Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia, 1864–1865 389
signed to them a few officers from regiments that were to stay in Kentucky a while
longer. He could do nothing, though, about officers who failed, for whatever reason,
to report at all. All five of the ten-company regiments from Kentucky arrived
in Virginia lacking at least one-fourth of the captains and lieutenants that each
required to reach full strength. 22
Maj. Edward W. Bacon joined the 117th USCI in January 1865. Two months
later, he observed “considerable improvement in the command, but much remains
to be done before it reaches even tolerable proficiency.” Sickness had reduced the
regiment’s strength to below the minimum number necessary to muster in new officers
to drill the men and see to their food, clothing, and shelter. The 118th USCI
needed twenty-one to make up its complement. Absence of instruction and discipline
would handicap the Kentucky regiments throughout their service. 23
Lack of officers was common, too, in older regiments that had been in the field
for months. By early fall, Lieutenant Califf himself was one of only eleven officers
on duty with his regiment. An officer in the 45th USCI wrote at the end of October:
During the last six weeks the company has neither marched nor drilled except a
small squad each day, being the number relieved from guard. At 7 1/2 o’clock
a.m. each day the line is formed for fatigue duty and the men (all except the
sick & a guard) . . . work until 5 o’clock P.M. There are so few officers . . . that
each has to take his turn on fatigue about every third day. The amount of labor
required of the command and the lack of officers to give the necessary supervision,
has rendered the company less efficient . . . than any well-wisher of our
cause would hope. 24
Officers throughout the army were aware of the problem. When Maj. Lewis L.
Weld brought six companies of the 41st USCI from Philadelphia to Virginia in October,
he reported to General Butler, who was surprised to learn of the regiment’s
arrival. Butler had requested that five companies of the 45th USCI, detached at
Washington, D.C., be sent to join their regiment. “You see, Major,” Butler said, “I
didn’t ask for you at all. . . . I suppose your men are perfectly green.” “Perfectly
so, sir,” Weld replied. “Well, I’ll give you a chance to drill,” Butler said. “Send the
major to Deep Bottom,” he told an aide, “with orders to . . . put him on no duty
that can be helped & let him alone till further orders. . . . By the way, Major, teach
your men carefully the loadings & firings.” “Certainly, General, but had I not better
teach them how to make a right face first?” “Yes, yes, that is the first essential,”
Butler agreed, “but don’t forget the other.” Weld took his regiment to Deep Bottom
on the James River, a place he knew well from his time as a captain in the 7th
22 OR, ser. 1, vol. 39, pt. 3, p. 219; Brig Gen L. Thomas to Col P. T. Swaine, 6 Oct 1864, 117th
USCI, and Col O. A. Bartholomew to “Captain,” 3 Nov 1864, 109th USCI, both in Entry 57C, RG
94, NA; Edward A. Miller Jr., The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois: The Story of the Twentyninth
U.S. Colored Infantry (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998), p. 114.
23 E. W. Bacon to Dear Kate, 9 Mar 1864, E. W. Bacon Papers, American Antiquarian Society
(AAS), Worcester, Mass.; Col A. A. Rand to Capt I. R. Sealy, 24 Oct 1864, 118th USCI, Entry 57C,
RG 94, NA. Bacon was appointed major in the 117th USCI on 5 January 1865; he had been a captain
in the 29th Connecticut and is mentioned in that grade later in this chapter.
24 NA M594, roll 210, 45th USCI; Califf Diary, 17 Oct 1864.