27th USCT: A Black Regiment from Ohio & A Miscarriage of Justice

Flag of the 27th USCT
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There is a recent scholarly history of the 27th USCT called “For Their Own Cause.” I used the book extensively in putting this scrapbook together. Here is my review:

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/fo…y-kelly-mezurek-a-black-ohio-regiment.138659/

Kelly Mezurek, the author of For Their Own Cause, is the leading academic scholar on the 27th USCT. Here is what she wrote about the composition of the regiment:

The majority of men who served in the 27th USCT tended to be young, with reported ages that ranged from seventeen to forty-five. There were soldiers who exaggerated their age, including at least two who were sixteen and another who was only fourteen….The 27th mustered in eighty soldiers who stated their ages were between forty and forty-five.

For the most part, though, the men’s ages in the 27th were fairly representative of all Northern soldiers and all USCT. The average recorded age in the regiment at enlistment was almost twenty-five years. Just over 43.5 percent of the soldiers reported their age as twenty-one and under, and only 21.6 percent said they were thirty and over. The most common age stated at muster in was eighteen. General statistics for the USCT overall indicate an average age of just under twenty-six years, with 26 percent aged thirty and over, and the most frequent age at enlistment was eighteen. For comparison, Northern soldiers as a whole had a medium age of twenty-four years by 1864, with 40 percent under the age of twenty-one and 25 percent aged thirty years and over. The largest single age group when recruited for all Union men was also eighteen years of age. [From: Mezurek, Kelly D.. For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (Civil War in the North) (Kindle Locations 1054-1057). Kent State University Press. Kindle Edition.}

More on the backgrounds of the men in the regiment from Professor Mezurek:

The soldiers’ prewar domestic lives differed slightly from those of the average Northerner, white or USCT. Most men in the 27th lived in rural areas or small towns, reflecting both the state’s black population and the nation as well. Overall, more blacks were native born than were white Northern troops. [Id. Kindle Locations 1067-1069]

According to Professor Mezurek, several factors retarded the recruitment of the 27th.

1. The 54th and 55th Mass had already recruited in the state before the regiment was organized. Other states’ USCT regiments had also recruited in Ohio. An estimated 3,000 black Ohioans had joined out of state outfits before the 27th began recruiting.
2. The discriminatory pay rate.
3. Even unskilled black laborers could make more money as a day labor than they would earn as a black soldier in the army.
4. In 1864 Whites could receive a $100 bounty that blacks were ineligible for.

Professor Mezurek, author of the new regimental history of the 27th, points out that the regiment was chronically short of officers. Like other black regiments, all the officers were white. This meant that officers were not elected by the men, and that if an officer was killed or wounded he could not be replaced by promoting a man from the ranks.

The initial organization of the regiment was hindered by the slowness in appointing officers to it. While the regiment needed 35 officers, by the end of February, 1864 there were only eight serving with the regiment. It was not until March 24, 1864 that Lt. Col. Albert M. Blackman arrived to take command of the 27th.

Albert Blackman:

A quarter of the officers had no prior military experience before joining the 27th.

At least five of the officers were immigrants. One each came from Poland, Germany, and England. Two were from Ireland. Irish-born Lt. Col. John W. Donnellan eventually took command of the regiment.

[Source of stats: Mezurek, Kelly D.. For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (Civil War in the North) (Kindle Location 1841). Kent State University Press. Kindle Edition.]

In April, the 27th moved by rail and steamer to Virginia to join Burnside’s IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Along the way, men in Pittsburg had thrown stones at one of the companies and in Baltimore they had been cheered by a crowd. On April 25 they marched past Lincoln who reviewed them from a balcony at the Willard Hotel in Washington.

They were placed in Ferrero’s Fourth Division, an almost all-black division. Ferrero had not had military experience before the war, apart from teaching West Pointers how to dance. He was an early joiner of the Union army and quickly rose to command a regiment. He had a generally good record from 1861 through 1863.

In May, 1864, Ferrero brigaded the 27th with his First Brigade under Joshua Siegfried. On May 4th and 5th Ferrero’s division moved towards the Wilderness. The black regiments were near the fighting at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, but were in the role of guarding supply trains against possible cavalry attacks. Over the next week, the regiment encountered fire from pickets and guerrillas. The 27th was not in an advantageous position. Its commander Lt. Col. Blackman was back in Ohio on a recruiting mission and three of its companies had not yet joined it. In early June, the 27th and the other regiments helped to liberate 500 slaves. After this, the 27th was finally moved to the front at Petersburg.

Over the next month, the 27th was put to work building the Union defenses at Petersburg. Black units did a disproportionate amount of this dirty, backbreaking, work.

USCT at Petersburg.

