United States Colored Troops and Arlington House

4th United States Colored Troops in the defenses around Washington, DC.

Library of Congress

The 2^nd United States Colored Troops Infantry Regiment, the 23^rd United States Colored Troops Infantry Regiment, and Unassigned Company A, U.S. Colored Troops were three units of the United States Colored Troops recruited in the Northern Virginia area. They were likely organized in the vicinity of Arlington House, and may have had included family members of those enslaved at Arlington House. While records exist for some USCT soldiers who had family connections to the enslaved people of Arlington House, currently we only know of one person who was enslaved at Arlington and enlisted in the USCT, Lucius Bingham (1844-?).

Lucius Bingham first appears in the historical record at Arlington House on “An Inventory of the Slaves at Arlington belonging to the Estate of G.W.P. Custis taken January 1^st 1858,” made following the death of Lee’s father-in-law, George Washington Parke Custis in 1857. The document lists 63 members of Arlington’s enslaved community by name and in family groups. The husband/father is listed first followed by the wife/mother and then the children. The Custises enslaved eight interrelated families – the Binghams, Burkes, Checks, Grays, Norrises, Parks’, Syphaxes and Taylors – at Arlington plantation. Many of them or their ancestors came to Arlington with Custis from Mount Vernon in 1802. Unfortunately, the inventory lacks birth dates or ages, but since Louisa and Austin Bingham are listed as Lucius’ parents, we can gain some insight into how old he was. Louisa would have been about 58 years old when this inventory was taken, and considering how many children she had, we can surmise her youngest children were in their late teens and early twenties.

U.S. Army service records list the name of a Private Lucius Bingham who was mustered in Washington, D.C. into the 38^th United States Colored Troops Infantry Regiment on February 28, 1865. If this is the same Lucius Bingham who was enslaved at Arlington, he may have been amongst those emancipated in late 1862 when Robert E. Lee issued a letter of manumission for the people enslaved by George Washington Parke Custis. Custis’ will stipulated freedom for the people he enslaved within five years after his death. Many of those formerly enslaved to Custis stayed on to live and work at the newly established Freedman’s Village at Arlington. It is quite possible that Lucius lived there until he enlisted, which may explain his occupation of “laborer.”

As an unassigned recruit during March-April 1865, Private Bingham probably missed his regiment’s march into Richmond; although his unit was one of the first of the Union Army to enter Confederate capital on April 5, 1865. A week later he was attached to Company A. The 38^th USCT remained on duty in Virginia until the Army transferred the unit to Texas beginning May 24, 1865. Bingham and the regiment arrived there just in time for the very first Juneteenth Day (June 19, 1865) marking the day that African Americans in Texas first learned of the Emancipation Proclamation.

While Lucius is the only known formerly enslaved person from Arlington House to join the USCT, other emancipated family members joined the Union war effort. Douglas Syphax (1841-1890), the nephew of Charles Syphax Arlington House’s enslaved butler, enlisted as a private on September 27, 1864 in Unassigned Company A, U.S. Infantry, also known as the Virginia Colored Guard. He spent his ten months of military service entirely in the “Defenses of Washington,” which allowed other troops formerly stationed in the DC area to be employed in more active theaters of war. Douglas Syphax attained the rank of sergeant by the time he mustered out on July 29, 1865. Sergeant Syphax is buried in Section 27, Arlington National Cemetery.

Another USCT soldier connected to an enslaved Arlington House family is John Gray (1844- ?), cousin of Thornton Gray (1824-1905) of Arlington House. According to the 1850 Census, John Gray is the son of another Thornton Gray who was enslaved to George Washington and freed by the terms of Washington’s will. John Gray’s father Thornton was the uncle of the Thornton Gray of Arlington House; but unlike the Gray family of Arlington House John Gray’s family was free because of his father’s emancipation in 1799. John Gray’s enlistment record confirms the 1850 Census in stating that he was free before April 19, 1861, the start of the Civil War. The 2nd United States Colored Infantry Regiment was organized in Arlington, Virginia (June 20, 1863 – November 11, 1863) and mustered in for a three-year service. On August 25, 1863, John Gray enlisted in Company G of the 2^nd USCT. His family name appears on the company’s rosters spelled as both “Gray” and “Grey.” The regiment was ordered to the Department of the Gulf in December 1863, where it was on duty at New Orleans, Louisiana, and Ship Island, Mississippi, until February 13, 1864. On that date, the Army ordered the 2^nd USCT to Key West, Florida. In March 1864, Private Gray was detailed as an orderly for the Adjutant General at Key West. His enlistment records his first skirmish at Clay Landing, Florida on February 10, 1865. Private Gray subsequently saw action at Station No. 4, Florida on February 13, 1865; at East Creek, Florida on March 5, 1865; at Newport, Florida on the same day; and finally at the Battle of Natural Bridge near Tallahassee, Florida on the following day. On September 23, 1865, “Private John Grey of Co. G 2^nd USCT” was “appointed corporal in said company for soldierly conduct and attention to duty.” He mustered out at Key West, Florida on January 5, 1866.

Besides recording the ages, physical description, place of birth, and occupations of Lucius Bingham, John Gray, and Douglas Syphax, their enlistment records are illustrative of recruiting practices of the Union Army in the later years of the Civil War. At the start of the Civil War people in both the North and the South believed that the war would be short. Recruits flocked to their respective colors, with many Union soldiers initially enlisting in short-term three-month regiments. The initial response to President Lincoln's call for troops proved so enthusiastic that some of the volunteers could not be accommodated. The government turned away men, whom they desperately needed two years later, and in April 1862 the War Department closed its recruiting offices. Within weeks it became evident that they made a mistake, and in the summer of 1862 the Army led massive enlistment drives, but by autumn 1862 the reservoir of purely patriotic recruits had been effectively exhausted.

As fighting progressed, mounting casualties further dampened enthusiasm for the war and Union leaders realized the necessity for regiments to be recruited for longer three-year periods of service. The U. S. government responded to the need for more manpower with financial incentives and the threat of conscription. Since the early months of the war, the government rewarded volunteers with a bounty of $100, most of which they deferred until the soldier was honorably discharged. However, the bounty seemed to have been a significant lure for men from poorer families. Even still, the Militia Act of 1862 required individual states to draft men if their enlistment quotas fell short.

On March 3, 1863, Congress enacted the Enrollment Act of 1863, a conscription act that produced the first national wartime draft of citizens in United States history. The act created an elaborate machine for enrolling and drafting men for conscription, calling for registration of all males between the ages of 20 and 45, including aliens with the intention of becoming citizens, by April 1. No married man could be drafted until all the unmarried had been taken. In 1863, the federal bounty increased to $300 to boost volunteering and reduce the number of drafted men. Again, the men who responded to these bounties hailed principally from the lower economic strata of society. The draft permitted two means of escape for those men who could not obtain an exemption for health or hardship. The government excused anyone from their draft who paid a commutation fee of $300, the yearly wage of a common laborer, with the caveat of possibly being drafted in the next levy. A man who wished to secure a commutation, a permanent exemption, could simply hire someone willing to enlist as a substitute in his place. These clauses, and particularly the commutation provision, provoked many to object that the conflict was "a rich man's war, but a poor man's fight." All three (Lucius Bingham, John Gray, and Douglas Syphax) enlisted as substitutes for drafted men.