at number of colored men could be promptly raised in Ohio. I
have advised and still do advise, that those disposed to enter the
service promptly join the Massachusetts regiments. * * * Having
requested the Governor of Massachusetts to organize the colored men from
Ohio into separate companies, so far as practicable, and also to keep me
fully advised of the names, age, and place of residence of each, Ohio
will have the full benefit of all enlistments from the State, and the
recruits themselves the benefit of the State Associations to the same
extent nearly as if organized into a State regiment.' And to persons
proposing to recruit said companies he wrote that all commissions would
be issued by the Governor of Massachusetts. In this course he had the
sanction if not the original suggestion of the Secretary of War.
Afterward his applications for authority to raise an Ohio regiment were
for sometime refused, but finally he secured it, and the One Hundred and
Twenty-Seventh was the quick result. Unfortunately it was numbered the
Fifth United States Colored. The result of all this was that Ohio
received credit for little over a third of her colored citizens who
volunteered for the war."--_Reid's Ohio in the War, Vol. I, p. 176._

CHAPTER III.

RECRUITING AND ORGANIZING IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

"Private Miles O'Reilly" was the _nom de plume_ of a talented literary
gentleman of the city of New York, who wrote much in humorous prose and
verse. His real name was Charles G. Halpine. After an honorable service
in the war, rising to high rank, he was elected Register of New York,
and died suddenly while in office, in 1868. The following sketches from
his pen, published during the war, give an account of matters connected
with the recruiting and organizing of negro troops in South Carolina,
and are quoted here as interesting historical facts connected with the
subject:

"Black troops are now an established success, and
hereafter--while the race can furnish enough able-bodied
males--the probability would seem that one-half the
permanent naval and military forces of the United States
will be drawn from this material, under the guidance and
control of the white officers. To-day there is much
competition among the field and staff officers of our white
volunteers--more especially in those regiments about being
disbanded--to obtain commission of like or even lower grades
in the colo