Report of Prisoners of War and Deserters Received and Disposed of, and Oaths adminis tered to Citizens, during the Month of January, 1864.

Cap

Chattanooga, Tenn.-Prisoners of war. tured: 44 commissioned officers, 591 enlisted men; aggregate, 635. Disposed of: 44 commissioned officers, 591 enlisted men; aggregate, 635. Deserters received and disposed of: by ProvostMarshal General, 594; by Captain Goodwin, A. P. M. G., 414; aggregate, 1008. Oaths administered to citizens: Allegiance, 45; Amnesty, 213; aggregate, 258.

The report of prisoners of war is taken from the register in Captain Goodwin's office. The report of oaths adininistered, from the records of

this office.

Report of Prisoners of War and Deserters Received and Disposed of, Oaths administered to Citizens, and Sales and Issues of Rations to Citizens, during the Month of February, 1864. Chattanooga, Tenn. Prisoners of war cap tured: 21 commissioned officers, 182 enlisted men; aggregate, 203. Deserters: 821 received, 821 paroled on oath. Oaths administered to citizens: Allegiance, 543; Amnesty, 263; aggregate, 806. Rations: sales-number of families, 506; number of persons, 2901; issues-number of families, 1032; number of persons, 5809; total number of families, 1538; number of persons,

8710.

Nashville, Tenn.-Prisoners of war captured: 38 commissioned officers, 421 enlisted men; ag gregate, 459. Disposed of: 59 commissioned officers, 603 enlisted men; aggregate, 662. Deserters: 76 received, 76 paroled on oath. Totals.-Prisoners of war captured: 59 commissioned officers, 603 enlisted inen; aggregate, 662. Disposed of: 59 commissioned officers, 603 enlisted men; aggregate, 662. Deserters: 897 received, 897 paroled on oath. Oaths administered to citizens: Allegiance, 543; Amnesty, 263; aggregate, 806. Rations: sales-number of families, 506; number of persons, 2901; issues-number of families, 1032; number of persons, 5809; total number of families, 1538; total number of persons, 8710. Respectfully submitted.

serving in the defence of that city in September, 1862.

This brigade was not formed under the authority of the State; but its labors were in the defence of her soil, and it seems but proper that some memory of it should be preserved in her records. The enrolment is not complete. It has seven hundred and six names, (706;) the brigade numbered about one thousand. Some three hundred of these, in the beginning of its service, and before an enrolment had been made, boats, and in the city, separate from the rest of were assigned to various duties, in camp, on gunthe brigade; and their names were never obtained. But the enrolment is complete as to the body of the brigade, who for three weeks, as a separate and distinct force, labored upon the fortifications in the rear of Covington and Newport, Kentucky, opposite Cincinnati. The rank and file, and all the company officers except three, were colored men. There was no complete military formation; the nominal brigade, regimental and company organization had reference to the convenience of the service to which they were assigned. The requirements of the occasion, and the prejudices of the time, limited this to duty as a fatigue force. The colored men did not shrink from this duty; they gladly performed it: but they desired the privilege of defending themselves, and the works their hands had made, with arms. Organized companies of them, armed and equipped at their own expense, ten

dered their services to aid in the defence of the

city. But this privilege was denied them, and they cheerfully performed the duty assigned.

The defeat of the national forces at Richmond, Kentucky, August thirtieth, 1862, opened the way for rebel invasion of that State to the Ohio River. There was no organized force to resist this; none to protect Cincinnati.

Major-General Lewis Wallace, at that time in command of the city, promptly commenced the organization of a citizen force for the protection of the city. In the morning papers of Septemtember second, there appeared an order from him, declaring martial law, suspending business, and directing the "citizens" to assemble at designated places in each ward, for military organ

ization. It was well understood that this order was not intended to, and did not, include colored J. G. PARKHURST, citizens. Numbers of these, however, offered Provost-Marshal General D. C. themselves for any service in which they might

Colonel Ninth Michigan Infantry Volunteers, and

By H. M. DUFField,

Lieutenant and A. P. M. G.

Doc. 35.

SIEGE OF CINCINNATI.

