USCT Petersburg Trench Art

 

It is commonly said that soldier life consists of months of boredom punctuated with moments of terror. That saying goes for just about any conflict, but pertains particularly well to the Civil War’s Petersburg Campaign of 1864-65. After a grueling month and a half of almost constant combat between the Union’s Army of the Potomac and the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia in the spring of 1864, during what is known as the Overland Campaign, the contending forces transitioned into a dig in, attack, and counterattack mode of combat around Petersburg and Richmond. The fighting started in June 1864 and lasted until April 2, 1865; almost ten months of wear and tear on the soldiers.

 Between active army movements, soldiers manned their earthen fortifications and sought ways to pass the time. Many soldiers wrote letters to loved ones back home and read return mail voraciously, while others volunteered for detached duty details to keep themselves occupied. Some men played camp games, and others created pieces of “trench art,” while waiting for their call to action.

A soldier who bided his time in creative contemplation was Isaac J. Hill of Company D, 29^th Connecticut Infantry. The 29^th Connecticut was one of the handful of African American regiments—like the famous 54^th Massachusetts—who maintained their state designation after the Union military established the United States Colored Troops (USCT). The 29^th Connecticut was initially part of the X Corps, and later part of the all-black XXV Corps, both in the Army of the James.

Isaac J. Hill, born a free man of color in Union County, Pennsylvania, enlisted on January 6, 1864, in Norwich, Connecticut. Hill’s service records indicate that he was 35 years old and 6 feet tall, and had been a minister before entering the service. Hill’s comrade in the 29^th Connecticut, Sgt. Alexander Heritage Newton wrote about some of their regiment’s experiences at Petersburg.  “We were soon in front of Petersburg, Va., looking upon the doomed city. We were greeted by a shell from the rebels, or Grey Backs, as we sometimes called them. It fell near the colonel, who was sitting on his horse at the right of the brigade. We countermarched and fell back to the woods, where we remained until 5 o’clock, when orders were received from the general to fall back to the fort and protect the pontoon bridge.” Later Newton writes: “Once again we marched in front of the horrible pit, Petersburg. Some of the whites said, see they are taking these colored soldiers to the slaughter pen. Truly, they had said so, for I never saw such a scene the first night. Shot and shell were raining fast around us.”

Private Hill’s trench art creation is a match safe, used to hold his fire starting devices, at that time often called Lucifers. Hill’s match safe, carved out of beef bones, decorated with a brass Union uniform button and a small brass ring, is mounted on a painted wooden base. This small, and at first glance, seemingly insignificant artifact, actually provides us with yet another piece of evidence about the experience of African American soldiers at Petersburg.

Isaac J. Hill survived the war and mustered out of service on October 24, 1865, in Brownsville, Texas.