Efforts to Capture Charleston: Little Rock and Confederates
A series impediment to such a movement now presented itself. The water in the rapids of the Red Rive at Alexandria was so shallow that the fleet could not reaps them. General Hunter had just appeared at Alexandria with orders to close the Red River campaign as speedily as possible, for the troops from General Sherman were wanted eastward of the Mississippi. The call was urgent. To get the fleet below the rapids was now the first work to be done. It was proposed to dam the river above the rapids, and send the vessels over the rocks upon the bosom of a flood that might be set free through sluices. Porter did not believe in the feasibility of such a project. Banks did, and set lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, of a Michigan regiment, to attempt it. By skill and industry the work was accomplished; and every gun-boat, great and small, reached the deep water below the rapids in safety, the crowed of spectators on the shores greeting the achievement with loud huzzas. The whole expedition now pushed toward the Mississippi River, where Porter resumed the service of patrolling that stream. General E.R.S. Canby took command of Bank's forces on the Atchafalaya; and General Smith, with his detachment, returned to Mississippi. A strong confronting force of Confederates had kept Steele from co-operating with the expedition. He had moved from Little Rock with eight thousand men, pushed back the Confederates, and on the 15th of April captured the important post of Camden on the Wachita River; but after a severe battle at Jenkinson's Ferry, on the Sabine River, Steele abandoned Camden and returned to Little Rock. So ended this disastrous campaign.
We have observed that colored troops were employed as soldiers in the National service, and that the Confederates were disposed to treat them and their white leaders with cruelty. Let us take a hasty glance at the history of their employment in the army.
When the President called for troops, in April, 1861, to put down the rising insurrection, some colored men in the city of New York hired a room and began to drill in military tactics. The sympathizers with the insurgents threatened them with violence; and the Superintendent of Police felt compelled, in order to secure the public peace, to order them to cease drilling. So they waited until they were called for.
More than a year afterward, General Hunter, in command of the Department of the South, ordered the organization of negro regiments in his department. This measure raised a tempest of indignation in the National Congress among the sympathizers with the insurgents. On motion of Wickliffe of Kentucky, the Secretary of War was asked whether Hunter had organized a regiment of fugitive slave, and whether the Government had authorized the act. Hunter was allowed to make explicit answers himself. To the first question he replied: "No regiment of 'fugitive slaves' has been or is being organized in this department. There is, however, a fine regiment of persons whose late masters are fugitive rebels--men who everywhere fly before the appearance of the National flag, leaving their servants behind them to shift for themselves as best they can." A few weeks later, Secretary Stanton, by special order, directed General Rufus Saxton, military governor of the sea-coast islands, to "arm, uniform, equip and receive into the service of the United States, such number of volunteers of American descent, not exceeding five thousand," and would be useful.
General G. W. Phelps, in command above New Orleans, in the summer of 1862, finding crowds of colored people flocking to his comp, asked permission of General Butler to arm and equip negro regiments. Butler had no authority to do so. He recommended Phelps to employ them in servile work on fortifications. Phelps replied: "I am not willing to become the mere slave-driver you propose, having no qualifications that way," and throwing up his commission, returned to Vermont. Very soon afterward Butler called for negro volunteers from the free colored men in New Orlenas, and full regiments were formed.
Another year passed by, and yet very few of the thousands of colored men made free by the proclamation of emancipation were found in arms. There was a universal prejudice against them; but as the war went on that prejudice, like others, gave way, and in the summer of 1863, the President was authorized by Congress to accept colored volunteers. From that time such troops were freely enlisted wherever the Government authority prevailed; and nearly two hundred thousand of them fought in the ranks for the preservation of the Republic, and their own freedom. Their brethren, who were yet in bondage, were then freely used by the Confederates, in the military service; not, however, with arms in their hands. The Confederates never armed them. It might have been a fatal experiment. They were organized under white leaders, and were "armed and equipped" with axes, shovels, spades, pick-axes, and blankets.