The Sergeant, page 32
The Select School. “He had no clear…” and “with his intellectual gifts…”: “Romantic Career,” Courier-Journal. Virginia freemen: Ethan Allan Andrews, Slavery and the Domestic Slave-Trade in the United States (Boston: Light & Stearns, 1836), 161–62. Virginia racial crackdown: Supplement to the Revised Code of Virginia (Richmond: Samuel Shepherd & Co., 1833), 244–48, outlines the restrictions imposed after the Nat Turner rebellion. Virginia clandestine schools: W. B. Hartgrove, “The Story of Maria Louise Moore and Fannie M. Richards,” The Journal of Negro History (January 1916), 24–25, describes Mrs. Beecham’s school. “Colored schools” in Detroit: Silas Farmer, The History of Detroit and Michigan (Detroit: S. Farmer & Co., 1884), 750–51; and “Board of Education,” Detroit Free Press, January 8, 1860. Fannie Richards: Hartgrove, “Story,” 30–31, says she got a job in a private school in 1862–63, presumably working for William Lee, who had the only known Black private school at the time. The school’s principal, John Green, was boarding at her mother’s house, according to the 1860 census. “Said became…”: “Romantic Career,” Courier-Journal. “No race has advanced…”: “Fannie Richards,” Detroit Tribune, June 20, 1915.
Emancipation Proclamation: “The ‘Proclamation of Freedom,’ ” Detroit Free Press, January 7, 1863, describes the Second Baptist Church celebration, including “Abraham Lincoln is the man…” and “Negroes can fight!” Racist quotes from the Free Press include: “sable pets” (“Is a Negro Eligible to the Presidency?” January 17, 1863) “they will swarm…” and “cower in sullen gloom…” (“Negro Equality,” December 2, 1862), “the legislative halls…” (“We are informed …,” February 1, 1863), and “As the government is…” (“Negro Equality,” February 8, 1863. “Rowdyism in Our Streets,” Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, January 5, 1863, reported on the onset of racial attacks after the proclamation.
Trial and riot. “If I thought I had one drop…”: Anonymous, A Thrilling Narrative from the Lips of the Sufferers of the Late Detroit Riot (Detroit: self-published, 1863), 2. “Black fiend” and “not very dark skinned…”: “Horrible Outrage,” Detroit Free Press, February 27, 1863. “Every instinct…”: “The Faulkner Outrage,” Detroit Free Press, March 1, 1863. “It could not…”: “Trial of the Negro Faulkner: The Evidence for the Prosecution,” Detroit Free Press, March 6, 1863. Intimidating the defense: “Trial of the Negro Faulkner: Conclusion of the Case and Arguments for the Defense,” Detroit Free Press, March 7, 1863. “Were subjected to…”: “A Bloody Riot,” Detroit Free Press, March 7, 1863. Riot: Anonymous, Thrilling Narrative, consisted of eyewitness accounts of the riot, with quotes including “I could see…,” 4, and “Are you satisfied…,” 8 (edited slightly here). The riot began around 3:00 P.M., which would have been during Said’s school hours. (Farmer, History of Detroit, 743, says schooldays ended at 4:00 P.M.) “A very industrious…”: “The Victims,” Detroit Free Press, March 11, 1863.
Aftermath. “Hardened and depraved”: “Conviction and Sentence of Mary Brown and Ellen Hoover,” Detroit Free Press, May 22, 1863. For Mary Brown’s recantation, see Paul Taylor, “Old Slow Town”: Detroit During the Civil War (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013), 103. “Insulting” and “seemed posed…”: “Special Police Proceedings,” Detroit Free Press, March 10 and 11, 1863. “Deemed it an honor…”: “State Sabbath School Teachers’ Association,” Detroit Free Press, June 4, 1863. Massachusetts recruiters: For Massachusetts’ Black population, see George Wingate Chase, Abstract of the Census of Massachusetts, 1860 (Boston: Wright & Potter, 1863), 321–22, 356–58. “Why would I leave…,” “hold on a little longer…,” and “anyone who doesn’t…”: “War Meeting of the Darkies,” The Detroit Free Press, May 8, 1863, edited to be conversational.
