Port Hudson

these men could have fled from an overwhelming force and saved their lives but surrounding their colonel they defended him gallantly and he was not killed until the last man was cut to pieces in the revolutionary war Baron von Clausen, a German army officer who visited this country during the Revolutionary War, said, among other things, in describing his visit to General Washington's camp, that of the 20,000 soldiers there, 5,000 were Negroes, and that the best-drilled and disciplined regiment was Colonel Green's Rhode Island Regiment, three-fourths of which was composed of Negroes.

time will not permit me to dwell in detail upon the negro's military service in the war of eighteen twelve commodore perry on lake erie and general jackson at new orleans have testified in signed communications to the war and navy departments of their unflinching courage jackson's victory at new orleans which carried him to fame and the white house he owed largely to the desperate valor of the black regiments under him i wonder if you grasp the significance of all that why look at it jackson the great apostle of democracy was boosted up the ladder of fame by the faithful patriotic fighting black man does not that seem to be the limit of the irony of fate in the civil war a hundred and eighty-seven thousand negroes were enlisted they participated in two hundred and thirteen battles and engagements and never permitted the union colors to be dishonored by cowardice or treachery their brilliant achievements at forts wagner and ulusti fort hudson and milliken's bend made them welcome into the flower of the union army the army of the potomac in the closing months of those bloody conflicts in front of richmond and petersburg in the battles of wilson's wharf deep bottom chapier's farm and hatcher's run they won for themselves immortal glory a tale of heroism let me relate to you one instance in this war equal in sublimity to the martial deeds of any age it is worthy of homer for nothing at the siege of troy surpasses it in valor after the black troops had made a third unsuccessful assault to carry the heights of port hudson and had left hundreds of their dead and dying comrades under the very guns of the enemy general payne a union officer fell seriously wounded about three hundred yards in front of the union entrenchments with great exertion he had managed to crawl to a point behind rock and bushes which concealed his body from the view of the confederate rifles in the pits on the slope of the hill how to get him back in the union lines was the problem confronting the union officers to leave him there much longer without surgical aid was almost certain death to send a rescuing party under orders meant almost certain death to every man in it as the ground over which they would be compelled to pass was swept by a regiment of guns In this extremity the matter was put before the negro troops, and two volunteers were called for to make the attempt to get the general.

Instantly two men stepped forward and started on a run for the officer, who lay insensible from fatigue and loss of blood.

One of them fell, shot to pieces after having gone a few paces.

It was in repelling these furious onsets that the newly raised Black Regiment, under Colonel Green, distinguished itself by deeds of desperate valor.

let me call your attention to a trait of the negro soldier his devotion and loyalty to his leader on may fourteenth seventeen eighty colonel greene the gallant leader of this regiment was surprised and murdered at point bridges new york he had a very small body-guard with him at the time composed of his faithful black soldiers these men could have fled from an overwhelming force and saved their lives but surrounding their colonel they defended him gallantly and he was not killed until the last man was cut to pieces in the revolutionary war baron von clausen a german army officer who visited this country during the revolutionary war said among other things in describing his visit to general washington's camp that of the twenty thousand soldiers there five thousand were negroes and that the best drilled and disciplined regiment was colonel green's rhode island regiment three-fourths of which was composed of negroes time will not permit me to dwell in detail upon the negro's military service in the war of eighteen twelve commodore perry on lake erie and general jackson at new orleans have testified in signed communications to the war and navy departments of their unflinching courage jackson's victory at new orleans which carried him to fame and the white house he owed largely to the desperate valor of the black regiments under him i wonder if you grasp the significance of all that why look at it jackson the great apostle of democracy was boosted up the ladder of fame by the faithful patriotic fighting black man does not that seem to be the limit of the irony of fate in the civil war a hundred and eighty seven thousand negroes were enlisted they participated in two hundred and thirteen battles and engagements and never permitted the union colors to be dishonored by cowardice or treachery their brilliant achievements at forts wagner and olustee fort hudson and milliken's bend made them welcome into the flower of the union army the army of the potomac in the closing months of those bloody conflicts in front of richmond and petersburg in the battles of wilson's wharf deep bottom chapier's farm and hatcher's run they won for themselves immortal glory a tale of heroism let me relate to you one instance in this war equal in sublimity to the martial deeds of any age it is worthy of homer for nothing at the siege of troy surpasses it in valor after the black troops had made a third unsuccessful assault to carry the heights of port hudson and had left hundreds of their dead and dying comrades under the very guns of the enemy general payne a union officer fell seriously wounded about three hundred yards in front of the union entrenchments with great exertion he had managed to crawl to a point behind rock and bushes which concealed his body from the view of the confederate rifles in the pits on the slope of the hill how to get him back in the union lines was the problem confronting the union officers to leave him there much longer without surgical aid was almost certain death to send a rescuing party under orders meant almost certain death to every man in it as the ground over which they would be compelled to pass was swept by a regiment of guns In this extremity the matter was put before the negro troops, and two volunteers were called for to make the attempt to get the general.

