We know it is our duty now to keep
white men as prisoners—rebel soldiers,
would-be masters.
This is the moment in which the speaker realizes that they will not be serving on the battlefield, but instead will be guarding captured Confederate soldiers. As the speaker later notes, this is a deeply ironic situation, as they are holding captive men who would have kept them as slaves. This is also a disappointing moment for the speaker, as he had hoped to be entrusted with the seemingly more noble responsibility of fighting on the frontlines, not the grunt work he has been assigned.
I listen, put down in ink what I know
they labor to say between silences
too big for words:
This is a scene slightly later in the poem in which the speaker describes assisting the Confederate soldiers. He helps them write letters, as many of them are illiterate, taking their dictation. They are distrustful of him, but forced to accept this service. He notes that they "labor" "between silences" that are "too big for words," meaning that there is a gap created by their struggle to make themselves understood in their letters. He is saying they have too much they'd like to convey in such a limited format. It is a striking moment in that he recognizes the humanity, and complexity, of a group of individuals who do not extend the same empathy toward him.
The Colonel said:
an unfortunate incident; said:
their names shall deck the pages of history.
This is one of multiple instances in which the speaker's superiors demonstrate their callous disregard for human life. In this scene, he is referring to the loss of a group of white soldiers as "an unfortunate incident" while suggesting that they will live on in posterity. It is a remarkably cold sentiment made even worse by the fact that a general will later entirely dismiss any acknowledgment of a group of freed slave soldiers who died at another battle. These moments underline the speaker's distrust of his superiors, showing them to be careless about the value of a soldier's life. This line is also rephrased later in the poem, as the speaker comments that not all names will be in "the pages of history," as he refers to the unacknowledged and unburied bodies of Black soldiers at Port Hudson.
