I appreciate your knowlege, however, the O.R. does not agree with your assessment. In all records the USCT is seperated and treated as a different branch of service to the Regulars.
O.R. Series 3 - Volume 5 page 487.
On the 19th of December, 1864, a call was made for 300,000 men.
Number of voluntary enlistsments under this call:
Volunteers-
White.............................................130,620
Colored.......................................... 10,055
Regulars.......................................... 6,958
Seamen........................................... 9,106
Marine Corps................................... 319
O.R. same series, Page 671 Union report
"The ratios, comparing the three services-- regulars, volunteers, and colored troops-- with each other, are not only interesting, but become important when viewed in connection with the fact that the ratios per thousand of men furnished to the Army by the three services were: regulars, 25.29; volunteers, 904.13; colored troops, 70.58. Thus it appears that to every thousand of men killed in battle or died of wounds, the volunteers contributed forty-three more than their proportionate number, the regulars four less, and the colored troops thirty-nine less."
"the military organizations composed of colored men were mustered directly into the service of the United States, and were organized and officered by officers acting under the authority of the United States, and not of any particular State. Since March 27, 1865, all appointments of officers for these troops have been made exclusively by the War Department, and after an examination by a board of officers. Prior to that time the Adjutant- General of the Army, in the Mississippi Valley, made appointments, in the name of the Secretary of War, to the regiments which he organized; and department commanders made, subject to the approval of the Pres4dent, provisional appointments to the regiments organized by them. The recruitment of men of color by draft and substitution was exclusively under the control of this Bureau, but their recruitment as VOLUNTEERS was mainly under the Bureau for Colored Troops, especially established for that purpose. To present together the entire results of these operations, which, however, were produced in the main by the action of the Bureau for Colored Troops" [U.S. Army Regulars is not mentioned]
O.R. same series, Page 48 Governor of Wisconsin to Washington.
May 20, 1862.
"in regard to pay of officers: The existing construction of the laws of Congress relative to the pay of officers, by which, while those laws are supposed to place the volunteer officers on the same footing as regulars, they do not effect that object, operates very unfavourably in regard to obtaining the services of competent officers. While the officers of appointed to posts in the regular service are placed upon pay from the date of accepting commission and being assigned to duty, our volunteer officers cannot get pay except from the time when they are mustered into U. S. service, and this will not be done until, if first lieutenants, they have forty men; or if captains or third lieutenants, they have eighty-three men; or if field or staff officers, as limited by general orders. Thus, while demanding the most energetic actiou and devotion of their whole time from the date of commencing to raise a company, the Government does not pay them from that date. Unless some different rule is adopted, by which officers will be paid from the time when they, by State authority and commission, commence their work of raising companies, I should consider it a matter of great difficulty to obtain the services of proper men for the purpose, and would be reluctant to enter npon the business unless the need of Government is very pressing. Our people are as patriotic as any, but so many of our officers have been badly treated in the matter of pay, earned with great labor and really no remuneration for their sacrifices and outlay, that good men will hesitate to enter upon the work of recruiting." less