A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Army Life in a Black Regiment

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




After passing and repassing through the town, we marched to the
parade-ground, and went through an hour's drill, forming squares and
reducing them, and doing other things which look hard on paper, and
are perfectly easy in fact; and we were to have been reviewed by
General Saxton, but he had been unexpectedly called to Ladies Island,
and did not see us at all, which was the only thing to mar the men's
enjoyment. Then we marched back to camp (three miles), the men singing
the "John Brown Song," and all manner of things,--as happy creatures
as one can well conceive.

It is worth mentioning, before I close, that we have just received an
article about "Negro Troops," from the _London Spectator_, which is so
admirably true to our experience that it seems as if written by one of
us. I am confident that there never has been, in any American newspaper,
a treatment of the subject so discriminating and so wise.


January 21.

To-day brought a visit from Major-General Hunter and his staff, by
General Saxton's invitation,--the former having just arrived in the
Department. I expected them at dress-parade, but they came during
battalion drill, rather to my dismay, and we were caught in our old
clothes. It was our first review, and I dare say we did tolerably; but
of course it seemed to me that the men never appeared so ill before,--
just as one always thinks a party at one's own house a failure, even if
the guests seem to enjoy it, because one is so keenly sensitive to every
little thing that goes wrong. After review and drill, General Hunter
made the men a little speech, at my request, and told them that he
wished there were fifty thousand of them. General Saxton spoke to them
afterwards, and said that fifty thousand muskets were on their way for
colored troops. The men cheered both the generals lustily; and they were
complimentary afterwards, though I knew that the regiment could not have
appeared nearly so well as on its visit to Beaufort. I suppose I felt
like some anxious mamma whose children have accidentally appeared at
dancing-school in their old clothes.

General Hunter promises us all we want,--pay when the funds arrive,
Springfield rifled muskets, and blue trousers. Moreover, he has
graciously consented that we should go on an expedition along the
coast, to pick up cotton, lumber, and, above all, recruits. I declined
an offer like this just after my arrival, because the regiment was not
drilled or disciplined, not even the officers; but it is all we wish
for now.

"What care I how black I be?
Forty pounds will marry me,"

quoth Mother Goose. _Forty rounds_ will marry us to the American Army,
past divorcing, if we can only use them well. Our success or failure may
make or mar the prospects of colored troops. But it is well to remember
in advance that military success is really less satisfatory than any
other, because it may depend on a moment's turn of events, and that may
be determined by some trivial thing, neither to be anticipated nor
controlled. Napoleon ought to have won at Waterloo by all reasonable
calculations; but who cares? All that one can expect is, to do one's
best, and to take with equanimity the fortune of war.




Chapter 3
Up the St. Mary's


If Sergeant Rivers was a natural king among my dusky soldiers, Corporal
Robert Sutton was the natural prime-minister. If not in all respects the
ablest, he was the wisest man in our ranks. As large, as powerful, and
as black as our good-looking Color-Sergeant, but more heavily built and
with less personal beauty, he had a more massive brain and a far more
meditative and systematic intellect. Not yet grounded even in the
spelling-book, his modes of thought were nevertheless strong, lucid, and
accurate; and he yearned and pined for intellectual companionship beyond
all ignorant men whom I have ever met. I believe that he would have
talked all day and all night, for days together, to any officer who
could instruct him, until his companions, at least, fell asleep
exhausted. His comprehension of the whole problem of Slavery was more
thorough and far-reaching than that of any Abolitionist, so far as its
social and military aspects went; in that direction I could teach him
nothing, and he taught me much. But it was his methods of thought which
always impressed me chiefly: superficial brilliancy he left to others,
and grasped at the solid truth.

Of course his interest in the war and in the regiment was unbounded;
he did not take to drill with especial readiness, but he was
insatiable of it, and grudged every moment of relaxation. Indeed, he
never had any such moments; his mind was at work all the time, even
when he was singing hymns, of which he had endless store. He was not,
however, one of our leading religionists, but his moral code was solid
and reliable, like his mental processes. Ignorant as he was, the
"years that bring the philosophic mind" had yet been his, and most of
my young officers seemed boys beside him. He was a Florida man, and
had been chiefly employed in lumbering and piloting on the St. Mary's
River, which divides Florida from Georgia. Down this stream he had
escaped in a "dug-out," and after thus finding the way, had returned
(as had not a few of my men in other cases) to bring away wife and
child. "I wouldn't have left my child, Cunnel," he said, with an
emphasis that sounded the depths of his strong nature. And up this
same river he was always imploring to be allowed to guide an
expedition.

