To lead the all-black Twenty-Fifth Corps, Grant selected the highly capable twenty-nine-year-old Major General Godfrey Weitzel. Grant was well aware of Weitzel's extraordinary ability to lead men into battle and direct them under fire. A few months earlier, on September 29, 1864, Weitzel had been assigned to command the Eighteenth Corps while General Ord recovered from injuries sustained during the capture of Fort Harrison.70 In the fighting, Weitzel and his men not only sustained their position but also captured more than 300 Confederate soldiers and officers, allowing them to gather intelligence about the conditions at Richmond and the strength of its forces.71 This information would be important for Grant's spring 1865 campaign to capture the city, and the Twenty-Fifth would provide the additional muscle needed to deprive the enemy of rest and thus win the war.72
On January 3, 1865, Colonel Thomas D. Sedgwick, commander of the 114th U.S. Colored Troops stationed at Camp Nelson, received Special Order No. 3, instructing his regiment to depart immediately and head to Virginia. The 114th, 115th, and 116th Infantry Regiments, all from Camp Nelson, were three of the thirty-two black regiments absorbed into the newly formed Twenty-Fifth Corps. Privates Jerry and Charles Skillman were members of the 114th. There can be no doubt that the Skillmans and their fellow soldiers were filled with pride when they learned they would be joining the fighting at Richmond. Yet they could not help but recall the fate of their fallen comrades from the Fort Pillow Massacre and, most recently, the Battle of Saltville, where black soldiers had been killed after being captured and held as prisoners of war. For men like Jerry Skillman, whose goal was freedom from the stigma of race and its limitations, this was an opportunity not only to claim their manhood but also to become an example of what a man should be: resolved, determined, and unshakable in his commitments.
Within days of celebrating his son Isaac's fourth birthday, Jerry Skillman left in pursuit of his destiny. After saying his good-byes and holding his smallish four-year-old in his arms one more time, Skillman loaded up his field pack, shouldered his government-issued Sharps carbine, and fell in with his regiment. As the eleven companies formed a column numbering more than 1,000 men and began their eighteen-mile trek toward Lexington, behind them marched their fears of inadequacy and inferiority. However, the closer they got to Lexington, the more confident they became in their abilities as soldiers, growing taller with the knowledge that they were being counted as men. They were greeted in Lexington by an enthusiastic crowd of Union supporters, well-wishers, and black folks overtaken with joy at the sight of their fellow blacks marching off to glory. After boarding their train, the men of the 114th, including Jerry Skillman, envisioned what lay ahead. Since the previous June, he had waited patiently to serve. Now, as a free man, as a soldier racing toward the fight in Richmond, he imagined both the beginning of one world and the end of another, converging.
When the 114th arrived at Chaffin's farm sometime between January 6 and 10, they were assigned to the First Division of the Twenty-Fifth Corps in the Third Brigade. Skillman and his fellow soldiers quickly fell into the daily routine of drilling and preparing to march into battle when called on. The men were well aware of the fighting taking place around the farm; there had been reports of enemy skirmishes and snipers shooting at black soldiers. Still, the black Yankees remained enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve and adjusted to their new environment. By the second week in February, more than 13,000 “colored soldiers” had been absorbed into the Twenty-Fifth Corps, and all of them were waiting for the chance to prove themselves in battle.
