finished reading Remembering The Battle of the Crater: War as Murder by Kevin M. Leviin. Thought I was getting Civil War history, but got Black History. Even better. In 1864 Grant had Lee pinned down outside of Petersburg and was in essence wearing him down. The men had dug a complex system of trunches in which they lived. Some soldiers, who were miners in civilian life, told their officers they could dig a mine under the Confederate works, fill it full of gun powder and blow a hole in the Confederate line. General Burnside was in command of that stretch of the line. You may know him from his bushy whiskers. He gave us the term sideburns. The plan was to blow the hole and send a division of United States Colored Troops in as the lead attackers. They trained for their mission all the time the tunnel was being dug. They were to rush the hole, but not stop there. They were to sucure a hill beyond and if possible move into Petersburg. White troops would be right behind them. Less than a day before the explosion, Burnside was told he could not lead with USCT but had to send white troops in first. He had his generals draw straws and the gentleman who had the short straw had a reputation as a drunk and a coward. So he retired to his tent for a drink and his officers tried to prepare their troops. The explosion went off and created the Crater. It blew Confederate soldiers hundreds of feet in the air. It tore them apart and left a big smoking hole in the ground. The white troops are sent in, but, not knowing they were supposed to go beyond the Crater, stopped. Behind them came the Colored Division. They knew they were supposed to be moving toward Petersburg and pushed through. So with some whites the Colored Troops moved forward. By this time Lee had recovered and sent in reinforcements. The delay led to a Union disaster. The Confederate troops pushed the Union troops back into the Crater and then shot them like fish in a barrel. Hundreds of United States Colored Troops were murdered after they surrendered. Grant passed word to Lee that for every Union soldier murdered a Confederate POW would be taken out and shot. That stopped the murders, although many were placed in slavery. Some made it to POW camps and survived the war. This book is about how history dealt with those soldiers. After reconstruction, the Lost Cause Myth arose in the South. It said that both sides were just fighting for their homes and families. The role of African Americans was forgotten or denied. Re-enactments of the Battle Of The Crater never included African Americans, even though it was the one subject most often commented on by Confederate soldiers who actually took part. This ignoring their contributions continued for one hundred years until the Centennial of the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement collided in the 1960s. Progess has been made since. There are monuments to the courage of the United States Colored Troops at all battles where they fought. Names such as Ft. Pillow and the Crater testify to the bravery of these men and extra danger they faced. Good book. So much African American history has been blotted out. We need to be reminded.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 03:45:18 +0000