the timely arrival of confederate brigadier general william mahone's division, including a brigade made up of virginias raised in part in the petersburg area, helped to secure victory by early afternoon. by then, hundreds of dead and wounded lay in an your yeah not more than 150 yards long and 100 yards wide. william h. stewart described the crater as, quote, a veritable inferno filled with sounds of suffering and paved with the rigid dead. a delay in agreeing to a truce left survivors abandoned in a field that hovered around 100 degrees. the official report identified 361 confederates killed, 727 wounded and 403 missing out of the force of roughly 10,000 engaged. union casualties numbered including 504 killed, 1,881 wounded and 1,441 missing. compared to other civil war battles the casualty count is relatively small. but if we look more closely, we can begin to disearn what for many of the participants was the defining feature of this battle. from all union casualties, 41% belonged to the two color brigades of brigadier edward ferrero's fourth division even though they constituted only

for william mahone, petersburg most prominent citizen up until his death in 1865, memory of the craterproved to be beneficial to his rise at a railroad magnate, but it cost him in dearly when in 1879, he organized the most successful biracial political party in virginia's history. for four years, mahone's readjuster party governored the state and witnessed a dramatic rise in black political power throughout the commonwealth. black and white readjusters abolished the whipping post, poll tax, which had been used to disfranchise black voters. the largest number of black virginians attended public schools for the first time with black teachers at the hoed of the class. african-americans could be found in the treasury department, pensions bureau, and other state offices. reconstruction came to virginia, not at the hands of meddling yankees but as the result of the actions of one of their own, and mahone paid a hefty price for it. former virginia comrades who fought with mahone at the crater, including david wisager, turned on their former commander, comparing him to john brown and benedict

the timely arrival of confederate brigadier general william mahone's division, including a brigade made up of virginias raised in part in the petersburg area, helped to secure victory by early afternoon. by then, hundreds of dead and wounded lay in an your yeah not more than 150 yards long and 100 yards wide. william h. stewart described the crater as, quote, a veritable inferno filled with sounds of suffering and paved with the rigid dead. a delay in agreeing to a truce left survivors abandoned in a field that hovered around 100 degrees. the official report identified 361 confederates killed, 727 wounded and 403 missing out of the force of roughly 10,000 engaged. union casualties numbered including 504 killed, 1,881 wounded and 1,441 missing. compared to other civil war battles the casualty count is relatively small. but if we look more closely, we can begin to disearn what for many of the participants was the defining feature of this battle. from all union casualties, 41% belonged to the two color brigades of brigadier edward ferrero's fourth division even though they constituted only

the timely arrival of confederate brigadier general william mahone's division, including a brigade made up of virginias raised in part in the petersburg area, helped to secure victory by early afternoon. by then, hundreds of dead and wounded lay in an your yeah not more than 150 yards long and 100 yards wide. william h. stewart described the crater as, quote, a veritable inferno filled with sounds of suffering and paved with the rigid dead. a delay in agreeing to a truce left survivors abandoned on a field that hovered around 100 degrees. the official report identified 361 confederates killed, 727 wounded and 403 missing out of the force of roughly 10,000 engaged. union casualties numbered 504 killed, 1,881 wounded and 1,441 missing. compared to other civil war battles the casualty count is relatively small. but if we look more closely, we can begin to discern what for many of the participants was the defining feature of this battle. from all union casualties, 41% belonged to the two color brigades of brigadier edward ferrero's fourth division even though they constituted only 21% of th

mckinney central library, formerly the home of william mahone. it limited black access to resources by forcing them to use a side entrance in a poorly lit basement. led by the reverend wyattt. walker and r.g. williams, 140 demonstrators from virginia state college and peabody hospital took seats on the first two floors of the walker library. walker approached the library counter and asked for -- wait for it -- douglas freeman's pulitzer prize-winning autobiography of william lee. the request for the autobiography of lee suggests that students were not only challenging the local power structure but the history that it come to justify it. the combination of social and political unrest in the city of the library, the bluebird theater and the trailways bus terminal restaurant along with broader national trends dampened enthusiasm for an elaborate commemoration of the crater in 1964. and in the course of my research, there is some evidence that in 1960, the local centennial commission was planning to do some kind of major reenactment for the centennial

side of the appomattox river led temporarily, turned out to be permanent, by brigadier general william mahone is going to decide to move up to initially brigades, later a third. initially virginians he once commanded and currently commanded by david wisager, a native of petersburg, and his georgia brigade now commanded by matthew hall, a lieutenant colonel. the virginians, as they get on to the battlefield, are kind of moving toward the battlefield, are going to encounter confederates who are running backwards. one informed mahone, hell has busted back thar. that's t-h-a-r, how it was spelled. another told the men, ah, boys, you have hot work ahead. they are niggers and show no quarter. lieutenant colonel william stewart, commanding the 61st virginia, wrote very frankly many years later, this report from the men passing us was the first intimation that we would have to fight negroes and it seemed to infuse our little band with impetuous daring as it pressed forward to the fray. i never felt more like fighting in my life. our comrades had been slaughtered in a most inhuman and brutal manner, a

one informed mahone, that they are busted back thar. lieutenant colonel william stewart wrote very frankly many years later "the report from the report from the men was the first intimation we would have to fight the negroes. i never felt more like fighting in my life. our comrades had been slaughtered in the most inhuman and brutal way and black slaves were trampling over their mangled and bleeding forms. we strung every arm with nerves of steel with a herculean task." mahone gives a rallying speech which amazingly is not filled with any racially charged language just before the virginians attack at 9:00 a.m. confederate officers actually wrote," they sprang forth from the ravine." he admits the bayonet was used in a way that he had never seen. this was a veteran. virginians pay a heavy cost to capture a few feet of earthworks. the georgians would follow them in. as a virginian who was watching recalled they made to a tax and -- two attacks and fell like autumn leaves. the 49th georgia infantry share with his dear sister. "the president came leaping over -- [ind