Instantly two men stepped forward and started on a run for the officer, who lay insensible from fatigue and loss of blood.

One of them fell, shot to pieces after having gone a few paces.

The other fell before he had covered half the distance.

the fate of these two men was met by two others who volunteered without hesitation two more undeterred by the fate of their comrades which they had witnessed with thousands of others on both sides of the lines stepped forward and went to death and this appalling sacrifice of life was kept up until the general's body was finally reached and brought back into the lines where a thousand guns were thundering and bullets were singing their death-song carrying eighteen of the bravest men who ever lived into the final muster out so profoundly impressed was general lee with the invincible military qualities of the negro soldiers that in a letter which he wrote to jefferson davis urging the passage of a bill authorizing their enlistment then under debate in the conference congress he said if i can get these men there is no telling where this campaign will end negro soldiers of history as far back as the days of alexander the great we find black men exerting a high military command pleitus a black soldier led alexander's cavalry and saved the day on more than one occasion by his forced marches and genius for command rome was made to tremble at the dreaded name of the great carthaginian captain menelik's army led entirely by black men on the plains of addis abeba annihilated an italian army of thirty thousand men taking one thousand prisoners of war cetewayo the indomitable zulu chief measured arms with the ablest english commanders and although his military resources were antiquated he was never conquered in brazil a full-blooded negro henry diaz wrested his country from the iron grip of the dutch maceo in cuba david thomas dumas in france division general under the first napoleon and general alfred dodds to-day the idol of the french army refute the charge that negroes lack military capacity to lead capable negro officers in our own country much of the desperate fighting at port hudson was done by those negro soldiers under the leadership of negro officers in those regiments recruited in louisiana which became popularly known as the corps in the cuban campaign many of the companies of negro soldiers were led by negro non-commissioned officers and there is no doubt that among the three hundred negro officers of volunteers commissioned during the war with spain there were men who would have measured up well in an emergency the story of diaz's organization of a black regiment officered entirely by men of his own race his brilliant campaigns against the dutch make one of the important chapters in the history of the western hemisphere for this man emancipated his country from the hard hand of a stubborn masterful race and his countrymen have deservedly placed him in the class with bolivar washington and louverture the great liberators and founders of states in the western world in conclusion i take pride in naming to you the greatest soldier white or black in ancient or modern wars the negro hannibal Field Marshal von Moltke of the German Army, the eminent military critic, says, Hannibal is the greatest military genius in history.

I will not detain

you by going into details of how Hannibal landed his little army of 37,000 Carthaginians

Let me explain.

