Some Favored Nook, Pt. 2: No. 6, To See If We Were Growing

HIGGINSON:

I did not seek the command

Of colored troops,

But it sought me.

I had always looked for the arming of

the blacks,

I had been an abolitionist too long, And had known and loved John Brown

too well,

Not to feel a thrill of joy

At last on finding myself

In the position where he only wished to

be.

I obtained from the War Department, Permission to report to General Saxton, Thenceforth my lot was cast

Altogether with the black troops,

Mine lay among hundred men Suddenly transformed

From slaves into soldiers

A battalion of black soldiers

A spectacle since so common

Seemed then the most daring of

innovations.

I felt sometimes as if

We were a plant trying to take root But constantly pulled up

To see if we were growing.