The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-11-20

Corps's loss. according to official figures.
was:
Killed. 419: wounded. 1879; missing.
1901. Total, 5000.
The Confederate loss was probably less
than half of that amount.
In this appalling loss in less than one
day of battle, or rather butchery. for it
was not a battle. the Fourth, or COlored
| Division. although the smallest division of
the corps, sustained more than one-third.
Our Division went into that death-trap
about hoo strong, and our loss was Off
| cially reported:
Killed, 116; wounded, 6SS; missing.
sol. Total, 1865. More than e-third
of our entire force.
My regiment the 23d> suffered the Sc
verest OF any in the division or corps. los
ing "a men killed. But these official fig
ures. appalling as they are. do rot show
the worst features of the awful horrors of
that bloody butchery; for whie the report
shows sol missing from the Colored Di-
vision, the fact is that there We're less than
800 negro prisoners taken. and deducting
800 from Sol missing. leaves an additional
:iO1 to be added to the list os killed bring
ing the loss Of the Fourth Division up to
AT killed, 6SS wounded. AM 800 prisoners
The taking off of the laSt-named 3O1
would make chapter of horrors too awful
to be written. No wonder the people of
the South deny the truth OF the cod-bIood-
ed and inhuman murders committed by
their soldiers that day.
In the late Spanish war they tell of the
desperate fighting and fearful loss we sus-
tanned at Santiago and other places, but
the Fourth Division alone lost more men
killed than We're lost by the United
States in the whole Spanish war. The
l. e 4
they do not know, that TIL. ColOred Divi-
sion lost in that one battle Of The Mine
1879 more men killed than were killed i'm
the whole American army during the war
with Spain.
GEN. BUTLER's TRIBUTE TO THE CoLoRED
SOLDIERS.
But not alone at Petersburg, nor in that
one battle did the Afro American give his
blood and his life heroically for the Flag
OF our Union and the liberty of his race
Gen. Benjamin +. Butler, who commanded
the Army of the James, and had in his
command division of colOred troops that
participated in a previous battle, many
years after the war, in a speech in the
House of Representatives, relative to the
rights OF the negro race, paid the follow
ing grand tribute to the heroism of the col
ored soldiers of the civil war:
1T became my painful duty, sir, to fol-
low in the track of that charging column,
and there, in a space not wider than the
clerks desk, and 800 yards long, lay the
dead bodies of 543 of my colored COM
rades, fallen in defense of their country,
who had offered up their lives to uphold
its flag and its honor as willing sacrifice;
and as l rode along among them, guiding
my horse this way and that way, lest he
should profane with his hOOf what seemed
t<v Il l.
their brOnzed faces upturned in the shin
ing sun to Heaven, as if in mute appeal
against the wrongs of the country for
which they had given their lives, and
whose flag had only been to them q flag of
stripes, on which no stars of glory had
ever shone for them-feeling ] had wrong
ed them in the past, and believing what
was the future of my country to them
among my dead comrades there swore to
myself solemn oath, May my right hand
forget its cunning and my tongue cleave
to the roof of my mouth if 1 ever fail to
defend the rights of these men who have
given their blood for me and my
country this day and for their race for
ever and, God helping me, l will keep
that oath.
From that hour all prejudice was gone
and an Old-time State-rights Democrat be-
came a lover of the negro race, and as
long as tHelT TlSHtS are not equal 10 the
rights of other men under this Govern
ment l am with them against all Corners;
and when their rights are assured, as other
mems rights are held sacred, then / trust
we shall have what we sought to have
a united country, North and South, white
and black, under our glorious flag, for
which we and our fathers have fought
with an equal and not to be distinguished
yalor."
The Both of July, 1864. was my last
battle. When 1 returned from the South
and rejoined my regiment the war was
over, the last battle had been fought, the
Union had been saved, and the negro
race had won emancipation. My COM
rades who had lived through that awful
day at Petersburg, many of them, had
the honor of being among the first troops
to enter Richmond, for the Confederate
Capital was finally taken by Weitzel's
Corps 1.-THE 25th), into which all the colored
troops in the Army of the Potomac and
the Army of the James had been CONSOLE
dated.
In that terrible war that cost this Ma
ton millions of treasure and rivers of
blood, who will say that the Afro-American
did not do his full share? The official re-
cord stands in the Adjutant-Generals
Office at Washington, d. c., that 11S,915
negro soldiers served in the army under
Old Glory, and their losses in battle and
from wounds and disease reached the
sum total of 6S,17S lives.
Go be continued.)