Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill, commanding the Army of Northern Virginias III Corps, decided to organize a parade to entertain the citizens of Petersburg, Virginia… and humiliate those Yankees captured the previous day in the Battle of the Crater. The captives were to be the marchers—perhaps 800 Caucasian Federals and 100 members of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Sure, even then it violated the ethics of war—such villains as Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein paraded their human trophies—but to many Rebels, such civility was not to be extended to those Caucasian northerners who utilized African Americans as soldiers and even associated with them, thereby putting themselves on par with a supposedly inferior race. Thus, a file of four shoeless African Americans dressed only in their pants and shirts was to be flanked by two junior officers of the lighter hue. From about ten in the morning to noon on July 31, 1864—150 years ago today—the captives were marched down every street of the Cockade City, “taunted by women, stoned by the boys, and cursed by the men.” “See the white and nigger equality soldiers!” some spectators shouted, which implied that the Confederacy was largely fighting against racial equality (although emancipation by no means guaranteed that outcome). USCT officers generally didn’t mind being compared to men whom they led, but those of Caucasian regiments did. No mention of tariffs or some other rights for states were mentioned. Of course, southern heritage advocates, who deemphasize slavery in favor of those at best secondary causes, care only about heritage, not history (or reality, for that matter). #AmericanCivilWar #militaryhistory
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 22:59:50 +0000
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