Just before his seventeenth birthday in early 1864 Chase went to Philadelphia to attend the "Free School for Military Tactics" set up to graduate potential officers specifically for black infantry units. He passed the government officer exams in April.[[File:Twenty-sixth United States Colored Volunteer Infantry, massed. Camp William Penn, Pennsylvania., ca. 1897 - ca. 1897 - NARA - 533126.tif|thumb|left|The U. S. C. T. 26th on parade at Camp William Penn, Pa. 1865]] The school opened around December, 1863. Attendance at the school was strictly segregated, but it did pass over 400 students through while 21 blacks attended an auxiliary school, and received positive comments from Lincoln's secretary of war, Edwin McMasters Stanton. The school also helped train troops and eleven African American regiments in one year were raised and was supported by several abolitionists.