Locust Grove Cemetery has been known as the “colored cemetery.”  Edward Shippen Burd, the grandson of the founder of Shippensburg, gave the land to the town’s African-American population in 1842.  The land became a slave burial ground and was also home to Shippensburg’s first African-American church.    Because the African-Americans owned the land, this site became a refuge for run-away slaves in the period of time before the Civil War.  In 1861, the cemetery was officially segregated and continued to be so for the next 100 years.

Twenty-six free blacks from Shippensburg fought for the Union in the Civil War and are buried in the Locust Grove Cemetery. One group of Shippensburg brothers, the Shirks, fought for the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry because it was the first Union regiment to allow African-Americans to fight.  John and James are buried in Locust Grove, while Casper is buried in Chalmette National Cemetery in New Orleans. John spent most of his time with the 55th Massachusetts in South Carolina. James was involved in the Fort Wagner Campaign and Sherman’s “March to the Sea” with the 54th Massachusetts. He was honorably discharged in 1865. Casper probably fought with the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry, but died on a boat and was buried in New Orleans surrounded by 12,000 Union soldiers who never made it home.