The voyage of the U.S. Frigate Constitution ended at Ship island, a barrier island off the Gulf coast of Mississippi in December, 1861. Prior to disembarking, Brigadier General John Wolcott Phelps gathered all passengers on deck and recited one of the most extraordinary speeches given by any officer during the Civil War. The so-called “Phelps’ Emancipation Proclamation” was not sanctioned army policy and had no authority of law; but the bold statement decrying the institution of slavery as antithetical to free republican government and free labor anticipated President Lincoln’s official proclamation ten months later.
Phelps was careful not to repeat the mistake of General John C. Frémont, who on August 30, 1861 declared that all enslaved people confiscated as the property of rebels would be henceforth forever free. Frémont’s rash action placed Abraham Lincoln in a difficult political situation, as the president attempted to placate both abolitionists and slaveholding Southern Unionists in border states like Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland. Although he endured sharp criticism from his superior, Major General Benjamin Butler, Phelps’s provocative speech was just one of many radical voices pressuring Lincoln for a dramatic shift in war policy.
John Wolcott Phelps was a Vermont native and an 1836 West Point graduate who served with distinction in wars against native Creeks and Seminoles in Florida and later took charge of Cherokee removal during the infamous Trail of Tears. Despite his gallant service in the Mexican War, he refused a brevet promotion to captain, feeling he had not yet earned the rank. Years later, Captain Phelps served in operations against filibusterers in Texas and in the Utah expedition against the Mormons. He resigned from service in November, 1859, only to be called back in April 1861 as colonel of the First Vermont Volunteer Infantry. A fellow officer described him as “a tall, middle aged, stooping, awkward looking man,” dressed in a tattered old artillery captain’s uniform replete with disintegrating felt hat and drooping ostrich feather. Despite appearances, Phelps had a well-earned reputation as an outstanding soldier. As his boys marched down Broadway in New York City, a bystander enquired, “Who is that big Vermont colonel?” Another man replied, “Oh that is old Ethan Allen resurrected!”
Phelps and his Vermonters landed in Newport News, Virginia, where the old colonel’s talents as a commander drew the attention of General Benjamin Butler. Despite the fact that some regular army officers viewed Phelps as “not in his right mind,” which Butler attributed to his “deep religious enthusiasm upon the subject of slavery,” he recommended Phelps for promotion. Butler entered Phelps’ tent and laid brigadier general shoulder-straps on the table, but the colonel refused to accept them, arguing that his brief service in Newport News was not sufficient cause for such honors. A few months later, Phelps accepted the rank and a key role in the Department of the Gulf. Once Butler got wind of Phelps’ incendiary arrival speech, he realized the depth of his new brigadier’s animus against slavery and the political problems that it presaged.