Duncan's Brigade

“The war in Virginia. The Twenty-second [African American] Regiment, Duncan’s Brigade, carrying the first line of Confederate works before Petersburg. On the morning of the 15th of June, 1864, General Hinks formed his command in line of battle, and advanced upon the Confederates, with Duncan commanding his right and Holman his left. The result of this charge was waited for with great anxiety. The majority of the whites expected that the [African American] troops would run, but the sable forces astonished everybody by their achievements. With a wild yell that must have struck terror into the hearts of their foes, the Twenty-second and Fifth United States [African American] regiments, commanded by Colonels Kidder and Connor, charged, under a hot fire of musketry and artillery, over the Confederate ditch and parapet, and drove the enemy before them, capturing a large field-piece, and taking entire possession of their works, its defenders, Ferrybee’s Fourth North Carolina Cavalry, and Graham’s Petersburg Battery, seeking safety in rapid flight, leaving their dead and wounded in the works."— Frank Leslie, 1896

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