Of the hundreds of escaped slaves in South Carolina and Georgia fleeing to Union-controlled Port Royal Island, South Carolina, many are Baptists. While the stories are joyful in that freedom is obtained, there are often elements of hardship and sadness in the journey away from captivity, as U.S. Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, abolitionist and the…
St. Augustine, Florida, like many other Southern coastal communities, is under the control of the United States Army. Into these Union-controlled coastal areas flow increasing numbers of freed or escaped slaves. The U.S. military, in response, struggles to establish structures to house and educate freedmen under their protection. This month the Rev. Issac. W. Brinckerhoff,…
Today, Edwin Stanton, the U.S. Secretary of War, gives Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew permission to begin recruiting black troops for the first U.S. colored regiment. Andrew sets about assembling officers for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, all of whom are to be white, as mandated by the government. Among the officers selected is Colonel Robert…