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details. Hey

1:00

everyone, thanks for tuning in to Episode 451 of

1:02

our Civil War

1:04

podcast. My name is

1:07

Rich. And

1:15

I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to

1:18

the podcast. In

1:20

November 1863, Sergeant William Walker of

1:23

the 3rd South Carolina Infantry took

1:26

dramatic action to express agreements shared

1:28

by thousands of black troops in

1:30

the Union Army. The

1:33

23-year-old former slave, as

1:35

court-martial specifications later documented,

1:38

quote, did unlawfully take command,

1:40

end quote, of Company A

1:42

and marched the troops to

1:45

his commanding officer's tent. There

1:47

he ordered them to stack arms and

1:50

when asked what this meant, replied,

1:53

we will not do our duty for $7 per month.

1:56

Walker refused to order

2:00

to return to duty and told

2:02

his company, quote, to let their

2:04

arms alone and go to their

2:06

quarters. They did

2:08

and quote, thereby excited and

2:10

joined in a general mutiny.

2:14

Walker would pay for his defiance with

2:16

his life. Despite a

2:18

plea that he and his comrades had,

2:20

quote, only contemplated a

2:22

peaceful demand for the rights and

2:25

benefits that had been guaranteed them,

2:27

end quote. During

2:29

the second week of January, 1864, a

2:32

military tribunal found William Walker

2:35

guilty of mutiny and

2:37

he was executed by firing squad.

2:41

Sergeant Walker's case illustrates the depth

2:43

of resentment felt by black soldiers

2:45

who had enlisted to fight for

2:48

the union cause and for their

2:50

freedom, only to find that

2:52

they were to be paid less than

2:54

their white comrades. Already

2:57

confronted with a combat environment in

2:59

which if captured, they might very

3:01

well find themselves returned to slavery

3:03

or shot out of hand. Black

3:06

soldiers were generally assigned the nastiest

3:08

camp duties and forced to confront

3:11

the reality of racism on a

3:13

daily basis. Unequal

3:15

pay was one more glaring reminder

3:17

of their second rate status in

3:20

the federal armies. A

3:22

white enlisted man received $13 a month and his pay

3:27

included a clothing allowance of $3

3:29

to be spent at

3:31

the soldier's discretion. By

3:33

contrast, a black enlisted man

3:36

was paid $10 but

3:38

received only seven since the remaining

3:40

$3 was withheld as a clothing

3:43

allowance. The

3:45

adoption of such a blatantly

3:48

discriminatory policy reveals how the

3:50

Lincoln administration was often scrambling

3:52

to respond to military necessity

3:55

while trying to balance conflicting

3:58

demands from radical Republicans. and

4:00

peace Democrats. At the

4:02

beginning of the war, few but the

4:05

most ardent abolitionists advocated

4:07

for arming blacks to fight for

4:09

the Union. For example,

4:11

when Lincoln's first Secretary of War,

4:13

Simon Cameron, was told there were

4:16

300 black volunteers ready

4:19

to help defend Washington DC during

4:22

the first weeks of the conflict, he

4:24

rejected the offer saying that,

4:27

quote, this department has

4:29

no intention at present to call into

4:31

the services of the government any

4:34

colored soldiers. Intentions

4:36

began to shift in the wake of the

4:38

federal debacle at Bull Run in

4:40

the summer of 1861. By the end of that

4:44

year, the New York Tribune, a

4:46

leading Republican newspaper, supported

4:49

the use of black troops, and

4:51

in his annual report to

4:53

Congress, Cameron recommended arming the

4:55

contrabands flooding into Union lines.

