Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Major Henry L. Higginson, September 14, 1863

Centreville, Virginia, Sept. 14, 1863.

My Dear Henry, — I was glad to see your fist on an envelope some weeks ago. I ought to have written you sooner, but it is so infernally quiet here now that to get together material for a letter is a labour.

I am glad, old fellow, to hear that your wound is at length convalescent. It would have been a bore to carry a ball in it all your life, with a chance of its giving you a twinge any minute. . . .

You ask me no end of questions about the army. As if we take interest in the army. We are an independent, fancy department, whereof I command the cavalry, and we take no interest in wars or rumours of wars. I have seen men who profess to be going to and from the “front,” — but where is the “front”? We are in the “front” whenever General Halleck has an officer's application for leave to endorse. Stanton is so fond of us, however, that he keeps us on the safe “front” —  the “front” nearest Washington, whereby I am debarred from the rightful command of a brigade of five regiments in Gregg's division, which Gregg offered me, and which he applied for me to take, my own regiment being one of the five. But Stanton is very fond of us, and keeps us where it is safe.¹

. . . I hope you will be kept at home until next January, for between now and then I mean to be married (if President Lincoln and General Lee do not interfere), and I shall be glad to have your countenance, so do not let your wound heal itself too rapidly. What do you hear from Frank? Give him my love, when you write. Tell him I gave him myself as a sample to be avoided, and I now give him Rob Shaw as a pattern to be followed. I am glad Frank remained in that regiment. It is historic. The Second Massachusetts Cavalry and some others are more mythic. . . .

About coloured regiments, I feel thus, — I am very glad at any time to take hold of them, if I can do more than any other available man in any place. I will not offer myself or apply for a place looking to immediate or probable promotion. If one goes into the black business he must go to stay. It will not end by the war. It will open a career, or at any rate give experience which will, inevitably almost, consign a man to ten or twenty years' hard labour in Government employ, it seems to me. Since Shaw's death I have had a personal feeling in the matter to see black troops made a success; a success which would justify the use (or sacrifice) made of them at Wagner.

Do you know the President is almost ready to exchange your brother Jim, and leave Cabot (it might have been Frank just as well) in prison at Charleston, after all the promises that have been made by the officers of the Administration? This is disgraceful beyond endurance almost.²

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¹ The Government and Major-General Heintzelman, commanding the Department of Washington, fully appreciated the advantage of having so efficient a cavalry commander and well disciplined a force in the neighbourhood. But they had to resist other competitors, for, besides the desires of General Gregg to have Lowell and his regiment in the Army of the Potomac, another general repeatedly importuned the War Department for them. Major-General N. P. Banks (Department of the Gulf), in his report to General Halleck, March 27, 1863, speaking of his need of cavalry, says: —

“I feel especially the loss of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, raised expressly for my expedition; for, besides its strength, I relied upon Colonel Lowell to infuse the necessary vigour into the whole cavalry service.”

Again, April 18, 1863, General Banks sends the following message to Major-General Halleck: —

“I beg leave, at the risk of being considered importunate, to repeat my earnest request that more cavalry be sent to this department.  . . . If you will send me the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, raised expressly for my command, with their arms and equipments, I will mount them here from the horses captured on this expedition. Its commander, Colonel Lowell, is personally nearly as important to us as his regiment."

As late as September, General Banks was still pleading for the cavalry. General Halleck answered: “In regard to Colonel Lowell's regiment, I need simply to mention the fact that it is the only one we have for scouts and pickets in front of Washington.”

² The officers here spoken of are Captain James J. Higginson, of the First Massachusetts Cavalry (who was captured in the fight at Aldie, where his brother, the Major, was wounded), and Captain Francis Lee Higginson, his younger brother, and Captain Cabot J. Russel, both of the Fifty-Fourth. As has been said, Captain Russel's family were not sure of his death. When the news of the raising of coloured troops was heard in the South, it had been threatened that captured privates should be sold to slavery and the officers treated as felons. This threat was not carried out, but difficulties arose about exchanges; and in this matter, and that of their payment, the course of the Administration and of Congress was for a long time timid and discreditable.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 302-4, 443-4

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to John M. Forbes, September 13, 1863

Centreville, Sept. 13, '63.

I learned yesterday that the President was very weak on the subject of protecting black troops and their officers; said the Administration was not ready to insist upon their having equal rights with others, and that it would be very hard on our other prisoners to keep them at Richmond while we are debating about exchanging one or two officers now in Charleston. This is a singularly soft-hearted view to take of the question — exceedingly American: but it seems to me your black recruiting and organizing will be much interrupted by its becoming the avowed policy of the Administration to adopt the Southern view of black troops and their officers, — much interrupted by the uncertainty which now exists even: that is the sort of fact which might weigh with an American President, if he could be made to believe it. I suppose it would be impossible to convince him that, after what the Government has said and done through its Adjutant-General and through other trusted officials, there is probably not one decent officer in the service who would not feel outraged at the proposed neglect — probably not one now in Richmond who would not rather stay there six months than be even silent parties to such a pusillanimous backdown.

I have great hope that Stanton will yet stand stiff for the honour of the Department, — but there is no doubt about the President's inclinations, — William Russel saw him on the subject and was answered as above. I cannot go on recommending good officers for coloured troops and advising them to make applications, if the Government is going to rate them so much cheaper than officers of white troops.¹

In the case of the Fifty-Fourth it seems to me that Massachusetts is involved, — that she ought to demand that her officers be treated all alike; but it is discreditable that the Government should make it necessary.

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¹ Cabot Jackson Russel, a very young but valiant captain in the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry, had been killed on the slopes of Fort Wagner; but at this time his family thought him a prisoner in the enemy's hands. He was Colonel Lowell's cousin, the only son of Mr. William C. Russel of New York. President Lincoln had given very little encouragement to Mr. Russel as to the Administration's showing the Southerners that it meant to protect officers of coloured troops in earnest.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 296-8, 442