Captain Parlin in the Civil War, Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Wilson's Wharf. Fitzhugh Lee's attack. Pickett's absence.
He who attacks must vanquish. He who defends must merely survive.
Master Kan
The speech delivered at the Natick gathering of veterans continues: Then a stormy passage to Hampton, where we were massed for the [Major General Benjamin Franklin] Butler expedition up the James in May 1864.
My company on a barge pushed ahead to be thrown ashore as skirmishers at Wilson's Landing and I have always flattered myself as being the first soldier ashore of all that Army of the James.
A sailor jumped on land to secure the boat and I followed him.
We made quick time with our skirmisher line overtaking this family a little way out & securing a good saddle horse that helped me all day posting & visiting pickets. Wilson's Landing is on a bluff at a bend in the river only a few miles below City Point.
It was garrisoned to prevent the rebels interfering with our navigation of the river. Gen. Wilde [Wild] made a good many excursions into the country to bring in negro families & their household goods.
He would send us for miles outside our pickets with wagons and such loads as we brought back. It was unpleasant business. They were hard transfers and then we ran the greatest risk of being gobbled by an enemy that had declared no quarter to us.
I was sent once from Portsmouth with 3 companies about 15 miles outside our lines to bring in the traps of an old negro woman who went along as a guide & who could not tell me the road after all.
So we had to go from Wilson's Landing generally with three companies.
Whatever became of these loads I never knew. I supposed we were helping slaves to their freedom.
The “Butler expedition” was launched May 5th 1864. It was conceived by the newly appointed General-in-Chief of all Union forces, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, as a complement to his Overland Campaign in Virginia. The strategy was for Butler to sail his newly-formed Army up the James River and establish a base at Bermuda Hundred which lay at the confluence of the James and the Appomattox Rivers near Petersburg. Grant would simultaneously launch an offensive from the North. It was hoped, but doubted by Grant and Lincoln, that Butler could take Petersburg and possibly Richmond while Grant engaged Lee's forces in the North, starting at the Virginia border. Regardless, a success by Butler would cause Lee to reinforce his troops around Petersburg and would weaken those who faced Grant and his Army of the Potomac commanded by George Meade. It was believed by Lincoln and his cabinet the capture of Richmond would lead to the fall of the Confederacy.
Grant had been the hero of the western theater where he had won important victories at Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga. For those victories he won the sobriquet “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.
The Overland Campaign was intended to move Union forces deep into the heart of the Confederacy and lead to the capture of Petersburg and Richmond, the Confederate capitol. Grant was pressuring the Confederacy in every theater of the war: Generals Sherman and Banks in the Deep South and West, Sigel up the Shenandoah and Grant, Meade, Burnside, and Butler in northern and eastern Virginia.
Grant was criticized by some in government and the press for not sending Meade's Army of the Potomac via water down the Rappahanock and up the James to concentrate his full force at City Point and Bermuda Hundred where Butler had established his position. The route he took toward Richmond was contested by Lee with tens of thousands of casualties on both sides at the major Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, North Anna River and Cold Harbor. There were at least ten minor battles as well. Union casualties exceeded those of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia but Grant could afford to lose more troops than Lee. Grant believed that sailing up the James and massing outside of Petersburg to hit the heavily fortified defense works there and around Richmond would result in a casualty rate of 5 to 1 as opposed to 2 to 1 if he chose the overland route in what was open country. (It turned out to be slightly less than 2 to 1.) At the same time he needed to take territory and hold it, which meant a great many soldiers would be simultaneously required to defend conquered territory and protect the north from invasion by Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Lincolnwas at first confused by Grant's strategy. After Grant explained it in detail, Lincoln exclaimed, "Oh, yes! I see that. As we say out West, if a man can't skin he must hold a leg while somebody else does."
On the morning of May 5th, 1864, while Grant and Meade engaged Lee in northern Virginia at the Battle of The Wilderness, Captain Parlin as part of Butler's newly formed Army of the James sailed up the James River to secure and fortify territory at several landing places along the river in preparation for a possible assault on Richmond or Petersburg. Most of the troops were to land with Butler at the Bermuda Hundred, but detachments were landed downriver first at Wilson's Landing ( or Wilson’s Wharf, later to be named Fort Pocahontas), Fort Powhatton, and City Point before the main body arrived at Bermuda Hundred on the north bank of the James. On the south bank, City Point was to be the main Union supply depot. Captain Parlin was in position to be the first man ashore because Wilson's landing was the first location from the mouth of the James that was to be fortified. He knew the job of the detachment his 1100 men was to protect the supply line for Butler's assault troops which would be massed up the river at Bermuda Hundred. Captain Parlin was with Company E, 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment, 3rd Division, XVIIIth Corps of the Army of the James.
Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler was one of the more controversial and often derided figures of the war. He wore many hats, some more handsomely than others. He was a lawyer/litigator, politician/legislator, mill owner, Brigadier General of Massachusetts state militia forces, chief of his own spy network, and, less honorably, a war profiteer. He had a fondness for innovation and gadgetry and was one of the first to see the potential of initial versions of the machine gun. He also knew that if he was captured by Confederate troops he would be executed. Before his command of the Army of the James in the spring of '63, he subdued an outbreak of secessionist fever at Baltimore. Later he commanded the Army of the Gulf and administered the occupation of New Orleans as military governor. In one of his more controversial moves, he ordered that the women of New Orleans, who had a habit of dumping their chamber pots from windows on to Union soldiers passing below, be treated as prostitutes, i.e. common criminals. He even allowed his soldiers, if punched by such a woman, to punch back.
At New Orleans, it was said that Butler enriched himself, perhaps by millions, through war profiteering. He was caught trying to sell sugar from New Orleans at a huge profit in Boston. His brother, Andrew Jackson Butler, apparently handled most of their shady business deals. They confiscated cotton from rebel landowners who would not take an oath of allegiance to the Union, and sold it at rigged auctions at which they could buy it back at bargain prices and sell it at a substantial profit.
To his credit, he improved sanitary conditions considerably in both New Orleans and Norfolk. At Norfolk soldiers removed thousands of tons of filth from the streets which may have prevented a recurrence of yellow fever. He made sure his troops received their mail regularly and he worked aggressively to provide decent medical care for civilians and his troops.
But Butler's performance as a commanding general was erratic at best. If every ignorant officer in war is a murderer, Butler fit the description. In the months ahead, the 1st Regiment, although one of the best in the USCT, would suffer from his lack of military experience. Butler believed his instincts and intelligence would compensate for his lack of formal military training. He once said, “I never read the army regulations, and what is more I shan't, and then I shall not know I am doing anything against them.” [autobiography pg 355] Unfortunately, he didn’t read much about tactics and strategy either. Some of his plans for military operations were brilliant and daring, but he lacked the tactical and organizational skills to properly execute them.
Perhaps Butler's most important contribution to the War was his decree that escaped slaves were to be classified as war contraband and not be returned to their masters under the Fugitive Slave Act. While there is dispute as to whether the idea was his, he was the first to persuasively defend the order's validity and aggressively enforce it’s policy. He reasoned that the Southern states had proclaimed themselves independent and could not demand that Federal laws be invoked on their behalf; that because of the rebellion, their chattel could be confiscated and used by military forces. In other words, war spoils could be confiscated to meet military necessities and to prevent the rebels from using their value. Slaves, as chattel, qualified under this rule.
It would seem just that slaves would not be returned to masters who were in rebellion against the United States, but there was still enough sympathy in the North for Southern business interests, upon which many industries in the North depended, to avoid disrupting the Southern economy by radically departing from previous policy as defined in the Fugitive Slave Law.
Although Butler had vigorously supported fellow Democrat Jefferson Davis for President of the United States in 1860, once the war was joined he quickly became a pro-war abolitionist.
Butler was also instrumental in enlisting former slaves and freedmen in the Union's forces and was pleased to have several regiments of the USCT under his command, including Captain Parlin's regiment.
Butler understood that one of the reasons for the South's early successes in the Eastern theatre of the war was the advantage that slave labor provided. Soldiering in the Union army required not only intense training for battle, but digging trenches, felling and sharpening of trees for abatis, moving huge quantities of earth by hand to create breastworks and moats, and burying the dead. It was exhausting work. In the first two years of the war, nearly all Union enlistees who did this work were white. In the South, much of that work was done by slave labor, which allowed white soldiers to concentrate on combat. Ironically, the intensity of the labor, even for slaves accustomed to back-breaking work, was such that many fled to the Union lines once they learned they would not be forcibly returned to their masters.
