A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865

George Washington Williams

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780823233854
• eBook ISBN: 9780823233878
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861–1865 (originally published in 1888) by pioneer African American historian George Washington Williams remains a classic text in African American literature and Civil War history. In this powerful narrative, Williams, who served in the U.S. Colored Troops, tells the battle experiences of the almost 200,000 black men who fought for the Union cause. Determined to document the contributions of his fellow black soldiers and to underscore the valor and manhood of his race, Williams gathered his material from the official records of U.S. and foreign governments and from the orderly books and personal recollections of officers commanding Negro troops during the American Civil War.

The new edition of this important text includes an introductory essay by the award-winning historian John David Smith. In his essay, Smith narrates and evaluates the book's contents, analyzes its reception by contemporary critics, and evaluates Williams's work within the context of its day and its place in current historiography.

1
Introductory: Negro Soldiers in Ancient Times

The Negro appears in the military history of Egypt for the first time in the Inscriptions of Una, who was crown-bearer, or Secretary of State, under King Pepi during the Sixth Dynasty.¹ Down to this time the Egyptian Empire had enjoyed comparative quiet, but the Sixth Dynasty clearly marks the beginning of the military epoch. A large army had always been in existence in Egypt, but it was seldom called into the field. The military class always ranked high, coming next in order to the priesthood,² and was divided into two distinct parts. Herodotus estimates the strength of the Egyptian army at 410,000.³ On an average of five persons to a family, his figures would bring the military class up to 2,050,000. But Diodorus places the strength of the army at 692,000.⁴ The same family average brings these figures up to 3,460,000. This constituted the entire military class. The two great divisions of the army were the Hermotybies and Calasiries. The latter were archers, and inhabited the cantons of Thebes, Bubastis, Aphthis, Tanis, Mendes, Sebennytus, Athribis, Pharbæthus, Thmuis, Onuphis, Anysis, and Myecphoris. With the single exception of Thebes, these districts all lay within the Delta. These Calasiries numbered about 250,000. The Hermotybies were not so numerous, and inhabited only six cantons: Busiris, Saïs, Papremis, Prosopitis, and Natho, also in the region of the Delta, with Chemmis, which was in Upper Egypt. These troops were spearmen and chariot-riders, and numbered about 160,000. The population of Egypt (3000 B.C.) was about 7,500,000. The army, when on war footing, was about one-fourth the population; but after it was recruited, the archers or infantry were disbanded and sent into agricultural districts. But the largest empires of modern Europe, with five times the population of Egypt, find a standing army of 400,000 or 500,000 men an enormous burden. An army of large proportions was always necessary under the Egyptian monarchy, and a cheap army became a matter of grave concern.

At a period unknown to history prior to the Sixth Dynasty, the Negro tribes to the south of King Pepi became tributary to the Egyptian Empire. In the second year of Pepi’s reign he put his army into the field, and his troops were successful against the Mentu.⁵ Elated with this success, he turned his victorious arms against the Amu and Herusha, two peaceable tribes inhabiting the desert to the east of Lower Egypt. The King encountered stout fighting from these children of the desert, and fearing their vengeful spirit, collected and drilled a numerous army. The nucleus of his army was from the native Egyptians in the north; but he soon turned his attention to the Negro tribes to the south, from among which he secured thousands of black levies. “His Majesty made soldiers of numerous ten thousands in the land of the South. … The Negroes from Nam, the Negroes from Aman, the Negroes from Uauat, the Negroes from Kau, the Negroes from the land of Takam. His Majesty placed me at head of that army,”⁶ says Una.

