After spending some time at the Bermuda Hundreds, the Sixth Regiment was ordered to Dutch Gap, Virginia, where, on the 16th of August, they assisted in driving the rebels from Signal Hill; General Butler, in person, leading our troops. The Sixth Regiment contributed its share towards completing Butler’s famous canal, during which time they were often very much annoyed by the rebel shells thrown amongst them. The conduct of the men throughout these trying scenes reflected great credit upon them. On the 29th of September, the regiment occupied the advance in the demonstration made by Butler that day upon Richmond. The first line of battle was formed by the Fourth and Sixth Regiments; the latter entered the fight with three hundred and fifteen men, including nineteen officers.
The enemy were driven back from within two miles of Deep Bottom, to their works at New Market Heights; the Sixth was compelled to cross a small creek, and then an open field. They were met by a fearful fire from the rebel works; men fell by scores; still the regiment went forward. The color-bearers, one after another, were killed or wounded, until the entire color-guard were swept from the field. Two hundred and nine men, and fourteen officers, were killed and wounded. Few fields of battle showed greater slaughter than this; and in no conflict did both officers and men prove themselves more brave. Captains York and Sheldon and Lieutenant Meyer were killed close to the rebel works. Lieutenants Pratt, Landon, and McEvoy subsequently died of the wounds received. Lieutenant Charles Fields, Company A., was killed on the skirmish-line: this left the company in charge of the first sergeant, Richard Carter, of Philadelphia, who kept it in its advanced position through the entire day, commanding with courage and great ability, attracting marked attention for his officer-like bearing. During the battle many instances of unsurpassed bravery were shown by the common soldier, which proved that these heroic men were fighting for the freedom of their race, and the restoration of a Union that should protect man in his liberty without regard to color. No regiment did more towards extinguishing prejudice against the Negro than the patriotic Sixth.
CHAPTER XLVI. NEGRO HATRED AT THE NORTH.
The prompt manner in which colored men in the North had enlisted in the army to aid in putting down the Rebellion, and the heroism and loyalty of the slaves of the South in helping to save the Union, so exasperated the disloyal people in the Northern States, that they early began a system of cowardly warfare against the blacks wherever they found them. The mob spirit first manifested itself at a meeting held in Boston, December 3, 1860, to observe the anniversary of the death of John Brown. A combination of North End roughs and Beacon Street aristocrats took possession of the Tremont Temple, the place of holding the meeting, appointed Richard S. Fay as Chairman, and passed a series of resolutions in favor of the slave-holders of the South, and condemnatory of the abolitionists.
This success induced these enemies of free discussion to attempt to break up the meeting of the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society at Music Hall the following Sunday, at which Frederick Douglass was the speaker. Wendell Phillips addressed the same society at the same place, on the 19th following, when the mob spirit seemed even more violent than on any previous occasion. These events were still fresh in the minds of the haters of negro freedom, when, on the 10th of July, 1863, the great mob commenced in the city of New York.
The mob was composed of the lowest and most degraded of the foreign population (mainly Irish), raked from the filthy cellars and dens of the city, steeped in crimes of the deepest dye, and ready for any act, no matter how dark; together with the worst type of our native criminals, whose long service in the prisons of the country, and whose training in the Democratic party, had so demoralized their natures that they were ever on the hunt for some deed of robbery or murder.
This conglomerated mass of human beings were under the leadership of men standing higher than themselves in the estimation of the public, but, if possible, really lower in moral degradation. Cheered on by men holding high political positions, and finding little or no opposition, they went on at a fearful rate.
Never, in the history of mob-violence, was crime carried to such an extent. Murder, arson, robbery, and cruelty reigned triumphant throughout the city, day and night, for more than a week.