Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 5.
Frank Moore, Ed.

Incidents at Yorktown.--A Yorktown letter to the Providence Press says that the rebels have negroes [24] impressed into their service. Two black fellows of herculean frame were shot dead by the Union pickets. They were “armed and equipped as the law directs,” and had a couple of splendid Enfield rifles, with a finer finish than any of our arms. A rebel sergeant, belonging to the Eleventh Virginia, was captured. He was a handsome, athletic, and very intelligent fellow, who undertook to fight against great odds. How he strayed from his companions, I am at a loss to say. Somebody said, when the prisoner was inclined to be saucy: “Hang him up to a tree.” The rebel gazed on him with a defiant scowl, saying, “It would take a. better man than you to do it. I am a gentleman, I am,” said he, and then his eyes were blindfolded, and he was led to the General's headquarters. No information could be gained from him, and he was sent to Fortress Monroe. I have to record that the Seventh Maine had one man killed and three wounded during the foray. There were seven holes in the dead body of the Union picket, and after he was down, the niggers whom we killed stabbed him with their bayonets. The affair soon ended, and quietness was once more observed along our front.