A peculiar regiment was organized in Alabama, known as the Third Alabama Volunteer Infantry, in which the enlisted men were all colored and the officers all white.  The regiment saw no service and attracted no attention outside of its immediate locality.

Two companies of colored men with colored captains were also mustered into the United States service from Indiana, and finally attached to Colonel Huggins’ command, although not becoming a part of his regiment, the Eighth Immunes.  They were stationed at Fort Thomas, Ky., and at Chickamauga, and were mustered out early.  Their officers were men of intelligence who had acquired experience by several years’ service in the militia, and the companies were exceptionally well drilled.  They were designated Companies A and B and were commanded by Captains Porter and Buckner, with Lieutenant Thomas as Quartermaster.

The organization of the four immune regiments, already mentioned, gave opportunity for ninety-six colored men to obtain commissions as lieutenants.  A few of these positions were seized upon by influential young white men, who held them, but with no intention of ever serving in the regiments, as they found staff positions much more congenial to their tastes.  The colored men who were appointed lieutenants in these regiments were generally either young men of ability and influence who had assisted in getting up their companies, and who in many cases had received some elementary military instruction as cadets, in school, or men who had distinguished themselves by efficiency or gallantry in the Regular Army.  Some exceptions there were, of course, and a few received commissions in consequence of personal friendship and political considerations.  Before these regiments were mustered out of the service about one-half of the lieutenants were men from the Regular Army.

I am sure the reader will be pleased to learn that Sergeants Foster, Buck and Givens, whose deeds in Cuba have already been related, were rewarded with commissions, and that the gallant Thomas C. Butler, who rushed forward from his company’s line and seized the Spanish standard at El Caney, was afterward permitted to serve in Cuba with the rank of a commissioned officer.  Besides those named above, there were others also of marked ability and very respectable attainments who received commissions on general merit, as well as for gallantry.  Chief among the class promoted for efficiency was First Lieutenant James R. Gillespie, formerly Post Quartermaster-Sergeant.  Gillespie had served several years in the Tenth Cavalry and had proved himself an excellent soldier.  Both in horsemanship and as marksman he was up to the standard, while his character and business qualifications were such as to secure for him a staff position of responsibility.  As Quartermaster-Sergeant he held positions of important posts and filled them with great satisfaction.  Because of his efficiency as a soldier he was given a commission as First Lieutenant