 Welcome back to the National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair. It is now 2 o'clock on Eastern Coast and we are open two more hours at our hotline. This is a phone line that you can call in where Archivists will answer your questions on your family research. The toll free number is 1-855-309-8404. The session this afternoon is on finding U.S. colored troops at the National Archives and Trevor Plant will be speaking. At the end of Mr. Plant's session he will be answering questions. You can ask these questions, send them in live anytime that you like during the session on Ustream or Twitter. If you cannot get to all the questions during this session please feel free to direct your questions to Enquirer that's I-N-Q-U-I-R-E at NARA-N-A-R-A dot-G-O-V. This talk this afternoon will focus on records located at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. They're relating to soldiers who served in the U.S. colored troops during the Civil War. The speaker will walk researchers through records relating to black soldiers and will focus heavily on what to look for that is unique in records that are common to other soldiers and veterans such as compiled military service records and pension files. The records relating to service in the U.S. colored troops are a rich source of information that provide information on not only the soldiers who served but also can lead researchers on the path to finding records on other family members as well. From this lecture you will learn more about this groundbreaking group of soldiers, many of them former slaves who led the way for black soldiers to serve in the U.S. Army during the Civil War and paved the way for the abolishment of slavery and the right to vote. Trevor K. Plant is the chief of reference at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. He is a supervisory archivist at the National Archives who specializes in 19th and early 20th century military records. He is an active lecturer at the National Archives and a frequent contributor to the National Archives quarterly magazine prologue. He compiled reference information paper 109 entitled military service records at the National Archives. His articles have also appeared in America's Civil War and social education magazines. He has spoken at national and state genealogical conferences and at the National Gallery of Art, National Museum of the American Indian, and several Civil War symposia. He has appeared on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and NPR. Welcome, Trevor. Trevor K. Plant So good afternoon and welcome to Ustream. Today I will be talking about finding U.S. color troops at the National Archives. In 1863, the U.S. Army began to organize regimental units of African Americans as the United States color troops or USCT. Both free men and former slaves served in these regiments as enlisted men. Some USCT regiments originated as black state militia units that formed prior to 1863. A few Connecticut and Massachusetts African American regiments retained their state designators and did not assume USCT regimental numbers following the formation of the U.S. color troops. However, several Louisiana State native guard and corda africa regiments were reorganized or renamed as U.S. color troop regiments and came under that jurisdiction by late 1864. USCT regiments included regiments of cavalry, artillery, and infantry. During the Civil War approximately 179,000 African Americans served in the U.S. color troops as enlisted men. We also have service records of the regiments, white officers as well. The service records are by type, so in this case it would be filed under U.S. color troops. Then a numerical order by cavalry, artillery, or infantry, then alphabetical by the soldier's name regardless of their rank or the company that they served in within the regiment. So probably the most common records for Civil War service related to these soldiers would be the compiled service record, the pension file, carded medical records, court martial case files, so those would be related to the individual. And then for the unit that the individual served in during the war, we do have regimental books, regimental papers, and record of events that are again keyed to the unit that they served in. So to dig a little bit deeper into several of the records that I just rattled off, this is a compiled service record jacket for Samuel Patterson. It shows private Samuel Patterson Company I, 32nd U.S. colored infantry, and this is kind of what a common envelope looks like. And it would contain several cards on the inside of the envelope itself. So I've circled, many people ask what the red numbers stand for on the outside of the envelope, hoping that they would leave them to other files, when in fact these are numbers that are printed on the cards that are inside the envelope or the jacket. So in this case it's showing that there should be 12 cards inside the service record jacket for Samuel Patterson. One of the other things to look for is at the bottom of the envelope itself, there's a place for a bookmark or a see also. In this case both of those are blank. If there was a file citation in either one of those locations then that would be leading people to other files that would be related to the soldier, where the information may or may not be included in the service record. In some cases it is and in many cases it's not. So these are three cards again related to Samuel Patterson that are lined up side by side. And again they're very typical for what would be found inside a soldier's service record. Near the top of the card it would show the original record that the information was transcribed from. So the middle card shows company muster in role and then the card on