CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Introductory
Chapter 2. Camp Diary
Chapter 3. Up the St. Mary's
Chapter 4. Up the St. John's
Chapter 5. Out on Picket
Chapter 6. A Night in the Water
Chapter 7. Up the Edisto
Chapter 8. The Baby of the Regiment
Chapter 9. Negro Spirituals
Chapter 10. Life at Camp Shaw
Chapter 11. Florida Again?
Chapter 12. The Negro as a Soldier
Chapter 13. ConclusionAppendix B The First Black Soldiers
Appendix C General Saxton's Instructions
These pages record some of the adventures of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first slave regiment mustered into the service of the United States during the late civil war. It was, indeed, the first colored regiment of any kind so mustered, except a portion of the troops raised by Major-General Butler at New Orleans. These scarcely belonged to the same class, however, being recruited from the free colored population of that city, a comparatively self-reliant and educated race. "The darkest of them," said General Butler, "were about the complexion of the late Mr. Webster."
The First South Carolina, on the other hand, contained scarcely a freeman, had not one mulatto in ten, and a far smaller proportion who could read or write when enlisted. The only contemporary regiment of a similar character was the "First Kansas Colored," which began recruiting a little earlier, though it was not mustered in the usual basis of military seniority till later. [See Appendix] These were the only colored regiments recruited during the year 1862. The Second South Carolina and the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts followed early in 1863.
This is the way in which I came to the command of this regiment. One day in November, 1862, I was sitting at dinner wi