4:58

But Lincoln forced Cameron to

5:00

cut that recommendation from his

5:02

report. The first of

5:04

the President's many actions to

5:07

rein in zealous administration officials

5:09

or field commanders who were

5:12

sympathetic to abolitionist aims and

5:14

eager to enlist blacks. Early in 1862, for

5:18

example, the

5:20

administration quashed efforts to recruit

5:23

black troops by Union generals

5:25

in Kansas and Louisiana. And

5:28

when Major General David Hunter began organizing a

5:30

regiment drawn from

5:33

freedmen on the Sea Islands of South

5:35

Carolina in May 1862, opposition

5:39

from Washington, as well

5:41

as local resistance to his heavy-handed

5:43

recruiting practices, forced him to abandon

5:46

his effort after three months. Shortly

5:49

thereafter, though, Lincoln had a change of

5:51

heart. In mid-August, he

5:53

replaced Hunter with abolitionist Brigadier

5:56

General Rufus Saxton. On August 4, 25th,

6:01

1862, Secretary of

6:03

War Edwin Stanton authorized Saxton to

6:05

recruit 5,000 volunteers at

6:08

Port Royal, South Carolina to

6:10

form the first federally sanctioned

6:12

black regiments. Stanton's

6:14

action was in response to

6:17

twin pieces of legislation passed

6:19

a month earlier. The

6:21

Second Confiscation Act, which empowered

6:23

the president to employ contraband

6:25

in the suppression of the

6:27

rebellion, quote, in such

6:29

manner as he may judge best,

6:32

end quote, and the

6:34

Militia Act, authorizing the enrollment

6:36

of blacks for, quote, any

6:39

military or naval service for which

6:41

they may be found competent. In

6:44

issuing his August order, Stanton

6:47

dictated that the volunteers were,

6:49

quote, to be entitled to

6:51

and receive the same pay and

6:53

rations as are allowed by law

6:55

to volunteers in the service. Unfortunately,

6:58

however, the usually meticulous

7:01

Stanton had made a

7:03

mistake. It was

7:05

an error that would go unnoticed

7:07

for nine months and would result

7:10

in anger and resentment among thousands

7:12

of the Army's black recruits. In

7:26

accordance with the War Department policy that

7:29

only white officers could command black

7:31

troops, Rufus Saxton turned to an

7:33

old friend, Massachusetts abolitionist

7:36

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to

7:38

lead the first new

7:40

regiment. Over

7:42

the following months, Saxton and

7:44

Higginson thoroughly drilled the recruits.

7:48

Saxton embraced his mission with

7:50

characteristic enthusiasm and

7:53

a somewhat exaggerated sense of

7:55

larger purpose, writing in

7:57

his journal, quote, the

7:59

first man who organizes and commands

8:01

a successful black regiment will perform

8:03

the most important service in the

8:05

history of the war." Then,

8:09

after his troops had performed admirably

8:11

in a series of small engagements,

8:14

he suggested that, quote, "...the

8:17

fate of the home movement for

8:19

colored soldiers rested on the behavior

8:21

of this one regiment." By

8:24

the time Higginson wrote those

8:26

words in May 1863, the

8:28

quote, unquote, movement for colored

8:30

soldiers was well underway. On

8:33

New Year's Day, the Emancipation

8:36

Proclamation had affirmed that persons

8:38

previously held as slaves, quote,

8:40

"...will be received into the armed service

8:42

of the United States." Changes

8:45

in public opinion, particularly the

8:47

idea that emancipation was a

8:50

military necessity, led to

8:52

a growing acceptance of the thought of black

8:54

troops. War

8:56

correspondent, Whitelaw Reed, writing in

8:59

the Cincinnati Gazette, declared, quote,

9:02

"...the day for raising a panic

9:04

over Negro enlistment is over, and

9:07

it has passed as an accepted fact into

9:09

the history of the war." White

9:12

Union soldiers also seemed increasingly

9:14

open to accepting black comrades

9:16

in arms. In the spring

9:19

of 1863, an Illinois soldier wrote, quote,

9:23

"...a year ago last January I didn't

9:25

like to hear anything of emancipation. Last

9:28

fall I accepted confiscation of

9:30

rebels Negroes quietly. In January

9:33

I took to emancipation readily,

9:36

and now am becoming so colorblind that

9:38

I can't see why they will not

9:40

make soldiers." What's

9:53

something you learned in history class that

9:55

you feel wasn't the whole truth? something

10:00

you didn't learn at all that was

10:02

omitted completely. That's what I'd

10:04

like to call redacted history. I

10:07

believe that all history, no matter how

10:09

good or bad, needs to be told.

