and the anive eniversary are not on me. although the one thing i do have to admit when i was asked to do this i found the task a little bit dountiaunting. i'm surrounded by subject matter experts on the civil war. people who are trying to cam nine hours into ten minutes and still include more information than i would ever be able to get in there more specifically experts on this battle. even though i am pretty accustomed to not being the smartest guy in the room that adds a whole new perspective to the situation. now, i know i am a career soldier and i'm supposed to know that kind of stuff but in college i was an economic's major so we didn't realpoe"íx about the battle of the crater too much in micro or macro economics. although the one thing i do remember is i actually remember this battle being discussed when i was in one of my history classes at west point. it wasn't really the subject matter as it was my instructor who eventually went onto become

the lieutenant and commanded the first nato training mission in afghanistan before retiring. he was a very animated and energetic speaker. he always made it interesting. he was first person who ever actually make history something that i wanted to go sit down and talk to because he didn't really teach history nearly as much as he told stories. isn't that what history really is? it's a story. it's our story. it's the story of what got us here today. so we commemorate the battle crater which is just one story of our nation. now as i said earlier i'm not a great story teller so i will leave the details of the battle up to more qualify personnel than myself. and liewis oecpening and introduction of comments thanks for setting the bar so high. very powerful words. it was awesome so i'm not going

to attempt to tell the story or amplify it or offer any insightful details on how it unfolded but what i would like to talk about is the people. the soldiers who played the parts of the story as it unfolded here and have played the part in every battle our nation has participated in and more importantly the soldiers we have serving now and the ones signing up to serve everyday. i would like to talk about them and their ability to secure our nation's future and their sacrifice. a sacrifice that transcends far beyond the soldiers who fight the battle to their family, friends and homes. that's something that actually the commemoration here will recognize here and across the country. in all thousands paid the ultimate cost of that sacrifice on this spot and throughout this entire battlefield while writing this chapter and throughout our

history hundreds of thousands have paid that same price. countless more have been wounded and captured. their blood is the ink that most of our history is written in. i'm sure their reasons for being here are just as varied as the soldiers joining today are. to make that sacrifice to stand up for what you believe in. during the battle they may have fought to defend their country, their family, their beliefs or rights or strictly their sense of duty. soldiers in the north could have fought to maintain the union or preservation of the nation or way of life or the abolition of slavery. those in the south for their rights or homes and families. for many who fought here, the land we're on right now is literally their back yard. the color troops who fought here for their freedom. a great example of this being

mr. dorsy of the one of the colored troops from the 39th infantly regiment who was born a slave but also won the congressional medal of honor for his actions right here on this ground. also those who were drafted. finally only 1 to 6% of the force who was here, depending on who you talk to, i will leave that up to the experts. their represent theirselves and all made the sacrifice required to write this chapter. this sacrifice, sense of duty and this need to participate in or support or be apart of something much greater than themselves has played out time and time again throughout our history. so what about our future and the soldiers who will lead us there? as a leader in today's army we're required to look at the future. where are we going and hem determine how to best ensure the chapters of that future of are a

secure america. in the 30 years i've enlisted i've seen phenomenal changes in our army and its soldiers. today we're once again an all volunteer army and the quality, competence, capability and sense of duty to their nation of these volunteers is what will secure our future. every army in the world attempts to emulate the capability of our enlisted personnel and ncos. the bottom line is they can't do it. that's just the fact of the matter. some have been trying to do it for decades. we actively continually pursue efforts to actually teach other nations to adopt our model but no one else has been able to replicate it because of our soldiers. these souliers are the reasons we're so strong. as others chase us and try to emulate our capability, we will continue to improve and move forward and move farther away. one of the best conversations that highlighted this was when i was working at fort brag.

there was a major who was talking to a bunch of veterans who had previously served in our unit. they were talking about how concerned they were with respect to the quality of the soldier and what had happened to the unit over the years. i got to tell you what, that sergeant major was opposed to what they were saying and might have threw a couple of expletives that this unit could have easily whipped the old-timers. he told me this was not an insult to them but a testment ament to the fact we're always getting better that it is our duty to improve our units and people who defend the nation. he had no attempt to belittle their accomplishments. and closed by saying if we didn't prepare the next generation to be able to whip us than we would fail our country

no matter what we accomplish on today's battlefield. this ethos to continual get better is an inherent part of our american culture and is the reason we have and will have the best military in the world. before i leave you thinking this is a chest thumping sales patch i would like to provide you details. in my lifetime we have gone from a draft and people's only options were to go to the army or jail to one where only 29% of our population can even qualify to get into the army. think about that for one moment. over 70% of our population -- age eligible population don't even meet the basic requirements to get into today's army. 99% of today's recruits have a high school diploma in an era where only 79% graduate.

