Mar 17, 2017 2 min read

Walter Seal of Monongahela has worked long and hard compiling the history of the 19th-century Invincible Grays, then known as “colored troops,” and at his request, Washington County commissioners have asked the Pennsylvania National Guard to posthumously recognize Company F with a unit citation for their bravery, courage and willingness to serve on behalf of the commonwealth.

Seal has requested the unit citation to no avail, but the commissioners earlier this month agreed to write to Sgt. Janelle M. Spadoni at Fort Indiantown Gap in Annville, Lebanon County.

Commissioners Larry Maggi, Diana Irey Vaughan and Harlan Shober, in a letter dated March 13, also asked the Guard to endorse the request “in honor of all African-American soldiers who represented this great country of ours.”

If they receive a unit citation, the commissioners want to display it as a symbol of forgotten soldiers, past and present, from Western Pennsylvania.

The soldiers from Monongahela who had fought in the Civil War organized in 1871, and they are formally known as Company F, 10th Regiment, 8th Division. Recruits also hailed from Fayette, Westmoreland and Allegheny counties. In a proclamation Seal received from the county commissioners two years ago, the commissioners noted the unit “is believed to be the first African-American unit of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and perhaps the United States.”

Joseph R. Griffey was a second lieutenant in the unit, and his descendants include baseball stars Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr.

The commissioners, in their request, included an article Seal wrote on “The Forgotten Men of Company ‘F’ from Monongahela” for the Feb. 21 edition of the Observer-Reporter.