Ever since the official end of the American Civil War in 1865, writers have attempted, some successfully, to portray the role of black troops in the Union Army. The Negro in the American Rebellion, by William Wells Brown,(1867), A History of Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, by George Washington Williams, (1888), and The Black Phalanx, by Joseph T. Williams,(1888), are but three of the earlier works which adequately set forth black participation in the Civil War by writers who were actually there. Of more recent vintage are The Sable Arm, by Dudley Taylor Cornish,(1956) and Forged in Battle, by Joseph T. Glatthaar,(1990).

These works and many more on the subject of black soldiers very clearly show the depth of investigation into the particular subject matter. But the study of individual participation, with the exception of heroes, has also clearly been lacking.

Geographically, Camden County, New Jersey in 1860 was much like it is today. The City of Camden lay across the Delaware River from Philadelphia but with access by boat or ferry only; the surrounding areas were mostly farmlands. The county's progress in industry and urban development took great strides decades after 1860 due in part to the coming of the railroad as well as to the founding of Campbell Soups and R.C.A. in Camden City, and to the development and expansion of diverse industries. Black and white communities existed side by side in the county for more than one hundred years.

The borough of Lawnside, known earlier as Freehaven or Snow Hill was a primarily black community located adjacent to Haddonfield and less than ten miles from the City of Camden. The City of Camden itself had areas such as Stockton, Kaighnville, Fettersville, where black residents lived and worked.

A sense of what Camden County community life might have been like during the Civil War can be gleaned from reading Prowell's history but mostly as it pertains to white community life. A much better barometer to use to understand the time are the two local newspapers which served the county, the Camden Democrat and the West Jersey Press. The Democrat was known as a "Copperhead" newspaper, having a pro-Southern slant. The word "Copperhead", was defined as a person or group in the Northern states who sympathized with the South.

Although clearly against the Lincoln Administration and its management of the War, the Democrat was also vigorously against the abolition movement and the Negro in general printing anti-black rhetoric on a frequent basis.Every opportunity to attack the abolitionists in print was liberally taken in bold headlines.

For example, the November 1, 1862 edition concerned the Administration's appeal for support of the Emancipation Proclamation which would be issued after the first of the new year. In large, bold black print, three times larger than standard print under the headline, "Negro Influx", the Democrat stated:
"Mr. Frelighuysen, the Attorney General, in speeches at Woodbury and Bridgeton, appealed to farmers to support the Proclamation and the War, solely because they would result in freeing hundreds of thousands of slaves, who would flock to the North and work for almost nothing.... How do laboring men like the prospect of the competition, and working cheek by jowl with the negro? Still it is the very degradation of white labor for which the Abolitionists have been so long contending!"

The Democrat frequently printed articles for its readers in an apparent effort to degrade the local black population. Articles such as the following could be found in many editions in 1863: 'Tarred and Feathered", We learn by the Bergen Co. Democrat, that the people of Acquackanonk feeling themselves scandalized by the fact that a free American of 'African scent' and a white woman were living together in that place as man and wife, tarred and feathered the negro and compelled the 'happy pair' to depart."

In direct contrast to the Democrat, the West Jersey Press took a pro-Union stance but with a liberal, non-sensational approach supporting the Administration. Contending with the anti-War antagonism of the New Jersey legislature, the Press took every opportunity to upgrade and support black efforts for equality. In addition to reporting on the gallantry of black soldiers in battle, the Press also reported on black visitors to the county such as this article in the August12,1863 edition:

"Our city was visited yesterday by a large number of Americans of African descent on an excursion from Wilmington. They were well disposed and conducted themselves in an orderly manner so far as our observation extended."

When President Lincoln's call to arms came to Camden County in 1861, both the black and white communities responded; only white recruits were accepted. Government Army recruiters and patriotic citizens of the county held meetings in the public halls of Camden City calling for enlistments and offering bounties to sign up. At such a meeting in the county courthouse held on April 18, 1861, military units with names such as the Washington Grays, Stockton Cadets, Camden Zouaves and Union Guards marched in uniform to the cheers of the crowds. Men were signing up by the hundreds, but when the blue uniforms were issued, only white recruits were allowed to receive them and the black men were told to go home with the expression, in principle, "This is a white man's war."'

Sentiment changed however, and the black soldier became a reality but not without many hardships along the way. Camden County's black community was a microcosm of hundreds of other black communities throughout the north whose men wished to go to war.

The Matter of Slavery

There appears to be much legitimate debate as to the introduction of slavery in the New World. This is understood to have occurred in 1501 or 1502, the slaves being brought into Hispaniola by the Spanish. As early as 1900, John R. Spears posed the question of when in his work, The American SlaveTrade. Spears recounted from the records of John Rolfe, the Englishman who married the Indian maiden, Pocahontas, that "a dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars came to Jamestown late in August, 1619."

The Jamestown incident was apparently what history at that time was calling the introduction of slavery, yet a few pages later, Spears raises the question of whether these slaves were the first when he states, "We know the Spanish traded in slaves and the settlement in Florida existed before Jamestown.

Peter Menendez, who held a commission of the King of Spain landed at St. Augustine on September 8, 1565. He undoubtedly had negro slaves in his party. Although many historians continued to follow the Jamestown theory for the introduction of slavery such as Randall and Donald in their work, The Civil War and Reconstruction, others such as Herbert S. Klein and Ivan Van Sertima expounded upon the pre-1619 idea of the Spanish "slavers." Klein in his work, Slavery in the Americas, spends much time describing the Spanish conquistadors and how they usurped the sanction of the Crown and without authority sought conquest. Klein says that, " Velazquez, for one, invaded Hispaniola shortly after Columbus and outfitted his private army of conquest for Cuba from the wealth he acquired in Hispaniola."(see 3)

Relying on the premise that the Spanish used Negro and Indian slaves and had invaded Cuba and Florida long before the colonial period, Ivan Van Sertima stated in his work, African Presence in Early America, that the first Negro slaves were brought into Hispaniola in 1502.(see 4) Taking the theory one step beyond, Van Sertima argues in They Came Before Columbus, that there was an African presence in the New World before Columbus, but this argument is of course the subject of debate.

There is agreement therefore, that the Spanish brought African slaves into North America as part of their exploratory expeditions in the 16th Century. The dates 1501-02 are important as the beginning of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Of similar or even greater importance is the arrival of 20 black slaves in Jamestown in 1619. Properly speaking, this is the beginning of African - American history.

Since 1619, there has been an uninterrupted presence of African-Americans in this country. Present-day African-Americans have a link or connection to this group of twenty; there has been a continuous presence of Blacks on what is today the soil of the United States ever since 1639.

As a "peculiar institution" in the colonial period, slavery existed in the northern colonies as well as the southern colonies. The plantation society in the South required large numbers of slaves to function at a profit; by the time of the Civil War, there were nearly four million blacks in bondage in the South and another quarter million whose rights were so circumscribed that, for them, the expression "free black" was truly a contradiction in terms.(see 5)

The sale and trading of slaves throughout the colonies, contributed strongly to a mentality that considered Negroes inferior; this carried over to a negative attitude in regard to black participation as Civil War recruits. By 1860, sincere notions of racial inferiority pervaded the North as well as the South. (see 6) These "notions" were of long standing and had been apparent in the military profession for years.

An Act of the General Assembly of Virginia on January 6, 1639, stated that "All persons except Negroes were to be provided with arms and ammunition." (see 7) As early as 1652 the Massachusetts Colony passed a law requiring all blacks to undergo military training for the defense of the colony but repealed it four years later out of fear of an armed slave revolt.(see 8)

On the other hand, on November 3, 1668, the General Assembly of the Province of New Jersey passed an Act similar to that of Virginia but did not exempt Negroes .(see 9) A shortage of manpower, namely white, did create instances wherein black men served in colonial militias especially in wartime. For example, in the South Carolina Yamasee Indian War of 1715, more than 400 blacks served as combat militiamen for that colony. Even after the War's end, South Carolina continued to enlist blacks in her colonial militia for many years.(see 10)

By the time of the American Revolution attitudes appeared to have changed. Records show that both slaves and free blacks fought with Generals Edward Braddock and George Washington in the French and Indian War, 1753. In 1780, a petition was filed in Massachusetts for a casualty payment and pension resulting from the French and Indian conflict on behalf of George Gire, a Negro man living in Grafton, Massachusetts.(see 11) The records also reflect that the Board of Governors of the Colonies were reporting to the Board of Trade the number of Negroes living in the respective colonies on a regular basis from about 1715 onward. In 1715, the total number of Negroes reported was 58,850. The Province of New Jersey reported 1500, both free and slave.(see12) By the eve of the Revolutionary War, there were 501,102 blacks living within the thirteen colonies; New Jersey reported 7,600 blacks, both free and slave. Many of them played important roles in the early days of the young nation's struggle.

A free black man, Crispus Attucks, was among the mortally wounded in the Boston Massacre. According to the Journals of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts 1774-75, a black man named Prince was wounded fighting with the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington, April 19,1775. A short time later, Peter Salem, a young black man who had only recently purchased his freedom, fired the shot which killed Major John Pitcairn, at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Pitcairn had given the order to the British troops to fire on the Minutemen at Lexington. (see 13)

Despite their early involvement in the war, Washington ordered colonial recruiters not to enlist blacks. On the other hand, John Murray, governor of Virginia, offered freedom to those slaves who would serve the Loyalist cause and raised a force known as Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. Alarmed, Continental Army recruiters began to enlist free Negroes.

