The Dutch Gap Affair: Military Atrocities and Rights of Negro Soldiers

THE DUTCH GAP AFFAIR: Military Atrocities and Rights of Negro Soldiers Richard J. Sommers The Battle of Chaffin's Bluff, September 29-October 1, 1864, threw the Confederate capital into grave danger of capture. The heavy fighting generated a state of strategic instability east of Richmond lasting into mid-October. It also raised a side issue of the rights of slaveholders versus Negro soldiers that threatened to result in one of the major atrocity incidents of the Civil War. This incident reached its climax in the Dutch Gap Canal, so it may well be termed "the Dutch Gap Affair." The affair originated in the wake of the battle of Chaffin's Bluff, which saw the Union Army of the James achieve a major breakthrough on the Peninsula, September 29. Southerners managed to stop this army short of Richmond but signally failed to drive it back, September 30 and again October 7. Unable to eliminate this potential threat, the Confederates sought to nullify it by tripling their force on the Northside and by strengthening existing fortifications and erecting extensive new lines.1 Digging over four miles of new works plus improving old defenses required much manpower. Engineer officers and troops could not begin to meet this need, and combat infantrymen, who fought three battles between September 29 and October 13, could devote only part of their time to entrenching.2 To spare the soldiers some of the burden, to help offset the shortage of manpower, and to meet the crisis, large gangs of Negroes were also set to work. Some such black labor details were already at the engineers' disposal and needed merely to be assigned to the new defenses. Other Negroes were drawn from various government agencies in response to the emergency. Beyond this, General Robert E. Lee, through the War Department, asked Virginia ' The battle of Chaffin's Bluff and other military operations on the Peninsula in this period are described in detail in the author's dissertation, "Grant's Fifth Offensive at Petersburg: A Study of Strategy, Tactics, and Generalship" (Rice University, 1970). ' "Muster Rolls of C and I/lst Confederate Engineers and of B/51st North Carolina, September-October, 1864," Record Group 109, Compiled Service Records, 1st Confederate Engineer Regiment Papers and 51st North Carolina Infantry Regiment Papers, respectively, National Archives (the symbols "RG" and "NA" hereafter refer to "Record Group" and "National Archives," respectively.); The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Annies (Washington, 18801901 ), Ser. I, XLII, pt. 1, 880-81 (hereafter cited as OR, with all references to Series II unless otherwise specified.). 51 52CIVIL WAR HISTORY to impress 1,000 more slaves into labor service. The zealous Engineer Bureau increased the figure to 1,590, and that same day, October 3, Governor William Smith duly called on Richmond and thirteen nearby counties for the larger number. Such measures were common. Black labor gangs customarily performed much of the work on permanent fortifications of the Confederacy , and the right of the central government, through the states, to press them into such service had long been exercised. In this case, however, the emergency was so great that several highly unusual steps were taken to increase the labor force. For one thing, provost troops in Richmond began impressing available Negroes into service as soon as the crisis broke, September 29—five days before the governor authorized such measures. Beyond this, Southern officials put captured Negro soldiers to work on the fortifications. Sixty-eight such captives, taken at the battle of the Crater over two months earlier, were placed in the labor gangs, October 2, and three days later Lieutenant-General Richard S. Ewell, commanding the Department of Richmond, ordered all available Negro prisoners in Libby Prison assigned to such duty. Eighty-two more men of the 5th, 7th, and 30th USCT5—many of whom had been captured at the battle of Chaffin's Bluff itself—were turned over to Brigadier-General Seth Barton to labor on the defenses.6 The causes and consequences of these extraordinary measures— unauthorized impressment of slaves and use of prisoners of war— deserve exploration. The dire crisis obviously prompted the conscription . Large numbers...