ach company under
a sergeant, and going through the most difficult movements, such as
division columns and oblique squares. And as to actual discipline, it
is doing no injustice to the line-officers of the regiment to say that
none of them received from the men more implicit obedience than
Color-Sergeant Rivers. * * * It always seemed to me an insult to those
brave men to have novices put over their heads, on the ground of color
alone, and the men felt it the more keenly as they remained longer in
the service. There were more than seven hundred enlisted men in the
regiment, when mustered out after more than three years' service. The
ranks had been kept full by enlistment, but there were only fourteen
line-officers instead of the full thirty. The men who should have
filled these vacancies were doing duty as sergeants in the ranks."[29]

Numerous expeditions were constantly on foot in the Department of the
South, having for their object the liberation of slaves still held to
service in neighborhoods remote from the Union camps, or to capture
supplies and munitions of war. Frequently these expeditions came in
conflict with armed bodies of rebels and hot engagements would ensue,
resulting in considerable loss of life. Colored soldiers were
particularly serviceable for this work because of their intimate
knowledge of the country and their zeal for the rescue of their
enslaved brethren.

One of these expeditions, composed of thirty colored soldiers and
scouts, commanded by Sergeant-Major Henry James, Third United States
Colored Troops, left Jacksonville, Florida, early in March, 1865, to
penetrate into the interior through Marion county. They destroyed
considerable property in the use of the rebel government, burned the
bridge across the Oclawaha River, and started on their return with
ninety-one Negroes whom they had rescued from slavery, four white
prisoners, some wagons and a large number of horses and mules. They
were attacked by a rebel band of more than fifty cavalry. The colored
soldiers commanded by one of their own number, defeated and drove off
the rebels, inflicting upon them the heavy loss of thirty men. After a
long and rapid march they arrived at St. Augustine, Florida, with a
loss of but two killed and four wounded, the expedition covering in
all five days. These colored soldiers and their colored commander were
thanked in orders by Major-General Q.A. Gilmore, commanding the
department, who was moved to decla