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
of a wounded trooper nimble enough to dodge, so that it took two shots to kill him,
is at odds with Colonel Brisbin’s insistence that every man who was able to move
by himself accompanied the Union retreat. 18
Saltville was the largest expedition that black troops from Kentucky took
part in west of the Appalachians. From October 1864 to the end of the war,
military activity in the state took the form of constant patrols and infrequent but
sometimes fatal clashes with guerrillas. The two cavalry and four heavy artillery
regiments raised in Kentucky did not leave the state; most of the seventeen
infantry regiments did. 19
When Burbridge returned to his headquarters at Lexington on 9 October, he
found Adjutant General Thomas there making arrangements to move some of the
new black regiments to Virginia. At Covington and Louisville, officers and men
of these regiments boarded steamboats for travel to one of the West Virginia river
ports, Wheeling or Parkersburg. From there, they moved to Baltimore by rail.
The last leg of the journey was again by water, down the Chesapeake Bay to Fort
Monroe and City Point. Five organizations from Kentucky—the 107th, 109th,
116th, 117th, and 118th USCIs—were in Virginia by the end of the month. The
Union’s ability at this stage of the war to raise five regiments in as many months
and ship them hundreds of miles to where it meant to use them was a vivid display
of its superiority to the Confederacy in men and machinery. Although black
soldiers in the field, nationwide, did not number as many as ninety thousand until
January 1865, their presence in the trenches of Virginia, along railroads west of
the Appalachians, and at Mississippi River garrisons was a powerful influence on
the outcome of the war. 20
The new arrivals found themselves assigned to General Butler’s Army of the
James. Lt. Col. John Pierson of the 109th USCI found this a pleasant change from
Kentucky. “The Colored Troops are as much thought of here by the white soldiers
and officers as any men in this Department and treated as well,” he told his daughter,
“and all that I have seen seems glad to see us come and the white Regiments are
anxious to have us Brigaded with them they say the Darkies are Bully fellows to
fight and all the predjudice seems to be gone Officers of colored men are as much
thought of as any.” Some old hands in the Army of the James took a more critical
view. “Those . . . new regiments are perfect donkeys,” 2d Lt. Joseph M. Califf of
the 7th USCI wrote in his diary just one day after Pierson addressed his daughter,
“not only with regard to picket [duty] but almost every thing else military.” 21
There can be no doubt that the men of the Kentucky regiments arrived in Virginia
with little grasp of a soldier’s duties; they had few officers to instruct them.
General Thomas filled the regiments destined for Virginia with recruits and reas-
18 OR, ser. 1, vol. 32, pt. 1, pp. 607 (“renegade[s]”), 610 (“Tories”); vol. 39, pt. 1, p. 554. Mays,
“Battle of Saltville,” pp. 212 (“Great numbers”), 214–16.
19 OR, ser. 1, vol. 39, pt. 1, pp. 857–58, 876; vol. 45, pt. 1, p. 876; vol. 49, pt. 1, pp. 9, 49. NA
M594, roll 204, 6th USCC; roll 212, 72d USCI; roll 217, 121st USCI.
20 OR, ser. 1, vol. 39, pt. 3, pp. 157, 200, 219. Monthly mean strength of “Colored Troops in the
United States Army” from The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 2 vols. in 6
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870–1888), vol. 1, pt. 1, pp. 664–65, 684–85, 704–05.
21 J. Pierson to Dear Daugter [sic], 30 Oct 1864, J. Pierson Letters, Clements Library, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor; J. M. Califf Diary, 31 Oct 1864, Historians files, U.S. Army Center of
Military History (CMH).