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
necticut, with the 1st North Carolina on the right between the Connecticut regiment
and Barton’s brigade. 25
The 54th took a position in pine woods about four hundred yards from the
Confederates. Branches cut by artillery fire crashed to the ground, injuring some
soldiers. The men of the 54th fired quickly; before the day was over, they had
exhausted their forty cartridges per man, a total of about twenty thousand rounds
for the regiment. It grew dark in the woods by 5:30 p.m., and the diminishing
sounds of battle made it clear that the rest of the Union Army had retired. Colonel
Montgomery gave the order to fall back; as Colonel Hallowell phrased it in
his report, “the men of the regiment were ordered to retreat.” Hallowell, though,
had become separated from the 54th by this time and did not rejoin it till later
in the evening. Officers and men of the regiment who were present heard Montgomery’s
words differently: “Now, men, you have done well. I love you all.
Each man take care of himself.” Rather than follow this advice, Lt. Col. Henry
N. Hooper called the men together and put them through the manual of arms to
calm them. He then ordered the men to cheer heartily, as though they were being
reinforced, and afterward withdrew them until he ran into other Union troops
“some considerable distance” to the rear. Then, with the 7th Connecticut and
the expedition’s mounted command, the 54th Massachusetts covered the army’s
retreat. Major Appleton halted stragglers and looked into their cartridge boxes.
Those who still had ammunition joined the rearguard, goaded by Appleton’s revolver
or by his soldiers’ bayonets. 26
About midnight, the main body of Seymour’s expedition reached Barber’s
Station, where the railroad crossed the St. Mary’s River some eighteen miles
east of the battlefield. The men of the rearguard caught up an hour or two
later, early in the morning of 21 February. They continued on through Baldwin,
sometimes pushing boxcars loaded with stores from evacuated posts, until they
reached positions outside Jacksonville late the next day. They brought with
them about eight hundred sixty wounded, having left forty at the ambulance
station on the battlefield under the care of one of the regimental assistant surgeons
and twenty-three more at another place on the railroad. When the retreating
column reached Jacksonville, the transport Cosmopolitan took 215 of the
wounded aboard at once and made steam for department headquarters in Port
Royal Sound. 27
The wounded who were left behind fell into the hands of the enemy. Confederate
soldiers wrote several firsthand accounts of murdering wounded black
soldiers on the battlefield, and their commander reported having taken one
hundred fifty unwounded Union prisoners, of whom only three were black.
Yet he also wrote to headquarters, “What shall I do with the large number of
the enemy’s wounded in my hands? Many of these are negroes.” Presumably,
25 OR, ser. 1, vol. 35, pt. 1, p. 305; Emilio, Brave Black Regiment, p. 162 (quotation).
26 OR, ser. 1, vol. 35, pt. 1, p. 315 (Hallowell); Appleton Jnl, pp. 176, 178; Emilio, Brave Black
Regiment, pp. 167–69 (Montgomery, p. 168, quotation, p. 169).
27 OR, ser. 1, vol. 35, pt. 1, p. 300; Capt. B. F. Skinner, commanding the 7th Connecticut,
reported 3:00 a.m. (p. 309). Col. E. N. Hallowell, commanding the 54th Massachusetts, reported
“one hour after midnight” (p. 315).