The Black Phalanx Part 29

"I have observed a decided difference in favor of those recruited from the free States.

"The problem involved in the foregoing investigation is more difficult of a solution than appears at first sight, owing to the fact that the degree of efficiency peculiar to any company of troops depends so much on the character of their officers, an element that must eliminate from the question in order to ascertain the quality of the material of which the troops are composed.

"I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

"H. FARRAND,

"_1st Lieut. New York Volunteer Engineers._"

In his report to Major-General Gillmore, dated "Morris Island, Sept.

27th, 1863," Major Brooks, his a.s.sistant Engineer, says: "Of the numerous infantry regiments which furnished fatigue details, the Fourth New Hamps.h.i.+re Volunteers did the most and best work. Next follow the blacks, the Fifty-fourth Ma.s.sachusetts Volunteers, and Third United States Colored Troops."

Annexed to these reports is also a statement of the labor days of the troops.

"WORKING PARTIES AND HEALTH OF TROOPS.

"The total number of days' work, of six hours each, expended in Major Brooks' operations was, by engineers, 4,500, and by infantry 19,000, total 23,500; of the 19,000 days' work by infantry, one-half was performed by colored troops. In addition to the above, 9,500 days' work was expended in preparing siege materials for Major Brooks' operations. The infantry soldiers' days' work is about one-fifth what a citizen laborer would do on civil works. Of my work, over eight-twentieths was against Wagner, about seven-twentieths on the defensive lines, and nearly five-twentieths on the batteries against Sumter.

"The approximate amount of labor actually expended on the more important works is as follows: One emplacement for a siege piece, 40 days; one emplacement for a heavy breaching gun, 100 days; one bomb-proof magazine, 250 days; construction and repairs of each yard of approach having splinter-proof parapet, 2 days; a lineal yard of narrow splinter-proof shelter, 4 days; a lineal yard of wide splinter-proof shelter, 8 days; to make and set one yard of inclined palisading, 2 days.

"At least three-fourths of the manual labor was simply shoveling sand; one-half of the remainder was carrying engineer material. The balance was employed in various kinds of work.

"About three-fourths of this work was executed in the night-time, and at least nine-tenths of it under a fire of artillery or sharpshooters, or both. The sharpshooters seldom fired during the night. The artillery fire was most severe during the day. Thirty-five projectiles fired by the enemy at our works per hour was called "heavy firing,"

although sometimes more than double that number were thrown.

"In the order of their number the projectiles were from smooth-bore guns, mortars, and rifled guns.

"The James Island batteries were from two thousand to four thousand yards from our works; Fort Sumter and Battery Gregg were respectively about three thousand five hundred and two thousand one hundred; Fort Wagner was from thirteen hundred to one hundred yards.

"The total number of casualties in the working parties and the guard of the advanced trenches, (not including the main guard of the trenches), during the siege, was about one hundred and fifty. When it is considered that on an average over two hundred men were constantly engaged in these duties, being under fire for fifty days, the number of casualties is astonis.h.i.+ngly small.

"The camp at which the fatigue parties were quartered and fed were, in order to be beyond the reach of the enemy's fires, two miles from the centre of the works; hence the distance of four miles had to be marched each tour of duty, which required nearly two hours, and added greatly to the labor of the siege.

"This siege has been conducted through the hottest part of the season,--July, August and September,--yet the troops have suffered but little from excess in heat, on account of the large proportion of night work, and the almost continual sea-breeze, which was always cool and refres.h.i.+ng.

"The amount of sickness was great, the large amount of duty being the probable cause. On the 7th of August the percentage was the smallest observed during the siege, being 18.6. At this date the aggregate garrison of Morris Island was 9,353, of which 1,741 were sick. On the 17th of August 22.9 per cent. of the whole garrison were on the sick list.

This was the most unhealthy period of the siege.

"The average strength of the command on Morris Island during the siege was, of all arms, 10,678 men, of which the average percentage sick was 19.88. The number of black troops varied from 1,127 to 1947.

"Average percentage of sick in Artillery, 6.2; ditto, in Engineers, 11.9; ditto, in Black Infantry, 13.9; ditto, in White Infantry, (excluding one brigade), 20.1.