12. BOOT CAMP
Train to Boston: There is no proof that Benjamin Butler and Zachariah Breckenridge were on the train with Said, but all three were among the two dozen recruits from the Great Lakes region that arrived at Camp Meigs on June 8, likely coming in on the same train. “God moves…”: Benjamin Butler to Christian Recorder (Philadelphia), August 12, 1865. Note: Many of the letters of the Fifty-Fifth appear in Noah Andre Trudeau, Voices of the 55th: Letters from the 55th Massachusetts Volunteers, 1861–1865 (Dayton, OH: Morningside House Inc., 1995), so when I cite them, I’ll also include a parenthetical reference to where they can be found in Trudeau’s book, for example (Trudeau, Voices, 184–85) for Butler’s letter. “These colored volunteers…”: “Colored Recruits,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 1, 1863, reprinted from an unnamed Buffalo newspaper. “He is a native….”: “A Remarkable Man,” Buffalo Morning Express, June 9, 1863. “Tall, dark and handsome”: “Worldlings,” Evening World (New York), November 11, 1892. “Intelligent looking”: “Nicholas Saib,” Boston Transcript. “As straight as an arrow”: James S. Evans Jr. (unsigned), “In the Corridors,” St. Louis Republic, November 7, 1892. “Classical”: Evans, “Famous Negro.” What is notable about the Evans quotes is that he was a strident racist, but that did not keep him from describing Said in this way.
Camp Meigs: James Roland Corthell, “The Story of Camp Meigs,” New England Magazine, June 1905, 385–95. “The transformation…”: Norwood Penrose Hallowell, The Negro as a Soldier in the Rebellion (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1897), 9. Corthell, “Camp Meigs,” 386, says the civvies of other recruits were “disinfected, packed in barrels and stored.” Company I: Fox, Record, 139–41. Peter Laws: A letter from Peter Laws to William Lloyd Garrison’s son Frank mentions Laws’s friendship with the family. (See chapter 21.) “Attention was first…”: Anonymous introduction to Said, “Bornoo,” 485, which, like its anonymous postscript, was likely written by Charles Fox, Said’s regimental commander. As noted in chapter 22, Fox had a handwritten version of the memoir and was planning to use it as an appendix to his regimental history when he apparently decided to get it published in the Atlantic instead.
Seeking officers. “Firm anti-slavery principles” and “faith in the capacity…”: Annual Report of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts (Boston: Wright & Porter, 1864), 55. Norwood Hallowell: John T. Galvin, “The Hallowells: Fighting Quakers,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, 104 (1992), 42–54. “Vastly attached…”: Henry James, Notes of a Son and Brother (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1914), 242. “I would drill…”: David Cornwell, The Cornwell Chronicles (Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, 1998), 191. Cornwell was an Illinois artillery private who was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Ninth Louisiana Infantry Regiment (African Descent).
Company I. Dennis Jones: Mary Rogers Cabot, Annals of Brattleboro, 1681–1895 (Brattleboro, VT: E. L. Hildreth & Co., 1922), II, 625–58; and Fox, Record, 93–94, detail his background. “Pleasant and genial”: George T. Garrison, “Loss of the Steamer Maple Leaf,” The Liberator (Boston), April 22, 1864. “Unfailing kindnesses…” and “unassuming attention…”: Charles Soule to Samuel Jones, March 24, 1864, Box 5, Folder 17, Wilder Papers. Zachariah Breckinridge: “Assault on the Common by a Soldier,” Boston Daily Advertiser, September 26, 1865. “[Said’s] linguistic ability…”: Hallowell, Negro as Soldier, 3. Said’s corporal and platoon: Regimental records do not specify which soldiers were assigned to which sergeants, but Henry Way became corporal in August 1863, replacing the demoted Henry Nickerson, who had replaced Said after his promotion to sergeant in June 1863, suggesting that Nickerson and Way successively served under him. Morris Darnell served under Said at division headquarters in May–June 1864. Wallace Baker: For Said’s hypothetical connection to Baker, see the notes to chapter 18. “Among the company…” and “jaw back”: Testimony of Frank Gardner and Henry Call at Baker Court Martial in May 1864. Wallace Baker, LL-2112, RG 153, Records of the Judge Advocate, National Archives, Washington, DC, hereafter called “Court Martial Records.” Like Darnell, Call served in Said’s squad in May–June 1864. “Nicholas Saib is the name…”: “Nicholas Saib,” Boston Transcript.
Parade plans and riots: Hallowell, Negro as Soldier, 10. “In an abolition crusade…”: “Stand No. 4,” New York Herald, June 4, 1863, quoting New York attorney John J. Van Allen. “Down with the abolitionists…” and “It seemed to be…”: “Outrages upon Colored Persons,” New York Times, July 14, 1863, which provided a detailed description of the riot. James M. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 360, pegs the death toll at 100–120, but Benjamin J. Lossing, A History of the United States (Toledo: W. E. Bliss, 1875), 657, estimates it was as high as 400. Boston riot: “Riot in Boston,” Boston Post, July 16, 1863; and “Mobocratic Resistance to the Draft in Boston,” Liberator, July 17, 1863.
