Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867
176
they are very much mistaken. It is very hard to make them understand that they are
bound to stay and soldier until discharged, and they [still] do not know . . . that it
is for three years. But we are gradually letting them know it. We did not force one
of them to come into the Regiment. I believe though if we had told them it was for
three years, every one of them would [have to have] been forced in.
As the war entered its third year, recruiters for black regiments were not alone in
using less-than-honest methods. In 1862, James H. Lane had resorted to “a good
deal of humbug” to ll the ranks of his Kansas regiments, black and white alike.
48
Ruthless recruiting methods lled the ranks of the new black regiments, but
ofcers were often dissatised with men who had been conned all their lives to
the limits of a large plantation. Captain Parkinson, drilling his company at Lake
Providence, Louisiana, thought it “no small job to take charge of eighty or ninety
ignorant negroes. It requires all the patience I can muster to get along without
cursing them.” Still, he reected, “I believe our negroes will ght as well as
white men that have [been] soldiers no longer than they have.”
49
Parkinson managed to control his temper, but his second in command, 1st
Lt. Hamilton H. McAleney, did not. The men disliked McAleney, Parkinson told
his wife: “He curses them when they do wrong. I am going to stop it. I treat them
like soldiers, and I make them mind, and if they do not, I put them on extra duty
till they are glad to mind me.” He thought of getting rid of McAleney somehow,
which would offer promotion to 2d Lt. Frederick Smith, “a good drill master,
better than I am.” The vacant second lieutenancy could then go to 1st Sgt. Silas
L. Baltzell, who “does rst rate, and gets along with the colored boys very well.
His great fault is he is too familiar & good to them.” Before Parkinson could act,
McAleney received a promotion to captain that created vacancies for the other
two men. Parkinson’s judgment of his colleagues owed much to the fact that
he, McAleney, and Baltzell had all served as enlisted men in the 11th Illinois
(Parkinson and Baltzell in the same company). This was a common occurrence
in the 8th Louisiana, which was staffed almost entirely from the Army of the
Tennessee’s 6th Division.
50
Some ofcers wondered whether they would be able to control their own
troops in the heat of battle. If Union attackers gained the upper hand, Parkinson
worried, “I do not believe we can keep the negroes from murdering every thing
they come to and I do not think the Rebels will ever take pris[o]ners.” One white
soldier predicted that the new regiments would be “the greatest terror to the——
rebels. They have old scores to mend, and I assure you there will be no sympa-
thy, or no quarter on either side.” General Sherman foresaw increased violence
inspired by fear on both sides. “I know well the animus of the Southern soldiery,”
he told Secretary of War Stanton, “And the truth is they cannot be restrained.
48
Berlin et al., Black Military Experience, pp. 410–11, 434–35; W. M. Parkinson to My Wife, 17
May 1863 (“The negroes”), Parkinson Letters; Castel, Frontier State at War, p. 90 (“a good deal”).
49
W. M. Parkinson to James, 11 May 1863 (“no small”), and to Lee, 9 May 1863 (“I believe”),
both in Parkinson Letters.
50
Parkinson to Sarah Ann, 24 Feb and 19 Apr 1863; to Lee, 9 May 1863 (“does rst”); and to
Sarah A., 28 May 1863 (“He curses”), Parkinson Letters. SO 5, Lake Providence, 10 Apr 1863, 47th
USCI, Entry 57C, RG 94, NA; ORVF, 8: 220.