10:12

There are wars, massacres, battles, and

10:14

entire historical events that are just

10:16

not in our school's history books.

10:19

Have you ever heard of Mary Bowser? I

10:21

didn't think so. My name

10:24

is Andre White, the host of

10:26

the Redacted History Podcast, the place

10:28

where history's forgotten events, heroes, and

10:30

villains get their story told, one

10:33

episode at a time. So

10:35

come huddle around the campfire with me and get

10:37

ready to hear the stories that you were robbed

10:39

of. And get comfortable, we're

10:42

going to be here a while. The

10:44

Redacted History Podcast, real

10:46

history never dies. Stream

10:49

the Redacted History Podcast on Apple

10:52

Podcast, Spotify, or wherever else you

10:54

get your podcasts. The

11:01

1860 census had revealed that there were about 100,000

11:03

free black men and more than 500,000

11:08

male slaves of military age in

11:10

the United States. While

11:13

many of the latter remained behind

11:15

Confederate lines, younger men

11:17

who would escape to freedom made

11:20

up an unusually high percentage of

11:22

the contraband population. Abraham

11:25

Lincoln clearly saw the value of

11:27

these potential soldiers. In

11:29

a March 1863 letter, he

11:31

wrote, the colored population

11:34

is the greatest available and yet

11:36

unavailed of force for restoring the

11:38

Union. The bare sight of 50,000

11:41

armed and drilled black soldiers on the

11:44

banks of the Mississippi would end the

11:46

rebellion at once. And

11:48

who doubts that we can present that sight

11:51

if we but take hold in earnest.

11:54

The Lincoln administration finally took hold

11:56

in earnest in late May 1863. when

12:00

Stanton created the Bureau of Colored Troops.

12:04

The Bureau's head, Major Charles

12:06

Foster, devised different regional recruiting

12:08

strategies for filling the ranks

12:10

of the U.S. Colored Troops.

12:13

In New England and the Middle

12:15

Atlantic, Foster delegated the authority to

12:17

enlist black troops to state governments

12:20

and to public and private organizations

12:22

such as the Union League in

12:24

Philadelphia. Resistance

12:27

among state officials in the Midwest

12:29

limited recruiting efforts in that region,

12:32

while recruiters in former rebel territory

12:34

along the South Atlantic coast and

12:37

in the Mississippi River Valley often

12:40

relied on impressment. In

12:43

those areas of the Confederacy controlled by

12:45

Union forces and in the border states,

12:47

the military itself generally

12:50

oversaw recruiting, drawing heavily

12:52

from contraband camps. One

12:55

soldier from Maryland noted, recruits

12:58

were taken wherever found. The

13:00

labor in the field would throw down his

13:02

hoe or quit his plow and march away

13:04

with the guard, leaving his

13:07

late owner looking after him

13:09

in speechless amazement. Robert

13:11

Cowden, a recruiter in Memphis,

13:13

Tennessee, described the

13:15

transformation undergone by new recruits.

13:18

Quote, the average

13:20

plantation Negro was hard-looking specimen

13:23

in a close-fitting wool shirt

13:25

and paneloons of humspun material.

