Double Duty in the Civil War: The Letters of Sailor and Soldier Edward W. Bacon

(1) 29th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry (Colored)

87 Part Three  The Soldier, 1864–65 (1) 29th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry (Colored) “HOW LONG, O GOD, HOW LONG MUST THIS CRUEL WAR DESOLATE our once fair and happy country,” cried a twenty-eight-year-old Southern woman in late November 1863. Northerners echoed her lament. Though they had escaped the shortages, hard times, and destruction the war brought to the South, the mounting casualties afflicted both sections. As early as November 1862, a Michigan infantry officer had complained, “No one seems to have any heart for the war except Lincoln, some of the lower officers & the privates.”1 Though war weariness gripped the North, by 1864 the struggle had tilted to favor the Union. Northern superiority in vital resources such as men, horses, manufacturing, and almost every material requirement had begun to tell. Most important was the Union’s overwhelming advantage in manpower. Still available were hundreds of thousands while the South had all but exhausted its supply of able-bodied men. For example, on February 1, 1864, Lincoln called for five hundred thousand men to serve for three years or during the war and on March 14, he called for a draft of an additional two hundred thousand. Northern states largely filled their quotas under these draft calls, though most men volunteered rather than suffer the ignominy of conscription.2 Jefferson Davis and his generals could only dream about such reserves. Instead, they had to resort to patchwork solutions, such as abolishing substitutions and expanding conscription ages from eighteen through forty-five to seventeen through fifty for all white males. Social, cultural, political, and economic barriers precluded the mobilization of slaves as soldiers until the very end, when it was too late.3 In 1863 alone the North had turned tens of thousands of former slaves and free blacks into soldiers, much to the distress of many. However, practical considerations soon alleviated that dismay. Draft-eligible civilians reconsidered when state and national authorities counted black recruits in filling draft quotas, thus sparing an equal number of white men. Some soldiers, vehement in their initial opposition, reconsidered when they learned only white men would officer the new black units. That policy offered ordinary soldiers the chance to win commissioned rank with better pay and status and gave officers an opportunity to win quick promotion by transferring to black regiments.4 Bacon’s travels and battles as a soldier. As an infantry officer, Bacon went from New Haven to South Carolina, then to the Virginia battlefields and finally south again to occupation duty in Texas. While these travels did not match his experience as a sailor, he was more often under fire. George Skoch. 29th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry 89 Probably most effective in changing minds and hearts was the argument that blacks made superior cannon fodder. Elizabeth Blair Lee, sister of Lincoln’s postmaster general and wife of a ranking naval officer, wrote that black soldiers “are however the best population to . . . be food for gun powder if it saves better men it is something gained.” More graphic was Corporal James T. Miller, 111th Pennsylvania Infantry, who wrote home, “The more nigers they get, the better I will be suited for I would rather see a nigers head blowed off than a white mans.” This philosophy gained ground with the publication of “Sambo’s Right to Be Kilt,” a humorous poem written by Charles G. Halpine, a Federal officer. Writing under the pseudonym of Private Miles O’Reilly, Halpine argued that it was right and proper if “Sambo’s body should stop a ball/that was coming for me direct.” In conclusion, he declared, “The right to be kilt we’ll divide wid him/and give him the largest half!”5 In early 1864, Bacon began seeking a commission in a black unit. First, in Philadelphia he visited the Free Military School for Applicants for Commands of Colored Troops. Open to white males, schooling cost accepted students nothing for instruction and books. They paid only for their food and lodging, whether civilian or soldier. After intense instruction, students went before an examination board in Washington, D.C. Private Richard C. Phillips, 44th New York Infantry, said the examining officers, among other questions, asked him how to divide a fraction and what was the cooking time for beans. Phillips knew the answers and received a commission as a 2nd lieutenant.6 That school and the examining board represented an effort...