THE CONTRIBUTION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS to the military efforts of the nation began in the colonial era, was conspicuous during the American Revolution, and, with varying degrees of participation, has continued to the present day. The tens of thousands of black men who rallied to the Union cause during the Civil War tended to view themselves as waging a struggle not only for liberation from slavery but also for elevation to first-class citizenship. Their goals would prove elusive, however, because, in the words of one black soldier from Louisiana, “Nobody really desires our success[,] and it is uphill work.”1
Despite the significant accomplishments of the black U.S. military units during the Civil War, there was fierce opposition to allowing black men to serve in the peacetime U.S. Army after the war. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, for example, viewed the “colored troops” only as a source of emergency manpower. Other military leaders believed that African Americans “lacked the intelligence to serve as artillerymen.” The fear of armed blacks remained a concern throughout the South and in the former border states. One Delaware congressman optimistically (and debatably) claimed that blacks were not needed because there were plenty of white men who would “gladly accept” a place in the U.S. Army. Despite such opposition, in 1866 Congress authorized the creation of sixty-seven regular army regiments, six of which would be filled by African Americans-four of infantry and two of cavalry, but no artillery units. Three years later the army consolidated the four infantry regiments into the 24th Infantry (Colored) and the 25th Infantry (Colored), but the two cavalry regiments, the 9th and the 10th, retained their original organization.2 All four regiments were commanded by white officers, and they were assigned to duty in the West and Southwest.3
In July 1870 Congress passed legislation that formally opened state militias to African Americans. By that time black units were already official in Ohio and Rhode Island, and in the following decade blacks became members of state militias throughout the North. In the South a limited number of black militias were formed, with official companies appearing in South Carolina (1873), North Carolina (1874), Georgia (1877), and Alabama (1884). With rare exception the black units were controlled by command structures dominated by white men, endured periods of neglect and persistent discrimination from the state militia organizations, and often suffered from the same racism found in their local communities.4
Few of these black state militia units managed to survive through the end of the nineteenth century. The successful ones owed much to the skills and diplomacy of men such as Reuben Romulus Minis of the black militia company in Mobile known as Gilmer’s Rifles. When Minis died on March 9, 1901, the Daily Register, the leading white newspaper in Mobile, reported his impressive funeral in detail. The Register also eulogized him in an editorial, describing him as a “worthy citizen,” a man of “extreme courtesy,” and one who was “held in high esteem by our people, respected by whites and blacks alike.”5
The son of a Georgia-born woman, Lida Lee, Mims was born in July 1854 in Aberdeen, Mississippi, the county seat of Monroe County and located on the Tombigbee River.6 Although it is not known when he moved to Mobile, he appeared to have entered local politics during the final years of radical Reconstruction. He attended a January 1873 Republican “mass meeting” as a member of the resolutions committee that drafted an endorsement of Gov. David P. Lewis’s fiscal policy.7 He appeared again at the Republican County convention in July 1882 when, as a delegate from Mobile’s first ward, he supported the nomination of Gen. James E. Slaughter for the office of postmaster general at Mobile.8 General Slaughter subsequently received the appointment, and Mims became a letter carrier, a position he held the rest of his life-despite being wounded by eight rounds fired into his legs by an unknown assailant on a dark night in April 1888.9 Although Mims received his federal appointment through the patronage system, the fact that he subsequently retained his post after his sponsor left office attests to his competency in the position.10 An enthusiastic and dedicated Mason, Minis rose to the highest rank in black Freemasonry in the state and held the position of leadership for fifteen years.11
Mims’s most notable achievement was perhaps his successful leadership of Gilmer’s Rifles, the second of three African American companies officially accepted into Alabama’s state militia during the 1880s. Mims was eventually promoted to major and thus became the highest-ranking black officer in the Alabama State Troops. In his capacity as leader of Gilmer’s Rifles, Mims supported Mobile’s black community through challenging times.12
Nineteenth-century Mobile was one of the South’s major seaports, a cosmopolitan city of French and Spanish heritage with a significant number of free and relatively well-educated blacks. Although Creoles of color were not a majority of black Mobilians, they contributed to the city’s cultural diversity by establishing their own fire company, a network of businesses, and numerous social and fraternal organizations. Many Creoles were active in city and state politics, especially during Reconstruction. According to historian Nahfiza Ahmed, Creoles of color may have also contributed to Mobile’s “lack of extreme animosity between the white and black races” during most of the nineteenth century.13 Some of the men of Gilmer’s Rifles were “colored” Creoles, including nearly all the officers, who undoubtedly helped Mims in his efforts to create an efficient military company.