OPERATIONS OF THE BLACK BRIGADE.

be useful. This offer was accepted; but before any arrangement had been made for their employment, before any order had been given them, or request made of them, on the morning of the third of September, 1862, the police, acting in concert, and in obedience to some common order, in a rude and violent manner arrested the colored men wherever found-in the streets, at their places of business, in their homes-and hurried

To His Excellency, John Brough, Governor of them to a mule-pen on Plum street, and thence Ohio:

I BEG leave to present to you, for preservation in the archives of the State, the accompanying enrolment of the "Black Brigade of Cincinnati,"

across the river to the fortifications; giving them no explanation of this conduct, and no opportu nity to prepare for camp life. This unwonted and cruel procedure filled their minds and the

minds of their families with alarm and terror, and called forth for them the sympathy of the citizens who witnessed it. Some of these informed General Wallace of this conduct, and remonstrated against it. He condemned it, and for the purpose of protecting the colored men and organizing them for their work, requested me to take command of them, publishing the following order:

CIRCULAR.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
CINCINNATI, Sept. 4, 1862.

William M. Dickson is hereby assigned to the command of the negro forces from Cincinnati, working on the fortifications near Newport and Covington, and will be obeyed accordingly. By Major-General LEW. WALLACE.

order of

T. C. ELSTON, Jr., A. D. C.

Upon assuming the command, September
fourth, I organized my staff, as follows:
Timothy C. Day, Assistant Adjutant-General.
J. Stacy Hill, Quartermaster.
William Woods, Commissary.

James Lupton, Volunteer Aid, Acting Camp
Commandant.

Jacob Resor, Jr., James W. Cossefield, John W. Hartwell, William J. Dickson, William H. Chatfield, Alexander Neave, David A. James, Volunteer Aids.

I then proceeded to the fortifications where the colored forces were. I found them at work, on the rifle-pits and trenches about Fort Mitchel, on the Lexington road, in the rear of Covington. They had been faithfully laboring during the preceding night, and had already been commended by the engineer in charge for efficient work. They were, however, weary from long labor, and anxious about their families.

back to the city, to the intersection of Sixth and Broadway streets-where I established "headquarters"-reaching there about dusk. I then advised them that I designed forming them into a black brigade for fatigue duty; that they should be kept together as a distinct body and have assigned to them a given part of the fortifications for their work; that they should receive protection and the same treatment as white men; that the necessities of the hour required of them constant and severe labor; that I expected this to be cheerfully rendered, and that their sense of duty and of honor would cause them to obey with alacrity all orders given, and thus prevent the necessity of any compulsion; that at all events I would try them, and would, therefore, dismiss them to their homes, expecting every one of them to meet me the next morning promptly, at five o'clock, to proceed to the fortifications, there to remain until their labors were ended.

They received this promise of protection and fair treatment with grateful emotion, and assured me that they would endeavor to do their duty. They felt some apprehension that the police would arrest them; but as I had advised the city authorities of my action in the premises, and had received assurances that there would be no more arrests, I told them that they could go home without fear in this respect, and dismissed them. In this I was, however, mistaken. Scarcely had these men, wearied with thirty-six hours' constant labor, upon half-rations, and without sleep, broken ranks, when they were set upon by the police, and numbers of them, with blows and imprecations, dragged to the nearest cells. I reported the matter to General Wallace, and bore from him to Mayor Hatch, a peremptory order prohibiting the arrest of any colored man except for crime. This opened the prison-doors, and by a late hour of the evening, with the assistance of my staff and some citizens, all the men arrested had been released and returned to their homes. This order secured them exemption from arrest for some days, until Major-General Wright assumed immediate command of the city, when, for some unknown reason-perhaps because it was thought that the removal of General Wallace from the command had annulled his orders-the police, a third time, began arresting the colored men, those to whom for sickness, or other cause, I had given The colored men objected to this; they justly passes to return to the city. I again bore a peapprehended that they might be carried off with remptory order, this time from General Wright, the regiments, or abandoned in Kentucky, where to Mayor Hatch, commanding him not to arrest their presence as freemen was one of the most colored men except for crime. This again opengrievous crimes known to that State's laws-ed the prison-doors, and since that time, no colpunishable with the enslavement of them and their posterity for ever. They expressed entire willingness to labor on the fortifications under proper protection; but they desired to first return to their families, and make preparation for camp-life.

They were also alarmed because of the treatment they had received from the regiments of soldiers near them. These seemed to look upon the colored men as abandoned property, to be seized and appropriated by the first finder. They detailed squads of soldiers, who appeared among the negroes at work, selected from them the number they wanted, and at the point of the bayonet marched them off to the camps of the regiments-there to be employed as cooks, or in some menial capacity for the officers. A corporal's guard was engaged in this business when I reached Fort Mitchel.

