Mays' Comments on Marvel's Conclusions

Excerpted from The Price of Freedom: The Battle of Saltville and the Massacre of the Fifth United States Colored Cavalry, by Thomas Davidson Mays, a thesis submitted to the Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History. May, 1992.  

The Conflicting Military Records

Appendix B

Marvel stated that "the butchering of scores of black prisoners is pure exaggeration. No more than an even dozen could have been murdered October 3, and quite possibly only the five witnessed by Surgeon Gardner."

Marvel based his thesis on the carded medical records of the United States Colored Troops at the National Archives. His final count came to 20 men killed in action, 63 wounded, and 31 missing. He then concluded that the 31 missing men "either crawled away to die uncounted or deserted somewhere between Mount Sterling and Saltville, never to return."

Marvel's thesis sounds probable on the surface, yet a detailed investigation of the regiment's history reveals a different story. First, Civil War regiments did not keep track of men who were missing in action in the medical records. The monthly, quarterly and annual muster rolls and returns for the 5th USCC as well as the descriptive roll for the regiment and individual companies at the National Archives are a far more accurate record.

The men killed in action, (K.I.A.) wounded in action, (W.I.A.) died of wounds (D.O.W.) and missing in action (M.I.A.) from the 5th USCC can be broken down as follows:

At a glance the rolls appear to be contradictory and confusing, yet it becomes apparent that many of the original men who were missing in action were eventually accounted for. The descriptive rolls for companies and regiment, maintained during and after the war give the most detailed account of the missing individuals. While a few did desert, and many came in after the battle, a total of at least 46 men remained missing well after the war.

Secondly, Marvel contended that his missing 31 men "either crawled away to die uncounted or deserted somewhere between Mount Sterling and Saltville, never to return." However, of over 4,500 Federal troops in 12 regiments, 104 men were initially reported as missing by Hatchett: 53 men from the 5th USCC, and a total of 51 from the other 11 white regiments. It is unlikely that over half of the missing men from a 4,500 man army would be deserters from one regiment (the 5th USCC).

Finally, over 1,200 men served in the 5th USCC during eighteen months of service. During that time, only 65 men were listed as deserters. To contend that the men listed as missing in action at Saltville were deserters fails to take into account the regiment's record. Of the 46 men missing at Saltville, it seems difficult to believe that they would desert at one time from a regiment that only had 65 deserters for the entire war.

A conservative estimate of the number of blacks murdered at Saltville is forty-six. These are the men listed and kept on the rolls as M.I.A.'s until well after the war. The bodies of these men, as well as the 10 men killed in action, would verify the many eye witness accounts that describe the burial of a large number of blacks on the field.
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Notes

1. Thomas D. Mays, "The Price of Freedom: The Battle of Saltville and the Massacre of the Fifth United States Colored Cavalry", May, 1992:
Marvel felt that Mosgrove contrived most of his account of the massacre. He added that what Mosgrove did not lift from the Guerrant diary, he lifted from newspaper accounts of Champ Ferguson's trail. The interesting point is that Mosgrove lived in Kentucky after the war and the Federals tried Ferguson in Tennessee. It is doubtful that Mosgrove even knew of the trial, much less followed the Tennessee papers that covered it. Finally, Marvel is certain that Mosgrove's account of the killings at the cabin were directly taken from testimony from Ferguson's trial, yet Mosgrove never mentions Ferguson in connection with the killings at the cabin. If Mosgrove fabricated his entire account, one would think he would mention the name of the most notorious killer at Saltville to add credence to his story.
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2. Thomas D. Mays, "The Price of Freedom: The Battle of Saltville and the Massacre of the Fifth United States Colored Cavalry", May, 1992:
There are two accounts of this meeting. Edward O. Guerrant recorded meeting Robertson in his diary the night after the battle. Mosgrove, in writing his memoirs, also added that he overheard the conversation. Marvel, in his article stated that Mosgrove lied about being present during the conversation because Guerrant never mentioned whether or not Mosgrove was there. The fact the Guerrant did not directly state that Mosgrove was present does not mean he did not hear the conversation. While Mosgrove freely admitted that he consulted Guerrant's work in writing his memoirs, there is no reason to believe that Mosgrove's account is fictional.
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3. Thomas D. Mays, "The Price of Freedom: The Battle of Saltville and the Massacre of the Fifth United States Colored Cavalry", May, 1992:
In his account of the battle, William Marvel states that George Dallas Mosgrove "pointedly denied that any Kentucky soldiers took part in the killing, insisting it was only Tennessee troop." Mosgrove's actual account is much different. In Kentucky Cavaliers in Dixie, he wrote: "I did not see any of the Kentuckians shoot a negro. A few of them, however, may have done so. Not having met the negroes in battle they had not the same provocation as the Tennesseeans." Rather than being a pointed denial, Mosgrove admitted that Kentucky troops may have taken part in the massacre.
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4. Thomas D. Mays, "The Price of Freedom: The Battle of Saltville and the Massacre of the Fifth United States Colored Cavalry", May 1992:
Ever the partisan, Marvel considered Ferguson's trial "a sham designed to convict him guilty or not." He accuses George W. Carter of the 11th Michigan Cavalry of being an "imposter" because he failed to find Carter's name in the unit's regimental history. Marvel failed to take into account that accurate Civil War rosters are almost non-existent. It is far more likely that Carter's name had been lost in the records rather than Marvel's thesis that he was a planted "imposter."
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5. Thomas D. Mays, "The Price of Freedom: The Battle of Saltville and the Massacre of the Fifth United States Colored Cavalry", May, 1992:
He [Marvel] also discounted Henry Shocker's testimony. Marvel used Shocker's record to demonstrate that he was "not the best of soldiers" because he had been reduced in ranks from corporal to private for an unknown infraction. He then suggested that Shocker was a "skulker" who manufactured his story of the murders in order to cover his desertion at Saltville. Evidently, Marvel considered Shocker's wounding and capture a certain way for the scamp to shirk duty.
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