On February 20, 1865, a memorandum from Major General Weitzel was read to all the men under his command, expressing both his expectations for victory and his recognition of their great purpose in the war against rebellion:
In view of the circumstances under which this corps was raised and filled, the peculiar claims of its individual members upon the justice and fair dealing of the prejudiced, and the regularity of the conduct of the troops, which deserve those equal rights that have been hitherto denied the majority, the commanding general has been induced to adopt the Square as the distinctive badge of the Twenty-fifth Army Corps. Wherever danger has been found and glory to be won, the heroes who have fought for immortality have been distinguished by some emblem, to which every victory added a new luster. They looked upon their badge with pride, for to it they had given its fame. In the homes of smiling peace it recalled the days of courageous endurance and the hours of deadly strife and it solaced the moment of death, for it was a symbol of a life of heroism and self-denial. The poets still sing of the Templar's Cross, the Crescent of the Turk, the Chalice of the hunted Christian, and the White Plume of Murat, that crested the wave of valor, sweeping resistlessly to victory. Soldiers, to you is given a chance in this spring campaign of making this badge immortal. Let history record that on the banks of the James 30,000 freemen not only gained their own liberty, but shattered the prejudice of the world and gave to the land of their birth peace, union, and glory.73
How Jerry Skillman responded to this glowing compliment or what the black soldiers said among themselves as they fastened their badges to their uniforms we will never know. However, we can imagine that Weitzel's challenge to rise up and be counted as men who were lovers of “peace, union and glory” must have moved them to tears. The badge of the Twenty-Fifth Corps, a simple blue square, became symbolic of the overall purpose of the war for these black men. Many had joined the army to flee the cruelty and degradation of slavery; others saw it as an opportunity to kill white men responsible for their pain and suffering. Nevertheless, thousands understood that their greater purpose was to shatter the institution of slavery and the prejudice found in the world, while claiming their manhood in the process. All these black men, once deemed unimportant to the Federal effort to secure the Union, unfit to serve as soldiers, and unworthy to wear Union blue, were on the verge of capturing the city that maintained the fiction that white supremacy and black inferiority were inherent and ordained by God.
As March came to a close and winter slowly turned to spring, the First and Second Divisions of Twenty-Fifth Corps were readied to complete the final surge against General Lee's forces. The division commanders, Brevet Major General August Kautz of the First and Brigadier General William Birney of the Second, prepared their seasoned soldiers to advance beyond the Confederate lines with the intent of ending the war. On March 27 the Army of the James, of which the Twenty-Fifth Corps was a part, was coordinated to move against Richmond, and the Second Division came under the immediate command of Major General Ord. From Weitzel's notes, we know that on the morning of March 28 he had under his command Kautz's division, a division of the Twenty-Fourth, the Fifth Massachusetts Colored Cavalry, and an additional 500 mounted cavalrymen from Mackenzie's command.74 Attached to the First Division, Private Jerry Skillman's 114th Regiment was poised to take part in the fall of Richmond.
While Weitzel maintained his position on the outskirts of Richmond, General Grant led the assault against Petersburg. After six days of fighting, it became evident that the rebel forces had been demoralized and were pulling back. On the morning of April 2 Petersburg was taken, and with it the strength of the Confederacy. The defeat at Petersburg alerted the rebel troops in Richmond that the end was near. On the morning of April 3 Weitzel ordered his men to prepare to enter the city, which was now ablaze from fires set by the Confederates in an effort to destroy tobacco stores, buildings, and other materials believed to be valuable to the Yankee soldiers.75 The Union soldiers, including Skillman's regiment, entered the city to secure it, put out the fires, and restore order.
Chaplin Garland H. White, a former slave and member of the Twenty-Eighth U.S. Colored Infantry, entered the besieged capital city amid thousands of freedmen and -women. “I became so overcome with tears,” White wrote, “that I could not stand up under the pressure of such fullness of joy in my own heart.”76 Blacks cheered as the soldiers marched up Main Street playing the drums and carrying the colors of their c
orps and country. The spectacle of black men in blue uniforms with shoulders erect and heads held high, maintaining complete discipline, was burned into the minds of the spectators, who recognized that the day of jubilee had finally arrived. After ten days of occupation, the First Division, along with remnants of other brigades and regiments, was relocated to a camp outside of Petersburg near Swift Creek.77 In a letter dated April 11 that was printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the writer recounts the behavior and efficiency of the all-black Twenty-Fifth Corps:
The First Division of the Twenty-[Fifth] Army Corps…has been performing garrison duty at Richmond, and took a very prominent part in the capture of that city. It is composed entirely of colored regiments, with the exception of the artillery and a squadron of white cavalry.
