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
way as will do the least injury.” In other words, Johnson wanted no New England
abolitionists recruiting in his state. 6
Stanton reacted as Johnson had hoped. Telegrams from Washington to the governor
and the recruiter arrived in Nashville the next day, reaffirming that Stearns’
assignment was “to aid in the organization of colored troops under [Johnson’s] directions
and the directions of General Rosecrans.” If Stearns could not conform to
these instructions, Stanton added, he “had better leave Nashville and proceed to
Cairo to await orders.” This would remove him entirely from the Department of the
Cumberland. Stearns seemed to take the admonition in good part. On 24 September,
he reported that recruiting had begun “with good success.” Only twelve days
passed, though, before Johnson complained that Stearns’ recruiters had raided “the
rendezvous of colored laborers and [taken] away some three hundred hands” who
had come to work expecting to lay track on the Nashville and Northwestern. The
conflict between Stearns and Johnson eventually required an order from Stanton that
settled matters in the governor’s favor. Stearns left Nashville that fall, replaced by
his assistant, Capt. Reuben D. Mussey. Once again the federal government established
rival and conflicting authorities to organize Colored Troops, as it had done
elsewhere in the occupied South, forcing recruiters to compete with the Army’s staff
departments—engineers, quartermasters, and commissaries of subsistence—for the
services of black workers. 7
Stearns himself had been opposed to the press-gang approach in recruiting black
soldiers. Impressment caused the unwilling to “run to the woods,” he told Stanton,
“imparting their fears to the Slaves thus keeping them out of our lines, and we get
only those who are too ignorant or indolent to take care of themselves.” Nevertheless,
impressment was common in the Department of the Cumberland, as it was elsewhere
in the occupied South. In October, Stearns’ agent at Gallatin reported that “every
Negro who comes in from the Country is brought by the picket parties . . . to this
office”—in other words, outpost guards brought men to the recruiter at gunpoint. In
February 1864, a “conscripting party” seized “nearly all the negro force” working
on the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad near Columbia. That fall, Captain Mussey’s
annual report stated that in the search for black recruits “none were pressed,” but the
unpublished correspondence of his own office told a different story. 8
Evidence of further confusion in federal recruiting efforts was the numbering
system used for the new organizations. Authorities in Nashville called the first two
the 1st and 2d U.S. Colored Infantry regiments. Their men came from the Depart-
6 Ibid., pp. 683 (“that my”), 786 (“take charge”), 820 (“We need”); Maj G. L. Stearns to Capt C.
W. Foster, 5 Aug 1863 (S–94–CT–1863), and to E. M. Stanton, 17 Aug 1863 (S–114–CT–1863), both
filed with (f/w) S–18–CT–1863, Entry 360, Colored Troops Div, Letters Received (LR), RG 94, Rcds
of the Adjutant General’s Office, NA.
7 OR, ser. 3, 3: 823 (“had better”), 876; Maj G. L. Stearns to Maj C. W. Foster, 24 Sep 1863
(“with good”) (S–176–CT–1863, f/w S–18–CT–1863), Entry 360, RG 94, NA; A. Johnson to Maj G.
L. Stearns, 6 Oct 1863 (“the rendezvous”), Entry 1149, Rcds of Capt R. D. Mussey, pt. 1, RG 393,
NA; Dudley T. Cornish, The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army, 1861–1865 (New York:
Longmans, Green, 1956), pp. 326–28; Peter Maslowski, Treason Must Be Made Odious: Military
Occupation and Wartime Reconstruction in Nashville, Tennessee, 1862–65 (Millwood, N.Y.: KTO
Press, 1978), pp. 102–07.
8 OR, ser. 3, 4: 476 (“none were”); Maj G. L. Stearns to E. M. Stanton, 17 Aug 1863 (“run to”)
(S–114–CT–1863, f/w S–18–CT–1863), Entry 360, RG 94, NA; J. N. Holmes to Maj G. L. Stearns,