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
company to assist the officers with drill and necessary paperwork. The attempt to appoint
black soldiers as company first sergeants in the 62d USCI had resulted in some
poor choices at first, as company commanders selected men in December 1863 on the
basis of a few weeks’ acquaintance. By May 1865, only one of the original ten first
sergeants still held that rank. Brown and Shipley had both taken the places of men who
had been found unsuitable for one reason or another. Like more than nine-tenths of the
men in the regiment, both sergeants had been slaves before the war. Nor were they the
only noncommissioned officers who distinguished themselves on 13 May: Sgt. Isham
Boggs was appointed first sergeant of Company F “for gallantry in action,” and Sgt.
William A. Messley became first sergeant of Company G. 23
Even before the defeat at Palmetto Ranch, Department of the Gulf headquarters
had planned to send an officer more senior than Colonel Barrett to command the
troops at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Brig. Gen. Egbert B. Brown, a veteran of
campaigns in Arkansas and Missouri, arrived not long after the battle. He soon wrote
to New Orleans, requesting rations and reinforcements, but before either could arrive
he ordered another advance inland. When his troops reached Brownsville on 30
May, they found the Confederates gone. The final Union reoccupation of Brownsville
meant that any Confederates seeking an escape route to Mexico would have to
travel far out of their way to find a sanctuary south of the Rio Grande. 24
Meanwhile, the Army was rushing troops to Texas, although not in response to
General Brown’s request. On 17 May, three days after Barrett’s expedition returned
to Brazos Santiago, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant sent Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan
from Virginia to take charge of a new geographical division. Called the Military
Division of the Southwest (after 27 June, the Military Division of the Gulf), Sheridan’s
new command stretched from the Florida Keys to the Rio Grande. At his
disposal were three corps, predominantly of infantry, and two cavalry divisions.
The XIII Corps started from Mobile, where it had helped to capture the city the
month before. One of its divisions moved by river to northeastern Texas. Another
took possession of Houston and Galveston. The third division of the corps steamed
for the Rio Grande. From Tennessee, the IV Corps, veterans of the previous year’s
battle of Nashville, took riverboats to New Orleans and ships from there to Indianola
on the Texas coast. Two columns of Union cavalry marched overland from
Shreveport and Alexandria in Louisiana to San Antonio and Houston, while from
Virginia, nearly sixteen thousand officers and men of Maj. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel’s
XXV Corps, black infantry, cavalry, and artillery, took ship for southern Texas. 25
Preparations for the voyage from Virginia were as thorough as possible. Regiments
left sick men behind to be cared for at Army hospitals. Besides the usual Army
ration, ships carried foods such as pickles, sauerkraut, and dried apples to ward off
scurvy. Still, Assistant Surgeon James O. Moore of the 22d USCI complained that
the water on board his ship “fairly stunk.” This was hardly surprising after the convoy
touched at New Orleans, where at least one vessel replenished its casks with river
23 OR, ser. 1, vol. 48, pt. 1, pp. 268–69 (quotation); Company Descriptive Books, 62d USCI,
Regimental Books, RG 94, NA; Col T. H. Barrett to Brig Gen L. Thomas, 30 Apr 1864, 62d USCI,
Entry 57C, Regimental Papers, RG 94, NA.
24 OR, ser. 1, vol. 48, pt. 2, pp. 300, 381–82, 564–65, 827–28.
25 Ibid., vol. 46, pt. 3, p. 1032; vol. 48, pt. 2, pp. 476, 1004. Richter, Army in Texas, pp. 14–17.
For Union operations around Mobile in 1865, see Chapter 4, above.