"This brigade consisted of the Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania, Twenty-fourth Ma.s.sachusetts and Tenth Connecticut Volunteers. It averaged thirty per cent sick. This was due to the fact that these three regiments had been stationed, before moving to Morris Island, on Seabrook Island, which proved very unhealthy. The engineers and black infantry were employed exclusively on fatigue duty. The white infantry served as guard of the trenches, as well as for work in the same.

"Details from the troops on Folly Island took part in the operations on Morris Island.

"It was found by experience that men under these circ.u.mstances could not work more than one-fourth the time.

A greater amount at once increased the sick list. Eight hours in thirty-two, or eight hours on and twenty-four off, was found to be the best arrangement, as it made a daily change in the hours of duty for those regiments permanently detailed for work.

"The organization found most advantageous in working a command permanently detailed for fatigue duty, was to divide its effective force into four equal detachments, on duty eight hours each, relieving each other at 4 A. M., 12 M. and 8 P. M. The large number of extra troops employed in the trenches each night were usually changed daily.

"The engineer officers in charge of the works were divided into corresponding groups, four in each, relieving each other at 8 A. M., 4 P. M., and 12 midnight, four hours different from the time of relieving the troops. This difference enabled the engineer officers to carry the work through the period of relieving the fatigue details.

"One engineer officer, having from two to four different kinds or jobs of work to superintend, was found to work advantageously in the night, with the help of non-commissioned officers of engineers, from one hundred to two hundred men.

"The working parties of engineers and black infantry seldom carried their arms into the trenches, while the white infantry fatigue parties usually did."

FOOTNOTES:

[27] NOTE.--Boykin's Mill, a few miles from Camden, S. C, was the scene of one of the bloodiest skirmishes that the 54th Regt. ever partic.i.p.ated in. We had literally fought every step of the way from Georgetown to Camden, and the enemy made a last desperate stand at this place. No better position could be found for a defense, as the only approach to it, was by a narrow embankment about 200 yards long, where only one could walk at a time. The planks of the bridge over the mill-race were torn up, compelling the troops to cross on the timbers and cross-ties, under a galling fire which swept the bridge and embankment, rendering it a fearful 'way of death.' The heroes of Wagner and Ol.u.s.tee did not shrink from the trial, but actually charged in single file. The first to step upon the fatal path, went down like gra.s.s before the scythe, but over their prostrate bodies came their comrades, until the enemy, panic-stricken by such determined daring, abandoned their position and fled.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ARMY OF THE c.u.mBERLAND.

Important services were rendered by the Phalanx in the West. The operations in Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky, afforded an excellent opportunity to the commanders of the Union forces to raise negro troops in such portions of the territory as they held; but in consequence of the bitterness against such action by the semi-Unionists and Copperheads in the Department of the Ohio and c.u.mberland, it was not until the fall of 1863 that the organizing of such troops in these Departments fairly began. The Mississippi was well-nigh guarded by Phalanx regiments enlisted along that river, numbering about fifty thousand men. They garrisoned the fortifications, and occupied the captured towns. Later on, however, when the confederate General Bragg began preparations for the recovery of the Tennessee Valley, organization of the Phalanx commenced in earnest, and proceeded with a rapidity that astounded even those who were favorable to the policy. St. Louis became a depot and Benton Barracks a recruiting station, from whence, in the fall of 1863, went many a regiment of brave black men, whose chivalrous deeds will ever live in the annals of the nation. It was not long after this time that the n.o.ble Army of the c.u.mberland began to receive a portion of the black troops, whose shouts rang through the mountain fastnesses. The record made by the 60th Regiment is the boast of the State of Iowa, to which it was accredited: but of those which went to the a.s.sistance of General Thomas' army none won greater distinction and honor than the gallant brigade commanded by Colonel T. J. Morgan, afterwards raised to Brigadier-General. The gallant 14th Infantry was one of its regiments, the field officers of which were Colonel, Thomas J. Morgan, who had been promoted through various grades, from a 1st Lieutenancy in the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry; Lieutenant-Colonel, H. C. Corbin, who had risen from a 1st Lieutenancy of the 79th O. V. I., and Major N. J. Vail, who had served as an enlisted man in the 19th Illinois Volunteers. All the officers pa.s.sed a rigid examination before the board of examiners appointed by the War Department for that purpose.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHANGED CONDITIONS.