On nearing Petersburg the division took a short rest and then marched through the city, presenting company and platoon fronts. The streets were filled with citizens, curious to witness the appearance and evolutions of so large a body of “Black Yankees.” No matter how deep seated the prejudice of the people here may have been against colored soldiers, their excellent behavior, exact marching, skillful evolution, and true military bearing were eminently calculated to dissipate any existing antagonism. They moved through the city with the exactness and regularity of machinery, and not a word escaped the lips of any one of them.78
It is unclear whether the Twenty-Fifth Corps' relocation was precipitated by the military's desire to calm the black masses or to save white southerners from the embarrassment and humiliation of having black men rule over them. The black soldiers were also having a significant influence on former slaves, which created an unstable and volatile environment for whites who were trying to hold on to their land, their property, and their dignity.79
On April 15 the nation learned of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, shot by actor and Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth while attending a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. The president's death shocked the nation, leaving it without the great architect of the war to maintain the Union and without a great advocate for the freedom of blacks in America. Southern sympathizers rejoiced, while former slaves mourned the loss of their champion, the “Second Father of his Country.”80
Meanwhile, the Twenty-Fifth Corps, still stationed near Petersburg, became the focus of a government conspiracy to remove black soldiers from Virginia. In a memo to Grant, Major General Henry W. Halleck wrote:
General Ord represents that want of discipline and good officers in the Twenty-fifth Corps renders it a very improper force for the preservation of order in this department. A number of cases of atrocious rape by these men have already occurred. Their influence on the colored population is also reported to be bad. I therefore hope you will remove it to garrison forts or for service on the Southern coast and substitute a corps from the Army of the Potomac, say Wright's, temporarily.
It seems very necessary to prevent the rush of the negro population into Richmond and to organize some labor system in the interior immediately as the planting season will be over in two or three weeks. Unless this is provided there will be a famine in this State. For this purpose I shall occupy Fredericks-burg, Orange or Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and a few other points. To perform this duty properly requires officers and men of more intelligence and character than we have in the Twenty-fifth Corps.
Grant responded quickly, instructing Halleck to place the “Twenty-fifth in a camp of instruction either at Bermuda Hundred or at City Point until some disposition is made of them for defense on the sea coast.” Grant also entrusted Halleck to implement a labor system to “employ the idle and prevent their becoming a burden upon the Government.”81
On May 1, 1865, General Halleck assigned all colored troops in the Department of Virginia to the Twenty-Fifth Corps, which would immediately be sent to a camp of instruction, and “no more colored troops would be enlisted.”82 Once he learned of these actions, Major General Weitzel wrote to the assistant adjutant general of armies in the field, Lieutenant Colonel T. S. Bowers:
Colonel: I have heard through several unofficial sources that the troops of my corps are charged with having committed an unusual amount of irregularities while in and about Richmond, and that these reports have reached the ears of some of the highest commanding officers in the service. As I have a telegram from my immediate commander, Maj. Gen. E. O. C. Ord, commanding Department of Virginia, that nearly all of the irregularities complained of were committed by black and white cavalry, which either did not belong to my corps, or had been with it but for a few days; as I know positively that others were committed by the convicts in soldiers' clothing, liberated by the rebels from the penitentiary at the evacuation of Richmond, and as I with my two division commanders, Bvt. Maj. Gen. A. V. Kautz and Bvt. Brig. Gen. R. H. Jackson, both officers of experience in the regular army, believe the troops of this corps to be not only as well behaved and as orderly as the average of other troops, but even more so. I respectfully request to know whether any such charge as above referred to has been either officially or unofficially made by any responsible person. The behavior of my entire corps during the last month has been most excellent. Only one complaint has been made by the people of the vicinity, and this I traced to troops that did not belong to it.83
Weitzel's letter of inquiry was not answered directly. Instead, he received a telegram from Halleck on May 18, 1865, telling him of Grant's order to remove the Twenty-Fifth Corps to the Rio Grande by ocean transportation, which was scheduled to arrive at City Point, Virginia, in two days. A good soldier, Weitzel complied, and there is no record of him protesting the injustice levied on the Twenty-Fifth Corps. But antiblack sentiment was present throughout the war, especially among the military brass, which were willing to sacrifice black men as fodder but unwilling to compromise the fiction they had come to depend on.
