Video
African American Service in the Campaign for Atlanta
Transcript
[audio description] Against a black backdrop the National Park Service Arrowhead logo stands above the words Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. On a dark gray background are the words the 157th Commemoration of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. “African America Service in the Campaign for Atlanta” presented by Ranger Lee White, Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.
Ranger White stands in front of a Civil War timeline located at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.
Hello, this is Ranger Lee White, here at the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. Did you know that African Americans played an important role in the Campaign for Atlanta in 1864? Thousands of black men and women contributed their muscle and blood to ensure their freedom and the destruction of the institution of slavery. The stories of their efforts have until recently, sadly, been ignored, erased and even forgotten. Today we are going to look at some of the ways African Americans participated in the Atlanta Campaign. The most common way was as laborers. This was the first way African Americans had found to be able to help the Union cause. As US armies moved into the South in the first months of the war, they were greeted by thousands of black men and women who took it upon themselves to seize their freedom and then quickly found another way to strike back at the institution of slavery that held them and their families in bondage for so long. They took their labor away from their former enslavers and now gave it to their liberators, the United States army. Their efforts provided much needed manpower at a critical moment and forced the US government to recognize that African Americans were not simply going to be content to be bystanders in the war. This then led to the passage of the Confiscation Acts, which allowed them to officially be employed by the US government. They were now paid to be teamsters, pioneers, laundresses, blacksmiths, carpenters, nurses, cooks, and other occupations, everything except for one, a soldier in the US Army. However, even that changed with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Not only were the enslaved in the Confederate controlled regions of the South now free, but it allowed formerly enslaved men to be “Received into the Armed Service of the United States.” Two routes into army blue were opened up to them. One, by General Order 323 which authorized each company in service to have “Two Undercooks of African Descent, who shall receive for their compensation ten dollars per month and one ration per day, 3 dollars of said monthly pay may be in clothing…Their names will be borne on the company muster rolls at the foot of the list of privates…their accounts will be kept, like other enlisted men.”
This finally gave them the recognition that they were enlisted men in the US army and would be paid a standard wage by the United States government. Though not intended to be under fire and on the front lines, even that changed just as the Atlanta Campaign began when General William T. Sherman issued an order that added a new responsibility for undercooks. All noncombatants with the army would report as stretcher bearers when an engagement began. This carried them, unarmed, onto the battlefield under fire to save lives, proving their valor on a number of Georgia battlefields in the spring and summer of 1864.The other route began with the creation of the Bureau of Colored Troops in May of 1863, which established segregated army regiments that would be commanded by white officers. These units were designated as United States Colored Troops or USCTs and offered the opportunity that black men had long sought, famously summed up by Frederick Douglas, “Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters 'U.S.,' let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States."
This notion was also reflected in the words of a USCT officer who saw service in Georgia that summer, “They were pleased with their guns, pleased with their uniforms, and impressed with their own importance as soldiers. From slavery to freedom was itself a grand transition, but to become soldiers was still a higher promotion, exceeding their hopes, a privilege at its full value.”
But they soon discovered they still faced discrimination and doubt about their willingness and ability to be soldiers despite heroic actions that proved the contrary in the summer of 1863 at places like Millican’s Bend, Louisiana, Honey Springs, Oklahoma Territory, and most famously at Battery Wagner, just outside Charleston, South Carolina. General Sherman, ironically, proved to be one of the chief detractors, writing to his wife he professed,
“I would prefer to keep this a white man’s war and provide for the negroes after the storm has passed…with my opinion of the negroes, yea prejudice, I can not trust them yet. Time may change this, but I can not bring myself to trust negroes with arms in positions of danger and trust.”
A year later, on the eve of the Atlanta Campaign his views had not changed, again writing, “We are using them in moderation and in connection with whites as the demands of the service justify…They raised the cry that a negro man was as good to stop a Rebel bullet as a white man. But is it the only use you can put a soldier to, to stop a bullet? I thought a soldier to be an active machine, a fighter…we ought not engraft a doubtful element in an army now, it is too critical a period.”
Though his views were not shared by all of his generals, Sherman, nonetheless, would not allow USCT regiments to be brought to the front-line forces to fight. Only grudgingly allowing them to be garrison units in his rear and be posted to protect his supply lines. Still, this was enough to allow two regiments of USCTs to see action in the army’s rear that summer, and one to come under fire near the front. Most notable among the first group was the 14th USCT, a regiment created in the fall of 1863 in Middle Tennessee under the discerning leadership of Colonel Thomas J. Morgan. Morgan was a strong advocate for African American soldiers, endorsing their use in combat, while advocating for their civil rights. He interviewed every man he enlisted to discern their reasons for joining, accepting only the best. “I told one who wanted to fight for freedom that he might lose his life. He replied, 'But my people will be free.' The result of this careful examination convinced me that these men had men’s hearts, and only needed right handling to develop into magnificent soldiers.”
