Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

The Mississippi River and its Tributaries, 1861–1863 171
tential black recruits in the camps of white regiments, “where there seem to be
so many in excess as waiters and hangers on to those who are not authorized to
have them.” Putting white soldiers’ personal servants in uniform, he told Grant,
“will rid you of a good many mouths to feed.” Grant assured Halleck that corps
commanders in the Army of the Tennessee would “take hold of the new policy of
arming the negroes . . . with a will.” It was not to be a matter of preference; they
would follow orders. Grant added that he intended to further black enlistment “to
the best of my ability.” 35
Lower-ranking officers sometimes sought to turn the policy to their own advantage.
One brigade commander planned to attach a company of black soldiers
to each of his white regiments for fatigue duty. Thomas disapproved the scheme.
Late in the summer, one of his own plantation commissioners asked that the 1st
Arkansas (AD) return to Helena to protect cotton growers along the river from
guerrilla raids. The regiment stayed in Louisiana. 36
Officers for the new black regiments were close at hand, since they came
from white regiments stationed near contraband camps where they would find
recruits. Determining their knowledge and abilities, however, sometimes took
months. At Helena, a board to examine the colonels of the 2d and 3d Arkansas
(AD) and the adjutant of the 3d did not convene till January 1864. One colonel
was discharged, and the other resigned within weeks of the examination, but the
adjutant held his job until the regiment mustered out in September 1866. 37
The new officers’ abilities varied, but their attitudes toward the men they
would lead typified opinion in the vast region from which they came. Regiments
in the Army of the Tennessee represented every state from West Virginia to
Kansas, from Tennessee to Minnesota. Men from these regiments might accept
commissions in the U.S. Colored Troops out of a sense of duty or because they
yearned for the higher pay officers received and the better living conditions they
enjoyed. Even those of firm antislavery convictions could also view black people
as pawns in the sectional struggle, or even as stock minstrel-show characters.
One young nominee, Pvt. Samuel Evans of the 70th Ohio, tried in mid-
May to explain to his father his reasons for accepting an appointment in the
1st Tennessee (AD). General Thomas had addressed troops in southwestern
Tennessee “day before yesterday and . . . said the aim of the President was to
make the Negro self sustaining. . . . My doctrine is that a Negro is no better than
a white man and will do as well to receive Reble bullets and would be likely to
save the life of a white man. . . . I am not much inclined to think they will fight as
some of our white Regts, but men who will stand up to the mark may succeed in
making them of some benefit to the Government.” Evans’ new company already
had seventy men. “We have been drilling them some, they learn the school of a
35 OR, ser. 1, vol. 24, pt. 1, p. 31 (“take hold”). Brig Gen L. Thomas to E. M. Stanton, 22 Apr
1863, and to Maj Gen U. S. Grant, 9 May 1863 (“It is important”), both in Entry 159BB, RG 94, NA.
36 Brig Gen L. Thomas to Col W. W. Sanford, 19 May 1863, Entry 159BB, RG 94, NA; S.
Sawyer to Brig Gen L. Thomas, 16 Aug 1863, 46th USCI, Entry 57C, RG 94, NA.
37 Dist of Eastern Arkansas, SO 15, 15 Jan 1864, 56th USCI, Entry 57C, RG 94, NA; Official
Army Register of the Volunteer Force of the United States Army, 8 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Adjutant
General’s Office, 1867), 8: 227, 229 (hereafter cited as ORVF).