The Fort Hood Sentinel (Temple, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 48, Ed. 1 Friday, February 8, 1974 Page: 1 of 20
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Crime Prevention Week
February 10-16
VOL. 32 NO. 48
Black History Week
By JOHN GRABOWSKI
In many a battle they were in the forefront of the
fight took the brunt of the enemy’s fire and fury the
bull of the casualties. For their sacrifice they were
ignored in history’s pages or noted as also-theres in
battles forgotten too quickly. The price of acceptance
came high for the Black man of the Civil War.
In all more than 180000 black men served in Union
blue. A fifth of them died. Sixteen were awarded the
Medal of Honor.
Theirs were not the “big” battles but such does
not detract from the courage the honor the sacrifice
of the men who fought and died. Bullets and shells do
not discriminate.
Ill 1863 the Secretary of War authorized the first
raising of Union troops “of African descent.” The
first' unit formed under this provision was the 54th
Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers (Colored). Others
quickly followed.
Manpower needs in the Regular Army units had
preceded the Secretary’s authorization however and
already hundreds and perhaps thousands of Blacks
were already serving in Union outfits as general
laborers nurses and cooks.
Many were ex-slaves others free men who for half
the war were denied the right to soldier because
they were Black. In 1862 ten per cent of the 12th
Connecticut was made up of contraband Negroes.
They filled the ranks left vacent in the camps by bat-
tle and disease.
FIRST FULL-SCALE BATTLE
Negro troops found their first full-scale battle of the
war at Port Hudson near Baton Rouge La. in the
spring of 1863. On May 27 two regiments of Black
troops the 1st and the 3d Louisiana Native Guards
made six distinct attacks with white troops on the
Confederate fortifications. The Blacks suffered a
quarter of their number in casualties although the
fort held.
“About the only grain of satisfaction which the
Federals would sift from defeat was the valor and
tenacity the Negro troops had displayed in their first
action” said one historian. The commanding general
called the Blacks “heroic” and one of his White of-
ficers noted “You have no idea how my prejudice
with regard to Negro troops have been dispelled by
the battle.”
Less than two months later at Ft. Wagner on
Morris Island in Charleston Harbor Negroes again
proved themselves as fighters. Fresh from a battle in
which they had distinguished themselves the 54th
massachusetts was offered the place of honor
Vocation Rehabilitation.
Training
spearheading the Union assault against Ft. Wagner.
They accepted and led the nighttime assault of 5000
Federals.
The Blacks led by Col. Robert Gould Shaw of
Boston broke through the enemy defenses but were
driven back in hard fighting. Shaw died on the
parapet.
In all the 54th suffered 272 casualties in the
fighting losses which exceeded those of any of the
ten white regiments which followed it into the attack.
MEDALS OF HONOR GRANTED
Four Blacks received Medals of Honor for their
dedicated soldiering that night. Shaw was buried ac-
cording to a defender “with his Niggers.”
Confederate feeling against the “sable soldiers”
was at times vicious and their actions against the
Blacks at Ft. Wagner spurred President Lincoln to
warn southerns to accord equal treatment to all
Union soliders. If they did not or if they enslaved
Union troops he would take action against Con-
federate prisoners.
Lincoln’s warning had no effect in the emotionalsim
that dominated some Confederate action during and
after the battle for Saltsville Va. in Oct. 1864. Six
hundred troops of the 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry were
part of the 5200 man Federal force which tried to
take the strategic point.
When the Federals charged on Oct. 1 it was the
Black 5th Cav troopers who charged the enemy cen-
ter. So incensed were the Tennesseans defending the
line there according to one commentator that
“several of them actually leaped over the works
pistol in hand and themselves charged so great was
their contempt and anger toward the sable soldiers.”
The 5th closed to about 50 yards where a battle
raged for three hours during which the defenders
“concentrated their fire on the colored troops par-
ticularly.” The position held. More than 100 colored
troops most them wounded were captured after the
fighting.
COLORED TROOPS MURDERED
The following day there began a systematic killing
of the colored troops and of their white officers by
some of the Tennesseans. The murder extended for
several days and reached as far as a Confederate
sp ital ere som of the men had been
evacuated. They were killed in their beds there as
was one of their white lieutenants. Only the intern-
vention of the hospital staff prevented the execution
of the regimental commander who lay wounded
elsewhere in the same hospital.
Confinement Facility pioneering new mission
FORT HOOD SENTINEL
“PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE PERSONNEL OF FORT HOOD.”
FORT HOOD FRIDAY FEBRUARY 8 1974
Entire military history influenced by Black heroics
“Published by Community Enterprises Incorporated a private firm in no way connected with the Department of the Army. Opinions expressed by writers herein are their own and are not to be considered an official expression of the
Departm ent of the Army. The appearance of advertisements in this publication does not constitute an endorsement by the Department of the products or services advertised.”
By
bo
Al
The demise of the make-work details as well as the
official deletion of the word “stockade” from the ap-
proved terminology used in reference to confinement
facilities are but a few of the many examples cited
by authorities at the Area Confinement Facility at Ft.
Hood as evidence of the dramatic changes that have
taken place in the realm of military confinement.
“Gone are the days of make-work and what may
have been construed as undue harassment” said
Major Harold N. Schneeweis commander of the local
facility. “Instead inmates engage in the purposeful
tasks of either a training program or gainful em-
ployment performing the many tasks involved in sup-
port of the installation as a whole.”
The training program reportedly takes precedence
over employment and is designed for two tasks to
return a soldier to his unit better motivated and
prepared to perform in his MOS or to prepare the
soldier who will be discharged to be abetter citizen
in his community.
