Quincy A. Gillmore to Edwin M. Stanton, December 14, 1868

Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

I have the honor to invite your attention to certain features in the existing system of organization of colored troops in this department which I consider as very objectionable, and calculated to seriously impair, if not wholly destroy, the usefulness of these troops in the public service.

There are now nominally five regiments of South Carolina colored troops, only one of which, the First South Carolina Volunteers, Col. T. W. Higginson, has ever reached the minimum number of men required by law. The others are as follows: Second South Carolina Volunteers, Col. James Montgomery, about 540 men; Third South Carolina Volunteers, Lieut. Col. A. G. Bennett, about 300 men, organized by Major-General Hunter for labor in the quartermaster’s department, for which they have been used until quite recently ; Fourth South Carolina Volunteers, Col. M. S. Littlefield, about 150 men ; Fifth South Carolina Volunteers, organization just commenced.

Of the four regiments last mentioned, not one has the requisite number of men to give it efficiency, and the present rate of recruiting furnishes no ground for expecting that they will be filled within a reasonable time.

I therefore consider it in the highest degree important that some system of consolidation be adopted. Upon consultation with Brigadier-General Saxton, the following seems to me to be the one best calculated to secure the efficieney of these troops, viz, to break up the Third South Carolina Volunteers, and transfer the men to the Second and Fourth, the latter to be designated as the Third, under Colonel Littlefield, all the commissioned officers of the three separate organizations to be transferred into the new one.

I will add that the nomenclature of these regiments is not a matter to which attach very much importance. It has been suggested to me that they be added to the organization of United States colored troops, inasmuch as the men composing them are drawn from different States, and it is urged that the present designation seriously interferes with recruiting in Florida and Georgia.

If the above proposition be approved, I respectfully request that authority may be granted me to carry it into effect, and that any new regiments of colored troops that may be raised in this department be designated as United States colored troops, with their appropriate numbers.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,