the right shows company muster role. And in fact most of the cards that are in a typical service record were taken from the company muster role. And a muster was basically taking attendance in its every two months. So it will show the two month period, it will show if the soldier was present or absent and there will be a remark section and usually it's related to if the person was absent then it would show in the remark section why, if that was known. So the first card I've highlighted and read this is from the muster and descriptive role. And it shows again this is going to be descriptive information that was provided by the soldier at time of enlistment. So this shows that Samuel Patterson was born in Philadelphia. His age was 24 years old. His occupation is a hustler who was a stableman. He enlisted February 25th, 1864 for a period of three years. He had black eyes, black hair and black complexion. He was five foot five and three quarters inches tall. So other than the physical description just to circle back, the information provided before that would have been verbal information that he provided at the time of his enlistment. So he's the one that's saying how old he is. He's the one providing his name. He's the one providing where he was born and what his occupation is. Then down in the remark section on that same card it has noted new recruit enlisted from the 21st Ward 4th District, Pennsylvania. So that would have been the 4th Congressional District. And this is important for the ward department because it goes towards the draft quotas that would be the state and the local draft quotas for Pennsylvania. So he would have counted towards the draft because he enlisted. Then the middle card, again this was from the company muster enrol. And this is going to provide information not just on the soldier but on the unit. So it shows that the company mustered in on February 21st, 1864 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And that would have been mustering into federal service. So that date would have been critical later for the pension office when they calculated a veteran's federal service in the U.S. Army. Then the card on the right in the remark section for that muster enrol shows from the muster enrol dated May and June 1864 that Patterson owed the U.S. government 44 cents for one canteen. And then on the next card do the government 10 cents for ordinance. So this is money that he owed the government. Then the middle card has company muster out information from this. This is from their muster out roll. And it shows that they mustered out at Hilton Head, South Carolina on August 22nd, 1865, and that they were last paid on February 28th, 1865. So again, this goes beyond just this individual soldier and shows that that company wasn't paid for nearly six months. The last card in the remark section, this is unusual to find in a service record. This is a list of battles or skirmishes that Patterson was involved in. So it has Battle of Honey Hill, South Carolina on November 30th, 1864, Skirmish on James Island, South Carolina, February 20th, 1865 on the raid to Camden, South Carolina, April 17th, 1864. So again, it's unusual to have to have that listed. So it's nice that they have that listed in this case. This is an enlistment paper that was found in the service record for Samuel Patterson. It is unusual to find an enlistment paper in a service record, and this is literally the piece of paper that he signed when he joined the Army. So the red arrow is where the proverbial sign on the dotted line is located. In his case, there's an X and someone, there's an Army clerk has written his name, Samuel Patterson, and then above and below the mark has his name. So from that, we can probably gather that he couldn't read or write. Then I mentioned carded medical records. These are two cards for Samuel Patterson. The card on the left shows from the Regimental Hospital that he was in the Regimental Hospital on March 22 for bronchitis and on March 23, 1864 for laryngitis and then it says duty. So both of those would have been duty related. And that would come into play later if he put in for a disability pension. And he could say that if that was still an ongoing case that it was related to service and duty performed during the war. The second card on the right shows that he was in the Regimental Hospital with a variety of problems dating from November 3, 1864 through November 16, 1864. So the previous service record was pretty straightforward as far as a free Black man enlisting in the U.S. Color Troops in Philadelphia. This next example is going to be for a slave who is joining the U.S. Army and the U.S. Color Troops to be specific. So the first thing you'll note where I've circled in the middle card is that his occupation is shown as a farmer. So we know that he's a slave. So it's interesting that they have him as a farmer. And I'm going to show a card in a few minutes that'll show that he is in fact a slave at time of enlistment. It's not uncommon for slaves who are joining the Army to be shown as farmers under their occupation. There's a variety of reasons, but most of the time they didn't write slave as an occupation, but rather what they were doing while they were slaves. So these are three more cards for Sandy Willis who served in the fourth heavy artillery in the U.S. Color Troops showing that he was present for duty except September through October 1865. He was on special duty or assignment with another command. And then this is the card that I was referring to on his muster out roll in the remarks section that shows that he was a slave since April 17th, 1861. So why is this important? His owner, if he could prove he was loyal to the Union, could be compensated for his