13:29

The first pass made at him was with

13:31

a pair of shears. The

13:33

next was to strip him of his filthy

13:35

rags and burn them and scour him thoroughly

13:37

with soap and water. A

13:40

clean new suit of army blue was

13:43

now put on him together with a

13:45

full suite of military accoutrements and

13:47

a gun was placed in his hand and

13:50

low he was completely

13:52

metamorphosed. When

13:54

establishing the Bureau of Colored Troops,

13:56

Stanton had asked the War Department's

13:58

solicitor, William White, to

14:01

review the question of the pay rate

14:03

for black soldiers. Whiting

14:05

came back with a ruling that the

14:07

only legislation in effect, the 1862 militia

14:09

act, clearly

14:12

stated that, quote, persons of African

14:14

descent who under this law shall

14:17

be employed shall receive $10

14:20

per month, $3 of which

14:22

monthly pay may be in clothing. And

14:25

so, with that, Stanton's earlier

14:27

promise of equal pay, the

14:30

basis on which many blacks had enlisted,

14:33

that promise would now have to be

14:35

broken. Back

14:37

when the militia act was adopted

14:39

in July 1862, several

14:41

rationales were used to justify

14:43

the pay differential. For

14:46

example, skeptical that blacks would make

14:48

good combat troops, Lincoln

14:50

and others in his administration in

14:53

Congress argued that African-American

14:55

recruits would mainly be assigned

14:57

to garrison rather than frontline

15:00

duty. Others, including

15:02

the New York World's editorial

15:04

writers, argued that pay

15:07

equity would inflame the prejudices of

15:09

white troops. Quote,

15:11

to claim that the indolent

15:13

servile Negro is the equal

15:15

in courage, enterprise, and fire

15:17

of the foremost race in

15:19

all the world is liable.

15:22

It is unjust in every way to the

15:24

white soldier to put him on a level

15:26

with the black. However,

15:29

by the middle of 1863, these arguments carried

15:31

less weight. Colonel

15:35

Higginson's 1st South Carolina had taken

15:37

part in a number of small

15:39

but successful actions along the southern

15:42

Atlantic coast. In

15:44

the West, recently organized

15:46

United States Colored Troops,

15:49

or USCT units, fought

15:51

with distinction during the early stages of

15:53

the siege of Port Hudson and

15:56

at the Battle of Milliken's Bend on June 7.