It was natural that, having honored these Negroes with the Egyptian uniform, King Pepi should place Egyptian officers over them. It does not follow either that the Negroes were degraded, or that there were none of their number capable of a command. The high and important position of the Egyptian army, the severe requirements of its drill and discipline, and the exalted social position of the men who were appointed by his Majesty as officers in this vast Negro army, are creditable to the rank and file. The “nomarchs, the chancellors, the sole friends of the palace, the superintendents, the rulers of the nomes of the North and South, the friends, superintendents of gold, the superintendent of the priests of the South and North, the superintendents of the register and at the head officers of the South and the land of the North, and of the cities, [drilled] the Negroes of these lands.”⁷

These Negroes evidently had won a reputation for soldierly qualities, else they would not have been recruited for service in the Egyptian army. If this contingent were a “wild and disorderly crew,”⁸ as Professor Rawlinson asserts, why were they not enslaved and sent into the Delta to perform agricultural labor? No modern writer on ancient Egypt has a stronger claim upon the confidence and respect of the student of history than Professor Rawlinson, and it is from his own works that this argument is derived. Several things are patent. The eleventh chapter of the first volume of “Ancient Egypt” gives a minute and graphic account of the constitution of the Egyptian army. He deals with its social rank, its divisions, numbers, weapons, and drill. Thus we are led to regard superior physical qualifications and high intelligence as necessary to secure admission to the Egyptian army. The professor will no doubt concede that the captor in Eastern wars had a right in fee-simple to his captive. He could dispose of his labor, sell him, or take his life. Professor Rawlinson says, “In war many cruel and barbarous customs prevailed. Captives were either reduced to slavery or put to death.”⁹ This is strong and conclusive. These Negroes could not have been captives. Professor Rawlinson must find an explanation, however, for the employment of tens of thousands of Negroes by King Pepi.

He says, “It is remarkable that we find the negro races of the South already subdued, without any previous notice in any of the Egyptian remains of the time or circumstances of their subjugation. … We find the negroes already obedient subjects of Pepi when they are first mentioned as coming into contact with him; and his enlistment of them as soldiers to fight his battles would seem to imply that their subjugation had not been very recent. It is necessary to suppose that some monarch of the Fourth or Fifth Dynasty had made them Egyptian subjects, without leaving behind him any record of the fact, or, at any rate, without leaving any record that has escaped destruction.”¹⁰

But such an inference disregards the custom universal in ancient times of reducing subjugated nations or tribes to slavery.¹¹ Yet there is no reference to the enslavement of Negroes up to this time, nor are they depicted as captives in the monuments or pictures connected with the military campaigns of the five preceding dynasties. If these Negroes were a “wild and disorderly crew,” why should “nomarchs and chancellors, the sole friends of the palace,” aspire to commissions as their officers? Evidently because their valor and prowess were well known, and it was esteemed an honor to lead them in battle. And this conclusion is borne out by the deportment of these troops in the campaigns through which they subsequently passed.

When the work of drilling this vast Negro army was completed, it was moved into the enemy’s country. The precise location of the country invaded is not certain. Some Egyptologists locate it in Syria, and others think it was in Arabia Petraea. The latest researches indicate the region about Lake Menzaleh. In any case, the country was distant and the marching difficult. It must have been an inspiring spectacle to behold a large and imposing army of Negroes, officered and drilled by the most accomplished native Egyptians, marching out from the imperial metropolis! These troops went out from the imperial presence to battle for a venerable government whose potency the Orient had long ago felt and acknowledged. The black army must have felt the enthusiasm of the occasion. These black soldiers spoke another language, were from another land, and had felt the influence of another and widely different civilization. No doubt the Nile and the Delta had resounded with the exploits of the veterans that formed the strength of this Negro army, and new perils and new glories awaited them. Five battles were fought during this campaign, in all of which the Negro troops were victorious. Una, the historian of the campaign, furnishes the following account:

The warriors came and destroyed the land of the Herusha, and returned fortunately home; and they came again, and took possession of the land of the Herusha, and returned fortunately home; and they came and demolished the fortresses of the Herusha, and returned fortunately home; and they cut down the vines and fig-trees, and returned fortunately home; and they set fire to the houses, and returned fortunately home; and they killed the chief men by tens of thousands, and returned fortunately home. And the warriors brought back with them a great number of living captives, which pleased the King more than all the rest. Five times did the King send me out to set things right in the land of the Herusha, and to subdue their revolt by force; each time I acted so that the King was pleased with me.¹²

It would seem that after so thorough a campaign, in which fields, forts, and houses were destroyed, in addition to the frightful slaughter the Herusha sustained, there would be no necessity for a renewal of hostilities. But another expedition was made by water. Una says, “Safely to Takhisa I sailed again in boats with this force. I subdued this country from the extreme frontier on the North of the land of Herusha.”¹³ The troops were landed, and the fighting was pushed with vigor and skill. The enemy was defeated and subdued to the extreme border towards the North.

