From Enslavement to Union Soldier

I do not know whether they had told President Lincoln about me before or not, but the General pointed to me and said, “This is the little fellow who got up a colored regiment.” President Lincoln shook hands with me and said, “It is a good thing. What do you want?” I said, “I have a thousand men. We want to help fight to free our race. We want to know if you will take us in the service?” He said, “You have got good pluck. But I can’t take you now because you are contraband of war and not American citizens yet. But hold on to your society and there may be a chance for you.”HTMLBREAKOn January 1, 1863, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which made me and all the rest of my race free. The thing we expected was that we would be taken into the federal service at once. It was not until May 28, 1863, however, that the thing we had hoped for so long came to pass. I was appointed Sergeant of Company G, being the first colored man to be accepted into the federal service and the only colored man that furnished the government a thousand men in the Civil War.