o'clock in the morning. The fight began at 7 A.M. The gallant Callioux was lying dead on the field. His men now charged almost in the mouth of the Confederate guns. Planciancois bore the flag in

front. A shell strikes the staff and blows off half of the brave sergeant's head; he falls, wrapped in the folds of his nation's flag, his brains scattered amid them, but still his strong grip holds the staff even in death, till

Corporal Heath catches it up to bear it to the front again. Pierced by a musket-ball which split his head, he, too, falls upon the body of the brave Planciancois. Still another corporal lifts the flag and bears it through the fray. And thus the Negro troops, on almost their very first trial, silenced all ciamors as to their bravery. Port Hudson was not taken then, but the reason for defeat lay not in a lack of unrivalled daring and heroic courage on the part of the Negro troops. The loss was 37 killed and wounded, and missing 271.

The New York Times says of this battle: “Gen. Dwight, at least, must have had the idea not only that they (Negro troops) were men, but something more than men from the terrific test to which he put their valor. The deeds of heroism performed by these men were such as the proudest white men might emulate. Their colors are literally bespattered with blood and brains.

"The color-sergeant of the 1st Louisiana, on being mortally wounded, hugged the colors to his breast, when a struggle ensued between the two color corporals on each side of him as to who should have the honor of bearing the sacred standard. One black lieutenant actually mounted the enemy's works four times. . . . . Although repulsed in an attempt which -situated as things were—was all but impossible, these regiments, though badly cut up, were still on hand, and burning with a passion ten times hotter from their fierce baptism of blood."

General Banks wrote, concerning the "Black Regiment" at Port Hudson: "It gives me pleasure to report that they answered every expectation. Their conduct was heroic." The success of the Negro troops at Port Hudson rang in the halls of Congress, in the lecture-room, in the pulpit, in the newspapers; poets sang of it, and Northern orators vied with each other in eloquent pictures of the scene of that great fight which settled the question as to the Negro's fitness for the army.

Milliken's Bend, 6th of June, 1863. The Confederates came up from Louisiana, about 3000 strong. They rested over night, while the Federals were collecting at the temporary fort in the bend of the Mississippi. The Union men of war "Choctaw" and "Lexington" appeared, coming up the river before daylight, on the morning of the 6th of June, which.

was the time the Confederates made their first charge, yelling, "No quarter to Negroes and their officers!" The Negro troops were without training, being lately recruited, but they fought like veterans. The Confederates fell back under their heavy fire in front, and charged the Union flanks. Upon this the Union troops found shelter from the gun-boats, and broadside after broadside made the Confederates hasten away.

An Eye Witness' Description: "As before stated, the Confederates drove our force towards the gun-boats, taking colored men prisoners. This so enraged them that they rallied and charged the enemy more heroically and desperately than has been recorded during the war. It was a genuine bayonet charge, a hand-to-hand fight, that has never occurred to any extent during this prolonged conflict. Upon both sides men were killed with the butts of muskets. White and colored men were lying side by side pierced by bayonets, and in some instances transfixed to the earth. One brave man took his former master prisoner, and brought him into camp with great gusto. A Confederate prisoner made a particular request that his own Negroes should not be placed over him as a guard.

Union loss one hundred killed, five hundred wounded, mostly Negroes. Confederate loss two

hundred killed, five hundred wounded, two hundred taken prisoners, and two cannon."

The battles of Fort Pillow and Milliken's Bend made many friends for the colored soldiers. Their soldierly qualities were on trial; the experiment of arming Negroes to fight for the Union was being tried. This the colored troops seemed to realize, and it stimulated them to do their very best. They fought courageously, and fully satisfied all doubts concerning their valor.

The Draft Riot broke out in New York in July, 1863. An order came from Washington, authorizing soldiers to be drafted in New York City. The Democratic newspapers ridiculed the idea of the people's being drafted into service "to fight the battles of 'niggers and Abolitionists."" General

Wood finally put down the riot after killing thirteen of the rioters, wounding eighteen and taking twenty-four prisoners. They had burned the Colored Orphan's Asylum, hung colored men to lamp-posts, and destroyed the property of this class. of citizens with impunity."

The 54th Massachusetts was the first colored regiment organized in the free States, Colonel Shaw commander. It played a prominent part in the attempt to take Fort Wagner, near Charleston, S. C. It marched two days and nights through swamps and drenching rains to be in time for the assault. Soaking wet, muddy, hungry and fatigued,