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
Alfred R. Waud captured the confusion that prevailed among the Union attackers by the
time the black soldiers of the IX Corps (in the foreground) joined the battle.
blocking the way. His division, just behind the second brigade of Willcox’s, halted
close by Surgeon Smith’s aid station. Smith later testified that it took three orders
from Burnside to set Ferrero’s troops in motion. Having sent his division forward,
Ferrero lingered near the aid station with General Ledlie. “I deemed it more necessary
that I should see that they all went in than that I should go in myself,” he told
the court of inquiry. 55
Not until after 8:00 a.m. were Ferrero’s two brigades able at last to move into the
open. Col. Henry G. Thomas’ report said that the delay lasted half an hour, although
he later testified that it was an hour and a half. Emerging from the Union trenches,
Thomas’ brigade, some twenty-four hundred men of the 19th, 23d, 28th, 29th, and
31st USCIs, headed left; that of Col. Joshua K. Sigfried, made up of the 27th, 30th,
39th, and 43d, about two thousand strong, went right. The 23d and 43d had completed
organization only the month before; the 28th, 29th, and 31st went into battle with only
six companies each, all that their recruiters had been able to fill so far. As the men
attempted to pass the crater, the same daunting disorder faced each brigade. Colonel
Sigfried saw “living, wounded, dead, and dying crowded so thickly that it was very difficult
to make a passage way through.” Captain Rickard and the 19th USCI
advanced double quick over the breast works exposed to a galling fire & made towards
the [crater.] I never expected to reach it men were falling all around me but I was not
touched. Got into the Crater caused by the explosion & an awful sight it was filled
55 Ibid., pp. 93 (quotation), 102–04, 118–19; Report of the Joint Committee, pp. 108–09; J. H.
Rickard to Dear Sister, 31 Jul 1864, Rickard Letters.