Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

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Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867
not be overstating the merits of this company,” he wrote, “to say that many of them
would fill with credit any position in a cavalry regiment.” Nearly two years’ association
with Grant must have helped give Osband the confidence to approach the
adjutant general directly. 9
Training began when a regiment’s commander assigned its officers and men to
companies and mustered them into service. At Corinth, Mississippi, Col. James N.
Alexander’s 1st Alabama Infantry (AD) managed only “a few days’ drill” in May
before the post commander assigned the men to guard duties, picket, and fatigues,
“in all of which,” Alexander wrote in September, “they have been doing a heavy duty
ever since.” Otherwise, the colonel had no complaint: “Every facility that could be,
has been given us to complete our outfit.” As for the excessive fatigue duty, which
officers of the U.S. Colored Troops deplored in all parts of the country, Alexander
thought that a higher-ranking commanding officer would be better able to look after
the troops’ interests. “We report to the commander of the Post . . . and when a man
gets ahold of us, who does not believe in the Black Man, [the troops] suffer and we
have no remedy. For this and other reasons . . . it is of the utmost importance that
these troops be Brigaded. My experience is that the more they are kept to themselves
the better.” A brigade of Colored Troops led by a general officer would fare better,
Alexander reasoned, than a lone black regiment in an otherwise white garrison. The
higher the commanding officer’s rank, the better he could defend his men from onerous
details imposed on them because of their race. Regimental officers wanted to
drill their men thoroughly rather than to employ them as guards and laborers because
the men’s eventual behavior in battle would reflect credit or disgrace on those who
had trained them. 10
The quality of the troops’ weapons was as important as their proficiency in
drill. At Goodrich’s Landing, General Hawkins tried for weeks to get the Ordnance
Department to replace his brigade’s rifles, which he called “third rate,” with
Springfields. Eleven years’ experience in peace and war, as infantry officer, quartermaster,
and commissary, had placed him at different times on both the giving
and the receiving ends of the Army’s supply system. He followed the Ordnance
Department’s instructions and filed an inspection report on the weapons he wanted
replaced. Nothing happened, and at length he complained to Adjutant General
Thomas: “A Quartermaster tries to distribute the best kind of harness, wagons, and
everything else. A Commissary tries to procure the best and most healthy food.
The Ordnance Dept. has to be begged. . . . It is hedged around with unbusinesslike
restrictions and appears to have no power to accommodate itself to circumstances
or to the exercise of any discretion.” Knowing that some regiments of his
brigade were famous for their backs-to-the-river defense of Milliken’s Bend that
9 OR, ser. 1, vol. 24, pt. 1, p. 59 (quotation); Capt E. D. Osband to Brig Gen L. Thomas, 10 Oct
1863 (O–4–AG–1863), Entry 363, LR by Adj Gen L. Thomas, RG 94, NA; ORVF, 8: 143.
10 Col J. M. Alexander to Lt Col J. H. Wilson, 10 Sep 1863 (“a few”), and Col J. M. Alexander
to Brig Gen L. Thomas, 17 Oct 1863 (“We report”), both in 55th USCI, Entry 57C, RG 94, NA.
Complaints about excessive guard and fatigue duty for Colored Troops arose throughout the war and
across the South: at Natchez, Col A. S. Smith et al. to Col W. E. Clark, 18 Dec 1863, 58th USCI; at
Little Rock, Col J. E. Cone to 1st Lt L. Harwood, 21 Apr 1864, 54th USCI; at Vicksburg, Capt O. J.
Wright to Brig Gen L. Thomas, 3 Nov 1864, 50th USCI; at Memphis, Col H. Leib to Capt F. W. Fox,
27 Jan 1865, 68th USCI; all in Entry 57C, RG 94, NA.