stration: HEADQUARTERS OF VINCENT COLLYER, SUPT. OF THE POOR AT
NEWBERNE N. C. Distributing clothing, captured from the Confederates, to
the free negroes.]

When Gen. Banks took command of the Gulf Department, Dec. 1862, he very
soon after found the negro troops an indispensable quantity to the
success of his expeditions; consequently he laid aside his prejudice,
and endeavored to out-Herod Gen. Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General of the
Army,--who in March had been dispatched on a military inspection tour
through the armies of the West and the Mississippi Valley, and also to
organize a number of negro regiments[15]--by issuing in May the
following order:

GENERAL ORDERS}
No. 40.}

_Corps d'Afrique._
HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF.
19TH ARMY CORPS,

_Opelousas_, May 1, 1863.

The Major General commanding the Department proposes the
organization of a corps d'armee of colored troops, to be
designated as the "Corps d'Afrique." It will consist
ultimately of eighteen regiments, representing all
arms--Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry, organized in three
Divisions of three Brigades each, with appropriate corps of
Engineers and flying Hospitals for each Division.
Appropriate uniforms, and the graduation of pay to
correspond with value of services, will be hereafter
awarded.

In the field, the efficiency of every corps depends upon the
influence of its officers upon the troops engaged, and the
practicable limits of one direct command is generally
estimated at one thousand men. The most eminent military
historians and commanders, among others Thiers and Chambray,
express the opinion, upon a full review of the elements of
military power, that the valor of the soldier is rather
acquired than natural. Nations whose individual heroism in
undisputed, have failed as soldiers in the field. The
European and American continents exhibit instances of this
character, and the military prowess of every nation may be
estimated by the centuries it has devoted to military
contest, or the traditional passion of its people for
military glory. With a race unaccustomed to military
service, much more depends on the immediate influence of
officers upon individual members, than with those that have
acquired more or less of warlike h