Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/24

22 train and educate them for a free and independent community, It was also a part of his plan to arm and drill them for self-defence. This was in May, 1863. The bill to enlist colored soldiers did not pass Congress until the 16th of July following. Before the close of that year, so rapid was the growth of public opinion, General Butler declared in General Order No. 46, "The recruitment of colored troops has become the settled purpose of the Government." The hardy young negroes of Roanoke were among the first to answer the country's call. Here was fought the battle which initiated the successes of the Burnside Expedition. And in this battle, musket in hand, pressing hard toward the front, were to be seen some of these very young men. Having helped to drive the oppressor from their own island home, they were equally ready to strike for the deliverance of the nation. Gloriously have they since maintained themselves at Port Wagner and Olustee. Colored soldiers were first recruited here by Brig. Gen. E.A. Wild, on the 19th day of June, 1863. They freely and enthusiastically volunteered, to the number of nearly one hundred. The writer recollects spending one whole night with General Wild, in adjusting, on Quartermaster's papers, the accounts of these soldiers against the Government for previous labor, which accounts have not been settled to the present day. This was the first company of colored troops raised in North Carolina, and so far as I know, the first in the country. Since that time a recruiting officer has resided at the island, and a large number from this locality have joined the army. This removal of the vigorous young men, who would have worked upon the soil, and fished in the Sounds for the support of the colony, necessarily changed the character of the enterprize, converting it into an asylum for the wives and children of soldiers, and also for the aged and infirm, where the children might be educated, and all, both young and old, be trained for freedom and its responsibilities, after the war.

For such an asylum our forces held no other suitable or safe place in the State. Not a square mile of territory (excepting Hatteras Banks,) lying outside of the interior fortifications of New Berne, Beaufort, and Morehead, but has been repeatedly