My first care was to visit the camps of all the regiments in the vicinity, and to bring from them the kidnapped colored men. Having done this and assembled them together, I marched them

ored man has been arrested in the city of Cincinnati, merely because he was a colored man. Whether these arrests were made by the police, of their own volition, or in obedience to orders from superiors, I know not. Each time I delivered a peremptory order from the Commanding General to Mayor Hatch, he promised obedience to it.

The number of men dismissed on the evening of the seventh was about four hundred; on the

morning of the fifth, at the given hour, five o'clock, about seven hundred men reported for duty. A number of them were detailed for special duties, and about five hundred marched with me across the river to Newport, and thence to the cemetery on the Alexandria road in the rear of Newport. A handsome national flag, presented to them by Captain James Lupton, was borne in their midst; and their march was enlivened by strains of martial music, proceeding from a band formed from the ranks of their own motion. They were cheered on the way to their work by the good words of the citizens who lined the streets, and by the waving handkerchiefs of patriotic ladies. As they passed the different regiments in line of battle, proceeding to the fortifications, mutual cheers and greetings attested the good feeling between these co-workers in the same cause.

were fully advised as to their position, but said they would go wherever they were ordered.

During the first week, they labored, as did the entire fatigue force, without compensation. During the second week, they received a dollar a day per man; and during the third week, a dollar and a half; as did, also, all the fatigue force, black and white.

though compelled to labor without arms for their protection. During the few days that the soldiers stood in line of battle expecting an attack, the Black Brigade was working nearly a mile in front of the line of battle, and with nothing be tween it and the enemy except the cavalry scouts. Upon the occasion that it moved upon St. John's Hill, overlooking Licking Valley, so far was it in front of the line, that Colonel Jonah R. Taylor, of the Fiftieth Ohio volunteer infantry, then in command as Acting Brigadier-General of the forces nearest it, supposed it was the enemy; sounded the alarm, ordered out a battery to bear upon it, and in his trepidation actually ordered it to be fired upon; but this was prevented by the good sense of the officer in command of the battery, who refused obedience, and when pressed, fired blank cartridges, and then induced the sending of a flag of truce. This was received The section of work assigned to their special with becoming formality, and the fears of the recare lay between the Alexandria road and Lick-doubtable commander were allayed. The men ing River, along the Cemetery ridge and Threemile Creek. It embraced the making of military roads; the digging of rifle-pits and trenches; the felling of forests, and the building of forts and magazines. The men commenced their work in the rifle-pits on their arrival at Cemetery Ridge. Every thing had to be improvised. The quartermaster and commissary departments required immediate attention, and gave most trouble; but Upon the twentieth, their labors were ended; in a few days all was in complete working order. the siege of Cincinnati had been raised; the banThe men discovered a special aptitude for camp-ners of rebellion had receded, never to return; life, and with grass, brush, and trees made "Camp Lupton an agreeable summer residence. New accessions were received to the ranks every day; colored men, singly, in squads and companies, from every part of Southern Ohio, joining them, until the number exceeded seven hundred, independently of the details I was much indebted to the intelligent and efmade for special duties. Upon the section as- ficient aid that I received from the gentlemen signed to them, they continued to labor until the composing my staff-volunteers to an arduous twentieth. During this time they worked faith- and then thankless duty. It will not be considfully, always doing more than was required of ered by any of them an unfair discrimination, them, and receiving again and again the commen- when I particularize in a single instance. To the dation of the engineers in charge, to the effect constant attention, by day and by night, and to that they were the most efficient working force the discreet supervision of James Lupton, as in the service. There was no occasion for com- camp commandant, the brigade was greatly inpulsion, and for discipline but a single instance.debted for its well-being and comfort. They labored cheerfully and joyfully. They made miles of military roads, miles of rifle-pits, felled hundreds of acres of the largest and loftiest forest trees, built forts and magazines. Some of them discovered a high order of intelligence, a ready insight into the work they were doing, making often valuable suggestions. Upon one occasion, one of them suggested a change in the engineering of a military road ascending a steep hill. The value of the change was obvious when named, and admitted by the engineer; yet he ordered the road to be made as originally planned, and deprecated further suggestion.

They committed no trespass on private property. In one instance, upon changing the camp, a German asked me if they could not remain longer, as they protected his grapes!

They were not intimidated by any danger,

and the men, with happy hearts, with the goodwill of soldier and citizen, returned to the city and were dismissed to their homes; and thus closed in joy and happiness a service that had been commenced with violence, in anxiety and gloom.

