History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume II Part 76

CHAPTER XIX.

NEGROES AS SOLDIERS.

Gen. Benj. F. Butler commanded a number of Negro Troops at Fort Harrison on the 29th Sept., 1864. After white troops had been driven back by the enemy, Gen. Butler ordered his Negro troops to storm the fortified position of the enemy at the point of the bayonet. The troops had to charge down a hill, ford a creek, and--preceded by axemen who had to cut away two lines of _abatis_--then carry the works held by infantry and artillery. They made one of the most brilliant charges of the war, with "Remember Fort Pillow" as their battle-cry, and carried the works in an incredibly short time.

Nearly a decade after this battle, Gen. Butler, then a member of Congress from Ma.s.sachusetts, said, in a speech on the Civil Rights Bill of this affair:

"It became my painful duty to follow in the track of that charging column, and there, in a s.p.a.ce not wider than the clerk's desk, and three hundred yards long, lay the dead bodies of five hundred and forty-three of my colored comrades, fallen in defence of their country, who had offered up their lives to uphold its flag and its honor, as a willing sacrifice; and as I rode along among them, guiding my horse this way and that way, lest he should profane with his hoofs what seemed to me the sacred dead, and as I looked on their bronze faces upturned in the s.h.i.+ning sun, as if in mute appeal against the wrongs of the country for which they had given their lives, whose flag had only been to them a flag of stripes, on which no star of glory had ever shone for them--feeling I had wronged them in the past, and believing what was the future of my country to them--among my dead comrades there, I swore to myself a solemn oath--'May my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,' if I ever fail to defend the rights of those men who have given their blood for me and my country that day and for their race forever, and G.o.d helping me, I will keep that oath."

BATTLES IN WHICH COLORED TROOPS PARTIc.i.p.aTED.

"Alliance," Steamer, Fla. Bermuda Hundred, Va.

March 8, 1865. May 4, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 99th Inf. U. S. C. T. 4th Inf.

Amite River, La. Bermuda Hundred, Va.

March 18, 1865. May 20, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 77th Inf. U. S. C. T. 1st Cav.

Appomattox Court House, Va. Bermuda Hundred, Va.

April 9, 1865. Aug. 24 and 25, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 41st Inf. U. S. C. T. 7th Inf.

Arkansas River, Ark. Bermuda Hundred, Va.

Dec. 18, 1864. Nov. 30 and Dec. 4, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 54th Inf. U. S. C. T. 19th Inf.

Ash Bayou, La. Bermuda Hundred, Va.

Nov. 19, 1864. Dec. 1, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 93d Inf. U. S. C. T. 39th Inf.

Ashepoo River, S. C. Bermuda Hundred, Va.

May 16, 1864. Dec. 13, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 34th Inf. U. S. C. T. 23d Inf.

Ashwood, Miss. Berwick, La.

June 25, 1864. April 26, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 63d Inf. U. S. C. T. 98th Inf.

Ashwood Landing, La. Big Creek, Ark.

May 1 and 4, 1864. July 26, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 64th Inf. U. S. C. T. Batt'ry E, 2d Lt. Art.; 60th Inf.

Athens, Ala. Big Springs, Ky.

Sept. 24, 1864. Jan. --, 1865.

U. S. C. T. 106th, 110th, U. S. C. T. 12th Hy. Art.

and 111th Inf.

Barrancas, Fla. Black Creek, Fla.

July 22, 1864. July 27, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 82d Inf. U. S. C. T. 35th Inf.

Baxter's Springs, Kan. Black River, La.

Oct. 6, 1863. Nov. 1, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 83d (new) Inf. U. S. C. T. 6th Hy. Art.

Bayou Bidell, La. Bogg's Mills, Ark.

Oct. 15, 1864. Jan. 24, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 52d Inf. U. S. C. T. 11th (old) Inf.

Bayou Boeuf, Ark. Boyd's Station, Ala.

Dec. 13, 1863. March 18, 1865.

U. S. C. T. 3d Cav. U. S. C. T. 101st Inf.

Bayou Mason, Miss. Boykin's Mill, S. C.

July --, 1864. April 18, 1865.

U. S. C. T. 66th Inf. U. S. C. T. 54th (Ma.s.s.) Inf.

Bayou St. Louis, Miss. Bradford's Springs, S. C.

Nov. 17, 1863. April 18, 1865.

U. S. C. T. 91st Inf. U. S. C. T. 102d Inf.

Bayou Tensas, La. Brawley Fork, Tenn.

Aug. 10, 1863. March 25, 1865.

U. S. C. T. 48th Inf. U. S. C. T. 17th Inf.

Bayou Tensas, La. Brice's Cross Roads, Miss.

July 30 and Aug. 26, 1864. June 10, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 66th Inf. U. S. C. T. Batt'y F, 2d Lt. Art.; 55th and 59th Inf.

Bayou Tunica, La. Briggin Creek, S. C.

Nov. 9, 1863. Feb. 25, 1865.

U. S. C. T. 73d Inf. U. S. C. T. 55th (Ma.s.s.) Inf.

Bryant's Plantation, Fla. Decatur, Tenn.

Oct. 21, 1864. Aug. 18, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 3d Inf. U. S. C. T. 1st Hy. Art.

Cabin Creek, Caddo Nation. Decatur, Ala.

July 1 and 2, 1863. Oct. 28 and 29, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 79th (new) Inf. U. S. C. T. 14th Inf.

Cabin Creek, Caddo Nation. Decatur, Ala.

Nov. 4, 1865. Dec. 27 and 28, 1864.

U. S. C. T. 54th Inf. U. S. C. T. 17th Inf.

Cabin Point, Va. Deep Bottom, Va.