Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 20, 1993 TAG: 9308200159
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: AMANDA KELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PETERSBURG LENGTH: Medium
While working as an intern during the summer of 1988, interpreting the role of a soldier in the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War battle, Miles decided the black soldiers deserved a permanent memorial.
"The monuments should present a full representation of the 20,000 or so U.S. Colored Troops that were in the Petersburg campaign," Miles said.
After five years of planning and fund raising, Miles is preparing to fill the gap with a 4-foot granite marker. It will be dedicated Saturday.
The monument will be the first to black soldiers at a national park, said Petersburg park Superintendent Michael Hill.
The marker is placed at Battery 9 of the Confederate defense line around the city, captured by a black division during Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's initial assault June 15, 1864.
Twenty-two black infantry regiments and a black cavalry unit fought at Petersburg, according to Army records. Miles said about 6,000 black soldiers were killed there from June 1864 to April 1865.
The black troops were scheduled to play a starring role in the Battle of the Crater in July 1864. A black division was to lead the assault after an underground mine blew a hole in Southern defenses. But the day before the battle, Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade replaced the troops with unprepared, tired white soldiers.
The white troops failed to move in promptly after the explosion, and the Confederates slaughtered the white troops and the blacks, who followed them into the crater. The black troops led a final rally, capturing battle flags and prisoners, but their assault was broken.
Army records show 178,975 blacks served in the Union army during the war, with a greater mortality rate than that of white soldiers.
by CNB