Appointments for the evening exercises were made by the President as follows: Marshal, Gen. W. W. Henry; chaplain, Rev. E. J. Ranslow of Swanton; toastmaster, Col. G. W. Hooker. The society then adjourned until evening.

THE PUBLIC EXERCISES

were held in the evening in the Hall of the General Assembly. After music by the Montpelier band and prayer by Rev. Mr. Ranslow, the President introduced Lieut. J. H. Goulding as having been appointed, when a cadet in Norwich University, by President Lincoln to a lieutenantcy in the Sixth U. S. Colored Infantry, with which he served during the last two years of the war.

COL. GOULDING'S ADDRESS.

THE COLORED TROOPS IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

This subject, hitherto, I believe, not touched upon by any of the many distinguished men and comrades who have preceded me as speakers before this Reunion Society of Vermont Officers, is one well worthy the brief attention we shall be able to give it to-night.

The conditions under which the contest between the Federal Government and rebellious states was begun and carried on for the first year or two of its history, seemed to forbid the employment of colored citizens in the ranks of the army. They had for many years, however, been enlisted in the navy and the records of our earlier wars disclose the fact that a colored volunteer at Bunker Hill fired the shot that killed the doughty major who had commanded the British force in the raid on Concord. Bancroft states that at that day their right to bear arms in the public defence was as little disputed in New England as any of their other rights. They took their places not in separate corps but in the ranks with white men and their names may be found on the pension rolls of the country side by side with those of the other soldiers of the Revolution. In the war of 1812, New York raised two regiments of these

men, while Jackson employed such troops in his service at New Orleans and emphatically attested their bravery in general orders.

In the war of the Rebellion, bluff old General Hunter commanding at Hilton Head in the spring of 1862, appears to have been the first openly and avowedly to organize colored men as soldiers. Immediately upon his action being known in Washington, the Hon. Mr. Wickliffe of Kentucky, a member of the House, moved, June 5, 1862, a resolution inquiring of Secretary Stanton whether General Hunter had organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers, composed of black men, fugitive slaves, and appointed a colonel and other officers therefor, his authority for so doing, whether he had furnished them with arms, clothing, etc. General Hunter's letter of explanation, which he requested should accompany Secretary Stanton's answer to the House, informs the Hon Wickliffe, "That no regiment of fugitive slaves has been, or is being organized in this department. There is, however, a fine regiment of persons whose late masters are fugitive rebels, who everywhere fly before the appearance of the national flag. So far, indeed, are the persons composing this regiment from seeking to avoid the presence of their late owners, that they are all working with remarkable industry to place themselves in a position to go in full and effective pursuit of their traitorous proprietors." The Hon. Wickliffe moved a vote of censure to Gen. Hunter for his insulting answer, whereupon the House, instead of adopting such a vote, adjourned. Gen. Butler at New Orleans, himself strongly opposed to such recruiting, after being in some degree instrumental in causing the resignation of Gen. Phelps in July, 1862, for commencing the formation of negro regiments, yielded only four weeks later to the current of events, and called for colored volunteers and raised three regiments of colored infantry and two batteries of artillery.

As you will remember, Jeff Davis, another honorable gentleman, in his capacity as President of the so-called Confederate States, in this same month outlawed Generals Hunter, Phelps and Butler and all commissioned officers of colored regiments, reserving to himself the right to name the day of their execution if captured by the Confederacy.

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No sooner was the defeat of McClellan on the peninsula an assured fact, and the call made upon the loyal states for six hundred thousand more men, than the objections to having this class serve as soldiers began to be waived, and Congress in July, 1862, passed act enrolling the militia and making subject to draft, all able bodied male citizens between 18 and 45, without regard to color. Kansas raised a regiment called the Ist Kansas Colored Volunteers in August '62. In January '63, we find Secretary Stanton authorizing Gov. Andrew of Massachusetts, upon his own request, to raise colored troops and in pursuance thereof, the governor organized the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry, and the 4th and 5th Massachusetts Cavalry. New York, six or eight months later, followed with two regiments raised by the Loyal League of the city, though discountenanced by Governor Seymour.

Now all these soldiers were discriminated against by law. Their pay was limited to ten dollars a month, privates and non-commissioned officers alike, and their clothing was deducted therefrom, leaving the actual pay about seven dollars a month. For months and months many of these men refused. this pay, saying they would wait till their Uncle Sam could and would pay them the same as he did his other soldiers. The law so manifestly unjust was finally amended and the men paid in full from date of muster as they were entitled. Early in the summer of '63 the government took steps toward recruiting these men into regiments of its own independently of the states; a Bureau for Colored Troops was established in the War Department, and by authority of Congress a board of which Gen. Casey was President, was convened in Washington to examine applicants for commissions.

