These men served in the 3rd United States Colored Troops Regiment –
Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 6th United States Colored Troops Regiment –
Read more about this regiment here.
5th Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry
These men served in the 5th Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry –
54th Massachusetts
These men served in the 54th Massachusetts –
55th Massachusetts
These men served in the 55th Massachusetts –
USCT picket, November 1864
100 Voices is one of the projects associated with the Pennsylvania Grand Review. The Pennsylvania Tourism Office selected 100 African Americans who fought in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Many of these veterans were either born or buried in Pennsylvania. Each person in this list has a record on House Divided – click on that person’s name to see it.
These men served in the 3rd United States Colored Troops Regiment –
The 3rd USCT Regiment, which was organized in August 1863, was the first unit to receive training at Camp William Penn, located outside of Philadelphia. (You can read about this regiment’s flag raising ceremony in a previous post). The War Department initially sent this regiment to South Carolina, where it was involved in the campaign to seize Fort Wagner. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 6th United States Colored Troops Regiment –
The 6th USCT Regiment was composed mainly of Pennsylvania men, and was organized at Camp William Penn between July and September 1863. In October, the regiment was assigned to the Army of the James and stationed near Yorktown, Pennsylvania. The regiment was also part of a plan to release Union prisoners from Belle Isle near Richmond, Virginia. After a grueling march in early February 1864, the Union forces arrived to find the Confederate forces prepared to meet them, and the battle was lost. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 8th United States Colored Troops Regiment –
The recruiting for the 8th USCT Regiment began in September 1863 at Camp William Penn, and the regiment was deployed to Florida on its first assignment in February 1864. After a time of looting supply lines and taking prisoners, the regiment finally encountered resistance at the Battle of Olustee. This battle incurred some of the heaviest losses (percentage-wise) of the Civil War, and the 8th USCT played an integral part. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 22nd United States Colored Troops Regiment –
The 22nd USCT Regiment was organized in January 1864 at Camp William Penn in Pennsylvania. The regiment joined the Army of the James, Eighteenth Corps near the end of that month, and was assigned to construct earthworks along the James River for protecting supply lines. In June, the Eighteenth Corps participated in the siege of Petersburg, for which the 22nd USCT regiment received great acclaim. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 24th United States Colored Troops Regiment –
The 24th USCT Regiment was organized at Camp William Penn on February 17, 1865. In May, it was stationed at Camp Casey in Virginia outside of Washington, DC; then in June it was moved to Maryland to guard Confederate prisoners. The regiment’s final assignment was preserving order and distributing supplies in and around Roanoke, Virginia between July and September 1865. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 25th United States Colored Troops Regiment –
After being organized in January 1864, the 25th USCT Regiment was deployed to Texas, although it never reached its intended destination. The steamer that carried the regiment was caught in a storm and sprung a leak, and the men barely kept her afloat long enough to dock safely in the North Carolina harbor. The regiment arrived in New Orleans in May 1864 just as the Confederates were gaining the upper hand in the Red River Campaign. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 32nd United States Colored Troops Regiment –
The 32nd USCT Regiment was organized in March 1864 at Camp William Penn outside Philadelphia. After training was completed, the regiment was sent to South Carolina in late April 1864. These men participated in a number of engagements while assigned to the Department of the South. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 41st United States Colored Troops Regiment –
The 41st USCT Regiment was organized at Camp William Penn in the fall of 1864. This regiment participated in several engagements in Virginia. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 43rd United States Colored Troops Regiment –
After being assembled at Camp William Penn, the 43rd USCT Regiment, composed mainly of Pennsylvania recruits, was assigned in April 1864 to the Ninth Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Continuing on through Washington, where the African-American regiment “attracted special attention,” the regiment became involved in the Wilderness Campaign in rural Virginia. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 45th United States Colored Troops Regiment –
After being assembled at Camp William Penn in the summer of 1864, the 45th USCT Regiment was sent to Washington, DC, where it had the distinct honor of being the only African-American regiment in the procession for the second inauguration of President Lincoln. In September 1864, the regiment was moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where it participated in the Siege of Petersburg. Read more about this regiment here
These men served in the 127th United States Colored Troops Regiment –
The 127th USCT Regiment was organized in September 1864 and received training at Camp William Penn. Records indicate that this regiment only participated in a single battle. Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 5th Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry –
These men served in the 54th Massachusetts –
Read more about this regiment here.
These men served in the 55th Massachusetts –
Other
Anita Talks Genealogy, is Genealogy from an African American Perspective. The show airs Friday nights from 8:00-8:45 pm (pst), on Blog Talk Radio. Each week we take on different topics which are related to Genealogy Research. The topics can be anything from DNA Testing to the Underground Railroad. If it touches on, or is related to Genealogy you will hear it on Anita Talks Genealogy.