Interestingly, while only some 5,000 of 300,000 Revolutionary soldiers were black, two, Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell, crossed the Delaware with Washington on Christmas Eve, 1776. In John Trumbull's famous painting of the event, Whipple is shown pulling an oar. Cromwell, history says, was a Burlington County freeman who served in the Continental Line's Second New Jersey Regiment from 1777 through 1783. After crossing the Delaware River with Washington's troops, Cromwell fought in numerous engagements including the famous Battle of Monmouth and survived on a pension until 1853 when he died still a resident of New Jersey.(see 14)

Blacks, it seemed, were integrated;the seven brigades of Washington's army in 1778 averaged 54 blacks soldiers each. (see 15) An entire regiment of black freemen was raised for the Continental Army on Staten Island, New York, according to the American Archives,(5th Series, Vol.l), and, although most African Americans served in the New England Continental regiments, even New Jersey began recruiting "all able bodied men not being slaves" in 1777. Blacks were also used effectively as spies by the Continental Army. The most notable was Pompey Lamb, who opened the way for the capture of Stoney Point by General Anthony Wayne, on July 15, 1779.(see16)

At the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 28,1778, more than seven hundred black soldiers fought side by side with white soldiers to achieve victory against British forces. (see 17) With such a framework of patriotic participation behind them in our young nation's struggle for independence, the black population of our country probably expected a brighter future. Old ways do not change easily; within a short time after the end of the Revolutionary War blacks were again barred from serving in state militias. The Federal Militia Act of 1792, echoing the previous colonial laws, permitted only "male white citizens" of a certain age to enroll in the militia. The Federal Militia Act, as well as the New Jersey Act which followed it, were both violated "through the back door" since both slaves and free black men were informally attached to militia units serving in the capacity of musicians,laborers and servants.

In less than twenty years the dark clouds of war again hung over the young nation and the need for fighting men changed attitudes again. In 1812, it was clear that blacks were not considered the equal of whites in America but the threat of war soon found African- Americans back in military blue. New Jersey enrolled more than 100 black men as"waiters", allowing them to draw pay as privates for the War of 1812. Other states, such as New York, actually raised two black regiments during the War of 1812 with black soldiers also serving in Pennsylvania and Maryland.(see 18)

The attitude of inequality did not stop General Andrew Jackson from seeking wartime aid from the free blacks in the Louisiana Territory. Without official consent from the government, Jackson issued a proclamation to the free blacks of Louisiana: Through a mistaken policy you have heretofore been deprived of a participation in the glorious struggle for national rights in which our country is engaged. This no longer shall exist. As sons of freedom you are now called upon to defend our most inestimable blessing. As Americans your country looks with confidence to her adopted children for a valorous support, as a faithful return for the advantages enjoyed under her mild and equitable government.(see 19)

Jackson felt strongly that the policy of ignoring black manpower in wartime was a mistaken indulgence only for the maddest of bigots. However wryly Louisiana's blacks may have read between the lines of Jackson's proclamation, they responded positively. Black troops held a strategic position in his defense force.The end of the War of 1812, again brought an end to black inclusion in the United States Army. Black soldiers in Jackson's service often waited long periods to receive payment for their services; some never received any. The failure to pay these troops prompted Jackson to demand of the Army paymaster: "Is it not enough for you to receive my orders for the payment of necessary muster roll without inquiring whether the troops are white, black or tea?"

Later, the United States War Department, issued an order to ensure that black service in the Army did not become official" The Army in 1820, had specifically forbade enlisting Negroes. This was accomplished in a General Order, dated February 18, 1820: ..."No Negro or Mullato will be received as a recruit of the Army..."(see 21) With the official 1820 directive in place, the next forty years saw no potential for black service in the U.S. Army. While the Mexican War proved a vast training ground for future Civil War soldiers such as Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant, and hundreds of others both North and South, with the exception of porters or grave-diggers, the appearance of a black face in an army camp was practically non-existent.

As the question of slavery began to hold the nation's attention, the movement to abolish slavery began to grow amid fervid passion. Anti-Slavery societies were formed throughout Northern and Southern states, religious leaders preached abolition from the pulpits. Abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison printed vitriolic anti-slavery sentiments in newspapers circulated in all the states. Garrison, himself, was at the heart of the movement in Boston. In 1831, Garrison founded The Liberator in order to circulate his feelings about slavery.

Others, such as John Brown, raised the sword in the name of abolition as opposed to the pen. A self-proclaimed avenging angel against slavery, Brown moved from Massachusetts to Kansas to the Pennsylvania/Maryland mountains where he formulated his infamous plan to raid the Harper's Ferry Arsenal in Virginia. With violence and bloodshed in mind if needed, Brown was intent on arming the slaves and causing a premature emancipation by force of arms. A U.S. Marine detachment commanded by then Colonel Robert E. Lee, captured Brown and his band after a short fight which thereafter led to Brown's conviction for treason and his hanging on December 2, 1859.

Brown's action however became a rallying cry for abolition. The Abolition Movement had many diverse forms; the best known were the slave rescuing missions. Known as "freedom routes'' or the "underground railroad", these abolitionist efforts brought escaped slaves north or to free states, giving slaves shelter and access and the possibility of complete freedom; they ran as far north as Canada. One of the major routes of the "underground railroad" cut directly across what was then Camden County at a place known at that time as Freehaven, then Snow Hill, later Lawnside. Supported by abolitionist-Quakers in the areas of Haddonfield and Moorestown, the locale thrived as a resting place and home for hundreds of runaway slaves and free slaves years before the outbreak of the Civil War. By then it was already a well established settlement, with churches, schools and shops.

Apparently the time was right for group action. Prejudice had too long stifled the black man's right to self-fulfillment and personal development and he yearned for the freedom to learn and improve and to attain a better life for himself and his family. For well over a hundred years, slave labor provided the bulk of skilled, as well as unskilled, labor on the southern plantations. Many slaves had been trained as bricklayers, coopers, shoemakers, black and whitesmiths, carpenters, masons, tanners, weavers, tailors and in many instances, gunsmiths.

It was the gunsmith trained slaves that nearly succeeded in arming a full scale slave revolt in South Carolina in 1739. They repaired many broken arms stolen from an arsenal and distributed these to other liberated slaves. The South Carolina Militia engaged the slave army and met with heavy resistance before overcoming them.(see 22) Incidents like this and the other bloody slave insurrections like those led by Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey although striking hard blows at the institution of slavery also created fear in the white population. The thought of armed blacks in and of itself created the emotion of fear in the southern mentality. With the birth of the Abolition Movement a vehicle with white and black coloration was created to accomplish with the word and pen what guns had been unable to do. With white and free black backing, the Movement would strike continual blows at the institution of slavery and a chance to prove himself as a man would be the black man's next obstacle.(see 23)

As the dark clouds of Civil War began to shade the countryside, the fervent cries of the Abolition Movement reached a high pitch. Frederick Douglass, a former Maryland slave, with a back scarred from the lash, secretly educated by previous owners, issued a monthly periodical in Rochester, New York. He called for the enlistment of blacks in the armed services of the Union and an official end to slavery. Douglass continued at every opportunity to carry forward the banner of black inclusion in the military. However, it became apparent to Douglass in 1861 that the country was just not ready to call the black man for help and he so stated, "Until the nation shall repent of this weakness and folly, until they shall make the cause of their country the cause of freedom, until they shall strike down slavery, the source and center of this gigantic rebellion, they don't deserve the support of a single sable arm, nor will it succeed in crushing the cause of our present troubles". (see 24)

As eloquent as Frederick Douglass was in his passion for the abolition of slavery and the enlistment of black soldiers in the Union Army, President Abraham Lincoln was equally eloquent in his opposition. Lincoln's greatest concern during the early days of the Civil War was to keep the sensitive Border States -Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware and parts of Virginia loyal to the Union, and to prevent their secession. One way to retain the loyalty of those Union men and slaveholders was to quiet their fears of invading abolitionist armies bearing emancipation on their bayonets. (see 25)

Nonetheless, many Union commanders used the services of blacks to counter the thousands of slaves who were employed by the Confederacy in labor regiments to free white men for fighting. Often, however, War Department and Presidential directive ended the initial employment of blacks. There was a great difference of opinion on the subject between Union officers; General Benjamin Butler, freely employed both free and "contraband" blacks in Army service. General Henry W. Halleck, issued General Order No. 3, directing that no fugitives "be hereafter permitted to enter the lines of any camp or any forces on the march, and that any now within such lines be immediately excluded therefrom." (see 26 )

In essence, Halleck's order returned the "contraband" who had escaped back to the slaveholder. Abolitionists were exerting pressure for acceptance of blacks into the military service. Lincoln took every opportunity to avoid the issue so as not to incite the Border States into secession. As the petitions for Negro enlistment increased and became more insistent, it became clear that the Lincoln Administration had to respond. Secretary of War Simon Cameron, advised that since recruiting had been turned over to the states, demands for colored regiments must be presented to the governors of the respective states.(see 27)

Unfortunately, Cameron's statement did not sit well with Lincoln. Appointed to the position only because of the support from Pennsylvania given Lincoln's election, Cameron's independent course in responding to the black enlistment issue embarrassed the President. Lincoln immediately took advantage of a House of Representatives censure of Cameron for being involved in a corruption ridden army contracts scandal and appointed him Minister to Russia in January, 1862. His statement did, however, give clear evidence of the overly cautious attitude regarding the black enlistment problem that followed in the Capitol. Lincoln now followed Cameron's new appointment by appointing Edwin Stanton as the new Secretary of War. The abolitionist pressure for a change in attitude in regard to Negro enlistment did not let up on the Administration after the appointment of Stanton.

