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5,052 "Liberated" Slaves go to War in the place of 5,052 Northern White Men
"Recruiting of men in States in rebellion to be credited to loyal States.
(Under section 3 of the act approved July 4, 1864.)
The law authorizing recruiting in the rebel States was published on the 6th of July, 1864; on the 9th regulations to carry it into effect were issued. Every facility which the War Department could control was afforded to make the law effective for raising troops.
The results were as follows:
Total number of recruiting agents appointed by Governors of loyal States to recruit in rebel States
......1,045
Total number of recruits credited through these agents
......5,052
These recruits are embraced in the preceding enumeration of volunteers mustered into service. They were credited to the States by whose agents they were obtained.
The authority granted under this act was repealed by section 22, act of March 3, 1865, and on the 8th of March a a circular was issued from this office announcing the fact for the information and guidance of all concerned. No material advantage to the service resulted from this undertaking. All, or nearly all, of the recruits to be had in the rebel States were being obtained through the proper military officers and agents of the War Department. Without increasing the number of men enlisted, the law enabled States in the North to lay claim to credits for the men enlisted in the South, and thus reduce their quota for draft.
To obtain these credits local bounties were lavishly provided. They were unnecessary, and did not have the effect of increasing the number of recruits obtained, but in many instances enriched bounty brokers and corrupted military officers."
"Of the number of colored troops credited to States 5,052 were obtained, under the provisions of section 3, act of Congress approved July 4, 1864, from the States that had seceded."
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
This is discussed in Forged in Battle, The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers by Joseph Glattharr on page 64. Sherman and other Union generals opposed this policy due to the recruits being their prime workers who performed valuable service that they could not do without. These recruits were usually given less or none of the bounty that the states were giving to white recruits. Corrupt recruiters made more money in this way.
__________________
"Those who forget to remember the past are condemned to repeat it", George Santayana.
Sherman described an instance of such recruitments in his memoirs: in Savannah "ravenous" state agents (interested mainly in the profit from bounties) lured and carried away some servants and the corps of pioneers. He criticized the policy, because every enlistment of a slave "took away one white man from the ranks".
State agents? Could you please provide more detail on such agents?
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Well, it will be the best solution if I simply quote general Sherman's memoirs (from Chapter 22):
"When we reached Savannah, we were beset by ravenous State agents from Hilton Head, who enticed and carried away our servants, and the corps of pioneers which we organized, and which had done such excellent service. On one occasion, my own aide-de-camp, Colonel Audenried, found at least a hundred poor negroes shut up in a house and pen, waiting for the night, to be conveyed stealthily to Hilton Head. They appealed to him for protection, alleging that they had been told that they must be soldiers, that "Massa Lincoln" wanted them, etc. I never denied the slaves a full opportunity for voluntary enlistment, but I did prohibit force to be used, for I knew that the State agents were more influenced by the profit from the large bounties then being paid than by any love for the country or of the colored race".
Hilton Head would have been in a different dept.(dept. of the south), then Sherman's army. So it was poaching in Sherman's eyes. The dept. of the South included a large number of black regiments, the First South Carolina Volunteers as well as the 54th and 55th Massachusetts, among others.
A partial report (from Nov.'64 on) of states with the largest number of recruits-
New York...............1,357
Massachusetts........1,171
Connecticut..............701
No other state had over 100.
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
Hilton Head would have been in a different dept.(dept. of the south), then Sherman's army. So it was poaching in Sherman's eyes. The dept. of the South included a large number of black regiments, the First South Carolina Volunteers as well as the 54th and 55th Massachusetts, among others.
These two regiments were mainly enlisted from Canada West...
State agents? Could you please provide more detail on such agents?
Sincerely,
Unionblue
From Forged in Battle, page 64,
"In truth, these civilian recruiters contributed only marginally to the war effort while exasperating both senior military commanders and officers in charge of the organization of black units. After four months of work, more than one thousand state agents had registered with the Provost Marshal General's Office, and they had enlisted only three thousand freedmen," and only five thousand freedman by wars end.
__________________
"Those who forget to remember the past are condemned to repeat it", George Santayana.
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5,052 "Liberated" Slaves go to War in the place of 5,052 Northern White Men 
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