"A Soldier Friend" reports on an apparent scheme by Army officers to defraud Black soldiers of their bounty claims
Dublin Core
Title
"A Soldier Friend" reports on an apparent scheme by Army officers to defraud Black soldiers of their bounty claims
Date
11/8/1866
Coverage
Baltimore, MD
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Anonymous Resident of Maryland to the Secretary of War
Balt Nov 8th 1866
Hon Edwin M. Stanton
Secatary of War
Washington D.C.
Sir. I write to inform you that the 7th Regt U.S.C.T. is at Fort Federal Hill Balt waiting their discharge.
I have been informed that everything is complete for mustering them out. and that they are held for the sole reason that they will not turn their Discharges over to a certin claim agent in Balt city without ever seeing their discharges.
Now I think that these men are entitled when mustered out to receive their discharges in their own hands and collect their own Bounty
or give it to who they Please to collect it is a gross outrage upon the soldier to be compelled to give his discharge over to some man who he does not know without ever seeing his discharge
these facts I learn from the men themselves that the only reason they are held is they must turn over their discharges to a certin claim agent who I suppose has entered into an Agreement with the officers to that effect
It is your duty to see that these men does not have so gross an outrage practiced upon them and I appeal to you as a soldier friend to give this your Speedy attention by allowing these men to have their own discharge when mustered out or these soldiers will be receive but half of their Md state Bounty which they are entitled to Yours Respectfully
A Soldier Friend
A Soldier Friend to Edwin M. Stanton, 8 Nov. 1866, A 215 1866, Letters Received, ser. 360, Colored Troops Division, RG 94 [B 321]. A note on the wrapper reads “file.”
Balt Nov 8th 1866
Hon Edwin M. Stanton
Secatary of War
Washington D.C.
Sir. I write to inform you that the 7th Regt U.S.C.T. is at Fort Federal Hill Balt waiting their discharge.
I have been informed that everything is complete for mustering them out. and that they are held for the sole reason that they will not turn their Discharges over to a certin claim agent in Balt city without ever seeing their discharges.
Now I think that these men are entitled when mustered out to receive their discharges in their own hands and collect their own Bounty
or give it to who they Please to collect it is a gross outrage upon the soldier to be compelled to give his discharge over to some man who he does not know without ever seeing his discharge
these facts I learn from the men themselves that the only reason they are held is they must turn over their discharges to a certin claim agent who I suppose has entered into an Agreement with the officers to that effect
It is your duty to see that these men does not have so gross an outrage practiced upon them and I appeal to you as a soldier friend to give this your Speedy attention by allowing these men to have their own discharge when mustered out or these soldiers will be receive but half of their Md state Bounty which they are entitled to Yours Respectfully
A Soldier Friend
A Soldier Friend to Edwin M. Stanton, 8 Nov. 1866, A 215 1866, Letters Received, ser. 360, Colored Troops Division, RG 94 [B 321]. A note on the wrapper reads “file.”
Citation
“"A Soldier Friend" reports on an apparent scheme by Army officers to defraud Black soldiers of their bounty claims,” Black Maryland in the Civil War—A Microedition of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, accessed August 8, 2026, https://www.fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/66.