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
Black veterans were as eager to get out of uniform as most American soldiers have been
at the end of every war. Alfred R. Waud recorded this scene in Little Rock, where the
113th U.S. Colored Infantry mustered out in April 1866.
“full and equal . . . security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens.”
Three months after that, two-thirds of both houses passed a second version of the
Freedmen’s Bureau bill hours after another veto. The president’s vetoes and his
intemperate speeches attacking opponents in Congress, coupled with the actions of
white Southerners, had driven the moderate Republicans to ally with the Radicals,
creating a veto-proof majority in both houses. 67
As Congress and the president sparred in Washington, a dwindling number
of black regiments undertook an even greater share of occupation duties. On
11 December, the War Department issued an order to muster out all remaining
white volunteer regiments in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, leaving
an occupying force of about seven thousand U.S. Colored Troops and white
regulars. Later that month, the Freedmen’s Bureau assistant commissioner for
Georgia, Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson, wrote to General Howard requesting direct
command of the remaining troops in the state, since “their duties will consist
almost wholly in aiding officers of the bureau.” In January, after the last white
volunteers had left, Tillson reported that Bureau officers in more than seven
67 Bentley, History of the Freedmen’s Bureau, pp. 115–20, 133–35; Foner, Reconstruction, pp.
243–51; Trefousse, Andrew Johnson, pp. 240–53. Text of the Civil Rights Bill is in McPherson,
Political History, pp. 78–80 (quotation, p. 78).