The board made such examinations as were directed by the Adjutant-General of the Army, and as I was at that time a cadet in Norwich University, I obtained through Senator Foot the necessary order, and in September '63 appeared before it. Of course military etiquette demanded that the aspirant should know nothing of the findings of the board and after the examination I returned home to await an appointment that I felt almost sure would never come. In fact, I heard of one, and only one, who left the board with any

assurance of its approval of any answer given; and he was examined for a medical office. The question of the surgeon present was "How would you, sir, cause your patient in the shortest possible time, to perspire freely?" The reply was promptly given, "I'd at once order him before this board for examination." In the course of a week or two I was surprised by a notice from the secretary of war that the President had appointed me a lieutenant in the 6th Regiment, U. S. Colored Troops, and that I was to report for duty to Col. Wagner commanding “Camp Wm. Penn" near Philadelphia. Finding the camp and reporting, I was assigned to a company and then hastened to the mess room where the commissioned officers were at supper—and so I met my future comrades in arms-men from New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ohio, and a dozen other states; Yankees, Pennsylvanians and Germans—one, short, round faced and jolly, from Cape Cod; another gaunt and tall from the Wisconsin pines; some from civil life, others bronzed and hardened by service since the ball opened at Bull Run. Many the jokes and stories that enlivened that board, which was the foretaste of army fare, many the rumors and queries as to our probable destination. Ah, how many in the coming campaigns ceased these inquiries and gave their lives for the cause and for our starry flag. The regiment was only awaiting the advent of the field officers and was being drilled as constantly as possible. The rank and file. came from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware and was composed largely of free men possessing many qualifications for good soldiers and of whom a large majority could both read and write.

Now the only way to go to war is to go, and so I wish to take you with me right into the ranks of this one regiment and give you a taste of real service. We are ready for the front; the field and staff have joined; the preliminary drills are over; our march through the miles of wondering, applauding Philadelphians is made; we have been fed at the famous Cooper Shop or Volunteer Refreshment Saloon run by the generosity and patriotism of the ladies of the Quaker City where so many thousands of our soldiers were made welcome on their way to or from the seat of war; now I'll just pack you on a common river steamer down at the foot of Walnut

street. You will not all get state rooms, nor even berths, and you will soon be finding fault with your birth into this world, unless I am mistaken. "Move along there, men, crowd up. You must not expect room enough to lie down all at the same time. Pack them in, Sergeant, you can't take all this boat for your company, there are nine others, you know." So the long blue rows are wedged in and a thousand men with all their traps and belongings go sailing down the river past Fort Delaware with its crowd of gray-backed rebel prisoners lounging in the sun, the bayonets of their guards at the wharf and on the ramparts glistening. Down we go meeting on our way heavily laden schooners, black propellers and puffing tugs bound cityward; past the long breakwater and out through the gateway between Cape May and Cape Henlopen, out into the tossing swells of the Atlantic. Sick? Don't ask me, it affects my stomach. stomach. Don't Don't your head snap, though? And how long and thin and hollow you seem presently, like an old book with the table of contents, yes and the contents too, gone— gone to stay. Roll? Pitch? Oh, yes. Every dive the bow makes you feel somehow as if the craft had started straight for the bottom and when she rises again and brings you up with her you really feel bad that she has not kept on going down. Now darkness covers the face of the deep; the phosphorescent waves flash their white teeth in the cold starlight. You seem to have passed out of the world with which you are acquainted; you shiver, and anon sleep, forgetful of every ill.

The morning sun brings cheer and warmth, and Old Point Comfort and in South Hampton Roads rest and quiet. We will unload you at Yorktown if you can uncoil your limbs and get ashore. How the ground sways under your feet at first. "Steady there." Up the bluffs, and through the ruinous old town and heavy rebel earthworks garrisoned partly by Vermonters now, we go; they don't know you to-day, you're colored, you must remember. This is the old field where more than one army has camped; it's almost night. "By the right of companies to the rear into column, march." "Stack arms. Here you are. Where are you going to lodge? How about supper? Fires gleam, great black kettles of coffee come around, loaves of bread from the commissary in the town, and shelter tents are pro