Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

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Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867
had given the orders directly to Smith, a career soldier, rather than transmitting
them through Butler, a lawyer and politician who had never directed a successful
military operation. 31
Fighting went on for three more days, but Hinks’ division did not play an active
role. Its casualties during that time amounted to less than 10 percent of those
it suffered in the morning and evening assaults on the first day. In all, Hinks’ division
lost more than five hundred officers and enlisted men killed, wounded, and
missing. “For the last sixty-four hours I have had but ten hours sleep,” Assistant
Surgeon Charles G. G. Merrill wrote. “Today I brought in twenty-two wagons full
of wounded and am going out tonight to bring in twelve wagons full more. We
had lots of operations yesterday.” The day after Hinks’ division left the line, Capt.
Solon A. Carter of the general’s staff told his wife how, during the battle,
Our Surgeon sat down to eat with us, just from the scene of his work (his operating
table), with coat and vest off and his sleeves rolled up, his shirt and even his
pantaloons besmeared with the blood of the poor fellows he had been carving
up—We didn’t any of us mind it so much but wondered what the folks at home
would think of such an occurrence. 32
Private Beman’s remark that “the rebs were shown no mercy” was apparently
no idle boast. The day after the battle, a reporter for the New York Tribune described
a conversation he overheard: “‘Well,’ said Gen. Butler’s Chief of Staff to a tall sergeant,
‘you had a pretty tough fight there on the left.’ ‘Yes, Sir; and we lost a good
many good officers and men.’ ‘How many prisoners did you take, sergeant?’ ‘Not
any alive, sir,’ was the significant response.” The reporter quoted General Smith
on the performance of Hinks’ division: “They don’t give my Provost Marshal [the
staff officer responsible for prisoners of war] the least trouble, and I don’t believe
they contribute toward filling any of the hospitals with Rebel wounded.” The antislavery,
Republican Tribune headed the dispatch: “The Assault on Petersburg—
Valor of the Colored Troops—They Take no Prisoners, and Leave no Wounded.”
Within a week, the story had spread throughout the army. Colonel Bates and the
30th USCI had marched with the Army of the Potomac to the James River from
the Rapidan. “The colored troops in Butler’s command took a line of very strong
works . . . , fighting splendidly,” he told his father. “They took no prisoners.” 33
Some of the black soldiers themselves talked, and even boasted, about what
they had done. “The colored troops took five forts here on Tuesday,” wrote a white
soldier in the trenches at Petersburg. “I saw some of them to-day. They said the
white folks took some prisoners, but they did not.” Chaplain Henry M. Turner of
the 1st USCI, one of the few black chaplains, deplored the practice and told read-
31 OR, ser. 1, vol. 40, pt. 1, pp. 705, 749, 801.
32 Ibid., vol. 51, pt. 1, p. 267. Civil War casualty figures vary widely. The total of 416 in Col.
S. A. Duncan’s report for 15–18 June 1864 (OR, ser. 1, vol. 51, pt. 1, p. 269), is greater than the 391
casualties for his brigade that appears in statistical tables covering the entire Union force around
Richmond and Petersburg for the period 15–30 Jun 1864 (vol. 40, pt. 1, p. 237). C. G. G. Merrill to
Dear Annie, 16 Jun 1864, C. G. G. Merrill Papers, Yale University (YU), New Haven, Conn.; S. A.
Carter to My own precious wife, 20 Jun 1864, S. A. Carter Papers, MHI.
33 New York Tribune, 21 June 1864; D. Bates to Father, 27 Jun 1864, Bates Letters.