slave joining the Army. And this was a process that took place after the Civil War where there were boards or commissions that would go over claims where owners would put in claims having to prove their loyalty to the Union but also that their slave served in the Army. Sometimes finding the slave owner's name is information that's key to genealogists that are looking to connect black soldiers to families. Sometimes you'll have someone who is going from slavery into the Army and they're looking for a connection to where is that person from? Who is his family? What plantation did he come from? So sometimes though the slave owner's name is the key to going beyond just information on the soldier who served during the Civil War. This is a typical discharge paper. Again for the same soldier, this is Sandy Willis in the fourth U.S. Color Heavy Artillery showing he was discharged at Little Rock, Arkansas on February 25th, 1866. The thing that needs to be noted is this is not from his service record. You're not going to find discharge papers in service records. Typically a discharge paper if it's at the National Archives will be in a pension file. The reason being that the soldier there was one discharge paper that was prepared, it was literally handed to the soldier at time of discharge. So if it's at the National Archives that means either the veteran or their next-of-kin submitted it back to the government as proof of their service in the Army during the Civil War. And that's the case here where this document shows up in his pension file. This is a before and after shot of escaped slave Hubbard Pryor showing what he looked like prior to joining the Army and then right after he's in uniform and he served in the 44th U.S. Color Troops. Next we have a casualty sheet for Lewis Lockard who served as a private and company K of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Shows that he was killed July 16th, 1863 at James Island, South Carolina. This is from his compiled service record. And if you notice pay attention to how his first and last name are spelled on this sheet. And before I move on the 54th Massachusetts that was the unit that was featured in the movie Glory. So if you saw the movie Glory that's with the key unit in that film. So I said to pay attention to his name. So this is his widow's pension and right away you can see that her last name is spelled differently from the previous slide. So her last name is spelled differently but so is his first and last name. So you're already getting variations of the spelling of the names which is not uncommon for documents for this for this time period. The area highlighted in red shows that the Agents General Reports enrollment on May 5th, 1863. He mustered in May 13th and there was death in action on James Island July 16th, 1863. So that date matches the previous date we just mentioned. I'd mentioned that sometimes the spelling of the names are different. There's a unique situation with black soldiers during the Civil War. It wasn't uncommon for especially soldiers that were coming from slavery into the army to serve under their slave name. Then after the war changed their name. Sometimes they changed their first name. Sometimes they changed their last name. Sometimes they changed both. Which is fine until they get married. Then the problem is if their if their wife never knew the name they served under in the war. If he dies, she puts in a pension claim. She doesn't know what name he served under. So we have many pension files at the National Archives with widows writing in saying that they know their husband served. They know what unit it was but they're using the wrong name because they didn't know the name that he he served under. There's actually an excellent book called After the Glory by Donald Schaefer that does an excellent job of getting into kind of the unique challenges that were faced by black Civil War veterans in their next of kin and some of it revolving around the the name issue. Then the next area highlighted in red says the officer certifies that the soldier was a bold fearless and worthy soldier always ready for duty. And I think the date of death was July 17th. So right away we already have a discrepancy with what is written directly above that showing you died on July 16th. So again this is something that drives genealogists crazy where you get date discrepancies. Then last in red and this is something I've never seen in a pension file before the notation says this is the first Pennsylvania case allowed on account of the services and death of a colored soldier. So this is someone in the pension office that has noticed that this is the first case and so they're claiming that Mary Lockhart was the first widow in Pennsylvania that's claiming a pension based on a soldier a black soldier killed during the Civil War. So the next document this is also from a pension file. This is for Elizabeth Keckley. If you saw the movie Lincoln that was released last year there were several scenes that focused or featured rather Elizabeth Keckley who was the seamstress for Mrs. Lincoln at the White House. This document is from her pension file. In this declaration of facts she notes that her son died during the first year of the war and he was killed at the Battle of Wilson Creek on August 10th, 1861. She also notes that she was in part dependent on her son's support which is important since he wasn't married she could put in a claim but she had to show that he was in some way supporting her financially and that's how she could get a claim in and she did actually receive a pension. At the bottom right you'll notice her signature so it has Elizabeth Keckley at the bottom. Then the next document from the same pension file based on