Free bus tour will highlight Revolutionary War sites in Petersburg

What about the Civil War? Wasn't there a general named Lee and an Army of Northern Virginia once upon a time? Oh, I guess that's just some racist jive since Masa Lincoln done come an' freed de slaves!

Yea, North America was once populated by Indians and before that there was an ice age.

Lee is making jeans. Northern Virginia has been captured by northerners. Heck Virginia (and gasp NC) even voted for a Yankee for president. A democratic governor, two democratic senators. Virginia is now part of the north. Grow up.

Times change.

Petersburg

U.S. Black troops were used extensively in several 1864 campaigns. Of particular note in the West was the Battle of Nashville, fought on December 15-16, in which eight black regiments played a key role in the Federal defeat of the Confederate Army of Tennessee by the Army of the Cumberland. The greatest number of U.S.C.T., however, served in the Virginia theatre as part of Gen. Grant's operations against Petersburg and Richmond in the last two years of the war. Black units were especially active in the fighting around Petersburg during the summer of 1864. Referring to several combat missions which occurred near this city, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton asserted, "The hardest fighting was done by the black troops. The forts they stormed were the worst of all."

The Colored Troops figured prominently in the ill-fated Battle of the Crater fought on July 30, 1964 as part of the Petersburg Campaign. In utter confusion, black and white Federal units poured into a crater which resulted from a planned mine explosion set off by Union soldiers under the small Confederate fort. Northern soldiers were cut down in the chaos with blacks experiencing the heaviest single-day casualties of the war.

Two months after the tragic Petersburg episode, black soldiers displayed their worth at the Battle of New Market Heights (Chaffin's Farm) near Richmond on September 29, 1864. Fourteen men, including Christian Fleetwood, who later became an active community leader in Washington, D.C. were presented the Medal of Honor for valor at New Market Heights. Several were awarded to men who took charge of their units after all white commanders had fallen. Soldiers of distinction were also given the Army of the James or "Butler" medal, designated by champion of the black troops, Gen. Benjamin Butler and the only medal created solely for the U.S.C.T.

Picket guards near Petersburg, VA 1864

Wonder if any of the African Americans will get in positive recognition for they contributed.

Hummm they haven't in the past.