colored sergeants from the Regular Army who were given
commissions in the volunteer service it would not be extravagant to
say that all were men of worth, well-tried in the service, and there
was scarcely one of them but could have successfully commanded a
company. Lieutenant A.J. Smith, formerly First Sergeant in the
Twenty-fifth Infantry, was so well informed in the paper work of the
army and in company administration particularly that he was regarded
as an authority, and he was so well experienced in the whole life of a
soldier, in camp, field, garrison and in battle, that it would have
been difficult to find his superior in the army. To the credit of all
of the enlisted men of the Regular Army referred to, who received
commissions in the volunteer service, all served honorably and were
mustered out without bringing any scandal of any sort upon the
service.

The colored volunteers in the service acquitted themselves as well as
the average volunteer, and when mustered out proceeded to their homes
about as others did. The treatment accorded them in some of the
Southern cities, especially in Nashville, Tennessee, did not speak
well for the loyalty of that section, nor was it such as might
reasonably be expected from a people who had fared so well in the
offices and honors of the short war. From the best sources available,
it seems incumbent to say that the many charges alleged against the
colored volunteers for excessive rioting and disorder were without
proper foundation, and the assaults made upon them unjustifiable and
cruel. The spirit of the assailants is best seen from a description of
the attack made upon the unarmed discharged soldiers of the Eighth
Immuners in Nashville, already alluded to. This description was made
by the sheriff who participated in the brutality. An officer who was
on the train, and who was asleep at the time, when aroused went into
the car where the men were and found that they had been beaten and
robbed, and in some instances their discharges taken from them and
torn up, and their weapons and money taken from them by citizens. It
was about one o'clock A.M. and the men were generally asleep when
attacked. The sheriff gloats over it in language which ought not be
allowed to disappear:

"It was the best piece of work I ever witnessed. The police
went to the depot, not armed with the regulation 'billy,'
but carrying stout hickory clubs about two and one-half feet
long.