He also set about giving his men an education which they had been denied by being enslaved. Including something that became very dear to his men, the ability to sign their own names. He soon had a regiment he was proud of and more important, one that had pride in itself. In August of 1864 as Sherman’s forces were besieging Atlanta, they finally had their chance to prove themselves. Confederate cavalry, under General Joe Wheeler, were sent up from Atlanta to raid Sherman’s supply lines. As Wheeler’s men struck at Dalton, Georgia, General James Steedman moved from Chattanooga to drive off the raiders, bringing a force that contained the 14th USCT with him. A captain in the 14th later recalled, “The line pushed up through the briars and brush, while the main line became broken by passing amongst some huts, the Rebel skirmishers falling back before it. After clearing the buildings, it was halted a moment for rectification. At the command, guides sprang out with inverted muskets, and the broken ranks soon closed in on the center, though at least 2 men fell dead from enemy’s fire while the movement was going on. General Steedman had sent one of his aides, Captain Davis, to, as he expressed it, 'Look after the negroes.' As he saw the formation, he rode back to general and with this information. 'General, you needn’t have any fears about the negroes. They’re holding dress parade over there under fire.' We had won our battle over ostracism and prejudice, as well as over the common enemy.”
Colonel Morgan also noted about the fight, “To us it was a great battle, and a glorious victory. The regiment had been recognized as soldiers…It had been under fire. The men had behaved gallantly. And a colored soldier had died for liberty.”
Their sister regiment, the 44th USCT also came under fire but in a different way that summer. The 44th formed in Chattanooga in the Spring of 1864 from mostly and formerly enslaved men from North Georgia with Colonel Morgan overseeing its formation and the men of the 14th helping with recruitment and training of its first companies. Their first assignment, though, was a hard one and not that glamorous. They were sent to disinter the bodies of the US soldiers from the Chickamauga Battlefield for reburial at the Chattanooga National Cemetery. But soon after they were sent to Rome, Georgia to garrison the town and recruit the rest of the companies, the companies to full strength. In Rome, they continued to train while also guarding the town, even using some of the men’s knowledge of the surrounding area to venture out to find and attack Confederate guerillas bands that were operating in the area. So in this way they also they came under fire that summer in the skirmishes and ambushes in the hills and mountains near Rome. By late August they had completed their formation and moved to take on a new responsibility: garrisoning Dalton, Georgia, where they would remain while the Atlanta Campaign came to an end.
The other USCT regiment involved in the Atlanta Campaign was the 110th USCT. A regiment recruited largely in North Alabama and south-central Tennessee over the winter of 1863-64 by General Grenville Dodge. Dodge was a commander noted for aggressively pursuing the recruitment of black soldiers. Indeed several regiments were created under his leadership. When Dodge was ordered to bring his divisions of the XVI Corps to reinforce Sherman in May, he brought along several companies of the 110th. But not to fight, but to act as Pioneers. They were used to build fortifications, clear approaches, corduroy roads, and other menial tasks that were needed at the front. Though not intended to be in combat, it still happened. And men from the 110th were killed and wounded, notably at Dallas, Georgia and at Kennesaw Mountain while working on fortifications.
In these ways African Americans labored, fought, bled to ensure the fall of Atlanta and thus the end of slavery. Sadly, their stories were marginalized over the years and the story of the Campaign for Atlanta became that of “a white man’s war.” Today we are finally beginning to rediscover their stories and give them the recognition they so richly deserve, as well as to tell their tales.
Thank you.
[audio description] Against a dark gray backdrop are the words Thank you for joining us for the 157th Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. For more programs, please like and subscribe to our social media sites.
Description
[Sat 11:00 am ET] One of the forgotten stories of the American Civil War is that of the African American service in the Atlanta Campaign. During a time when all seemed lost, these brave individuals join Union forces in numerous ways. Please join Ranger Lee White, Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, as he discusses the variety of ways that these men and women overcame struggles and served in freeing themselves and others.
*Audio description is embedded in this video.*
Duration
12 minutes, 55 seconds
Credit
NPS/ L. White
Date Created
06/26/2021
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