the most formidable obstacles.

Badeau, in chronicling these achievements, says:

"General Smith assaulted the works on the City Point and
Prince George Court House roads. The rebels resisted with a
sharp infantry fire, but the center and left dashed into the
works, consisting of five redan's on the crest of a deep and
difficult ravine. Kiddoo's (22d) black regiment was one of
the first to gain the hill. In support of this movement, the
second line was swung around and moved against the front of
the remaining works. The rebels, assaulted thus in front and
flank, gave way, four of the guns already captured were
turned upon them by the negro conquerors, enfilading the
line, and before dark, Smith was in possession of the whole
of the outer works, two and a half miles long, with fifteen
pieces of artillery and three hundred prisoners. Petersburg
was at his mercy."

This failure made a siege necessary, and General Grant began by regular
approaches to invest the place, after making the three desperate
assaults on the 16th, 17th and 18th. It had been indeed a bloody June;
the soil of the Old Dominion, which for two centuries the negro had
tilled and made to yield the choicest products, under a system of cruel
and inhuman bondage he now reddened with his blood in defense of his
liberty, proving by his patriotism, not only his love of liberty, but
his courage and capacity to defend it. The negro troops had marched and
fought with the white regiments with equal intrepidity and courage; they
were no longer despised by their comrades; they now had recognition as
soldiers, and went into the trenches before Petersburg as a part of as
grand an army as ever laid siege to a stronghold or stormed a
fortification.

On the 18th of June, General Ferrero reported to General Meade, with his
division of the Phalanx, (4th Division, 9th Corps), and was immediately
ordered to join its own proper corps,--from which it had been separated
since the 6th of May,--at the crossing of the Rapidan. It had served
under Sedgwick and Sheridan until the 17th, when it came under the
direct command of General Grant, and thus remained until the 25th of
May, when General Burnside, waiving rank to Meade, the 9th Corps was
incorporated into the Army of the Potomac. During its absence the
division sustained the reputable renown of its corps, not only in
protecting the trains, but in fightin