Negroes Cannot be Enlisted

When Captain High was mustering the 8th Maine Regiment into the U.S. Service, at Augusta, last week, in one of the companies he noticed a negro. He ordered him from the ranks, but the man made his appearance in another section of the company, and his captain insisted upon his being mustered in, as he was a strong and able-bodied man. Captain High remarked that he came to muster in white citizens, not negroes.  He then inquired the name of the negro, and struck it from the company roll. Shame!

(Liberator, Sept 20, 1861, pg 3)