Individual Stories

USCT Veteran – John Aquilla Wilson

A recent article published in the York Daily Record featured a veteran who served in Company B of the 32nd United States Colored Troops. John Aquilla Wilson grew up in York County, Pennsylvania and enlisted in February 8, 1864. After the Civil War, Wilson’s granddaughter “recalled that they used to go to Gettysburg every year so he could participate in a parade that honored Civil War veterans.” According to reporter Teresa Ann Boeckel, Wilson “lived to be 101 years old [and was] one of the last surviving Civil War veterans in York County.” The full article is available here. You can read more about Wilson on the York Town Square blog and in Wilson’s profile on House Divided.

Individual Stories

Men such as Martin R. Delany, a longtime resident of Pittsburgh and the first black major in the Union Army, had life stories as inspiring as any in American history. Yet so many of the African American patriots of the Civil War era and their families remain unknown. Even Delany, who was one of the most extraordinary men of the nineteenth century –a doctor, newspaper editor, novelist, activist, army officer, and political figure– remains largely obscure. This section offers a starting point for the study of some of the great biographies in nineteenth-century America.

100 Voices

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.

3rd USCT

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.

6th USCT

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.

8th USCT

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.

22nd USCT

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.

24th USCT

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.

25th USCT

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.

27th USCT

Samuel Gardner served in the 27th United States Colored Troops Regiment.

32nd USCT

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.

37th USCT

Ephraim Slaughter served in the 37th United States Colored Troops Regiment.

41st USCT

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.

43rd USCT

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.

45th USCT

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

127th USCT

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.

5th Mass. Cav.

These men served in the 5th Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry –

Aquila Amos
James H. Bronson
Lewis Bronson

54th Massachusetts

These men served in the 54th Massachusetts –

55th Massachusetts

These men served in the 55th Massachusetts –

Other

Nichollas Biddle
Martin Robison Delany
Enoch Ferguson
Joseph Hoopes
Levi Hood

Anita Talks Genealogy

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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Descendants’ Profiles – Mary Braxton

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 →

Descendants’ Profiles – Alisha Sanders

Alisha Sanders

Alisha Sanders was born in Gettysburg and grew up there developing an interest in genealogy when she was in the ninth grade.

“At the time,” she said recently from her home telephone, “Gettysburg College was offering a special program with my high school and I enrolled. “And I have been bitten by the history bug ever since,” she confesses.

Ms. Saunders’ great-great grandfather William H. Matthews was a son of Edward Matthews, a known Underground Railroad operator. William lied about his age, she tells in recalling the story of his life, and enlisted with Company I of the 127th Pennsylvania in September, 1864. It is assumed he signed up for the Army at Camp William Penn in Philadelphia. He was mustered out at Bravos Santiago, Texas on September 8, 1865. Continue reading →

Descendants’ Profiles – Darlene Colon

Abraham Quamony

Darlene Colon lives and breathes history. Her work hours as well as her leisure hours are filled with historical matters. She has found through her research that the stories of her family are woven into dozens of stories putting them directly into the main stream of Pennsylvania and American history.

It was not long after the list of 100 USCT Veterans was posted, one worker noted recently, that Ms. Colon found one of her ancestors and was able to piece together his story with things she already knew about eight or nine other ancestors she had traced through records in archives and libraries and other places where she could find creditable sources.

A resident of Lancaster, Ms. Colon is a member of the Pennsylvania Past Players, a living history group created by the Cultural and Heritage Tourism Office of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Tourism. In this group of highly-trained, professional actors Ms. Colon portrays the renowned Lydia Hamilton Smith, the “colored woman” who lived with Thaddeus Stevens (dying, incidentally with an estate of roughly a half million dollars, Continue reading →

Descendants’ Profiles – Christopher Frisby

Historic Marker in Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Mercersburg, PA

