In 1865, the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th, 27th, 37th and 39th United States Colored Troops (USCT) fought in the Wilmington Campaign to liberate that city from the Confederates. When USCT soldiers fell, their comrades buried them in small cemeteries on the several battlefields where they had died or near the hospitals where they had drawn their last breath. Over the next two years, after the army had left Wilmington, some of the graves were lost and more were desecrated by returning Confederate veterans who were particularly angry that they had been defeated by former slaves. In 1867 a new cemetery was opened where Union dead would be buried securely. Black and white Union soldiers were buried here. Some died in the Wilmington Campaign and others died from disease afterwards while occupying the city during the early phases of Reconstruction. Since some USCT lived their post-war lives in Wilmington, these Union veterans would be buried in this section even though they died long after the war.
While the cemetery contains both Black and white soldiers, members of the USCT were segregated at the Northwest section. While there was segregation by race in the National Cemetery, on May 30th of each year, Memorial Day, Black and white Union veterans observed together.
The Wilmington National Cemetery is located at 2011 Market Street in Wilmington, NC 28403. Go in the front gate and follow the very short road to its end. On your left is the United States Colored Troops section of the cemetery.
The entry to the Federal cemetery is marked by two gates. It is free to enter and there is no checkpoint there. It is open daily from sunrise to sunset.
Outside is an interpretive sign explaining the role of Black soldiers who are buried in the cemetery.
According to the Veteran Administration the “original interments were remains removed from the Wilmington City Cemetery, Fort Fisher, Fort Johnson and the surrounding area. An inspection dated May 13, 1870, reports 2,039 interments, including 698 known and 1,341 unknown graves marked by headboards.” About five hundred were men from the United States Colored Troops.
By the entrance to the cemetery is an excerpt from the Bivouac of the Dead, a poem written after the Mexican American War by Theodore O’Hara to honor the dead. O’Hara later became a Confederate officer and after the Civil War his words were erected at Confederate cemeteries. After the period of “Reconciliation”, the poem began to appear at national cemeteries.
The cemetery is only five acres and was clearly intended to provide graves for the Union Civil War dead, but subsequently nearly four thousand war dead from later conflicts were buried there.
There is a sign at the entrance telling the story of the capture of Wilmington in 1865, the story of the National Cemetery, and a recounting of past superintendents.
There is brief history of Wilmington during the Civil War.
There is also a good illustration of the occupation of Wilmington from Frank Leslie.
The signage inside the cemetery does not give the stories of the Black men who are interred on the site. So I will try to give room to some of these men’s lives.
The United States Colored Troops who occupied Wilmington were from the 1st, 5th, 10th, 27th and 37th USCT regiments.
George Thomas was a soldier in the USCT’s who died on April 27, 1865.
Henry Joiner died November 7, 1865, six months after the Civil War ended.
Henry Edwards died on February 1, 1865, soon after the battles for Wilmington ended.
Jacob Mathews was born in 1843 and he was in his early twenties when he enlisted in the army. He died November 22, 1865. It is likely that he served in the 37th USCT.
All we know is the last name of this man.
Bryant Moore died on October 10, 1865. He likely served in the 14th Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery.
Gary Boggan died on July 23, 1865.
John Clayborne lived to an old age. He died on July 4, 1922.
Corporal William Patterson was from Buffalo, New York. After the war he moved to North Carolina where he lived until he died on February 27, 1925.
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