The organization of Negro troops led to the selection of colored ministers as chaplains of some of the regiments. Records which may not be complete show 139 chaplains assigned to some of the 158 Negro regiments. Only a few of these are known to have been Negroes, though others well may have been.

Among them were Henry M. Turner, William Hunter, James Underdue, and William Warring, of the first, Fourth, 39th and 102s United States Colored Troops, respectively, and Samuel Harrison of the 54th and William Jackson and John C. Bowles of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry. The Act of 17 July 1862, among other provisions, authorized the employment of persons of African descent for labor on fortifications and for similar tasks at a monthly wage of $10. The army paymaster interpreted this to limit the pay of all Negroes to that amount.

Chaplain [Samuel] Harrison was chosen in the usual manner and commissioned by the Governor of Massachusetts. outfitting himself at a cost of $300, he joined his regiment in South Carolina, but was allowed only $10 a month by the paymaster. he appealed to Governor Andrew, who forwarded the papers to the President, and he asked a ruling from the Attorney General. On 23 April 1864, Mr. Bates replied that no law prohibited the appointment of Negro soldiers or officers. Harrison had been commissioned and mustered the same as other chaplains and was entitled to the same pay. The wage limitation of $10 a month applied only to the type of laborers specified in the law and employed under its provision. [Left photo: Samuel Harrison]

He [Attorney General Bates] believed the president should order the pay department to conform to this decision. Sumner read this opinion to the Senate in support of legislation to define the rights of Negro troops. When the conference committees had adjusted the disagreements between the houses he thought the enactment had "dwindled down to the little end of nothing.' Apparently, the ruling of the Attorney General was considered to have settled the question as it concerned chaplains, for some thought it unnecessary when Wilson offered an amendment to the pay bill of 1864, stating explicitly that colored chaplains should receive the same as others and he withdrew his motion (116-117).