Finding The Civil War Era Stories Around Us

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Someone asked me recently how I was able to find out about much of the local Civil War history that I write about.  This was a valid question, especially since much is not written about nor presented in the standard history curriculum. The question arises---how do you know if you should delve into Civil War History?  

Well my answer is simple---if the war affected the region where you lived---and if your ancestors were impacted---then one should by all means study the events as they occurred on the local level in particular.

So----where are the clues and how can you find out? Well, many clues to our history are all around us----right in the communities where we live.  We only have to open our eyes to learn see them. Every community has a rich history and even if you own community or that of your ancestors is not discussed in a textbook sense, there is still data to be found, anyway. We only have to let our eyes see it! Look at your local community with a new lens.

Was your ancestral community a site where any historic battles took place?  If so--- were there any black soldiers at that battle?  Years ago this would have been difficult to answer---but today that is not a difficult task.  So ask the question and see what you find.

This historic marker reflects activities the 1864 campaign against Petersburg. There 22 black units

involved in the events around Petersburg VA, from June 1864 - April 1865

 If there was a battle in the vicinity---that tells you several things.

For there to have been a battle:

1) There had to have been Union soldiers. 

2) If there was a Union regiment in the area, there was a Union encampment---a Union line.

3) If there was a Union line, there is also the possibility of sanctuary---a contraband camp might have been nearby.

4) If there was a large plantation or estate in the area, there might have also have been right after the war, a local field office of the Freedman's Bureau----thus leading to new records and a new source of data including labor contracts with newly freed slaves.

5) If there was a large estate, and a presence of Union soldiers---there was also the possibility of a regiment of US Colored Troops being organized in the same area.

Are there historic antebellum homes? Then there is another opportunity for research.

An historic home--Heyward House, Bluffton SC

In those communities if there were any antebellum homes---then there was a community of people who were enslaved who worked in those homes and also upon the grounds of the estate.  Even if your ancestors had no ties to the estate--someone in the community did have ties, and knowledge of the community's history involves working on the history of those tied to those estates.  

If there are other historic sites---an old mills, historic buildings, churches, and courthouses, there are opportunities for researchers to obtain more data on their own people. Such places were often worked on by enslaved people in the area---so there is more data to explore.

Old churches often reveal information about slaves, in those cases where slave holders allowed slaves to have services.

There are many stories around our ancestral homes, and by placing our ancestors back on the landscape and understanding that their lives unfolded right there----we must begin to look at communities differently as we pass them by.

Thankfully---more historic markers are also appearing on the landscape reflecting in incidents that involved the fight for freedom made by our ancestors who were soldiers and who were enslaved people seeking their freedom. 

We must simply learn to look at those landmarks as we pass them by.

Historical marker in Nashville area.

 

Marker honoring the 1st Regiment Kansas Colored, Rentiesville, Oklahoma

The Places Where they Fought

Ft. Burnham, Virginia, October 1864

When studying ancestors who fought in the Civil War, I have come to realize how important it is to appreciate the places where they were, and engagements in which they fought.  Many places are noted on countless numbers of Civil War era maps and there are gazetteers and atlases that abound providing opportunity to learn more about the places where our ancestors fought. However----in an effort to tell the stories----we have to remember that the war was fought in places where people lived----small towns, settlements, farm, estates, and so many more countless unnamed places. 

The fate of the soldiers was at stake an also the fate of the women and children left behind.  In many places the wives and children of US Colored soldiers would become contrabands---but in some places--those opportunities did not present themselves so easily. BUT-----many slaves did live near those same battle sites, and we should take an interest in what took place there.

Battlefields particularly those in which many died are noted on the southern landscape in every state. Over the years as I have documented my own ancestors in their fight for freedom,   I have come to appreciate those sacred places such as Ft. Pillow,  Jenkins Ferry,  Honey Springs,  Cabin Creek and other places where many of theUSCTs that I research would have died.  

Monuments on Honey Springs Battlefield

Many of us read stories of incidents from the Crater in Petersburg, to Ft. Wagoner, to Olustee in Florida of the black soldiers from the Army of the Potomac, and the 54th Massachusetts.  But how many of us have ever sought to visit those areas? We must remember that these places are more than Civil War memorial battlefields that only Civil War buffs would have an interest in.  

We should see those places---and hold them reverently, as much as we hold the battlefields of our modern era---like Little Rock, Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham.

The battles in which our ancestors gave their lives in the fight for freedom should be on our list of places to visit just as much as we visit Civil Rights landmarks today.  The Civil War was in fact the beginning of struggles for rights---Civil Rights----and the cradle of the 20th century struggles, came from those battlefields.  

Petersburg and Richmond battlefields are just as important the 20th century battlefields at lunch counters in North Carolina.  

Petersburg Battlefield, where more than 20 black Union Army regiments saw action

The actions in the 1860s at New Market Heights (Chapin's Farm) should be stops that we make while traveling in Virginia, just as much as we see the importance as  visiting the National Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham.  These sites pertain to our struggle for freedom and we should consider learning more of the history of what happened there.

I know personally that one of my trips that I hope to make in the next five years will be a trip to north Alabama, to Limestone County. My goal will be to stand in the same area, where my gr. Uncle  Sephus Bass was captured at Sulphur Branch Trestle.   The story of  the incidents at Sulphur Branch Trestle are well documented in the official records.

Sulphur Trestle, was  the site where the 110th & 111th US Colored Infantries were captured by NB Forrest in 1864.

Thankfully the Civil War was well documented and  the  movements of our ancestors should be studied and told when the family story is told. The next generation deserves to hear it, and our ancestors' stories deserve to be told. And the places where they earned their freedom, should be placed on our list of places to visit, reflect and savor the freedom that we have.