overall today's recruits are healthier and more physically fit than the vast majority of their peers and they adhere to a zero tolerance policy on drugs and criminal issues. it is actually statistically easier to get into college than it is to enlist not become an officer but ep linlist in the a. the life of a soldier is no -- the life of a soldier is no secret to them. they join knowing they will endure hard times. they will endure sacrifice. they will be charged to keep us safe. the few that make the cut to get in and are willing to make that sacrifice, they are not always easy to find. if it was easy to find them we wouldn't need an entire command for voting and recruiting. those who get in, to get in and make the next gut to get through training and into an unit, they become apart of something much greater than themselves.

they have the combination of skills, the intelligence, the physical ability and sense of duty to be part of that 1% of our population that puts on a military uniform. the 1% that puts their lives on the line in defense of our nation is the 1% i want to be apart of. that's the 1% i'm proud to be apart of so the next time you see that brand new private or lieutenant, no that they were among that our society had to offer. they had more ability and potential than most of their peers and they still chose to put that uniform on and to help the sacrifices that come with it. they are tomorrow's generals and command sergeant majors. they are the future of our nation. i thank you again for the honor of being here to stand in this hollow ground with all of you and to remember this chapter in our history and the people who lived in it and people who died

in it. have a great day. god bless america. [ applause ] our benediction this morning will be given by reverend rick gre greenwood. i fail to mention with pastor lions are gillfield. both churches represented here this morning were war time congregations here in petersberg. again, this morning our benediction reverend greenwood. >> may god the earth maker, god the universe creator, god the star thrower, god the tree grower, may go the builder of nations, god the lord of lords,

god the king of kings, god the lover of man kind, may god who is our history. god who is our present, god who awaits us in the future. god be with us now. may got the pain bayer. god the one who suffers. god the bloodied sacrifice. god the redeemer. god the inkarnate. the god who lived as one of us. god who is with us. god who looks like us, god who frees us, god bless you now, may god the life giver, god the devine breath, doed the hogod t maker, the community creator, may the peace revealer, god the comforter of all. may god who moves among us all,

god who lifts us into eternal life, god lead us forward today. may god the earth maker, the pain barer, the life giver, bless you and keep you now and always. amen. ♪

>> just from me personally i want to thank you all for being here today with us today on 150th anniversary of the battle of crater. once again superintendent rogers. just want to be very short and thank you all for coming. i learn when it's time for things to be over it's time for them to be over. i want to thank fort lee for coming us. people don't realize that people e petersberg used to be a part of

fort lee. we were actually cut out of fort lee to be created as a battlefield created by one union and one confederate soldier. i'd like to thank the postal service for coming here. thank you for the city of st. petersburg for being with us. go and find yourself in history. >> thursday night a look at the civil war's atlanta campaign. in may of 1864, william sherman marched into georgia with the goal of capturing atlanta. after a series of battles throughout the summer and the see siege of the city, atlanta fell in 1864. we will join with sherman's march and a look at confederate weapons manufacturing in central georgia after the fall of atlanta. that's all coming up thursday

night here on cspan 3. >> 200 years ago on august 24th, 1814, british soldiers routed american troops at the battle of bladeensberg just outside of washington d.c. it left the capitol wide open to british forces who marched into the city and burned down the nation's capitol. you can here more about this thursday on an event hosted by the smithsonian associated. our live coverage starts at 6:45 eastern and more august 23rd as we takeb$h$h$hlñç you live to tr a panel discussion on the events of 200 years ago live on american history tv on csp an 3 >> next a look of the role in the u.s. colored troops in the battle of the crater during the

siege of petersberg. after weeks of tunnelling on july 30, 1864, forces blew up a mine to create a gap in the defenses. emmanuel discusses why the attack ultimately failed and why the u.s. colored troops were unjustly blamed. this event was part of the gettysburg's institutes annual civil conference. it's just under an hour. >> good morning. i will prewarn you today, you will here language that we find repulsive. i will not cut it out because it makes us quiver. we'll get started. on july twelfth, 1864 after failing to defeat robert e. lee's army of northern virginia, lieutenant general grant accompanied major general mead's

