Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993 TAG: 9308220032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PETERSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Kelvin Miles, who spent five years planning and raising funds for the monument, unveiled the 4-foot marker. It was placed at Battery 9 of the Confederate defense line around the city, captured by a black division during Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's initial assault June 15, 1864.
More than 100 people attended the dedication, said Janet Brittain, a spokeswoman for the park.
Etched on the monument are the words, "In memory of the valorous service of regiments and companies of the U.S. Colored Troops, Army of the James and Army of the Potomac."
Twenty-two black infantry regiments and a black calvary unit fought at Petersburg, according to Army records. About 6,000 of the 20,000 or more black soldiers in the Petersburg campaign were killed from June 1864 to April 1865, according to Miles, who founded the Decatur Dorsey Institute Inc. in Asheville, N.C., to organize efforts to erect the monument.
The black troops were scheduled to play a starring role in the Battle of the Crater in July 1864. A black division was to lead the assault after an underground mine blew a hole in a Southern defenses. But the day before the battle, Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade replaced the black troops with unprepared, tired white soldiers.
The white troops failed to move in promptly after the explosion, and the Confederates slaughtered the white troops and the blacks, who followed them. The black troops led a final rally, capturing battle flags and prisoners, but their assault was broken.
Despite the Union's failure, Capt. James A. Rickard, a white commander of the 19th U.S. Colored Troops, said the black soldiers' performance improved their status.
Army records show 178,975 blacks served in the Union army during the war, with a greater per-capita mortality rate than that of white troops.
by CNB