Jan. 1863 - Enlisting Colored Troops on Maryland's Eastern Shore; And in Key West, FL

Jan. 1863

Enlisting Colored Troops on Maryland's Eastern Shore

Worcester County, MD

There are three Civil War Trails sites on the Eastern Shore. Apparently I drove right past number 2 on the way to number 3 from number 1. Alas, I shall need to return downee Ocean, hon.  

It's times like this that I just do not want to fight with the Historic Marker Databases. There are at least 6 markers with nearly identical language in the database: but they also say "Welcome to..." Caroline, Kent, and Queen Anne's County. This maker clearly says, "Welcome to Worcester County." Worse - the tree in the upper-right matches that found in the picture of this historical marker in the database, but the language has changed. Like I said, I'm just not going to get into this right now. I've got two years of backlogged pics to document....

"Although isolated from Maryland's largest population centers, the Eastern Shore was important to the state's role in the Civil War and exemplified the citizens' divided loyalties.

In the years before the war, enslaved African-Americans here began escaping bondage via the Underground Railroad to the North and Canada, helped on their way by sympathetic blacks and whites and such courageous "conductors" as Harriet Tubman, an Eastern Shore native. During the war, hundreds of enslaved and free black men from the Eastern Shore enlisted in the United States Colored Troops, the black units authorized in January 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Afterward, returning black veterans established towns and emancipation celebrations that still survive today.

Some of the Shore's white residents held fast to the Union, while others supported the Confederacy. Although combat bypassed this area, families here as elsewhere suffered the loss of their men as well as the hardships of war. Newspaper publishers suspected of disloyalty to the Union were arrested. Streams and towns on both sides of the Chesapeake Bay became smugglers' havens as enterprising watermen ran the Federal blockade to supply Confederate forces. When the conflict ended, Eastern Shore residents returned to their fields and fishing vessels, and the passions of war subsided."

Meanwhile, up in Berlin, MD...

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=206342

"Isaiah Fassett was born into slavery south of here in Sinepuxent in 1844. On November 11, 1863, when he was nineteen, his owner, Sara A. Bruff, released him from bondage to enlist in Co. D, 9th United States Colored Troops. Bruff, who was loyal to the United States, applied for compensation from the U.S. Army on February 16, 1864, and received $300 for Fassett.

Fassett was about five feet five inches tall when he enlisted. His regiment served in Maryland until March 1864, then in South Carolina. In August, it moved to Virginia and was in the siege of Petersburg and Richmond, engaging in the battles of New Market Heights, Fort Gilmer, and Darbytown Road. It entered and occupied Richmond on April 3, 1865. Fassett was promoted from private to corporal on May 1, and the regiment then served in Texas until October. Fassett was discharged in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 26, 1866, and returned to Berlin. His house, which stood on this site, burned down by 2004.

In 1870, Fassett appeared in the census records for the first time as a free man, with his wife Sarah Purnell and their son Peter. He served as a commander of the Grand Army of the Republic post in Berlin until it disbanded. In July 1938, he attended the 75th Anniversary ceremonies in Gettysburg. Fassett participated in Memorial Day parades, marching, riding a horse, and seated in an automobile as he aged, until he would stand on his porch and salute as the parade passed by. He was Maryland's next-to-last surviving Civil War veteran when he died on June 24, 1946."

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Also, in Jan of 1863, the USCT were recruiting way down in Florida. These guys were pretty famous, with their exploits appearing in the movie Glory. 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=224902

2nd South Carolina Regiment

Veterans Memorial Garden at Bayview Park

In January of 1863, Col. James Montgomery of Kansas was authorized to raise a regiment of troops consisting entirely of free blacks and former refugee slaves. The following month, he arrived in Key West to recruit men for that regiment.

All Africans between the ages of 15 and 50 not in the services were ordered to report for medical examination and, if capable of bearing arms, to embark on the US Steamer Cosmopolitan for transport to Hilton Head to serve in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment.

Some of these men returned to Key West after the war and started families. Several more were injured. At least 18 of them paid the ultimate price.

These men served with great distinction, but their names were lost to time. This monument honors their courage, their actions, and their sacrifices, but most importantly, stands to make sure these men are never forgotten again.