I was born, as I say, in Nineteen twenty-one but it was not until the early Nineteen thirties When I was about ten That I began to understand what A peculiarly frustrate and disinherited world Was about me Perhaps my approach To realization was through The crayon portrait Of Grandpa Hodgins Which hung very solemnly Over the mantle Grandpa Hodgins After whom I was named Perhaps a little grand Eloquently Hodgins McCormick Backmaker Had been a veteran Of the War of Southern Independence Like so many young men He had put on a shapeless blue uniform In response to the call Of the ill advised and headstrong Or martyred Mr Lincoln Depending on which of my lives Viewpoints you take Grandpa lost an arm On the great retreat to Philadelphia After the fall of Washington To General Lee's victorious Army of Northern Virginia So his war ended some six months Before the capitulation At Reading And the acknowledgement Of the independence Of the Confederate states On July fourth Eighteen sixty four One armed and embittered Grandpa came home To Wappinger Falls And like his fellow veterans Tried to remake his life In a different and increasingly Hopeless world On its face the Peace of Richmond Was a just and Even generous disposition Of a defeated foe By the victor Both sides for Different reasons Remembered the mutiny Of the unreconstructed Federals In the armies of the Cumberland And the Tennessee Who despite defeat At Chattanooga Could not forget Vicksburg Or Port Hudson And fought bloodily Against the order to surrender The South could easily Have carved the country up To suit its most fiery patriots Even to the point of Detaching the West And making a Protectorate of it Instead the chivalrous Southerners contented themselves With drawing the new boundary Along traditional lines The Mason Dixon gave them Delaware and Maryland But they generously returned The panhandle of western Virginia Jutting above it Missouri was naturally Included in the Confederacy But of the disputed territory Colorado and Deseret Were conceded to the old Union Only Kansas and California As well as for obvious defensive Reasons Nevada's tip went to the south But the peace of Richmond Had also laid the coast of the war On the beaten north And this was what crippled Grandpa Hodgins More than the loss of his arm The post -war inflation Entered the galloping stage During the Valadinium administration Became dizzying In the time of President Seymour And precipitated the food riots Of eighteen seventy three and seventy four It was only after the election of President Butler By the Whigs in eighteen seventy six And the reorganization and drastic deflation Following that money and property became stable But by this time all normal values were destroyed Meanwhile the indemnities had to Be paid regularly in gold Grandpa and hundreds of thousands Like him Just never seemed to Get back on their feet How well I remember As a small boy in the Nineteen twenties and thirties My mother and father Talking bitterly Of how the war had ruined everything They were not speaking Of the then fairly recent Emperor's war in Nineteen fourteen to sixteen But of the war of southern independence Which still nearly Seventy years later Blighted What was left of the United States Nor were they unique or peculiar in this Men who slouched in the smithy While fathers shod Their horses Were gathered every month Around the post office Waiting for the notice of the winning lottery numbers To be put up Has often cursed the confederates Or discussed what might have been If Meade had been a better general Or Lee a worse one As they did the new type Bicycles with clockwork auxiliaries To make pedaling uphill easier Or the latest scandal About the French emperor Napoleon VI I try to imagine what it must have been like In grandpa hodgin's day To visualize the lost past That strange bright era When if it could be believed Folks like ourselves and our neighbors Had owned their farms outright And didn't pay rent to the bank Or give half the crop to a landlord I searched the wiggling Crayon lines that composed Grandpa hodgin's face For some sign that set Him apart from his descendants But what did he do? To lose the farm I used to ask my mother Do Didn't do anything Couldn't help himself Go along now and do Your chores I have a terrible batch of work To get out How could grandpa's Not doing anything Result so disastrously I could not Understand this any more Than i could the bygone Time when a man could Nearly always get a job For wages which would Support himself and a family Before the system of indenture became so common that practically the only alternative to pauperism was to sell oneself to a company.

Indenting, I understood all right, for there was a mill in Wappinger Falls which wove a shoddy cloth very different from the goods my mother produced on her handloom.

Mother, even in her late 40s, could have indented there for a good price, and she admitted that the work would be easier than weaving homespun to compete with their product.

It is rather for us to here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave their last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The tremendous successes of Vicksburg and Port Hudson followed quickly upon Gettysburg.

The fruits of this year were deemed ample reason for the appointment of a day which should be devoted to Thanksgiving.

Accordingly, President Lincoln issued a proclamation which... for its humility of spirit, beauty of expression, and nobility of sentiment, must remain marked even among the remarkable papers which have issued from the President's hands.

It is rather for us to here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave their last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The tremendous successes of Vicksburg and Port Hudson followed quickly upon Gettysburg.

that of Vicksburg taking place on the 4th of July, thus probably constituting the most glorious and substantial celebration ever before accorded to our national holiday.

The fruits of this year were deemed ample reason for the appointment of a day which should be devoted to Thanksgiving.

Thence he marched to the Grand Gulf on the Mississippi which he took, and which he had planned to make a base of supply.

When he reached Grand Gulf, however, he found he would be obliged to wait a month in order to obtain the reinforcements which he expected from General Banks at Port Hudson.

