Within weeks of the Confederate surrender, Tom Barnes voluntarily enlisted in United States Army in New Bern, North Carolina.
Barnes joined Company B of the 14th Heavy Artillery, United States Colored Troops. The company descriptive book described him as 18 years old; five feet four inches tall; with black complexion, eyes, and hair. He was born in Wilson County and worked as a farmer.
It’s not clear if Barnes freed himself prior to the end of the war or took off immediately after Emancipation. The muster contains a curious remark: “Enlisted previous to G.O. No. 38 C.S. Dept. of N.C. stopping recruiting & has never been mustered in until the present time.”
In May 1865, the Civil War was over, but the Union Army still needed men to secure the South, guard strategic coastal forts, and maintain order. However, because the war was winding down, the federal War Department ordered local departments to strictly regulate and taper off recruitment. Under Major General John Schofield’s Union Department of North Carolina, General Orders No. 38 (Current Series, 1865) authorized recruitment and enlistment protocols during this transitional post-surrender period.
G.O. Number 38 granted mustering officers in New Bern the explicit authority to accept Tom Barnes and other newly freed men into federal service in an army of occupation, even as other parts of the Union Army were preparing to demobilize. Stationed at defense sites like Fort Macon (near Beaufort, North Carolina) and the fortifications around New Bern, Company B was tasked with rebuilding and guarding North Carolina’s coast. The unit spent the rest of 1865 and early 1866 dismantling Confederate defenses, guarding government property, and protecting newly freed communities during the earliest days of Reconstruction. The 14th U.S.C.T. was formally mustered out of military service in December 1865.
I have not found trace of Tom Barnes after his military service.