It is not clear whether Jerry Skillman was on the ship headed for Texas. Records show that by July, he was back at Camp Nelson in Kentucky, listed as part of the invalid corps. Whether he was injured during the siege on Richmond or had taken a bullet earlier, while in camp at Chaffin's farm, is not known. Skillman died at Camp Nelson on July 27, 1865, if not from combat wounds then most likely from tuberculosis or one of several other diseases easily spread in close quarters.
With the death of her husband, it was up to America to protect her son from the harsh and often cold world. Her experiences as a slave and her time at Camp Nelson would influence the choices she made for him. Young Isaac Murphy, who would have been four years old at the time of Skillman's death, was too young to understand what was happening. It would be years before he could take pride in knowing that his father had been recognized as both a brave man and a free man. And like a majority of African American boys of his generation, Murphy would come to admire his father's resolve and the courage it took to wear the uniform that represented freedom, manhood, and citizenship. He too would have to stand up for what he believed in.
4
From the Silence and the Darkness
1865–1869
In the summer of 1869 the highly anticipated total eclipse of the sun enshrouded the earth in darkness for what seemed to some like an eternity. Scientists had foretold of the “startling and impressive” sight that would appear in the sky on August 7.1 Still, this natural occurrence turned frightful and disconcerting to those who had a limited knowledge of the universe and therefore gravitated toward their religious roots to explain the darkening horizon. But on the day in question, few could turn away from the tremendous spectacle that resembled the colliding of heavenly bodies and, to the naked eye, appeared to be a prelude to the end of the world.
In American newspapers and magazines, astronomers and astrophysicists quantified the precise minutes and seconds when the moon would cover the sun, leaving only the corona, the outer edge, visible. Newspaper editors advised readers to use colored or smoked glasses or pieces of glass with a “thin, even coat of dark var
nish” to view the eclipse.2 In the Atlantic Almanac, Charles S. Peirce provided an explanation of the event and opined that the “total eclipse, whose path lies through a large and thickly settled portion of our country, is an event whose interest cannot be exaggerated.”3 The reading public, especially those of financial means, took note of Peirce's observations and made plans to travel to the best locations to view the eclipse. Thousands migrated into the projected path to witness the display of awe and wonder.
In the weeks prior to the heavenly phenomenon, hundreds of scientists also migrated across the country to the 140-mile-wide belt stretching from the Atlantic Seaboard to the agricultural Midwest, where they set up their bulky telescopes and cameras to observe and capture the sequence of events leading up to the total solar eclipse. Indeed, train cars delivered parties of bespectacled men weighted down with equipment, accompanied by their assistants, to the most favorable spots among the dozens listed as “excellent for observation.” From Leesburg, North Carolina, to Burlington, Iowa, distinguished astronomers and wealthy star gazers settled in to observe the celestial event of epic proportions.4 Chemistry professor Henry Morton of the Franklin Institute was well positioned at Burlington, near the west bank of the Mississippi River, on August 7. The highly acclaimed scientist and intellectual hoped to obtain images of the drama unfolding in the heavens above. Using a Merz and Mahler telescope with a Frauenhofer friction-governor clock and specially fitted lenses to accurately record the changing position of the moon, Morton photographed the eclipse with pinpoint accuracy.5 His images clearly captured the volatile nature of the sun's outer surface, with Venus and Mercury visible in the distance.
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