Butler had a few successes but did not distinguish himself as a major general. His performance in his final battle, at Fort Fisher in North Carolina during the Christmas season in 1864, was so bad Lincoln, at Grant's request, relieved him of command. As a Democrat, Butler's support for Lincoln was viewed as crucial to Lincoln's re-election in November, 1864, but once that had been achieved, he was expendable. Upon being relieved of command, Butler was ordered to “repair to Lowell” but went instead to Washington where his sympathizers staged a congressional hearing in which the hope was to salvage his reputation and place blame on others for his failure at Fort Fisher-- most notably, Admiral Porter with whom he shared command. To Butler's shock and amazement as he was testifying before the Committee on January 15th, 1865 that Fort Fisher was impregnable, the news came from North Carolina that it had been taken by Union forces under the command of General Terry after two days of bombardment by Porter’s gun boats. The scene at the hearing is captured by historian Shelby Foote in his third volume on the Civil War Red River to Appomatox:
. . . While he spoke, referring assiduously to the documents at hand, a hubhub arose outside the room-- cheers in the street, the muffled crump of shotless guns discharging a salute, and newsboys crying, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” Fort Fisher, it seemed, had fallen. “Impossible!” Butler protested, clutching his papers. “It's a mistake, Sir.” But it turned out to be more than possible; it was a fact, confirmed by dispatches on hand from Admiral Porter. Laughter rippled, then roared through the room. After a moment of shock adjustment, the cock-eyed general joined in as heartily as anyone. Adjournment followed and as the members and spectators began filing out, still laughing, Butler raised his hand and called pontifically for silence. “Thank God for victory,” he intoned.
Butler was also a master at developing espionage resources and according to historian James Price, maintained successful spy rings in Norfolk, Portsmouth, New Orleans and Richmond. In the days before the Union attacks on Fort Harrison and New Market Heights, he received information from an audacious Union spy, Richmond resident Elizabeth Van Lew, who provided precise information on the location and numbers of Confederate troops manning the fortifications around Richmond. One of Mrs. Van Lew's former slaves who had been freed by her took a job as a domestic servant in Jefferson Davis's Confederate White House and was able to pass on top secret information to the daring lady.
* * *
Captain Parlin first tasted real combat at Wilson's Wharf, a small outpost on the north bank at a sharp bend in the James River which gave strategic control of that narrow section of the river to whoever occupied the bluff above. At that section, the James meandered, flowing first to the southeast, then to the northeast and then again turned abruptly back to the Southeast from where it widened and flowed past Norfolk/Portsmouth and Hampton into lower Chesapeake Bay. [*Footnote: In colonial times and after the Revolution, Wilson's Wharf was a small tobacco port. The forces of Benedict Arnold, at that time a British General and American traitor, had sailed past the location and came under artillery fire from Hood's Point at the next bend in the river. Arnold's troops landed a short time later at Westover and marched on Richmond, which they found barely defended. After a heated exchange of letters with the state governor, Thomas Jefferson, Arnold's men pillaged and burned the city.]
The Wharf and property, once named Kennon's Landing for its colonial-era owner, had been owned by the Wilson family since 1835. The creek that flowed through the property and into the James had retained its original name: Kennon Creek.
Historian Edwin Besch describes the military situation on that early morning in May:
Early on 5 May 1864, most of Major General Benjamin F. Butler's 33,000 Union soldiers in the 10th and 18th Corps, Army of the James, advanced up the James River in and Army-Navy fleet of 120 transports, gunboats, ironclads, and assorted vessels in the Union attempt to capture Richmond, the Confederate capitol and military production and supply base. Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant, with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac, simultaneously began operations against Lee's army north of Richmond.
It was the beginning of Grant's Grand Offensive, which Lincoln, after Grant had briefed him, described as “"Hold On with a Bulldog Grip and Chew and Choke as Much as Possible." Meade and the Army of the Potomac would continuously engage Lee's Army starting in northern Virginia and work their way south toward Richmond. Butler would sail up the James and pressure Petersburg to the west and Richmond to the north. Sigel would occupy and torment the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Sherman would march to Atlanta, and Banks would press on to Mobile from New Orleans. The offensive aimed at constantly engaging the rebel army on each front and thus preventing them from shuttling forces around the South where they might be needed.