He therefore gave up the idea of making Grand Gulf a base, and Sherman, now having joined him with his corps, Grant struck at once into the interior.

He took nothing with him except ammunition, and his army was in the lightest marching order.

A sharp engagement followed, and the Confederates were again defeated.

Grant then crossed the Big Black, and the next day was before Vicksburg with his enemy inside the works.

When Grant crossed the Mississippi at Bruinsburg and struck into the interior, he, of course, passed out of communication with Washington, and he did not hear from there again until May 11th, when, just as his troops were engaging in the Battle of Black River Bridge, an officer appeared from Port Hudson with an order from General Halleck to return to Grand Gulf and thence cooperate with Banks against Port Hudson.

Grant replied the order came too late.

these men could have fled from an overwhelming force and saved their lives but surrounding their colonel they defended him gallantly and he was not killed until the last man was cut to pieces in the revolutionary war Baron von Clausen, a German army officer who visited this country during the Revolutionary War, said, among other things, in describing his visit to General Washington's camp, that of the 20,000 soldiers there, 5,000 were Negroes, and that the best-drilled and disciplined regiment was Colonel Green's Rhode Island Regiment, three-fourths of which was composed of Negroes.

time will not permit me to dwell in detail upon the negro's military service in the war of eighteen twelve commodore perry on lake erie and general jackson at new orleans have testified in signed communications to the war and navy departments of their unflinching courage jackson's victory at new orleans which carried him to fame and the white house he owed largely to the desperate valor of the black regiments under him i wonder if you grasp the significance of all that why look at it jackson the great apostle of democracy was boosted up the ladder of fame by the faithful patriotic fighting black man does not that seem to be the limit of the irony of fate in the civil war a hundred and eighty seven thousand negroes were enlisted they participated in two hundred and thirteen battles and engagements and never permitted the union colors to be dishonored by cowardice or treachery their brilliant achievements at forts wagner and olustee fort hudson and milliken's bend made them welcome into the flower of the union army the army of the potomac in the closing months of those bloody conflicts in front of richmond and petersburg in the battles of wilson's wharf deep bottom chapier's farm and hatcher's run they won for themselves immortal glory a tale of heroism let me relate to you one instance in this war equal in sublimity to the martial deeds of any age it is worthy of homer for nothing at the siege of troy surpasses it in valor after the black troops had made a third unsuccessful assault to carry the heights of port hudson and had left hundreds of their dead and dying comrades under the very guns of the enemy general payne a union officer fell seriously wounded about three hundred yards in front of the union intrenchments with great exertion he had managed to crawl to a point behind rock and bushes which concealed his body from the view of the confederate rifles in the pits on the slope of the hill how to get him back in the union lines was the problem confronting the union officers to leave him there much longer without surgical aid was almost certain death to send a rescuing party under orders meant almost certain death to every man in it as the ground over which they would be compelled to pass was swept by a regiment of guns In this extremity the matter was put before the negro troops, and two volunteers were called for to make the attempt to get the general.

Instantly two men stepped forward and started on a run for the officer, who lay insensible from fatigue and loss of blood.

One of them fell, shot to pieces after having gone a few paces.

On its face, the Peace of Richmond was a just and even generous disposition of a defeated foe by the victor.

Both sides, for different reasons, remembered the mutiny of the unreconstructed Federals and the armies of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, who, despite defeat at Chattanooga, could not forget Vicksburg or Port Hudson and fought bloodily against the order to surrender.

The South could easily have carved the country up to suit its most fiery patriots, even to the point of detaching the West and making a protectorate of it.

Instead, the chivalrous Southerners contented themselves with drawing the new boundary along traditional lines.

On its face, the Peace of Richmond was a just and even generous disposition of a defeated foe by the victor.

Both sides, for different reasons, remembered the mutiny of the unreconstructed Federals in the armies of the Cumberland and the Tennessee who, despite defeat at Chattanooga, could not forget Vicksburg or Port Hudson and fought bloodily against the order to surrender.

The South could easily have carved the country up to suit its most fiery patriots, even to the point of detaching the West and making a protectorate of it.

Instead, the chivalrous Southerners contented themselves with drawing the new boundary along traditional lines.