No Quarter

No Quarter. Confederates Execute USCTs Near Madden's Tavern. , On May 8, 1864, following the Battle of the Wilderness, troopers of the 9th Virginia Cavalry scouted through this region and captured several United States Colored Troops (USCTs) near Madden's Tavern. Private Byrd C. Willis of the 9th recalled, "They were taken out on the road side and shot....," and their bodies left to the ravages of nature., This incident was an indirect result of the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, which authorized Black men to in the US Army. The Confederate War Department had issued an order that stated captured USCTs would viewed as slaves in a state of insurrection, making them liable to execution or sale into slavery., The USCTs near Madden's Tavern were members of the 4th Division, 9th Corps. In late May 1864, they were assigned to the Army of the Potomac, the first African American soldiers to join that army. Many had self-emancipated from their enslavers and identified Culpeper, Orange, and Madison counties as their birthplaces., These brave men served knowing they might die on the battlefield or, if they were captured, perhaps suffer the same unjust fate as their comrades executed by the 9th Virginia. In another incident, a captured USCT was taken to nearby Orange and hung in front of the courthouse.