TO DO RIGHT & SERVE MY COUNTRY

Officers of the 14th United States Colored Infantry

BY ROBERT HANCOCK

Within the John Motley Collection at The American Civil War Museum resides a selection of 22 Carte-de-Visite photographs assembled by Edward Munk of fellow officers who served in the 14th United States Colored Infantry.

In May 1863, the U.S. War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops to recruit African American soldiers, many of them formerly enslaved, to serve in the Union Army. The soldiers would be black, but they were to be led by white officers. Many bristled at the idea of armed black men serving in the army and held the stereotypical discriminatory view that they would either run amok or prove too lazy to be of any real use. The army and the public had to feel that they were at least led by competent (and white) officers. It would take trial by combat for such racial prejudices to even begin to break down.

In the meantime, the newly formed USCT units needed officers.

Maj. Gen. David Hunter, a career soldier, wanted to find company officers for the newly raised black regiments in “the most intelligent and energetic of our non-commissioned officers: men who will go into it with all their hearts.” Suddenly, an officer’s commission was available to those who stood little chance of finding promotion in the other volunteer forces of the U.S. Army. Men who sought an officer’s commission wrote for permission to appear before a board of examiners who tested the candidate’s military knowledge and moral character.

Some men, strong abolitionists from the start, thought of being an officer in a black regiment as a way to put their beliefs into action in a most tangible way and so help uplift the black race.

Others thought that if the raising of black regiments for service would shorten the war and put down the rebellion, it was their patriotic duty to serve. An officer from Ohio wrote: “It is not a popular branch of the service now, but what the difference, when I am conscious of doing right, and serving my country.”

Moral and patriotic feelings aside, one cannot overlook the fact that, in most soldier’s eyes, being an officer was better than being an enlisted man; not the least of the attractions were higher pay and the privileges associated with rank. However, Col. Reuben D. Mussey, who organized black units in Tennessee (including the 14th), stated: “No person is wanted as an officer in a Colored Regiment who ‘feels that he is making a sacrifice in accepting a position in a Colored Regiment,’ or who desires the place simply for higher rank and pay.”

No person is wanted as an officer in “ a Colored Regiment who ‘feels that he is making a sacrifice in accepting a position in a Colored Regiment,’ or who desires the place simply for higher rank and pay.”

COL. REUBEN D. MUSSEY Organizer of black units in Tennessee, including the 14th USCT.

All would-be officers were called before an examining board of four unsympathetic officers who grilled them on their knowledge of tactics, army regulations, mathematics, and geography. Col. Mussey, who established an ad hoc board in Nashville for candidates serving in that area, told his examiners: “Do not ask leading questions; do not seek to refresh the candidate’s memory; do not inform him whether his answer is correct; you are to examine, not to teach him.” He wanted to ensure that the applicant was applying for the position for the right reasons and had the foreknowledge to lead men in combat. “A few questions on important subjects,” stated Mussey, “will determine a man’s character as a military student, and show his fitness or unfitness for the position he seeks.”

Col. Thomas Morgan organized the 14th United States Colored Infantry Regiment at Gallatin, Tennessee, in late 1863. In order to free up existing white regiments for service at the front, many black regiments, their combat effectiveness questioned by many in authority, were relegated to manual labor jobs behind the lines. However, Morgan did not wish to be nothing more than “an overseer for black laborers.” He knew the men under his command could fight, and he wanted to prove it.

The 14th proved itself at Decatur, Alabama, in October 1864, where U.S. forces stopped the Confederates from crossing the Tennessee River there, and they received three cheers from white troops after the fight. The 14th would have a much tougher time of it later that year when they ran into the same Confederates at Nashville.

On December 15, Morgan commanded the First Colored Brigade, composed of five USCT regiments, including the 14th. They, along with the Second Colored Brigade and a third brigade of white troops, were to attack the extreme right of the Confederate line. Faulty reconnaissance the previous night led to the U.S. forces marching against a much stronger position than had been thought. The Confederates saw them coming and waited behind their fortifications. As one Confederate put it, the advancing battle line was composed of “white negroes and black negroes.” It was the first time that the Army of Tennessee “had ever met our former slaves in battle.”

When within range, the Confederates opened fire with muskets and cannon. Facing such formidable defenses, the First Colored Brigade was engaged in a fight it could not hope to win, but the men of the 14th stood their ground, loading and firing their rifle-muskets, until they were ordered to withdraw. The next day they supported another push that eventually drove the Confederates from the field.

At Nashville, Col. Morgan lost over 300 men. He later wrote: “Colored soldiers had fought side by side with white troops. They had mingled together in the charge. They had supported each other. They had assisted each other from the field when they were wounded, and they lay side by side in death.” Here are selected images of a few of the men — whatever their motivation might have been — who volunteered to become officers in the USCT, collected by one who had served with them.