On July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act which gave the President discretionary power to use Negro soldiers.(see 28) With the door now open, in September, Lincoln announced his emancipation program and the movement to enlist blacks as soldiers began in earnest in Kansas, Louisiana and South Carolina. On the same day, the 37th Congress also passed the Militia Act, which enabled the President to receive Negroes into the service and set their pay at ten dollars per month.(see 29) This was three dollars less than white privates in the Union Army were receiving, and it subsequently caused serious morale problems within the black regiments. The Militia Act actually empowered the President to enroll "persons of African descent" for "any war service for which they may be found competent", including service as soldiers.(see 30)

The Administration's prior lack of movement on the issue led to the common belief that the legislation was not intended to arm blacks but to form them into labor battalions and free up white troops for combat. Prior to the action of Congress in July, 1862, a serious attempt had already been made by a commander to enlist black soldiers into the Union Army. In March, 1862, General David Hunter was appointed Commander of the Department of the South, which included South Carolina, and the Sea Islands, Georgia and Florida. In April, 1862, not only did Hunter abolish slavery throughout his department but he also requested of the War Department authority to arm and equip 50,000 blacks for service against the rebels, going so far as to specify the type of musket to be used and creating a distinctive uniform with red pantaloons.

Hunter's first action on the abolition of slavery brought him into direct conflict with President Lincoln who quickly abolished Hunter's abolition as he had done with General John C. Fremont's similar abolition in Missouri in 1861. As to Hunter's request of the War Department to enlist blacks in the Army, the most vigorous complaint came from the U.S. Treasury Department. Treasury officials complained that they needed the slaves to operate the abandoned plantations that they were taking over in the areas of Union control. By August, 1862, with Secretary of War Stanton and the War Department unwilling to recognize and pay the black regiment that Hunter had already raised on the Sea Islands, Hunter disbanded it retaining one company in the service.(see 31)

Hunter's successor, General Rufus Saxton, who took command of the Department of the South in early September, 1862, was successful in getting War Department approval for the formation of a regiment of laborers and soldiers with a pay guarantee. This led to the formation of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers in October,1862.(see 32) Enlistment of blacks as soldiers into the Union Army in Louisiana began on September 27,1862, when General Benjamin F. Butler mustered into service the 1st Louisiana Native Guards (later the 73rd United States Colored Troops). The Confederate Army had, from the outbreak of war, enrolled blacks as laborers, sometimes at gunpoint and under fire from Union troops.(see 33) Few southern blacks or whites advocated enlistment of black freemen and slaves into the Confederate Army. Lower South free people of color petitioned for enlistment and both New Orleans and Mobile enlisted them in Native Guard Units.(see 34)

This was done without official sanction from the Confederate administration at Richmond, Virginia, but labor enrollments continued. Vigorous debate over the use of blacks as soldiers in the Confederate Army went on without letup for nearly the entire length of the War. About one month before the end, the Confederate Congress finally authorized black enlistments which would provide a means for a slave recruit to gain his liberty.(see 35) Few joined the ranks of the failing Confederacy. Confederate General, Howell C. Cobb of Georgia, one of those who steadfastly opposed enlistment of blacks by the Confederate Army, stated, "I think that the proposition to make soldiers of the slaves is the most pernicious idea that has been suggested since the war began. You cannot make soldiers of slaves' or slaves of soldiers. The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end of the revolution. And if slaves seem good soldiers, then our whole theory of slavery is wrong."(see 36)

Black Enlistments

The 1st Louisiana Native Guards was a regiment formed by wealthy free blacks of New Orleans, the ancestors of those blacks who had fought beside Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans. Many were men of means, professionals who paid for the training and equipment of a number of black regiments. At first, the services of these regiments were offered to the Confederacy with the hope that the blacks would earn respect and better treatment. New Orleans and Mobile accepted the offer but these units were never placed near the fighting.

When Butler and the Union Army occupied New Orleans in May, 1862, the black regiments immediately offered their services to the Union Army and it's commander who accepted them into the service. On August 22, 1862, Butler published General Order, No. 63 calling on free colored militiamen of Louisiana to enroll in the Union forces, and enroll they did. By November 24, 1862, three full regiments of the Louisiana Native Guards had been mustered into the Union Army. What was unusual and not to be seen again was that when Butler accepted these units for service, he accepted them with their black officers.

Butler's command of the occupation forces was however brief, and his replacement, Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks, so disapproved of black officers that before long, all black officers in his command had either resigned or had been driven from the service. Although the die had been cast, preparations to raise other all black regiments in South Carolina, Kansas, Massachusetts and Rhode Island (artillery), would have to wait until the pivotal year of 1863.(see 37)

Although no known Camden County black residents served in the Louisiana regiments, the activities of these regiments received local press coverage. Their gallantry was covered in the Press while the Democrat, as expected, only stirred the fires of hatred. The October 10, 1862, edition of the Democrat reported on the execution of two Rhode Island soldiers for refusing to join with a Louisiana regiment. Under the bold headline "Horror! Horror!", it stated: ....This regiment was ordered to be consolidated with the First Louisiana, which is, as we understand it, a Negro regiment. But the men disliked the order, and did not march to the Negro camp....Their eyes were bandaged with red handkerchiefs, and every preparation made for their execution....the signal, the sabre stroke, was for the first platoon, given, and Davis fell over backwards, as it seemed to us killed instantly....Can the mind conceive of any greater deed of horror than the murder of two Rhode Island soldiers for refusing to be consolidated with a nigger regiment!

The Copperheads were having a field day in the available media of the time as word of the Emancipation Proclamation became imminent. David Naar, Editor of the Trenton True American, and leader of New Jersey's Copperhead southern sympathizers, printed article after article preaching racial hatred for the blacks and promulgating conspiracy theories. From the actions of New Jersey's politicians, including Governor Joel Parker, New Jersey's potential ability to greatly assist in the enlistment of black volunteers was dramaticly hampered. It would appear that the Copperhead rantings and the fears they created did in fact have a detrimental effect on New Jersey's movement toward military racial equality. This is evidenced by certain proposed racist legislation of 1863, which included bills forbidding black immigration into the state, banning interracial marraige, etc. None of these bills was ever passed. (see 38)

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation he continued to maintain that "to arm the Negroes would turn 50,000 bayonets against us... that were for us."(see 39) Lincoln retained a vision of a limited role for the black troops, "to garrison stations, and other places".(see 40) However, in the Emancipation Proclamation publicly endorsed the use of Negroes as soldiers.(see 41) Immediately after the issuance of the decree, although diligent efforts were begun to raise colored regiments from all states under Union control, no integrated policy emerged at once. During the first three months of 1863, no standardized strategy vis-a-vis the Negro soldier was promulgated by the Lincoln Administration; grants of authority to enlist blacks into regiments were given piecemeal to the officials of four states.

Louisiana, South Carolina, Rhode Island and Massachusetts started immediately to recruit blacks both within and outside state lines by sending recruiters to the major cities of neighboring states. This caused consternation throughout the North. Each state had a quota of fighting men to supply to the federal government. Agents from one state would go to another to fill the enlistment requirements of their home state provoking complaints from other states that blacks enlisted on their own soil ought to count towards their own quotas.(see 42) The Adjutant General's Office by Special Order 97, March 1, 1863, finally established a board to convene immediately in Washington, "to examine and report upon a system of Tactics for Colored Troops. (see 43)

In this way, confusion and confrontation between the states was avoided. The War Department was to be in charge of all recruiting and a Bureau of Colored Troops to organize and supervise Negro units was established.(see 44) The Union Army hoped to standardize recruitment measures. As a result, the designation "U.S. Colored Troops" gradually replaced more colorful titles such as "Corps d'Afrique" and " Zouaves d'Afrique" which had been used by Louisiana and South Carolina regiments. By using a regular army method of standardization, all black volunteers and draftees, with the exception of the Massachusetts 54th and 55th, and the Connecticut 29th, eventually became the USCT and not state regiments.

Both of these states had already put black regiments in the field and funded them completely and it was politically expedient to let them be. At the same time, Secretary of War Stanton sent authorization to the Governor of Massachusetts to recruit black troops. Within days the recruiting of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers began, not only in that state but in the large cities of all the surrounding states, including Philadelphia.

It was here that Joseph Rice, a 22 year old farmer from Camden County, New Jersey signed up as did John W. Gaines, a 20 year old laborer from *Homestead, New Jersey and Charles Hankerson, a 23 year old farmer from Burlington, New Jersey.* Others, like 39 year old George Farmer, traveled north from Unionville, Pennsylvania to Readville, Massachutetts to enlist. Farmer was promoted to corporal two weeks after he was seriously wounded in the frontal attack on Fort Wagner, S.C., protecting Charleston Harbor on July 18, 1863.

After the War, Farmer settled in Camden County and is buried there in Mt. Pisgah Cemetery. Frederick Douglass began to see his dream coming true. In his March, 1863, publication, Douglass urged: "Stop not now to complain. When the war is over, the country is saved, peace is established, and the black man's rights are secured, as they will be, history with an impartial hand will dispose of that and sundry other questions. Action! Action! not criticism, is the plain duty of this hour. Words are now useful only as they stimulate to blows. The office of speech now is only to point out when, where and how to strike to the best advantage. There is no time to delay"(see 45) Douglass urged enlistment in the 54th Massachusetts.

His two sons, Charles and Lewis, were the first two recruits from New York State to enlist in the 54th Massachusetts and their father was proud indeed. Lewis Douglass held the non-commissioned rank of Sergeant-Major of Co F. and was present in that capacity when John W. Gaines of the same company was wounded in the attack on Fort Wagner. As an incentive to enlistment monetary bounties had been offered since the beginning of the War to white recruits. By the time black enlistment became legal under the 1863 Draft Act, some of the initial states such as Massachusetts had already been offering similar bounty enticement.

For those states falling under the Draft Act however, it was not until February 24, 1864, that federal bounties of one hundred dollars paid to white enlistees were also offered to the Negro.(see 46) In July, 1864, Congress authorized African American soldiers who were free at the outbreak of the war retroactively placed on an equal pay basis with white troops; which included all New Jersey natives.

