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
strongly threatened, and . . . the troops would all be killed . . . if I sent them out
to make any arrest. There are but 13 of them not enough to enforce respect to the
authority of the U.S. nor defend themselves if the conflict comes. . . . Either white
troops should be sent here or enough colored ones to enable them to enforce order
& protect themselves.” 70
The effectiveness of the occupying force continued to decline through the
winter. Freedmen’s Bureau agents in Kentucky and Arkansas needed military
escorts to make arrests for murder and theft, and could not get them. Where
black infantry regiments were available, officers had requests of their own.
Post commanders at Grenada, Mississippi, and Baton Rouge asked for horses
enough to mount a few infantrymen. Without an escort, the commanding officer
of the 84th USCI explained, it was dangerous for a federal official to travel
more than eight or ten miles outside the state capital of Louisiana. The Bureau’s
assistant commissioner for Arkansas asked the department commander
to send a company of cavalry to Hamburg, which he said was “controlled by
unsubdued rebels.” In the northern part of the state, an officer and two enlisted
men of the 113th USCI, the only mounted force available, tried to arrest a man
for assaulting a Bureau agent. They followed the assailant to his home, where
he shot at them and, since his three pursuers were not enough to cover all sides
of the house, rode off in the night. The Bureau agent at Duvall’s Bluff, an officer
of the same regiment, concluded that it was “almost impossible . . . to
enforce the regulations of the Bureau without troops.” Nevertheless, the War
Department continued to disband the volunteer force. Forty-one more black
regiments mustered out during the winter. 71
Events in Georgia during the first postwar fall and winter illustrate the sort
of relations that prevailed between white planters, black farmworkers, defiant
former Confederates, Freedmen’s Bureau agents, and soldiers in the everdwindling
occupation force. Maj. William Gray of the 1st USCA was a Bureau
inspector in the state. In counties northwest of Augusta, he found:
Many of the farmers have not yet settled with, and say they do not intend to pay,
the freed people for their last year’s work. The ignorance of the freed people
has been taken advantage of . . . , and many of the white people have coerced
them into making contracts at from $2 to $4 and $6 per month—stating that, if
they did not . . . go to work after New Year, they would all be taken away, sent
70 Brig Gen J. C. Beecher to Lt M. N. Rice, 9 Jan 1866 (f/w D–26), NA M752, roll 20; Maj Gen
C. B. Fisk to Maj Gen O. O. Howard, 30 Apr 1866 (F–30–MDT–1866) (“could do”), Entry 926, pt. 1,
RG 393, NA; Capt E. G. Barker to Brig Gen J. W. Sprague, 28 Apr 1866 (S–66–DA–1866) (“troops
sufficient”), and A. W. Ballard to Col D. H. Williams, 30 Apr 1866 (B–10 [Sup] DA–1866) (“The
most”), Entry 269, pt. 1, RG 393, NA.
71 2d Lt R. W. Thing to 2d Lt J. T. Alden, 8 Jan 1866 (T–121), NA T142, roll 27; W. G. Bond to
Maj Gen C. B. Fisk, 23 Jan 1866 (B–26), NA T142, roll 28; Maj E. Boedicker to 1st Lt J. K. Wood,
12 Jan 1866 (B–26–DL–1866), Entry 1757, pt. 1, RG 393, NA; Capt S. Marvin to Col M. P. Bestow,
10 Feb 1866 (S–25–DM–1866), Entry 2433, pt. 1, RG 393, NA; Brig Gen J. W. Sprague to Maj Gen
J. J. Reynolds, 17 Jan 1866 (“controlled by”), NA M979, roll 1; Capt E. P. Gillpatrick to Maj J. M.
Bowler, 16 Jan 1866, NA M979, roll 6; 1st Lt W. S. McCullough to Capt D. H. Williams, 31 Jan 1866
(“almost impossible”), NA M979, roll 23.