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From: "Michael Hait" <>
Subject: Re: [TGF] [APG Members] National Archives in Washington,D.C - preliminary inventory - 3 questions
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 16:30:10 -0500
References: <8CD91C783C02F07-DEC-A462@webmail-d098.sysops.aol.com>,<99A73BF283ED4B5E9184736AFF0A28A8@LeRoy><BAY156-w4673837A837D59C12A2922A6E70@phx.gbl>
In-Reply-To: <BAY156-w4673837A837D59C12A2922A6E70@phx.gbl>


None of the U. S. Colored Troops were Confederate soldiers. LeRoy is not looking at Confederate records. The Adjutant General’s Office had dominion over the Bureau of Colored Troops, which was created by the Enrollment Act of 1863. The Bureau controlled all U. S. Colored Troops.

On a side note: While there were black men (generally slaves) that served for the Confederate Army, they were not mustered into Confederate service. The Confederacy only passed the act allowing black soldiers in April 1865, and we all know how long the War last after that. ... ;)

To clarify a little about General Order 329. This was the order *within the War Department* that allowed for the specific creation of “Slave Claims Commissions”—originally called “Boards of Claims”—for the four slave-holding Union states: Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, and Kentucky. Only in Maryland was a Board set up immediately in 1863. The other Commissions were established later, including one for Tennessee and one for West Virginia. This Order (329) was issued as a result of a clause in the Enrollment Act of 1863 that specified that loyal slaveowners would be compensated by the federal government for any of their slaves that joined the Union.

The papers for the accepted Claims are held as enclosures within the compiled military service records. These are also available on Ancestry.com among their U. S. Colored Troops Service Records images. The claims papers offer evidence of the owner’s loyalty, evidence of ownership of the slave, etc. These are not abstracts like the carded records, but the original papers submitted to the Commissions.

An index/abstract of the claims of several regiments of the U. S. C. T. is available on the St. Louis County Library website. I have published the claims for Delaware and Kentucky, using the original claims registers at NARA.

Michael Hait

http://www.haitfamilyresearch.com

From: Ruth Randall
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 4:11 PM
To: ; ; APGMembers Only List
Subject: Re: [APG Members] National Archives in Washington, D.C - preliminary inventory - 3 questions

Dear Le Roy,

Have you looked for your subject in Ancestry.com's US Civil War Records and Profiles? If your subject is included on that site, it will incude his date of enlistment, and, state served and his date of birth. Ancestry's Index of Civl War Pension Index includes the claimant's Company and Regiment and his applicagtion and certificate numbers.

Pllease do not assume that a member of the US Colored Troops who ws a resident of Missouiri was necessarily a member of the Confederacy. The Adjutant General of the War Department issued General Order No. 329 on 3 October 1863 which provided for the slaveowners in Missouri, Maryland (Confederate states that did not secede from the Union) and Tennessee (which was by then under the control of the Union) to offer their slaves for enlistment. Slaveholders were to be compensated a maximum of $300 for the service or labor of a slave.

Regards,
Ruth Randall


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