“It will be thus seen that the colored troops did not compose the first assaulting, but the supporting column; and they were not ordered forward until white troops in greater numbers had made a desperate effort to carry the rebel works, and had failed. Then the colored troops were sent in; moved over the broken ground, and up the slope, and within a short distance of the parapet, in order, and with steady courage; but finally broke and retreated under the same fire which just before had sent a whole division of white regiments to the rightabout. If there be any disgrace in that, it does not belong exclusively nor mainly to the negroes. A second attack is far more perilous and unlikely to succeed than a first; the enemy having been encouraged by the failure of the first, and had time to concentrate his forces. And, in this case, there seems to have been a fatal delay in ordering both the first and second assault.”
An officer in the same engagement said,—
“In regard to the bravery of the colored troops, although I have been in upwards of twenty battles, I never saw so many cases of gallantry. The ‘crater’ where we were halted, was a perfect slaughter-pen.
“Had not ‘some one blundered,’ but moved us up at daylight, instead of eight o’clock, we should have been-crowned with success, instead of being cut to pieces by a terrific enfilading fire, and finally forced from the field in a panic. We had no trouble in rallying the troops, and moving them into the rifle-pits; and, in one hour after the rout, I had nearly as many men together as were left unhurt.
“I was never under such a terrific fire, and can hardly realize how any escaped alive. Our loss was heavy. In the Twenty-eighth (colored), for instance, commanded by Lieut.-Col. Russell(a Bostonian), he lost seven officers out of eleven, and ninety-one men out of two hundred and twenty-four; and the colonel himself was knocked over senseless, for a few minutes, by a slight wound in the head: both his color-sergeants and all his color-guard were killed. Col Bross, of the Twenty-ninth, was killed outright, and nearly every one of his officers hit. This was nearly equal to Bunker Hill. Col. Ross, of the Thirty-first, lost his leg. The Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth (colored), all charged over the works; climbing up an earthwork six feet high, then down into a ditch, and up on the other side, all the time under the severest fire in front and flank. Not being supported, of course the storming-party fell back. I have seen white troops run faster than these blacks did, when in not half so tight a place. Our brigade lost thirty-six prisoners, all cut off after leaving the ‘crater.’ My faith in colored troops is not abated one jot.”
Soon after the failure at Petersburg, the colored troops had a fair opportunity, and nobly sustained their reputation gained on other fields. At the battle of New-Market Heights, Va., the Tenth Army Corps, under Major-Gen. Birney, met a superior number of the enemy, and had a four-hours’ fight, Sept. 29, in which our men came off victorious. The following order, issued on the 8th of October, needs no explanation:—
“Headquarters, 3d Division, 18th Army Corps, Before Richmond, Va., Oct. 7, 1864.
“General Orders No. 103.
“Officers and Soldiers of this Division,—Major-Gen. D. B. Birney, commanding the Tenth Army Corps, has desired me to express to you the high satisfaction he felt at your good conduct while we were serving with the Tenth Corps, Sept. 29 and 80, 1864, and with your gallantry in storming New-Market Heights.
“I have delayed issuing this order, hoping for an opportunity to say this to you in person.