river of the patomic and pulled away from the fortifications of the harbor and begun to move toward petersberg. some of the troops north of petersberg moved to begin the attack on the city the following day on july 15th. petersberg in 1860 had been virginia's second largest city with a population of 18266 folks. four railroads radiated from the city by 1860. the petersberg railroad ran south to north carolina. the richmond in petersberg obviously connecting those two places. the south side which ran from

city point through petersberg to lynchberg. the fcity possessed three iron mills, three plaining mills and factories. these operations were cranking out supplies and food for the confederacy throughout the war. the confederacy operated several war time plants within or near the city still functioning in the city of 1864 including naval rope works, wagon works. the war time blockade getting back to the interest in the blockade had created even greater importance for the petersberg railroad because it a separate railroad company,

weldon operated keskticonnectin petersberg and the blockade at wilmington. there is petersberg. grant wanted to cut off rich monday, rich monday's communication of goods from june 15th to the 18th before lee arrived at petersberg union troops assaulted the city but failed to capture it. siege operations began but at one part of the line, the 9th corp were less than 400 feed from the confederate earth works in the midst of the summer of 1864 drought was the constant sharp shooting and destruction of earth works and a plan had developed to break the campaign

before it lasted much longer. as early as june 21, lieutenant henry pleasant thought mining the confederate position was a possibility. he noted enthusiasm for the project was his commander potter and burnside. the 48th pennsylvania began excavating the mine but most people remember it started at 12:00 noon. the work was performed night and day, seven days a week, even in the intense summer heat which often exceeded 105 degrees. the concerns about ventilating the mine war dressed. fresh air entered an 8 inch square duct circulated -- fire was created that would send the

bad air out through a chimney shaft. as the laborers extended the mine so too did the wooden duct system be extended. by the 17th of july, the mine will reach the 510.8 feet that pleasant had first proposed. two galleries will be extended which is represented in this image at the top underneath the confederate position in which the gunpowder is supposed to be pegged. while the 48th pennsylvania infantry dug the mine, burnside crafted a battle plan. three weeks ahead of the assault he informed edward ferrero, the commander of the u.s. division of colored troops of his plan to

use those troops first. he expected 12,000 pounds of gunpowder to explode by day break or 5:00 a.m. the black soldiers would be massed in double columns ready to pass through the gap in the enemy's line. the regiment was to be perp eep perpendicular of the confederate line. the remaining regiments were to move as quickly as possible to the crest in front as rapidly as possible as burnside wrote. white troops of burpside's corp and others would soon follow. he was directed to drill his enthusiastic troops but not veterans for this attack. however, this is issue that we still don't know all the details of, were the u.s. colored troops trained or not trained?

it depends on who you ask. captain robert beachom of the 23rd usct recalled only one drill and nothing specific to this particular battle maneuver but they were as he said most common and simple maneuvered. others were called specialized training like the colonel commanding the color troops who remembered time after time did my regiment go to the imaginary advance and turn to the left. every officer and every private knew his place in what he was expected to do. in short i will say we dote know if they were trained or not. what we do know is that the confederates figure out what's going on with the union mining activity just five days after the federals have started. this man is on the confederate

side be praised for lucky guessing. of course many of you in this audience your attention to gettysburg know edward porter alexander. he's expecting the lines on june 30th, he's expecting to see the siege operations of 19th century warfare to be taking place. trying to extend union lines trying to get closer to the confederates but he's not in thing that. he notices there's intense sharp shooting coming into this position and he thinks seriously that the enemy isn't going to come as he said above ground but they were coming underground. they were mining us he later wrote. i always say on my tours it's important to know that this isn't farmer joe's son who probably wouldn't have guessed this. alexander is a graduate of west point. third in his class of 38 so he knew this sort of world of siege

operations which could include mines. alexander reported his suspicions to headquarters, southern quantitier mining began in self places but they will not in elliott salient area go deep enough below ground to collapse the kconfederate mine. just of the intense amount of sharpillery fire, the confederates had honeycombed the area in between this new cavalier trench in the back of elliott's salient with bombproofs. what they didn't know zis that this will soon enough create an obstacle for the confederates. it's going to be in a horseshoe

shaped ring around this region and the confederates are going to have 30 canyons and 5 mortars to use against any infant rry attack in that particular area. the plan begun unraveling as soon as headquarters got the plan. mead's engineer decided that's all the gunpowder they needed. a single fuse arrived in segments. the plans for the attack which burnside had proposed were changed by general mead on the morning of july 28th mead and burnside had a showdown about the battle plan. mead stated at a military court of inquiry that black soldiers

