Historical Romance of the American NegroFowler, Charles Henry
History
Historical Romance of the American Negro
Fowler, Charles Henry
African Americans -- History
A great many war incidents were recorded in the annals of the fighting
in Mississippi between Union General Sturgis and the rebels there under
General Forrest. Here are a few of them. A corporal in one of the
colored regiments was ordered to surrender. He allowed his would-be
captor to come up close to him, when he struck him down with the butt
end of his gun. Whilst the regiment was fighting in a ditch, and the
order came to retreat, the color-bearer threw out the flag, intending to
jump out and get it, but the rebels made a rush for it, and in the
struggle one of our men knocked down with his gun the rebel who had the
flag, and caught it and ran. A rebel, with an oath, ordered one of our
men to surrender. He thought the rebel’s gun was loaded, and dropped his
own gun; but when he saw his enemy commence loading, our colored soldier
made a sudden spring for his own gun, and struck the rebel dead. One of
our captains was surrounded by about a dozen of the enemy, when he was
seen by one of our own men, who called several of his companions to his
side, when they rushed forward together and fired, killed several of the
rebels, and rescued their captain at once. A rebel came up to one of our
men, and said, "Come, my good fellow; go with me, and wait on me." In a
second our Union soldier shot his would-be master dead. Once when our
men made a charge on the enemy they rushed forward with the cry,
"Remember Fort Pillow!" when the rebels called back to them and said,
"Lee’s men killed no prisoners!" One of our men in a charge threw his
antagonist to the ground, and pinned him fast there, but when he tried
to withdraw his bayonet it came off the gun, and as he was very busy
just at that time, he left it behind him, still transfixed to the
ground. Another soldier killed a rebel by striking him with the butt end
of his gun; the gun broke, and as he was unwilling to stop his work just
then, he kept on loading, and fired three times before he could get a
better gun. The first time, as he was not very cautious, the rebound of
his gun cut his lip badly. When the troops were in the ditch, three
rebels came upon one man and ordered him to surrender. But as his gun
was loaded he shot one of them and bayoneted the other; but forgetting
in his haste that he could bayonet the third he turned the butt end of
his gun and knocked him down. (The above are a few incidents culled from
the annals of the fighting done by our men in Northern Mississippi.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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