Pay equity for soldiers who had been slaves had to wait until the end of the war. This unfair treatment of the black soldiers, lower wages and no bounty contributed to their perceived second class status. Initially, inferior arms and equipment were distributed to them and they were forced to do most of the dirty work contributing to low morale, until conditions were corrected; this had to wait until after black soldiers proved themselves in battle.(see 47) *

Homestead, another name for Jordantown or Jordan's Lawn ,located in Pennsauken Township, Camden County; Gaines is buried at Jordantown Cemetery, (See Appendix 8, No. 14).

.

 

Training and Deployment

Shortly after the initial efforts to raise black troops was remedied by the government with the creation of the United States Colored Troops, nearly all the USCT regiments, including all those organized at Camp William Penn outside of Philadelphia, were issued Springfield type or british Enfield muzzle loading rifled muskets the same as their white counterparts. Within months, the only difference in a Union soldiers appearance and armament was the color of his skin. The 79th USCT was the first black regiment to be engaged in combat: at Island Mounds, Missouri, October, 1862

ater battles in which black soldiers participated took place at Fort Hudson and Miliken's Bend, Louisiana. At Fort Hudson, in May, 1863, the 1st and 3rd Corps d'Afrique, (also known as Butler's 1st and 3rd Louisiana Native Guards), commanded by a number of black officers, charged the Confederate breastworks again and again before devastating musket fire. The plaudits they received were justly earned. At Miliken's Bend that June, a Confederate force of between 1500 and 3000 fighting men attacked the camp of the 9th and 11th Regiments of Louisiana Volunteers of African Descent. After being driven back, the black troops rallied. Believing that if captured they would be killed, these black troops fought in frenzied hand-to-hand combat, routing the enemy.

General Elias S. Dennis witnessed the battle: "It is impossible for men to show greater gallantry than the Negro troops in this fight." A Union naval officer who participated in a naval bombardment that helped drive the rebel army away, penned an account of the heroism of the black troops after arriving at the battle scene: "We went ashore and took a look at things. There were about 100 dead bodies on the field, about equally divided, half secesh and half negroes. The blacks fought like bloodhounds, and with equal numbers would have won the day."(see 49) President Lincoln, made aware of the valor of black troops at Miliken's Bend was told that " white and black men were laying (sic) side by side, pierced by bayonets. Two men, one white and the other black, were found side by side, each with the other's bayonet through his body." (see 50)

Pennsylvania began recruiting blacks in 1863 but it took nearly eighteen months before eleven regiments ( 8,612 officers and men) could be raised at Camp William Penn, in Chelton Hills near Philadelphia.(see 51) Months before, many black freemen traveled to Massachusetts and Rhode Island in order to enlist. Once other state regiments were formed, trained and sent to the front, news of recruitment was more easily spread. In Camden County, the Camden Democrat printed only negative news of the black regiments. As to the Massachusetts 54th, an article in the edition of May 30, 1863, declared, " Gov. Andrew's Negro Regiment has been shipped to Port Royal. That's right - send them where there is no danger to fight - then they won't run."

Whether it was as a result of the Copperhead propaganda and the fears it created or a statewide political attitude, New Jersey clearly followed a course different from most other states in the Union when it came to black recruitment. While most other northern states rushed to enlist blacks, New Jersey was one of the few states where neither the governor nor a citizen's committee ever assumed the responsibility of recruiting black soldiers in an organized or orderly fashion.(see 52)

On June 17, 1863, word was received in Philadelphia warning that General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were moving towards southern Pennsylvania. A call to arms was issued by Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin; Philadelphia's black population responded. A full company of 90 black soldiers under white officers was mustered into service for the emergency and marched towards Gettysburg; they were turned back when Major General Darius Nash Couch, in charge of mustering the provisional forces and homeguard levies for Pennsylvania, refused to receive them. His excuse was that Congress had only provided for enlistment of Negroes for a minimum of three years.

This action dealt a serious blow to Pennsylvania's later attempts to raise black regiments.(see 53) Couch's action was confirmed in the local West Jersey Press. In reporting on the actions of the Camden Rifles in the June 30, 1863 edition, the Press stated: We claim for Camden the honor of having sent the first company out of the state of Pennsylvania for the relief of this terror stricken city. In fact we are ahead of Philadelphia; for if I am correctly informed the two companies of colored Americans of African descent' who came from Philadelphia were sent back.... As Couch was sending the black soldiers home, Major General George L. Stearns was being appointed Recruiting Commissioner for the U.S.Colored Troops in Pennsylvania. The resentment caused by Couch's actions had an immediate demoralizing effect on the black population throughout the State because it meant a loss of eligible black soldiers for enlistment. Two per cent of Pennsylvania's population was composed of black freemen or about 59,949 persons. Approximately 22,000 lived in Philadelphia. The total black male population of the State was 26,373.54 (see 54)

Stearns tried to counter the deep animosity created by Couch's actions and gained the interest and support of many patriots who formed the Philadelphia Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments. This Committee recruited potential black soldiers with vigor, using posters, broadsides, newspaper advertisements and a monetary bounty to enlist. Within months of June 22, 1863, when permission was received to raise the regiments, the Committee was able to raise the first three black USCT regiments out of Camp William Penn, the 3rd, 6th, and 8th U.S.Colored Infantry. The Committee raised eleven full regiments of black troops and was instrumental in the creation of the training facility at Camp William Penn. The Committee also provided transportation for the enlistees to Camp William Penn and subsistence monies to their families.(see 55)

All black regiments organized in Philadelphia were trained at Camp William Penn. Further, the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 24th, 32nd, 41st and 127th were actually organized at Camp William Penn, while the 22nd, 25th, 43rd and 45th were organized in Philadelphia. The overwhelming majority of black Camden County residents who enlisted were in one of these eleven regiments. The photograph of Pvt. Timothy E. Shaw of Gloucester Township, a member of the 43rd USCT, taken in full uniform at Camp William Penn, is still treasured by his descendants and displayed at family gatherings. This photograph graces our cover page. Sixteen future residents of what was to become Lawnside all enlisted in those eleven regiments raised at Camp William Penn with the exception of Warner Gibbs. Gibbs was a member of Co. C, l9th Regiment USCT organized at Camp Stanton, Maryland on December 25,1863.

Others of the group such as Joseph Brewster, Benjamin F.Faucett, Joseph Gray, Garrett Patton and John C. Williams enlisted in the Union Navy.*(See Appendix No.5) Probably the most important accomplishment of the committee was the establishment of the Free Military School for Applicants for Commands of Colored Troops, located at 1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. The brainchild of Thomas Webster, committee chairman, the goal was to create a facility that would produce the best possible leaders for the black regiments. Since the War Department was distinctly opposed to the appointment of black officers, the quality of leadership was important. Although about one hundred blacks did in fact hold commissions during the CivilWar, over three-fourths of them were only those in Louisiana regiments first mustered into service.(see 56)

Regardless of the early success' of the first black regiments at Miliken's Bend and Fort Hudson, a low opinion of the Negro as a fighting man was held by many military leaders during the early period of Negro recruiting; this was a contributory element in the continued selection of white officers to lead them.(see 57) Strict entrance examinations and personal interviews were mandatory and regarded as much harder than those imposed on applicants to command white soldiers. After completion of the course of study at the Free Military School, a successful graduate was then obligated to take and pass an examination before an examining Board at Washington or some other place' created under the direction of Major-General Silas Casey, before a commission was offered.

Of the 1,867 students of the Free Military School examined by the Board, 1,019 were accepted and offered commissions in black regiments. Of that accepted group, only eight were from New Jersey, and one, James Mulliken, was appointed 1st Lieutenant, Co. K, 25th USCT. "Without ever becoming an actual part of the Union Army, the Free Military School of Philadelphia, grandfather of the Officer Candidate School, was geared into the Army's machinery and played a large role in the preparation and selection of officers for colored troops." (see 58)

Although the spirit of black enlistment was pervasive, the attitude of the Governor of the State of New York was also a barrier to the movement for racial equality in the Army. Horatio Seymour, a Democrat, with little love for Abraham Lincoln, refused to cooperate; after the passage of the Draft Act in March, 1863, New York experienced one of the most horrible non-combat tragedies of the War, in an area not threatened by invasion from the South. In July,1863, the anti-Negro feeling brought on by the draft became so strong, that bloody draft riots erupted; white mobs openly attacked blacks on the streets of New York City.

Bodies of black men, women and children killed by the mobs, were hung on the lamp-posts on Broadway.(see 59) Word of the New York draft riots spread across the nation like wildfire through articles in every newspaper. The Camden Democrat doubted the sincerity of the reports and coupled this with another harangue about the fighting qualities of black enlistees. The West Jersey Press, in response, on August 26, 1863, stated: " It may be that among other reasons for the Democrat's doubting negro valor is the fact that they made no resistance to the 'friends' of Gov. Seymour when they murdered them in New York City, and then stole the beds that orphaned negro children slept on."

The "friends" of Governor Seymour referred to by the Press were those same "friends" of whom Frederick Douglass spoke in his autobiography. Douglass had been at Camp William Penn outside Philadelphia to assist with recruiting. He had just left to return home to Rochester, N.Y., when word came of the carnage committed on the blacks of New York City. Traveling through the city, Douglass became familiar with what was going on. In speaking of Governor Seymour, Douglass said, "...and while the mob was doing its deadly work he addressed them as 'My Friends', telling them to desist then, while he could arrange at Washington to have the draft arrested.

Had Governor Seymour been loyal to his country, and to his country's cause, in this her moment of need, he would have burned his tongue with a red hot iron sooner than allow it to call these thugs, thieves, and murderers his friends." Governor Seymour continued to oppose any military use of black men. Even requests from President Lincoln for the Governor to raise colored regiments were denied or ignored. Seymour responded that, " ...if he could help it, New York would never arm a Negro."

