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Black Soldiers From Indiana
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When the winds of war blew strong in the spring of 1861, no
consideration at all was given to the enlistment of black soldiers to fill
the quota of 7,500 men Indiana was required to send to President
Abraham Lincoln to fulfill the Union’s overall need for 75,000 ablebodied men. Arming and training black men to fight was totally
discarded as inflammatory and dangerous.
As the war dragged on and thousands of Northern men were either killed or
maimed, sentiments changed and consideration was given to enlisting black soldiers.
Governor John Andrews of Massachusetts received authorization from the Federal
government in January, 1863, to raise a regiment of black soldiers. Critics
throughout the North hooted at the folly of raising a Negro regiment. In fact,
Massachusetts was accused of sending black soldiers to die so that white men could
live. Agents from Massachusetts came to Indiana in an effort to encourage
enrollment of black Indiana men in the black regiment being formed, the Fiftyfourth Massachusetts. This regiment, made famous by the movie Glory, would be
filled by black soldiers from every Northern state and Canada. Joining the son of
Frederick Douglas, the great black civil rights proponent, were brave sons of black
families from Indiana.
What prompted men from Indiana to risk life and limb to travel to Massachusetts to
enlist? Life in the free North had generally been less than lucrative for the average
black family. Although technically free, many found themselves in virtual servitude
to wealthy white farmers as sharecroppers and low-paid farm hands. The call to
enlist offered an escape from the drudgery of their lives and an opportunity to seek
excitement. This was the same motivation that moved many of their white
counterparts to enlist. However, there was a strong motivation, instilled by black
ministers and recruiting agents, that it was the duty of every free black man to fight
for the freedom of their black brothers.
The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts appealed greatly to the Negroes of Wayne County.
Many joined the regiment bound for glory in the ill-fated attack on Fort Wagner,
including George Brawdy, William H. Evans, George McCowen and his brother,
Pleasant McCowen and John S. Shafer.
It took until November, 1863, before Governor Oliver P. Morton could see the
benefit to enlisting black soldiers to help fill Indiana’s growing quotas for fresh
troops for the military meat grinder. The Indianapolis Journal commented that the
Negro was regarded as “excellent material for the army and that no white soldier
could be found who would not sooner see a Negro with one arm off, than to have one
off himself.” In a perverse way, this was the ultimate definition of equality.
Governor Morton authorized the recruitment of black soldiers to fill a regiment to
be composed of Indiana Negroes, the Twenty-eighth United States Colored
Regiment or 28th USCT. The 28th USCT was aggressively recruited in Indianapolis
and central Indiana, but also included many recently emancipated slaves from
Kentucky who had made their way north to the Hoosier State.
The Negro enlisting in the 28th USCT received $400 in bounties from the Federal
government and Marion County. This princely sum and the opportunity to fight for
the freedom of their brothers allowed the regiment to quickly meet its enlistment
goal. Each man would receive $10 a month in pay and a clothing allowance of $3
each month. This was three dollars less than a white soldier received and caused
much grumbling about the blood of a black man being cheaper than a white man’s
blood.
The regiment departed Indianapolis on April 20, 1864, and proceeded to Virginia
under the command of Lt. Colonel Charles S. Russell. It was first assigned to duty
in defense of Washington, D. C., but was soon transferred to Camp Casey, near
Alexandria. In early June, the regiment was moved to the Petersburg, Virginia, lines
where on June 23, it took its first casualties at Jones Bridge. Joining Ambrose
Burnside’s, Ninth Corps, the regiment took its place in the siege lines at Petersburg.
On July 30, Union military engineers exploded a vast amount of dynamite in a shaft
that had been dug under Confederate lines. Five regiments of Colored Troops had
been assigned the task of spearheading the resultant Union attack into the gaping
hole in the Rebel lines. The 28th USCT was one of the regiments selected. The black
troops from the divisions of Generals Ledlie and Ferrero stormed into the massive
crater caused by the explosion amid a maze of broken bodies and bloody rivulets.
While the black troops gathered in awe at the base of the crater, their generals
remained behind, drinking liquor in a dug out bomb proof hut. Without effective
leadership, the impetus and surprise of the attack died out and gave Rebel forces
under General William Mahone time to counterattack. The Rebel counter stroke
was brutal in force and ferocity. Black soldiers in the crater tried to surrender, but
Mahone’s men refused the surrender and shot down and bayoneted the leaderless
Union troops. The attack that had been so promising now devolved into a foot race
back to the safety of the Union siege lines. Behind them, the 28th USCT left nearly
half of their brothers dead or wounded, including seven of eleven officers.
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