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Army Life in a Black Regiment

T >> Thomas Wentworth Higginson >> Army Life in a Black Regiment




We have now a good regimental hospital, admirably arranged in a deserted
gin-house,--a fine well of our own digging, within the camp lines,--a full
allowance of tents, all floored,--a wooden cook-house to every company,
with sometimes a palmetto mess-house beside,--a substantial wooden
guard-house, with a fireplace five feet "in de clar," where the men off
duty can dry themselves and sleep comfortably in bunks afterwards. We
have also a great circular school-tent, made of condemned canvas, thirty
feet in diameter, and looking like some of the Indian lodges I saw in
Kansas. We now meditate a regimental bakery. Our aggregate has increased
from four hundred and ninety to seven hundred and forty, besides a
hundred recruits now waiting at St. Augustine, and we have practised
through all the main movements in battalion drill.

Affairs being thus prosperous, and yesterday having been six weeks since
my last and only visit to Beaufort, I rode in, glanced at several camps,
and dined with the General. It seemed absolutely like re-entering the
world; and I did not fully estimate my past seclusion till it occurred
to me, as a strange and novel phenomenon, that the soldiers at the other
camps were white.


January 8.

This morning I went to Beaufort again, on necessary business, and by
good luck happened upon a review and drill of the white regiments. The
thing that struck me most was that same absence of uniformity, in minor
points, that I noticed at first in my own officers. The best regiments
in the Department are represented among my captains and lieutenants, and
very well represented too; yet it has cost much labor to bring them to
any uniformity in their drill. There is no need of this; for the
prescribed "Tactics" approach perfection; it is never left discretionary
in what place an officer shall stand, or in what words he shall give his
order. All variation would seem to imply negligence. Yet even West Point
occasionally varies from the "Tactics,"--as, for instance, in requiring
the line officers to face down the line, when each is giving the order
to his company. In our strictest Massachusetts regiments this is not done.

It needs an artist's eye to make a perfect drill-master. Yet the small
points are not merely a matter of punctilio; for, the more perfectly a
battalion is drilled on the parade-ground the more quietly it can be
handled in action. Moreover, the great need of uniformity is this:
that, in the field, soldiers of different companies, and even of
different regiments, are liable to be intermingled, and a diversity of
orders may throw everything into confusion. Confusion means Bull Run.

I wished my men at the review to-day; for, amidst all the rattling and
noise of artillery and the galloping of cavalry, there was only one
infantry movement that we have not practised, and that was done by only
one regiment, and apparently considered quite a novelty, though it is
easily taught,

--forming square by Casey's method: forward on centre. It is really just
as easy to drill a regiment as a company,

--perhaps easier, because one has more time to think; but it is just as
essential to be sharp and decisive, perfectly clearheaded, and to put
life into the men. A regiment seems small when one has learned how to
handle it, a mere handful of men; and I have no doubt that a brigade or
a division would soon appear equally small. But to handle either
_judiciously_, ah, that is another affair!

So of governing; it is as easy to govern a regiment as a school or a
factory, and needs like qualities, system, promptness, patience, tact;
moreover, in a regiment one has the aid of the admirable machinery of
the army, so that I see very ordinary men who succeed very tolerably.

Reports of a six months' armistice are rife here, and the thought is
deplored by all. I cannot believe it; yet sometimes one feels very
anxious about the ultimate fate of these poor people. After the
experience of Hungary, one sees that revolutions may go backward; and
the habit of injustice seems so deeply impressed upon the whites, that
it is hard to believe in the possibility of anything better. I dare not
yet hope that the promise of the President's Proclamation will be kept.
For myself I can be indifferent, for the experience here has been its
own daily and hourly reward; and the adaptedness of the freed slaves for
drill and discipline is now thoroughly demonstrated, and must soon be
universally acknowledged. But it would be terrible to see this regiment
disbanded or defrauded.


January 12.

