Maine Memory Network

Bridges and the Mudgetts left the 2nd Maine on February 25, 1863, to join "Ullmann's Brigade," a brigade of four new colored regiments to be raised in Louisiana by Brigadier General Daniel Ullman. The officers were to be selected with input from the governors of Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, a Maine native, gave his backing to the brigade from early on.

Command of the 3rd Regiment of Ullmann's Brigade went to his son, Cyrus Hamlin, under whom Bridges and the Mudgett brothers would serve, although Lewis eventually transferred to the 86th Colored Infantry.

A transfer to a black regiment presented soldiers like the 2nd Mainers with an opportunity for career advancement. In one sample of 1,773 men who became officers in black regiments, only 9 percent had previously been officers, so the Mudgetts were in the minority.

The largest proportion, 41.5 percent, had been non-commissioned officers like Bridges, while privates and civilians represented 25 percent each.

Initially those officer positions were acquired through patronage, as seems to have been the case for Bridges, but the War Department soon established a system of examination boards that lent far greater rigor to the selection process.

The capture of Vicksburg and the subsequent surrender of Confederate troops at Port Hudson cemented Union control of the Mississippi river in July of 1863. Port Hudson became the headquarters of the Corps d'Afrique, a new command under Brigadier General George L. Andrews that encompassed both the Louisiana Native Guards and Ullmann's Brigade.

What had been the 3rd United States (Colored) Volunteers had been re-designated the 8th Corps d'Afrique by the time it officially entered service on September 1, 1863.