On July 30, 1864 the men of the 27th were awakened and told to have breakfast. At 4:45 AM the explosion was detonated and the massive Crater was created. Union artillery opened fire at 5:30AM. At 6:00AM the 27th moved into the covered way that was used as an approach to the battle. They stayed there for an hour. At 7:30AM, the 27th got the order to go into battle. Because the brigades that had gone in earlier had become a confused mass at the Crater, the black regiments were blocked by their own comrades and only made progress around 8AM. The 43rd USCT led the way, followed by two other black regiments, with the 27th fourth in line. The 27th went into their first real battle without their commander.

Immigrant artist Alfred Waud sketched the advance of USCT from the covered way and past fortifications on their way to the Crater:

Mahone’s Counterattack:

At 9:45AM Meade called off further advances, essentially conceding the failure of the attempt. Fighting, however, would continue throughout the day as Union troops caught in the Crater attempted to extricate themselves.

According to Kelly Mezurek the toll in the regiment was:

twelve soldiers killed in action, two more who died later as a result of their injuries, and sixty-four wounded. In the confusion that followed, over thirty men were initially reported as missing in action, all but eight of whom were later accounted for by their officers. The other twenty-two, who had been taken to hospitals, eventually returned to their companies. Records confirm that rebels captured at least six men who became prisoners of war. The black regiment from Ohio also lost three officers killed, two wounded, and one taken prisoner of war. On August 8 the number of casualties grew when Capt. Alfred W. Pinney died after surgeons amputated his injured arm. [Mezurek, Kelly D.. For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (Civil War in the North) (Kindle Locations 2654-2659). Kent State University Press. Kindle Edition.]

In August of 1864 hundreds of newly recruited men were sent to the 27th from Ohio as replacements. More men arrived in September. On September 20, the regiment had 1,100 men in it, although 250 were unavailable. This embarrassment of riches led the army to move 95 of the men to other regiments.

Blackman sent a detachment of six men under the command of Adj. Albert G. Jones to circle around the battery. Stunned Confederates, who found retreat impossible, watched in the bright moonlight as General Whiting asked, “To whom have I the honor of surrendering with my forces?” Jones said, “To General Blackman, of the 27th United States Colored Troops.” [Mezurek, Kelly D.. For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (Civil War in the North) (Kindle Locations 3206-3208). Kent State University Press. Kindle Edition.]

The 27th now took control of hundreds of surrendered Confederate soldiers. Jones wrote later: “the very thought of surrendering to colored troops was like gall and wormwood to them; but such was the fate of war, and the master was compelled to march behind the bayonet held in the hands of a former slave.”

Map of Fort Fisher. The 27th was on the landward side:

On February 26, the men of the 27th assisted newly freed Union prisoners. The entire regiment turned out to prepare food for the former POWs who were in shockingly emaciated conditions.

On Feb. 27, 1865 Lt. Col. Donnellan, who had been badly wounded at Hatcher’s Run, returned to the regiment and Blackman took leave. Donnellan would soon formally take command of the regiment. Unfortunately for Donnellan, he soon found out that Blackman had been a terrible record keeper and his first days in command were spent rounding up missing muster rolls for Gen. Terry.

Now part of Sherman’s forces, the 27th moved towards Goldsboro. Sherman saw black troops under his command more as laborers than as combatants. Throughout April the 27th participated in the pursuit of Johnson’s army.

The surrender of Joe Johnson’s army ended the 27th USCT’s wartime service. The regiment now took on the role of being part of North Carolina’s occupation force. On June 23, 1865 Lt. Col. Donnellan wrote that many of his men had not been paid since August, 1864. The men of the 27th were also dissatisfied that while much of the army was being demobilized, they were still serving.

Over the summer, many of the regiment’s officers either left the service or were assigned to occupation duties away from the regiment. The regiment was finally mustered out on September 21, 1865.

When the men returned to Ohio, they initially went to Camp Chase where they were paid off. They the went to the state house for a final ceremony before going home. While many African Americans assembled on their behalf at the state house, only one Republican official was there. A preacher spoke warning the men that many whites wanted to expel the black population from Ohio. He told them they might have to use their rifles later to defend their communities. This then was the end of the 27th USCT. They had helped win freedom, but they still had to struggle for full citizenship and respect.

The veterans of the 27th resumed civilian life in a state seriously divided over race. In 1867, Ohio ratified the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. A year later, the legislature tried to rescind that ratification. When the legislature first took up the ratification of the 15th Amendment, the legislature initially rejected it in 1869. It would not ratify until 1870.

In the campaigns for the two amendments, Republicans used the sacrifice of the 5th USCT and the 27th as justifications for ratification.

In 1870, Circleville, Ohio election officials blocked blacks from voting. Four veterans of the 27th were among the African Americans who organized a petition to Senator John Sherman and Representative John Bingham demanding Federal assistance in protecting black suffrage.

The last Ohio anti-black laws were not repealed until 1886.

When a veterans’ home was opened in Sandusky, USCT demanded to be admitted on an equal basis. About 3% of the men provided housing there were black.

According to For Their Own Cause, 5.2% of the veterans of the 27th USCT sought the help of Ohio’s soldiers’ homes. This is roughly the same percentage as white Ohio vets.

