," was a sincere objection. They had
been so impressed with a sense of inferiority that the distinction
extended to the very principles of honor. "I ain't got colored-man
principles," said Corporal London Simmons, indignantly defending himself
from some charge before me. "I'se got white-gemman principles. I'se do
my best. If Cap'n tell me to take a man, s'pose de man be as big as
a house, I'll clam hold on him till I die, inception [excepting] I'm
sick."

But it was plain that this feeling was a bequest of slavery, which
military life would wear off. We impressed it upon them that they did
not obey their officers because they were white, but because they were
their officers, just as the Captain must obey me, and I the General;
that we were all subject to military law, and protected by it in
turn. Then we taught them to take pride in having good material for
noncommissioned officers among themselves, and in obeying them. On
my arrival there was one white first sergeant, and it was a question
whether to appoint others. This I prevented, but left that one, hoping
the men themselves would at last petition for his removal, which
at length they did. He was at once detailed on other duty. The
picturesqueness of the regiment suffered, for he was very tall and fair,
and I liked to see him step forward in the centre when the line of first
sergeants came together at dress-parade. But it was a help to discipline
to eliminate the Saxon, for it recognized a principle.

Afterwards I had excellent battalion-drills without a single white
officer, by way of experiment; putting each company under a sergeant,
and going through the most difficult movements, such as division-columns
and oblique-squares. And as to actual discipline, it is doing no
injustice to the line-officers of the regiment to say that none of
them received from the men more implicit obedience than Color-Sergeant
Rivers. I should have tried to obtain commissions for him and several
others before I left the regiment, had their literary education been
sufficient; and such an attempt was finally made by Lieutenant-Colonel
Trowbridge, my successor in immediate command, but it proved
unsuccessful. It always seemed to me an insult to those brave men to
have novices put over their heads, on the ground of color alone; and the
men felt it the more keenly as they remained longer in service. There
were more than seven hundred enlisted men in the regiment, when mustered
out after mo