the service of her son George W.D. Kirkland in the first Missouri Infantry. The note from the claimant says Elizabeth Keckley so this would have been filled out by the examining clerk in the pension office states that she purchased her son and herself out of slavery and I've chosen to highlight this document for very specific reason. Keckley is a black woman and a former slave. Her son is also a former slave which we learned in the previous document because she purchased both herself and her son out of slavery but his father happened to be white. He was able to join the first Missouri Volunteer Infantry two years before the formation of the U.S. color troops so the first Missouri Infantry which was a very short as a three month unit was not a black unit it was not a black regiment. In fact without knowing George Kirkland's history you would assume that there were no former slaves serving in the first Missouri Infantry so it's because of her pension file that that comes to light. So you need to be very vigilant in searching records and not making assumptions about race based on where you find the information because if you looked up George Kirkland and you found him in the first Missouri Infantry you would assume that he was a white soldier. It's also not unusual to have conflicting information in various historic records from this area which I think we've shown in just previous documents with just the variations of dates and the spellings of names. So I love this photograph this is a great photograph so this is Samuel Patterson who we featured several documents earlier in the talk. This was taken while he was at the central branch of the national home for disabled volunteer soldiers which was located in Dayton Ohio and this photograph was found in his pension file and then also in his pension file we get the exact dates of when he was in the national home for disabled volunteer soldiers. If you saw the previous talk with Jake you know that they were referred to as inmates that's how they referred to them. It shows that he entered the home on January 2nd 1904 and was discharged on his own request on July 5th 1912. Patterson left the home he returned to Philadelphia and there's conflicting information whether he actually married a woman named Georgiana or if they just lived together. He later died on November 25th 1917 in the same city where he had enlisted in the US color troops during the civil war. So this document that I'm featuring now this is what makes genealogy fun for some and drives other genealogists crazy. This is a merit certificate that's found in the pension file for Samuel Patterson. This merit certificate has nothing to do with the marriage of Samuel Patterson. So this is his wife's or alleged wife's first marriage to her first husband. So it shows that she was married to a Samuel Blake in Philadelphia. So Georgiana Lewis married Samuel Blake in Philadelphia on June 6th 1852. He died August 8th 1883. So the pension for Samuel Patterson actually provides a lot more information on someone else. So in this case the life of Samuel Blake. So from Samuel Patterson's pension file we learned that Samuel Blake served in the US Navy during the civil war and he and Georgiana divorced on September 15th 1873. We also learned from the same file that she had no idea that they were divorced. The pension examiner actually found from local records he found records showing that the divorce was filed in Philadelphia but when he interviewed her she had no idea that she was divorced from Samuel Blake. The file also contains several documents relating to the naval service of Samuel Blake and investigations into the validity of Georgiana's marriage to Samuel Patterson which is why I've kind of phrased it the way I have where he may or may not have been married to her. The pension examiner seems to think that they weren't married and couldn't find any proof of their marriage. Blake later died in a state hospital for the insane in Norstown, Pennsylvania. So in the eyes of the pension office it was kind of a moot point because they were divorced so she wouldn't have a claim based on his service either way whether she was married to Samuel Patterson or not. We do have several claims files relating to soldiers who served in the US color troops. So the first listing I have for record one of five is records of the Freedman's Freedman's Bureau which contains some claims relating to back pay and bounty money that was usually never received by the black veteran or their next of kin. So some of them do contain files from next of kin saying and usually it is related to bounty if they were getting bounty land I mean sorry bounty money for joining the Union Army or for back pay that was owed them. So we saw the first example where that unit hadn't been paid for six months sometimes they were mustered out of the Army and were still owed that six months pay for example. So that was something that you'll you'll see occasionally in the Freedman's Bureau records where the Freedman's Bureau is assisting veterans with their claims with the federal government. Next I have listed record group 94 which is adjunct in general records and this relates to slave claim commissions. So these are what I was I was talking about earlier where slave owners after the war could put in a claim to one of these commissions but you had to be from one of the border states so it had to be Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee or West Virginia. And again the slave owners had to prove they were loyal to the Union and that their slaves had served in the Union Army. So that's why it was important for the clerks when they were noting the service records. If the person was a slave at the beginning of the Civil War as was