Angry citizens of New York City, many of whom were wealthy members of the new Union League, finally persuaded the War Department to accept the black units they, themselves, had organized under national authority. Thus, the 20th, 26th and 31st New York finally entered the War but Seymour had done his damage and New York which might have been a leader in black enlistment was last.(see 61)

In the end, New York, for all its wealth and resources, was only able to take credit for 4,125 black troops in the 20th, 26th and 31st Regiments.(see 62)* New Jersey also finally came around to the call for recruitment. In September, 1863, long after most other states complied, a USCT recruiting office was established at Trenton. The delay could have been the result of the Copperhead paranoia or just a general apathy towards black enlistment, but New Jersey fell into step and her black male citizens could now enlist in New Jersey and be credited to that state.

However, even with the change in attitude, the inequality continued. The enlistment bounties paid to black enlistees were considerably less than those paid to whites. Camden County was at least paying an $800 bounty to USCT recruits by early 1865.(see 63) *Practically all of the Northern states kept records of both white and black enlistees into the state armed services with the exception of New York. Only records of white soldiers were kept, and no regimental histories were apparently written about any of the three black regiments raised in New York State.

While attempts were being made to enlist as many blacks as possible, the services being provided by groups such as the Philadelphia Supervisory Committees were immeasurable. At training camps all over the North, teachers provided education to the Union's newest soldiers. Dudley Taylor Cornish, in "The Union Army as a Training School for Negroes", writes that the curriculum included reading and writing. Mrs. James C. Beecher, wife of the Colonel in command of the 35th USCT, organized a school and was proud that "...each one could proudly sign his name to the pay roll in a good legible hand. ''(see 64) By 1863, the black man in the United States was becoming part of the national picture.

Jobs never before available to blacks were suddenly waiting to be filled. "A new status of the Negro was taking form. In August '62 for the first time, sworn testimony had been taken from a Negro in a Virginia court of law. Also Negro strike breakers in New York were attacked by strikers, and in Chicago, Negroes employed in the meat-packing plants were assaulted by unemployed white men. The colored man was becoming an American Citizen. (see 65) Frederick Douglass was now compelled to say, " Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S.; let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship." (see 66)

Nonetheless, prejudice and racial hatred continued to affect both the North and the South. The racial tragedy provoked by the draft riots proved that no geographic area was immune to bigotry. It was one thing, most Northerners reasoned, to regard enslavement of the black race as cruel and inhumane; it was another to ask Northerners to regard blacks as their equals or welcome them as neighbors and friends. (see 67) Northern cities such as Philadelphia, with its large black population became ripe for racial unrest. Because of this unrest, early regiments stationed at Camp William Penn, including the 3rd Regiment USCT, were not allowed to march down city streets in parade uniform before going off to War. In October, 1863, however, the newly formed 6th United States Colored Troops did in fact march down Walnut, Pine and Broad streets to the cheers of the crowds. A small incident occurred when the black flag-bearer was pushed to the ground but no riot or further incidents took place.

Nine Camden County black residents were possibly among the 6th USCT when it marched through the streets of Philadelphia. Seven of them, John Briscoe, William Hall, Benjamin Hutt, Thomas Jones, Charles Manoll and John Short are all buried together at Johnson Cemetery in Camden; John Pierce is buried at Butler Cemetery, also in Camden, and Thomas Chambers is buried at Grant Cemetery in Chesilhurst. Very little else is known of these men. None of them belonged to the black veterans 'Robeson GAR Post 51 in 1886 and not one of their names appears in the 1872 Camden City Directory.

A 1937 WPA Cemetery Project catalogued at the Camden County Historical Society does have reference to a William H. Hall whose occupation is listed as a "shys keeper". History may not know more about these men but they fought many battles together, settled together in Camden after the War and are together in death, comrades in eternity.

Undercurrents of prejudice in Philadelphia against blacks however, continued to remain "dangerously close to the surface." Philadelphia and New York City were not unique in their racial attitudes. Washington, D.C., the seat of federal government, also had its share of beatings and assaults upon black Union soldiers assigned to that city; many were perpetrated by white comrades-in arms.

Washington, D.C. however, was a southern city much different from Philadelphia and New York where slavery was finally abolished during the Civil War itself. Opposition to blacks as soldiers, was also not always confined to cities and camps. Many Union Army officers including General William Tecumseh Sherman, felt that blacks should be used only as laborers. When asked for an opinion on the use of blacks as soldiers, Sherman said, " Is not a negro as good as a white man to stop a bullet? Yes: and a sand bag is better; but can a negro do our skirmishing and picket duty? Can they improvise bridges, sorties, flank movements, etc., like a white man? I say no." (see 70)

Some government suppliers saw to it that only substandard supplies were provided to black units, and pocketed the difference in cost. A variety of fraud was committed upon black enlistees ranging from outright theft of individual pay vouchers to the disappearance of entire regimental payrolls. (see 71) Nonetheless, because the selection process to find competent white officers to command black troops included high educational and moral standards, many poor risks were weeded out beforehand and crimes such as mistreatment and theft were kept to a minimum. "Most white officers commanding black troops knew well that Northern and Southern Society had mistreated blacks, that blacks were rightly skeptical of whites, and that they must earn the trust and respect of their black soldiers if the USCT was to accomplish anything in the War." (see 72)

There were, of course, instances wherein punishment meted out to black soldiers might have been viewed as persecution and where the punishment for a black soldier was worse than the crime. One particularly tragic incident involved the pay differential issue wherein black soldiers received less pay than their white counterparts for the same day's work. Sgt. William Walker of the 21st USCT refused to perform his duty because he received lower pay than a white soldier of the same rank. Walker's resistance was more passive than violent, but the military authorities arrested, tried and convicted him of mutiny. Walker was executed by military decree. Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts, a proponent of the black soldier's rights in that state, provided the epitaph: "The Government which found no law to pay him except as a non-descript and a contraband, nevertheless found law enough to shoot him as a soldier." (see 73)

William A. Frassanito, in his photoessay, Grant and Lee. The Virginia Campaigns 1864 - 1865 provides contemporary Civil War photographs taken by Matthew Brady and Timothy O'Sullivan of the execution of a black soldier during the Battle of Petersburg in Virginia. William Johnson, a black private of the 23rd USCT, was tried and convicted on June 9, 1864 by a military tribunal, of the attempted rape of a white woman at Cold Harbor, Virginia, after confessing his guilt. He was executed in front of the cameras of Brady and O'Sullivan on June 20, 1864. The event was given considerable attention in all of the newspapers of the day including Harper's Weekly. The Harper's Weekly reporter wrote that "considerable importance was given to the affair, in order that an example might be made more effective. Johnson confessed his guilt, and was executed within the outer breastworks about Petersburg, on an elevation, and in plain view of the enemy, a white flag covering the ceremony."

What could have been more offensive to an individual's right to dignity in death and more prejudicial to a race as a whole than the manner in which Johnson was put to death? In spite of such animosities, the attitude of the black soldier was positive. As Frederick Douglass had foretold, just allowing the blackman to put on the uniform and shoulder the musket would make a difference. Black men felt a sense of enthusiasm by being able to wear the blue uniform and obtain some degree of equality with the white soldier. "Yet wearing the Union uniform meant more than that: It also represented an opportunity to take an active role in freeing their families, friends and strangers whose only link was that their distant ancestors came from the same continent. 'We are fighting for liberty and right", exulted a black sergeant, "and we intend to follow the old flag while there is a man left to hold it up to the breeze of heaven.

Atrocities

Slavery must and shall pass away. (see 74) The response of the Confederacy to the enlistment of blacks as soldiers was immediate and tragic. While anti-black feelings may have abounded in the North, they were a standard to live by in the South. Even before Southern forces encountered any black combat troops, groups of Southern guerrillas roamed the countryside to instill fear into blacks lest they enlist.

Black freemen and slaves alike were assaulted, beaten, whipped and killed by these guerrilla bands. (see 75) As the sight of a black face in a blue uniform became more common, the Southern response became more outrageous. Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, called for the "execution of abolition prisoners after 1st January...Let the execution be with the garrote. (see 76) Although no recorded confirmations of Beauregard's orders are known, it was quite common for reports to indicate that black prisoners of war were shot "while trying to escape."

Atrocities committed by Confederate soldiers against their black counterparts continued throughout the War. There were recorded instances of shootings, burnings, hangings, and black soldiers having their ears cut off and their heads split open by axes. Many Confederate officers thought it their duty to condone such activity. On September 2, 1863, Confederate Colonel Frank Powers wrote to Colonel Jonathan L. Logan, after some black soldiers had been captured by Powers' regiment and attempted to escape: " I then ordered everyone shot and with my six-shooter I assisted in the execution of the order." (see 77)

Without doubt, the greatest atrocity to take place during the Civil War occurred on April 12, 1864, forty miles north of Memphis, Tennessee at Fort Pillow. Approximately 550 Union troops manned the garrison; about one half were black. A force of 1500 Confederate cavalrymen under the command of Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest demanded the surrender of the fort which was refused by the officer in charge. Forrest's cavalrymen attacked the fort and killed, wounded or captured the entire Union command. Upon ascertaining the number of black troops within the fort, the Confederates began randomly killing all in sight. Before it was over, every black soldier at Fort Pillow was dead and nearly as many whites.

Official charges were lodged against Forrest but both he and the Confederate authorities denied that any atrocities had occurred." Forrest went so far as to state in his official report that, "... the loss of the enemy will never be known from the fact that large numbers ran into the river and were shot and drowned." "The Mississippi", he wrote with evident satisfaction, "was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered for 200 yards,"; he expressed the hope " . . . that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners."

