Heading: (African American, 1864-1865)
Author:
Title: Manuscript Quartermaster Report and printed document relating to "Colored Troops" of the Union Army during the Civil War.
Place Published: Eastport, Mississippi and Philadelphia
Publisher:
Date Published: ca.1864 and 1865
Description:

2 items:

• 
  Nelson, Lt. George Francis, Assistant Quartermaster, 13th US Colored Troops. Eastport, Mississippi, February 22, 1865. Autograph Document Signed: Daily Report of Quartermaster Stores. 7pp. 7½x12½", folded to 3x8" and tied at the top with a pink ribbon.


• 
  Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, Philadelphia, ca. 1864. 5x8", unused printed form letter informing applicants for free professional training as officers in command of Black troops that their application was incomplete without "testimonials of good character."

Lt. Nelson's report, written as his brave Black Regiment briefly halted in Mississippi while pursuing the remnants of General Hood's Army south from Nashville through Alabama. It details some 200 articles of miscellaneous equipment - not including weapons - for both the 600 Black soldiers and 20 white officers of the Regiment, from an array of tools to ambulances, railroad lanterns, horseshoes, office desks, 50 gallons of alcohol and 93 gallons of olive oil. The 13th, like all Colored Troops Regiments, was commanded by well-trained white officers.

The 13th Regiment, mustered in Tennessee, is sometimes considered the most famous unit of Colored Troops for its extraordinary bravery at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864. Assaulting the ramparts of a Confederate battery, the 13th continued to advance under withering enemy fire, with no support from either white or black units which had pulled back. Carrying the day, the Regiment lost 50 troops and 4 officers killed and 160 wounded.

Many of the white officers who commanded Black troops were given free training in Philadelphia at a school directed by a retired Pennsylvania Colonel, under the aegis of a "Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments", with a special Board of Examiners very selectively choosing candidates to be commissioned, having promised the enlisted troops that the officers will experienced so that they will not go into battle with incompetent leaders.

Very good.