Benjamin Hayes: “Soldier Shot at Readville,” Boston Herald, July 20, 1863, said Hayes hit Kingston, but “Shooting Affray at Readville,” Boston Morning Journal, July 20, 1863, said he did not, while other articles said he merely looked like he would. Fox, Record, 5, said “testimony in the case was somewhat confused,” leading some officers to unsuccessfully ask for Kingston to be court-martialed. For more, see Benjamin Hayes, U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1863–1865, Microfilm Serial: M1801 (hereafter Service Records), Microfilm Roll 6, 1,034–45; and Jacob Moore (alias John H. Kingston), Pension Records, Application No. 1,153,549.
Leaving Boston: Fox, Record, 7–8. “The Fifty-Fifth Regiment Presentations,” Boston Daily Evening Transcript, July 20, 1863. “Throughout the whole route…”: “The Fifty-Fifth Regiment,” Boston Daily Evening Transcript, July 21, 1863.
13. COFFIN LAND AND FOLLY
Entering the war zone. Charles Bernard Fox’s letters to his wife (in three volumes), Microfilm P-316, Fox Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, I, 14–15 (hereafter, “Fox, Letters”). Burt Green Wilder, Diary, August 7–10, 1863, Burt Green Wilder Papers, Collection 14–26–95, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Box 7 (hereafter, “Wilder, Diary”). “To feel the dreadful spirit…”: Wilder, Diary, August 7, 1863; “As a people, we are fighting…”: William Tappan Thomson, “Confederate Flag and Seal,” Savannah Daily Morning News, April 23, 1863.
The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts. Luis F. Emilio, A Brave Black Regiment: History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Boston: Boston Book Co., 1894), including “If this affects…,” 47; “my men are capable…,” 49, and “dark-skinned heroes…,” 60. “Put those damned…”: William A. Dobak, Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867 (Washington, DC: US Army Center of Military History, 2011), 51. “I want you…” and “Wagner became…”: Emilio, Brave Black Regiment, 78, 80. “Men fell…”: Carter Woodson, The Mind of the Negro (Washington, DC: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1926), 544.
14. LAND CRABS AND THE SWAMP ANGEL
Folly Island: Sources include Stratton Lawrence, Folly Beach (Mount Pleasant, SC: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1993) and W. W. H. Davis, “The Siege of Morris Island,” The Annals of the War Written by Leading Participants North and South (Philadelphia: The Times Publishing Co., 1879), 95–110. Bowditch, “War Letters,” mentions the poor water and bothersome insects, 429, excessive heat, 436, and sandstorms, 443, concluding that Folly was “very appropriately named,” 439. “Folly Island! Yes…”: Henry Frith, Aboard the ‘Atalanta’ (London: Blackie & Son, 1888), 158. “At high tide…: Fox, Letters, I, 16. “[We] are desirous…”: I. H. Welch to Christian Recorder, October 24, 1863 (Trudeau, Voices, 38–40).
The Swamp Angel: Quincy Adams Gillmore, Engineer and Artillery Operations Against the Defences of Charleston Harbor in 1863 (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1863), 408–12; William S. Stryker, “The Swamp Angel,” in Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel, eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (New York: The Century Co., 1884), IV, 72–74; Davis, Siege, 100–1; Bowditch, “War Letters,” 427. “The weather…”: Emilio, Brave Black Regiment, 109. “You can imagine…”: Bowditch, “War Letters,” 434. “Shows how constant…”: Fox, Record, 94. “Our debasement…”: Bay State to Weekly Anglo-African, April 30, 1864 (Trudeau, Voices, 85–89). This was likely written by Peter Laws, since a) the pseudonym indicates the author came from Massachusetts, b) all the known newspaper correspondents in the Fifty-Fifth were sergeants, and c) the letter refers to being posted in Yellow Bluff, Florida, which had only two Massachusetts sergeants besides Laws: John F. Shorter, who used “J.F.S.” as his pen name, and James Gardner, not known for taking part in the letter-writing campaign. “If I had my will…”: Lieutenant J. W. Glase, Court Martial Records, LL-2197. “When we landed…”: R.W.W. to Christian Recorder, April 2, 1864 (Trudeau, Voices, 72–75). Richard W. White is the only soldier in the regiment known to have those initials.