Eventually, a Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War did investigate the alleged massacre and concluded that atrocities had taken place. Forrest's actual role in the massacre was never determined and no action was ever taken against him personally. News of this tragedy was received in Camden County through war reports published in the two local newspapers. As it was throughout the War, the slant on news printed in the Camden Democrat was outrageously sympathetic to the South. The West Jersev Press of May 11, 1864, stated: " The Subcommittee on the Conduct of the War, consisting of Senator Wade and Representative Gooch, have returned from Fort Pillow. They took fifty-seven depositions, all of which more than confirm the newspaper accounts of the massacre. They say that it would be impossible to exaggerate the cruelties committed.

Among the witnesses who were examined is the negro who was buried alive, and who dug himself out of his own grave. There is no doubt of the fact that one or more persons were nailed through their flesh to pieces of wood and then buried alive. Not only on the day of surrender were these fiendish acts perpetrated, but on the next day in cold blood. The victims seen by the committee were most of them cut and pierced in the face and the eyes with bayonets and swords, while other parts of their bodies were maimed and disfigured either by steel or lead ." The Camden Democrat in typical Copperhead fashion, printed in the June 26, 1864, edition, "...the massacre at Fort Pillow was caused by the negroes not laying down their arms."

The response of the West Jersey Press was immediate. On June 29, 1864, under the headline "Remember Fort Pillow", it was stated:"...As a cruel, brutal and inhuman massacre,of soldier and civilians, men, women and children, it has few parallels in the history of the world. There is no color of justification for it, nor had we ever met any, until the Democrat of Saturday last, in the face of evidence to the contrary of the most positive character, furnished by those whom the murderers had left for dead, had the barefacedness to tell its readers that the massacre at Fort Pillow was caused by the negroes not laying down their arms. No man outside of the Southern Confederacy unless he possessed the instincts and feelings of a traitor, and gloried in such savage barbarity would, in the face of truth, put forth such a statement Lost to all sense of honor, and goaded with the thought of the failure of the rebellion, rejected of God and despised of men, some of the Northern Copperhead editors are earning for themselves a reputation compared with which that of Cataline and Arnold will appear respectable."

The impact of the events must have had a dramatic effect upon the readers of these two newspapers. We may be expected to assume that Camden County's black population was more predisposed to the views of the West Jersey Press which was liberal and favorable to Lincoln. Greater evidence of the newspaper's position is seen in later editions which began to list the names of black enlistees as well as white.

It must have come as a surprise to General Forrest that such atrocities did not have the expected effect upon Northern blacks, that was expected. In fact, the North became solidified in its support of the colored troops. And, "Remember Fort Pillow" became the battle cry of every black regiment for the remainder of the war. The element of fear that Forrest hoped to create was, in fact, double edged. After Fort Pillow, black troops fought under a black flag which embodied a warning to the Confederates that they would take no prisoners nor ask any mercy for themselves.

The fear of armed slave revolts that had for so long permeated Southern thinking was now magnified out of proportion. Not only were their former slaves armed and trained, but these atrocities caused salt to be applied to the open wound of slavery. One Union officer in a letter to his mother wrote, " I have talked with numbers of Parolled Prisoners in Vicksburg, and they all admit it was the hardest stroke that there(sic) cause has received--the arming of the negrow.(sic) ' Not a few of them told me that they would rather fight two Regiments of White Soldiers than one of Niggers. Rebel Citizens fear them more than they would fear Indians."(see 81)

Even though black troops benefited from the favorable attitude towards their efforts, many negative feelings remained. The fear of unknown horrors if captured was a major reason for the Union High Command's hesitation in using black troops in combat where a heightened risk of capture existed. Furthermore, the Confederate refusal to treat blacks as legitimate prisoners contributed to the eventual breakdown in prisoner of war exchanges that ultimately had tragic consequences for both sides. Without the ability to exchange prisoners, both sides had no alternative but to create prisoner of war camps.

The result was the creation of the Confederate camp, a hellhole, known as Andersonville, where more Union prisoners died of disease, mistreatment and lack of proper diet than in battle. In spite of obstacles and atrocities, blacks continued to respond to the call to arms. Most of the Northern states raised regiments to fill their own quotas. This included Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and states to the west. New Jersey, although not raising its own regiments sent over 3000 men to fill the ranks of Pennsylvania's regiments while taking credit for the numbers. Ironically, it seems that both states took credit for many the same men in filling their respective quotas. Many Southern states under Union control such as Louisiana and South Carolina also raised regiments. Maryland, for all intents and purposes was more Southern than Northern in sympathy. Slavery was not even abolished there until the state convention of 1864.

But Maryland did respond to the call and raised four regiments of 3000 men from the plantations of the eastern shore and southern Maryland. In October, 1863, President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton met with Maryland's Governor Bradford to discuss the coming draft. An agreement was reached wherein slaveowners were given 30 to 60 days to enroll their slaves voluntarily with promised compensation of $300 per head. The money would be paid upon the filing of a deed of manumission for each man freed in order to enlist. A training camp was set up at Camp Stanton and two full regiments were immediately raised: the 7th and 9th USCT. By the end of 1863, two more regiments were ready to march: the l9th and 30th USCT. Many more freed slaves fled north to Pennsylvania to enlist and some went south to Washington, D.C..

Ironically, many of these former slaves from Maryland would later meet their former owners on the battlefield.(see 82) At last, thousands of black freemen, formerly slaves and contrabands were being permitted to do soldiers work. In Camden County the West Jersey Press took every opportunity to advise it's readership of the bravery of the black troops while also listing the names of those black troops from the City of Camden and the surrounding townships of the county known to have been drafted. As in the June 29, 1864, edition: "General Banks, in an official report, dated 'BeforePort Hudson, May 30,' gives an account of the attack on that place similar to the reports already published. In speaking of the negro regiments he says: 'They answered every expectation. Their conduct was heroic. No troops could be more daring. They made during the day three charges upon the batteries of the enemy, suffering very heavy losses, and holding their position at nightfall with the other troops on the right of our line. The highest commendation is bestowed upon them by all the officers in command on the right. Whatever doubt may have existed heretofore as to theefficiency of organizations of this character, the history of this day proves conclusively to those who were in a condition to observe the conduct of those regiments, that the government will find in this class of troops effective supporters and defenders..."

Similar articles began appearing in the Press on a regular basis. As reports of black regiments in battle were received, they were printed immediately to assist in black recruitment. After the battle and siege at Petersburg, Virginia, in which many black Camden County residents participated, the following article appeared on June 29, 1864 in the Press: "The question as to the fighting qualities of our negro troops would seem to be settled, if it had not been before, by the conduct of those who are attached to General Smith's corps, in the late engagements before Petersburg. A single day's work has wiped out a mountain of prejudice, and fairly turned the popular current of feeling in this army in favor of the downtrodden race; and every one who has been with them on the field has some story to relate of their gallant conduct in action, or their humanity and social qualities."

If any doubt remained as to the black man's ability and courage in battle, it faded quickly during the remaining years of the War. In 1864 and 1865 black regiments participated in 449 engagements of which 39 were classified as major engagements. The remaining number were classified as campaigns, brushes and affairs.(see 83) By July 15, 1865, the date on which the last organization of colored troops was mustered in, the maximum number of blacks in the service at any one time during the War was reached. They were distributed as follows: 120 infantry regiments 98,938, 12 heavy artillery regiments 15,662 10 heavy artillery batteries 1,311,7 cavalry regiments 7,245 for a total of 123,156.

The entire number of colored troops commissioned and enlisted during the War, as computed in 1865, was 186,097; the loss during the War from all causes except muster-out was 68,178.(see 84) Black soldiers of the Civil War participated in at least 449 engagements. Of the approximate 283 black Civil War soldiers and sailors from Camden County so far identified, the majority took active roles in a substantial number of the 39 major battles and a good percentage of the remaining 410. After Governor Andrew of Massachusetts had received permission to raise black regiments for that state, it took little time beforethe ranks of the now famous Massachusetts 54th were filled. Recruiters were dispatched immediately to all of the surrounding states including New Jersey. Many men, such as George Farmer, traveled north to Readville, Massachusetts to enlist.

Of the three men in the 54th who gave their place of residence as Camden County, the gravesites of only two have been identified: Joseph J. Rice and John W Gaines. The third, William Passidy, was a 27 year old farmer, of whom nothing else is known except that he was married. Armed with Enfield rifled muskets and trained outside of Boston, the 54th was transferred to the war zone by early June, 1863. Under the command of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the regiment participated in a number of small skirmishes around Darien, Georgia, but Shaw yearned for an opportunity to show his men off. Through military channels, Shaw was able to have his regiment become part of a campaign to seize Fort Wagner, a fort protecting Charleston, South Carolina.

Although his men were delegated to an inferior position as the battle was about to start, Shaw's forces, who had previously performed valorously in protecting the 10th Connecticut Infantry under attack by a larger Confederate force, were now chosen to lead the attack by the High Command. " An engineering marvel, Fort Wagner extended across the entire neck of the island. Along its western side was Vincent's Creek and to the east was the Atlantic Ocean. At high tide there was only a twenty-£ive yard strip over which the attackers could advance on the fort, something the Federals had overlooked. (see 85 )In addition there were seventeen hundred Confederate troops and seventeen artillery guns protecting the fort. The Union High Command greatly underestimated the strength of Fort Wagner, the size of its garrison and anticipated a swift success . (see 86)

The bugle sounded the attack, the Massachusetts regiment moved forward. Almost immediately Confederate guns roared and black soldiers began to fall. As they progressed along the twenty-five yard strip it was like shooting into a funnel. Again and again Shaw regrouped his men and charged. "Not a man flinched," wrote survivor Sgt. Major Lewis Douglass, "though it was a trying time. A shell would explode and clear a space of twenty feet, our men would close up again..(see 87) Well over 40 per cent of the regiment were casualties including the heroic Colonel Shaw. The attack had failed. Aside from Shaw, three other officers were killed; eleven other officers and 135 men were wounded; and nearly a hundred were missing or taken prisoner." (see 88)

The Confederates interred the bodies of two officers in separate graves, but they laid Shaw to rest in a pit with his men, or as the Confederates supposedly explained when the Federals sought his body under a flag of truce, ' We have buried him with his niggers!' Clearly the Confederates intended to insult the sensibilities of the whites; instead it became a rallying cry across the North and helped to immortalize Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. (see 89) The assault on Fort Wagner left little doubt about the black man's will to fight. The list of 135 men wounded in the assault included both John W. Gaines and George Farmer. Farmer sustained a gunshot wound under the right eye which impaired his eyesight and caused him severe pain ultimately disabling him completely. After the assault, Farmer was hospitalized at Morris Island, South Carolina for two months and thereafter returned to his regiment. After his discharge in 1865 Farmer married in 1870, settling in Snow Hill, later Lawnside, and was resident there when he died.

