Alan...

I would agree that the Confederate soldiers who faced the black Union troops in the Crater were fighting at a degree of intensity a notch above what they normally fought. I have read no other letters or accounts of a battle where the emotions were at such a high level of hatred and rage. I didn't describe all of the comments in the soldier's letter about the Crater, but he was rather vivid in his description of the hand-to-hand combat. Other letters and memoirs from members of the 9th Alabama and Mahone's Division paint the same picture.

While the Confederates were angry about the mine explosion itself (and were fighting for all of the usual things that carried them into battle), the unexpected sight of black faces in Union uniforms charging at them with rifles, must have pushed every button they had. It probably brought up the ancient Southern fear and dread of an armed slave rebellion overturning white society, and that could be what pushed them to a higher emotional level. Does that justify the way they fought? I don't know. It is war, and sometimes we try to sanitize it and orchestrate it the way we would a game; but when you get to something like the Crater or Fort Pillow, it doesn't seem to be very sporting. Yet, I can't judge them for what they did, even if I didn't like it. To be able to judge, you had to be there. Which jogs my memory to go and look for any post-war comments by Gen. William Mahone, who did try to stop the bloodshed at the Crater.

John