Necessarily the first actions in which the Negro bore a part commanded most attention. Friends and enemies were looking eagerly to see how they would acquit themselves, and so it comes to pass that the names of Fort Wagner, Olustee, Millikens Bend, Port Hudson and Fort Pillow are as familiar as Bull Run, Antietam, Shiloh and Gettysburg, and while those first experiences were mostly severe reverses, they were by that very fact splendid exemplifiers of the truth that the Negroes, could be relied upon to fight under the most adverse circumstances, against any odds, and could not be discouraged. Let us glance for a moment at Port Hudson, La., in May, 1863, assaulted by General Banks with a force of which the First and Second Regiments, Louisiana Native Guards, formed a part. When starting upon their desperate mission, Colonel Stafford of the First Regiment in turning over the regimental colors to the color guard, made a brief and patriotic address, closing in the words: “Color Guard: Protect, defend, die for, but do not surrender these colors.” The gallant flag-sergeant, Plancianos, taking them replied: “Colonel: I will bring back these colors to you in honor, or report to God the reason why.” Six times with desperate valor they charged over ground where success was hopeless, a deep bayou between them and the works of the enemy at the point of attack rendered it impossible to reach them, yet strange to say, six times they were ordered forward and six times they went to useless death, until swept back by the blazing breath of shot and shell before which nothing living could stand. Here fell the gallant Captain Cailloux, black as the ace of spades; refusing to leave the field though his arm had been shattered by a bullet he returned to the charge until killed by a shell. A soldier limping painfully to the front was halted and asked where he was going, he replied; “I am shot bad in de leg, and dey want me to go to de hospital, but I guess I can give ’em a little more yet.” The colors came back but crimsoned with the blood of the gallant Plancianos, who reported to God from that bloody field. Shall we glance from this to Millikens Bend, La., in January, 1863, garrisoned by the Ninth and Eleventh Louisiana and the First Mississippi, all Negroes, and about one hundred and sixty of the twenty-third Iowa (white), about eleven hundred fighting men in all. Attacked by a force of six Confederate regiments, crushed out of their works by sheer weight of numbers, borne down toward the levee, fighting every step of the way, hand to hand, clubbed musket, bayonets and swords, from three a. m. to twelve, noon, when a Union gun-boat came to the rescue and shelled the desperate foe back to the woods, with a total loss to the defenders of 437 men, two-fifths of their strength.