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Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

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402<br />

<strong>Freedom</strong> <strong>by</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Sword</strong>: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867<br />

Table 2—XXV Corps Order of Battle, 3 December 1864<br />

XXV Corps (Maj. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel)<br />

1st Division (Brig. Gen. Charles J. Paine)<br />

1st Brigade (Bvt. Brig. Gen. Delavan Bates)—1st, 27th, and 30th <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

2d Brigade (Col. John W. Ames)—4th, 6th, and 39th <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

3d Brigade (Col. Elias Wright)—5th, 10th, 37th, and 107th <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

2d Division (Brig. Gen. William Birney)<br />

1st Brigade (Bvt. Brig. Gen. Charles S. Russell)—7th, 109th, 116th, and 117th <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

2d Brigade (Col. Ulysses Doubleday)—8th, 45th (six companies), and 127th <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

3d Brigade (Col. Henry C. Ward)—28th, 29th, and 31st <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

3d Division (Brig. Gen. Edward A. Wild)<br />

1st Brigade (Bvt. Brig. Gen. Alonzo G. Draper)—22d, 36th, 38th, and 118th <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

2d Brigade (Col. Edward Martindale)—29th Connecticut; 9th and 41st <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

3d Brigade (Brig. Gen. Henry G. Thomas)—19th, 23d, and 43d <strong>US</strong>CIs<br />

<strong>US</strong>CC = United States Colored Cavalry; <strong>US</strong>CI = United States Colored Infantry.<br />

Note: The 2d <strong>US</strong>CC was in <strong>the</strong> corps but not assigned to a brigade; <strong>the</strong> ten artillery batteries<br />

in <strong>the</strong> XXV Corps were white. Companies of <strong>the</strong> 1st <strong>US</strong>CC and Battery B, 2d U.S. Colored<br />

Artillery, were at Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and posts along <strong>the</strong> James River.<br />

Source: The War of <strong>the</strong> Rebellion: A Compilation of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Of</strong>ficial Records of <strong>the</strong> Union and<br />

Confederate Armies, 70 vols. in 128 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing <strong>Of</strong>fice, 1880–<br />

1901), ser. 1, vol. 42, pt. 3, pp. 791, 1126–29 (hereafter cited as OR).<br />

<strong>the</strong>y will have credit for all <strong>the</strong>y do.” A major general leading an entire corps<br />

of black soldiers could keep <strong>the</strong>m from being assigned chores that would fall to<br />

civilian employees of <strong>the</strong> Quartermaster Department. A commander of a single<br />

black regiment in an o<strong>the</strong>rwise all-white brigade could offer his men no such<br />

protection. 54<br />

While <strong>the</strong> troops were moving to new camps and becoming acquainted,<br />

Grant wrote to Butler, urging <strong>the</strong> importance of <strong>the</strong> move against Wilmington.<br />

The last week of November brought news, via Augusta and Savannah newspapers,<br />

that <strong>the</strong> Confederate General Braxton Bragg had left Wilmington to<br />

oppose Sherman’s march through Georgia. Bragg had taken with him “most of<br />

54 D. Bates to Fa<strong>the</strong>r, 20 Nov 1864, Bates Letters.

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