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013 - Conclusion · Army Life in a Black Regiment

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen of Army Life in a Black Regiment. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by f n H. Army Life
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  Speaker 1: in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Chapter thirteen conclusion,
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  Speaker 1: My personal forebodings proved to be correct, and so were
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  Speaker 1: the threats of the surgeons. In May eighteen sixty four,
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  Speaker 1: I went home invalided, was compelled to resign in October
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  Speaker 1: from the same cause, and never saw the first South
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  Speaker 1: Carolina again, nor did any one else see under that appellation.
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  Speaker 1: For about that time its name was changed to the
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  Speaker 1: thirty third United States Colored Troops, a most vague and
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  Speaker 1: heartless baptism. As the man in the story says, it
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  Speaker 1: was one of those instances of injudicious sacrifice of a
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  Speaker 1: spirit decorps, which were so frequent in our army. All
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  Speaker 1: the pride of my men was centered in de fus Souf.
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  Speaker 1: The very words were a recognition of the loyal South
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  Speaker 1: as against the disloyal. To make the matter worse, it
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  Speaker 1: had been originally designed to apply the new numbering only
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  Speaker 1: to the new regiments, and so the early numbers were
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  Speaker 1: all taken up before the older regiments came in. The
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  Speaker 1: governors of states by a special effort save their colored
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  Speaker 1: troops from this chagrin. But we found here, as more
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  Speaker 1: than once before, the disadvantage of having no governor to
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  Speaker 1: stand by us. It's a far cry to locke Eye,
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  Speaker 1: said the Highland proverb. We knew to our cost that
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  Speaker 1: it was a far cry to Washington in those days,
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  Speaker 1: unless an officer left his duty and stayed there all
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  Speaker 1: the time. In June eighteen sixty four, the regiment was
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  Speaker 1: ordered to Foley Island and remained there and on Coal's
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  Speaker 1: Island till the Siege of Charleston was done. It took
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  Speaker 1: part in the Battle of Honey Hill and in the
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  Speaker 1: capture of a fort on James Island, of which Corporal
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  Speaker 1: Robert Vendross wrote triumphantly in a letter, when we took
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  Speaker 1: the pieces, we found that we recapped our own pieces
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  Speaker 1: that we lost on the Wiltown rev River, and thanked
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. Did not lose but seven men out of
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  Speaker 1: our regiment. In February eighteen sixty five, the regiment was
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  Speaker 1: ordered to Charleston to do provost and guard duty in
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  Speaker 1: March to Savannah, in June to Hamburg and Aiken, in
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  Speaker 1: September to Charleston and its neighborhood, and was finally mustered
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  Speaker 1: out of service after being detained beyond its three years.
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  Speaker 1: So great was the scarcity of troops. On the ninth
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  Speaker 1: of February eighteen sixty six, with dramatic fitness, this muster
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  Speaker 1: out took place at Fort Wagner, above the graves of
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  Speaker 1: Shore and his men. I give in the appendix the
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  Speaker 1: farewell address of Lieutenant Colonel Trowbridge, who commanded the regiment
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  Speaker 1: from the time I left it. Brevet Brigadier General W. T. Bennett,
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  Speaker 1: one of the one hundred and second United States Colored Troops,
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  Speaker 1: who was a signed to the command, never actually held it,
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  Speaker 1: being always in charge of a brigade. The officers and
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  Speaker 1: men are scattered far and wide. One of our captains
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  Speaker 1: was a member of the South Carolina Constitutional Convention and
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  Speaker 1: is now State Treasurer. Three of our sergeants were in
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  Speaker 1: that convention, including Sergeant Prince Rivers, and he and Sergeant
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  Speaker 1: Henry Hayne are still members of the state legislature, both
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  Speaker 1: in that state and in Florida. The former members of
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  Speaker 1: the regiment are generally prospering so far as I can hear.
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  Speaker 1: The increased self respect of army life fitted them to
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  Speaker 1: the duties of civil life. It is not in nature
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  Speaker 1: that the jealousy of race should die out in this generation,
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  Speaker 1: but I trust they will not see the fulfillment of
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  Speaker 1: Corporal Simon Cram's prediction. Simon was one of the shrewdest
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  Speaker 1: old fellows in the regiment, and he said to me once,
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  Speaker 1: as he was jogging out of Beaufort behind me on
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  Speaker 1: the shell road, I's going to lead de south Cunnel
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  Speaker 1: when de war is over. I's made up my mind
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  Speaker 1: at de z year sechesse be cibilized in my time.
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  Speaker 1: The only member of the regiment whom I have seen
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  Speaker 1: since leaving it is a young man, Cyrus Wiggins, who
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  Speaker 1: was brought off from the mainland in a dugout in
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  Speaker 1: broad day before the very eyes of the rebel pickets
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  Speaker 1: by Captain James S. Rogers of my regiment. It was
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  Speaker 1: one of the most daring acts I ever saw, and
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  Speaker 1: as it happened under my own observation, I was glad
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  Speaker 1: when the Captain took home with him captive of his
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  Speaker 1: bow and spear, to be educated under his eye in Massachusetts.
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  Speaker 1: Cyrus has done credit to his friends, and will be
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  Speaker 1: satisfied with nothing short of a college training at Howard University.
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  Speaker 1: I have letters from the men, very quaint in handwriting
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  Speaker 1: and spelling, but he is the only one whom I
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  Speaker 1: have seen some time. I hope to revisit those scenes,
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  Speaker 1: and shall feel no doubt like a bewildered Rip van Winkle,
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  Speaker 1: who once wore a uniform, we who served with the
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  Speaker 1: Black Troops have this peculiar satisfaction that whatever dignity or
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  Speaker 1: sacredness the memories of the war may have to others,
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  Speaker 1: they have more to us. In that contest. All the
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  Speaker 1: ordinary ties of patriotism were the same, of course, to
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  Speaker 1: us as to the rest. They had no motives which
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  Speaker 1: we had not as they have now, no memories which
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  Speaker 1: are not also ours. But the peculiar privilege of associating
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  Speaker 1: with an outcast race, of training it to fend its
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  Speaker 1: rights and to perform its duties. This was our especial meed.
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  Speaker 1: The faciliating policy of the government sometimes filled other officers
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  Speaker 1: with doubt and shame. Until the Negro had justice. They
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  Speaker 1: were but defending the liberty with one hand and crushing
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  Speaker 1: it with the other. From this inconsistency, we were free.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever the government did, we at least were working in
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  Speaker 1: the right direction. If this was not recognized on our
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  Speaker 1: side of the lines, we knew that it was admitted
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  Speaker 1: on the other. Fighting with ropes round our necks, denied
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  Speaker 1: the ordinary courtesies of war till we ourselves compelled then concession,
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  Speaker 1: we could at least turn this outlawry into a common
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  Speaker 1: We had touched the pivot of the war. Whether this
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  Speaker 1: vast and dusky mass should prove the weakness of the
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  Speaker 1: nation or its strength, we must depend in great measure.
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  Speaker 1: We knew upon our efforts. Till the Blacks were armed,
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  Speaker 1: there was no guarantee of their freedom. It was their
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  Speaker 1: demeanor under arms that shamed the nation into recognizing them
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  Speaker 1: as men. End of Chapter thirteen. Recording by f N H.
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