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In the News: “Death of a Brave Colored Soldier”, Pvt. Charles W. Taylor, 6th USCI

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The Anglo-African, August 6, 1864

DEATH OF A BRAVE COLORED SOLDIER.

MR. JOHN GRIMAGE, of Allegheny City, Pa., sends us the following letter, which was sent by Capt. Shedon, of the 6th Regiment U. S. Colored Troops, to Mrs. Joanna Taylor, of said city, describing the circumstances under which her son was killed in an action near Petersburg:

SPRING HILL, Va., June 19, 1864.

     MRS. JOANNA TAYLOR – My Dear Madam: Day before yesterday, Gen. Gilmore made a reconnaissance towards Petersburg, with a force of which our regiment was a part. We left camp the night before; went as far as our picket lines; laid down until the morning, and at daybreak started for Petersburg.… Read more

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Benjamin Vann, 24th United States Colored Infantry: “please have it corected sose eye can get my pay”

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Soon after private Benjamin Vann of the 24th USCI enlisted in Allegheny City in February 1864, the provost marshal of Harrisburg detailed the private to serve as a cook. Vann first worked at Pennsylvania’s Twenty-third Congressional District headquarters, then at Camp Reynolds near Pittsburgh. Almost eleven months later, Vann joined his regiment at Camp William Penn as a member of Company B. At some point that summer, he discovered that the time he labored before January 5, 1865, had not been counted towards his three-year military enlistment period.

Benjamin Vann, 24 USCI, enlistment papers

In early April, 1865, Vann sought assistance from James W. Kirker, the provost marshal of the Twenty-third Congressional District.… Read more

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In the News: Capt. O. S. B. Wall, 104th USCI, an African American Commissioned Officer Writes to His Hometown Newspaper

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Capt. O.S.B. Wall, 104th U.S. Colored Troops
From Joseph T. Wilson’s The Black Phalanx: African American Soldiers in the War of Independence, the War of 1812 & the Civil War

The Lorain County News, Oberlin, Ohio
July 19, 1865

Letter from Capt. O.S.B. Wall
PORT ROYAL, S.C.,
June 24th, 1865.

EDITOR OF THE NEWS, OBERLIN, O.:

I have thought for some time that it might not be amiss to drop you a line, with reference to myself since I arrived in this department, and to say something of other matters that may be of interest to a few of your many patrons.

About the 1st of last April, I was ordered to Savannah, Ga.,… Read more

In the News: Capt. O. S. B. Wall, 104th USCI, an African American Commissioned Officer Writes to His Hometown Newspaper Read More »

USCT in Lawrence County, Ohio

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Over Memorial Day weekend I will be speaking in Lawrence County, Ohio, about the 27th USCI in Ohio. The General William H. Lytle Camp #10 Department of Ohio Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War is holding a ceremony to recognize the installation of new government headstones at the W.D. Kelly cemetery in Ironton. The two soldiers, John Evans and Jefferson Finley, served in the 27th USCI, and some of their descendants will be in attendance.

Here is a list of Black men who lived in Lawrence County before, during, and/or after the war. I will continue to update this list.… Read more

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Rest in Peace Private Lewis Powell, 30th US Colored Infantry

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In July 2019 after a week researching USCT pensions at the National Archives, I spent a Saturday morning at the Hampton National Cemetery in Virginia. The heat was unbearable even at 7:30 a.m., and the sunscreen in my eyes had me frustrated. But I reminded myself to remember where I was and just how much the men there had suffered and sacrificed for our nation.

Headstone of Lewis Powell, 30th US Colored Troops, at Hampton National Cemetery
Photograph by author

Men like Lewis Powell, buried in Hampton Section E. In the spring of 1864, the 30-year-old laborer enrolled in Frederick, Maryland, as a drafted soldier.  On June 14, Powell mustered into Company A, 30th United States Colored Infantry, for a three-year term.… Read more

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