This is the second in my series on United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiments. These are scrapbooks rather than true regimental histories. I include links for further reading and sources. The USCT played an important role in the liberation of the South, the freeing of enslaved people, and the first years of Reconstruction. Veterans of the USCT often became leaders of post-war Black communities.
The 22nd Regiment United States Colored Troops (USCT) may have one of the most recognizable flags of the Civil War. The flag depicts a Confederate officer, a “gentleman,” cornered by a member of the 22nd and throwing down his sword and reaching for the white flag of surrender, perhaps too late. David Bustill Bowser is the artist who created the flag. An African American abolitionist, he designed several USCT flags, all rich in symbolism. I will write more about this flag and the man who created it at another time, but first I want to write a little about this regiment. If you have something to contribute, please add it in the comments.
The 22nd USCT was a Northern regiment organized at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia in January, 1864. More than 600 of the men were from New Jersey. This was the USCT regiment most associated with New Jersey. Colonel Joseph Kiddoo commanded.
The regiment was soon transported to Yorktown, Virginia, where they were put to work, as many other black regiments were, constructing wharves, earthworks, and helping to bridge the James. Part of Baldy Smith’s XVIII Corps, the regiment participated in the June attacks on the Petersburg defenses. On September 29th and 30th the regiment fought at New Market Heights.
In the November 1864 fighting, Col. Kiddoo was seriously wounded.
In December of 1864 German immigrant Godfrey Weitzel was promoted to Major General. When serving in Louisiana, Weitzel had refused the command of black troops. Now he was placed in command of the only all-black army corps, the XXV Corps. The man who had once refused to command two regiments of blacks, now led the largest assemblage of black soldiers in the Union army. He was still in his 20s. The 22nd was placed under his command.
The 22nd USCT was one of the first Union regiments to enter Richmond following the Confederate evacuation of the city.
Early on the morning of April 3, 1865, immigrant Major General Godfrey Weitzel wrote, “a little before two o’clock I was awakened by General Shepley and informed that bright fires were seen in the direction of Richmond.” The fires indicated that the Confederate army was on the move. “Shortly after, while we were looking at these fires, we heard explosions,” he wrote later, presumably ammunition being blown up by the retreating army.
A black teamster who was employed by the Confederates was captured and, Weitzel wrote, “[h]e informed me that immediately after dark the rebels began making preparations to leave, and that they had all gone.”
Weitzel ordered his entire picket line forward to scout, and found the black informant’s intelligence corroborated. “I therefore directed all of my troops to be awakened and furnished with breakfast, and to be held in readiness to move as soon as it was light enough to see to pass through the lines of rebel torpedoes without injury” he reported.
The army’s commander General Ord warned the German-born Union general that even if he did not encounter enemy troops on his movement, he still had to beware of other dangers. He was to keep his men off the roads and “look out for torpedoes and mines – it is now reported that large numbers of the former are put down on Chaffin’s farm and Bermuda front.” He advised Weitzel to “send cattle and old horses up the roads first” as primitive mine detection devices.
As Weitzel moved towards the Confederate capital, he recalled, “the fires seemed to increase in number and size, and at intervals loud explosions were heard.” As his men entered the city he witnessed a scene of “perfect pandemonium.” Just hours after the Confederates had begun their escape, all order had broken down. Freed slaves, Confederate deserters, and now unemployed government workers mingled angrily on the streets. Weitzel described the scene:
Fires and explosions in all directions; whites and blacks, either drunk or in the highest state of excitement, running to and fro on the streets, apparently engaged in pillage or in saving some of their scanty effects from the fire; it was a yelling, howling mob.
The Confederate incendiaries had done their worst. As Lee had marched out of the burning city, he left behind anarchy. The black troops who had come to liberate Richmond would soon be put to work trying to save it from utter destruction.
The Confederate fires destroyed 10% of the city.
Saving the city the Confederates had almost destroyed was the objective that day. Although the United States Colored Troops had helped put out the fires destroying Richmond, still, in the words of one Richmonder, “The white citizens felt annoyed that the city should be held mostly by Negro troops.”
