United States Colored Troops and Normal School Officers
In May 1863, the Bureau of Colored Troops was established in Washington to administer the creation of the U.S.C.T. regiments. Regiments had been previously raised in some locations, by the army (regiments in Louisiana and South Carolina) or by individual states (including the famous 54th Massachusetts regiment and other regiments from Connecticut and Massachusetts). This activity became centralized with the Bureau of the Colored Troops. (2)
At the beginning of the war, blacks were not allowed to join the army. Although many Northerners personally opposed slavery, they still remained prejudiced against blacks. Slavery was carefully kept as a non-issue by Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Government, which was still hoping to reconcile with the South during the early days of the war. Slavery was allowed to continue in the border states of the Union, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, to convince those states to remain in the Union. The black soldiers were not considered necessary, as an easy victory was assumed over the South. The ability of the blacks to fight was questioned, even though they had provided valuable service in the American Revolution and the War of 1812.
By the middle of 1862, the situation had worsened. The Union army, especially in Virginia, had suffered several defeats. Enlistments slowed, the draft became a threat, and more troops were needed. As the army and the Northern reporters spent more time in the South, they noted more and more horrors of slavery. There was some fear that England might enter the war on the side of the Confederates, and the war became increasingly associated with the fight to end slavery. Some generals in the army pressured the administration in Washington to begin enlisting fugitive slaves. The issuance of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation on September 24, 1862 freed the slaves in the Confederate states, and eliminated England as a military threat (England would not side against a country fighting to abolish slavery). Lincoln also announced plans to enlist blacks into the military, which he had been empowered to do when Congress passed the Militia Act of July 17, 1862. (3)
Officers in the proposed U.S.C.T. regiments would primarily be white. The intelligence of the blacks to command was questioned, and prejudice would not allow for black officers to hold superior rank to white soldiers, although the earliest black regiments, formed in Louisiana, had black officers, who were later replaced by the government, even though they had proven worthy of their positions.
A candidate for an officer in the U.S.C.T. had to apply to the Bureau of Colored Troops. They were often, but not always, already soldiers in existing white regiments. Each applicant had to pass an exam before an examining board of four men, but to even qualify for the exam, they had to prove that they were men of good character, most often done with recommendations written by their commanding officers, if they were soldiers. A good applicant for a U.S.C.T. commission was not in it just for the extra pay, or status, but to serve the country in the best way possible. An applicant would be called to Washington (for the eastern armies; St. Louis, New Orleans, Nashville and Cincinnati for the western armies) and ordered to report to the Bureau of Colored Troops for the exam. The candidates were tested on a variety of subjects, not just military, including math, geography, and history. Exams lasted between half an hour and several hours, depending on the rank sought, although to some men the exams seemed much longer. The tests were not standardized, and the difficulty sometimes depended on the examiners. On the whole, less than 50% of applicants ever went before the boards, and only about 60% of those passed and obtained an officer's commission. (4)
Soldiers sought a commission in the U.S.C.T. for a wide variety of reasons, most involving the desire to perform their maximum service to their country. Most of the soldiers from the Normal School Company were well educated, but there was only room for 3 commissioned officers in the company at one time, and many otherwise qualified soldiers could not advance far. Most believed they could be of more use to the army as officers than enlisted men. Pay and status also played an importance in the decision. An enlisted man made $13 per month, while officers made much more. Officers lived better, had more perks, and had the possibility of being able to resign. The exodus from the company began, when Consider Willett left the company shortly after Gettysburg to go before the examination committee. One by one, the men of the Normal School Company left for the U.S.C.T.
James Woodworth and Sidney Burroughs completed their officers' exam in April, 1864. The two young men learned almost immediately that they had passed their exams, James as a first lieutenant and Sidney as a second lieutenant. They waited for their official assignment to finalize, and in the meantime returned to the 44th, which was about to leave its winter camp in Alexandria to return to the front and rejoin the Third Brigade. Sidney died at the Battle of the Wilderness and James at Laurel Hill. In August, Captain Bradford Wood received the official commissions for both men, and forwarded them to their families. The commissions were subsequently revoked.
1. James H. Rickard, Service with the Colored Troops in Burnside's Corps,(Providence, R.I.: Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society, 1894), p. 8-9.
2. Glatthaar, Forged in Battle : The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers, 38.
3. Glatthaar, 7.
4. Glatthaar, 38, 49, 53.