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mcc-jrr_672-031
Austin Groves Cemetery, 67-2 Summary Report, page 31
768 00RKE8P0NDENCE, ETC. giderably ill Northern Alaliama, and Hlightly in North (■„ toT Prior to the advance of the armies of the Military Div-t * Mississippi last, spring we were able to got a few recruit* r1 of ‘h* the enemy's lines by means of negroes employed for Somo were also obtained for the First I'. S. Colored Art ii1*"^* North Carolina. Iteci-uiting in Northern Alabama ortu'yfi> was chiefly done by our agents, who accompanied eavalrv J? Some 300 were obtained for the Seventeen! fHT: S.^IoN"?n‘I1'0'1' One of our agents with General W. Sooy Smith, upon hinei r into Northern Mississippi, brought back about 800 men wh... ul<* into regiments in Memphis. ' <-‘r*'pct lucky as to enlisting slaves there openly, and suggested that if under the new enrollment act negroes were drafted or volunteered they might bo organized here, inasmuch as the |s*ople of Kentucky did not sXm to bo willing there should l>e armed negroes in their State. This was acceded to, and the recruiting was begun there in April. By the time the One hundredth I'. S. Colored Infantry was organ, ized I had received numerous letters from loyal Kentuckians praying for the formation of colored regiments in their State. A telegram of mine to the chief of the Colored Bureau requesting permission to recruit in that State, dated June 7, 1864, was answered by adirection to consult with the Adjtit -int-General at Louisville, Ky. Pursuant to tliut. order I visited General Thomas and General Burbridge. General Burbridge did me t lie honor to request that I might be sent, into Kentucky to superintend the organization of colored troops there. But General Thomas preferred that I should remain in Tennessee. General Burbridge also declined the services recruiting agents supported by the Boston committee military fund, upon the ground that their labors were superfluous, as recruiting progressing so rapidly, and were calculated to awaken opposition from Kentuckians. hrom that time to this, beyond an occasional answer to letters rei-Kentucky asking my opinion, <> recruits have been obtained from Georgia am • nlI|(|ec for Northern Stntvs under the HVHtern and presontod h vous here, Camp Foster. WAR OF THE REBELLION, OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMES, published by The NaonH rtstertai Society. Gettysburg. PA, 1892, Series til Vol. IV, Serial No. 125, page 768 31 - (2549)