New Market Heights / 14 Colored Troops Awarded Medal of Honor
New Market Heights | Sep 29, 1864
Union Participants: USCT = U. S. Colored Troops, CT = Connecticut; MA = Massachusetts, NH = New Hampshire,
Confederate Participants: AR = Arkansas, TX = Texas, VA = Virginia, SC = South Carolina
Battle Summary
In September 1864, to draw Gen. Robert E. Lee's attention from a movement against the Southside Railroad west of Petersburg, and attempting to tie down Confederate reinforcements, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered a diversionary attack against the Confederate fortifications around Richmond.
During the night of September 28-29, Gen. Benjamin Butler’s Federal Army of the James crossed the James River to assault the Richmond defenses. Butler's objective was to reach the south end of the Confederate line anchored on the north bank of the James in an open area near the Chaffin family farm. Butler's right column, the Tenth Corps under Maj. Gen. David Birney, would attack the Confederate positions on the high ground above the New Market Road, while his left under Gen. Edward O. C. Ord would attack nearby Fort Harrison on the Richmond defensive perimeter.
Both columns attacked at dawn on the 29th. After initial Union successes on both fronts, the Confederates rallied and contained the breakthrough. A brigade of U. S. Colored Troops [USCT] in Birney's corps performed bravely in the attack on New Market Heights, and some 14 members of the United States Colored Troops were the recipients of the Medal of Honor for their actions during the battle. Lee reinforced his lines north of the James and, on September 30th, counterattacked unsuccessfully. The Federals entrenched, and the Confederates erected a new line of works cutting off the captured forts. As Grant anticipated, Lee shifted 10,000 troops to meet the new threat against Richmond, weakening his lines west of Petersburg.
Source: American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/maps/new-market-heights-sep-29-1864
14 Colored Troops Awarded the Medal of Honor
Source:
Covered With Glory: The African American Heroes of New Market Heights
By Peter A. Sicher • Updated February 17, 2026 • March 22, 2018
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/covered-glory
On Sept. 29, 1864, during the Battle of New Market Heights (part of the larger Battle of Chaffin’s Farm) near Richmond, several regiments of United States Colored Troops launched an assault on a well-fortified Southern position at the gates of the Confederate capital. Because of this action, 14 black soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor (a), the U.S. military’s highest decoration for acts of valor in combat. These men represent the largest group of African-Americans from a single battle to be so recognized.
They fought in hellish conditions. New Market Heights …was defended by one of the most storied units in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, the Texas Brigade. Formerly commanded by John Bell Hood, the Texans were now led by John Gregg. Joining the Texans was a brigade of dismounted cavalry led by Martin W. Gary which included Hampton’s Legion, another legendary unit. Artillery batteries anchored each end of the Confederate line, exposing the Federal flanks to deadly enfilading fire. The defenders were protected by the trenches from which they fought, plus formidable natural and artificial obstacles, including two lines of abatis (1), and a swamp through which the Union attackers had to wade while under enemy fire.
(1) Abatis = A defensive obstacle constructed by felling trees into a tangled mesh, with their sharpened branches pointing toward the enemy.
The …black soldiers … assigned the task of taking [the defender’s] position …, successfully carried the rebel works,… opening the way to the capital. Indeed, a Confederate soldier later admitted, “upon 29th September, Richmond came nearer to being captured, and that, too, by negro troops, than it ever did during the whole war.”
This victory came at tremendous cost. The attack on New Market Heights fell primarily on two African-American brigades with a combined strength of just over 2,000 men. When the smoke cleared, there were well over 800 casualties, including more than 130 dead.
(a) Names of Colored Troops who earned the Medal of Honor:
William H. Barnes, Powhatan Beaty, James H. Bronson, Christian A. Fleetwood, James Gardiner, James H. Harris, Thomas R. Hawkins, Alfred B. Hilton, Milton M. Holland, Miles James, Alexander Kelly, Robert A. Pinn, Edward Ratcliff, and Charles Veal.
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