This Is a War for the Utter Extinction of Slavery: the Civil War Letters of James Benjamin Franklin Curtis, Hospital Steward, 1St Michigan Colored Infantry
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Grand Valley State University ScholarWorks@GVSU Books and Contributions to Books University Libraries 2020 This is a War for the Utter Extinction of Slavery: The Civil War Letters of James Benjamin Franklin Curtis, Hospital Steward, 1st Michigan Colored Infantry Robert Beasecker Grand Valley State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_books ScholarWorks Citation Beasecker, Robert, "This is a War for the Utter Extinction of Slavery: The Civil War Letters of James Benjamin Franklin Curtis, Hospital Steward, 1st Michigan Colored Infantry" (2020). Books and Contributions to Books. 24. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_books/24 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the University Libraries at ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Books and Contributions to Books by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “THIS IS A WAR FOR THE UTTER EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY” The Civil War Letters of James Benjamin Franklin Curtis Hospital Steward, 1st Michigan Colored Infantry ❦ Edited by Robert Beasecker University Libraries Grand Valley State University © 2020 In Memory of Charles (Toby) Contor For Robert and William Anderson 2 Contents Introduction 4 James B. F. Curtis Letters 15 Addenda X: Undated Letters 152 Addenda A: Letters from Julia A. Curtis 154 Addenda B: Letters from Tracy W. Burbank 157 Addenda C: Letters from Priscilla M. Taylor 159 Addendum D: Letter from Henry Kline 162 Addenda E: Letters from Eugene A. LaSeur 164 Addendum F: Letter 17A from James B.F. Curtis 169 Calendar of Curtis Letters 171 Selected Bibliography 173 Index 175 3 Introduction Twenty-five-year-old James Benjamin Franklin Curtis, “Frank” to his family and friends, enlisted in the 1st Michigan Colored Infantry at Detroit on 16 February 1864 and was officially mustered into the regiment the next day, 17 February. However, ten days before his marriage the previous November Curtis had traveled to Detroit from Flint and visited the regiment which was then in the process of organizing and recruiting. He made enquiries concerning possible appointment as hospital steward in the regiment and the duties would be expected of him. What factors prompted Curtis to consider service in the military forces of the United States? And why specifically a Black regiment? Although his letters do not provide a specific answer, there seem to be a number of contributing motivations that he circumspectly mentions. The foremost consideration apparently was finding gainful employment to support his new wife, Amelia, and himself. Such marketable skills as he had were from his training at the University of Michigan’s Department of Medicine and Surgery during 1861 and 1862, although he left without a medical degree. Having decided upon on a military enlistment, Curtis had but one choice between November 1863 and February 1864: the 1st Michigan Colored Infantry was the only Michigan regiment that was currently recruiting anywhere in the state. It had a vacancy for the regimental hospital steward position for which Curtis easily qualified. The attitude he seems to express in his first letter to Amelia is one of resignation, in that he’ll take the job if he has to. He refers to the non-commissioned Black officers of the regiment by the extremely offensive and contemptuous racial slur, a word unlikely to be used by nineteenth-century contemporaries with abolitionist beliefs. He occasionally employs that word in subsequent letters, sometimes derogatorily, sometimes comparatively (as with southern and northern Blacks), and sometimes carelessly as a throwaway term. Other times he expresses the entirely opposite attitude, one of respect and admiration such as he has for the Blacks in his regiment. The ambivalent attitudes towards race that he displays in these letters is difficult to explain other than to attribute it to his relatively young age, the societal norms of the age, and perhaps a self-conscious posturing to his wife and family. The one thing that Curtis is unequivocal about is slavery. He despises the cruel institution and those in the Confederacy who support it, as well as the northern Copperheads; and to him there is no doubt that slavery is to blame for the Civil War. As he passionately writes: “Slavery caused this war and now for Gods sake crush it.” On a number of occasions Curtis deliberates on the possibility of applying to become a regimental Assistant Surgeon, primarily for the substantial increase of pay as an officer. He decides against it because he believes that would necessarily lengthen his term of military service. However, there does not seem to be any such army regulation to that effect. Another factor, although he makes no reference to it, was that surgeons and assistant surgeons were expected to go into the field with their regiments, whereas hospital stewards generally remained in camp and were thus less exposed to the dangers of the battlefield. 