A board of examiners was appointed and all COLORED
officers of the Third Regiment were ordered before it. They refused to
obey the order and tendered their resignations in a body. The
resignations were accepted and that was the beginning of the end. Like
action with the same results followed in the First and Second
Regiments, and colored officers were soon seen no more. All were
driven out of the service except three or four who were never ordered
to appear before the examining board. Among these was your humble
servant. I was then Captain of Company A, Second Regiment, but I soon
tired of my isolation and resigned."
Later on in the war, with the general enlistment of colored soldiers,
a number of colored chaplains and some surgeons were commissioned.
Towards the close of the war several colored line officers and a field
officer or two were appointed. The State of Massachusetts was foremost
in according this recognition to colored soldiers. But these later
appointments came, in most cases, after the fighting was all over, and
gave few opportunities to command. At the close of the war, with the
muster out of troops the colored officers disappeared and upon the
reorganization of the army, despite the brilliant record of the
colored soldiers, no Negro was given a commission of any sort.
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