- But once again, to be clear, the question I ask is quite simple. Did the defenders of Fort Wagner consider it to be an insult to bury a white officer with his black men at the time they did it? And were these men considered criminals or soldiers by the men who buried them? -

Phil, You're beating your head against a brick wall. Sure, it's a simple question, and it might have gotten a simple answer if you'd asked it 70 or 80 years ago, of one of the men who did the burying. But no one alive today, which would include everyone responding to this forum, can possibly answer it. We could give you whatever answer you want, but it wouldn't mean anything. You're asking for the personal feelings of members of a specific burial party almost 150 years ago. When you think about it, even if you'd asked them 70 or 80 years ago, they probably wouldn't have remembered. How would any of us know what they were thinking? Your question is not "quite simple." It's totally unanswerable.