were too green for this attack. later that year grant testified to congress, congressional committee investigating the crater, general mead said if we put the colored troops in front we had that only one division and it should prove a failure if it would then be said and very properly that we were shoving these people ahead to get killed because we did not care anything about them. that could not be said if we put white troops in front. since burn side protested this last minute change, mead stated he would talk with grant about it and it's important to understand that technically burnside outranked mead. it's been a contentious sort of thing since burnside arrived in spring. grant out ranks both of them. he can aside which he will only

here from mead. grant agrees with mead. however, neither general bothered to inform burnside of this until july 29th. at 11:00 a.m. when mead and another union general appear at burnside's headquarters. burnside still wants the plan that he had to go forth and he will ask mead cannot this be changed and mead says no, the order is final. beside the use of the u.s. colored troops, mead objected to the maneuvers burnside wanted to perform. mead wants them to go up promptly and take the crest. the problem is it doesn't take into account the other confederate troops that are to the north of the explosion site and i should point out the objective is to take the high ground at the cemetery which is

a few hundred yards to the north of elliott salient. so mead and this other union general leave burnside to figure out what he's going to do. calls forth these eligible division commanders including willwox, james ledly on the left and robert potter on the right. despite burnside's realization he probably should have selected willkox and potter, if he felt like their divisions had been really used up so he selected james ledly. ledly has some of you know has a fondness for alcohol. this had been exhibited at the battle of north ana river late in may of 1864 and on the initial attacks in petersberg on

the 17th. on july 29th, final preparations were made including canon and 54 mortars across a ten mile front to be used right after the explosion takes place to pin down confederates as the attack moves forward. white troops move into their position. ferrero's troops are going to be in the back of this attacking column. colonel pleasant will go in on july 30th, light the fuse at 3:30 in the morning. didn't go off.swfñs0÷ 4:15 -- two people go back inside to figure out what has gone wrong. mostly on my tours i have people who would say that would be me. occasionally i get it and i say you brave person. >> they light the fuse andç at

4:40, it explodes on saturday morning the 30th, one of the enemy's forts when the enemy was dreaming in pleasant slumber, was blown up destroying all who were in it at the time. the hole was now 30 feet deep, 1 fe 70 feet long and 60 feet wide. few confederates would live to tell the tail between 350 men from south carolina caregiments will become casualties of the blast of the the battle that follows reveals more about personalities and racial divisions than about military tactics and objectives.

artillery shells belch from the federals 110 canyons and 54 mortars as the battle began. ledly's division supported by robert potter and willkox's men. of course the confederates are going to respond. it's going to be a somewhat weak response at this particular moment from the infantry those intense confederate artillery fire began to develop pretty rapidly, particularly from the federals that it's coming from the right so part of the army that james is going to be deployed to try to cover and push out some people of north carolina that were to the north of the crater and silence whatever this gun battery is sending shells ripping through the ranks. that's what's represented here. i'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about the white troops. you should have come to kevin's talk yesterday about them. we're going to focus on the

black troops. about 8:00 a.m., ferrero's division is ordered to attack the first brigade will be joshua significantfreid and the 30th u.s. color troops. as they crash into the confederates they began to scream out no quarter and remember fort pillow. some of you know for those who don't, fort pillow earlier in the year in april, confeddaerat troops refused to surend enrend when the battle finally comes to its crazed in we have 150 white pows and 58 black men. everybody else in this garrison of 600 has been killed or mortally wounded. so it doesn't really matter that these black troops weren't there that these white troops weren't there.

this becomes a battle cry for the rest of the war with black troops. one confederate officer screamed rally boys, drive them back. they are nothing but --. immediately somehow in the sounds of battle this is overheard by sergeant john offer and a dozen other black combatants who charge the officer and one soldier thrust the bayonet into the officer's chest. following the 30th is the 43rd usct. within that regiment captain albert d.wright captures the flag you see here on the left. he was wounded himself. the mingling already of white and black troops in and out the crater and southern artillery will start to slow progress for the 27th and 39th brigade. as they moved through the

remains of elliott salient, colonel baits was shot in the face and exited through his left ear. amazingly baits survived and rushed to duty in 1864. he has a pretty impressive mustache already t. gets bigger to cover up part of his face that has been partially collapsed because of the bullet. he will receive a met medal of honor. following on the heels of sigfreids men. thomas recalled a it decimated

