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- Frederick Douglass - A fugitive slave
who rose from bondage to become a foremost orator,
writer, abolitionist, and the most influential black
leader of the mid-nineteenth century.
- Harriet Tubman - Conductor on the
Underground Railroad. During the Civil War she served as
a scout, and nurse and was described as “the head of
the intelligence service in the Department of the South.
She planned and guided a raid by black soldiers under the
command of Colonel Montgomery that dashed into enemy
country, destroying millions of dollars worth of
commissary stores and cotton...and freed nearly 800
slaves without losing a man. The only American woman to
lead troops on the field of battle.
- The over 178,000 ex-slaves and freedmen
that served in the United States Colored Troop and the
30,000 that served in the Union Navy during the Civil
War.
- Martin Delaney - Born free in Virginia
in 1812, attended school in Pennsylvania and later
studied medicine and law at Harvard. He was a recognized
geographer, anthropologist, author, and lecturer.
Appointed to the rank of Major and assigned to the 104th
United States Colored Infantry Regiment, becoming the
second Black field grade officer in the Union Army.
- Susie King Taylor - Born a slave in
Georgia and at age 14 escaped with an Uncle behind the
Union lines. During the Civil served as a teacher, nurse,
and laundress to the men of the 1st South Carolina
Volunteer Regiment, later redesignated the 33rd United
States Colored Infantry Regiment.
- Charlotte L. Forten - Born in
Philadelphia in 1838 of relatively wealthy parents, her
persistent and primary concerns were the liberation and
uplifting of her race. She volunteered to participate in
the Port Royal Experiment, an educational and work
program for ex-slaves.
- Caldonia Vaughn - Born in Topeka,
Kansas, and during the Civil War served with the 3rd
Illinois Cavalry and 12th Missouri as a cook and nurse.
She died in 1939 at the age of 95.
- Allen Allensworth
- Born a slave in
Louisville, Kentucky, he taught himself to read with the
Bible and a Webster Speller. Attempted to escape twice to
Canada and subsequently sold to a slave trader going
south. Escaped from Mississippi and travelled to
Illinois. During the Civil War attached himself to the
44th Illinois Infantry serving as a Corpsman and went
back south with the unit to Tennessee. Joined the Union
Navy and served aboard several gunboats on the
Mississippi River.
- Andrew Jackson Smith - Born a slave in
Kentucky on September 3, 1842, he “fell in”
with the 41st Illinois Volunteer Infantry as the unit was
travelling southward. Served as a laborer and
subsequently servant to Colonel John Warner. Both were
wounded during the Battle of Shiloh after which they went
to the Colonel’s hometown to recuperate. He later
travelled to Massachusetts and enlisted in the 55th
Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and became the Color
Sergeant of the regiment.
- Alfred Wood - A fugitive slave from
Mississippi, he became a scout with the 1st Mississippi
Colored Cavalry (later redesignated, the 3rd United
States Colored Cavalry), and served gallantly throughout
the Civil War as an outstanding spy and scout.
- Private William H. Barnes, 38th USCI; First
Sergeant Powhattan Beaty, 5th USCI; First Sergeant James
H. Bronson, 5th USCI; First Lieutenant Nathan H.
Edgerton, 6th USCI; Sergeant Major Christian A Fleetwood,
4th USCI; Private James Gardiner, 36th USCI; Sergeant
James H. Harris, 38th USCI; Sergeant Alfred B. Hilton,
4th USCI; Sergeant Major Milton M. Holland, 5th USCI;
Corporal Miles James, 36th USCI; First Sergeant Alexander
Kelly, 6th USCI; First Sergeant Robert Pinn, 5th USCI;
First Sergeant Edward Ratcliff, 38th USCI; and Private
Charles Veal, 4th USCI - - All were awarded the
Medal of Honor for gallantry in action during the Battle
Of Chapin’s Farm (New Market Heights, Virginia) on
September 29, 1864.
- Eliza Jones - Nurse at the U.S. Army
Hospital, Huntsville, Alabama.
- Amanda Wright - Nurse at the Union
Hospital, Vicksburg, Mississippi.
- Catherine Thomas - Nurse at U.S. Army
Hospital, Natchez, Mississippi.
- Captain Andre Cailloux
- 3rd Louisiana
Native Guard Regiment - gloriously died in advance of his
company while cheering his men on during the Battle of
Port Gibson, Louisiana on May 27, 1863.
- Sojourner Truth - Antislavery crusader
and advocate of equal political and legal rights for
women. She toured the Midwest to rally support for the
Union war effort. Counselled free blacks after the Civil
War and worked as an administrator at the Freedman’s
Hospital.
- The over 7,000 White Officers who
served under the Bureau of Colored Troops.
- Charles Tyler Trowbridge - believed to
be the first person who ever enlisted colored soldiers in
the Civil War, and after the War while commander of the
33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment dealt fairly
with the concern and sensitivity required in an effort to
assist all of the downtrodden people whose lives had been
devastated by slavery and the Civil War.
- Fred Brown - Company D, 33rd U.S.
Colored Infantry Regiment who saved the lives of his
comrades on board a train deliberately uncoupled over a
railroad bridge. He put a pistol to the head of the
engineer and forced him to back up the engine and pull
the train forwarded before the soldiers were ambushed by
Rebel renegades
- The Officers of the 4th Illinois Cavalry
who organized the 1st Mississippi Colored Cavalry (3rd
U.S. Colored Cavalry Regiment), recruited and trained
ex-slaves from Mississippi and Tennessee into one of the
most effective fighting forces in the Mississippi Valley.
- Joshua Dunbar - Escaped slave from
Kentucky who went to Canada, returned to Ohio, recruited in Troy, Ohio and travelled to
Massachusetts to enlist in the 55th Massachusetts
Volunteers. After being discharged with a disability on
October 28, 1863, he returned to Massachusetts and
enlisted in the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry and
rose to the rank of Sergeant. Mustered out of the unit on
October 31, 1865 in Clarksville, Texas. (NOTE:
The father of Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar).
- Joseph T. Wilson - Born in Norfolk,
Virginia in 1836, and settled in New Bedford,
Massachusetts. He was a seaman and in Chile when news of
the Civil War reached him. He sailed to New Orleans in
search of his father who reportedly had been sold in that
city. Enlisted in the 2nd Louisiana Marine (Native) Guard
Regiment on October 30, 1862 and was discharged on
September 1, 1963. He reenlisted in Company C, 54th
Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on December 18, 1863 and
was wounded during the Battle of Olustee, Florida on
February 29, 1864. Discharged on May 8, 1864 in Boston,
he began to gather documents which was later compiled
into a book, “The Black Phalanx,” an indepth
account of the role Black men played in the Civil War.
- The Afro-British North Americans, the foreign
born of African and European ancestry, and others
who sacrificed, suffered and died in an effort to ensure
the well-being and freedom of a once enslaved people, and the
thousands of other men and women too numerous to mention.
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