Many things glide by without time to narrate them. On Saturday we had a
mail with the President's Second Message of Emancipation, and the next
day it was read to the men. The words themselves did not stir them very
much, because they have been often told that they were free, especially
on New Year's Day, and, being unversed in politics, they do not
understand, as well as we do, the importance of each additional
guaranty. But the chaplain spoke to them afterwards very effectively, as
usual; and then I proposed to them to hold up their hands and pledge
themselves to be faithful to those still in bondage. They entered
heartily into this, and the scene was quite impressive, beneath the
great oak-branches. I heard afterwards that only one man refused to
raise his hand, saying bluntly that his wife was out of slavery with
him, and he did not care to fight. The other soldiers of his company
were very indignant, and shoved him about among them while marching back
to their quarters, calling him "Coward." I was glad of their exhibition
of feeling, though it is very possible that the one who had thus the
moral courage to stand alone among his comrades might be more reliable,
on a pinch, than some who yielded a more ready assent. But the whole
response, on their part, was very hearty, and will be a good thing to
which to hold them hereafter, at any time of discouragement or
demoralization,--which was my chief reason for proposing it. With their
simple natures it is a great thing to tie them to some definite
committal; they never forget a marked occurrence, and never seem
disposed to evade a pledge.

It is this capacity of honor and fidelity which gives me such entire
faith in them as soldiers. Without it all their religious
demonstration would be mere sentimentality. For instance, every one
who visits the camp is struck with their bearing as sentinels. They
exhibit, in this capacity, not an upstart conceit, but a steady,
conscientious devotion to duty. They would stop their idolized General
Saxton, if he attempted to cross their beat contrary to orders: I have
seen them. No feeble or incompetent race could do this. The officers
tell many amusing instances of this fidelity, but I think mine the
best.

It was very dark the other night, an unusual thing here, and the
rain fell in torrents; so I put on my India-rubber suit, and went the
rounds of the sentinels, incognito, to test them. I can only say that I
shall never try such an experiment again and have cautioned my officers
against it. Tis a wonder I escaped with life and limb,--such a charging
of bayonets and clicking of gun-locks. Sometimes I tempted them by
refusing to give any countersign, but offering them a piece of tobacco,
which they could not accept without allowing me nearer than the
prescribed bayonet's distance. Tobacco is more than gold to them, and it
was touching to watch the struggle in their minds; but they always did
their duty at last, and I never could persuade them. One man, as if
wishing to crush all his inward vacillation at one fell stroke, told me
stoutly that he never used tobacco, though I found next day that he
loved it as much as any one of them. It seemed wrong thus to tamper with
their fidelity; yet it was a vital matter to me to know how far it could
be trusted, out of my sight. It was so intensely dark that not more than
one or two knew me, even after I had talked with the very next sentinel,
especially as they had never seen me in India-rubber clothing, and I can
always disguise my voice. It was easy to distinguish those who did make
the discovery; they were always conscious and simpering when their turn
came; while the others were stout and irreverent till I revealed myself,
and then rather cowed and anxious, fearing to have offended.

It rained harder and harder, and when I had nearly made the rounds I had
had enough of it, and, simply giving the countersign to the challenging
sentinel, undertook to pass within the lines.

"Halt!" exclaimed this dusky man and brother, bringing down his bayonet,
"de countersign not correck."

Now the magic word, in this case, was "Vicksburg," in honor of a
rumored victory. But as I knew that these hard names became quite
transformed upon their lips, "Carthage" being familiarized into
Cartridge, and "Concord" into Corn-cob, how could I possibly tell what
shade of pronunciation my friend might prefer for this particular
proper name?

"Vicksburg," I repeated, blandly, but authoritatively, endeavoring, as
zealously as one of Christy's Minstrels, to assimilate my speech to any
supposed predilection of the Ethiop vocal organs.

"Halt dar! Countersign not correck," was the only answer.

The bayonet still maintained a position which, in a military point of
view, was impressive.

I tried persuasion, orthography, threats, tobacco, all in vain. I could
not pass in. Of course my pride was up; for was I to defer to an
untutored African on a point of pronunciation? Classic shades of
Harvard, forbid! Affecting scornful indifference, I tried to edge away,
proposing to myself to enter the camp at some other point, where my
elocution would be better appreciated. Not a step could I stir.

"Halt!" shouted my gentleman again, still holding me at his bayonet's
point, and I wincing and halting.

I explained to him the extreme absurdity of this proceeding, called his
attention to the state of the weather, which, indeed, spoke for itself
so loudly that we could hardly hear each other speak, and requested
permission to withdraw. The bayonet, with mute eloquence, refused the
application.

