RESPECT EARNED THROUGH BLOOD
MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM FARRAR SMITH WAS A DIFFICULT FELLOW.
“A short, quite portly man, with a light-brown imperial and shaggy mustache, a round military head, and the look of a German officer,” Smith, thought Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, was “obstinate” and “likely to condemn whatever is not suggested by himself.” In spite of these flaws, Grant brought Smith east from Tennessee and placed him in command of the 18th Corps of the Army of the James. On the morning of June 15, 1864, the lieutenant general assigned Smith primary responsibility for capturing Petersburg, Va., targeted by Grant as the key to reducing Richmond.
Smith’s corps contained three infantry divisions, two of them comprised of white soldiers and one of United States Colored Troops. Brigadier General Edward W. Hinks led these two brigades of African Americans, which on that late spring day would experience their baptism of fire. In fact, Hinks’ division would begin the combat early that morning by overwhelming a small Confederate outpost at the Baylor Farm, east of Petersburg. This unexpected roadblock, however, prompted Smith to advance against the main Confederate line with an abundance of caution.
Smith spent most of the day reconnoitering and then positioning his force along a front of more than two miles stretching from near the Appomattox River on his right to Jordan Point Road on his left. He settled on a battle plan targeting a strong point on the Rebel line called Battery 5, opposite the center of his formation. Once this attack commenced, the rest of Smith’s corps would join the assault, Hinks’ USCTs on the left of the Federal line of battle.
The actionmark profound chapter in the evolving reputation of black soldiers during the Civil War.