Many other men had rival propositions to urge, for they gained
self-confidence from drill and guard-duty, and were growing impatient of
inaction. "Ought to go to work, Sa,--don't believe in we lyin' in camp
eatin' up de perwisions." Such were the quaint complaints, which I heard
with joy. Looking over my note-books of that period, I find them filled
with topographical memoranda, jotted down by a flickering candle, from
the evening talk of the men,--notes of vulnerable points along the coast,
charts of rivers, locations of pickets. I prized these conversations not
more for what I thus learned of the country than for what I learned of
the men. One could thus measure their various degrees of accuracy and
their average military instinct; and I must say that in every respect,
save the accurate estimate of distances, they stood the test well. But
no project took my fancy so much, after all, as that of the delegate
from the St. Mary's River.

The best peg on which to hang an expedition in the Department of the
South, in those days, was the promise of lumber. Dwelling in the very
land of Southern pine, the Department authorities had to send North
for it, at a vast expense. There was reported to be plenty in the
enemy's country, but somehow the colored soldiers were the only ones
who had been lucky enough to obtain any, thus far, and the supply
brought in by our men, after flooring the tents of the white regiments
and our own, was running low. An expedition of white troops, four
companies, with two steamers and two schooners, had lately returned
empty-handed, after a week's foraging; and now it was our turn. They
said the mills were all burned; but should we go up the St. Mary's,
Corporal Sutton was prepared to offer more lumber than we had
transportation to carry. This made the crowning charm of his
suggestion. But there is never any danger of erring on the side of
secrecy, in a military department; and I resolved to avoid all undue
publicity for our plans, by not finally deciding on any until we
should get outside the bar. This was happily approved by my superior
officers, Major-General Hunter and Brigadier-General Saxton; and I was
accordingly permitted to take three steamers, with four hundred and
sixty. two officers and men, and two or three invited guests, and go
down the coast on my own responsibility. We were, in short, to win our
spurs; and if, as among the Araucanians, our spurs were made of
lumber, so much the better. The whole history of the Department of the
South had been defined as "a military picnic," and now we were to take
our share of the entertainment.

It seemed a pleasant share, when, after the usual vexations and
delays, we found ourselves (January 23, 1863) gliding down the full
waters of Beaufort River, the three vessels having sailed at different
hours, with orders to rendezvous at St. Simon's Island, on the coast
of Georgia. Until then, the flagship, so to speak, was to be the "Ben
De Ford," Captain Hallet,--this being by far the largest vessel, and
carrying most of the men. Major Strong was in command upon the "John
Adams," an army gunboat, carrying a thirty-pound Parrott gun, two
ten-pound Parrotts, and an eight-inch howitzer. Captain Trowbridge
(since promoted Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment) had charge of the
famous "Planter," brought away from the Rebels by Robert Small; she
carried a ten-pound Parrott gun, and two howitzers. The John Adams was
our main reliance. She was an old East Boston ferry-boat, a
"double-ender," admirable for river-work, but unfit for sea-service.
She drew seven feet of water; the Planter drew only four; but the
latter was very slow, and being obliged to go to St. Simon's by an
inner passage, would delay us from the beginning. She delayed us so
much, before the end, that we virtually parted company, and her career
was almost entirely separated from our own.

From boyhood I have had a fancy for boats, and have seldom been without
a share, usually more or less fractional, in a rather indeterminate
number of punts and wherries. But when, for the first time, I found
myself at sea as Commodore of a fleet of armed steamers,--for even the
Ben De Ford boasted a six-pounder or so,--it seemed rather an unexpected
promotion. But it is a characteristic of army life, that one adapts
one's self, as coolly as in a dream, to the most novel responsibilities.
One sits on court-martial, for instance, and decides on the life of a
fellow-creature, without being asked any inconvenient questions as to
previous knowledge of Blackstone; and after such an experience, shall
one shrink from wrecking a steamer or two in the cause of the nation? So
I placidly accepted my naval establishment, as if it were a new form of
boat-club, and looked over the charts, balancing between one river and
another, as if deciding whether to pull up or down Lake Quinsigamond. If
military life ever contemplated the exercise of the virtue of humility
under any circumstances this would perhaps have been a good opportunity
to begin its practice. But as the "Regulations" clearly contemplated
nothing of the kind, and as I had never met with any precedent which
looked in that direction, I had learned to check promptly all such weak
proclivities.

