FOOTNOTES:
[31] The reader will bear in mind that there were several changes in the command of these troops during the campaign, on account of promotions, but the troops remained in the Department and Army of the James. See Roster, for changes.
[32] THE PHALANX AT NEW MARKET HEIGHTS.[A]
"On the 29th of September, 1864, Gen. Grant ordered Gen. Butler to cross the James River, at Two Points, and attack the enemy's line of work, in the centre of which was Fort Harrison; on the left, at New Market Heights, was a very strong work, the key of the enemy's flank on the north side of the river. It was a redoubt built on the top of a hill of some considerable elevation, then running down into a marsh. In that marsh was a brook—then rising again to a plain, which gently rolled toward the river. On that plain, when the flash of dawn was breaking, Butler placed a column of the black Phalanx," [which consisted of the 5th, 36th, 38th and 2nd Cavalry Regts.], "numbering three thousand, in close column, by division, right in front with guns at 'right shoulder shift.' The center of the line was given to the eighteenth corps composed of white troops, under Gen. Ord, and they drove the enemy from a very strong work, capturing several pieces of cannon.
"Gen. Butler had been severely criticised by officers of the regular army for organizing twenty-five regiments of negroes. 'Why.' said they, 'they will not fight' In contradiction of this assertion Butler made up his mind to prove the worth and value of the black Phalanx. Notwithstanding their gallantry at Petersburg and on the Fredericksburg road, the metal of the 25th corps of the Army of the James was to be tried; so Butler took command of the Phalanx himself with a determination to set at rest forever the question of the fighting capacity of a portion of his command. Addressing the Phalanx, he said, pointing to the works on the enemy's flank, 'those works must be taken by the weight of your column; not a shot must be fired. In order to prevent them from firing he had the caps taken from the nipples of their guns. 'When you charge.' he said, 'your cry will be 'Remember Fort Pillow.'
"'Twas in the early grey of the morning, ere the sun had risen. The order 'forward' set the column in motion, and it went forward as if on parade—down the hill, across the marsh, and as the column got into the brook they came within range of the enemy's fire, which was vigorously opened upon them. The column broke a little, as it forded the brook, it wavered! What a moment of intense anxiety? But they formed again, as they reached the firm ground, marching on steadily with close ranks under the enemy's fire until the head of the column reached the first line of abatis, some one hundred and fifty yards from the enemy's work. Then the axemen ran to the front to cut away the heavy obstacles of defense while one thousand men of the enemy with their artillery concentrated poured from the redoubt a heavy fire upon the head of the column of fours. The axemen went down under that murderous fire; other strong black hands grasped the axes in their stead and the abatis was cut away. Again, at double-quick, the column went forward to within fifty yards of the fort, to meet there another line of abatis. The column halted and there a very fire of hell was poured upon them. The abatis resisted and held the head of the column which literally melted away under the rain of shot and shell; the flags of the leading regiments went down, but a brave black hand seized the colors. They were soon up again and waved their starry light over the storm of battle. Again the axemen fell, but strong hands and willing hearts seized the heavy sharpened trees and dragged them away, and the column rushed forward and with a shout that rang out above the roar of artillery went over the redoubt like a flash, and the enemy did not stop running within four miles, leaving the Phalanx in possession of their deemed impregnable work, cannons and small arms. The autocrats of the regular army could croak no longer about the negro soldiers not fighting.
"This gallantry of the Phalanx won for them and the negro race the admiration of the man who supported Jeff Davis and the slave power in the Charleston convention in 1860. Ten years after this splendid victory of the Phalanx, in support of their civil rights, General Butler then a member of congress, made an eloquent appeal in behalf of the equal civil rights of the negro race. In it he referred to the gallant charge of the Phalanx. He said: "It became my painful duty to follow in the track of that charging column, and there, in a space 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 defense 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 bronzed faces upturned in the shining 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 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 God helping me, I will keep that oath."
* * * *
"NEW MARKET HEIGHTS.[B]
"'Freedom their battle cry, freedom or leave to die.'—Boker.