Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

hang suspended in the heavens like a huge indented cone, the exploding powder still flashing out here and there, while limbs and bodies of mutilated men, and fragments of cannon and wood-work, could be seen. Then all fell heavily to the ground again, with a second report like thunder. When the smoke and dust had cleared away, only an enormous crater, thirty feet deep, sixty feet wide, and a hundred and fifty feet long, stretched out in front of the Ninth Corps, where the Confederate fort had been."

At the moment of the explosion the Union batteries belched forth from one hundred and ten deadly cannon and fifty mortars, and verily the earth. seemed to tremble from the shock.

The Plan was to follow the discharge of the batteries with a charge. Gen. Burnside had arranged his Negro troops for the post of honor. A dispute arose between him and Gen. Meade as to the wisdom of this plan. The whole matter was referred to Gen. Grant, who ordered lots to be drawn by the different Generals as to "who should go into the crater." The lot fell on Gen. Ledlie. Gen. Ledlie accordingly endeavored to draw up his troops into the mouth of the crater. The Tenth New Hampshire faltered and broke ranks. Generals Potter and Wilcox marched their troops into the dreadful hole, where they halted long enough for the Confederates to make an attack.

Gen. Potter Struggled out with his division and charged the enemy, but had to retire. Gen. Burnside now ordered his colored troops around the edges of the crater; the Confederates were now gathering around from all sides, and under a heavy fire drove the colored troops into the deadly hole, from, which they continued to rally until nightfall.

A Ridiculous Mistake was made by the Federals in not marching into the city immediately after the explosion, when the Confederates were nonplussed and breaking away in mad confusion. Gen. Grant says of this disgraceful affair: "The four divisions of his (Burnside's) corps were commanded by Generals Potter, Wilcox, Ledlie and Ferrero. The last was a colored division; and Burnside selected it to make the assault. Meade interfered with this. Burnside then took Ledlie's division."

Before the committee that investigated the affair Gen. Grant said: "General Burnside wanted to put his colored division in front, I believe if he had done so it would have been a success."

Four Thousand Four Hundred Union soldiers perished through the mistake then of not allowing the colored troops to take the Confederate works which Gen. Grant says they would have taken.

How the Colored Soldiers fought in the crater, let the Confederate commanders (some of whose slaves were there) speak: "Ah, boys, you have got

hot work ahead-they are Negroes and show no quarter." (Col. Stewart.)

"Encouraged, Threatened, Emulating the white troops, the black men fought with desperation. Some Confederate soldiers recognized their slaves at the crater. A Captain of the Forty-first Virginia gave the military salute to 'Bob' and 'Ben,' whom he had left hoeing corn in Dinwiddie."

Petersburg being Captured, the siege of Richmond was begun with a vigor and determination. such as only a Grant could command. Meanwhile, a lively discussion was going on at the Confederate capital as to the proposition of Mr. Benjamin to arm. the slaves in defence of the city. Gen. Lee and Mr. Jefferson Davis favored this plan, and recommended that such colored people as would join the Confederate ranks should be set free.

Some Score or More Blacks, three of whom were Mr. Benjamin's slaves, enlisted and were daily drilled in the capitol square, which stands on an eminence in the centre of the city.

Gen. Lee was now employing his best troops and military manœuvres to keep Grant out of the Confederate capital. His retreats and skirmishes, executed with genius and tact, delayed the event; but opposed by superior numbers, his army halfstarved, and the Confederacy subjugated in the Southwest, he saw the uselessness of a further hope

9

less sacrifice of his men, and surrendered accordingly at Appomattox, on the 9th of April, 1865, "he, and his army, defeated in every way possible, numbering 27,516," and "every man was fed by the conqueror."

When the Union Army marched into Richmond, the Confederates set the city on fire, and commenced a wholesale destruction and plunder of everything. Thousands of gallons of rum were emptied into the streets, and staggering destruction of everything useful seemed in order. The colored troops were organized into fire brigades, and soon extinguished the fires and stopped the plunder their masters had begun.

CHAPTER XXVI.

INCIDENTS OF THE WAR.

Rodman's Point, N. C., was the scene of a brave deed by a Negro. A flat-boat full of troops, with a few colored soldiers among them, tried to land at this place. The Confederate soldiers were lying in wait for the boat, and the soldiers in it could only save themselves by lying flat on the bottom out of reach of their deadly guns. But if the boat remained where it was very long it would be surrounded and captured. One of the colored soldiers saw the danger, and knowing the boat must be pushed off or all would be killed, suddenly rose up and said: "Somebody got to die to get us all out dis 'ere, and it mout jes as well be me as anybody!” Saying this he deliberately stepped on shore and pushed the boat off. The men in the bottom were saved, but the Negro hero's body “fell forward into the end of the boat pierced by five bullets." He had done what no other of them dared do to save the lives of his comrades.

A Negro Established a Clothes-line Telegraph in the Falmouth camp on the Rappahannock

« AnteriorContinuar »