Captain Hallett proved the most frank and manly of sailors, and did
everything for our comfort. He was soon warm in his praises of the
demeanor of our men, which was very pleasant to hear, as this was the
first time that colored soldiers in any number had been conveyed on
board a transport, and I know of no place where a white volunteer
appears to so much disadvantage. His mind craves occupation, his body
is intensely uncomfortable, the daily emergency is not great enough to
call out his heroic qualities, and he is apt to be surly,
discontented, and impatient even of sanitary rules. The Southern black
soldier, on the other hand, is seldom sea-sick (at least, such is my
experience), and, if properly managed, is equally contented, whether
idle or busy; he is, moreover, so docile that all needful rules are
executed with cheerful acquiescence, and the quarters can therefore be
kept clean and wholesome. Very forlorn faces were soon visible among
the officers in the cabin, but I rarely saw such among the men.

Pleasant still seemed our enterprise, as we anchored at early morning in
the quiet waters of St. Simon's Sound, and saw the light fall softly on
the beach and the low bluffs, on the picturesque plantation-houses which
nestled there, and the graceful naval vessels that lay at anchor before
us. When we afterwards landed the air had that peculiar Mediterranean
translucency which Southern islands wear; and the plantation we visited
had the loveliest tropical garden, though tangled and desolate, which I
have ever seen in the South. The deserted house was embowered In great
blossoming shrubs, and filled with hyacinthine odors, among which
predominated that of the little Chickasaw roses which everywhere bloomed
and trailed around. There were fig-trees and date-palms, crape-myrtles
and wax-myrtles, Mexican agaves and English ivies, japonicas, bananas,
oranges, lemons, oleanders, jonquils, great cactuses, and wild Florida
lilies. This was not the plantation which Mrs. Kemble has since made
historic, although that was on the same island; and I could not waste
much sentiment over it, for it had belonged to a Northern renegade,
Thomas Butler King. Yet I felt then, as I have felt a hundred times
since, an emotion of heart-sickness at this desecration of a
homestead,--and especially when, looking from a bare upper window of the
empty house upon a range of broad, flat, sunny roofs, such as children
love to play on, I thought how that place might have been loved by yet
Innocent hearts, and I mourned anew the sacrilege of war.

I had visited the flag-ship Wabash ere we left Port Royal Harbor, and
had obtained a very kind letter of introduction from Admiral Dupont,
that stately and courtly potentate, elegant as one's ideal French
marquis; and under these credentials I received polite attention from
the naval officers at St. Simon's,--Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Budd,
of the gunboat Potomska, and Acting Master Moses, of the barque
Fernandina. They made valuable suggestions in regard to the different
rivers along the coast, and gave vivid descriptions of the last
previous trip up the St. Mary's undertaken by Captain Stevens, U.S.N.,
in the gunboat Ottawa, when he had to fight his way past batteries
at every bluff in descending the narrow and rapid stream. I was warned
that no resistance would be offered to the ascent, but only to our
return; and was further cautioned against the mistake, then common, of
underrating the courage of the Rebels. "It proved impossible to
dislodge those fellows from the banks," my informant said; "they had
dug rifle-pits, and swarmed like hornets, and when fairly silenced in
one direction they were sure to open upon us from another." All this
sounded alarming, but it was nine months since the event had happened;
and although nothing had gone up the river meanwhile, I counted on
less resistance now. And something must be risked anywhere.

