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
more than 60 percent of correspondence in the Colored Troops Division. One
former officer of the 54th USCI was still trying to collect six months’ back pay
as late as 1884. Miller’s reluctance to report for duty no doubt saved him a lot
of paperwork, but it shifted to others the burden of recruiting and organizing
the new regiment. 33
In addition to administrative challenges, a new Colored Troops officer
could be prey to conflicting emotions about his situation. An appointment in
the 29th Connecticut instead of the 30th disappointed 1st Lt. Henry H. Brown
because the senior regiment would complete its organization and head south
first and he had hoped to have a long stay in his home state. When the 29th
arrived at Beaufort, South Carolina, in April 1864, Brown told friends, “The
move suits me better than any move I have made in the army . . . for . . . in
jumping from [Maj. Gen. Ambrose E.] Burnside’s command [we] have jumped
I think a very hard peninsular campaign in Va.” Still, Brown scanned newspaper
casualty lists anxiously for the names of friends who were advancing on
Richmond with Burnside’s IX Corps. “Poor boys to have such hard times when
I am taking so much comfort,” he wrote. 34
By the end of 1863, examining boards had interviewed 1,051 candidates
and approved 560, enough to staff fully only sixteen infantry regiments. Maj.
Gen. Silas Casey, the author of a book of infantry tactics and a former division
commander in the Army of the Potomac, served as president of the Washington,
D.C., examining board. Thomas Webster of Philadelphia was chairman of
that city’s Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, which
organized eleven all-black infantry regiments at nearby Camp William Penn
during the war. Together, the two men conceived the idea of a free preparatory
school for officer applicants, which the Supervisory Committee opened
in Philadelphia in December 1863. The students included soldiers on special
furlough, veterans whose enlistments had ended, members of the militia, and
civilians with no military experience at all. They studied tactics, mathematics,
and other subjects covered by the examining board. Parade-ground drill was
not neglected, and the course included a practicum with the black recruits at
Camp William Penn. 35
Only thirty-day furloughs were available for soldiers to attend the school.
This time limit meant that the student body was confined to civilians and men
from the Army of the Potomac. Since Pennsylvania was the nation’s second
most populous state in 1860, it is not surprising that nearly 40 percent of the
soldier-students came from Pennsylvania regiments, many of them organized
33 M. Miller to Dear Mother, 15 Oct 1863 (“Our Reg[imen]t”), M. Miller Papers, University of
Arkansas, Fayetteville; Public Resolution 68, 26 Jul 1866, published in AGO, GO 62, 11 Aug 66,
Entry 44, Orders and Circulars, RG 94, NA; Entry 352, vol. 6, pp. 1–25, RG 94, NA; J. W. Stryker to
Maj O. D. Greene, 25 Sep 1884, f/w S–11–CT–1863, Entry 360, RG 94, NA.
34 H. H. Brown to Dear Mother, 22 Feb 1864; to Dear Friends at Home, 13 Apr 1864 (“The
move”); to Dear Mother, 15 May 1864 (“Poor boys”); all in H. H. Brown Papers, Connecticut
Historical Society, Hartford.
35 Free Military School for Applicants for Command of Colored Troops, 2d ed. (Philadelphia:
King and Baird, 1864), pp. 3, 7, 18–19. This edition of the school’s brochure includes the names of
graduates who had successfully passed the Washington board’s examination, as well of those still
enrolled on 31 March 1864.