"Private Miles O'Reilly" was the nom
de plume of a talented literary gentleman of
the city of New York, who wrote much in
humorous prose and verse. His real name was
Charles G. Halpine. After an
honorable service in the war, rising to high
rank, he was elected Register of New York,
and died suddenly while in office, in 1808.
The following sketches from his pen,
published during the war, give an account of
matters connected with the recruiting and
organizing of negro troops in South
Carolina, and are quoted here as interesting
historical facts connected with the subject:
" Black troops are now an established success, and
hereafter—while the race can furnish enough
able-bodied males—the probability would seem
that one-half the permanent naval and
military forces of the United States will be
drawn from this material, under the guidance
and control of the white officers.
To-day there is much competition among the
field and staff officers of our white
volunteers—more especially in those
regiments about being disbanded—to obtain
commission of like or even lower grades in
the colored regiments of Uncle Sam.
General Casey's board of
examination cannot keep in session long
enough, nor dismiss incompetent aspirants
quick enough, to keep down the vast throngs
of veterans, with and without
shoulder-straps, who are now seeking various
grades of command in the colored brigades of
the Union. Over this result all
intelligent men will rejoice,—the privilege
of being either killed or wounded in battle,
or stricken down by the disease, toil and
privations incident to the life of a
marching soldier, not belonging to that
class of prerogative for the exclusive
enjoyment of which men of sense, and with
higher careers open to them, will long
contend. Looking back, however,
but a few years, to the organization of the
first regiment of black troops in the
departments of the South, what a change in
public opinion are we compelled to
recognize! In sober verity, war is
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not only the sternest, but the quickest, of
all teachers; and contrasting the Then and
Now of our negro regiments, as we propose to
do in this sketch, the contrast will
forcibly recall Galileo's obdurate assertion
that 'the world still moves.'
" Be it known, then, that the first regiment of black
troops raised in our recent war, was raised
in the Spring of 1862 by the commanding
general of the department of the South, of
his own motion, and without any direct
authority of law, order, or even sanction
from the President, the Secretary of War, or
our House of Congress. It was done by
General Hunter as ' a military
necessity ' under very peculiar
circumstances, to be detailed hereafter; and
although repudiated at first by the
Government as were so many other measures
originated in the same quarter, it was
finally adopted as the settled policy of the
country and of our military system; as have
likewise since been adopted, all the other
original measures for which these officers,
at the time of their first announcement, was
made to suffer both official rebuke and the
violently vituperative denunciation of more
than one-half the Northern press.
"In the Spring of 1862, General Hunter,
finding himself with lees than eleven
thousand men under his command, and charged
with the duty of holding the whole tortuous
and broken seacoast of Georgia, South
Carolina and Florida, had applied often, and
in vain, to the authorities at Washington
for reinforcements. All the troops
that could be gathered in the North were
less than sufficient for the continuous
drain of General McClellan's
great operations against the enemy's
capital; and the reiterated answer of the
War Department was: 'You must get
along as best you can. Not a man from
the North can be spared.'
"On the mainland of three States nominally forming the
Department of the South, the flag of the
Union had no permanent foothold, save at
Fernandiua, St. Augustine, and some few
unimportant points along the Florida coast.
It was on the Sea-islands of Georgia and
South Carolina that our troops were
stationed, and continually engaged in
fortifying — the enemy being everywhere
visible, and in force, across the narrow
creeks dividing us from the mainland; and in
various raids they came across to our
islands, and we drove them back to the
mainland, and up their creeks, with a few
gunboats to help us—being the order of the
day; yea, and yet oftener, of the night.
