[Gutenberg 46181] • The Forty-third regiment United States Colored Troops

No apology can be necessary for the publication of the following pages, as it is no unworthy or mercenary object they seek to obtain. They have been elicited by request of numerous friends of the officers of this regiment and of the colored troops, designed for their own use; and their object is not simply to give succinct statements of individual military history, or of any single command of the Colored Troop, but to furnish, also, at the same time, an unanswerable argument on the subject of this Troop, as an element in the military service on the side of Freedom and the Union; their extraordinary good discipline, efficiency and bravery, and the fact that they are very susceptible of intellectual and moral culture. We present it in compliance with the request that has been made, subservient to this purpose.