October 20, 1864 – Report of Massacre of African American Soldiers in Saltville, Virginia during the Civil War

A website dedicated to the history of Company E, 5th Regiment Cavalry U.S. Colored Troops, recounts that in early 1864, Union General Stephen G. Burbridge, commander of the Military District of Kentucky, authorized within his command the formation of “colored” regiments comprised of freedmen, ex-slaves, and slaves (accepted for enlistment at the “request” of their owners). On June 30, 1864, Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas, responsible for organizing colored regiments in the Mississippi Valley for the Union Army, established the 5th United States Colored Cavalry (5th USCC) and authorized the officers of the newly formed regiment to begin selecting recruits. Colonel James Brisbin, a well-known abolitionist, became commander of the regiment.

On this day in history, Col. Brisbin, the superintendent of the Organization of Kentucky Black Troops, wrote a letter to the Adjutant General of the Army to inform him on the military service of his Black recruits from the 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry.

When the recruits came up to the main body of whites at Prestonburg, Kentucky, they were “the subject of much ridicule and many insulting remarks by the White Troops and in some instances petty outrages such as the pulling off the Caps of Colored Soldiers, stealing their horses etc was practiced by the White Soldiers.”

Brisbin reports that these insults were borne “patiently” by the Black troops and they did not respond to the white taunts.

On October 2, the entire group had to prepare for battle with the enemy at the salt works in western Virginia. As Marlitta H. Perkins observed, in one history of salt during the Civil War:

Salt played a major role during the Civil War. Salt not only preserved food in the days before refrigeration, but was also essential in the curing of leather and dyeing of uniforms. Prior to the war, large quantities of salt were imported from England, Portugal and the British West Indies, but a significant amount was also produced domestically. During the Civil War, salt production facilities in Saltville, Va., Virginia’s Kanawha Valley and Avery Island, Louisiana, were crucial to the Confederate war effort, especially after the Union blockaded delivery of salt to the Confederate states. Union general William Tecumseh Sherman once said that ‘salt is eminently contraband,’ as an army that has salt can adequately feed its men.”

Southerners were so desperate for salt during the war they collected and reused loose salt grains from meat, brushing off their salted meat and boiled it out of the floorboards of smokehouses. In any event, the beef supply dwindled because salt was essential to the diet of cattle, who would not fatten up without it. (See, Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War by Andrew F. Smith, p. 22.) Historian Rick Beard wrote that the lack of salt and other supplies was a major factor in the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War.

At the salt mines in Virginia, Colonel Brisbin recounted that the point to be attacked was the side of a high mountain, the Confederates being posted about half way up behind rifle pits made of logs and stones to the height of three feet.  Col Jas. F. Wade, in charge of the Black troops, ordered his force to charge. Brisbin writes:

Of this fight I can only say that men could not have behaved more bravely.  I have seen white troops fight in twenty-seven battles and I never saw any fight better.  At dusk the Colored Troops were withdrawn from the enemies works, which they had held for over two hours, with scarcely a round of ammunition in their Cartridge Boxes.”

He adds:

On the return of the forces those who had scoffed at the Colored Troops on the march out were silent.”

African-American Union soldiers at Dutch Gap, Virginia, November 1864. It shows typical Union uniforms and the 1853 Enfield rifles used by US Colored Troops, Library of Congress

Unfortunately, those who fell into the hands of the Confederates during the battle were brutally murdered. Brisbin added:

This battle, known as the First Battle of Saltville, has been called the Saltville Massacre.

In his 1995 book, The Saltville Massacre, author Thomas Mays, presents accounts of what took place from letters and diary entries of the men present at the battle. Mays concluded that “A conservative estimate of the number of black murdered at Saltville is forty-six.”

You can read Brisbin’s entire letter here.