.
Forty-three years later I met the son of Denmark Vesey, who rejoiced
in the efforts of his noble father, and regarded his death on the
gallows as a holy sacrifice to the cause of freedom. Turner describes
his fight as follows: "The white men, eighteen in number, approached
us to about one hundred yards, when one of them fired, and I
discovered about half of them retreating. I then ordered my men to
fire and rush on them. The few remaining stood their ground until we
approached within fifty yards, when they fired and retreated. We
pursued and overtook some of them whom we thought we left dead. After
pursuing them about two hundred yards, and rising a little hill, I
discovered they were met by another party, and had halted and were
reloading their guns. Thinking that those who retreated first and the
party who fired on us at fifty or sixty yards distant had all only
fallen back to meet others with ammunition, as I saw them reloading
their guns, and more coming up than I saw at first, and several of my
bravest men being wounded, the others became panic struck and
scattered over the field. The white men pursued and fired on us
several times. Hark had his horse shot under him, and I caught another
for him that was running by me; five or six of my men were wounded,
but none left on the field. Finding myself defeated here, I instantly
determined to go through a private way and cross the Nottoway River at
Cypress Bridge, three miles below Jerusalem, and attack that place in
the rear, as I expected they would look for me on the other road, and
I had a great desire to get there to procure arms and ammunition.
After going a short distance in this private way, accompanied by about
twenty men, I overtook two or three who told me the others were
dispersed in every direction. After trying in vain to collect a
sufficient force to proceed to Jerusalem, I determined to return, as I
was sure they would make back to their old neighborhood, where they
would rejoin me, make new recruits, and come down again. On my way
back I called on Mrs. Thomas', Mrs. Spencer's and several other
places. We stopped at Major Ridley's quarters for the night, and being
joined by four of his men, with the recruits made since my defeat, we
mustered now about forty strong.

After placing out sentinels, I lay down to sleep, but was quickly
aroused by a great racket. Starting up I found some mounted and others
in great confusion, one of the sentinels having given the alarm that
we were about to be attacked. I ordered some to ride around and
reconnoitre, and on their return the others being more alarmed, not
knowing who they were, fled in different ways, so that I was reduced
to about twenty again. With this I determined to attempt to recruit,
and proceed on to rally in the neighborhood I had left."[6]

No one can read this account, which is thoroughly supported by
contemporary testimony, without seeing in this poor misguided slave
the elements of a vigorous captain. Failing in his efforts he made his
escape and remained for two months in hiding in the vicinity of his
pursuers. One concerned in his prosecution says: "It has been said
that he was ignorant and cowardly and that his object was to murder
and rob for the purpose of obtaining money to make his escape. It is
notorious that he was never known to have a dollar in his life, to
swear an oath, or drink a drop of spirits. As to his ignorance, he
certainly never had the advantages of education, but he can read and
write (it was taught him by his parents) and for natural intelligence
and quickness of apprehension, is surpassed by few men I have ever
seen. As to his being a coward, his reason as given for not resisting
Mr. Phipps shows the decision of his character."[7]

The War of the Rebellion, now called the Civil War, effected the last
and tremendous step in the transition of the American Negro from the
position of a slave under the Republic to that of a soldier in its
armies. Both under officers of his own race at Port Hudson and under
white officers on a hundred battlefields, the Negro in arms proved
himself a worthy foeman against the bravest and sternest enemies that
ever assailed our nation's flag, and a worthy comrade of the Union's
best defenders. Thirty-six thousand eight hundred and forty-seven of
them gave their lives in that awful conflict. The entire race on this
continent and those of allied blood throughout the world are indebted
to the soldier-historian, Honorable George W. Williams, for the
eloquent story of their service in the Union Army, and for the
presentation of the high testimonials to the valor and worthiness of
the colored soldier as given by the highest military authority of the
century. From Chapter XVI of his book, "Negro Troops in the
Rebellion," the paragraphs appended at the close of this chapter are
quoted.

A.

HOW THE BLACK ST. DOMINGO LEGION SAVED THE PATRIOT ARMY IN THE SIEGE
OF SAVANNAH, 1779.

The siege and attempted reduction of Savannah by the combined French
and American forces is one of the events of our revolutionary war,
upon which our historians care little to dwell. Because it reflects
but little glory upon the American arms, and resulted so disastrously
to the American cause, its important historic character and
connections have been allowed to fade from general sight; and it
stands in the ordinary school text-books, much as an affair of shame.
The following, quoted from Barnes' History, is a fair sample of the
way in which it is treated:

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