There flashed into my mind, with more enjoyment in the retrospect than
I had experienced at the time, an adventure on a lecturing tour in
other years, when I had spent an hour in trying to scramble into a
country tavern, after bed-time, on the coldest night of winter. On
that occasion I ultimately found myself stuck midway in the window,
with my head in a temperature of 80 degrees, and my heels in a
temperature of -10 degrees, with a heavy windowsash pinioning the
small of my back. However, I had got safe out of that dilemma, and it
was time to put an end to this one,

"Call the corporal of the guard," said I at last, with dignity,
unwilling to make a night of it or to yield my incognito.

"Corporal ob de guardl" he shouted, lustily,--"Post Number Two!" while I
could hear another sentinel chuckling with laughter. This last was a
special guard, placed over a tent, with a prisoner in charge. Presently
he broke silence.

"Who am dat?" he asked, in a stage whisper. "Am he a buckra [white man]?"

"Dunno whether he been a buckra or not," responded, doggedly, my
Cerberus in uniform; "but I's bound to keep him here till de corporal ob
de guard come."

Yet, when that dignitary arrived, and I revealed myself, poor Number Two
appeared utterly transfixed with terror, and seemed to look for nothing
less than immediate execution. Of course I praised his fidelity, and the
next day complimented him before the guard, and mentioned him to his
captain; and the whole affair was very good for them all. Hereafter, if
Satan himself should approach them in darkness and storm, they will take
_him_ for "de Cunnel," and treat him with special severity.


January 13.

In many ways the childish nature of this people shows itself. I have
just had to make a change of officers in a company which has constantly
complained, and with good reason, of neglect and improper treatment. Two
excellent officers have been assigned to them; and yet they sent a
deputation to me in the evening, in a state of utter wretchedness. "We's
bery grieved dis evening, Cunnel; 'pears like we couldn't bear it, to
lose de Cap'n and de Lieutenant, all two togeder." Argument was useless;
and I could only fall back on the general theory, that I knew what was
best for them, which had much more effect; and I also could cite the
instance of another company, which had been much improved by a new
captain, as they readily admitted. So with the promise that the new
officers should not be "savage to we," which was the one thing they
deprecated, I assuaged their woes. Twenty-four hours have passed, and I
hear them singing most merrily all down that company street.

I often notice how their griefs may be dispelled, like those of
children, merely by permission to utter them: if they can tell their
sorrows, they go away happy, even without asking to have anything done
about them. I observe also a peculiar dislike of all _intermediate_
control: they always wish to pass by the company officer, and deal
with me personally for everything. General Saxton notices the same
thing with the people on the plantations as regards himself. I suppose
this proceeds partly from the old habit of appealing to the master
against the overseer. Kind words would cost the master nothing, and he
could easily put off any non-fulfilment upon the overseer. Moreover,
the negroes have acquired such constitutional distrust of white
people, that it is perhaps as much as they can do to trust more than
one person at a tune. Meanwhile this constant personal intercourse is
out of the question in a well-ordered regiment; and the remedy for it
is to introduce by degrees more and more of system, so that their
immediate officers will become all-sufficient for the daily routine.

It is perfectly true (as I find everybody takes for granted) that the
first essential for an officer of colored troops is to gain their
confidence. But it is equally true, though many persons do not
appreciate it, that the admirable methods and proprieties of the regular
army are equally available for all troops, and that the sublimest
philanthropist, if he does not appreciate this, is unfit to command them.

Another childlike attribute in these men, which is less agreeable, is a
sort of blunt insensibility to giving physical pain. If they are cruel
to animals, for instance, it always reminds me of children pulling off
flies' legs, in a sort of pitiless, untaught, experimental way. Yet I
should not fear any wanton outrage from them. After all their wrongs,
they are not really revengeful; and I would far rather enter a captured
city with them than with white troops, for they would be more
subordinate. But for mere physical suffering they would have no fine
sympathies. The cruel things they have seen and undergone have helped to
blunt them; and if I ordered them to put to death a dozen prisoners, I
think they would do it without remonstrance.