noted with Sandy Willis showing that April 17th, 1861 he was a slave when the Civil War began. We also have records related to burial and headstones found in record group 92 and here we have listed burial registers of national cemeteries which do contain U.S. Colored Troops. That's entry 627. That is found reproduced on Ancestry.com. The next one is a list of interments of Colored Troops during the Civil War and that's found in entry 637. Again these are all in record 92, the quartermaster records. Third is card records for headstones. That's entry 628. That is also online on Ancestry.com so those are digitized. And last I have headstone applications in private cemeteries and those are entry 592. Then I've got a few examples of two of those. So the first is a card record for headstone. So this is showing William Washington that he was a private and company G of the third U.S. Colored Infantry. He was buried in Village Cemetery which is located in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. And one of the things I wanted you to note is where it says grave and died you'll notice that there are dashes there. So there's no information provided on either one of those. But at the bottom it says contract dated November 29th, 1879. So even though we don't know the exact date of death for William Washington we do know that had to occur prior to that date in 1879. So that gives you a time frame to kind of narrow down where you could do further research. In many cases these cards do contain the grave location where we'll have the row and the plot number or sometimes the plot number and often it does include the date of death. But I did want to show one that didn't have that information because I don't want to show ones that have all the information all the time because then people get their hopes up and they get mad when they see blank spaces. So this is a example of a headstone application. So this would have been an application for a non-national cemetery. And these could have been applied for by next of kin. It could have been the superintendent of the cemetery. It could have been a friend of the family. In some cases it was a local veterans organization. So there is information at the bottom about the person who applied for the headstone but it's not always next of kin. So you can't assume that it's next of kin. In this case the example I'm using is this is March Hughes who served in the 38th U.S. Colored Infantry. It shows that he died on April 27th, 1905 and is buried in the Cavalry Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia. Then down so that's the information about him and that's what the information they would have used. It would have gone from the quarter master or they would have confirmed his service with the War Department and then that information would have been used to put the information on the actual stone itself for the headstone that would have been supplied. So at the bottom we have who the applicant was. So in this case in the lower right hand corner we have Mary Hughes as the applicant and right away you'll notice that there's an X so we know that Mary Hughes couldn't write her name so a clerk filled out that for her and put X in her mark and then Mary Hughes. Then it has the ship to information so this is great for genealogists because it has Mrs. Mary Hughes Norfolk, Virginia and then it gives her street address in Norfolk, Virginia and then the date of the application in 1909. So obviously they have the same last name. We can't assume that this was his life so definitely you would have to do further research to determine what her relationship was to the deceased. So many of the records I went over today have been digitized and are available online on two of our partner sites fold3.com and ancestry.com so these are National Archives records that are available online on one of these sites. So on fold3.com all of the compiled military service records so all of the service records for U.S. color troops are online now and that's as of this year so that's very recent that those have been all put up online. The pension index by unit so you can focus on just U.S. color troop units and search which pensions from that unit were applied for and then the regimental records for the 54th Massachusetts are also on fold3. On ancestry.com you'll find a comparable index for the pension that civil war and later that's a little bit different. This one is alphabetical by the name of the soldier. So the one on fold3 is by unit. The one on ancestry is by the name of the soldier and that includes if next to kin applied it's still going to be key to the name of the soldier. So on that card it will have the soldier's name if it's a widow or a mother or child dependent next to kin then their name will appear below the soldier's name for which they're applying based on their service. There's a register of deaths of U.S. color troops from 1861 to 1865 is also on ancestry as well as a descriptive list of color volunteers that were taken in 1864. Both of these sites are partially fee based sites. You can go to any national archives research facility across the country and view these online for free. So if you go to Seattle or San Bruno or Kansas City or Fort Worth or Boston Atlanta D.C. You can view these in person online for free. This is an example of a record taken from the 54th Massachusetts volunteer infantry. So this is a list of the names of enlisted men of the 54th regiment Massachusetts volunteers missing after the assault on Fort Wagner July 18th 1863. And this is from their unit records. There are several secondary sources that will provide excellent information and background on U.S. color troops during the Civil War freedom by the sword U.S. color troops 1862 