o pay, at first, by placing them as laborers on
the pay-roll of the Chief Quartermaster; but it was his hope
that the obvious necessity and wisdom of the measure he had
thus presumed to adopt without authority, would secure for
it the immediate approval of the higher authorities, and the
necessary orders to cover the required pay and supply-issue
of the force he had in contemplation. If his course should
be endorsed by the War Department, well and good; if it were
not so indorsed, why, he had enough property of his own to
pay back to the Government all he was irregularly expending
in this experiment.

"But now, on the very threshold of this novel enterprise,
came the first--and it was not a trivial--difficulty. Where
could experienced officers be found for such an
organization? 'What! command niggers?' was the reply--if
possible more amazed than scornful--of nearly every
competent young lieutenant or captain of volunteers to whom
the suggestion of commanding this class of troops was made.
'Never mind,' said Hunter, when this trouble was brought to
his notice; 'the fools or bigots who refuse are enough
punished by their refusal. Before two years they will be
competing eagerly for the commission they now reject.'
Straightly there was issued a circular to all commanding
officers in the department, directing them to announce to
the non-commissioned officers and men of their respective
commands that commissions in the 'South Carolina Regiment of
Colored Infantry,' would be given to all deserving and
reputable sergeants, corporals; and men who would appear at
department headquarters, and prove able to pass an
examination in the manual and tactics before a Band of
Examiners, which was organized in a general order of current
date. Capt. Arthur M. Kenzie, of Chicago, aid-de-camp,--now
of Hancock's Veterans Reserve Corps--was detailed as Colonel
of the regiment, giving place, subsequently, in consequence
of injured health, to the present Brig.-Gen. James D.
Fessenden, then a captain in the Berdan Sharpshooters,
though detailed as acting aid-de-camp on Gen. Hunter's
staff. Capt. Kenzie, we may add, was Gen. Hunter's nephew,
and his appointment as Colonel was made partly to prove--so
violent was then the prejudice against negro troops--t