called. The black troops did not take the guns, but the day's
work had won for them a fame that cannot die. The nation, which had
received them into the service half-heartedly, and out of necessity,
was that day made to witness a monotony of gallantry and heroism that
compelled everywhere awe and admiration. Black soldiers, and led by
black officers as well as white, assigned a task hopeless and
impossible at the start, had plunged into that withering storm of shot
and shell, poured fourth by artillery and infantry, charging over a
field strewn with obstacles, and in madness of bravery had more than
once thrown the thin head of their column to the very edge of the
guns. They recoiled only to reform their broken lines and to start
again their desperate work. When the day was gone, and they were
called back, the shattered remnant of the column which had gone forth
in the morning still burned with passion. With that day's work of
black soldiers under black officers, a part forever of the military
glory of the Republic, there are those who yet dare to declare that
Negroes cannot command.

The assault on Port Hudson had been unsuccessful all along the line. A
second assault was ordered June 13. It, too, was unsuccessful. The
fall of Vicksburg brought the garrison to terms. The surrender took
place July 9, 1863. In the report of the general commanding, the
colored soldiers were given unstinted praise. General Banks declared
that "no troops could be more determined or more daring."[35] The
Northern press described glowingly their part in the fight. The
prowess of the black soldiers had conquered military prejudice, and
won for them a place in the army of the Union. And the brave black
officers who led these black soldiers, they were, all of them, ordered
forthwith before an examining board with the purpose of driving them
from the service, and every one of them in self-respect was made to
resign. In such manner was their bravery rewarded.

In the four regiments of colored troops made a part of the Regular
Army since the Civil War, colored soldiers, to say nothing of the
three colored graduates from West Point, referred to earlier in this
chapter, have repeatedly given evidence of their capacity to command.
An earlier chapter has already set forth the gallant manner in which
colored non-commissioned officers, left in command by the killing or
wounding of their officers, commanded their companies at La Guasima,
El Caney and in