1 AN IMPERFECT SYSTEM AND INSURMOUNTABLE TASK: ARMY RECRUITING OF SOUTHERN FREEDMEN IN THE OCCUPIED LOWCOUNTRIES, 1862-1865 by Drew A. Ulrich A thesis submitted to Sonoma State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in History Dr. Michelle Jolly, Chair Dr. Steven Estes Dr. Waldo Martin Date 2 Copyright 2011 By Drew A. Ulrich 3 AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER‟S THESIS I grant permission for the reproduction of parts of this thesis without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorb the cost and provide proper acknowledgement of authorship. Permission to reproduce this thesis in its entirety must be obtained from me. Sincerely, Drew A. Ulrich 4 An Imperfect System and Insurmountable Task: Army Recruiting of Freedmen in the Occupied Lowcountries,1862-1865 Thesis by Drew A. Ulrich ABSTRACT Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study is to derive new insight into the Civil War and African Americans‟ participation in the conflict. I sought to accomplish this through assessing the progression and impact of the enlistment of freedmen for the U.S. army in Union occupied territory along the southern coast over the course of the war. Scholars have studied black soldiers‟ recruitment in a more general scope, not a more concentrated regional focus that I aspired to accomplish. I approached this focused regional analysis in order to gauge the development of this early movement to enlist freedmen and its results, to help tell black soldiers exceptional story more fully. Procedure: I used a range of primary sources in this study, which included accounts of missionaries, soldiers, and other interested parties to address how army recruitment was conducted in this specific area and differing perspectives on how freedmen should be enlisted. I also considered the perceptions of past historians on the complications surrounding black enlistment and contention between freedmen and their white Union benefactors, which remained a pervasive source of conflict in the region. I also analyzed the statistical data detailing the actual number of freedmen assimilated as troops. I compared the personal accounts of the recruiting with these calculated records and assessments of army officials. Through compiling, analyzing, and assembling these aforementioned resources I was able to provide a most complete composite of black recruiting in the Department of the South. Findings: Such conflict over whether freedmen be enlisted on a voluntary or involuntary basis enveloped the Union‟s enclaves in the Department of the South. Enlistment of freedmen in the Department met with largely lackluster results until 1865 for a variety of reasons. Money remained the crucial component to attract and maintain recruits and the army remained unable to furnish it aptly. Black men here were recruited on the principal that enlistment was an opportunity to affirm and advance the freedom of the black race. Though this enticed some to join, it fell below commanding generals expectations, spurring them to demand freedmen‟s compulsory service. Even though throughout the war there actually remained a dearth of freedmen, proper for military service, in the Union territory. The enforcement of this conscription inflicted such tyranny upon the freed community that enlisting seemed adverse to the whole concept of freedom. Commanders who instituted drafts were unable to exercise control over how it they were 5 carried out. While enlistment received a more enthusiastic response from those more recently liberated freedmen or lacking sufficient employment prospects. Conclusion: The particular conditions in the Department of the South shaped the course of recruiting there through the war. It was the failings of the army that defeated the prospect of enlisting due to their methods, actions, or vacillation in attracting and maintaining recruits. The resistance to enlist among freedmen exemplified their will to determine their own livelihood in freedom rather than have it dictated by their white Union benefactors. Racial prejudice greatly inhibited the army‟s ability to recruit men treating freedmen as an inferior quality of troops until almost the war‟s end. Union victory eschewed this diminutive status and assured that all black enlistees would receive everything afforded to white enlisted soldiers in addition to abandoning brutal tactics to enlist men. Accordingly enlistment of freedmen comparatively surged in 1865. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page Prologue…….……………………………………………………………………..........7 1. Origins and Recruiting of Freedmen Spring 1862-Winter 1863……………….25 2. Renewal and Modification of Recruiting Spring 1863-Fall 1864……..…….…60 3. Recruiting among Freedmen,1865…. …………………………………………..98 Epilogue…………………….……………………………………………………….….128 Bibliography...………………………………………………………………………….139 7 Prologue The experience of African Americans during the Civil War, particularly African American soldiers, has been a subject reexamined by scholars in recent decades. These soldiers‟ story has yet to be fully told because for so long scholars ignored their role in the struggle. Historians, such as Ira Berlin, Eric Foner, Joseph Reidy, James McPherson, Leon Litwack, Leslie Rowland, John Hope Franklin, and others, have analyzed the social transformation that emancipation produced. This change was nowhere more evident than in the Union-held Sea Islands of South Carolina, characterized as the “Port Royal Experiment.”1 Union troops conquered the Sea Islands in late 1861 and early 1862. Federal law mandated that the Union troops confiscate all slaves in the vicinity and classify them as “contraband of war.” The contrabands lived a fairly new existence under the auspices of the federal government as contract laborers on confiscated plantations and as military auxiliaries. But on May 12, 1862 General David Hunter at Port Royal, citing necessity, commenced a scheme to recruit male contrabands for the army. This act to enlist them weakened the institution of slavery everywhere and came to redefine the role of their race in the war. The regiment he formulated from his recruits, the 1st South Carolina Volunteers (SCV), became the progenitors of African Americans in the Union Army, immediately followed by the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th SCV, organized between mid-1862 to 1863. Enlisting men of African descent became known, as Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson coined, an “experiment.” Whether further soldiers would be enlisted in the Union Army depended, in all concerned parties‟ eyes, on how these first recruits performed. 1 Willie L. Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), p. xi. 8 Historians have analyzed black recruitment for the large part in an amalgamated format as they have the black military experience. It encompasses the variety of experiences among African American soldiers in dozens of military units in different regions, creating a broad narrative rather than one with a focused specific intent as we will see.2 Correspondingly, the most prominent studies of the Port Royal experiment have given only partial attention to the recruitment of freedmen there. Rather than look at the general experience of African American soldiers entry into the army, my intent is to focus on the specific recruitment of the regiments in the Department of the South, the Union military district consisting of occupied coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, providing a full measure of this movement, from its beginning in 1862 to its end in 1865. The operations at Port Royal, overseen by white, federal administrators, served to support the contrabands inhabiting this Union enclave. They had to be provided with employment, which became a mission of the authorities. Initially the authorities offered contraband men civilian employ as manual laborers, clerks, or crewmen in Union affiliated ventures. Nevertheless the most significant component of the experiment became the subsequent opportunity for the men to enlist. Military service provided them a conduit to ensure their freedom, extend liberty to others still in bondage, and attain citizenship. Many white northerners—both civilians and military officials—doubted African Americans‟, particularly former slaves‟ soldiering abilities. These views arose both from racist assumptions about African Americans‟ capacity for citizenship and 2 The historical literature will be discussed in depth later. By far, Ira Berlin, Joseph Reidy and Leslie Rowland have produced the most preeminent work on African American soldiers, Ira Berlin, Joseph P. Reidy, and Leslie Rowland, Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, Series II The Black Military Experience, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982). Additionally, the premier work on the Port Royal Experiment remains Willie Lee Rose‟s groundbreaking, Rehearsal for Reconstruction. 9 manliness as well as from fears that slavery might have rendered the men incapable of composure under fire. Free blacks in the North had volunteered to fight and been denied. What role would black soldiers inhabit? How would they fit into the United States military? The activities at Port Royal served to settle these dilemmas in enlisting African Americans. In fact, some men in the Sea Islands volunteered for the army at the first opportunity in 1862. Undeniably, a number of volunteers were inducted into the SCV through involuntary means. However, desire to sustain their own freedom through serving