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On May 23 and 24, 1865, Union soldiers paraded through Washington D.C. for a grand review of the troops, a celebration from the grateful citizens to the Union soldiers for their efforts and service in winning the Civil War. Noticeably missing from the celebration were the over 180,000 United States Colored Troops who fought along side these troops being honored in the nation’s capital. While denied participation in the “Grand Review of the Armies,” black regiments from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts gathered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on November 14, 1865 for their own Grand Review. Thomas Morris Chester, a prominent Harrisburg resident and recruiter of black soldiers served as grand marshal of the Grand Review. The troops marched through the main streets of the Pennsylvania capital to the home of Senator Simon Cameron who delivered a speech honoring the black troops and commending them for their service and sacrifice to the Union. Cameron, an abolitionist and one of the early advocates for using black troops in the war, gratefully acknowledged the soldiers in the speech that was reprinted in the North American and United States Gazette in Philadelphia the following day.
“I cannot let this opportunity pass without thanking the African soldiers for the compliment they have paid me, but more than all to thank them for the great service which they have been to their country in the terrible rebellion. Like all other men, you have your destinies in your own hands, and if you continue to conduct yourselves hereafter as you have in the struggle, you will have all the rights you ask for, all the rights that belong to human beings.”
The report called the celebration a success throughout and estimated that nearly seven thousand blacks attended the Grand Review as well as a sizable white population who came to pay their respects to “those who escaped the perils of a contest in which they risked their lives in defense of the nation honor and support of the constitutional authorities.” One of the prominent black participants was Reverend John Walker Jackson who offered a prayer that served as “a beautiful acknowledgment of the services which the black man rendered in the struggle for American nationality, civilization and freedom. The orator of the event, William Howard Day, discussed the attitude of the colored man and “the prospect which lay before him for improvement, social elevation and the acquirement of political rights.” The Grand Review concluded with a grand ball where the soldiers and those honoring them convened one last time.
Those of you familiar with Pennsylvania Grand Review and its partner sites have probably seen this “stock image” representing a young soldier of the United States Colored Troops. Similarly, there is also another image shown below that stands as a place mark for images of cemeteries designated as “Hallowed Grounds.” We use these images simply because we have not yet have images for these soldiers and/or their resting places.
If you happen to have images of any of these men, perhaps in your family collection, or can provide photographs of their gravestone and/or a general photographic view of the cemeteries in which they are buried, you can become a valuable contributor to the project. Family photographs can be scanned or shot with a digital camera while cemetery digital photographs can be sent as you took them. Send the resulting files along to us by e-mail at housedivided@dickinson.edu. Please keep the digital images at a decent size, no smaller than 650 x 750 pixels if you can manage it. Do not cut them down or edit them; we will do that for you. And you will receive credit in all postings as photographer and contributor.
If you are more technically equipped, you can help us in one final way by providing the GPS co-ordinates for individual grave markers or cemetery gates. This will help us give the most accurate directions for visitors to the “Hallowed Grounds” where these American heroes rest.
Should you have any difficulty or simply wish to ask advice on a contribution, please do not hesitate to contact us through this blog or by electronic mail.
P.S. For those who may be interested, the representative image we use for the U.S.C.T. soldier is taken from a Harper’s Weekly drawing of “The Escaped Slave in the Union Army” in July 1864 while the cemetery icon is adapted from an artist’s representation of Aaron Burr’s grave in Arlington Cemetery, also published in Harper’s but in March 1869.
Camp William Penn in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania opened as a training ground for African-American troops on June 26, 1863 with about eight men present. Approximately eleven thousand former slaves and free African-Americans received training here under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Wagner. Over the course of the war at least eleven regiments formed at Camp William Penn including the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 32nd, 41st, 43rd, 45th, and 127th Infantries. Led by Colonel Benjamin C. Tilghman, the 3rd Regiment United States Colored Troops became the first to depart from camp on August 13, 1863. The soldiers from Camp William Penn went on to fight at Fort Wagner , the Battle of Olustee, and the Battle of New Market Heights (Chaffin’s Farm). The Civil War Preservation Trust’s website offers an article regarding the participation of USCT Troops in the Battle of New Market Heights and a detailed map of the area. George Washington Williams said, “The regiments that went from this camp were among the best in the army. Their officers had been carefully selected and specially trained in military school under competent teachers, and the troops themselves were noted for intelligence, proficiency, and pluck.” Famous historical figures such as Frederick Douglass and Lucretia Mott lived near the camp or visited the troops occasionally. Many appeals were made to African- Americans to join the Union Army in newspapers such as The Liberator in Boston:
“Men of color! We speak to you of your country, of the land where God in his mysterious providence has placed you to work out his inscrutable purposes. Yet you have been strangers in a land of strangers, and it is now for you to decide whether that land shall be to you and your children more in the future than it has been in the past. We can make no promises, but we have an abiding faith that the Almighty has not visited us with tribulation in wrath, but in mercy; that you and we, thus tried in the fiery furnace, if true to ourselves and to Him, shall emerge purified and redeemed from the sins and the wrongs of the past.”
