In this historical essay, written by Oswald Garrison Villard, it talks about how former black slaves and freedmen joined the army with no experience. After the first war in 1863, there was a loss of 54th Massachusetts colonel, Robert Shaw, it was then established that Negros would fight in the army. Under Federal government, there was more than 150 United States Colored Troop. Having to raise a regiment, or army unit, with black former slaves, stirred up a lot of comments from the North because of the race. I found it puzzling that the Negroes, which were newly, released slaves, had to join the military and all of the officers associated with the war department knew they didn’t have any experience. In the text, Lieutenant Grote Hutchenson stated: “They had no independence, no self reliance, not a thought except for the present, and were filled with superstitions.” Not only did they not have any knowledge about fighting in the military, the men didn’t have an education and only one of them were able to write well enough to be ranked as sergeant-major. Lieutenant Hutchenson also stated that the total lack of education among the men necessitated an enormous amount of writing. I found it odd that the Negroes had to take an examination to be ranked when the Federal government and the War Department knew that they were former slaves and weren’t educated. Fifteen of the men failed the examination and they were discharged after entering because of the lack of studies. The war department believed that just because they weren’t educated enough they wouldn’t have been able to handle being an officer. In the text it was stated that "If the position of a white officer is a difficult one, that of the colored officer is still more so." The War Department failed to appoint colored soldiers that wanted to be ranked nor did they give them the recognition they fought for and deserved. The former slaves were eager to learn about fighting in