This had not been a constructive period; but now that a successful war had been waged against King Pepi’s enemies, the Negro troops were recalled, and arts and architecture revived. What became of this enormous Negro army is not known. It appears suddenly upon the page of Egyptian history, achieves signal success for the ancient empire, and then disappears from view. This may or may not have been the first time Negroes were largely employed as soldiers by the Egyptians. Like many another important event, the record of an earlier employment of troops of this character may have perished.

The military paintings connected with the campaigns of the Egyptians during the Eighteenth Dynasty represent Negro soldiers as numerous. They formed the strength of the army of Shishak, king of Egypt, in 971 B.C., when that intrepid monarch marched against Rehoboam. King Shishak’s tomb was opened in 1849, and his depicted army, including an exact representation of the genuine Negro race, in color, physiognomy, and hair. Negroes were also found in large numbers in the armies under Sesostris and Xerxes.

There is ample and trustworthy evidence of the stable national government and high social organization attained by the Negro tribes in the East before the Christian era.

Mr. Wilkinson, the famous Egyptologist, opened a remarkable Theban tomb, and in 1840 Harris and Gliddon made a very careful examination of it. It abounds in Negro scenes, one of which is described as follows: “A negress, apparently a princess, arrives at Thebes, drawn in a plaustrum by a pair of humped oxen—the driver and groom being red-colored Egyptians, and, one might almost infer, eunuchs. Following her are multitudes of negroes and Nubians, bringing tribute from the upper country, as well as black slaves of both sexes and all ages, among which are some red children, whose fathers were Egyptians. The cause of her advent seems to have been to make offering in this tomb of a ‘royal son of Ke Sh-Amunoph,’ who may have been her husband.”¹⁴

It is evident that the Negro government whose representative this princess was maintained a military establishment.

During the reign of Rameses III, a Negro king appears at the head of fourteen captured princes in the sculptures of Medinet-Abou.¹⁵

From about three thousand years before the Christian era, until the birth and establishment of Christianity, there is an unbroken chain of historical evidence of the military employment of Negroes. Christianity came breathing its spirit of hope and charity into the dead and empty formalisms of the period, and the clash of arms was succeeded by the fierce controversial spirit of the theologians. The dreadful carnage of war did not cease, but the theatre of strife was transferred from the Orient to the Occident. The Eastern world had fought its way to the front line of martial fame. Its colossal civilization had risen gradually through centuries of painful effort. It had reached the danger-line; and then the effulgent morning of its primal glory was succeeded by the gloaming of its barbarous and costly wars, and yet later by the starless night of its irreparable decay. Christianity turned her radiant face to the West, and all behind her was darkness, silence, and death. For more than sixteen hundred years the Negro’s hands were empty of his weapons. Western and north-western Europe were the scene of the struggle for Christian civilization. The Negro was not needed in such a struggle, in such a climate. During all these centuries no facile pen traces the history of the Negro nations in the East. They were left entirely to themselves for sixteen centuries. The problems propounded by Christianity—discovery, empire, letters, and liberty—could well dispense with the remorseless military audacity of the Negro.

