Slavery's End In Tennessee

6. Black Military Service

6 Black Military Service During the spring of 1863 Lorenzo Thomas traveled the length of the Mississippi Valley addressing federal troops about the army's manpower shortage and the expediency of recruiting as many contrabands as possible to fill the gap. Congress had empowered Lincoln to accept black recruits in July 1862, but he showed little interest in the idea until he issued the Final Emancipation Proclamation . Then , under orders from Stanton , the adjutant general inaugurated a massive enlistment program in the Western war theater . Thomas's great authority and rousing oratory dampened dissent in the ranks, and a number of post commanders enthusiastically began recruiting black regiments. Slaves, whom Tennessee law had prohibited from bearing arms, now gained their ultimate opportunity for contributing to slavery's destruction. The number of contrabands and their extensive use by Federals significantly helped the eventual Union triumph .! Even before recruiting commenced , contrabands had offered to fight. During Confederate attacks on Nashville in late 1862 and on Fort Donelson early the next year, federal commanders refused these offers. At Fort Donelson the contrabands disregarded orders, picked up rifles from wounded soldiers , and joined the action .2 When Thomas arrived in West Tennessee, he found that the 81 Black Military Service volunteer guards at the contraband camps wanted to enlist. Eaton and other paternalists, believing that military service would foster manly qualities, also favored enlistment. Brigadier General Nathan Kimball, post commander at Jackson, was so strongly interested in the idea that he had begun recruiting an unauthorized regiment, the first in the state. Thomas officiallyapproved this action and empowered Eaton's subordinates to recruit within contraband camps.P Supported by Grant, Thomas started additional efforts at Bolivar, La Grange, and Memphis." Initiating black recruitment in Middle Tennessee was not so easy in view of Military Governor Johnson's opposition. Because of prejudice, he disliked raising the status of blacks from laborers to soldiers and, knowing that other whites felt likewise , he feared it would harm the Union cause in Tennessee . In March 1863 Lincoln fruitlessly urged Johnson to recruit blacks. On the Fourth of July, Private James T. Ayers, from Illinois, obtained General Eleazer A. Paine's permission to begin recruiting and training contrabands at Gallatin. The general nervously telegraphed Johnson four times in thirteen days and begged for the necessary authorization . Frustrated by the lack of response, Paine finally shipped the recruits to Nashville by train. Upon their arrival, Johnson agreed to muster them inhis first black enlistees. Several days later, under pressure from Lorenzo Thomas, General Rosecrans began a recruiting program , which in actuality only enlisted impressed laborers into noncombat regiments. 5 In late August, Stanton assigned Major George L. Stearns to direct and expand black recruitment in Middle Tennessee. This militant abolitionist, one of the financiers ofJohn Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, came to Nashville "determined to burn slavery out, or be burned by it myself" The appointment must have appalled Johnson, who, like other Southern politicians in 1859, had vehemently condemned Brown's conspiracy. John82 Black Military Service son had publicly endorsed emancipation only a few days before Stearns arrived and still strongly preferred Rosecrans 's limited program. 6 On September 16 Johnson told Stearns he would object to any large -scale recruiting effort and wired Washington the next day to request the major's removal, charging that "his notions" would offend the public . Lincoln 's reply yielded nothing: "Let me urge that you do your utmost to get every man you can, black and white, under arms at the earliest moment. " Stanton 's accompanying note reaffirmed the new policy of black enlistment , but conceded that "if Major Stearns . .. is obnoxious , he will of course be removed." Johnson bowed to the administration 's wishes and decided to coexist with Stearns . Yet, before recruiting began , the military governor obtained a promise that the War Department would pay unionist slaveholders $300 for each slave manumitted and enlisted . Stearns then established a wide network of recruiting stations, at Fort Donelson, Clarksville , Gallatin, Nashville, Murfreesboro, McMinnville, Columbia , Wartrace, Shelbyville , Lynnville, Pulaski, Pikeville , and Chattanooga. 7 During the winter of 1863-64 the black recruitment structure in Tennessee was reorganized under the leadership of Brigadier General Augustus L. Chetlain , based in Memphis. In Nashville , Stearns resigned because of personal differences with Stanton. Colonel Mussey, Stearns's assistant , received command over recruiting in Middle and East Tennessee, including a new operation at Knoxville...