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Rockwood became a captain on December 17
and mustered out in December 1863 to take the promotion to major in the 19th Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops. The 19th was organized on December 25, 1863, at Camp Stanton in Benedict, Maryland, and was under the command of Colonel Henry Goddard Thomas and formed part of the 2nd Brigade,
4th Division, IX Corps, Army of the Potomac. The regiment fought in the Army of the Potomac during the Overland Campaign, including in combat at the Battle of the Wilderness. At the Siege of Petersburg,
a division of the U.S. Colored Troops were specially trained under General Ambrose Burnside’s orders
in preparation for the Battle of the Crater. The plan was for one brigade to head around the left side of the crater formed by the explosion and the other to the right. Instead, Burnside was ordered to use white troops out of fear that should the black troops suffer heavy losses, it would be said their superiors had not valued their lives. The troops substituted were not specially trained for the mission nor given proper instructions. After the explosion, the troops stalled before advanced into the crater instead of around
it, took up firing positions instead of advancing rapidly, and then became pinned down after the Confederates reformed their line and began taking heavy losses. The 19th was sent into the crater to provide support and attempt a break through,
but they also suffered heavy losses. According to Colonel Thomas, Rockwood was killed leading his men into the action. He remarked, “I would also speak of the gallant and genial Maj. Theodore H. Rockwood, Nineteenth U.S. Colored Troops, who, when the regiment was ordered forward, sprang upon the parapet, the first man, fell cheering his regiment on. Such men cannot be easily replaced, nor the void they leave in our hearts readily filled.” The Union troops in the crater ultimately attempted to retreat or surrender given their heavy losses. Many of Rockwood’s men were summarily executed by the Confederates when they attempted to surrender. In
a letter to his chief of staff, General Ulysses S. Grant wrote that the Battle of the Crater “was the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war.”
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