Upon arrival at Wilson's Wharf, Brigadier General Wild's troops fortified the site with trenches and abatis, and built earthen walls with artillery bastions on the east and west corners. As Captain Parlin reported, General Wild continued to order raids on the countryside to free slaves and forage for supplies. It was here a few days after the landing that local planter William H. Clopton was arrested by soldiers and brought before Wild, who had learned from his just-freed slaves that he was a “most cruel Slave master.” As punishment, Wild ordered the man stripped and tied to a tree so that his formers slaves could avenge their past treatment with the whip. Wild described the incident:
He has acquired a notoriety as the most cruel Slave Master in this region, but in my presence he put on the character of a Sniveling Saint. I found half a dozen women among our refugees, whom he had often whipped unmercifully – I laid him bare and placed a whip into the hands of the Women, three of Whom took turns in settling some old scores on their master’s back. A black man, whom he had abused, finished the administration of Poetical justice. . . .I wish that his back had been as deeply scarred as those of the women, but I abstained and left it to them. [Online site: A Beast Comes Calling]
On May 24, nineteen days after landing, with the fort's fortifications unfinished on the east side, the Army of Northern Virginia arrived unannounced at Wilson's Wharf with a considerable force under the command of General Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Robert E. Lee. He was ordered to avenge the behavior of Wild's raid through the Dismal Swamp in southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina. The rebel force was to capture or annihilate Wild's Brigade of 1100 men at Wilson's Wharf. The rage of the South is best captured in an incendiary editorial published in the Richmond Examiner by editor John M. Daniel: “Is our government to submit passively to seeing its citizens hung and shot down by dogs, it's men bayoneted and nailed to trees, it's women raped and ravished by Negro troops from Boston and New York?” [Rhea North Anna --cites Besch] The tone of the editorial supports the contention by some scholars that the raid had little tactical purpose, but was undertaken in response to public outrage and possibly to kill former slaves in order to convince those still in captivity that escaping to join the Union Army would be a mistake. Few people in Virginia and North Carolina were not familiar with Wild and his infamous raid through the Dismal Swamp.
The black soldiers heard that the Confederates, sure of certain victory, even brought several wagonloads of shackles as “bracelets for the nigger soldiers” whom they planned to parade in front of Jefferson Davis.
Fitzhugh Lee arrived at Wilson's Wharf with at least 2500 men, many of whom were battle-hardened veterans. But, they had been riding for nearly 18 hours, having underestimated the distance from their camp at Atlee's Station, and were too weak to effectively assault fortifications defended by rested troops.
The battle Captain Parlin describes below would be its first taste of organized combat for the 1st Regiment, USCT. It. Experienced regulars would test them more than the hit and run guerillas they had encountered in North Carolina. They were outnumbered by more than 2 to 1 and the fortifications, although formidable, had yet to be completed.
That battle would mark the first time Colored Troops would fight a brigade of regulars from the Army of Northern Virginia, which had proven itself to be the most consistently effective fighting force on either side in the War. Although weakened and its ranks reduced in some of the bloodiest battles in history it was still a formidable fighting force,
One day we were very fortunate in not being outside the lines. For about 10 o'clock a cloud of dust showed on the road towards Richmond and our outer picket gave the alarm.
Now this outer picket was nearly a mile from camp and much of the country between, was a level plain broken by occasional ravines. Southern ravines the old soldiers here know about.
Capt. S. A. Boyden formerly of Natick, commanded the left of that line. His problem was to get his men into camp after giving the alarm. We had no cavalry outposts. He says he had a feeling that we should be attacked that day and he went twice over his lines giving instructions.
At the sight of the rebel advance, the outer post fired their guns and the whole line made for camp. But they were on foot where the rebels were mounted.
Out came the rebel cavalry and away ran the men towards a common rendezvous about half way to camp.
They could not have reached it, but all at once out from a little body of woods covering a ravine that made out into the plain, just at the right place came a volley that checked that whole rebel advance.
A dozen colored soldiers and one brave white officer (Capt. Boyden) had turned back to save their comrades.
They made such a determined fight that the rebel advance halted, dismounted & charged the thicket.
The time thus gained saved a score of lives. One man only was lost. Dempsey Maybee [Dempsy Maby, Co. F], blackest of negroes, would not leave his post saying no rebel should drive him, and he was killed. He was a hero. They were all heroes that day.
Dempsy Maby was later described by Colonel John Holman in his report on the battle as “a brave soldier, shot through the chest.”