to 1867 by William Doeback. This is a very recent publication. It's very good. It just came out two years ago. It was published by the Center of Military History. Next one is the Sable arm. This came out several decades ago. But it's still a standard. Very good by Dudley Taylor Cornish. Black soldiers in blue African American troops in the Civil War era edited by John David Smith as a collection of essays by various authors on African American troops forged in battle the Civil War Alliance of Black soldiers and white officers by Joseph T. Glathar. This focuses on literally the relationship between the white officers and black soldiers. This was a very unique experience and he gets into the uniqueness of what it was like for both the officers and enlisted men and how these units were different than the rest of the Union Army. The Army likes everything the same and this was these units were different. So it shows what that process was like of trying to get them serving with other units and proving that they could fight and they would fight in battle. And they did that. Next is and this is this just came out this year. African American faces of the Civil War. So this is an album by Ronald S. Coatington. So each section has a photograph of a specific soldier or sailor and then has their story. So it's a very unique book and one that you should definitely take a look at. And then the last one I mentioned this earlier. This is after the after the glory the struggle of Black Civil War veterans by Donald Schaefer. And again this gets into what the veteran experience was like for for Black Civil War veterans be it Civil War veterans groups with other Union veterans or what the the pension process was like what it was like job hunting and getting jobs and that type of thing. So that's what I had. So good luck with your research and now we will be taking questions. Are there any questions? Yes, Trevor. Thank you so much for your presentation. Our first question is actually from the Archivist of the United States who wants whose question is is it true that Wyatt Earp deserted from a North Carolina unit during the Civil War? We have we have found no evidence to that fact. OK, next question. Is there any evidence of American Indians in the USCT? Again, you have to be very careful when it comes to to race and race identification because for this period often it comes down to how the person was identifying themselves or how others were identifying them. There were some units in the Union Army actually in the Union and Confederate Army that had large portions of Native Americans that did serve in those units. And many of those units are known. It wouldn't surprise me if there were some Native Americans that did serve in USCT regiments, but they may not be identified that way in the service records. So it may be other records that identify that person as being a Native American, but it may not be in the US Color Troop Service record. But no, it's a great question. OK, and our last question is two parts. Would NARA have any records if someone was offered a promotion to a USCT unit in the Civil War, but declined it? For instance, this person already has a compiled military service record, and they're wondering about possible USCT specific records. So read the beginning of that one. Would NARA have any records if someone was offered a promotion to a USCT unit? Got it, got it. There's a whole other, I could do a whole other talk on that question. We do have records, we have quite a few records. One of the things they had to do with starting in 1863 is they had to form these units that had never existed before. So what they were doing is they were looking for white union veterans who would then populate the US Color Troop units as officers. So they were going to different commands and they were offering promotions to people, especially who were NCOs, sergeants, etc. If they wanted to become a captain or lieutenant or a major, they could leave whatever state designated unit they were in. So if you were in the 20th Massachusetts, someone came by and said, hey, would you like to be an officer in the US Color Troop? Then they had examination boards at examining boards and we have records for those examining boards where they would have to show that they had knowledge of Army regulations in the training manual and that sort of thing. So they didn't take anyone that said, yes, I want a promotion. There was a vetting process involved. We do have those records. They are at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. Sometimes in the first units compiled service records, so to use the same example, if you have someone that was in the 20th Massachusetts and they were a sergeant, in that service record, it may have a notation showing that he transferred to a US Color Troop unit. And then that would be the spring board then getting into the next unit. But we do have several records related to these examination boards and recruiting for the US Color Troops. There was an office within the Adjutant General's Office that was in charge of recruiting specifically for not only the officers of the unit, but also for enlisted men to then populate these units that had never existed before. And we have one last question. Where are the Confederate service records located? Confederate service records are physically located in Washington, DC, in our building in Washington, DC. They have been on microfilm for many decades and they're also digitized and available online on our partner site. Okay, thank you so much, Trevor. Okay, thank you. Our next lecture starts at three o'clock and the presenter is Mark Mulan and he will be talking about genealogy through Navy deck logs. Please join us again at three o'clock. Thank you.