us. the 31st usct was mow down like grass. thomas ordered the troops back into the area behind the crater which means having to try to move through the masses of white troops already there which is also honeycombed with bombproofs, you remember that. his attempt to rally and charge again will be met with doom. you can see thomas on the left and the colonel who gets himself all dandied up to go into this attack. he has his best coat on, best sword, best hat. he will satand on top of federa earth works to try to encourage them to go forward and he will get shot down. there was no flinching on their part. they came to the soldier touched

just like true soldiers as ready to face the enemy and meet death but think for a moment for forming for an affective charge, confuse and broken up. officers are going down. artillery fire power is continuing and infantry units on the confederate side are beginning to move up. commanded by the only division of troops that lee actually commands on this side, led temporarily by brigadier general

mahone. the virgginian as they get onto the battlefield will encounter confederate as they are running back wards. another told the men, oh, boys you have hot work ahead. they are -- and show no quarter. >> this report before the men passing us was the first intimation that we would have to fight negros and it seemed to infuse our little band with inpet uousness.

revenge must have fired every heart and strung every arm with nerves of steel. mahone gives a rallying speech that isn't filled with any racially charged language just before the virginians attack at 9:00 a.m. confederate officer in the 6th virginia commander wrote with fixed bayonets they strung forward from the ravine and the pack eed trenches. virginias pay a heavy price to capture a few hundred feet of earth works. the jurorediaordan will follow .

they made two attacks and fell like autumn leaves. the georgians leave us some of our best accounts of their anger at the site of armed black men. the prisoners came leaping over our best words for 50. the muzzle of our guns was put on their temple and their brains blown out. others were knocked in the head with the butts of their guns. few would succeed to getting to the rear of the safe. also of the 48th georgia and someone who ought to know about beating black bodies since he was an overseer before the war begun told his dear sister mary just 11 days afterwards when we got to the works it was filled with negros and whites crying

out no quarter and you may depend on it we did not show much quarter but charade thslay. >> they want to know what their men are doing on the battlefield. now that they are fighting black member they a men that they are put them down out here. it is perhaps during this time that sergeant dorsy realizes this battle is going to end in federal disaster. he grabbed his units flag and ran it across the no-man's-land filled with artillery fire and planted it on top of the union picket line. for that he will receive a medal of armor.

>> alabamians attack along with the remnants of other confederates on the field at that particular poin. confederates are going to eventually be launching bayonetted weapons over the top of the rim of the crater and put their hats over the top of their must have beeni musketts. one soldier disobeyed mahone telling him that he would kill another and he deliberately took out his pocketknife and cut one's throat. they bashed their skulls like

eggshells and when blacks cried out they wanted quarter, the response was no quarter this morning, no quarter now. amazingly people like oliver scott made it off the battlefield. then only 27 years ol when he left slavery and enlisted in the 30th colored troops, during the battle he was wounded. he was shot in the hip. it exited his butt. what's interesting to me about his photo is that scott must have obeyed the rules of whoever his owner was. there's no sign of whip marks across his back. that desire to be free was so great that he served. he's lucky that he managed to get off the field at home. the bullet will pass only three

inches from his spinal couple. another slave, george carr first bullet entering his thigh, the second entering the inside, middle third of the leg and passed through. free born charles harris in the 31st colored troops native of new york hit in the back of right leg which passed but the continue yulea and fibula and existed the leg in the left foot causing compound fractures. as the confederates went about killing union troops, whites realized just how angry the southerners were. white union troops will start killing black union troops as

they readily admit in an effort to preserve white people's lives. the battle finally ends about 2:30 in the afternoon. the battle's aftermath there will be a court of inquiry. general mead picks whose on the inquiry. if you want to know details we can discuss this later. there will be blame for ledly and edward ferrero who were drinking together during the battle.

and just leave and get the wounded off the field even though it's 100-plus degrees. so they lay out there july 30th and all day on july 31st and finally they're picked up on the morning of august 1st. by that point, one of meade's staff members admits that he couldn't tell who was naturally african or european except from the texture of their hair. apparently not accounting for those bodies out there of mixed race black people. in the in between of this, henry bird, a native of petersburg wrote his fiancee as the men cried out nearby to the

confederate line for water, the response from the confederates was -- [ speaking french ] you're not a french student. it was drink your blood, you'll have no more thirst, and they bayonetted the men that were nearby. news of the battle traveled, perhaps from our civilian perspective, of course we got to have an edmund ruffin reference. remember ft. pillow and wrote about the great slaughter, but he was infuriated to learn that mahone had stopped his men from killing black and white troops. saying, mahone could not persist in this policy and he ordered the lives of all remaining to be spared. this is much to be regretted. even more angry is like the female version of edmund ruffin. catherine edmondston writing

