The United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) were regiments in the U.S. Army recruited originally during the Civil War (1861-65), composed primarily of Black soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served with the units. Whites served in supervisory and officer roles.
U.S.C.T. units were recruited extensively during the Civil War, and by the end of the war there were 175 U.S.C.T. regiments (including seven from Maryland), making up about one-tenth of the Union Army’s entire number. About 20% of U.S.C.T. soldiers died in combat or from wounds, a rate about 35% higher than that of white Union troops. Despite such heavy casualties, the U.S.C.T. regiments fought with distinction and honor, answering questions about their fitness to serve the Union. In the words of commanding General Benjamin F. Butler after the New Market Heights battle, their capacity to be worthy soldiers “had then and there been fully settled forever.”
Few documents remain that record the many contributions of the U.S.C.T. Even fewer photographs and other documents exist detailing their lives and sacrifices. Research is continuing to help identify and appropriately recognize U.S.C.T. graves throughout the United States.
Recently, the Foundation received a grant from the Dresher Foundation to research and identify U.S.C.T. soldiers with Harford County ties. We have now identified 305 men who served. We have their service records plus many other records from slave claims to Casualty sheets, Hospital Bed cards to Final Statements. This wealth of information has been recorded in a massive spreadsheet where we have been analyzing the data and delving it into stories that have been uncovered.
Of these men, 67 (22%) were lost—killed in action or died from wounds, disease, drowning, or imprisonment. 38 of the fallen have no known burial, likely interred in mass graves with little or no identification. Racial prejudice and limited wartime documentation meant many African American soldiers were not properly identified when reinterred in National Cemeteries. Among the survivors, we have located burial sites for about half. In Harford County, 49 U.S.C.T. burials have been confirmed, but only 26 have headstones. For the remaining 23, the cemetery is known, but the exact burial location within it is not. These burials are spread across 18 African American cemeteries in the county.
The United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) were regiments in the U.S. Army recruited originally during the Civil War (1861-65), composed primarily of Black soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served with the units. Whites served in supervisory and officer roles.
U.S.C.T. units were recruited extensively during the Civil War, and by the end of the war there were 175 U.S.C.T. regiments (including seven from Maryland), making up about one-tenth of the Union Army’s entire number. About 20% of U.S.C.T. soldiers died in combat or from wounds, a rate about 35% higher than that of white Union troops. Despite such heavy casualties, the U.S.C.T. regiments fought with distinction and honor, answering questions about their fitness to serve the Union. In the words of commanding General Benjamin F. Butler after the New Market Heights battle, their capacity to be worthy soldiers “had then and there been fully settled forever.”
Few documents remain that record the many contributions of the U.S.C.T. Even fewer photographs and other documents exist detailing their lives and sacrifices. Research is continuing to help identify and appropriately recognize U.S.C.T. graves throughout the United States.
Recently, the Foundation received a grant from the Dresher Foundation to research and identify U.S.C.T. soldiers with Harford County ties. We have now identified 305 men who served. We have their service records plus many other records from slave claims to Casualty sheets, Hospital Bed cards to Final Statements. This wealth of information has been recorded in a massive spreadsheet where we have been analyzing the data and delving it into stories that have been uncovered.
Of these men, 67 (22%) were lost—killed in action or died from wounds, disease, drowning, or imprisonment. 38 of the fallen have no known burial, likely interred in mass graves with little or no identification. Racial prejudice and limited wartime documentation meant many African American soldiers were not properly identified when reinterred in National Cemeteries. Among the survivors, we have located burial sites for about half. In Harford County, 49 U.S.C.T. burials have been confirmed, but only 26 have headstones. For the remaining 23, the cemetery is known, but the exact burial location within it is not. These burials are spread across 18 African American cemeteries in the county.
