Garland H. White, Black Army Chaplain

Garland H. White, Black Army Chaplain EdwardA. Miller, Jr. It is well known that not many African Americans were commissioned as officers in the Union army during the Civil War. About seventy-five Louisiana blacks were appointed to company grade positions in Native Guard regiments raised by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler in New Orleans. Nearly every one of those officers not killed in action or discharged for wounds was forced out of the service by Butler's successor, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks. He wished to see none but whites wearing officers' shoulder straps—even in black regiments.' Apart from the Louisiana officers, only thirty-two other blacks were commissioned in the 149 black regiments (and artillery batteries) raised in the war. Of these men, eight were surgeons and fourteen chaplains, the remaining ten serving mostly in company officer positions and then only late in the war orjust after it. Generally, chaplains in the black units were, like the other officers, white men. There were 133 of them during the war, so the fourteen black chaplains were rare.2 Just what duties chaplains were supposed to do was a matter of some debate, the army leaving it up to regimental commanders to decide. General orders early in the war authorized one chaplain in each regiment, the candidate to be "appointed by the regimental commander, on the vote of the field officers and company commanders on duty with the regiment at the time the appointment is 1 Joseph T. Glatthaar, Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance ofBlack Soldiers and White Officers (New York: Free Press, 1990), 176, 180. Banks thought black officers "detrimental to the service" and "a source ofembarrassment and annoyance"; letter, Banks toAdjutant Genera] Lorenzo Thomas, Feb. 1 2, 1 863, U.S. Department of War, The War ofthe Rebellion: A Compilation ofthe Official Records ofthe Union and ConfederateArmies, 127 vols. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1889— 1902], ser. 3, vol. 3:46 (hereafter cited as OR). 2 Edwin S. Redkey, "Black Chaplains in the Union Army," OVi/ War History 33 (Dec. 1987): 332, 350; John W. Blassingame, "Negro Chaplains in the Civil War," Negro History Bulletin 27 (Oct. 1963): 23-24. The black chaplain was rarer still in the Confederate service, only one—in a white Tennessee regiment—was appointed and served from the Battle of Shiloh until war's end. Charles Frank Pitts, Chaplains in Gray: The Confederate Chaplains' Story (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1957), 48-49· Civil War History, Vol. xliii. No. 3 © 1997 by The Kent State University Press 202CIVIL WAR HISTORY made." As for qualifications, there was but one: to be "a regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination." The chaplain was to report to his colonel quarterly on "the moral and religious condition of the regiment, and such suggestions as may conduce to the social happiness and moral improvement of the troops."3 Apparently, this vagueness led to abuses, the army's paymaster general, Benjamin F. Larnard, writing that many chaplains "are utterly unworthy," adding, "It is said that one regiment employs a French cook, and musters him as chaplain to meetthe expense."4This sort ofreport led to congressional action changing the qualification requirement to include certification by five other ministers before appointment. Not until a year before the end of the war did any mention of duties appear in law or regulation. Even then it was simply that the chaplain should hold religious services "at least once each Sabbath," with a "when practicable " qualifier.5 The first black minister accepted into Federal service as chaplain was appointed in mid-1 863 to the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Colored) at the insistence of the state's abolitionist governor, John A. Andrew. Of course, apart from actions by individual Union generals acting without authority, blacks could not enlist in the army early in the war. It was not until January 1 , 1 863, under a provision of the executive order implementing the Emancipation Proclamation , that black recruits were accepted on the same basis as whites. Acceptance did not mean equality, however, because blacks received no Federal enlistment bounty and were paid less than whites. Pay issues damaged morale and caused friction until rectified later in...