We were delayed all that day in waiting for our consort, and improved
our time by verifying certain rumors about a quantity of new
railroad-iron which was said to be concealed in the abandoned Rebel
forts on St. Simon's and Jekyll Islands, and which would have much
value at Port Royal, if we could unearth it. Some of our men had
worked upon these very batteries, so that they could easily guide us;
and by the additional discovery of a large flat-boat we were enabled
to go to work in earnest upon the removal of the treasure. These iron
bars, surmounted by a dozen feet of sand, formed an invulnerable roof
for the magazines and bomb-proofs of the fort, and the men enjoyed
demolishing them far more than they had relished their construction.
Though the day was the 24th of January, 1863, the sun was very
oppressive upon the sands; but all were in the highest spirits, and
worked with the greatest zeal. The men seemed to regard these massive
bars as their first trophies; and if the rails had been wreathed with
roses, they could not have been got out in more holiday style. Nearly
a hundred were obtained that day, besides a quantity of five-inch
plank with which to barricade the very conspicuous pilot-houses of the
John Adams. Still another day we were delayed, and could still keep at
this work, not neglecting some foraging on the island from which
horses, cattle, and agricultural implements were to be removed, and
the few remaining colored families transferred to Fernandina. I had
now become quite anxious about the missing steamboat, as the inner
passage, by which alone she could arrive, was exposed at certain
points to fire from Rebel batteries, and it would have been unpleasant
to begin with a disaster. I remember that, as I stood on deck, in the
still and misty evening, listening with strained senses for some sound
of approach, I heard a low continuous noise from the distance, more
wild and desolate than anything in my memory can parallel. It came
from within the vast girdle of mist, and seemed like the cry of a
myriad of lost souls upon the horizon's verge; it was Dante become
audible: and yet it was but the accumulated cries of innumerable
seafowl at the entrance of the outer bay.

Late that night the Planter arrived. We left St. Simon's on the
following morning, reached Fort Clinch by four o'clock, and there
transferring two hundred men to the very scanty quarters of the John
Adams, allowed the larger transport to go into Fernandina, while the two
other vessels were to ascend the St. Mary's River, unless (as proved
inevitable in the end) the defects in the boiler of the Planter should
oblige her to remain behind. That night I proposed to make a sort of
trial-trip up stream, as far as Township landing, some fifteen miles,
there to pay our respects to Captain Clark's company of cavalry, whose
camp was reported to lie near by. This was included in Corporal Sutton's
programme, and seemed to me more inviting, and far more useful to the
men, than any amount of mere foraging. The thing really desirable
appeared to be to get them under fire as soon as possible, and to teach
them, by a few small successes, the application of what they had learned
in camp-.

I had ascertained that the camp of this company lay five miles from
the landing, and was accessible by two roads, one of which was a
lumber-path, not commonly used, but which Corporal Sutton had helped
to construct, and along which he could easily guide us. The plan was
to go by night, surround the house and negro cabins at the landing (to
prevent an alarm from being given), then to take the side path, and if
all went well, to surprise the camp; but if they got notice of our
approach, through their pickets, we should, at worst, have a fight, in
which the best man must win.

The moon was bright, and the river swift, but easy of navigation thus
far. Just below Township I landed a small advance force, to surround the
houses silently. With them went Corporal Sutton; and when, after
rounding the point, I went on shore with a larger body of men, he met me
with a silent chuckle of delight, and with the information that there
was a negro in a neighboring cabin who had just come from the Rebel
camp, and could give the latest information. While he hunted up this
valuable auxiliary, I mustered my detachment, winnowing out the men who
had coughs (not a few), and sending them ignominiously on board again: a
process I had regularly to perform, during this first season of catarrh,
on all occasions where quiet was needed. The only exception tolerated at
this time was in the case of one man who offered a solemn pledge, that,
if unable to restrain his cough, he would lie down on the ground, scrape
a little hole, and cough into it unheard. The ingenuity of this
proposition was irresistible, and the eager patient was allowed to pass
muster.

It was after midnight when we set off upon our excursion. I had about
a hundred men, marching by the flank, with a small advanced guard, and
also a few flankers, where the ground permitted. I put my Florida
company at the head of the column, and had by my side Captain Metcalf,
an excellent officer, and Sergeant Mclntyre, his first sergeant. We
plunged presently in pine woods, whose resinous smell I can still
remember. Corporal Sutton marched near me, with his captured negro
guide, whose first fear and sullenness had yielded to the magic news
of the President's Proclamation, then just issued, of which Governor
Andrew had sent me a large printed supply;--we seldom found men who
could read it, but they all seemed to feel more secure when they held
it in their hands. We marched on through the woods, with no sound but
the peeping of the frogs in a neighboring marsh, and the occasional
yelping of a dog, as we passed the hut of some "cracker." This yelping
always made Corporal Sutton uneasy; dogs are the detective officers of
Slavery's police.

