Remembering African Americans in the Civil War
Veterans Day, November 11, honors the men and women who served in our nation’s military. This issue of Common Sense reports on contributions by African Americans to the U.S. military in the Civil War, especially the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Not surprisingly, there were numerous members of the USCT from the Eastern Shore.
More than 200,000 African American men served in the Union armed forces after President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in late 1863. One of the provisions of the proclamation was to accept Black men into the Union Army and Navy.
Recruitment efforts were aimed at enslaved men who — given the promise of freedom after the war — chose the risks of the battlefield. According to Black Soldiers in the Civil War, by Rick Beard, published by the National Park Service, the former masters of slaves who enlisted were paid $300 by the government, below the usual market price.
While at first many Black soldiers were assigned non-combat roles, such as constructing fortifications or serving as cooks or laborers, it wasn’t long before they were bearing arms and fighting in important battles. Beard writes, “Units of the USCT fought in 449 engagements, 39 of which were major battles.”
Notable was the July 1864 Battle of the Crater near Petersburg, Va., where a number of Kent County soldiers fought. Many Black soldiers died in that battle because of disastrous misjudgment by Union commanders. As at the earlier battle at Fort Pillow in Tennessee, Black soldiers were massacred by the Confederates after their capture. Other Black captives found themselves enslaved with new Southern owners. In all, over 40,000 Black Union soldiers were killed in battle or died of disease.
The records of most of the Black soldiers and sailors of the Civil War are on file in the National Archives. There are also numerous local institutions dedicated to preserving their memory. On the Eastern Shore, there is Chestertown’s Sumner Hall — originally the Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 25, a lodge for Black Civil War veterans from Kent County. Restored over a 13-year period and reopened in 2014, Sumner Hall is one of two remaining GAR posts established for USCT veterans. According to its website, Maryland fielded seven regiments of the United States Colored Troops, and more than 500 African Americans from Kent County volunteered or were conscripted into the Union forces.
To put that number in perspective, the U.S. Census for 1860 — the last before the start of the Civil War — reports Kent County’s population at 13,267, including 3,118 Black males, about 1,200 of whom were enslaved. While about 1,000 of them were under 15 years old, many of those younger men were old enough to fight by the end of the war. Overall, it appears as if 20% of the Black men from Kent who were old enough to fight for the Union did so. Significant numbers of Blacks served from all the Eastern Shore counties — probably several thousand.
Recently, the story of Isaac Copper — a USCT soldier from Talbot County who was mentioned by Frederick Douglass in his autobiography — has been in the news. He figures prominently in a book by two of his descendants. Kin: Rooted in Hope, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by her son Jeffrey. They traced their family history to Unionville, a town in Talbot County founded during Reconstruction by 18 USCT veterans, including Copper. A 2017 article in Smithsonian Magazine said it is believed to be the only town in the U.S. founded by formerly enslaved soldiers. Before joining the USCT, Copper was enslaved at Wye House, the same plantation as Douglass. You can hear the Weatherfords, interviewed by Tom Hall, talk about their book on WYPR’s Midday.
Of course, the role of Harriet Tubman — who escaped slavery in Dorchester County to become a leading abolitionist and Underground Railroad “conductor” — is well known. Not as well known is that during the war, Tubman not only served in the army as a nurse, but as a spy, a scout, and the leader of a dramatic raid to free slaves in South Carolina. She was the first woman in American history known to lead troops into battle.
Frederick Douglass, also an Eastern Shore native, was a recruiting agent for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first regiment of Black soldiers raised in the north.
The Confederate army also had Black men who accompanied their owners, not as combat soldiers but as personal servants, cooks, and in other support roles such as laborer.
While there were no significant actions fought on the Eastern Shore during the Civil War, the United States Colored Troops from the region played roles in many of the battles elsewhere. It’s good to know that institutions like Sumner Hall and writers like the Weatherfords are preserving and promoting this important part of our history.
On Veterans Day, we salute all our veterans.
Sources and more information:
U.S. National Archives
https://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war
Rick Beard, Black Soldiers in the Civil War, National Park Service
Natalie Hopkinson, “After the Civil War, African American Veterans Created a Home of Their Own: Unionville,” Smithsonian Magazine, Sept. 2017
Jacqueline Simmons Hedburg, Plantations, Slavery & Freedom on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, The History Press
Shayne Davidson, Civil War Soldiers; Discovering the Men of the 25th United States Colored Troops, self-published
Peter Heck is a Chestertown-based writer and editor, who spent 10 years at the Kent County News and three more with the Chestertown Spy. He is the author of 10 novels and co-author of four plays, a book reviewer for Asimov’s and Kirkus Reviews, and an incorrigible guitarist.
Jane Jewell is a writer, editor, photographer, and teacher. She has worked in news, publishing, and as the director of a national writer's group. She lives in Chestertown with her husband Peter Heck, a ginger cat named Riley, and a lot of books.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
