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From The Sterling Standard, December 11, 1896
How It Was Observed By Colored Troops
The Ole Bull of the Accordian—A Sable Nightingale—Christmas
Gifts—A Happy Lot of Children of a Larger Growth
I enlisted after graduation at Yale in the Twentieth Connecticut
regiment and was commissioned first lieutenant of Company
F. Our service during 1862 and 1863 was with the Army of the
Potomac until after the battle of Gettysburg, in which we
participated, when the Twelfth corps, under the command of
General Hooker, “Fighting Joe,” was sent to form
a part of General Sherman’s army. About this time the
government was recruiting regiments of colored troops, a measure
I approved, because I thought the negroes should fight for
their own freedom and the elevation of their own race, and
because, in other words, as was said at the time, a negro
would stop a bullet as effectively as a white man. I believed,
too, that properly officered and led the negroes would fight
well, a belief that was confirmed by experience.
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