Yet their religious spirit grows more beautiful to me in living longer
with them; it is certainly far more so than at first, when it seemed
rather a matter of phrase and habit. It influences them both on the
negative and the positive side. That is, it cultivates the feminine
virtues first,--makes them patient, meek, resigned. This is very
evident in the hospital; there is nothing of the restless, defiant
habit of white invalids. Perhaps, if they had more of this, they
would resist disease better. Imbued from childhood with the habit of
submission, drinking in through every pore that other-world trust
which is the one spirit of their songs, they can endure everything.
This I expected; but I am relieved to find that their religion
strengthens them on the positive side also,--gives zeal, energy,
daring. They could easily be made fanatics, if I chose; but I do not
choose. Their whole mood is essentially Mohammedan, perhaps, in its
strength and its weakness; and I feel the same degree of sympathy that
I should if I had a Turkish command,--that is, a sort of sympathetic
admiration, not tending towards agreement, but towards co-operation.
Their philosophizing is often the highest form of mysticism; and our
dear surgeon declares that they are all natural transcendentalists.
The white camps seem rough and secular, after this; and I hear our men
talk about "a religious army," "a Gospel army," in their
prayer-meetings. They are certainly evangelizing the chaplain, who was
rather a heretic at the beginning; at least, this is his own
admission. We have recruits on their way from St. Augustine, where the
negroes are chiefly Roman Catholics; and it will be interesting to see
how their type of character combines with that elder creed. It is time
for rest; and I have just looked out into the night, where the eternal
stars shut down, in concave protection, over the yet glimmering camp,
and Orion hangs above my tent-door, giving to me the sense of strength
and assurance which these simple children obtain from their Moses and
the Prophets. Yet external Nature does its share in their training;
witness that most poetic of all their songs, which always reminds me
of the "Lyke-Wake Dirge" in the "Scottish Border Minstrelsy,"--

"I know moon-rise, I know star-rise;
Lay dis body down.
I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight,
To lay dis body down.
I'll walk in de graveyard, I'll walk through de graveyard,
To lay dis body down.
I'll lie in de grave and stretch out my arms;
Lay dis body down.
I go to de Judgment in de evening ob de day
When I lay dis body down;
And my soul and your soul will meet in de day
When I lay dis body down."


January 14.

In speaking of the military qualities of the blacks, I should add, that
the only point where I am disappointed is one I have never seen raised
by the most incredulous newspaper critics,--namely, then- physical
condition. To be sure they often look magnificently to my
gymnasium-trained eye; and I always like to observe them when
bathing,--such splendid muscular development, set off by that smooth
coating of adipose tissue which makes them, like the South-Sea Islanders
appear even more muscular than they are. Their skins are also of finer
grain than those of whites, the surgeons say, and certainly are smoother
and far more free from hair. But their weakness is pulmonary; pneumonia
and pleurisy are their besetting ailments; they are easily made ill,--and
easily cured, if promptly treated: childish organizations again.
Guard-duty injures them more than whites, apparently; and double-quick
movements, in choking dust, set them coughing badly. But then it is to
be remembered that this is their sickly season, from January to March,
and that their healthy season will come in summer, when the whites break
down. Still my conviction of the physical superiority of more highly
civilized races is strengthened on the whole, not weakened, by observing
them. As to availability for military drill and duty in other respects,
the only question I ever hear debated among the officers is, whether
they are equal or superior to whites. I have never heard it suggested
that they were inferior, although I expected frequently to hear such
complaints from hasty or unsuccessful officers.

