The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-02-14

course | cannot speak Of the facts from per
sonal observation But from many comrades
who were Whereabouts at the time. | have
always understood that when Ord'S column
OF white troops surprised and took Fort liar
riSUn, which was the center and key of oul
rebel position, whatever posts to the left of /,
were given up at all were abandoned at once
under orders, and without serious resistance
their isolated situation rendering them untcn
able. handful Of skirmishcrs, moved by
the instinct OF old fighters, may have given
o parting shot or two as they were ordered
away.
-Four or five were usually wounded in bat
tie to one killed outright. II five hundred
and forty-thrcc were killed in that negro col.
umn, two thousand or twenty-five hundred
others must have been wounded: so that it is
really wonderful that the small squad left
should have been able to terriiy so thorough.
ly with their uncapped muskcts that
thousand old powder burnt rebels! There
does not appear any good reason for their
running in such wild dismay, and no one
knows better than the gentleman from Massa.
Chusetts that the men he used to meet in bat
tie were not given to running away without a
good reason.
"Mr. Speaker, it appears now that we men
of the South must have been under strange
deusion, Those scrried lines which used to
charge us with such terrible vigor looked
like white men to us; and If the field ever re-.
manned III our hands, we always found that
the slain heroes who strcwed the ground so
thiCkly were, alas our white American Broth
crs. All honor to them-all honor to the he.
roiC dead on both sides who laid down their
lives for their principles. We thought then
that the masses of heroic white troops led by
Grant, and Sherman, and Mcclellan, and
their compeers, were the men we ought to
dread but we learn now that it was the hero
from Massachusetts and his colored troops
that we had most reason to fear. Wonderful |!
that we should thus have been destroyed by
that which then caused Us so little apprchen.
sion.
II am told that the records of the war show
that only some fifteen hundred negro troops
were killed in the entire four years. That
fact alone speaks volumes. We know that q
single corpse of white troops-federal and
confederate alike-SOmetimes lost that many
killed in one battle. Meagher's brigade of
heroic IriShmcn must have lost a large frac-
ton Of that number at Fredericksburg. There
was fighting indeed. And though was their
adversary there, yet, in honor of their match
less gallantry, pray that the turf on their
graves may be as green forever as their own
Emerald Isle"
This confederate tribute to the valOr of
\ OrthcrI troops is admirably tender and re-
'pectiul, and the gentleman from North Caro-
ina deserves credit for it; but his particular
EXCLUSION Of the negro from honorable men
ion for valor is not borne out by facts. 1t has
grown to be custom among the lecturers of
he lyceum to award the black man larger
share of the credit of our triumph in the war
han he is entitled to; but there are two cpl
iodes, at least, in the war that are a conclu.
i've answer to any sheer at his fighting quail
les. One is the gallantbut unavailing charge
If Shaw's colored brigade on Battery Wag-
Ter, near Charleston; and the other is the
prted conduct of Steel's colored troops
n the battles fought on his retreat from the
NaChita to the ArkansaS-Conduct which, !
to the willing testimony Of confed
rates, saved the federal army from complete |
disaster In both these affairs the blacks |
'roved their capacity for signal acts of hero.
SIN so clearly and cOnclusively, that it is a
mere waste of words to deny it to them.