Six companies of the First
Louisiana and nine companies of the Third, in all 1080 men, were
formed in column of attack. Even now, one cannot contemplate unmoved
the desperate valor of these black troops and the terrible slaughter
among them as they were sent to their impossible task that day in May.
Moving forward in double quick time the column emerged from the woods,
and passing over the plain strewn with felled trees and entangled
brushwood, plunged into a fury of shot and shell as they charged for
the batteries on the rebel left. Again and again that unsupported
column of black troops held to their hopeless mission by the
unrelenting order of the brigade commander, hurled itself literally
into the jaws of death, many meeting horrible destruction actually at
the cannon's mouth.
It was a day prodigal with deeds of fanatical bravery. The colors of
the First Louisiana, torn and shivered in that fearful hail of fire,
were still borne forward in front of the works by the color-sergeant,
until a shell from the enemy cut the flag in two and gave the sergeant
his mortal wound. He fell spattering the flag with blood and brains
and hugged it to his bosom as he lay in the grasp of death. Two
corporals sprang forward to seize the colors, contending in generous
rivalry until a rebel sharpshooter felled one of them across the
sergeant's lifeless body.
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