Kane County, Illinois African American Civil War Vets

By Raleigh Sutton Deer Meadow South of Town

Prior to the Civil War, it was not allowed to have African Americans in the military, but some were accepted into the Navy. It was thought that they had neither the courage or the discipline to make good soldiers and follow orders.

In the beginning the Union had man-power problems and with the draft riots and the initial victories of the Confederacy posed a huge problem.

African Americans were considered as a last result. On January 1, 1863, the final version of the Emancipation Proclamation was released, and the war changed from a political one to save the Union, to a moral one to free the slaves.

African Americans were allowed to join the military but under special conditions. Each unit was to be commanded by white men. All facilities were to be segregated including hospitals (9) and cemeteries.

Eventually, some 170,000 men joined the ranks and served in the field. Most regiments were raised in the North, but many were organized when Confederate territory was captured and newly freed slaves were organized into regiments.

In Kane County, Illinois, there were 40 African American veterans. As in most areas, monuments and publications contained the names of white veterans, while the African American names were missing. One exception was in Batavia, Illinois where a small stone marker listed a dozen names. This book is the only reference to these brave men. Only about a dozen were from the area but comrades in the field returned with them and made their mark as full-fledged citizens of the area from Elgin south to St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia and Aurora.

Hazards in combat was expected but disease was a bigger killer. The 29th United States Colored Infantry lost 43 in battle but lost 188 to sickness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781684980079

Book preview

KANE COUNTY, ILLINOIS AFRICAN AMERICAN

CIVIL WAR VETS

Raleigh Sutton

Deer Meadow South of Town

Copyright © 2022 Raleigh Sutton

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-68498-006-2 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68498-007-9 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Introduction

Civil War Hospitals for Colored Troops

Kane County Deaths and Causes

*Samuel Newser Andrews (Anderson), Company G, Twenty-Fifth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Brown, George, Company B, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Brown, James H., Company C, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Brown, William, Company G, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Buckner, William, Company A, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Carter, Henry W., Company B, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Chappel, Henry, Company E, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Claybrook, John W., Company A, 107th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Coleman, John Joseph, Company I, Eighth Regiment, United States Colored Artillery

Ford, John, Company H, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Green, Henry, Company F, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Green, John H., Company G, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Hall, John Henry Clifford, Company B, Twenty-Ninth, United States Colored Infantry

Hunter, King Grapion, Company F, 102nd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Johnson, Francis J., Company D, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Jones, Charles B. Company B, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Jones, James, Company B, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Jones, Lewis, Company B, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Mason, Henry, Company F, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Maxon, John, Company C, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Mayweather, Alfred James, Company?, Fourth Regiment, United States Colored Artillery

Meredith (Mereday), Joseph, Company A, Twenty-Ninth, Regiment United States Colored Infantry

Monroe (Munroe) James M., Company B, Twenty-Ninth, Regiment United States Colored Infantry

Moore, Page, Company C, Sixteenth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Morrow, Doctor, Company G, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Newsome, Andrew W., Company I, Forty-Second Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Newsome, Arthur, Fifth Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Regiment

*Newsome, Peter, Army Teamster Company B, Fifty-Fourth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Ozier (Osier), John M., Company F., Eleventh Regiment, United States Colored Artillery

Pride, George, Company C, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Slater, Henry, Company D, Twenty-Ninth United States Colored Infantry

Smith, John, Company A/K, Sixteenth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Smith, Lewis, Company B, Fourth Regiment, United States Colored Artillery

Stewart, George W., Company H, Third Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Stewart, James E., Company B, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Stewart, William, Company K, Third Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Stewart, William T., Company G, Third Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Tennant, Levi, Company B, Regiment, United States Colored Infantry / Company B, Alabama Volunteers

Watts, James, Company B, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Wheeler, Lewis, Company G, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

*Elgin residents (12)

INTRODUCTION

After the final version of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it was also decided that African Americans be allowed to join the military. Since the beginning of the war, many Blacks had tried to enlist but were turned away. The reception of this edict had mixed reviews, many thinking that African Americans didn’t have the intelligence or the will to be proper soldiers. This was especially true regarding the cavalry.

By the end of the war, there were over 178,000 colored troops in the field serving in the infantry, artillery, and cavalry units numbering about 165 regiments. This bore witness to the fact that the war had evolved from the preservation of the Union to the abolition of