which is the representative and symbol
of our national life. The men who joined so gallantly in the assault on
Port Hudson; who fell so nobly at Milliken's Bend, in repelling the
attack of men whose blackness was not, like theirs, of the outside skin,
but of a blacker, deeper dye, the blackness of treason in their inner
hearts; the men whose blood drenched the sands of Morris Island, and
made South Carolina more a sacred soil than it had ever been before,
because it was blood poured out in defence of the nation's honor, and to
wash out the stain of Carolina's dishonor; these men cannot be contemned
now. They have shown themselves noble men. They have made for themselves
a place in American history, along with their fathers at New Orleans,
and their grandfathers under Washington. And the rebel epitaph of the
brave Colonel Shaw, who led them unflinchingly against the iron hail of
Wagner, is no reproach, but a badge of honor: 'We have buried him under
his niggers.'

Since that memorable assault, another State has witnessed the patriotic
gallantry of these despised 'niggers;' and in the first Virginia
campaign of Lieutenant-General Grant, negroes have borne an honorable
part. There is a division of them attached to the old ninth corps, under
Burnside, in the present organization of the Army of the Potomac. While
that noble army was fighting the battles of the Wilderness, this
division was holding the fords of the Rapid Ann. When Grant swung his
base away from the river, after the disaster to his right wing, and
moved upon Lee's flank, the ninth corps, with its negro division, held
an honorable post in the marching column; and at Spottsylvania Court
House the correspondents tell us how, with the war cry of Fort Pillow in
their mouths, these 'niggers' rushed valiantly to the assault, and
elicited the highest praise for their steadiness and courage. Not less
honorable is the record of the negro troops attached to the cooeperating
Army of the Peninsula. The three extracts from official despatches,
which follow, show what the record is.

May 5th, General Butler telegraphs to Secretary Stanton: 'We have seized
Wilson's Wharf Landing. A brigade of Wild's colored troops are there. At
Powhatan Landing two regiments of the same brigade have landed.'

May 9th, General Butler telegraphs from Bermuda Landing: 'Our operations
may be summed up in a few words. With seventeen hundred cavalry we have
advanced up the Peninsula, forced the C