THE OFFICERS BEHIND THE PHOTOS

Edward Munk (Story title image), who collected these images of officers in the 14th United States Colored Infantry, was captain of Company C. He was formerly a 1st sergeant in the 105th Illinois Infantry before receiving his commission in the 14th. Munk survived the war, but in May 1864, he requested a furlough (Letter, right) to take the body of his brother, killed at Resaca, Georgia, home to his parents. Munk had already lost another brother earlier in the war.

Edward Safford was the captain of Company F and had served first in Edward Munk’s unit, the 105th Illinois, as a corporal. He received a serious leg wound from a Minie ball at the fight around Decatur, Alabama, October 1864. After five months of hospitalization and convalescence, Safford was discharged from the service.

Hailing from Wheaton, Illinois, Jonathan Vallette was 39 years old when he was appointed captain of Company D. Previously, he served as sergeant-major in the 105th Illinois Infantry. In January 1865, Vallette found himself supervising the making of wooden railroad ties. Exactly the sort of thing Col. Morgan did not want his men doing.

In ‘65, he tendered his resignation to return home to his ailing wife, but the resignation was refused. He was involved in a minor court martial affair revolving around his refusal to sign the muster roll for his company as he considered it incorrect. Vallette’s objections were, apparently, the misspelling of two names and the enlistment dates of himself and Lt. Wheeler. Colonel Morgan considered Vallette’s conduct “un-officer-like.” And his refusal to sign disrespectful to both the colonel and the mustering officer. In the end, Col. Morgan decided that “[i]n view of all the circumstances, the good of my regiment would be promoted by this officer going out.” Vallette’s resignation from the army was accepted.

Born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Daniel K. Hassler was a clerk before the war. It wasn’t until May 1865 that his pre-war occupation was acknowledged, and he was appointed adjutant of the regiment. He remained with the regiment until October 1865, having served in the army since August 1861, and then resigned to take care of his two sisters living in Ohio.

Eli McMillan was promoted to 1st lieutenant of Company C after serving as a sergeant in the 79th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He tendered his resignation from the army a month after the fight at Nashville.

Andrew Snyder started off as a lieutenant in Company B, then was quickly promoted to captain in charge of Company I. He was a sergeant in the 18th Michigan Infantry before joining the 14th USCT.

George W. Boutwell, formerly a sergeant in the 105th Illinois Infantry, served as a lieutenant in the 14th USCT for only a short time before resigning his commission and returning home after the death of his father.

Wallace Tear served as a lieutenant and regimental quartermaster in the 14th. He was on detached service away from the regiment November and December 1864, so, luckily for him, he missed the battle at Nashville.

Charles W. Oleson called Portland, Maine, home and served as an assistant surgeon in the 14th. He spent much of the spring in 1864 working in the field hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, before rejoining the regiment. No doubt he was kept busy after the fight at Nashville. In May 1865, he resigned to pursue his medical studies “in order to appear before the examining board for the regular army.”

Orville A. Loomis was a 27-year-old first sergeant in the 12th Michigan Infantry before becoming a lieutenant in Company F of the 14th US Colored Infantry.

Alexander Recker was a commissary sergeant in the regular army when he decided to apply for an officer’s commission. He served as a lieutenant in Company C of the 14th. Alexander Recker

Frederick Cressey Henry Austin, a lieutenant in Company B, was only with the 14th for a short time before he received a medical discharge for a back injury sustained in a railroad accident.

A former sergeant in the 70th Indiana Infantry, James H. Meteer commanded Company K and eventually became an inspector of the 1st Colored Brigade under Colonel Morgan.

William Elgin interrupted his studies preparing for the gospel ministry to enter the army in 1862. According to Elgin, he was teaching six hours a day in addition to his other duties. He must have had some ministering to do after the sharp fight at Nashville. At the end of the war, he resigned from the army to continue his studies.

Samuel Curtis was a lowly private in the15th Indiana Volunteers before receiving his commission as the captain of Company H in the 14th U.S. Colored Infantry. He was a teacher before enlisting in the army.

Frederick Cressey was a student from Ohio when war broke out. He first served as a sergeant in the 113th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, then won his commission as captain, and was assigned to command Company G of the 14th U.S. Colored Infantry. Unlike most of his fellow officers, Cressey stayed with the regiment after the war and even applied to fill the vacancy left by Lt. Colonel Corbin. However, the board of examiners determined that Cressey “was not possessed of the necessary qualifications…either in knowledge of tactics education or general intelligence.”

Robert Hancock is the Museum’s Senior Curator and Director of Collections. For further information on this topic he recommends Joseph T. Glatthaar’s Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers (1990), and James Lee McDonough’s Nashville: The Western Confderacy’s Final Gamble (2004).

Frederick Cressey

Samuel Curtis