the leading battalion in a night attack on a fortress almost
impregnable. The leading car takes the brunt of the shock precisely
because it is in that position, and so does the leading regiment. How
well the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts bore the test is recognized by its
being apparently included in the final admission, that "the behavior of
the troops, under the circumstances, was unexceptionable." But a
fractional share in a line and a half of rather chilly praise is hardly
an equivalent for three lines of implied individual censure. Had
Brigadier-General Strong lived to tell the story of that night, it would
have been stated less diplomatically than by Major-General Gillmore.

The report of Major Brooks on the working qualities of the colored
troops is far more discriminating and more valuable, as are the appended
statements of Captain Walker and Lieutenant Farrand. Major Brooks, as
chief of engineering, sent circulars to six different officers who had
superintended fatigue parties in the trenches, covering inquiries on
five points relating to efficiency and courage. The report may be found
at page 259 of the book, constituting Appendix XIX. (misprinted XIV.) to
the Journal of Major Brooks.

The statement is probably as fair as the facts in the compiler's
possession could make it; yet it is seriously vitiated by the scantiness
of those facts. In answer to one question, for example, we are told that
"all agree that the colored troops recruited from Free States are
superior to those recruited from Slave States." But only two regiments
of the latter class appear to have come under Major Brooks's observation
at all. One of these was a perfectly raw regiment, which had never had a
day's drill when it was placed in the trenches, but which was kept
constantly at work there, although an order had been issued forbidding
white recruits from being so employed. The other was a regiment composed
chiefly of South Carolina _conscripts_, enlisted in utter disregard of
pledges previously given, and of course unwilling soldiers. It was
absurd to institute a comparison between these troops and a regiment so
well trained and officered as the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts. Longer
experience has shown that there is no great choice between the Northern
and Southern negro, as military material; and the preferences of an
officer will usually depend upon which he has been accustomed to
command. Many, certainly, are firm in the conviction that the