Looking back: Can you help establish this veteran’s well-deserved place in history?
Courtesy of Washington County Historical Society
Washington County Historical Society is looking for Observer-Reporter readers’ assistance in identifying this unknown Civil War veteran.
Courtesy of Washington County Historical Society
Washington County Historical Society is looking for Observer-Reporter readers’ assistance in identifying this unknown Civil War veteran.
Courtesy of Washington County Historical Society
An excerpt from the Monongahela Valley Republican from Oct. 11, 1888.
Four months after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official in 1863, the U.S. War Department began recruitment of African American men to serve in what became known as the United States Colored Troops (USCT).
Approximately 175 regiments comprising more than 178,000 Black men – who were born in freedom and in slavery alike – served during the last two years of the American Civil War. Their service infused the Union war effort with new energy at a critical time. By war’s end, the men of the USCT made up nearly one-tenth of all Union troops. Nearly 9,000 of these USCT soldiers enlisted in Pennsylvania. These men not only made significant contributions to the winning of the Civil War, but they also broke down racial barriers across American society and helped set in motion the events that led to citizenship for all African Americans.
This was their ultimate victory.
The Washington County Historical Society’s study of USCT veterans is being conducted under the Waller-McDonald Collection of African American History, commissioned earlier this year in honor of two of the United States’ pioneering civil rights leaders: Louis E. Waller, who was born in 1928 and died in 2009, and James R. “Cookie” McDonald. This collection will help tell Washington County’s history through the lens of the African American experience and will include historical documents, photographs and other artifacts. In addition to coalescing items already in its holdings, the historical society is seeking additional information and materials from the community to build an invaluable resource for future generations.
To that end, the historical society is requesting the community’s help in identifying an unknown USCT veteran. The photos, which accompany this story and were donated to the historical society through the estate of the late Ray Forquer, depicts a USCT veteran later in life as a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
The Grand Army of the Republic, founded in 1866, was a fraternal organization of Union Army veterans who served in the Civil War. The Grand Army of the Republic was among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for Black veterans, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying Congress for veterans’ pension benefits and supporting candidates who championed veterans’ causes.
The veteran in the photo is wearing a kepi cap like those worn by members of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is also wearing a Grand Army of the Republic wreath pin and a three-digit post number.
Photographic detective work seems to reveal a Grand Army of the Republic post number of 577, which turns out to have been the David Acheson Post No. 577 of Washington. The Acheson post was one of the relatively few all African American posts in Pennsylvania – the Robert G. Shaw Post No. 206 of Pittsburgh was another African American post in the region.
The Acheson Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 577 was founded in 1888 by 20 USCT veterans. Of course, racial discrimination and prejudice did not end with the Civil War, and Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 577 did its best to promote and protect the rights of its USCT veteran members.
Post No. 577 also took the lead in representing the Grand Army of the Republic in Memorial Day ceremonies at the Old Graveyard in Washington where most USCT veterans were interred at the time – the site is marked today by the Hoge Memorial Burial Ground monument on West Walnut Street. Membership in Post No. 577 grew to about 30 or 35 veterans before age and mortality started to diminish their ranks. The historical society believes the Post was disbanded sometime in late 1916. The photo accompanying this story was likely taken between 1888 and 1916.
Absent the discovery of another photo that would allow an identification by facial recognition, dating the photo itself may be the first step toward determining this veteran’s identity. The veteran’s facial features and his apparent use of a cane indicate he was about 70 years old when the photo was taken.
But perhaps the best clue to dating the photo is the man’s clothing style.
While the dating of photographs is typically easier with female subjects having more distinct variations of fashion and hair styles over time, the historical society can observe that this man had a four-button suit coat with a matching vest, a mid-height collared shirt and a bow tie. The historical society believes this man’s suit was made sometime in the 1890s and that this photo was taken in the early 1900s.
So, with this column, the historical society encourages O-R readers to offer any clues that may allow this proud USCT veteran’s story to be fully documented.
This is what the Waller-McDonald Collection is all about – ensuring previously overlooked aspects of African American history are documented and preserved for future generations. Readers possessing any clues as to the veteran’s identity should contact Tom Milhollan – through the points of contact on the Historical Society’s website – at www.wchspa.org.
Tom Milhollan is operations & development coordinator of Washington County Historical Society.