The Confederate Generals Edward Johnson and G. H. Stewart, as prisoners, under guard of Phalanx Soldiers, May 12th, 1864.]

General Morgan, by request furnishes the following highly interesting and historical statement of his services with the Phalanx Brigade:

"The American Civil War of 1861-5 marks an epoch not only in the history of the United States, but in that of democracy, and of civilization. Its issue has vitally affected the course of human progress. To the student of history it ranks along with the conquests of Alexander; the incursions of the Barbarians; the Crusades; the discovery of America and the American Revolution. It settled the question of our National unity with all the consequences attaching thereto. It exhibited in a very striking manner the power of a free people to preserve their form of government against its most dangerous foe, Civil War. It not only enfranchised four millions of American slaves of African descent, but made slavery forever impossible in the great Republic, and gave a new impulse to the cause of human freedom. Its influence upon American slaves was immediate and startlingly revolutionary, lifting them from the condition of despised chattels, bought and sold like sheep in the market, with no rights which the white man was bound to respect,--to the exalted plane of American citizens.h.i.+p; made them free men, the peers in every civil and political right, of their late masters. Within about a decade after the close of the war, negroes, lately slaves, were legislators, state officers, members of Congress, and for a brief time one presided over the Senate of the United States, where only a few years before, Toombs had boasted that he would yet call the roll of his slaves in the shade of Bunker Hill.

"To-day slavery finds no advocate, and the colored race in America is making steady progress in all the elements of civilization. The conduct of the American slave during, and since the war, has wrought an extraordinary change in public sentiment, regarding the capabilities of the race.

"The manly qualities of the negro soldiers, evinced in camp, on the march and in battle, won for them golden opinions, made their freedom a necessity and their citizens.h.i.+p a certainty.

"Those of us who a.s.sisted in organizing, disciplining and leading negro troops in battle, may, perhaps, be pardoned for feeling a good degree of pride in our share of the thrilling events of the great war.

"When Sumter was fired upon, April, 1861, I was 21; a member of the Senior Cla.s.s in Franklin College, Indiana. I enlisted in the 7th Indiana Volunteer infantry and served as a private soldier for three months in West Virginia, under Gen. McClellan,--'the young Napoleon,' as he was even then known. I partic.i.p.ated in the battle of Carricks Ford, where Gen. Garnett was killed and his army defeated. In August, 1862, I re-enlisted as a First Lieutenant in the 70th Indiana, (Col. Benjamin Harrison) and saw service in Kentucky and Tennessee.

"In January 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Emanc.i.p.ation, and incorporated in it the policy of arming the negro for special service in the Union army. Thus the question was fairly up, and I entered into its discussion with the deepest interest, as I saw that upon its settlement hung great issues.

"On the one hand the opponents of the policy maintained that to make soldiers of the negroes would be to put them on the same level with white soldiers, and so be an insult to every man who wore the blue. It was contended, too, that the negro was not fit for a soldier because he belonged to a degraded, inferior race, wanting in soldierly qualities; that his long bondage had crushed out whatever of manliness he might naturally possess; that he was too grossly ignorant to perform, intelligently, the duties of the soldier; that his provocation had been so great as a slave, that when once armed, and conscious of his power as a soldier, he would abuse it by acts of revenge and wanton cruelty.

"It was urged, on the other hand, that in its fearful struggle for existence, the Republic needed the help of the able-bodied negroes; that with their natural instincts of self-preservation, desire for liberty, habit of obedience, power of imitation, love of pomp and parade, acquaintance with the southern country and adaptation to its climate, they had elements which peculiarly fitted them for soldiers.

It was further urged that the negro had more at stake than the white man, and that he should have a chance to strike a blow for himself. It was particularly insisted upon that he needed just the opportunity which army service afforded to develop and exhibit whatever of manliness he possessed. As the war progressed, and each great battle-field was piled with heaps of the killed and wounded of our best citizens, men looked at each other seriously, and asked if a black man would not stop a bullet as well as a white man? Miles O'Reilly at length voiced a popular sentiment when he said,

"'The right to be killed I'll divide with the nayger, And give him the largest half.'

"With the strong conviction that the negro was a man worthy of freedom, and possessed of all the essential qualities of a good soldier, I early advocated the organization of colored regiments,--not for fatigue or garrison duty, but for field service.