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
them across. Most returned to camp in time to answer reveille roll call. Two who
did not were Cpl. William Oates and Pvt. Dade Davis, who were among the four
killed on the Liberal side during the night’s fighting. 64
When Surgeon Russell D. Adams went to Bagdad later that morning, he found
another soldier of the regiment lying wounded but did not bother to learn his name.
This seems to have been typical of the officers of the 118th USCI. Fierbaugh was
unable to name any of the soldiers he rounded up in Bagdad. Capt. Lewis Moon,
who succeeded him as officer of the day, told a military commission that he did not
know the name of any soldier outside his own company. Moreover, both Fierbaugh
and Moon told the commission that the regiment had never kept a record of which
of its soldiers were arrested or of how they were punished. Since Moon had no
specific instructions to record the names of men he arrested, he did not feel obliged
to do so. Evidently, the 118th USCI had not improved during the two months since
it had ranked fifth from the bottom on General Weitzel’s list. 65
By daybreak, refugees from the fighting packed both banks of the river, with
boats plying back and forth to carry them across. When Surgeon Adams visited
Bagdad later that morning to care for the wounded, he found “considerable commotion
around town,” with soldiers “running around the streets. . . . [E]verything
seemed to be in confusion.” Mexican authorities soon saw that they were unable
to restore order and asked the commanding officer at Clarksville for assistance.
The next day, two hundred officers and men of the 118th USCI crossed the river
to occupy Bagdad. A force from the 46th USCI, a regiment that General Weitzel
considered much more reliable, replaced them within a few days. 66
On 17 January, one hundred fifty officers and men of the 2d USCC arrived at
Bagdad to relieve the 46th; the rest of the cavalry, some three hundred strong, remained
on the opposite bank. A Liberal general assured the commanding officer of
the 2d USCC that he was not yet able to guarantee order in the town. The cavalry
stayed on, patrolling the streets while Liberal troops manned defenses around the
outskirts, for another five days until an order recalled them to Brazos Santiago. On
25 January, an attack by a mixed force of more than five hundred Austrian, French,
and Mexican troops drove the Liberals from Bagdad and the Imperialists regained
a tenuous control of the south bank of the Rio Grande. 67
Affairs on the Mexican side of the river remained turbulent for the next five
months, with the Imperialists holding the major towns. A New Orleans newspaper
summed up the situation flippantly, naming several local generals and would-be
generals: “Canales outlaws Cortina, Escobedo & Co. outlaws both, and Mejía outlaws
the whole gang.” Sheridan took a more serious tone in a letter to Grant: “The
Liberals are in good spirit, and are doing very well. They are divided in Tamaulipas,
and there waste their strength, but all are contending against the common
enemy.” In mid-June, a Liberal force attacked an Imperialist supply train, killing
or capturing nearly all of the train’s 1,400-man escort. Within a week, the Imperial-
64 “Proceedings of a Military Commission”; Descriptive Book, 118th USCI, Regimental Books,
RG 94, NA.
65 “Proceedings of a Military Commission.”
66 Ibid.; F. de Leon to Lt Col I. D. Davis, 5 Jan 1866; Col J. C. Moon to Col D. D. Wheeler, 6 Jan
1866; Lt Col F. J. White to Capt W. D. Munson, 22 Jan 1866; all in NA M619, roll 452.
67 White to Munson, 22 Jan 1866; Thompson, Cortina, p. 169.