Christopher Frisby, a native of Mercersburg, is a descendant of a number of soldiers who served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Among them is his great-great-great grandfather, Hezekia Watson who served as a member of Company I of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. This is the regiment spotlighted in the film, Glory, starring Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington. Watson was wounded in the Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863, the same battle chronicled in the film. Born in Mercersburg, Watson also died there and was buried in the town’s African American burial ground, Zion Union Cemetery, a three-acre property in the Franklin County community that rests along the Mason-Dixon Line. The cemetery was incorporated in 1876, and was funded in part by the pension funds earned by Mercersburg’s USCT veterans. 38 USCT Civil War veterans are buried here and records show that 13 of these men served in the 54th Massachusetts.

Frisby holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and relates that his other great-great-great grandfather buried at Zion Union, Robert Henry Stoner, Sr., was a member of the U.S. Colored Infantry. Stoner was born in 1838 and served in Company F of the 8th U.S. Colored Volunteer Infantry. He was discharged as a corporal on June 24, 1865. He is also related to Thomas Cuff who served in the 54th Massachusetts and William Cuff who served in the 55th Massachusetts.

Frisby has been one of the leaders in the conservation effort to bring a proper dignity back to the Cemetery and has worked with many other local people including boy scouts and girl scouts to improve the site partly as a memorial to this Continue reading →

Descendants’ Profiles – Anthony Taylor

Anthony Taylor

Anthony Taylor, a software computer engineer living in Coatesville, feels a definite responsibility in the knowledge he carries about with him as a descendant of a soldier in the United States Colored Troops.

“I started out with just a little information passed on by the family,” Taylor said recently while discussing his ancestor, Solomon Butcher, “And I was able to grow from there – to add to it, and to help preserve the story and pass it on.”

Taylor is quick to credit his wife, Dr. LaTonya Thames Taylor, with spurring his interest in his family history and helping him to mine the resources available. His wife, a professor of history at West Chester University, is a scholar, or lead instructor, in the Live and Learn program sponsored by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage Tourism, a high intensity learning seminar that combines reading, discussion and analysis with fun and recreation and travel.

Anthony Taylor’s great-great grandfather Butcher enrolled in the army at Lancaster on January 4, 1864, he learned, and served in the 25th Regiment, Company A. Born in 1844, Butcher was 20 years old when he entered the Army and after his service he lived a full life, dying Continue reading →

Alexander Kelly and the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm

Alexander Kelly was an African-American Civil War soldier who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was born on April 7, 1840 in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania and worked as a coal miner prior to his involvement in the war. On August 19, 1863 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania he enlisted in Company F of the 6th United States Colored Troops Regiment as a substitute for someone named Joseph Kelly. He was originally trained at Camp William Penn in Chelten Hills, Pennsylvania. Although Kelly was small in stature, standing at only about 5 feet 3 inches tall, he was commended for his actions at Chaffin’s Farm in Henrico County, Virginia on September 29-30, 1864. The National Park Service’s website includes a brief summary on the battle at Chaffin’s Farm (also known as New Market Heights) that includes how Union Major General Benjamin Butler attacked General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate forces at Richmond. A more detailed description of the battle at Chaffin’s Farm is provided in “Pennsylvania Negro Regiments in the Civil War .” Kelly was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor on April 6, 1865 for his bravery and leadership at Chaffin’s Farm. General Benjamin Butler noted in an order issued on October 11, 1864:

“Alexander Kelly, first sergeant Company F, Sixth U.S. Colored Troops, gallantly seized the colors, which had fallen near the enemy’s lines of abatis, raised them, and rallied the men at a time of confusion and in a place of great danger.”

Another resource that may be interesting to browse is Black Union Soldier’s in the Civil War which has a valuable list detailing all the Black Union Recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Kelly was “mustered out” of service in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1865. After the war, Kelly married his wife Victoria on July 30, 1866, and the two had a son named William in January 1867. He served as a night watchman for the Pittsburgh Police before his death on June 19, 1907. Kelly is buried in St. Peters Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.