Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia, 1864–1865 385
ties,” Burbridge was able to urge successfully, early in June, that recruiters be authorized
to accept any man who presented himself for enlistment. Those who were
not fit for operations in the field could perform garrison duty in an “invalid” regiment
composed of men with similar disabilities, like others in service elsewhere
in the South. The 63d and 64th United States Colored Infantries (USCIs) were
already guarding plantations along the Mississippi River, and the 42d and 100th
USCIs were performing guard and garrison duties at Chattanooga and Nashville. 10
Although the Army eventually set up camps to house soldiers’ dependents,
slaveholders’ abuse of the earliest recruits’ families slowed the pace of enlistment
during late spring. By summer, Burbridge found it necessary to send recruiting
parties through the state, as authorities in Tennessee had had to do a year earlier.
These groups faced active opposition. At Covington, across the Ohio River from
Cincinnati, the officer commanding the 117th USCI reported that a “small squad”
of his men led by a sergeant suffered one wounded and “several captured” in late
July. The next month, the size of recruiting parties had increased, by order, to no
fewer than fifty men. An expedition through Shelby County, halfway between Louisville
and the state capital, required three hundred fifty. Larger, well-armed parties
were better able to defend themselves against the “marauding Bands” mounted on
“fleet Horses” that operated in most parts of Kentucky. Seventy men of the 108th
USCI routed a group of about sixty guerrillas northeast of Owensboro in mid-August,
wounding seven and capturing nine of them. Within three weeks, the officer
of the 118th USCI who commanded the garrison at Owensboro reported the murder
of three of his men by guerrillas. Despite such violent opposition, a recruiter
at Henderson, an Ohio River town some twenty-five miles west of Owensboro,
reported enlisting “from forty to sixty men daily.” By mid-September, Adjutant
General Thomas was able to tell the secretary of war that fourteen thousand black
Kentuckians had joined the Army. 11
General Burbridge wanted to mount two of his new black regiments and use
them to hunt guerrillas. He spoke of this to Brig. Gen. Joseph Holt, the judge advocate
general, who happened to be in Louisville and sent an enthusiastic telegram to
the secretary of war: “These regiments, composed of men almost raised . . . on horseback,
of uncompromising loyalty, and having an intimate knowledge of the topography
of the country, would prove a powerful instrumentality in ridding the state of
those guerrilla bands of robbers and murderers which now infest and oppress almost
every part of it.” After conferring with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Stanton wrote back
to suggest that mounted infantry might prove a more versatile force than cavalry.
He approved Burbridge’s proposal to mount the troops on horses confiscated from
disloyal owners. Despite Stanton’s suggestion, Burbridge went ahead and organized
10 OR, ser. 3, 4: 422 (quotations); Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion
(New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959 [1908]), pp. 1731, 1733–34, 1738; Berlin et al., Black Military
Experience, pp. 193–96; Howard, Black Liberation in Kentucky, p. 64.
11 OR, ser. 1, vol. 39, pt. 1, p. 492; ser. 3, 4: 733. Col L. G. Brown to Capt J. B. Dickson, 23 Jul
1864, 117th United States Colored Infantry (USCI); Lt Col J. H. Hammond to Col W. H. Revere, 30
Aug 1864, and 30 Aug 1864, both in 107th USCI; Capt J. L. Bullis to Maj Gen S. G. Burbridge, 17
Sep 1864 (quotations), 118th USCI; Capt J. C. Cowin to 1st Lt T. J. Neal, 17 Aug 1864, 108th USCI;
all in Entry 57C, Regimental Papers, Record Group (RG) 94, Rcds of the Adjutant General’s Office,
National Archives (NA).