2
Negro Soldiers in Modern Times

It was about fifteen centuries from the time the Negro disappeared from the page of the world’s history until his reappearance. The Gospel of Peace had rendered the potent arms of his victorious warfare impotent and obsolete. The spirit of geography and discovery which thrilled the continents in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries revived interest in the Negro. But it was interest for him and not interest in him. Spa in and Portugal, France and Italy, Germany and England, either by discovery or conquest, had extended their landed domains. The great distances of the new possessions from the seat of these European empires gave rise to problems of vast meaning and difficult of solution. The contiguity of these great States rendered necessary enormous standing armies to watch each other at all times, and this state of affairs made labor dear and laborers scarce. The distant possessions, at a time when steam was unknown, could be reached only by officials or the opulent. Avarice and necessity seized upon Caucasian convicts and Negro slaves to solve the labor problem in North America.

During the three hundred years in which the Latin, Germanic, and English speaking races were engaged in robbing Africa of Negroes for the nefarious traffic in human flesh, the Negro was a non-combatant. He not only did not fight, he scarcely ever offered a protest. To him war was a lost art, and the word resistance had no place in his scanty vocabulary. Three centuries of servitude to the dominant races of the world were not without their lessons to the docile Negro. From the dark night of savagehood he moved into the gray dawn of civilization. He occasionally felt the influence of some great impulse towards humanity, and was doubtless conscious, to a certain degree, of the great civilizing forces that were turning the flood-tides in the affairs of the nations he was serving. The tendencies towards republican government in France, and the struggle for independence in America, like a great magnetic current, electrified the Negro’s heart, and the old love of valor and liberty went singing through his soul.

In his place upon the cotton, rice, and tobacco plantations of the British colonies in North America, he heard the sullen complaint of Americans against magisterial autocracy and parliamentary encroachments; and from his insular home in the Antilles he heard the low reverberation of the French Revolution, and later, the shock of embattled arms. Here in America he aided the colonies to achieve independent autonomy; there in the Antilles he fought his way to freedom through the veteran ranks of Spanish and French soldiery, and made his way to self-government over the avarice and personal ambition of slave-holding planters.

In the vast system of militia and “minute-men” that guarded the young colonies in America against the savage depredations of the aborigines, the Negro bore an honorable part.¹ In the southern colonies he was assigned to fatigue duty chiefly, although compelled “to train” with his company. In Massachusetts he was found upon the foremost wave of popular indignation at the quartering of soldiers upon the colonists; and “the shot that was heard around the world” felled the stalwart form of the patriot Negro, Crispus Attucks.² When the Revolutionary war began, the Negro was alert. Ministerial and Continental authorities appealed to his courage as a man and his valor as a soldier. He was found under the standards of both armies; but his idiosyncratic instinct led him into sympathy with the American cause. His power of assimilation made him intensely American, and gave him, in his new home, his alphabet of thought. He did not reason about British aggression, he read the cabalistic meaning in stirring events; and his patriotism outran all the reasoning of the colonists, and was early in the breach between liberty and tyranny. He was conspicuous at the first great battle of the Revolutionary War, and by deeds of valor inscribed his name high up upon the scroll of fame.³ One of the most decisive events of the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, was the death of the British major, Pitcairn, at the hands of private Peter Salem, of Colonel Nixon’s regiment of the Continental army.⁴ No one has ever disputed the claim of the Negro soldier to this deed of valor; and the silvern lips of the most polished orator of Mass...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Introduction to the Fordham University Press Edition
• Preface
• Contents
• 1 Introductory: Negro Soldiers in Ancient Times
• 2 Negro Soldiers in Modern Times
• 3 Antecedent Facts—Foreshadowing Events
• 4 Military Rendition of Slaves
• 5 The Negro Volunteer—Military Employment of Negroes
• 6 Military Status of Negro Troops
• 7 Negro Idiosyncracies
• 8 The Outlook
• 9 Negro Troops in Battle—Department of the South (1862–1865)
• 10 In the Mississippi Valley (1863)
• 11 The Army of the Potomac (1864)
• 12 The Fort Pillow Massacre (1864)
• 13 In the Army of the Cumberland (1864)
• 14 The Army of the James (1865)
• 15 As Prisoners of War
• 16 The Cloud of Witnesses
• Index
• Footnotes