y too glad to find white men of
military capacity to take charge of the drilling and disciplining of the
troops. As an experiment he was more than lucky in the appointment of
Colonels Stafford and Daniels to the command of these regiments,
seconded by Lieut. Cols. Bassett and Hall, and Finnegass of the 3rd
Regiment. These officers proved themselves worthy of the trust reposed
in them, and made these regiments, in drill and discipline, second to
none in the Department of the Gulf. Notwithstanding the captains and
subordinate officers of the first and second regiments were men, who
like those in a large majority of the white regiments had never made
arms a profession, and, who, through American prejudice, had but very
limited opportunities for acquiring even the rudiments of a common
English education. Several of them, however, being mulattoes, had had
some training in the schools of the parishes, and some few in the higher
schools of France, and in the Islands of the Caribbean Sea. Maj. Dumas,
of the 2nd Regiment, whose slaves composed nearly one whole company, was
a gentleman of fine tact and ability, as were others.

Considering that they were all negroes, free and slave, their dash and
manly courage, no less than their military aptitude, was equal, and in
many instances superior, to those found in the regiments of Maine and
New York. The 3rd Regiment was officered by soldiers of undoubted
character and pluck, as they proved themselves to be, during the siege
of Port Hudson, especially Capt. Quinn, who won distinction and
promotion, as the record shows. The regiments raised thereafter were
officered, more or less, by the non-commissioned officers of the white
regiments, as a reward for gallantry and meritorious service upon the
field, or on account of proficiency in drill. This rule of selection
held good throughout all the departments in the organizing of negro
troops. In May, 1863, President Lincoln, with a view of correcting an
abuse that a certain commanding general had begun to practice in
assigning inferior, though brave, men to the command of negro regiments;
and in keeping with his new policy of arming the negroes, for which Gen.
Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General of the Army, had gone into the
Mississippi Valley region to raise twenty regiments, he appointed a
Board for the examination of those applying for commands in negro
regiments.

The "Record of the 7th Reg't. U.S. Colored Troops," in regard to the
matte