Regiment chaplain Henry McNeal Turner had recently returned to the Brigade after a three month absence recovering from small pox. Like all his reports from the field, the report on this battle as published in the Christian Recorder, the publication of record for the African Methodist Episcopalian Church, is dramatically descriptive. Of the initial attack he writes:
. . . my attention was called to the front of our works by a mighty rushing to arms, and shouts that the rebels were coming. I immediately joined the proclaiming host and bellowed out (I reckon in fearful tones), “The rebels! The rebels! the rebels are coming!” At this period the long roll began to tell that doleful tale that she never tells unless the enemy is about to invade our quarters. Then commenced another rush to arms, fearful in its aspect. . . . and a few moments were only required to find every man, sick or well, drawn into line of battle to dispute twice, if not thrice, their number of rebels. Captains Borden [Boyden] and Rich, of the 1st U.S. Colored Troops, with their gallant companies, were at some distance in front, skirmishing with the advanced guard of the rebels. And here, permit me to say, that the skirmish was the grandest sight I ever beheld. I acknowledge my incapacity to describe it and thus pass on. . .
Back to Parlin:
Fitzhugh Lee commanded the Calvary in person. They surrounded us. Their sharpshooters cut us off from the river and then he sent a summons for our surrender.
I stood with Gen. Wilde [Wild] while the white flag advanced & read his refusal.
The firing was hot again. A man at my side dropped with a ball in his brain.
A Lieut. of the signal corps (not of this town but known to many) was crouched behind the spokes of a cart wheel “waiting” as he said “for a lull”. It was hot indeed. Then came the rebel yell and a charge on our right flank.
Then the men showed their metal. No cringing behind breastworks. No cowardly skulking nor hugging the ground – but boldly, defiantly leaping on the top of the breastworks they gave that “flower of the rebel army” such a reception that the charge was cut short almost before it began.
Fitzhugh Lee drew off without another attempt leaving his dead on the field.
How dark and rainy it was that night as we pushed out in the blackness to reestablish our pickets.
I believe it was the blackest night I ever knew. You could not see your hand before your face, when we were ordered out to find the rebels or to find them gone. At any rate we must re-establish our posts. We must feel out in the blackness where each step might uncover an alert foe. They
had gone, even leaving their dead for us to bury.
About three years ago I learned from the pilot of a James River steamer another chapter in the history of that battle.
The pilot belonged to Picket[t]'s division and was on the march to assist Fitzhugh Lee. But Lee, over confident, tried to capture us without waiting for Picket[t] and then on his retreat told Picket[t] that the place was so fortified as to be impregnable.
Cattle ran over the breastworks that very morning in my company's front and in one of the most exposed positions on the line & we had only about 1000 men in our whole force.
It was the brave fearless stand made by those negro soldiers that made it impregnable.
The next day the houses a short distance away were filled with rebel wounded.
If Picket[t] had been on time, I should hardly have been here tonight.
The full assault is described with a flourish by Chaplain Turner:
By the time our pickets had been driven in, a flag of truce was seen waving in the distance. Lieutenant-Colonel [Elias] Wright was immediately dispatched to meet it, and found it to be a peremptory demand from General Fitzhugh Lee, for the unconditional surrender of the place, with the promise that we should, upon such compliance, be treated as prisoners of war; but upon refusal we would have to abide by the consequences, assuring us, at the same time, that he intended to take us for he could and would do it. General Wild told him to try it. In fifteen minutes rebel balls were flying like hail all around our heads; but gallantly was the compliment returned. It would be contraband to tell you our force on that occasion. But this much I must tell you, that the 1st Regiment of the United States Colored Troops, with nary a small exception, did all the fighting. I am also sorry that it is inexpedient to give you a full description of that terrific battle, which lasted several hours; but the coolness and cheerfulness of the men, the precision with which they shot, and the vast numbers of rebels they unmercifully slaughtered, won for them the highest regard of both the General and his staff, and every white soldier that was on the field. . . .
The refusal to surrender read by Captain Parlin to Major Mason of General Fitzhugh's staff was one of two delivered, according to historian Edwin Besch. [Fort Pocahontas website] Lee had offered to treat them as prisoners of war if they surrendered. He also stated that if they did not surrender, that he would not be responsible for their fate. This raised the concern of Wild and his men, as they recalled that black troops trying to surrender at Fort Pillow less than two months before had been slaughtered. But it is also true that Wild probably would not have surrendered under any circumstance. Wild's first response to the demand for surrender was “We will try it.” (In his report, he wrote simply, “I refused.”)
