" the fighting qualities of our colored regiments."
"The Negro will fight and fight well."
his service against Indians on the frontier....had not failed to aquit himself acceptable to his White officers."
"During the two days of that memorable engagement the only reverse sustained by
our arms was in an assault upon Overton Hill, a fortified salient of the
Confederate line on the second day. The troops repulsed were a brigade of
Beatty's division and a colored brigade of raw troops which had been brought up
from a camp of instruction at Chattanooga."
"Better fighting was never done. The front of the enemy's earthworks was
protected by an intricate abatis of felled trees denuded of their foliage and
twigs. Through this obstacle a cat would have made slow progress; its passage by
troops under fire was hopeless from the first -- even the inexperienced black
chaps must have known that. They did not hesitate a moment: their long lines
swept into that fatal obstruction in perfect order and remained there as long as
those of the white veterans on their right. And as many of them in proportion
remained until borne away and buried after the action. It was as pretty an
example of courage and discipline as one could wish to see."
" I was told afterward that one of their field officers succeeded in forcing his
horse through a break in the abatis and was shot to rags on the slope on the
parapet."
Confirms that there was Negroes fighting on the Union side during the American Civil War. They were, apparently, quite brave and courageous and much revered amongst those who had seen them fight.
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