The Forgotten Fourteen

Near the end of the Civil War, one of the bloodiest battles occurred near Richmond, Virginia, where in September of 1864, Gen. Robert E. Lee's forces made a last desperate effort to save the city in what came to be known as the Battle of New Market Heights. Arrayed against Lee's army was a small Union contingent which included units known as USCT's--United States Colored Troops. Many of the USCT's had been captured by Union forces while building fortifications for the Confederacy, and one can only imagine the hatred felt on both sides as former slave owners found themselves under attack by black men determined to prove their worth as soldiers. In the Battle of New Market Heights, they certainly did prove it, and the sixteen African-American men who received the Congressional Medal of Honor as a result of their heroics is the basis for this stirring video. Using historical photographs, excerpts from letters written by military men on both sides of the campaign, contemporary re-enactments of the battle on location in Virginia, and interviews with Col. William A. DeShields (Ret) of the Black Military History Institute, The Forgotten Fourteen, like the film Glory, adds another important piece in the growing mosaic that portrays African-American contributions to our nation's military history. Aud: H, P. (J. Carlson)