Black vets were also eligible for the same pensions as white veterans, however, while 52% of white veterans applied, only 32% of black vets nationally applied.

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) veterans’ organization was one of the few national organizations that was racially integrated after the war. When some GAR posts blackballed members, the national leadership warned that blocking veterans from joining based on race was not only against the rules, it was unpatriotic.

From For Their Own Cause:

The veterans’ sense of brotherhood often proved more important than race in Ohio; a number of men from the 27th USCT joined integrated GAR posts. Although it was not as common in other Northern states, in the Midwest more black veterans joined interracial posts. Ohio, for example, had almost sixty racially mixed chapters, and within these organizations African American men participated as political and social equals. In 1892 W. A. Brand Post 98, of Urbana, included at least six black veterans in its membership, and Eugene Reynolds Post 441, in Bellefontaine, and Austin Post 403, in Cleveland, both included white and black comrades. Between 1889 and 1895, 50 percent of the black GAR members from Ohio who died came from racially mixed posts. Five of the deceased men had served in the 27th, belonging to posts in Miami County, Melrose, Waverly, Bellefontaine, and Elyria. Of the deaths reported until 1914, only one man of the 27th who died came from an all-black post, P. C. Daniels Post 500, in Xenia. [Mezurek, Kelly D.. For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (Civil War in the North) (Kindle Locations 5042-5047). Kent State University Press. Kindle Edition.]

The struggle continued through the Jim Crow era as the men of the 27th saw their hard-won rights taken away from them. Simpson Younger was a member of Company A. After the war he went to Oberlin College and became the first black college baseball player. He also became one-half of a Missouri Supreme Court decision- the losing half. He and a female companion had purchased orchestra seats at a theater. When they presented their tickets, they were told that they had to sit in the balcony because they were Black. You need to read this decision to see what Black veterans were up against, particularly in a former “Slave State” like Missouri. In the case of Younger v. Judah (1892) the Missouri Supreme Court ruled:

The evidence discloses these facts: After the plaintiff had purchased the tickets as alleged, he and his companion, a colored woman, passed up a flight of stairs. An employee, stationed at the upper landing, received the tickets, detached portions of them, and handed the seat-coupons back to the plaintiff. He and the woman passed to the orchestra floor, where he gave the seat-coupons to an usher, and they all three started toward the seats. On their way, this usher was met by another one, and the two had a conversation. Plaintiff in his evidence says they held a “whispered confab for a few minutes,” that during this conversation he overheard the word “n*gger,” that one of the ushers informed him that he could not have the seats, that there had been some mistake. After a further conversation the usher said: “You cannot stay here; it is against the rules.” The usher then proposed to exchange the tickets for others and seat him in a different part of the house, and for that purpose started up to the balcony, but the plaintiff refused to follow.

As to what then occurred, the plaintiff testified: “I went on down to the box office and presented the tickets to the person who sold them to me, and asked him why I could not have the seats. He seemed to be indignant and said, ‘You can have them.’ He looked at me again and I suppose he discovered that drop of African blood in me and said, ‘It is a mistake; those seats are occupied.’ ” The person in charge of the ticket office offered to exchange the tickets for tickets in the balcony or refund the money paid by plaintiff, but the latter refused both offers…

The tickets for seats in the orchestra were sold to plaintiff on the supposition that they were to be used by white persons. This is evident. It is clear too that defendant had a rule to the effect that colored persons attending his place of amusement should occupy sears in the balcony; and the only real question in this case is, whether he had a right to make and enforce such, a rule. If lie had, the plaintiff has no cause of action.

It is earnestly insisted on behalf of the plaintiff that such a rule amounts to discrimination against colored persons, and that such discrimination is prohibited by the fourteenth amendment of the constitution of the United States. The clauses of that amendment relied upon by the plaintiff are those whereby it is declared that “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the United States, * * * nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” These clauses do not undertake to confer new rights, nor do they undertake to regulate individual rights. They are simply prohibitory of state legislation and of state action. All this was held and ruled in the Civil Rights Cases, 109 U. S. 3. As there stated “individual invasion of individual rights is not the subject-matter of the amendment.”

…When colored persons attend theaters and other places of amusement, conducted and carried on by white persons, custom assigns to them separate seats. Such separation does not necessarily assert or imply inferiority on the part of one or the other. It does no more than work out natural laws and race peculiarities. It ordinarily contributes to the convenience and comfort of both. The colored man has and is entitled to have all the rights of a citizen, but it cannot be said’ that equality of rights means identity in all respects. Here the defendant did not exclude or attempt to exclude colored persons from his theater. He provided accommodations for them, but in doing so required them to purchase tickets for and take seats in the balcony, and this rule adopted by him accord-s with the custom and usage prevailing in this state. Such custom has the force and effect of law until some competent legislative power shall establish some other and different rule. The defendant’s rule was no more than a reasonable regulation which he had a right to make and enforce.

The judgment is, therefore, affirmed.

All concur.