File:Original photographs taken on the battlefields during the Civil War of the United States (1907) (14576283309).jpg

Identifier: originalphotogra00eato (find matches)
Title: Original photographs taken on the battlefields during the Civil War of the United States
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Eaton, Edward Bailey Brady, Mathew B., ca. 1823-1896 Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882 Miller, Francis Trevelyan, 1877-1959. Martyrs on altar of civilization
Subjects: Eaton, Edward Bailey War photography
Publisher: Hartford, Conn. : E.B. Eaton
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

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e Union forces entered the cityabout nine oclock. Cameras weresoon taken through the gates and dur-ing the day several photographs weretaken, including a negative of thetrenches containing the dead. Thisphotograph shows a company of col-ored infantry. There were 186,097colored troops enlisted in the CivilWar. In many conflicts they showedgreat bravery, especially during thesiege of Petersburg. An instance oftheir great courage was the attemptto break through the Confederatelines by tunneling under one of thefortifications and blowing it up withthe charge of eight thousand poundsof powder. In the smoke of the ex-plosion the colored troops chargedthrough the crater and up the slopebeyond, only to meet with a terrificfire in which hundreds of colored he-roes were mown down like grass,with no hope of anyone reaching thecrest, but they held to the charge un-til ordered to retire. The engage-ments around Petersburg during itslast nine months cost the Union Armymore than thirty thousand men.
Text Appearing After Image:
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN WHILE COLORED INFANTRY WAS MOVING TO THE EATTLEGROUND THIS witness of a remarkablesight is so old that it will benoted that the tree at theright of the picture is beingeaten away from the original nega-tive. It lays before the eyes of allgenerations the view of the firstwagon train entering Petersburgwith provisions for the starving in-habitants after one of the greatestsieges in history. It was on Sundaynight, about ten oclock, the secondday of April, in 1865, that the reso-lute Lee marshalled his troops for theevacuation of Petersburg. At threeon the following morning the strong-hold of the Confederacy was left tothe Union forces. At nine on thesame morning General Grant rodeinto the deserted city. The remain-ing inhabitants were panic-strickenand in a destitute condition. Manyof them had escaped with their belovedleader while others, in abject terror,secluded themselves in their homes(Irani, with his staff, rode quietlythrough the streets until he came to acomforta

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