A Change in Policy
When the new policy went into effect, Ohioans were eager to enlist in these new units. Letters and telegrams from across the state asked Ohio Governor David Tod to recruit Black troops. While Tod was supportive of the Massachusetts regiments, he showed no interest to recruit his own Black regiments in Ohio. Governor Tod’s letter to Albany resident Joseph Mason recounted “[Governor Andrew’s] plan is to collect colored men in this State and to furnish transportation and subsistence until they reach Boston, where they are enlisted. He makes no promises in relation to offering his Regiments; all applicants are examined by a Board, by him appointed, and I have no doubt that if those who raise the men are found competent to take charge of them, they will receive commissions.”[1] This Albany man was not alone in his hope of an Ohio unit like the Massachusetts 54th.
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Athens County saw many willing enlistments throughout the war, especially amongst those Black students who had enrolled in the private academies. Tod received approval to raise more Black regiments in mid-June 1863, and it took little time to form one. The 127th OVI was on its way to Camp Delaware before the end of June, where they would be drilled.[2]
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Among the soldiers recruited after the creation of USCT regiments were Athens County residents Milton and William Holland. Three brothers – James, William, and Milton – were the sons of Bird Holland, who was a slaveholding Texas politician, and an enslaved woman.[3] Bird had sent his sons to the Albany Manual Labor Academy in the 1850s. While James had joined a white regiment, the 75th OVI, in 1861,[4] Milton was only sixteen years old when the war began, and so he worked in the quartermaster’s department for Colonel Nelson Van Vorhes.[5] He traveled with Van Vorhes to Kentucky. Their camp was “pleasant, favorable to water and near the town; but of times it rains awfully and the grounds get distressingly muddy. The changes are very sudden – raining nearly every other day and freezing just a little every other night.” Holland and Van Vorhes shared a tent in their Elizabethtown camp.[6]
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Holland's military experience, paired with his readiness to fight, made him instrumental to the formation of Ohio's first Black regiment.
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"Christian A. Fleetwood, his friend Milton M. Holland, head and shoulders, facing right, in uniform." Library of Congress.
Notes
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1. Ohio Executive Department, Message and Reports to the General Assembly and Governor of the State of Ohio for the Year 1863, Part 1 (Columbus: Richard Nevins, State Printer, 1864) 272. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Accessed January 21, 2021. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.78251768&view=1up&seq=1.
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2. Ohio Executive Department, Message and Reports, 273-5.
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3. Lowell D. Black, “The Negro Volunteer Militia Units,” 68.
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4. Ohio General Assembly, Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, vol. 6 (Akron: The Werner Printing and Manufacturing Company, 1888) 232. https://archive.org/details/ohiowarroster06howerich/page/232/mode/2up?q=75th.
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5. “Milton M. Holland, Esq., A Brave and Gallant Soldier – An Enterprising Businessman – A Well-Known and Respected Citizen of the Nation’s Capital,” The Freeman (Indianapolis, IN) December 7, 1889. Google News. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=FIkAGs9z2eEC&dat=18891207&printsec=frontpage&hl=en.
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6. Nelson Van Vorhes, Letter to Austin Brown, December 14, 1861. Brown Family Papers, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University.
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Image: “Christian A. Fleetwood, his friend Milton M. Holland, head and shoulders, facing right, in uniform,” Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2006684595/
