mond Howitzers. Gregg was at Fort Har-
rison, leaving command on the ground to
Colonel Frederick S. Bass. Brig. Gen.
Alfred Terry’s division held the Union
right, facing Gary and the Rockbridge
Artillery. Brig. Gen. Robert Sanford Fos-
ter’s division waited in reserve.
Paine’s division held the Union left, fac-
ing Bass’s Texans and the Richmond How-
itzers. Early that morning they were
arrayed on high ground south of Four Mile
Creek, where they were instructed to lie
down and wait for further orders. Colonel
Samuel Duncan’s brigade was sent ahead
first, but they were blocked by the abatis.
Colonel Alonzo Draper moved his brigade
forward and to the right to support Dun-
can. Draper took skirmisher fire from the
woods until he reached the creek’s ravine.
After half an hour, Draper moved his
men ahead in double columns. Emerging
from a stand of young pines, they burst
into the open 800 yards from the enemy’s
works. Charging across the field, they lost
many men to heavy enemy fire and found
themselves mired in the wetlands of Four
Mile Creek, 30 yards from the Confeder-
ate lines. Slogging through the water, they
formed ranks again on the north side of
the creek. There, wrote Draper, “The mengenerally commenced firing, which made
so much confusion that it was impossible
to make orders understood.” Amid the
chaos, Draper was unable to communicate
the order to charge, and the brigade
remained stranded and tangled in front of
the abatis. All the while, men were falling
by scores.
For half an hour, under heavy enemy
fire, Draper’s men hacked at the abatis
with axes. Draper’s aide-de-camp fled
from the field. But to Draper’s relief, Con-
federate fire began dying away. The
colonel ordered each regimental comman-
der to rally his men around the colors and
charge. Draper’s regiments were short of
officers. That morning, the 550 men of the
5th USCT went into action with only one
officer per company, and managed that
only because the adjutant took command
of one of the companies.
By the time they reached the New Mar-
ket Road works, several companies were
missing their officers. Stepping into their
places to take command under fire, four
sergeants in the 5th USCT and four in the
36th USCT became de facto company cap-
tains—the first African American soldiers
to command troops in combat. Pouring
through the abatis, the Union soldiersrushed up the slope to the Confederate
breastworks. Unknown to the Federals,
the Confederate fire had slackened because
Bass and Gary had received orders to
abandon their position and reinforce the
lines closer to the city, which were coming
under attack from Ord’s XVIII Corps. As
Paine’s troops reached the ramparts,
enough Rebels were still in place to keep
up a lively fire.
For their actions in the final dash to the
entrenchments several men were com-
mended in after-battle reports. Among
them, Private James Gardiner charged
ahead of his company and into the Con-
federate works. He shot and bayoneted an
officer who was trying to rally his men. A
musket ball struck Corporal Miles James
and shattered his upper left arm bone.
James stayed on his feet, urged his men for-
ward, and somehow loaded and fired his
musket with his one good arm.
Paine’s strategy of throwing in his regi-
ments piecemeal resulted in needlessly high
casualties for a position that was being
abandoned anyway. Confederate soldiers
remaining in line delayed the Union
advance and inflicted heavy losses on the
enemy before commencing an orderly
evacuation. The sacrifices of Paine’s men
had meaning far beyond the value of the
ground taken. Until that day, the worth of
black soldiers was doubted by much of the
Union Army in Virginia. Paine’s brigade
sufferedmore than 1,000 casualties, most
of them in front of the New Market
Heights works. “Better men were never
better led,” wrote Butler. “The colored sol-
diers by coolness, steadiness, and deter-
mined courage and dash have silenced
every cavil of the doubters of their soldierly
capacity.”
While Birney’s X Corps crossed at Deep
Bottom, Ord’s men in XVIII Corps stepped
off the Aiken’s Landing pontoon bridge.
Brig. Gen. George J. Stannard’s 1st Divi-
sion marched inland on the Varina Road.
Cunningham and the 118th New York,
with their Spencers, were in the lead on the
right of the Union skirmish line. About 6
AM, as the sun rose, they stepped onto a
ridge one mile from the river. TurningABOVE: Visible at left are the pontoon bridges used by X Corps to cross the James River at Deep Bot-
tom. By this time in the war, Union engineers were quite adept at bridging rivers. OPPOSITE: Combat
artist Alfred Waud sketched the Union attack on Fort Harrison from the field for Harper’s Weekly. The
peripatetic Waud covered every Army of the Potomac battle from Bull Run to Petersburg.CWQ-EW16 Chaffins Bluff *missing map_Layout 1 10/22/15 2:01 PM Page 22