“Indeed” a facility spokesman stated “there are
almost as many counselors and other professional
staff personnel charged with helping inmates to solve
their problems on duty during the day as there are
members of the custodial force.”
The facility commander was quick to point out that
“there is very little down here that resembles the
Modern Volunteer Army concept.” Many of the more
traditional Army standards of military discipline
high personal appearance military bearing and
general orderliness of the area are essential elements
of the facility’s day to day operation and have a
dramatic impact on a visitor.
ARMY AHEAD OF PEERS
“I believe that the Army is far ahead of its civilian
co tem raries in the field of confinement
techniques” Schneeweis continued. “True our people
study in civilian institutions work in civilian con-
finement facilities and bring many of the civilian con-
cepts back here with them. But what places us
ahead is that we take these concepts and improve on
them.”
Schneeweis also noted that at the recent 102d
Congress on Corrections conducted by the American
Correctional Association at Seattle Wash. the war-
dens directors and superintendents of almost every
major prison in the United States were told that they
should look at some of the innovative programs
which had been implemented during the past several
years.
Due to the rapid turnover of personnel entering the
exiting the facility it is important that the inmate be
processed quickly and his “rehabilitative” treatment
started.
One officer was ultimately convicted of par-
ticipation in the killings. He was court-martialed con-
victed and hanged for the murder of the white
lieutenant although he claimed he had killed 30
blacks as well.
In the West black troops were faring a little better
than their brothers in the East and South. On July 17
1863 seven regiments of Union troops attacked eight
regiments of Confederates. One Black regiment the
1st Kansas was particularly lauded for its role in the
fighting. The Federal commander wrote:
FOUGHT LIKE VETERANS
“They fought like veterans and preserved their
line unbroken throughout the engagement. Their
coolness and bravery I have never seen surpassed
they were in the hottest of the fight and opposed to
Texas troops twice their number whom they com-
pletely routed. One Texas regiment that fought
against them went into the fight with 300 men and
came out with only 60.’”
The were praised these sable soldiers time and
again especially by the whites who fought with
them. At The Crater during the seige of Petersburg
one commander of a Black unit lost 80 per cent of
his troops. He called their sacrifice “noble” and
wrote that “no man dare say aught in my presence
against the bravery and soldierly qualities of the
colored soldiers.”
The Confederates weren’t the only ones who
discriminated agaunst the black troops: there was
some of that in the form of government inequality.
For part of the war colored men were paid less for
their soldiering than their white counterparts in other
units. Pay for white recruits was $13000 a month.
Blacks got $10 less another three for clothing the
Army gave them.
Corporal Jam es Henry Gooding of the 54th
Massachusetts took issue with the discrepancy and
wrote Lincoln in Sept. 1863 to appeal the inequality.
He wrote in part:
SOLDIERS OR LABORERS
“The main question is are we soldiers or are we
Laborers (sic) We are fully armed and equipped
have done all the various Duties pertaining to a
Soldier’s life have conducted ourselves to the com-
plete satisfaction of General Officers who were if
anything prejudiced against us but who now accord
us all the encouragement and honor due us have
shared the perils and Labour of Reducing the first
(Continued on Page 5A)
“When a man comes in here he starts almost from
the beginning” the major stated. “Within 24 hours of
his arrival the new inmate is examined by a
physician. Following his in-processing including
fingerprinting photographing forms etc. the inmate
is sent for his initial session with a counselor.
COUNSELORS AID INMATES
“We have volunteer counselors working with our
assigned counselors and they all do a tremendous
job one that includes initiating a correctional treat-
ment file which is the basis for all actions initiated in
effecting any behavior modification.”
The correctional treatment file includes a coun-
selor’s report of any problems that might have been
discovered while interviewing the inmate and
discussing his past history including school social
habits past arrests family history and unit
problems if any.
Following the initial visit with the counselor and
subsequent interviews when necessary the inmate is
determined to be either restorable or nonrestorable
by the counselor and chief of the treatment branch.
“Whatever the decision” Schneeweis emphasized
“the counselor plays a great part in the inmate’s lift
during his stay in this facility. The counselor is the
link between the man and his commander initiates
referrals to other sources of aid and attempts to
bridge the gap between the man his unit and his
family.”
ALL KINDS OF HELP
But counselors aren’t the only people available to
aid the inmate with his problems. The facility is now
authorized an attorney has two chaplains a
psychologist asocial worker a physician and if
needed can due to a fine working relationship with
the Chief of the Mental Hygiene Consultation Service
get a psychiatrist to the compound on quick notice.
“Unfortunately most prisons (civilian) do not have
psychiatrists but we at the facility can have one here
quickly if necessary” said Schneeweis.
The facility commander pointed out that the help
available at Ft. Hood was just another indication of
the adopted mission of Army confinement “oriented
towards developing the individual.”
“Under a recent procedural change” Schneeweis
added “we attempt to quickly transfer a man to the
Army Retraining Brigade (USARB) at Ft. Riley
Kans. based on his conduct and type of sentence. At
the USARB he can quickly be reinstated to a unit if
he cooperates and excels during his training or he
can be recycled and perhaps administratively
eliminated if he fails to conform. The man can spend
from eight weeks which is the normal length of the
(Continued on Page 8A)
Black History Week
February 10-16
20 Pages
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The Fort Hood Sentinel (Temple, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 48, Ed. 1 Friday, February 8, 1974, newspaper, February 8, 1974; Temple, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth309131/m1/1/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Casey Memorial Library.