Confederate “Heritage” Month 2024, April 27: The “First Arkansas” Marching Song

Mississippi by state law recognizes April 27 as Confederate Memorial Day.

To mark the occasion, here’s a great Civil War song. It was the song of a regiment called the First Arkansas. But despite being named for Mississippi’s neighbor states, this was an all-black Union regiment.

This is a performance of their marching song by Tennessee Ernie Ford, a white country singer, from an album of Civil War songs. (1)

It's sung to the tune of “John Brown’s Body” and has some memorable lyrics:

We’re the bully soldiers of the first of Arkansas

We are fighting for the Union we are fighting for the law

We can hit a Rebel further than a white man ever saw

As we go marching on

We have done with hoeing cotton, we have done with hoeing corn

We are Colored Yankee soldiers just as sure as you are born

When the master hears us yelling they will think it’s Gabriel’s horn.

As we go marching on

This gives an indication of why some Southern segregationists were worried that Tennessee Ernie was less than fully devoted to the “Suthun Way of Life.”

The First Arkansas was one of 175 regiments that made up the United States Colored Troops (USCT). As the US Army website tells us:

During the Civil War, the Union established and maintained regiments of black soldiers. This became possible in 1862 through passage of the Confiscation Act (freeing the slaves of rebellious slaveholders) and Militia Act (authorizing the president to use former slaves as soldiers). President Lincoln was initially reluctant to recruit black soldiers. This changed in January 1863, with the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring freedom for all slaves in Confederate states. …

The first black regiments to serve in the Civil War were volunteer units made up of free black men. These included the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers, 5th Massachusetts (Cavalry), 54th Massachusetts (Infantry), 55th Massachusetts (Infantry), 29th Connecticut (Infantry), 30th Connecticut (Infantry), and 31st Infantry Regiment. In May 1863, the War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops for the purpose of recruiting African-American soldiers. These became the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and existing volunteer units were converted into USCT regiments.

New regiments were also formed from every Union state. While mostly made up of African-American soldiers, other minorities served in these regiments as well, including Native Americans and Asians, while white Union officers served as commanders. USCT regiments participated in all aspects of the Union war effort as infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineers, though they were often used as rear action garrison troop[s]. ...

By the end of the Civil War, there were 175 USCT regiments, containing 178,000 soldiers, approximately 10% of the Union Army. The mortality rate for these units was exceeding high. One of every five black soldiers in the conflict died, a 35% higher rate than other troops. In the process, sixteen USCT soldiers earned the Medal of Honor for their Civil War service. (2)

Notes:

(1) Marching Song (Of The First Arkansas Negro Regiment). Tennessee Earnie Ford TV YouTube channel. <https://youtu.be/jKss9jF2Yxw?si=Gun7R0kVghPyhEDl> (Accessed: 2024-27-04).

(2) Ferguson, Paul-Thomas (2021): A History of African American Regiments in the U.S. Army. U.S. Army 02/11/2021. <https://www.army.mil/article/243284/a_history_of_african_american_regiments_in_the_u_s_army> (Accessed: 2024-27-04).

Confederate “Heritage” Month 2020, April 17: Marching Song of the First Arkansas

One of the best Union songs from the Civil War, Marching Song of the First Arkansas, sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body", sung here by Pete Seeger and Bill MacAdoo. The First Arkansas was a U.S. Army regiment composed of African-American soldiers:

Oh, we're the bully soldiers of the First of Arkansas
We are fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law,
We can hit the Rebel further than the white man ever law,
As we go marching on

From African-Americans Encyclopedia of Arkansas 12/03/2018:

Throughout the American Civil War, thousands of slaves escaped from bondage in Arkansas and made their way to the Union army encampments. The exact number has never been determined, but anecdotal reports indicate that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died from malnutrition and disease in fetid, unsanitary, hastily constructed “shanty towns” and settlements.

The escaped slaves in their midst created a dilemma and a headache for the Union commanders. One obvious and at least partial solution was to enlist able-bodied adult males into the military itself. In April 1863, Brigadier General Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant general of the U.S. Army, issued an appeal to the freedmen to volunteer for service, and many quickly flocked to the colors. The army immediately recruited three black companies in Helena (Phillips County), and they became the nucleus for the First Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment (African Descent) Its new commander was Captain Lindley Miller, an abolitionist from a New York regiment. Eventually, over 5,000 former slaves in Arkansas joined the Union army. [my emphasis]

Miller was a white officer. All the African-American regiments were headed by white Union officers.