2

Negro Soldiers.

Of all the preposterous efforts made by the abolition press in their attempt to lift the negro race to a superiority over the white, the claim of superhuman courage is the most palpably absurd. But they never tire of rehearsing the valorous deeds of their black heroes, trying assiduously to prove their immeasurable superiority over the bravest of our white men who are upholding our country's banner on the field of battle. To call a negro regiment the equal of a white one, is precisely as absurd as to say that a flock of sheep possesses as much courage as a band of lions. The relative bravery of the two races in the battle field is exactly that of the two classes of animals. The Munchausens about Banks' darkies at Port Hudson have long since been exploded; the Buffalo Courier knocks the famous 54th Massachusetts "higher than a kite" as follows. We cannot imagine why such ridiculous attempts to exalt black soldiers and to disparage white ones are made by administration journals, but they are made and persisted in. They are pretty effectually "played out" by this time, however:

We are permitted to make the following extract from a letter written by an officer before Charleston:

"Gen. Gilmore was undoubtedly forced into the assault upon Fort Wagner against his better judgment. I have great confidence in him, and think, from the way he is going to work now, that Charleston will certainly fall. It will be slow but sure. He has set all the negro soldiers at fatigue work, which is what every other general ought to do. The stories about their splendid fighting are ‘all in my eye.’ At the assault they ran away as fast as they could, and came near demoralizing the whole force. In an hour after the fight commenced over a thousand of them came straggling down to the south end of the island, and before morning there were at the hospital and dock over 300 of them, not hurt in the least. There was not a dozen white soldiers at the dock. I see the New York papers give them credit for doing wonders; don't you believe it.

A large number of reinforcements have arrived here during the past week, making our force about twice as large as it was."

We have no doubt that the above gives a correct idea of every one of the stories sent north extolling to the skies of the valor of the negro troops. Our readers will rember the paeans which were sung by the abolition press over the achievements of the colored soldiers who participated in the first assault upon Port Hudson. It was claimed that six hundred out of one thousand men were killed, and the terrible blacks fought with their teeth when their muskets and arms failed them. The New Orleans Era, General Banks' personal organ, has let daylight through this romance by publishing an official return of the losses during the siege in the negro regiments, from which it appears that "there were engaged in the siege of Port Hudson two regiments of colored troops, the first and third, both together numbering 1,245 men. Of these 28 were killed, 123 wounded by gunshots, and 46 by falling trees, making the total casualties 197. Many of the wounds were slight, from which the sufferers have since recovered."

A young Buffalonian, who left here to take command of some negroes under General Ullman, writes home that his regiment, which was stationed near Brashear city, disappeared in the course of a skirmish with the enemy, and has scarcely recovered a corporal's guard since.