[The following relates the fighting spirit of the Union colored regiments, often made up of freed or runaway slaves, who fought bravely against the Confederacy.]
On June 5, a Confederate brigade under H. E. McCulloch attacked, aiming to take the bend in order to drive cattle across the river to the rescue of the starving troops there. The rebels charged at dawn, crying, “No quarter!” The fighting was hand-to-hand, from trench to trench, men savagely raking at one another with bayonets. The inexperienced black troops were pushed to the river, where they stood their ground and finally repulsed the Confederates with the help of fire from two federal gunboats. The casualties were staggering: of the 1,061 black soldiers who fought, 652 were killed, wounded, or missing, along with 160 white officers. Rear Admiral David Porter surveyed the battlefield and reported to Grant that it was “quite an ugly sight. The dead Negroes lined the ditch inside the parapet or levee, and were mostly shot on top of the head. In front of them, close to the levee, lay an equal number of rebels stinking in the sun.”
One white officer leading a regiment of black troops, Captain M. M. Miller, formerly of Yale University and Galena, Illinois, wrote an account of the engagement for his local paper in which he passionately praised his soldiers. “We had about 80 men killed in the regiment and 80 wounded so you can judge what part of the fight my company sustained! I never felt more grieved and sick at heart than when I saw my brave soldiers slaughtered – one with six wounds, all the rest with two or three, none less than two wounds. Two of my colored sergeants were killed, both brave, noble men; always prompt, vigilant and ready for the fray. I never more wish to hear the expression “the nigger won’t fight.’ Come with me 100 yards from where I sit and I can show you the wounds that cover the bodies of 16 as brave, loyal and patriotic soldiers as ever drew bead on a rebel. The enemy charged us so close that we fought with our bayonets hand to hand. I have six broken bayonets to show how bravely my men fought.”
Source:
Jenkins, Sally, and John Stauffer. “The Hounds.” The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy. Anchor Books, 2010. 152. Print.
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