rve for the Black brigade. But he who doubts is damned, and
he who dallies is a dastard. Gen. Smith hesitated. Another assault was
not ordered until near sundown, when the troops cleared another line
of rifle-pits, made three hundred prisoners, and captured sixteen
guns, sustaining a loss of only six hundred. The night was clear and
balmy; there was nothing to hinder the battle from being carried on;
but Gen. Smith halted for the night--a fatal halt. During the night
the enemy was reenforced by the flower of Lee's army, and when the
sunlight of the next morning fell upon the battle field it revealed an
almost new army,--a desperate and determined enemy. Then it seems that
Gens. Meade and Hancock did not know that Petersburg was to be
attacked. Hancock's corps had lingered in the rear of the entire army,
and did not reach the front until dusk. Why Gen. Smith delayed the
assault until evening was not known. Even Gen. Grant, in his report of
the battle, said: "Smith, for some reason that I have never been able
to satisfactorily understand, did not get ready to assault the enemy's
main lines until near sundown." But whatever the reason was, his
conduct cost many a noble life and the postponement of the end of the
war.

On the 16th of June, 1864, Gens. Burnside and Warren came up. The 18th
corps, under Gen. Smith, occupied the right of the Federal lines, with
its right touching the Appomattox River. Gens. Hancock, Burnside, and
Warren stretched away to the extreme left, which was covered by
Kautz's cavalry. After a consultation with Gen. Grant, Gen. Meade
ordered a general attack all along the lines, and at 6 P.M. on the
16th of June, the battle of Petersburg was opened again. Once more a
division of Black troops was hurled into the fires of battle, and once
more proved that the Negro was equal to all the sudden and startling
changes of war. The splendid fighting of these troops awakened the
kindliest feelings for them among the white troops, justified the
Government in employing them, stirred the North to unbounded
enthusiasm, and made the rebel army feel that the Negro was the equal
of the Confederate soldier under all circumstances. Secretary Stanton
was in a state of ecstasy over the behavior of the Colored troops at
Petersburg, an unusual thing for him. In his despatch on this battle,
he said:

"The hardest fighting was done by the black troops. The forts
they stormed were the worst of all. After the affair