Today I am starting a new feature, brief looks at African American regiments that served in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Nearly 180,000 African Americans served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Most were part of the United States Colored Troops (USCT), nearly all-black units with white officers in command. Except for the 54th Massachusetts, the Black regiment featured in the movie “Glory”, few of these African American regiments are known to the general public. Many of the United States Colored Troops continued on in service after the war as key components in the occupation of the former Confederate states. These articles are not intended as full regimental histories, they are more akin to scrapbooks. If you have information on the regiment, please post it in the comments.
The first regiment I want to look at is the 26th United States Colored Troops (26th USCT), a regiment recruited in Central and Western New York as well as in New York City and Long Island and trained at Riker’s Island (before the New York City jail was there). The Union League Club took on the responsibility of raising black regiments in New York. Although the state had only 9,000 black men of military age, it raised three USCT regiments of approximately a thousand men each. You can find out more about this in the report of the Union League.
Long Island boatman David Carll was a member of the 26th USCT. According to the NYCDOC website:
David Carll was a 21-year-old man of color who had been born free in Cold Spring Habor, L.I. (slavery having ended in NYS in 1827) and who was living and working in Oyster Bay, then part of Queens County but now part of Nassau County, when he went to a county center in Jamaica to join the Union army Jan. 2, 1864. He signed up with the 26th USCT during the first week of opportunity to do so. With $200 from the $300 bounty he received for enlisting, Carll bought some land in the community. To this day, a hill near South Street bears the Carll name.
His great-great grand daughter is the singer and actress Vanessa Williams!
Below is the monument to members of the 26th who enlisted at St. James AME Church in Ithaca, New York.
The New York Times had an article on the presentation of colors to the 26th USCT:
Published: March 28, 1864
The Twenty-sixth Regiment United States Colored Troops, which was prevented by the storm from marching through this City on Saturday, left Riker’s Island yesterday, and, passing round the City, embarked in the Warrior at the foot of Warren-street. They were there met by a committee of the Union League Club, and an elegant stand of colors was presented to them, on behalf of the ladies of New-York, by JOHN JAY, Esq., who delivered the following address:SOLDIERS OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT OF UNITED STATES COLORED TROOPS: On behalf of the ladies of New-York, who have prepared for you a stand of colors, I offer you a cordial greeting and a hearty God speed! They hoped in common with tens of thousands of their fellow-citizens to greet you in person yesterday. This, to their exceeding disappointment, the storm prevented. The arrangements of Government and the needs of the country require you to depart to-day. We, therefore, come on this beautiful Easter morning, consecrated to Faith and Hope, to give you, as you depart, our kind farewell. We greet you as Christians have for ages greeted each other on this anniversary of Christ’s resurrection. We invoke for you the protection and favor of our risen Lord triumphant over Sin and Death.The President has called upon you to unite with your fellow-citizens in defending the integrity, the supremacy and the honor of our country. Trusting implicitly to the national faith, which the President, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States, has solemnly pledged in public proclamations you have promptly responded to that call; and with, out doubt, hesitation or condition, you offer your lives for the defence of our common country and our common freedom. Organized by the National authority, you are henceforth a permanent part of the Army of the Republic. Already have thousands of your race, suddenly elevated from a condition of bondage, faced the rebel cannon and sharp-shooters at Vicksburgh, Port Hudson, Fort Wagner, Milliken’s Bond, and other battle-fields of the South, with a heroism that has extorted the admiration and the gratitude of the American people. They have vindicated, by the highest ordeal, the right and capacity of their race — to share with us the blessings, which they have assisted to secure for the nation.To-day you go forth from home, family and friends to emulate their bright example, and to do bravely, with God’s help your part in the great contest. Your going enables a thousand citizens of New-York liable to military service, to remain at home; and you leave behind you those who will watch with interest every onward step in your career, and who will remember you constantly in their prayers. If you return, as God grant many of you may, crowned with glory and victory, you will receive the warm welcome due to your patriotism and valor; and if you fall, as fall you may, your memories will be fondly cherished with those of the noble-hearted, who have died for their country.Col. SILLIMAN, in the name of these ladies, and at the request of the Committee on Volunteering of the Union League Club, to whom the country is indebted for this second regiment organized by their efforts. I have the honor to present to you this stand of colors. Your heroic conduct on the hard fought field of Gettysburgh, and at Chancellorsville, where you saved the colors of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth New-York, and brought out but a remnant of your command, assures us that we could not entrust them to worthier hands. Our republican system, which again you go forth to maintain, while it demands our highest loyalty to the Constitutional Government of the American people, and makes the preservation of their national sovereignty the first duty of the American citizen, teaches us also, the lesson which we early learn and never forget, of pride, regard and affection, for our respective States. While, then, with your gallant officers and brave men you follow the flag of our country and defend it with your lives, this standard will remind you, whether in camp, on the march, or on the battle-field, of your connection with New-York, and of the masses of her citizens who bid you an affectionate farewell. Remember, Colonel, and let every officer and man in your regiment remember, that when the story of your prowess is told by the daily Press or on the page of history, this Metropolis will share your triumph, and the Empire State count you proudly among her sons. Already has New-York a record in this war of which her children may well be proud, even while they mourn her heroic dead — ELLSWORTH, CORCORAN, ZOOK, CHAPIN, SMITH, PREISSNER, SHERILL, COWLES, and all the unnumbered heroes who have fallen in the nation’s cause. We offer to you. Colonel, this banner in its fresh silken beauty, the emblem of a constellation that is for the moment dim, and of a Union that seems somewhat shaken. Bring it to us again, tattered it may be, and stained with the life-blood of your brave soldiers; but bring it, the emblem of a nationality unbroken, of a sovereignty unimpaired, of a territory undiminished; the emblem of a Republic united and supreme, from which, though the stripes shall have vanished, no star shall be missing.Col. WM. SILLIMAN replied as follows:SIR: The soldiers of the Twenty-sixth Regiment thank you for your good words and kind wishes, and I can ask only that we may realize your highest hopes of us. What you have said of the men I believe is God’s truth, and it will be the proudest day of my life when I can show their battle line to the traitor foe, and tell them: There are they that hunt for fugitive slaves, let them each find his man. For myself, I feel that what a man has been is nothing to what he yet may be, and by the latter I will strive to merit the honor so heaped upon me here to-day. Fair ladies, I cannot tell you how dear to us will be this banner, the gift of loyal women of the North. We love it, not chiefly for its rare and costly beauty, but for what is beyond all price, and more glorious than beauty. It is the emblem of our faith in all of this life which is worth living for. It is to us the symbol of redemption from bondage, differing from that which is eternal only in discharge by death, and as Christians love the cross, so we love our country’s flag. We thank you for your generous gift, and, as soldiers, we have sworn to love, honor, and defend it with our lives.