Interestingly, Farmer's pension records contained in Appendix 8, give three different dates of death and leave many questions as to his life after the War. Another soldier, William DeGraff, testified on behalf of Farmer's widow, Mary, in order for her to receive her husband's pension. DeGraff is mentioned in Smiley's book, A True Story of Lawnside. N.J., as being one of five black soldiers still living on Decoration Day, 1921, from forty-six who went to fight the Civil War from that town. To date, no further information on DeGraff has been found nor has his gravesite been located.

Events at Fort Wagner caused racial barriers against black fighting men to fall. They were celebrated in newspapers across the country, in books, speeches and especially in song. One song that became extremely popular was an Irish tune allegedly written by a Private Miles O'Reilly. As Dudley Taylor Cornish states in his brilliant work, The Sable Arm, O'Reilly's verses put the argument [for black enlistment] into language that anyone could understand, with an emphasis on the practical value of the Negro soldier in fundamental terms. The Irish had long resisted recognition of the black man's right to fight in the War and had taken a strong antiblack position during the bloody New York Draft riots.

The tune entitled "Sambo's Right to be Kilt" had little to do with Ireland or the Irish but argued a fundamental question with Gaelic logic. The song was first heard at a banquet given for the officers of Meagher's Irish Brigade on January 13, 1864 at New York's Irving Hall. Some tell us, tis a burning shame To make the naygers fight; An' that the thrade of bein' kilt Belongs but to the white; But as for me, upon my soul! So liberal are we here, I'll let Sambo be murthered instead of myself On every day in the year. On every day in the year, boys, And in every hour of the day; The right to be kilt I'll divide wid him, An' divil a word I'll say. The second verse continued the argument in the same vein but moved from the general to the particular. In battle's wild commotion I "houldn't at all object If Sambo's body should stop a ball That was comin' for me direct; And the prod of a Southern bagnet, So ginerous are we here, I'll resign, and let Sambo take it On every day in the year. On every day in the year, boys, And wid none o' your nasty pride, All my right in a Southern bagnet prod Wid Sambo I'll divide!

With great good nature and irresistable logic, Private O'Reilly's song moved on to its majestic close. The men who object to Sambo Should take his place and fight; And it's better to have a nayger's hue Than a liver that's wake an' white. Though Sambo'" black as the ace of spades, His finger a thrigger can pull,And his eye runs sthraight on the barrel-sights From undher its thatch of wool. So hear me all, boys darlin', Don't think I'm Tippin' your chaff, The right to be kilt we'll divide wid him, And give him the largest half!

Cornish, makes note of the success of songs like this in changing the nation's attitude toward the fighting black man, especially with the Irish, many of whom had been determined in their resistance to ever recognizing the Negro's right to fight. As to Private Miles O'Reilly, Cornish says, "Of course there was no Private Miles O'Reilly -- That was the pen name of Charles G.Halpine, 'talented literary gentleman' of New York who for a time served on the staff of Major General David Hunter in the Department of the South. While Hunter worked to make soldiers of Negroes, Halpine worked to win their acceptance as fighting men. "Sambo's Right to be Kilt" helped to break down popular opposition tocolored soldiers.

The behavior of those soldiers did the rest.(see 90) The change in attitude that was seen was a change in the idea that this was a white man's war. On February 20, 1864, one of the severest regimental losses of the War occurred in the 8th USCT at Olustee, Florida, otherwise known as Ocean Pond. Brigadier General Truman Seymour landed at Jacksonville, Florida with a plan to march into the interior and take over the state from the Confederacy. In a poorly planned attack at the tiny hamlet of Olustee in northern Florida, Seymour led 5,500 Union troops, including the all-black 8th Regiment, against a smaller Confederate force. The battle lasted for three hours until the rebels counterattacked. According to the official reports of the battle, "The 8th U.S. colored fought well until the loss of their leader, when they fled. The contest closed at dusk, and Gen. Seymour finding his force repulsed with some loss, and the colored reserve unequal to the emergency, retired from the field leaving his dead and wounded. (see 91) The 8th Regiment lost 310 men, including 87 killed or mortally wounded. The black troops were praised by their white officers. When a Confederate general claimed that the black troops turned and ran, one of the white officers who served with the 8th under Col. Charles W. Fribley responded, " The black man stood to be killed or wounded--losing more than 300 out of 550. General Jones (Samuel Jones, Maj.Gen. C.S.A.) is again in error; they fell back and reorganized. Colonel Frubley's monument shows where they fell. (see 92)

The 8th was not the only black regiment to suffer losses at Olustee, the 35th USCT and the Massachusetts 54th suffered with the 8th. Of those black soldiers engaged at the battle of Olustee, Camden County claims at least 11 members of the 8th USCT whose gravesites have been identified. The West Jersey Press published a list which included the names of others whose gravesites have not yet been located. After the black regiment's initial success', local newspapers such as the West Jersey Press began to list the black soldiers names together with those of the white soldiers.

The edition of August 10, 1864, lists one of the 10 men,"William H. Jones col'd" of the City of Camden as drafted. The regimental roster indicates that Jones was a member of the 8th USCT organized at Camp William Penn as of December 4, 1863. The 8th participated at Olustee, in the Battles of Petersburg, Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights in Virginia. It was part of the Appomattox Campaign in March, 1864, they pursued General Robert E. Lee and his army to the end of the War and was present when Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865.

On Battle

Other members of the 8th USCT whose remains have been identified were George Baley, James Burk, Robert Guster, Daniel Derry, John Green, Alfred Johnson, Henry Jones, Thomas Schenck, John Henry Wells and George Johnson. George H. Stewart, while not originally from Camden County, settled here after the War and is buried at Johnson Cemetery. Stewart, a member of Co.G, 54th Massachusetts, was a 35 year old seaman from Watertown, New York. He was captured at the Battle of Olustee and subsequently exchanged on March 4, 1865 only to be hospitalized at the General Hospital at Alexandria, Virginia for disease contracted while held prisoner.

By the time Grant had taken over command of the Union forces, the tide was turning for the North. A plan was devised whereby the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia would be captured and the War ended. While one Union force was to keep Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia busy, another force would cross over the Peninsula and attack Richmond from the south. Only the city of Petersburg stood in the way.

Although the North had a strategic opportunity to capture Petersburg quickly, that opportunity was lost because of delay and Grant determined to lay siege to the area. Black regiments were transferred to the Petersburg area to become part of the siege army and to help dig the trenches that were to become part of an underground way of life. After months in the trenches a plan was brought forth by General Ambrose E. Burnside to dig a tunnel under the Confederate lines, fill the tunnel with explosives and ignite them. His plan was approved by the High Command and Pennsylvania soldiers who had worked in the coal mines were assigned to dig the tunnel.

When the explosion occurred, the Union forces were to charge the Confederate lines. On July 30, 1864, the mine was ignited, the Battle of the Crater began. Although black regiments had initially been chosen to lead the assault, orders came to hold these units in abeyance. White troops led the attack but by the time they were sent in, the rebels had regrouped and laid heavy fire on the attackers. When the black regiments, part of General Edward Ferrero's 4th Division, IX Corps, finally went into the Crater, they had to fight their way over the dead and dying bodies of their white comrades. A multiplication of military errors had already occurred by the time the black regiments were ordered to attack, and the order was so ill-advised and so poorly executed that they were butchered by the hundreds.

The black 4th Division suffered 1,327 casualties compared to 654 in the 1st, 832 in the 2nd and 659 in the 3rd. The total killed in the colored brigades was 195, compared with 227 killed in the three white divisions combined.(see 93) Nearly one in every eight soldiers at Petersburg was black. The largest number of Camden County black soldiers participated in the Battle of Petersburg and the siege which preceded it. Nine separate regiments including the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, l9th, 22nd, 39th, 43rd and 127th all had a substantial roster from Camden County: approximately 86 participants have been identified by gravesite.

Of Smiley's list, Joseph Brewster, Isaiah Grose, William Jackson and John L. Stephens all belonged to the 22nd USCT. Andrew Beckett and Thomas White (misspelled Wright), belonged to the 127th USCT. Cubit Moore and Timothy Shaw belonged to the 43rd USCT. Warner Gibbs, also listed as one of Smiley's forty-six who left Lawnside to go to war, was a member of the l9th USCT organized at Camp Stanton, Maryland, which state took credit for his enlistment.

Many of the men who went to war together and survived tended to live near each other after the war. All of the Camden County members of the 6th USCT appear to have lived in the same area of Camden City and all but one are buried in the same cemetery-Johnson Cemetery. Among the members of the 8th USCT, George Baley, James Burk, Robert Guster and Daniel Derry all were buried at Mt. Peace Cemetery, Lawnside; the remains of John Green, Alfred Johnson, Henry W. Jones, William Jones, Thomas Schenck and Joseph Henry Wells lie in Johnson Cemetery, Camden City.