Lee was angered by Wild's reply and issued another demand. Wild had intentionally delayed Mason on his first visit in order to gain time for reinforcements to arrive. This time Lee gave Wild only ten minutes to surrender or he would storm the fort. According to Besch, Wild replied, "Present my compliments to General Fitz Lee and tell him to go to hell."
Parlin's observation that “ . . .Cattle ran over the breastworks that very morning in my company's front . . .” indicates the bluecoats were not very well fortified for the assault; that if fortifications were complete, cattle would not been able to traverse the breastworks.
Battle of Wilson's Wharf (later named Fort Pocahontas) According to a list of casualties compiled by Edwin Besch, the man at Captain Parlin's side who “dropped with a ball in his brain,” was either Sargeant Moses Stevenson of Company G or Private Samuel Langley of Company F, both of whom were listed as being fatally shot in the head in the report of the battle.
The Lieutenant of the signal corps who is described as hiding behind a wagon wheel “waiting for a lull” and described by Edwin Besch could have been Lt. Swain: “Lt. Swain's signal station on the bank of the river, within ten yards of the rifle pits, served as a prominent mark for Confederate sharpshooters, but he was able to direct fire from the gunboat Dawn by signaling from the bank to Private Mott on the vessel.”
The story told to Captain Parlin by the riverboat captain on the James who claimed to be a member of Pickett's division does not comport with the historical record. As described earlier, General Pickett had been in command of the Department of North Carolina and Cape Fear when he court-martialed and then executed by hanging 22 so-called Confederate deserters who were actually Union prisoners of war. Several of the condemned were local residents of Kinston, North Carolina and had been drafted in the Confederate Army after serving in local rebel militias. Feeling their rights had been violated by the forced rebel drafting, they enlisted in the Union Army once it occupied their areas. The hangings were a public relations disaster for the government of Jefferson Davis and Pickett was punished for it.
He was sent to command the district defenses at Petersburg, which consisted of a few thousand rag-tag local citizenry and ill-trained soldiers. No sooner had he been relieved of his North Carolina command, Pickett requested to be re-assigned to command over his old division in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. In early May, about the time Butler's expedition was launching, he succeeded in being re-assigned and was ordered north to join his old division. But he was delayed by an illness suffered by Beauregard, who had been assigned to replace him at Petersburg, but was not yet able to travel there. While he was stuck in Petersburg, the Butler Expedition disembarked at Bermuda Hundred a few miles from the city on May 5th. Pickett spent a few weeks moving his men around attempting to convey the illusion that Petersburg was heavily defended. It was unnerving for him, because he knew a heavy assault could not be repulsed and if the city fell, Richmond could not be adequately supplied by rail from it. The stress finally overwhelmed him. He became ill and was confined to bed on May 10th, the day before Beauregard arrived in Petersburg to relieve him.
On May 18th, Pickett was sufficiently recovered to re-join his old division in the Army of Northern Virginia at Hanover Junction in time for the Battle of the North Anna River where his force served mostly in reserve. That battle was fought between May 23rd and May 26th. The attack on Wilson's Wharf by Fitzhugh Lee occurred on May 24th.
The story told by the riverboat captain to Parlin many years later is therefore apocryphal. Pickett could not have been on the march to join Fitzhugh Lee in his assault on Wilson's Wharf.
The Confederate raid commanded by Fitzhugh Lee was impetuously planned, informed by poor intelligence and badly executed. The overnight ride took far longer than anticipated and his fighters were exhausted when they attacked. One of Lee's soldiers, after enduring punishing artillery and rifle fire, described the defeat: "We were within 30 feet of the fort when we saw the utter hopelessness of the attack. The line halted a moment; the order to retreat was given, and we retired under fire from the most useless and unwise attack and the most signal failure we were ever engaged in.” [From Besch's narrative.]
The performance of 1st Regiment of the USCT in their first battle was exemplary and a sign of things to come. They were outnumbered by more than two to one and suffered few casualties. It was a rout. Captain Parlin was justifiably proud of the “brave fearless stand made by those negro soldiers” in his regiment.
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