44th Colored Regiment

The 44th Colored Regiment is a Union Army unit that appears in the novel as one of Paul D's many failed attempts to find a permanent place in the world. It is a regiment of Black soldiers formed during the Civil War, and Paul D joins it after running away from the Northpoint Bank and Railroad Company, hoping to make a new life for himself. The regiment, however, never achieves its purpose: it falls apart before it can engage in battle, and Paul D is left without a clear direction, a failure that echoes his earlier escapes from Sweet Home and foreshadows his later wanderings.

Formation and Paul D's Joining

The 44th Colored Regiment is introduced in the context of Paul D's escape from the Northpoint Bank and Railroad Company, where he had been working after his time in Alfred, Georgia. He runs away intending to join the 44th Colored Regiment in Tennessee, but upon arrival he discovers that he has instead found another colored regiment forming under a commander in New Jersey. This regiment, which he stays with for four weeks, is the one that becomes known as the 44th Colored Regiment. The unit is composed of Black soldiers, many of whom, like Paul D, are former slaves or fugitives seeking to fight for their freedom and the Union cause.

The Regiment's Collapse

The 44th Colored Regiment falls apart before it can see any action. The central dispute is over whether the soldiers should be allowed to carry weapons. The decision is made that they should not, and the white commander is left to figure out what to command them to do instead of killing other white men. This decision effectively emasculates the regiment, reducing its soldiers to laborers rather than fighters. Some of the ten thousand men who had gathered stay to clean, haul, and build things; others drift away to join different regiments; most are simply abandoned, left to their own devices with bitterness as their only pay. Paul D, who had been trying to make up his mind about what to do, is caught by an agent from the Northpoint Bank and taken back to Delaware, where he is forced to slave-work for a year.

Consequences and Aftermath

The collapse of the 44th Colored Regiment has profound consequences for Paul D. It marks another in a series of failed escapes, reinforcing his sense of being a man without a place. The regiment's failure also highlights the systemic racism within the Union Army, where Black soldiers were often denied the right to fight and were instead used for manual labor. Paul D's experience with the regiment is part of a larger pattern of disillusionment that culminates in his later reflections on his life. He later encounters two colored soldiers who had been captured from the 44th Colored Regiment, and one of them, a private named Keane, tells him about the Massachusetts 54th, a regiment that had been paid less than white soldiers. This revelation impresses Paul D, who had never considered the idea of being paid to fight, and it deepens his understanding of the injustices faced by Black soldiers.

Narrative Significance

The 44th Colored Regiment serves as a symbol of the broken promises and unfulfilled hopes that characterize Paul D's life. It is one of the many institutions that fail him, from Sweet Home to the prison camp in Alfred, Georgia, to the various jobs he takes after the war. The regiment's collapse is a microcosm of the larger failure of Reconstruction to deliver true freedom to Black Americans. Paul D's brief and fruitless association with the regiment underscores his rootlessness and his struggle to find a stable identity in a world that continually denies him one. The episode also contributes to the novel's broader critique of the ways in which even the institutions meant to liberate Black people were compromised by racism and betrayal.