Give Us a Flag

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Fremont he told them when the war it first begun How to save the Union and the way it should be done, But... Old Abe he had his fears Till ev'ry hope was lost but the colored volunteers." The war went badly until Black troops were used
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Moore, Songs of the Soldiers, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar Black(s) battle soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 293-295, "Give Us a Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 64-65, "Give Us a Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11631
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hoist Up the Flag" (tune, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
NOTES [799 words]: The Union first began enlisting black troops (informally) in 1862. By the end of that year, four regiments were raised, only to have Lincoln shut them down. After the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, however, Lincoln allowed the formation of (segregated) "colored" regiments.
In the end, over a hundred and fifty such regiments were raised. Their performance was mixed -- but this was probably the fault of the (white) officers rather than the black troops. A large fraction of the officers in the "colored" regiments were soldiers who had given up on promotion in the white army, and shifted to the "Colored" troops to get ahead. These officers were far from the best the Union had to offer.
The "colored" troops had other reasons for bad morale; their pay was much lower than their white counterparts, and their equipment less good. And soldiers from both sides looked down on them.
Among the references in this song are:
"Frémont he told them when the war was just begun" -- General John C. Frémont was the first theatre commander west of the Mississippi. He was a bad general but a good Free Soiler (in 1861, in Missouri, he had tried to free the slaves of those who opposed the government; Boatner, p. 315), and proposed the raising of Black regiments.
"McClellan went to Richmond with two hundred thousand brave" -- refers to McClellan's Peninsular Campaign of 1862. McClellan was a conservative Democrat, and did not want the war to interfere with slavery. The song exaggerates his forces (he had about 120,000 men in the Peninsula), but correctly notes that his campaign failed.
"The 54th" presumably refers to the 54th Massachusetts, perhaps the most distinguished of the "colored" regiments. It fought in the unsuccessful assault on Fort Wagner (outside Charleston; July 18, 1863), and suffered roughly 40% casualties. (For the whole assault, Livermore, p. 104, estimates Union casualties at 21.4%, but the 54th was the leader and suffered more).
According to Fox, p. 423, says, "In the attack on Fort Wagner, this regiment was given the honor of leading the assault, and, when the division was drawn up on the beach at nightfall preparatory to the attack, the order to advance was delayed until the Fifty-fourth marched by and took its place at the head of the column It charged under fire over a long distance of sandy plain, reaching the ditch, where many of the men climbed the parapet and entered the outer works; but the fort proved impregnable, and a bloody repulse ensued, the regiment losing 34 killed, 146 wounded, and 92 captured or missing." And that was in just one assault; in the entire Fort Wagner campaign, they suffered 58 killed, with other losses in proportion. And Robert Shaw, the colonel who raised the regiment, was killed there.
Fox lists other indignities they suffered. They also served at the Battle of Olustee, one of the worst botches of the entire war (for background, see the notes to "I Can Whip the Scoundrel") -- and were effectively abandoned on the field when the Federals retreated, though they managed to make their way out with some loss (Nulty, pp. 164-169).
A Black sergeant was promoted for gallantry at Olustee; the Federal government refused to honor the promotion (Fox, p. 423).
Truly they were the victims of the government they served so loyally. Only once, belatedly, were they given proper recognition: Federal rules originally paid "colored" troops just $7 a month, compared to $13 for a white private. The men of the 54th regularly refused this payment, demanding white man's pay. On September 28, 1864, a year and a half after the regiment was raised, the Federal government finally did the right thing and paid them in full for the entire period of their service.
The phrase "Give Us a Flag" is a request for a regimental standard. All ordinary regiments had flags, which were proudly carried and zealously defended from enemy attack; to give the Black troops a flag would be to treat them more like proper soldiers.
For another song about Black troops, see "Marching Song of the First Arkansas."
There are many books about Black soldiers in the Civil War, a few of which include Ray Anthony Shepard, Now or Never!: Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry's War to End Slavery; James M. McPherson, The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union; Dudley Taylor Cornish, The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865; Joseph T. Glatthaar, Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers; Noah Andre Trudeau, Like Men of War; George Washington Williams, A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865; and James Henry Gooding, On the Altar of Freedom: A Black Soldier's Civil War Letters from the Front. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 6.3
File: SCW064

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