4 When the 1st Michigan Colored Infantry leaves Detroit at the end of March 1864 to be posted in South Carolina, Curtis encourages his family to boast about him “fighting for the glorious cause of Liberty.” He is greatly pleased with the quality of his regiment that has “a class of men here that will stand by me until the last.” When the news of the Fort Pillow massacre of Black troops by Confederate forces reaches Curtis, he is outraged at the cold-blooded murders “because the color of their skin is black.” He is delighted to hear of Congress approving the same pay to soldiers in Black regiments as their white counterparts, but at the same time comments “I think no more of a Negro than thousands of others yet I say let us not talk about justice unless we give justice.” While on occupation duty in South Carolina Curtis witnesses first-hand the cruel legacy of slavery, when a young Black man enters camp with chains and padlock still around his neck. He writes to his wife: “I have seen instruments of torture that goes far beyond this in barbarity.” Curtis is not confident that Blacks will gain the freedoms won for them on the battlefield because still the “power lies in the hands of whites in the late Rebel States.” He believes that Blacks should be given the right to vote, for “then they and the poor whites could control their rights.” If not, Curtis opines, the Blacks will “bring on a bloody war if they are not given the rights to which they are entitled to… the war I speak of may not come while we live but mark my word it has got to come.” After his return to duty from a medical furlough he notes, “I can assure you that to belong to the 102d is a great honor and here every mouth is full of praise for them.” In July 1865 a Black soldier in the regiment is returning home to Flint from South Carolina and is carrying a letter from Curtis to his wife. In the letter Curtis says, “You will find him an honest fellow. He is a brave soldier and has carried the noble old flag into warm places. Show him all the kindness possible and he will appreciate it. Invite him to stop with you to dinner or tea and over night, for a kindness shown to him is one to me.” The apparent change in the regard Curtis has for his Black fellow soldiers has thoughtfully matured over the months. And his pride in the 102nd U.S.C.T. is evident in his remark just before leaving South Carolina for Michigan: “I hope that some of you if not all will be able to come to Detroit to meet me. You will never probably see another Regt of Colored Soldiers.” Military operations, both with the regiment and its associated brigades, are mentioned when underway, but is only secondhand information because Curtis remains behind in camp. He also recounts gossip and hearsay about Union and Confederate campaigns and battles, particularly the Union attempts to capture Charleston and Grant’s campaign in Virginia. When news is received it is weeks old because of the slowness and irregularity of communication in the war zones. Also valuable are Curtis’ observations and commentary on the various locations in the south where his regiment is posted. Included are details of the local climate, temperature, available fruits and vegetables, conditions in the towns, dangers of Confederate bushwhackers, and the means used to make their tent and camp more comfortable and habitable. One means of making camp more homelike is to have a dog as a mascot; however, Curtis has difficulty in keeping them. During his nearly two years of service, he has had three dogs but lost them all in one way or another. He only provides the names of two: Major and Jack. Curtis frequently mentions the topic of his health, and the onset and progression of his dysentery is blamed on the climate he encounters in Hilton Head and Beaufort, South Carolina which by August 1864 has necessitated a medical leave. He tells his wife, “I am completely saturated by the poison of this unhealthy climate.” Curtis spends a couple of months recuperating in Flint and then limited duty at Harper 5 Hospital in Detroit. In early February 1865 he writes to Amelia, “I have been examined and the Dr. says I must go to Dixie.” By mid-month he has returned to his regiment in South Carolina. The news of the assassination of President Lincoln did not reach Curtis and the regiment at Hilton Head until 20 April, five days after the deed.