Many of the members of the brigade have since entered the military service. Many are there still. Some have fallen, and now sleep well amid the sands of Morris Island, and of the banks of the Mississippi; others have been taken prisoners, and their fate is enshrouded in impenetrable mystery. All have done their duty.

It is to be regretted that they were not permitted to enter the service under the auspices of their own State, whose soil they had defended; but this privilege which the authorities of their State denied them, was granted them by the sagacious, patriotic, and noble Governor of the ancient commonwealth of Massachusetts.

But there has been progress; and since then numbers of the Black Brigade have entered the service in their own State.

PRESUMING your readers would like to know what we have been doing during the recent eight months, we offer a few notes from our diary; and we think by the time they have read our short history they will say that we have been soldiering in earnest. Our notes may prove very uninteresting, as our opportunities have not been those of a regular correspondent, as we belong to the ranks and know nothing of the movements until we have them to perform, and then we know only what we do and see.

September twenty-seventh, crossed Cumberland River at Neelie's Ferry, and camped.

September twenty-eighth, marched slowly till about four o'clock in the evening, and went into camp on Illwill Hill, eight miles from Albany, Clinton County.

September twenty-ninth, at nine o'clock A.M., we passed through Albany. Albany looks as though it once had been a nice and flourishing little town; but as we rode through we could but feel sad to see a place-a nice town in our native State-laid in entire desolation. Even the court-house and public square around it, where once the citizens of Clinton County could look for a just enforcement of the laws of the land, looks as though no human concourse had gathered there for two or three years. Every building and fence is in a state of dilapidation; yards and sidewalks grown up with weeds.

Crossed the State line into Fentress County, Tennessee, about eleven o'clock A.M.

October first, passed through Jamestown, which is another place of desolation. The courthouse has fallen down. A citizen of Fentress County told us that they had had no enforcement of the civil law in that county for about two years; that every man not taken by conscription was "a law unto himself." On the morning of the third we got to Montgomery, the county-seat of Anderson County. Here are visible the tracks of this monster - rebellion. The town is evacuated and every thing going to ruin. But one family in town.

have deserted the country and towns. Some, we presume, went to the South, and some to the North. Not a lick of improvement could we see. Not a new rail or board, while we could scarcely find a roof that would turn rain, or a fence that would confine stock.

September 18, 1863.-Our company was ordered from Cave City back to Munfordville to rejoin the regiment. We remained at Munfordville till the twenty-fourth of September. On the evening of the twenty-fourth we were mounted, and at four o'clock, with three cheers and October fourth, we crossed Clinch River. The hundreds of good-byes, we left the camp that country lying between Cumberland and Clinch had become almost as home, where we lived a Rivers is laid in great desolation. We had cheerful soldier-life the recent ten months. Our thought we had seen the desolating effects of stay at Munfordville is the greatest oasis in our the war before, but through this section is the soldier-life. There every member of the regi-worst we have found in our travels. The people ment had often communication with his home, and his duties seemed lightened by the visitations of his friends and the sociability shown us by the citizens. It was there we worked hard ten months fortifying the place, and made it one among the strongest in Kentucky. There we did as much duty as any regiment will do; but the military fiat saw proper to move us from our own works and home to a field of more active work, and put in our stead strangers, who of course do not understand Kentucky in any way better than we do. We know her geography, the advantages and disadvantages; her friends and her most dangerous enemy the sneaking Our march over the mountains was quite pleastraitor that lives there. But, being perfectly ant. We were highly interested with the mounwilling to work in the cause of our country any-tain scenery; the distant mountains through the where, and, after resting from marching so long, Indian summer haze, whose towering summits we left "champing the bit" for East-Tennessee. capped with their autumnal cap of “sere and September twenty-fifth, we joined General yellow leaves" that seemed to kiss the sky as Manson at Glasgow, who had already begun to they rustled in the breeze, and the craggy cliffs The weather having been dry so long that showed their gray faces above the pines, that the roads were very dusty and water scarce were as pillars for the sky. along the road, consequently our march was We must say that we were well pleased with made with moderation. Camped near Gray's our commander, General Manson, who took Cross-Roads. every thing with moderation. In getting the September twenty-sixth, marched to Marrow-wagons up the mountains, the General's shoulbone by two o'clock P.M., and went into camp. der was as good at a wheel as any man's.

move out.

October fifth, we marched within two miles of Knoxville, when we met an order from General Burnside ordering us to go into camp where we were. So after near eleven days winding our serpentine line through the dust, over mountains and through valleys, we arrived nearly in sight of Knoxville.