After Col. SILLIMAN had concluded, Mr. VINCENT COLYER, the General Superintendent, came forward, and on behalf of the Colored Society, who were to have preceeded the regiment on the parade of Saturday — but for the storm — presented the soldiers each with a handsome rosette and white satin badge, on which was inscribed the words: “Unconditional Loyalty to God and our Country — to the soldiers of the 26th Regiment — from their friends.” Mr. COLYER held in his hands a beautiful banner, on which was inscribed the words, “UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY,” and in a few brief and eloquent words wished the regiment God speed. After the presentation the men received a hearty lunch.
The regiment goes to Annapolis, to join Gen. BURNSIDE’S corps.
Photo of the 26th USCT on parade at Camp William Penn.
William Silliman, the commander of the 26th, died of wounds received in combat. From the NYC DOC website:
William C. Silliman was as born in Canterbury, N.Y. (now the village of Cornwall) on Oct. 18, 1837, the only child of the Rev. Jonathan Silliman and his wife Anna.
Jonathan was pastor from 1835-61 of the Canterbury Presbyterian Church situated in downtown Cornwall.
Pastor Silliman was an abolitionist and also considered by some rather strict, both factors figuring in a split within the congregation and the formation in 1856 of the Cornwall Presbyterian Church.
William C. attended Albany Law School. Founded in 1851, Albany Law School is the nation’s oldest independent school of law.
Silliman graduated 1858. In 1860 he enlisted in the 7th NYS Cavalry at Troy, mustering in as a 1st Lieutenant of Company D. He mustered into the 124th N.Y. Infantry as a Captain and Adjutant on July 16th, 1862.
The 124th was called the “Orange Blossoms” because they were raised in Orange Country, N.Y. On Feb. 1, 1864 he was promoted to Colonel and accepted the color flag for the newly-formed Unites States Colored Infantry, 26th division.
Colonel William C. Silliman died on December 17, 1864 of wounds he received in action at Georgia Farms, S.C., according to research by James F. Leiner, history writer for the Nyack Villager, a monthly newspaper in Rockland County, N.Y.
The New York State Military Museum provides this information on the regiment:
This regiment, Col. William Silliman, was organized at Riker’s Island, New York harbor, February 27, 1864, to serve three years; it served in the Department of the East to March, 1864; in the District of Beaufort, Department of the South, to April, 1865; at Port Royal, S. C., until it was honorably discharged and mustered out, under Col. William B. Guernsey, August 28, 1865.
During its service the regiment lost by death, killed in action, 21 enlisted men; of wounds received in action, 2 officers, 7 enlisted men; of disease, 2 officers, 102 enlisted men; drowned, 1 officer, 4 enlisted men; murdered, 1 enlisted man; of sunstroke, 2 enlisted men; of causes not stated, 3 enlisted men; total, 5 officers, 140 enlisted men; aggregate, 145.
Below is an oft reprinted painting of the 26th
The drum of one of the regiment’s drummers is preserved.
The drummer, Oscar Barton, was from Vestal, a village near Binghampton that is the modern location of SUNY Bignhamton.
In looking at who served in this regiment, I am struck by the fact that these men came from all over New York State ( and a handful came from Connecticutt as well.
Here is another member of the 26th USCT from Long Island:
From the Encyclopedia of NY:
Patrick. I live on Johns Island. I am researching the Battle of Burden’s Causeway or the Battle of Bloody Bridge, July, 1864. I live in a small subdivision where Kinsey Burden’s plantation existed between 1805 and 1860, just along the Stono River. I am trying to find information about the possible archeological value of an area to encourage local historical societies to explore and dig a 130 acre area where I believe a great deal of the three-day battle occurred. Any assistance you might offer is appreciated. Thanks, Tim
A superb work, exhaustively researched.
thanks
Excellent. My great-great-grandfather was James Archer. e died in 191His headstone is at Spring Forest Cemetery in Binghamton, NY, only about 100 meters from 13 Maple St, where he had been living since at least 1890. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83318947/james-archer#view-photo=54208595
Thanks. Until this year I always had a family member in Binghamton. Maybe I will again and I will try to visit his grave.
If you do, go to the northeast corner (Prospect and Mygatt), and you’ll see Lillian Yates Holland’s grave. That’s his daughter and my great-grandmother. Head west, and you’ll see Harriet Archer and James Archer’s graves.