s, surrounding it on every side, poured volley
after volley into this heaped-up mass of terrified negroes
and their brave officers. The negroes ran in every direction
and were shot down without a thought. Bayonets, swords and
the butts of muskets were used. The deafening roar of
artillery and musketry, the yells and imprecations of the
combatants, drowned the commands of officers. A negro in the
crater attempted to raise a white flag, and it was instantly
pulled down by a Federal officer. The Federal colors were
planted on a huge lump of dirt, and waved until Sergeant
Wallace, of the Eleventh Alabama, followed by others, seized
them and tore them from the staff. Instantly a white flag
was raised, and the living, who were not many, surrendered.
The crater was won."

With the exception of General Burnside, no commander of the Army of the
Potomac was in favor of the Phalanx participating in a battle. What,
then, had the Phalanx to expect of those to whom they had borne the
relation of _slave_? The confederates had a right to expect hard
fighting when they met the Phalanx, and the Phalanx knew they had to
fight hard when they met the confederates. It was the previous
associations and habits of the negro that kept him from retaliating for
the several massacres that had been perpetrated upon his
brother-soldiers. It was not for a want of courage to do it: it was only
necessary for those who commanded them to have ordered it, and they
would never have taken a confederate prisoner.

Many of those who commanded them needed but public opinion to sustain
them, to give such an order as would have made every battle between the
Phalanx and the confederates bloody and inhuman. It was but the
enlightened sentiment of the North, the religious teaching of the
brotherhood of man, the high character and moral training of the
statesmen on the side of the Union, that restrained the Phalanx from
retaliation, else they possessed none of the characteristics of a
courageous, sensitive and high tempered people. The negro is not
naturally docile; his surroundings, rather than his nature, have given
him the trait; it is not naturally his, but something which his trainers
have given him; and it is not a difficult task to untrain him and
advance him beyond his apparent unconsciousness of self-duty and
self-preservation. Let him feel that he is to be supported in any
transaction uncom