We had halted once or twice to close up the ranks, and had marched some
two miles, seeing and hearing nothing more. I had got all I could out of
our new guide, and was striding on, rapt in pleasing contemplation. All
had gone so smoothly that I had merely to fancy the rest as being
equally smooth. Already I fancied our little detachment bursting out of
the woods, in swift surprise, upon the Rebel quarters,--already the
opposing commander, after hastily firing a charge or two from his
revolver (of course above my head), had yielded at discretion, and was
gracefully tendering, in a stage attitude, his unavailing sword,--when
suddenly--

There was a trampling of feet among the advanced guard as they came
confusedly to a halt, and almost at the same instant a more ominous
sound, as of galloping horses in the path before us. The moonlight
outside the woods gave that dimness of atmosphere within which is more
bewildering than darkness, because the eyes cannot adapt themselves to
it so well. Yet I fancied, and others aver, that they saw the leader
of an approaching party mounted on a white horse and reining up in the
pathway; others, again, declare that he drew a pistol from the holster
and took aim; others heard the words, "Charge in upon them! Surround
them!" But all this was confused by the opening rifle-shots of our
advanced guard, and, as clear observation was impossible, I made the
.men fix their bayonets and kneel in the cover on each side the
pathway, and I saw with delight the brave fellows, with Sergeant
Mclntyre at their head, settling down in the grass as coolly and
warily as if wild turkeys were the only game. Perhaps at the first
shot a man fell at my elbow. I felt it no more than if a tree had
fallen,--I was so busy watching my own men and the enemy, and planning
what to do next. Some of our soldiers, misunderstanding the order,
"Fix bayonets," were actually _charging_ with them, dashing off into
the dim woods, with nothing to charge at but the vanishing tail of an
imaginary horse,--for we could really see nothing. This zeal I noted
with pleasure, and also with anxiety, as our greatest danger was from
confusion and scattering; and for infantry to pursue cavalry would be
a novel enterprise. Captain Metcalf stood by me well in keeping the
men steady, as did Assistant Surgeon Minor, and Lieutenant, now
Captain, Jackson. How the men in the rear were behaving I could not
tell,--not so coolly, I afterwards found, because they were more
entirely bewildered, supposing, until the shots came, that the column
had simply halted for a moment's rest, as had been done once or twice
before. They did not know who or where their assailants might be, and
the fall of the man beside me created a hasty rumor that I was killed,
so that it was on the whole an alarming experience for them. They
kept together very tolerably, however, while our assailants, dividing,
rode along on each side through the open pine-barren, firing into our
ranks, but mostly over the heads of the men. My soldiers in turn fired
rapidly,--too rapidly, being yet beginners,--and it was evident that,
dim as it was, both sides had opportunity to do some execution.

I could hardly tell whether the fight had lasted ten minutes or an hour,
when, as the enemy's fire had evidently ceased or slackened, I gave the
order to cease firing. But it was very difficult at first to make them
desist: the taste of gunpowder was too intoxicating. One of them was
heard to mutter, indignantly, "Why de Cunnel order _Cease firing_, when
de Secesh blazin' away at de rate ob ten dollar a day?" Every incidental
occurrence seemed somehow to engrave itself upon my perceptions, without
interrupting the main course of thought. Thus I know, that, in one of
the pauses of the affair, there came wailing through the woods a cracked
female voice, as if calling back some stray husband who had run out to
join in the affray, "John, John, are you going to leave me, John? Are
you going to let me and the children be killed, John?" I suppose the
poor thing's fears of gunpowder were very genuine; but it was such a
wailing squeak, and so infinitely ludicrous, and John was probably
ensconced so very safely in some hollow tree, that I could see some of
the men showing all their white teeth in the very midst of the fight.
But soon this sound, with all others, had ceased, and left us in
peaceful possession of the field.

I have made the more of this little affair because it was the first
stand-up fight in which my men had been engaged, though they had been
under fire, in an irregular way, in their small early expeditions. To me
personally the event was of the greatest value: it had given us all an
opportunity to test each other, and our abstract surmises were changed
into positive knowledge. Hereafter it was of small importance what
nonsense might be talked or written about colored troops; so long as
mine did not flinch, it made no difference to me. My brave young
officers, themselves mostly new to danger, viewed the matter much as I
did; and yet we were under bonds of life and death to form a correct
opinion, which was more than could be said of the Northern editors, and
our verdict was proportionately of greater value.

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