four days after the battle, and it helps to illustrate that our perception of southern ladies is too scarlet o'hara infused, i think, and not enough of katherine edmanston. the negro troops rushed into our line yelling no quarter, remember ft. pillow, she wrote. they were met by such determination by their old masters and granted what they so earnestly clamored for. that in spite of the yankee bay onets behind them, they turned and ran incontinently. then she got this dubious story about somebody who was in the usct ranks who sees his old mississippi master. problem is there are no mississippi troops here. anyway, and wanted immediately to become his slave again. it follows, unlike that event actually happens, mrs. edmondston talks about the truth. few of his companions were left

to tell the tale of their encounter. northern newspapers respond often with their biases. "new york herald" prints statements. cowardice of the niggers. they stated that they set down their weapons and refused to obey orders and praise the white troops for being honorable and brave and courageous and if it wasn't for the, quote, nirggers they would have won the battle. others amazingly turn to not being so critical, including actually general meade, of course, burnside, ferrero, officers who were actually on the field unlike ferrero, and garland white, a chaplain in the 28th usct who wrote, none of our troops, white or colored, are responsible for the actions of the generals. i hold that there can be no higher sin in all the world than to blame innocent people for consequences for which they are not responsible. i care not who it is, whether king or subject, general or private. it makes no difference with me in a point of the position of

truth. i want to get to the prisoners and leave time for questions. the federal prisoners, white and black, union troops, are going to be marched through the city of petersburg at 8:00 in the morning on the day after the battle. petersburgers turned out in their finest garments, and lieutenant freeman bowley remembered women in the city asking the confederates, why didn't you kill all the yankee wretches? they're being marched, two white, two black, until you run out of black troops. the generals that had been captured, the highest ranking officers at the brufront of thi band. a 9-year-old girl at the time recalling years later, i remember swinging on the gate as they brought the prisoners up hyde street. i hollered, kill them, everyone! 9 years old. remember that. her mother told her, come into this house or they'll be killing you.

captain beacham of the 23rd gave us a good comment. the prisoners formed in columns by force consisting of alternate files of colored soldiers and commissioned officers. highest rank, as i said, going on down. as there were about 500 colored prisoners and about 1,100 white officers and soldiers, the greater part of the column presented a fantastic and variegated appearance that i am free to confess was amusing. many white troops sent to prisoner of war camps including at andersonville, but captain beacham and lieutenant bowley who survived their prison experiences won't be going to, you know, the more famous places. beacham spends four months in jail in columbia, south carolina, where he admits that they actually were decently treated in columbia as they had not been in petersburg. black troops, however, won't get the same sort of treatment. and this representation of

shokko bottom in richmond will be important in a moment. interesting story i found -- we'll talk more about this if you want to. john haskel, confederate artillerist, out there, has mortars launching shells during the battle, found black wounded troops. he told his personal slave to go get the other camp slaves and get those men to a hospital where his body servant stands up to his owner and said, i'd rather die than move those men. none of the other camp negroes as haskel calls them wants to move them, either, so he finally gets a southern doctor who sends them to this hospital. whereby the following day after the battle, the physician in charge, john claiborne, finds 150 wounded black soldiers who were, as he wrote, naked with every conceivable form of wounds and mutilatiomutilation.

semifin is this christian civilization. after threatening to send captured federal agents to andersonville, they joined in treating the black troops which may suggest a preview to eric's talk in a moment about andersonville. among those captured, peter churchwell, former slave who escaped, served in the 23rd usct and is captured. he's sent to danville where he recalled years later, i was kept until my master, old master, rather, heard i was in prison. he came there and claimed me as a slave and sold me to a slave dealer at richmond, and he sold me to a slave dealer who took me to wilmington, north carolina. and he then sold me to patrick murphy who took me on his farm near raleigh. most of our black p.o.w.s are going to be returned to slavery, including right here in the heart of virginia's slave trading district, shockoe bottom in richmond, virginia. and where the purple arrow is marked is where one of the petersburg region's former slave

turned soldier robert banks will go to the dealers, dickinson, hill & company and be kept there until the war ends. so i'll stop there. because i'm out of slides. and i'll let you ask questions. [ applause ] start over here. >> except for their -- my name is jeff smith. i'm from mechanicsburg, pennsylvania. i'm curious, except for their last-minute interference, it seems like meade and grant really deferred to burnside in the operations. after this disaster, there's, you know, 15,000 union troops involved in this operation. did any of this kind of land in their lap to any extent the responsibility for deferring