On October 27, 1864, during the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign, Colonel John Henry Holman was wounded in the fighting at Fair Oaks, Virginia. The engagement, known as the Second Battle of Fair Oaks or the Battle of Fair Oaks and Darbytown Road, brought another costly confrontation in the campaign around the Confederate capital. Holman’s wound required his removal to the hospital at Fort Monroe.
Holman’s military service included command of the 1st United States Colored Troops Infantry Regiment. He was among the early Union officers to command African American troops, serving at a time when Black soldiers were fighting not only against the Confederacy but for recognition of their rights as soldiers.
That service carried dangers beyond those of the battlefield. On May 1, 1863, the Confederate Congress adopted a resolution declaring that white officers who commanded, trained, or armed Black troops could be tried for inciting “servile insurrection” and sentenced to death or another punishment. Captured Black soldiers faced delivery to Confederate state authorities and the threat of enslavement. Execution was not a guaranteed consequence of capture, but the policy placed Holman and the men he commanded under an additional, grave threat.
