"Colored Soldiers" (1863)

☞ RECRUITING A COLORED COMPANY.—It may not be generally known that at effort is now being made in this city to organize a company of colored soldiers to be attached to one of Gov. [John Albion] Andrews' African Regiments. The recruiting officer is a Lieutenant Jackson, from Pittsfield, Mass. He has been in this city for several days, and has already enlisted five men. Whether the enterprise will be successful or not, remains to be seen. Mr. Jackson should receive the encouragement and support of his class, in his effort to have them represented in the armies of the Union. As soon as enlisted, the men are sent to Massachusetts.Troy Daily Whig. March 5, 1863: col 1☞ COLORED SOLDIERS.—The colored citizens of Troy, embracing many gentlemen of influence and patriotic zeal, are to hold a meeting this evening, in the basement of the Liberty street Presbyterian church, for the purpose of forwarding the enlistment of colored men. Mr. Jackson, of Massachusetts, who is duly authorized to act as recruiting officer, will be present and give whatever information may be desired.Troy Daily Times. March 9, 1863: 3 col 3.

Of the three known African-American Civil War veterans with markers in the Lansingburgh Village Burying Ground, only one served with the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Titus M. Gunn (1841-1889), of Company C. However, he seems to have enlisted while living in Massachusetts. From at least 1883 to 1889 he lived at 523 or 525 Fifth Avenue in Lansingburgh. If numbering has remained the same, that would be the building (recently demolished) where in more recent decades the Troy Mattress Company had been located, south of Snow Man.
—Lieut. [James W.] Grace of Co. C, Massachusetts Fifty-fourth, writes than on the morning after the late assault on Fort Wagner, "when they were all worn out, and some sick and wounded, I had them drawn up in a line and said to them: As many of you as are willing to go with me to help take that fort, step one pace to the front. Every one in line stepped to the front and said they were willing to try it again. I simply state this to let you and your readers know what Co. C consists of."Troy Daily Times. July 31, 1863: 2 col 3.
Not Safe Purchases.
The Charleston papers say that some of the negro soldiers captured at Fort Wagner, have been sold and taken to plantations in the interior of the State. Leaving out of view the brutality of such a course, it is certainly exceedingly foolish. The colored men of the Fifty-fourth are not brutes. They read and think and talk about great principles. They have been citizens of Northern States, have developed their capacities under the generous influences of liberal instututions, and understand what it means to be free and happy. More than this, they have shown that they have a real understanding of principles, and dare do and sacrifice for them. One such black upon a South Carolina plantation will be about as valuable and safe as a torch in a powder magazine. We don't think the distribution of our colored troops who are made prisoners, will be kept up as a regular practice.Troy Daily Times. August 3, 1863: 2 col 1.—The colored soldiers of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth refuse to accept the ten dollars a month offered them on the assumption that they should be classified with laborers and contrabands. Don't blame them. They were recruited as soldiers, they have fought bravely as soldiers, many of them have laid down their lives as soldiers, and such discrimination as is proposed is a insult to them and is unworthy of the Government.Troy Daily Times. August 25, 1863: 2 col 4.

Uncategorized1863, African-Americans, civil-war, lansingburgh-village