16:00

Assistant Secretary of War Charles

16:02

Dana reported to Stanton, quote,

16:05

having seen how they could fight, many

16:07

were won over to arming them for the

16:09

union. Unfortunately, Stanton

16:11

had already moved to align War

16:14

Department policy with the 1862 Militia

16:17

Act. On June

16:19

4th, he issued a directive that

16:22

confirmed a black enlisted man would

16:24

be paid just $10 and

16:26

would receive only seven since the

16:29

remaining $3 would be withheld as

16:31

a clothing allowance. A

16:44

policy of paying black troops less

16:46

than their white counterparts pleased no

16:48

one. Those it was

16:51

meant to appease saw it for the sop

16:53

that it was, while

16:55

black soldiers and their white

16:57

supporters resented it. When

17:00

Ohio Governor David Todd questioned the

17:02

War Department about the policy, Stanton

17:04

suggested that, as far as

17:07

any additional pay, quote, colored

17:09

troops must trust to state contributions

17:12

and the justice of Congress. However,

17:15

when Governor John Andrews sought to make

17:17

up the difference in pay for the

17:19

54th and 55th

17:21

Massachusetts regiments from state

17:23

funds, a regimental spokesman

17:26

condemned the offer, saying

17:28

acceptance of it would lead the

17:30

public to mistakenly assume they were,

17:32

quote, holding out for

17:34

money and not principle that

17:36

we sink our manhood in consideration

17:39

for a few more dollars. For

17:42

many, the pay differential represented

17:44

real hardship. A

17:46

correspondent to the Christian Recorder

17:48

wrote, when I was at

17:50

home, I could make a living for my wife and

17:52

my two little ones, but now that

17:54

I am a soldier, they must do the

17:57

best they can or starve. Another

17:59

soldier, serving in the

18:01

8th USCT, wrote that

18:03

his quote, life and three little

18:05

children at home are freezing and

18:08

starving to death. She

18:10

writes to me for aid, but I have

18:12

nothing to center. The

18:14

white officers shared their troops

18:16

dismay. On

18:18

equal pay wrote Colonel Higginson

18:21

quote, has inflicted untold suffering,

18:23

has impaired discipline, has

18:26

relaxed loyalty, and has begun

18:28

to implant a feeling of

18:30

sullen distrust. Black

18:32

troops were not alone in

18:34

harboring feelings of quote unquote

18:36

sullen distrust. On August

18:39

1st, 1863, Frederick Douglass, who

18:42

had two sons serving in

18:45

the 54th Massachusetts, announced

18:47

that he would no longer recruit troops

18:49

for the Union Army. He

18:51

said, when I plead for recruits, I

18:53

want to do it with all my heart. I

18:56

cannot do that now. George

18:58

Stearns, a wealthy businessman deeply involved

19:01

in the recruitment effort, was reluctant

19:03

to lose one of his most

19:05

effective recruiters. And so

19:08

he urged Douglass to take his concerns

19:10

directly to the president. On

19:12

August 10th, Frederick Douglass did

19:15

just that. Arriving

19:17

in Washington after a long train

19:19

ride from his home in Rochester, New York,

19:22

Douglass set out on foot for the White House.

19:25

Lacking an appointment, he could not be

19:27

sure Abraham Lincoln would even see him.

19:30

However, a chance encounter with

19:32

Samuel Pomeroy, a radical Republican

19:35

whom Douglass knew well, led

19:38

to an offer by the Kansas

19:40

Senator to help facilitate the meeting.

19:43

After a brief huddle in the War

19:45

Department with Secretary of War Stanton, who

19:47

assured the two men that he favored

19:49

equal pay, Pomeroy and

19:51

Douglass proceeded to the White House. There,

19:55

to Frederick Douglass's considerable surprise,

19:58

the president not only received... him almost

20:00

straight away, but although the

20:02

two men had never met, Lincoln's

20:05

frank and earnest manner immediately put

20:07

him at ease. Nevertheless,

20:10

Abraham Lincoln was well aware that

20:13

Douglas was a frequent court critic

20:15

of his wartime policies as

20:17

well as his support for colonization. So

20:20

it was not surprising that the

20:23

President became somewhat defensive when Douglas

20:25

raised his primary concern, the

20:27

pay inequity between white and black

20:30

soldiers. According to

20:32

Douglas, Lincoln pointed out that since

20:34

black troops, quote, had larger motives

20:36

for being soldiers than white men,

20:39

end quote, that meant

20:41

in his view they, quote, ought

20:43

to be willing to enter the

20:45

service upon any condition. The

20:48

President argued that since the employment

20:50

of black soldiers was still subject

20:52

to popular prejudice in the North,

20:55

the fact that they received lower

20:57

pay was at present a,

20:59

quote, necessary concession to

21:02

smooth the way, end quote.

21:05

But he assured Douglas that it would

21:07

ultimately be corrected. Of

21:10

his meeting with Lincoln, Frederick Douglas

21:12

wrote that while he was, quote,

21:14

not entirely satisfied with his views,

21:16

end quote, nonetheless he,

21:18

quote, was so well satisfied with

21:20

the man that I determined to

21:23

go on with the recruiting. Frederick

21:26

Douglas's meeting with the President led

21:28

to no immediate change in War

21:31

Department policy. But

21:33

in Edwin Stanton's year end report,

21:35

the Secretary of War did urge

21:37

Congress to correct the pay differential.