Israel Vogdes. “A queer sort…”: Bowditch, “War Letters,” 462; “No reference…”: R.S. Ripley, letter to Thomas Jordan, August 1, 1863, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. 46 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office: 1881–1901), 376–67 (hereafter referred to as “Official Records”). “Every moment in camp…”: Emilio, Brave Black Regiment, 111. Sick call: Gillmore, Engineer, 261; Fox, Record, 111. “I hope you do not allow…” and “It makes me somewhat indignant…”: Wilder, Diary, August 17, 1863. “I do not know of any…”: Walter H. Wild, letter to Burt Green Wilder, March 31, 1914, Wilder Papers.
Shelling Charleston. “The enemy fired…”: Welch to Christian Recorder, October 24, 1863. Opening fire: “The Bombardment,” Charleston Courier, August 24 and 25, 1863; “Charleston Again Shelled,” Charleston Mercury, August 25, 1863. “One perspiring individual…”: Frank Vizetelly, “Charleston Under Fire,” The Cornhill Magazine, Volume X, (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1864), 99–110. “There is a coal-black Angel…”: Herman Melville, Battle Pieces and Aspects of War (New York: Harper & Bros., 1866), 107.
Trench warfare. “Like so many land-crabs…”: James, Notes, 242. “It is very wonderful…”: Bowditch, “War Letters,” 435. “When men are exposed…,” “patient and faithful…,” and “subjected to hard labor…”: Soldier of the 55th Massachusetts Volunteers to Weekly Anglo-African, January 30, 1864 (Trudeau, Voices, 55–61). “They do not have…,” “are easily handled…,” and “the black will do…”: Gillmore, Engineer, 184–85.
After Fort Wagner fell. “They drill us…”: John Posey to Mathias Embry, November 18, 1863 (Trudeau, Voices, 41–3). “Is and always has been…”: Fox, Letters, I, 115–16. Said meets with Fox: Fox, Letters, I, 61. “Faithful and brave”: This is from the anonymous afterword to Said, “Bornoo,” 495, almost certainly written by Fox.
15. “LED BY LOVE OF COUNTRY”
John Gordon. “The men are under…”: John Gordon to Exeter (NH) News-Letter and Rockingham Advertiser, January 4, 1864. Robert Todd Lincoln: General Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the Philips Exeter Academy, 1783–1903 (Exeter, NH: The News-Letter Press, 1903), 67. Long Island: The Regimental Orderly Book for Company I shows Gordon posted Said there from October 29 to November 10. “No fires or lights…”: Orville Samuel Kimball, History and Personal Sketches of Company I, 103 N.Y.S.V., 1862–1864 (Elmira, NY: The Facts Printing Co., 1900), 35.
The pay dispute begins. “We did not enlist…”: Soldier of the 55th Massachusetts Volunteers to Weekly Anglo-African. “You want to be…”: G. E. Stephens, letter to Weekly Anglo-African, October 3, 1863, quoting James Montgomery. Thanksgiving: Emilio, Brave Black Regiment, 140. Payday: Out of roughly a thousand men, only seven accepted the pay: ex-slaves who joined the Fifty-Fifth in the Carolinas to replace dead or discharged soldiers. Unlike the rest of the regiment, they had never been promised equal pay and, after spending their lives in bondage, were eager for any pay they could get (“The Massachusetts 55th,” Boston Morning Journal, December 26, 1863). “To accept our pay…”: Bay State to Weekly Anglo-African, April 30, 1864 (Trudeau, Voices, 85–89). “Our children would blush…”: De Waltigo to Weekly Anglo-African, April 30, 1864 (Trudeau, Voices, 83–4). “Never will I take it…”: A Soldier to the Christian Recorder, May 21, 1864 (Trudeau, Voices, 93–94). “That plague of humanity…”: Said, Autobiography, 223–24. Laws and Said: As mentioned in chapter 19, when the soldiers won their pay dispute, Laws chaired the planning committee for the celebration, and Said was named as one of the committee’s secretaries, suggesting they had similar roles during the dispute. Massachusetts intervenes: “Massachusetts Legislature,” The Liberator, November 20, 1863; Fox, Record, 17–18. “We earnestly hope…”: S.J.R. to The Liberator, January 29, 1864 (Trudeau, Voices, 61–62).
The regimental school. “Refine and elevate” and “I never saw men…”: Gordon to the Exeter News-Letter. Black teachers in the Fifty-Fifth included Sergeants Nicholas Said, James Trotter, Abram Shadd, Peter Fleming, Richard White, and teacher-in-training Isaiah Welch; Corporals John Payne and Jonathan Caston; and Private Joe Burgess. “Where it was once said…”: I. H. Welch to the Christian Recorder, December 19, 1863 (Trudeau, Voices, 49–51). “Assiduously” and “destined to make…”: “How Colored Soldiers Think and Act,” The Liberator, October 4, 1864 (Trudeau, Voices, 127–79).