Of one thing I am sure, that their best qualities will be wasted by
merely keeping them for garrison duty. They seem peculiarly fitted for
offensive operations, and especially for partisan warfare; they have
so much dash and such abundant resources, combined with such an
Indian-like knowledge of the country and its ways. These traits have
been often illustrated in expeditions sent after deserters. For
instance, I despatched one of my best lieutenants and my best sergeant
with a squad of men to search a certain plantation, where there were
two separate negro villages. They went by night, and the force was
divided. The lieutenant took one set of huts, the sergeant the other.
Before the lieutenant had reached his first house, every man in the
village was in the woods, innocent and guilty alike. But the
sergeant's mode of operation was thus described by a corporal from a
white regiment who happened to be in one of the negro houses. He said
that not a sound was heard until suddenly a red leg appeared in the
open doorway, and a voice outside said, "Rally." Going to the door, he
observed a similar pair of red legs before every hut, and not a person
was allowed to go out, until the quarters had been thoroughly
searched, and the three deserters found. This was managed by Sergeant
Prince Rivers, our color-sergeant, who is provost-sergeant also, and
has entire charge of the prisoners and of the daily policing of the
camp. He is a man of distinguished appearance, and in old times was
the crack coachman of Beaufort, in which capacity he once drove
Beauregard from this plantation to Charleston, I believe. They tell me
that he was once allowed to present a petition to the Governor of
South Carolina in behalf of slaves, for the redress of certain
grievances; and that a placard, offering two thousand dollars for his
recapture, is still to be seen by the wayside between here and
Charleston. He was a sergeant in the old "Hunter Regiment," and was
taken by General Hunter to New York last spring, where the _chevrons_
on his arm brought a mob upon him in Broadway, whom he kept off till
the police interfered. There is not a white officer in this regiment
who has more administrative ability, or more absolute authority over
the men; they do not love him, but his mere presence has controlling
power over them. He writes well enough to prepare for me a daily
report of his duties in the camp; if his education reached a higher
point, I see no reason why he should not command the Army of the
Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should say, _wine-black_; his
complexion, like that of others of my darkest men, having a sort of
rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness, and to my eye very
handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and full of command, and
his figure superior to that of any of our white officers,--being six
feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of apparently inexhaustible
strength and activity. His gait is like a panther's; I never saw such
a tread. No anti-slavery novel has described a man of such marked
ability. He makes Toussaint perfectly intelligible; and if there
should ever be a black monarchy in South Carolina, he will be its
king.


January 15.

This morning is like May. Yesterday I saw bluebirds and a butterfly; so
this whiter of a fortnight is over. I fancy there is a trifle less
coughing in the camp. We hear of other stations in the Department where
the mortality, chiefly from yellow fever, has been frightful. Dr. ---- is
rubbing his hands professionally over the fearful tales of the surgeon
of a New York regiment, just from Key West, who has had two hundred
cases of the fever. "I suppose he is a skilful, highly educated man,"
said I. "Yes," he responded with enthusiasm. "Why, he had seventy
deaths!"--as if that proved his superiority past question.


January 19.

"And first, sitting proud as a lung on his throne, At the head of them
all rode Sir Richard Tyrone."

But I fancy that Sir Richard felt not much better satisfied with his
following than I to-day. J. R. L. said once that nothing was quite so
good as turtle-soup, except mock-turtle; and I have heard officers
declare that nothing was so stirring as real war, except some exciting
parade. To-day, for the first time, I marched the whole regiment
through Beaufort and back,--the first appearance of such a novelty on
any stage. They did march splendidly; this all admit. M----'s
prediction was fulfilled: "Will not ---- be in bliss? A thousand men,
every one as black as a coal!" I confess it. To look back on twenty
broad double-ranks of men (for they marched by platoons),--every
polished musket having a black face beside it, and every face set
steadily to the front,--a regiment of freed slaves marching on into
the future,--it was something to remember; and when they returned
through the same streets, marching by the flank, with guns at a
"support," and each man covering his file-leader handsomely, the
effect on the eye was almost as fine. The band of the Eighth Maine
joined us at the entrance of the town, and escorted us in. Sergeant
Rivers said ecstatically afterwards, in describing the affair, "And
when dat band wheel in before us, and march on,--my God! I quit dis
world altogeder." I wonder if he pictured to himself the many dusky
regiments, now unformed, which I seemed to see marching up behind us,
gathering shape out of the dim air.

I had cautioned the men, before leaving camp, not to be staring about
them as they marched, but to look straight to the front, every man; and
they did it with their accustomed fidelity, aided by the sort of
spontaneous eye-for-effect which is in all their melodramatic natures.
One of them was heard to say exultingly afterwards, "We didn't look to
de right nor to de leff. I didn't see notin' in Beaufort. Eb'ry step was
worth a half a dollar." And they all marched as if it were so. They knew
well that they were marching through throngs of officers and soldiers
who had drilled as many months as we had drilled weeks, and whose eyes
would readily spy out every defect. And I must say, that, on the whole,
with a few trivial exceptions, those spectators behaved in a manly and
courteous manner, and I do not care to write down all the handsome
things that were said. Whether said or not, they were deserved; and
there is no danger that our men will not take sufficient satisfaction in
their good appearance. I was especially amused at one of our recruits,
who did not march in the ranks, and who said, after watching the
astonishment of some white soldiers, "De buckra sojers look like a man
who been-a-steal a sheep,"--that is, I suppose, sheepish.

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