European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 26, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse The Union general who enlisted Black troops by de Reavis staff writer the Union general who put Black sol Diers to the lest in the Battle of new Market Heights was one of the most colourful officers in american says a retired i and Mili tary history Benjamin Franklin Butler was called incompetent and he was accused of trading with the arson and his name was anathema not Only throughout the South but among his political enemies in the says chicagoan Irwin Pat Rice Butler was a unorthodox Soldier who probably had much in common with his who was a reportedly hanged by the a native of was a staunch sup Porter of the souths right to own Rice he was a self proclaimed pro slavery he had voted 57 consecutive times at the 1860 democratic convention to nominate Jefferson Davis As his party candidate for president of the United but when the South fired on fort they lost All his Rice Butler was the first Union general to officially enlist Black troops in the army at a time when Whites considered it degrading to serve alongside he during the War Northern generals turned runaway slaves Back to their Southern owners Butler changed that practice on May Rice three slaves had escaped to fort Butler found out they belonged to a colonel of the Confederate army and they were being used to construct enemy Forti Confederate John bearing a White met Butler before the fort and asked Butler to return a Mallory As was the Butler flatly when asked upon what Butler said he was under no constitutional obligations to comply with the fugitive slave Law to a foreign which Virginia then claimed to runaway Butler were henceforth to be considered contraband of in a slave named George Scott was freed by who gave Scott his own revolver to carry into said who Calls Scott the first slave to be officially armed in the civil butlers Legal technicality had Given the Union an effective Way toward the partial abolition of Union men who were unwilling to declare slaves free men had Benjamin Butler Center of Many of Union army Blacks Only performed Garrison others did Well in no objection to having them declared Rice what Rice that the Man who wanted to see Jefferson Davis had emancipated the first slaves to be freed by the butlers action was legitimized by Congress on when the confiscation act was Rice it stated that any property used by the owners consent was subject to and when the property consisted of they were to be Rice finds it important that butlers precedent was set More than a year before Lincoln signed the emancipation the aim of the War for the North was to prevent Rice not to free As hundreds of slaves escaped to fort Monroe Freedom As the slaves called it Butler looked after their the Able were employed and paid regular impressed by Scotts courage in Butler decided the Only Way of discovering the fighting qualities of Blacks was to test the test proved Blacks per formed As Well under fire As any Rice in preparations for the attack on Butler convinced his superiors that an attack from a Southern front was desirable and Grants orders to Butler were to Advance up the James River and capture City Point near in May Butler advanced up the James with an army numbering around he caught Confederate forces by but butlers Field commanders failed to press their advantage and move on to Between Richmond and the James River makes a Large Horseshoe below the the James and the Appomattox Rivers join at City Between the James and Appomattox lies a River Peninsula known As the Bermuda by the fall of the Union armies were stalemated and entrenched behind strongly fortified earthworks Grants army of the Potomac held Lees army of North in Virginia in Check before Petersburg while butlers army of the James was held in Check at the Bermuda Hundred the Battle of new Market also known As the Battle of Chaffins took place on and was one of the wars bloodiest Bat Rice Butler chose personally to command his handpicked Force of men belonging to the 1st and 2nd brigade of the 3rd xviii corps of the United states col ored troops who made the assault that his troops crossed the James River on a Pontoon Bridge shortly after layers of Straw had been spread Over the Bridge to muffle the empty Amu army of the James awarded by Union is not recognized lances waited in the shadows As medical corpsmen watched the Long columns of men pass b the time the Sun had pecked above the the ambulances would be filled with the dead and Rice said the Surprise was a Complete Robert Lee was caught the Confederate commander didst think he had much to worry no he would Send his men against cannons with no artillery support of his but he haunt reckoned with who boasted that hed never read an army manual so he know his nine Black regiments of United states coloured troops took part in the Battle the 1st regt from the District of 4th regt from 5th regt from 6th and 22nd Regis of Phila 37th regt from 36th regl from 38th regt from Virginia or new Jer and the 2nd United states coloured wave after wave of Union troops flowed across the Rice they were ordered to charge with Bayon eted but unloaded so they would not halt the momentum of their attack in order to the 16 heavy Cannon and hundreds of muskets of the confederates raked the Short Battlefield with a Wall of steel and Lead so intense that Trees burst into Rice but they didst Stop they were temporarily halted by the sharpened logs stuck into the Earth As Here the axe men Cut through the con federates were seasoned soldiers and could fire each of their cannons at the rate of three times a one Hundred Tennessee sharpshooters supported each the Black troops ranks were yet they per when the White officers they were replaced with Rice said that by the time the Union Flag finally flew from the enemy parapet at new Market the victorious Black soldiers had left behind dead and dying comrades on the Butler later wrote that he had deliberately exposed his men to the great losses not Only for the capture of the fort but to prove to the rest of the army that Blacks would fight at least As Well As any White Soldier and to put the lie to the common