21:41

It wasn't until the following June, June of 1864,

21:43

that Congress took the first step toward

21:47

equalizing pay. Retroactive

21:50

to January 1st, all

21:52

black troops were to be paid the same

21:54

amount as their white counterparts. In

21:57

addition, any member of the USCT,

22:00

who could attest that he had been a free man as of April

22:02

19th, 1861, could collect back pay for 1862 and 1863. Such

22:11

requests for back pay were to be accompanied

22:14

by an oath which led

22:16

one creative officer to contrive a

22:18

pledge wherein claimants solemnly

22:20

swore that they, quote, owed

22:23

no man unrequited labor on or

22:25

before the 19th day of

22:27

April 1861. While

22:31

such a vow was plausible for a

22:33

recruit from the northern states, it

22:36

would have been patently false for the

22:38

vast majority of the black soldiers, 75

22:41

percent of whom were recently freed

22:44

slaves from the border states and

22:46

from federally controlled portions of the

22:48

Confederacy. And so

22:50

the issue continued to fester. Not

22:53

until March 3rd, 1865 did

22:57

Congress pass legislation granting

22:59

full retroactive pay to

23:01

all black troops. Why

23:15

did it take so long to equalize the

23:17

pay of black and white soldiers? After

23:19

all, either Abraham Lincoln or Edwin

23:22

Stanton might have reversed or simply

23:24

chosen to ignore the ruling of

23:26

the War Department's solicitor in the

23:28

spring of 1863. They

23:31

had shown little reluctance when

23:34

they thought it necessary to

23:36

override other more well-established policies

23:39

or suspend vital constitutional rights.

23:43

And for a contemporaneous example of

23:45

the negligible impact of equal pay

23:47

for black and white troops, they

23:50

needed look no further than the Union

23:52

Navy, in which about 20 percent

23:54

of the 101,000 men who served were black and

24:00

received the same pay as their

24:02

shipmates. In April

24:04

1864, Attorney General Edward Bates

24:06

argued that the president had

24:08

a quote unquote

24:10

constitutional obligation to rectify

24:13

the pay inequity. But

24:15

Lincoln nevertheless chose to leave the issue

24:17

in the hands of Congress. Lincoln's

24:20

rationale for failing to act sooner

24:22

might perhaps be defined from his

24:24

August 1863 meeting with

24:27

Frederick Douglass. The

24:29

president believed quote, blacks

24:31

had larger motives for being soldiers than

24:34

white men end quote. Had

24:37

Douglass himself not argued that for black

24:39

men who fought for the union quote,

24:42

there is no power on earth that

24:44

can deny the right to citizenship. So

24:47

Lincoln calculated that their eagerness to

24:50

fight a war that would guarantee

24:52

their freedom and lead to citizenship

24:55

was likely to override any number

24:57

of indignities suffered by black soldiers,

25:00

including unequal pay. In

25:03

the end, Lincoln's pragmatic acceptance

25:05

of the necessary concession

25:08

of unequal pay proved

25:10

to be a sound political calculation.

25:13

But it came at no small price

25:15

to thousands of black soldiers and their

25:17

families who suffered real hardship

25:19

because of it. And

25:22

then of course, there was Sergeant William Walker

25:24

who protested the injustice of the

25:26

policy and paid for it with

25:28

his life after being tried by

25:31

court martial in January, 1864. Massachusetts

25:36

Governor John Andrew, who was

25:38

appalled by the entire affair,

25:40

wrote to President Lincoln pointing

25:43

out quote, the government

25:45

which found no law to pay him

25:47

except as a contraband nevertheless

25:49

found law enough to shoot him

25:52

as a soldier. That

26:01

means it's time for this episode's book

26:04

recommendation. And our recommendation this time is,

26:06

Black Soldiers in Blue, African American

26:09

Troops in the Civil War Era,

26:12

edited by John David Smith. This

26:15

book contains 14 essays that

26:17

look at the military, political, and

26:19

social significance of black soldiers fighting

26:22

for the Union cause. As

26:25

we've said, and you guys know by now, by

26:28

war's end, 180,000 black

26:31

soldiers had served, or were serving,

26:33

in the federal armies. Don't

26:36

forget you can find a list

26:38

of all of our book recommendations

26:41

if you head over to the

26:43

podcast website, which is www.civilwarpodcast.org. Also

26:47

with the website, you can find information

26:49

on joining the Strawthup Brigade over on

26:52

Patreon and supporting the podcast in that

26:54

way. Just like Monty, Liz,

26:58

Frank A, and Gomer did

27:00

this past week. We

27:02

also want to say thank you to

27:04

Shakhar B for his donation. And

27:06

thanks to all of you for listening to this

27:09

episode of the podcast. Rich

27:11

and I do hope that you'll join us again next

27:13

time, but until then, take care.

27:16

Thanks everyone. Bye. Thank

27:41

you.