3] Ibid., p. 515.

[574] Sparks's Washington, vol. viii. pp. 322, 323.

[575] Biographical Sketch in "The National Portrait Gallery of
Distinguished Americans."

[576] Colored Patriots of the Revolution, p. 134.

[577] This return was discovered by the indefatigable Dr. George H.
Moore. It is the only document of the kind in existence.

CHAPTER XXVII.

NEGROES AS SOLDIERS.

1775-1783.

THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER.--BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.--GALLANTRY
OF NEGRO SOLDIERS.--PETER SALEM, THE INTREPID BLACK
SOLDIER.--BUNKER-HILL MONUMENT.--THE NEGRO SALEM POOR
DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF BY DEEDS OF DESPERATE VALOR.--CAPTURE
OF GEN. LEE.--CAPTURE OF GEN. PRESCOTT.--BATTLE OF RHODE
ISLAND.--COL. GREENE COMMANDS A NEGRO REGIMENT.--MURDER OF
COL. GREENE IN 1781.--THE VALOR OF THE NEGRO SOLDIERS.

As soldiers the Negroes went far beyond the most liberal expectations
of their stanchest friends. Associated with white men, many of whom
were superior gentlemen, and nearly all of whom were brave and
enthusiastic, the Negro soldiers of the American army became worthy of
the cause they fought to sustain. Col. Alexander Hamilton had said,
"_their natural faculties are as good as ours_;" and the assertion was
supported by their splendid behavior on all the battle-fields of the
Revolution. Endowed by nature with a poetic element, faithful to
trusts, abiding in friendships, bound by the golden threads of
attachment to places and persons, enthusiastic in personal endeavor,
sentimental and chivalric, they made hardy and intrepid soldiers. The
daring, boisterous enthusiasm with which they sprang to arms disarmed
racial prejudice of its sting, and made friends of foes.

Their cheerfulness in camp, their celerity in the performance of
fatigue-duty, their patient endurance of heat and cold, hunger and
thirst, and their bold efficiency in battle, made them welcome
companions everywhere they went. The officers who frowned at their
presence in the army at first, early learned, from experience, that
they were the equals of any troops in the army for severe service in
camp, and excellent fighting in the field.

The battle of Bunker Hill was one of the earliest and most important
of the Revolution. Negro soldiers were in the action of the 17th of
June, 1775, and nobly did their duty. Speaking of this engagement,
Bancroft says,--

"Nor should history forget to record that, as in the army at
Cambri