"No reinforcements to be had from the North; vast
fatigue duties in
throwing up earthworks imposed on our
insufficient garrison; the enemy
continually increasing both in insolence and
numbers; our only success
the capture of Fort Pulaski, sealing up of
Savannah; and this victory offset, if not.
fully counter-balanced, by many minor gains
of the enemy; this was about the condition
of affairs as seen from the headquarters
fronting Port Royal bay, when General
Hunter one fine morning, with
twirling glasses, puckered lips, and dilated
nostrils, (he had just received another '
don't-bother-us-for-reinforcements '
dispatch from Washington) announced his
intention of ' forming a negro regiment, and
compelling
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every
able-bodied black man in the department to
fight for the freedom which could not but be
the issue of our war.' This resolution
being taken, was immediately acted upon with
vigor, the General causing all the necessary
orders to be issued, and taking upon
himself, as his private burden, the
responsibility for all the irregular issues
of arms, clothing, equipments, and rations
involved in collecting and organizing the
first experimental negro regiment. The
men he intended to pay, at first, by placing
them as laborers on the pay-roll of the
Chief Quartermaster; but it was his hope
that the obvious necessity and wisdom of the
measure he had thus presumed to adopt
without authority, would secure for it the
immediate approval of the higher
authorities, and the necessary orders to
cover the required pay and supply-issue of
the force he had in contemplation. If his
course should be endorsed
by the War Department, well and good; if it
were not so indorsed, why
he had enough property of his own to pay
back to the Government all he was
irregularly expending in this experiment.
"But now, on the very threshhold of this novel
enterprise, came the first—and it was not a
trivial—difficulty. Where could experienced
officers be found for such an organization ?
' What ! command niggers? ' was the reply—if
possible more amazed than scornful—of nearly
every competent young lieutenant or captain
of volunteers to whom the suggestion of
commanding this class of troops was made. '
Never mind,' said Hunter, when this
trouble was brought to his notice; 'the
fools or bigots who refuse are enough
punished by their refusal. Before two years
they will be competing eagerly for the
commission they now reject.
'Straightly there was issued a circular to
all commanding officers in the department,
directing them to announce to the
non-commissioned officers and men of their
respective commands that commissions in the
'South Carolina Regiment of Colored
Infantry,' would be given to all deserving
and reputable sergeants, corporals; and men
who would appear at department headquarters,
and prove able to pass an examination in the
manual and tactics before a Band of
Examiners, which was organized in a general
order of current date. Capt.
Arthur M. Kenzie, of Chicago,
aid-de-camp,—now of Hancock's Veterans
Reserve Corps—was detailed as Colonel of the
regiment, giving place, subsequently, in
consequence of injured health, to the
present Brig.-Gen. James D. Fessenden,
then a captain in the Berdan Sharpshooters,
though detailed as acting aid-de-camp on
Gen. Hunter's staff. Capt.
Kenzie, we may add, was Gen.
Hunter's nephew, and his appointment
as Colonel was made partly to prove —so
violent was then the prejudice against negro
troops—that the Commanding General asks
nothing of them which he was not willing
that one of his own flesh and blood should
be engaged in.
"The work was now fairly in progress, but the barriers
of prejudice were not to be lightly
overthrown. Non-commissioned officers and
men of the right stamp, and able to pass the
examination requisite, were scarce articles.
Ten had the hardihood or moral courage to
face the
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from Hunter spoiled the prettiest
speech I had ever thought of making. I
had been delighted with Wickliffe's motion,
and thought the reply to it would furnish us
first-rate Democrat's thunder for the next
election. I made up my mind to sail in
against Hunter's answer—no matter what it
was—the moment it came; and to be even more
humorously successful in its delivery and
reception than I was in my speech against
War Horse Gurley, of Ohio, which you have
just been complimenting. Well, you
see, man proposes, but providence orders
otherwise. When the Clerk announced
the receipt of the answer, and that he was
about to read it, I caught the Speaker's eye
and was booked for the first speech against
your negro experiment. The first
sentence, being formal and official, was
very well; but at the second the House began
to grin, and at the third, not a man on the
floor—except Father Wickliffe, of Kentucky,
perhaps—who was not convulsed with laughter.
Even my own risibles I found to be affected;
and before the document was concluded, I
motioned the Speaker that he might give the
floor to whom he pleased, as my desire to
distinguish myself in that particular tilt
was over.' "
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