Weitzel understood the irony of black Union soldiers saving the capital of the Confederacy, writing:
Thus the rebel capitol, fired by men placed in it to defend it, was saved from total destruction by soldiers of the United States, who had taken possession. The bloody victories which opened the gates of Richmond to my command were won at Five Forks and on the left of the Army of the Potomac, but my men won equally as great a one in the city although it was bloodless.
When the 22nd was sent off to war in 1864, apparently a few whites insulted them on their way out of town:
Source:
https://books.google.com/books?id=O…TAR#v=onepage&q=Colonel Joseph Kiddoo&f=false
The NPS gives the service record of the 22nd USCT:
Organized at Philadelphia, Pa., January 10-29, 1864. Ordered to Yorktown, Va., January, 1864. Attached to U. S. Forces, Yorktown, Va., Dept. of Virginia and North Carolina, to April, 1864. 1st Brigade, Hincks’ Division (Colored), 18th Corps, Army of the James, to June, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 18th Corps, June, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 18th Corps, to August, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 18th Corps, August, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 10th Corps, to September, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 18th Corps, to December, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 25th Corps, December, 1864. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 25th Corps, and Dept. of Texas, to October, 1865.
SERVICE
Duty near Yorktown, Va., till May, 1864.
Expedition to King and Queen County March 9-12.
Butler’s operations south of James River and against Petersburg and Richmond May 4-June 15.
Duty at Wilson’s Wharf, James River, protecting supply transports, then constructing works near Fort Powhatan till June.
Attack on Fort Powhatan May 21.
Before Petersburg June 15-18.
Siege operations against Petersburg and Richmond June 16, 1864, to April 2, 1865.
Deep Bottom August 24. Dutch Gap August 24.
Demonstration north of the James River September 28-30.
Battle of Chaffin’s Farm, New Market Heights, September 29-30.
Fort Harrison September 29.
Battle of Fair Oaks October 27-28.
Chaffin’s Farm November 4.
In trenches before Richmond till April, 1865.
Occupation of Richmond April 3.
Moved to Washington, D. C., and participated in the obsequies of President Lincoln, and afterwards to eastern shore of Maryland and along lower Potomac in pursuit of the assassins.
Rejoined Corps May, 1865.
Moved to Texas May 24-June 6.
Duty along the Rio Grande till October, 1865.
Mustered out October 16, 1865.
From the roster. I note that both the Col. and Lt.Col. were wounded in battle:
More astonishing still would be the Twenty-second U.S. Colored Troops, marching with trailed arms, who preceded Lincoln’s coffin along Pennsylvania Avenue when it left the White House. No one had intended that black soldiers lead the otherwise carefully orchestrated parade. The regiment regiment had swung into line off a side street and found itself at the head of the procession. But then to many, black people were an unending source of surprise. Few in 1861 could have imagined regiments of black men armed to fight white men, and few whites in 1865 imagined black people at the forefront of the struggle over Reconstruction in the South.[From: White, Richard. The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford History of the United States) (p. 14). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.]
The National Park Service page on the 22nd USCT:
You can find a brief history of the regiment along with a complete roster of men in the unit beginning on page 991:
https://play.google.com/books/reade…c=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA991
More on the flag, from Jubilo:
https://jubiloemancipationcentury.w…tal-flag-22nd-united-states-colored-infantry/
More on the liberation of Richmond:
https://longislandwins.com/columns/…mmigrant-and-black-troops-who-saved-the-city/
Read about the 26th USCT here.
“I will write more about this flag and the man who created it at another time,”
It’s another time – let’s go, chop chop
Good reminder.
I have sent the message shown below to historical groups that have an interest in the subject. I recently made a major update to the database on the Camp William Penn website. The book, “Where Have all of the Soldiers Gone” (Amazon Books) also had a major update of an additional 100 pages. The book now contains almost 800 cemeteries of burial locations of soldiers of the Camp William Penn Regiments.
A major, major USCT (Civil War – Unites States Colored Troops) research tool has just been added to the Camp William Penn, Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pa. website (Database and Archive). Every USCT soldier of the Camp William Penn regiments has his own computer folder, 18,000 folders, 400,000 documents. Every soldier’s military file. Some of the soldier’s photo, death certificate, grave location, gravestone photo, stories, genealogy and more. A major new development in USCT genealogical and historical research.
CROHL – Civil War Directory – Google Drive
Ed McLaughlin