belief thai Blacks were not willing to strike a blow for their own he also wrote that after that a negro regiment was looked upon As the safest flanking regiment that could be put in Butler wrote in his memoirs about the Battle better men were never better better officers never led better civil War Battle site by de Reavis staff writer tub United states won the War but lost the Battle a retired i Irwin Pat Rice a longtime Amateur military said the government will not acknowledge his evidence that it has misplaced the site of the 1864 Battle of new Market by refusing to the medal awarded by a Union he contends the army has deprived the Black soldiers who fought in that Battle in Virginia of a Well deserved Rice discovered what he believes is the misplacement of the Battle site while he was in Washington lobbying for recognition of the Rice said he went to Richmond National Battle Field Park to see the site of the new Market Heights the guide took me somewhere and showed me some but it was definitely not the Ben Jamin Franklin Butler had graphically described the site of the Battle in his he took his description from his military orders at the and this site i was being shown was not it was incredible they had lost the using butlers Rice said he found what he believes to be the Correct site with Little Rice said he has gone Over the Battle site Many times died in conference shortly after president Carter left with a Metal Detector and found numerous pieces of Union uniforms and no n r re j Hdward chief historian of the Richmond the Confederate fort there covered with under growth May be the bes preserved civil War fortification of in i found a wealth of Metal in 1980 i had meetings with members of the department of the and two of them claimed they knew about the Battle and that they were putting in legislation to buy the land of the Correct some 200 for the Bill was dated May i checked it out with my information and found the Man who lived on the actual de he knew nothing of any such Noble is a real estate agent who claimed at the time he could get the whole 400 acres of the real Battle site for Rice said he took two trips to Washington to see government Topo graphical maps and saw the govern ment was going to buy the wrong when i told them about the government claimed the Butler map that i discovered showing the Battle site be they said but Ler was also Over 80 years old when he wrote his memoirs and was not reliable but Butler took his description of Battle from his old official marching orders and did not reconstruct from but despite their alleged refutation of my they did suddenly drop the idea of buying any history Buff Pat Battlefield Park confirms that the government rejects rices who emphasizes that Hes been in the Busi Ness for 30 accused Rice of not Reading the official reports of the Battle and not being familiar with military a military history Buff who retired from army As the result of a Parachute said he went through All the official records kept at the Auburn University Barnes said the largest Gap in rices argument was that he had not seen the map of the Battle prepared by an army Engi Neer who was but Rice backs his arguments with two maps made in the i cant understand How Barnes can be familiar with the two maps made by 1st Peter Michie of the army engineers and still maintain they have the Correct Battle i cannot believe he knows the second map that i found crucial to proving my the map Barnes refers to in his argument is a location on Cobbs a mile away from new Market Rice butlers own map can be dated by the position of his troops there is also a specific map of new Market Heights by done at the time of the that twit Noi Rimai Rii i u coincides with butlers map in his that the u to a that i the Park people and the of acre addition to the Richmond Battlefield Interior still Haven found in there Are written accounts that coincide with the Butler description of we Are aware of both Barnes one of them delineates where the attack took describes the attack on the 29th and depicts the we rest our Case on Rice became interested in the Battle of new Market Heights in when he was working for the attorney general of Ohio As an assistant press officer and speech on a lunch i was browsing around in the state Library when i knocked a Book off the shelf which fell open to a Page with a very curious it aroused my curiosity because Ive been a medallist since my childhood dependent Days in Germany and had collected All but i had never seen this Rice Learned that the the army of the James had been awarded to Black troops by the com Mander of that Union Benjamin Franklin for courage displayed during the Battle of new Market of the 16 medals of Honor Given to Black troops airing the civil 13 were won at new Market the Butler award met with controversy in the army Butler was a controversial Butler personally presented Over 200 of the medals before he was forced from his medal for displaying collective gallantry was not allowed to be worn just As soon As Butler was relieved of command in december Rice argues that revoking the medal was contrary to army and government the government had no right in taking away the Butler was Only outranked by Ulysses Grant and had All the right in the world to award the at that time there was no official procedure for awarding medals and other medals were later awarded officially under similar procedures As the army of the James its time to Correct an injustice that i believe was motivated by the High degree of prejudice in and out of the army at that the army answer to this claim is that if they recognize the army of the James medal they will be obliged to recognize All the other unofficial civil War an army spokesman confirms that the service has no intention of recognizing the he said the army position is that the medal was one of hundreds awarded before the service studied its method of awarding medals and instituted a system during world War after the army Only two civil War medals were authorized the civil War medal and the medal of Page 14 the stars and stripes july drawing by Art historian Don Hatfield of Auburn University depicts Battle of new Market the stars and stripes Page 15