All of those who were identified as residents of Lawnside are buried in one of the three local cemeteries. Timothy Shaw was interred at Davistown Cemetery, Gloucester Township. These men who had seen death and destruction together or as the soldiers would say, "had seen the elephant", may have formed a post-war bond of comradeship that was unbreakable until death. After Petersburg, the black battle flags of the black regiments began to fill up with more place names. General Charles Jackson Paine's colored division of the XVIII Corps and General William Birney's Colored Brigade of X Corps, about 10,000 total strength, were actively engaged at Chaffin's Farm, Virginia, on September 29, 1864.

The battle was the result of the Union Army's attempt to prevent Confederate reinforcements from being sent to support General Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley. It was also intended to weaken the Confederate garrison at Petersburg. On the previous night, the Union XVIII Corps crossed a pontoon bridge with the object of proceeding up the Varina Road and capturing the enemy's defensive works at Chaffin's Bluff. As soon as the fighting started in earnest, the casualties came in staggering numbers because advances had to be made across swamps and open fields. The black regiments that participated at Chaffin's Farm and the next day's battle at New Market Heights were conspicuous in their gallantry.

Here also, the black regiments of the 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 22nd, 45th and 127th USCT were filled with Camden County men. The 4th, 7th and 9th USCT, although formed in Maryland were comprised of many Camden County men. Henry Monroe and Thomas Pinkett, both of the 4th USCT, were residents of Lawnside after the War as were John Dennis, Isaac Dingle, George Hinson, Solomon Hubert and Charles and James Robinson, of the 7th USCT. Others from Lawnside, Joseph Brewster. William H. Green, Isaiah Grose, William Jackson, John L. Stephens and Charles A. Still, all participated with their regiments in that terrible bloody battle.

Because casualty statistics were so great during the Civil War and record-keeping so poorly organized, we must rely mainly on numbers of dead instead of names to indicate the severity of our nation's losses. Gravesites in Camden County tell us only about those who survived the conflict and returned home; thousands were buried where they fell. A review of published lists of those who went to War would lead one to the conclusion that many black soldiers never returned and were part of the large casualty statistics. The May 4, 1864, edition of the West Jersey Press listed names of Thomas Henry, Isaac Butler, James Hitch, William Harris,Wales Taler and Henry Warner, of Stockton Township; Joseph Murray, of Delaware Township; and Isaac Jackson, Martin Haney, James Moulding, James Harriss, James Thomas, Josiah Daniel, Joshua .Woolford, Theodore Williams, George Murray , Garrett Patton and James Walin from Centre Township as inductees.

Newton Township provided James Morris, William Conner, George Robinson, Jesse Boldin, John Thomas and Eli Mott. No Camden County cemetery record can be found which indicates where any of these men are buried, with the single exception of Garrett Patton. Patton was a Landsman in the U.S. Navy and is interred at Mt. Zion Cemetery, Lawnside. Other names which appeared in the West Jersey Press (August 16, 1864), included William James, James Johnson, John Johnson, William Jewliss, Israel Jordan, Pernell Johnson, William H. Jones, Isaac Jerman and Jersey Jones. State War records show that James Johnson survived as a member of the 22nd USCT and that William H. Jones of the 8th USCT came home as well. Shortly before the end of the War the West Jersey Press printed a list of drafted men by county. On March 1,1865 the names from Camden City's Middle Ward appeared, Robert Winay and Peter Pousell. The latter name undoubtedly refers to Peter M.D. Postles, 2nd U.S. Colored Cavalry, later to become Camden County's first black freeholder in 1880.

Listed from Newton Township were: Isaac Wright, Henry Hammon, Robert Monroe, Benjamin Tucker, Charles Brown, Duncon Johnson, Harrison Stephens, Samuel Dyson, Rythhurn Smith, John Powards, Ezekial Byard, David Jones, William Houston, John Long, Reuben Batten, James Smith, George Dehl, Isaac Pageson, Henry Burward, Thomas Smith and Silvier Jefferson. Also from Newton Township were John Madden, Moses Wilcox, Garrett Richardson, Napoleon Reed, James Wheeler Samuel Moire Harvey Peyton and Sheppard Pitts. The only members of this group whose gravesites have been located are Sheppard Pitts and Charles Brown. Delaware Township (Cherry Hill) was home to Samuel Green and Richard Why, Gloucester Township to George Thomas. While we cannot be sure how many survived the War we do know that they all performed their duties as soldiers.

Others who also gave good service included members of the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry at Darbytown Road, Virginia, on October 27, 1864; two colored brigades including regiments from the Philadelphia area which took part in the battle of Nashville, Tennessee on December 15, 1864; and the 13th USCT. This troop lost 221 men in its assault on Overton Hill, which was the greatest regimental loss of the battle. At Honey Hill, South Carolina, on November 30, 1864, the 55th Massachusetts, an all black-regiment, had the highest losses of the battle.

Black regiments were also prominently engaged in the battles of Morris Island, South Carolina; Yazoo City, Mississippi; Poison Springs' Arkansas; Saline River, Arkansas; Morganza, Louisiana; Tupelo, Mississippi; Burmuda Hundred, Virginia; Darbytown Road,Virginia; Saltville, Virginia; Cox's Bridge, North Carolina; Spanish Fort, Alabama; James Island, South Carolina; Pleasant Hill, Louisiana; Camden, Arkansas; Fort Pillow, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; Athens, Alabama; Dutch Gap, Virginia; Hatcher's Run, Virginia; Deveaux Neck, South Carolina; Fort Fisher, North Carolina; the fall of Richmond; Liverpool Heights, Mississippi Prairie D'Ann, Arkansas; Natural Bridge, Florida; Brice's Cross Roads, Mississippi; Drewry's Bluff, Virginia; Boykin's Mills, South Carolina; Wilmington, North Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cold Harbor,Virginia; Deep Bottom, Virginia; Malvern Hill, Virginia; Fair Oaks, Virginia; New Market Heights, Virginia; and Wilson's Wharf; Fillmore; Town Creek; Warsaw; Fort Taylor; Cedar Keys; Bryant's Plantation; Marion County; Sugar Loaf Hill; Williamsburg; Fort Burnham; Plymouth; Ashepoo River; Federal Point; Sherman's March through Georgia and Appomattox Court House where General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865.

The surrender of Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia was certainly one of the greatest events of the War. Many black regiments participated and Camden County black soldiers were among them. John Dennis was there with the 7th USCT; Daniel Derry was there with the 8th USCT; Warner Gibbs was there with the l9th USCT; Samuel Grisden was there with the 41st USCT; Timothy Shaw and Cubit Moore were there with the 43rd USCT; Charles A. Still was there with the 4Sth USCT; and John Berry and Handy West were there with the 127th USCT.

The casualty lists of the USCT justify the words inscribed on the battle flag of the 24th Regiment,United States Colored Troops, "FIAT JUSTITIA", Let Justice Be Done. Of the 449 engagements in which black regiments fought, the casualties were approximately 36,847." Of those regiments formed at Camp William Penn, the 6th USCT suffered a loss of 211 men; the 8th USCT lost 251 men; the 22nd USCT lost 217 men; the 32nd USCT, 150 men and the 43rd USCT 239 men.

Of the black fighting units which maintained their state designation, the 29th Connecticut suffered 201 casualties; the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry, 123 casualties; the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, 270 casualties; and the 55th Massachusetts Infantry, 197 casualties. By the end of the War, the XXV Corps was made up entirely of black soldiers, the largest black military unit ever activated. An additional 250,000 blacks supported the cause in a civilian capacity in labor and supply. Clearly, with the American Civil War, and the lifting off of the shackles of slavery, opportunities for advancement of the African - American culture occurred in the Nineteenth Century.

Although the yoke of slavery was cast off in a single burst of humanity, it would take nearly another one hundred years before the Black man was given a chance to take advantage of the opportunities he had earned during the Civil War. The rumblings of the 1950's reached a crescendo in the 1960's, but for those who had fought for these rights it was a hundred years too late. Accolades were cast upon the gallant black troops by their commanding officers too numerous to mention. Colonel Thomas Morgan, described the black troops at the Battle of Nashville, in words appropriate to their role in the War: "Colored soldiers had fought side by side with white troops. They had mingled together in the charge. They had supported each other. They had assisted each other from the field when wounded, and they lay side by side in death. The survivors rejoiced together over a hard fought field, won by common valor. All who witnessed their conduct gave them equal praise. The day we longed to see had come and gone, and the sun went down upon a record of coolness, bravery, manliness, never to be unmade. A new chapter in the history of liberty had been written. It had been shown that marching under the flag of freedom, animated by a love of liberty, even the slave becomes a man and a hero."(see 97)

An officer on General Sherman's staff in Georgia remarked about black troops after the surrender of General Joseph Johnston's army on April 26, 1865: " During our stay in Raleigh I witnessed a scene which to me was one of the most impressive of the war." It was the review by General Sherman of a division of colored troops. These troops passed through the principal streets of the city. They were well drilled, dressed in new and handsome uniforms, and with their bright bayonets gleaming in the sun they made a splendid appearance. The sides of the streets were lined with residents of the city and the surrounding country, -- many of them, I presume, the former owners of some of these soldiers. (see 98)

General Benjamin F. Butler, may have said it best when he bade farewell to the black men who served under him: "In this army you have been treated as soldiers, not as laborers. You have shown yourself worthy of the uniform you wear. The best officers of the Union seek to command you. Your bravery has won the admiration of those who would be your masters. Your patriotism, fidelity and courage have illustrated the best qualities of manhood. With the bayonet you have unlocked the iron barred gates of prejudice, and | opened the new fields of freedom, liberty and equality of right to yourselves and to your race."(see 99)

Sixteen Congressional Medals of Honor for bravery above and beyond the call of duty were awarded to black soldiers during the Civil War. The slave had come a long way. "The Southern position that slaves could not bear arms was essentially correct: a slave was not a man. The war ended slavery. The Negro soldier proved that the slave could become a man." (see 100)