“The United States Colored Troops at Andersonville Prison” is the untold story of the black Union soldiers incarcerated in the infamous Andersonville prison.
Of the 180,000 US Colored Troops in the Union army and navy, only 776 are listed on rosters at any Confederate prisons. And with the inaccuracy of the records, some of those men may be listed in more than one place due to transfers of prisoners between several stockades.
Of those 776 men, one hundred and three (including two white officers of USCT) are known to have been incarcerated at the Camp Sumter stockade in Anderson, Georgia. Over 45,000 Union soldiers were held in that stockade from late February 1864 until the end of that year when they were transferred out. This non-fiction book provides all known records of each of the one hundred and three men, mostly from the 8th USCT (Pennsylvania) and 54th Massachusetts, including their muster dates, capture dates, and other information. Of the men who died in Andersonville Prison, photographs of their grave stones are included. Of the men who survived, their exchange or parole information that is known, is provided. A federal law in 1791 prohibited blacks from serving in either the state militias or the U.S. Army, even though the first known casualty of the Revolutionary War was a black soldier, Crispus Attucks, killed at the battle of Bunker Hill.
By the time of the Civil War, President Lincoln feared the border states would leave the Union if black soldiers were allowed to serve. It wasn’t until President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 that colored regiments were officially sanctioned.
In spite of that proclamation, the first colored regiments were actually formed in Louisiana, Kansas and South Carolina in late 1862.
In May, 1863, the War Department issued Order Number 143, setting up the Bureau of Colored Troops, and assigning Assistant Adjutant General Charles W. Foster to oversee the recruitment of colored troops. The regiments raised were numbered as the 1st USCT, etc. in numerical order except for regiments in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Louisiana.
In total, there were 179,975 US Colored troops in one hundred thirty-five infantry regiments, six USCT cavalry regiments, twelve USCT heavy artillery regiments, and ten USCT light artillery regiments. An additional 9,695 served in the U.S. Navy. The USCT appeared in four hundred forty-nine engagements including thirty-nine major battles.
Records indicate that 68,178 black soldiers died in the war, but only 2,751 were killed in action.
Almost half of the US Colored Troops at Andersonville Prison were brought to the stockade after being captured at the Battle of Olustee, Florida on February 20, 1864. Other black soldiers had been captured at various other battles including Fort Wagner.
Four USCT units participated in the Olustee battle (also known as Ocean Pond) including the 8th USCT, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers, the 35th USCT (also known as 1st North Carolina) and the 2nd North Carolina). The combined USCT regiments provided almost 2000 troops for the battle.
The Union troops were defeated soundly at Olustee. USCT losses included about 90 killed, over 400 wounded and almost two hundred missing in action. Forty-seven including two white officers of the USCT were captured and taken to Andersonville.
The battle of Olustee was unique in the civil war, to have colored soldiers taken prisoner. Mostly the colored soldiers were killed when they were captured.
Of the one hundred and three US Colored troops at Andersonville, most is known about two – white officer Major Archibald Bogle of the 1st North Carolina (35th USCT) and Corporal James Gooding of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer. Major Bogle was the highest ranking USCT soldier in the stockade and therefore was appointed their commanding officer. Corporal Gooding was educated and had written a letter to President Lincoln about the unfairness in the pay discrepancies between colored and white troops. Colored soldiers received $10 per month with a clothing allowance deducted from that, whereas white soldiers received $13 per month and received additional funds for clothing.
Ironically there are newspaper accounts concerning both Bogle and Gooding, and each was reported to have died at the battle of Olustee. Neither man died there. Major Bogle, incarcerated with the enlisted men because he was a white officer of a colored regiment, was wounded at Olustee and survived his incarceration.
Corporal Gooding died at Olustee and is buried in the Andersonville Prison cemetery.
The one hundred and three USCT at Andersonville Prison came from ten different regiments including the 1st North Carolina (35th USCT), 2nd North Carolina, 16th USCT (Tennessee), 17th USCT, 18th USCT, 30th Connecticut, 45th USCT, 54th Massachusetts Volunteers, and the 137th USCT. Thirty-four died in the prison. Only one has an unmarked grave.
Sixty nine of the USCT soldiers survived Andersonville Prison. Twelve from the 54th Massachusetts were transferred to the Confederate States Military Prison at Florence, South Carolina. They all died within one month of their transfer and are buried in unmarked graves at the Florence Stockade.
Officially 12,912 died in Andersonville Prison including 443 unknown Union soldiers. Prisoner Dorence Atwater made list of all men who died in Andersonville. When he was transferred out of the prison, he smuggled out a duplicate list so that the memories of the men who died in the prison could be honored. Nurse Clara Barton led a delegation who went to Andersonville to place a marker on each of the known graves.
It is quite amazing that although the prisoners at Andersonville prison did not have adequate clean water, food or medicine, most are interred under a headstone with their name and regiment.
The men who survived their long imprisonment at Andersonville Prison suffered both physical and psychological damages. Many were not recognizable to their own families when they returned home. It is truly a horror story of man’s inhumanity to man.
It is timely that finally the U.S. Colored Troops incarcerated at the prison also get their just acknowledgements.
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