Johnson, colored. It was
mustered into service during the latter part of the summer and went
into camp near Knoxville, Tennessee. Here an order came from Corps
Headquarters, at Lexington, Kentucky, directing that nine of the
officers, including one major, should appear before a board of
examiners in order to give evidence of their fitness to command. The
officers named, regarding this as uncalled for, immediately tendered
their resignations. The vacancies thus created were filled by the
Governor of the State, the appointees being white men. These white
officers on arriving at the camp and finding themselves unwelcome,
immediately followed in the wake of their colored predecessors, and
tendered their resignations.
The difficulties arising from this friction were somehow adjusted, but
in what manner the reports available at this time do not show. Moving
to Macon, Georgia, the regiment remained in the service until some
time in the winter, when it was mustered out. Much was said by the
local papers to the detriment of the men composing this regiment, but
viewing their action from the standpoint of the civilian and citizen,
it does not appear reprehensible. They had volunteered with the
understanding that their own officers, officers with whom they were
well acquainted, and in whose friendship they held a place, should
command them, and when they saw these officers displaced and white
strangers put in their stead, they felt a pardonable indignation, and
took their own way of expressing it.
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