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
A surgeon before he became a soldier,
Brig. Gen. Edward A. Wild early in the war
received wounds that mangled his right
hand (gloved in this photograph) and caused
amputation of his left arm. Being deprived of
his prewar livelihood did nothing to mitigate
the hatred Wild felt for slaveholders.
and field, than for any feats he may
have performed before an Examining
Board.
The Adjutant General’s Office
acquiesced. The roster for Wild’s
second new regiment included
five officers who had served in the
Massachusetts regiment he had
commanded as a colonel. Ten men
from the company he had led at the
beginning of the war became officers
in his third North Carolina
regiment. In an era of rudimentary
or nonexistent personnel systems,
the new general had to rely on the
same principle that Col. Embury D.
Osband used in organizing the 1st
Mississippi Cavalry (African Descent):
first-hand knowledge of a
candidate’s abilities. 17
Wild landed at New Berne on
18 May. The next day, General
Foster’s headquarters announced
his arrival and the purpose of his
visit, adjuring all Union troops “to
afford [him] every facility and aid.
. . . The commanding general expects
that this order will be sufficient
to insure the prompt obedience
(the first duty of a soldier) of
all . . . to the orders of the War Department.” The order was necessary because
in the spring of 1863, many white soldiers, even those from Massachusetts, still
opposed the idea of black enlistment. The most prominent among them was
Brig. Gen Thomas G. Stevenson, former colonel of the 24th Massachusetts, a
regiment that had landed a year earlier with Burnside’s expedition. Stevenson
17 Brig Gen E. A. Wild to Maj T. M. Vincent, 27 Apr 1863 (W–9–CT–1863); 25 Jun 1863 (W–
38–CT–1863, filed with [f/w] W–9–CT–1863); 4 Sep 1863 (W–158–CT–1863, f/w W–9–CT–1863);
4 Sep 1863 (W–159–CT–1863) (quotation); all in Entry 360, Colored Troops Div, Letters Received
(LR), Record Group (RG) 94, Rcds of the Adjutant General’s Office, National Archives (NA). Maj
T. M. Vincent to Brig Gen E. A. Wild, 2 Oct 1863, E. A. Wild Papers, U.S. Army Military History
Institute (MHI), Carlisle, Pa. Other works consulted in determining the number of soldiers from
Wild’s previous commands who were appointed to the new North Carolina regiments include:
NA Microfilm Pub T289, Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between
1861 and 1900, roll 550, 35th United States Colored Infantry (USCI); Official Army Register of the
Volunteer Force of the United States Army, 8 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Adjutant General’s Office,
1867), 8: 206–10 (hereafter cited as ORVF); Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the
Civil War, 8 vols. (various places and publishers, 1931–1937).