On Saturday September 24, 2022, a Black Civil War hero, Archer Alexander will be honored for his role in saving men that the Confederates tried to kill. The city of St. Charles in Missouri has declared September 24 Archer Alexander Day. According to organizers:
On Saturday, September 24, 2022. Saint Charles City and County will recognize Archer Alexander at 10 am in front of the OPO Startups at 119 South Main, where the courthouse stood in 1863. At 1 pm, that afternoon, his family invites the public to join them for a Memorial Service for this heroic man’s life, in the St. Peters UCC Cemetery at 2101 Lucas and Hunt Cemetery in St. Louis County (Normandy).
Archer Alexander heard about a plot by Confederates to sabotage the Peruque Creek bridge in St. Charles County. The railroad bridge was used to transport Union troops. The sabotage could have killed scores of Union soldiers. Archer risked his life to report the plot to Unionists guarding the bridge foiling the plot. On September 24, 1863 it was announced that he was freed in reward for his brave action.
The bridge itself was the site of a blockhouse, shown in the photo below, guarded by German immigrants serving in Unionist home guard company.
Archer’s biographer, Dorris Keeven-Franke, said that during the Civil War, “any person doing what Archer did would be a hero, and an enslaved man, it was even more risky, more dangerous and more opportunities to lose his own life.”
After Archer warned the German home guards, he was captured by a slave patrol, but escaped and went to St. Louis where a Unitarian minister protected him from recapture. The Unitarian, William Greenleaf Eliot, was a committed Abolitionist who told the Union Provost Marshall Archer’s story and obtained a temporary Order of Protection for Archer. In spite of the order, men sent by Archer’s enslaver kidnapped him from Rev. Eliot’s home. Eliot appealed to the Provost Marshal to rescue Archer, and his kidnappers were captured and he was set free. Archer moved to Illinois to prevent further attacks. He also had a German immigrant friend rescue his wife from slavery.
Now, not only is Archer being honored for his service to the United States, his story is being broadcast on the St. Louis National Public Radio station.
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