Another resource that may be of value for teachers is Donald Scott’s article titled “Camp William Penn’s Black Soldiers in Blue” that gives a concise overview of the troops stationed at the camp as well as an insight into the interaction between the African-American and white soldiers. Also available in limited view through Google Books is Cheltenham Township which provides some background information and photographs on the area where the camp formed, and includes mention of Camp William Penn and its basic purpose.
On September 8, 1865, the New York Tribune commented on the unusual amount of fanfare the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry received on their return to Boston. The author of the editorial explained the public response reflected the 54th’s status as the first northern regiment of black soldiers and the reputation the regiment earned as being “the one on whose good conduct depended for a long time the success of the whole experiment of arming black citizens in defence of the Republic.” Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, gave Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew permission to begin recruiting black troops on January 26, 1863. Andrew carefully hired officers to lead the black regiment, including the regiment’s future commander Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, because the 54th was in his opinion “perhaps the most important corps to be organized during the whole war.” The 54th is well known for their participation in the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina on July 18, 1863. The same Tribune article equated the battle’s significance to African-Americans as “Bunker Hill has been for ninety years to the white Yankees.” Captain Luis F. Emilio of Company E published a reflective history of the 54th, A Brave Black Regiment… (1894), which is partially available on Google Books. HistoryNet, as mentioned in this previous post, has also published a background article on 54th regimental history that originally appeared in the October 2000 issue of American History magazine.
Members of the 54th who resided in Pennsylvania include:
Sergeant William Harvey Carney of Company C (1840-1908): received a Medal of Honor in 1900 for keeping the regiment’s colors from falling to the ground after Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was shot during the assault on Fort Wagner, the earliest African-American action to be recognized with a Medal of Honor.
Private John Henson of Company C (1843-1880): reassigned to the Ordinance Department of his regiment from November 1864 to February 1865.
Private George Ellender of Company G (1830- ): wounded on February 20, 1864 during the Battle of Olustee, Florida.
Sergeant Albanus S. Fisher of Company I (1831- ): became a district deputy grand master in 1867 of the First Independent African Chapter of North American (the black freemasons) in Pennsylvania.
Private George Brummzig of Company I (1843- ): buried in the Zion Union Cemetery in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Private Jacob Christy of Company I (1844- ): wounded on July 18, 1863 during the assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina.
Private Wesley Krunkleton of Company K (1839-1902): wounded just above right knee in the engagement on James Island on July 16, 1863.
Private John Shirk of Company K (1843-1913): wounded in foot when helping to remove a canon near Mount Pleasant by Charles City, South Carolina in August 1865.
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Mary Braxton
This profile was published in “Grand Review Times: A Call for the Descendants of USCT Troops from Camp William Penn 1863 to the Harrisburg Grand Review, 1865,” a supplement that appeared in the March 22, 2010 issue of ShowcaseNow! Magazine. ““Grand Review Times” is avalible for download as a PDF file here. (Adobe Reader must be installed on your computer in order to read this document.)
Mary Braxton has been a lifelong resident of Harrisburg and counts at least four veterans of the United States Colored Troops among her ancestors. Ms. Braxton is a graduate of John Harris High School and the Thompson Business College. She worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare for 35 years and is looking forward to a family reunion in July that will tell her even more, she hopes, about the ancestors who fought in the battles and skirmishes of the Civil War.
In particular, she is interested in her great-great grandfather, George Hezekiah Imes, who was born October 8, 1844 in Franklin County. Ms. Braxton learned that his family moved to Lehigh County when George Hezekiah was a toddler and in 1862 the family purchased a farm there. Soon after he was permitted to, her great-great grandfather enlisted at White Hall with the Lehigh 43rd and served in Company D as a sergeant. Among his military records she found evidence he was an eyewitness at Appomattox Courthouse when the treaty was signed to end the war. Following the surrender, she recounts, her ancestor was sent to the Mexican border on the Rio Grande River to monitor the movements of French troops. He was mustered out of the service on October 20, 1865 in Brownsville, Texas.
This veteran had a bright and hopeful outlook and followed opportunity wherever it took him. In 1886 during duties as a school teacher and a principal in Steelton he threw his hat in the ring for the state lieutenant governor, because, Ms. Braxton, says, he was told that a black man should have a role in the state government. He was visiting his parents in Juniata County, she says, when he died unexpectedly on August 24, 1892. Continue reading