| Union Does It Own Raids Sergt. Major Henry James, Third USCT by Gil Wilson |
| DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, No. 42.
Hilton Head, April 12, 1865. On March 7, 1865, a party of colored soldiers and scouts, thirty in number, commanded by Sergt. Maj. Henry James, Third U. S. Colored Troops, left Jacksonville, Fla., and penetrated into the interior through Marion County. They rescued 91 negroes from slavery, captured 4 white prisoners, 2 wagons, and 24. horses and mules; destroyed a sugar- mill and a distillery, which were used by the rebel Government together with their stocks of sugar and liquor, and burned the bridge over the Oclawaha River. When returning they were attacked by a band of over fifty cavalry, whom they defeated and drove off with a loss of more than thirty to the rebels. After a long and rapid march they arrived at Saint Augustine on March 12, having lost but 2 killed and 4 wounded. This expedition, planned and executed by colored men under the command of a colored non-commissioned officer, reflects great credit upon the brave participants and their leader. The major- general commanding thanks these courageous soldiers and scouts and holds up their conduct to their comrades in arms as an example worthy of emulation. By command of Maj. Gen. Q. A. Gillinore: W. L. M. BURGER, Assistant Adjutant- General. Bates, Samuel P. History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg, 1868-1871: On one occasion, a body of twenty-nine enlisted men of the Third, and one private of another regiment, all under command of Sergeant Major Henry James, proceeded about sixty miles up the St. John's in boats, rowing by night, and hiding in the swamps by day, marched thence thirty miles into the interior, gathered together fifty or sixty contrabands, besides several horses and wagons, burned store-houses and a distillery belonging to the rebel government, and returned bringing their recruits and spoils all safely into camp. On their return, they were intercepted by a body of cavalry, which was beaten off after a brisk fight, and they succeeded in crossing the St. John's without loss, carrying with them their wounded. The courage and good conduct displayed by the party in this affair, composed as it was, entirely of colored soldiers, were highly creditable, and were commended in an order by the General commanding the Department of the South. It was somewhat remarkable, that the regiment never lost a man as prisoner, though raiding parties not unfrequently were beaten, and driven by superior numbers. The general feeling among the men seemed to be, that immediate death was preferable to the treatment likely to be experienced as prisoners, On one occasion, a soldier who had been surrounded and driven into the river, stubbornly refused repeated calls to surrender, and was killed on the spot. - - - The St. Augustine version: Twenty five Colored men from Col. Tightman's regiment stationed in Jacksonville went out on a raid last week in this state, and brought in to this City seventy contrabands. They were the most destitute objects I ever saw. Many of them almost entirely naked. The teachers of the F. A. Ass. having some money resulting from the sale of books and other means which we could raise have been very busy this week in making up clothes for the women and children; and we shall soon have them in a comfortable condition to remain here on ? when as government may see fit to dispose of them. They (raiders) also brought in some fine horses and mules. They would have brought more people and more booty had they not been betrayed by a girl on a plantation where they had killed the overseer, burned the sugar mill with a quantity of sugar syrup and whiskey and the body of the overseer in the sugar house. This betrayal brought upon them, a portion of Dickinson's guerella army about seventy, with which they had a fight before they reached here on the Sab. following. They killed the capt and 27 of the men wounded eleven and captured four whom they brought in with them, making forty three out of seventy of the rebels and lost of their own number only the guide who was captured. Doesn't this show Negro valor?; And they claim a little humanity as they say they left several of the rebels ? wounded and alone (as their companions had fled they thought it their duty to go back a few of them and finish them. They say when the parties met they charged upon the rebels in the name of Fort Pillow. Dickinson, the John Morgan of this Guerella band, is highly enraged and determined to have these Col men if possible so the Tues night following the Sab. after they came in, at two o'clock we were awakened by the report of a heavy gun at the Ford and a cry from the guard "two o'clock and alarm in the Camp." It was found that several of the rebels had crossed the river about a half mile in the rear of the City and others were on the way in their "dug-outs" but they were scattered leaving their boats behind. We are about being reinforced and shall not probably fall into their hands. H. B. Greeley to Whipple AMA March 18, 1865. |