An interesting detail in a previous post that I'd never heard:
The Union officers put the black troops on the wall, and the white troops in bombproofs. If that's true, the Union officers were the ones responsible for the "massacre".
Of course, "the coven" studiously ignored that post...
The Civil War was a sad business all the way around. I myself can't believe the Virginians [many of whose immediate forebearers had debated and written the Constitution of the United States] went insane and "rebelled" against the United States. On the other hand, when you think of the Minnesotans and the Michiganders who flocked to the flag, and died under it, you get another sense of the war entirely.
What was it that made everyone so killing mad?
I hadn't heard that either. That kind of positioning of black troops was somewhat similar to that employed by the Union army at Olustee, Florida, in February 1864. Olustee was another battle at which large numbers of black soldiers were killed and massacre was claimed.
Here is a report from the March 11, 1864, New Orleans Daily Picayune newspaper quoting the March 2, 1864 Mobile Register about the Olustee battle:
We learn from a dispatch to the Savannah Republican that the Federals have abandoned their position on the St. Mary's River and taken to the protection of their fleet. Our loss in the late battle was thirty-five killed and from 700 to 800 wounded. The enemy's loss was between 2500 and 3000.
The enemy's force is reported to have been 10,000 men of all arms. Our force was about 3500 to 4000. The enemy placed two of their negro regiments in the front and urged them on at the point of the bayonet. They withstood our fire at a distance, but as our troops advanced they retreated. More than one half of the two negro regiments are said to have been left on the field of battle.
Part of the Union problem at Olustee was that the black troops had not been battle before and apparently were not well trained for battle. A Union officer, Captain Langdon, reported seeing black troops huddling together on the Olustee battlefield being shot at. They did not know what to do.
I saw many wounded colored soldiers appearing suddenly in front and on my left, without muskets, and it appeared as if they had been lying down and taken the first opportunity to get to the rear. Some of the infantry, while facing the enemy and firing wildly, did not show fear, nor did I see any of them absolutely run off, but groups of them huddled together and did nothing, and many were in this position shot, while they seemed unconscious that they were hit. [Source]
From US Captain Hamilton's report:
As soon as I saw this position I felt that all hopes of withdrawing my guns to a more favorable position were gone, for the reason that the Eighth U.S. Colored were green troops, and should I have limbered to the rear I was sure they would run before the second line could come up to our support. ... My whole attention was involved in holding the Eighth on their ground. My heart bled for them; they fell as ten pins in a bowling alley; but everything depended on their sacrifice and that of my battery until we could be relieved or the new line formed.
... The left wing of the U.S. Colored Infantry could have done little injury to the enemy; they fired very wildly and without purpose. It was not from cowardice as much as ignorance. Their officers appeared to do their duty as brave men, but without self-reliance, and I did not see any of the regiment run, yet they only served the purpose of keeping the enemy in check from charging. They should not be condemned, for I saw nothing wrong that could not be accounted for by want of experience and ignorance of object, apparently. [Source]
‘What was it that made everyone so killing mad?’
Seeing your friends, family, neighbors decapitated by a cannon round will do that from what I’m told.