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1st Regiment Heavy Artillery U.S. Colored Troops

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Original caption: 6646. Federal camp at Johnsonville, Tenn.: This is a view taken at Johnsonville the day before its evacuation, in December, 1864. In the foreground is the depot platform and just back of that is the 1st Tennessee Colored Battery. In the background is the camp, the troops drawn up in line.[1] Per The Photographic History of the Civil War this image was taken November 24, 1864.[2] It is unclear if the "First Tennessee Colored Battery" and the 1st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery are the same or different units

The 1st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA) was a unit of the United States Army during the American Civil War.[3]

The regiment was organized at Knoxville, Tennessee on February 20, 1864.[3] The organization of the regiment may have been instigated in some small part by Lt. Colonel Thomas J. Morgan, commander of the 14th U.S. Colored Troops.[4] In an 1893 reminiscence, John Encill MacGowan wrote that circa April 1864 at Knoxville he was the "senior officer in charge of organizing the First United States Colored Heavy Artillery."[5] The unit was stationed at Knoxville until January, 1865,[3] and then were based in Greeneville, District of East Tennessee, until March, 1866. The regiment was mustered out March 31, 1866.[3]

Pvt. George Knox of Company D on muster roll in January–February 1865

The newly organized unit was supervised by "General Davis Tillson, Chief of Artillery, Department of Ohio, commanding defenses of Knoxville, Loudon and Kingston."[6] The regiment had between 1,100 and 1,700 soldiers drawn mostly from Tennessee and North Carolina.[7] According to a 2003 article in the journal Army History, "More than 25,000 black artillerymen, recruited primarily from freed slaves in Confederate or border states, served in the Union Army during the Civil War...Federal military authorities armed and equipped the soldiers in these twelve-company heavy artillery regiments as infantrymen and ordinarily used them to man the larger caliber guns defending coastal and field fortifications located near cities and smaller population centers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina."[8] Per a regimental history published in a Knoxville newspaper in 2014, "As heavy artillery these new soldiers maintained many of the 16 forts and batteries constructed during the November 1863 Siege of Knoxville. There is no evidence that they were ever trained to man the cannons; their primary function was to bolster the Union military presence and troop strength in Knoxville, thereby freeing white troops for combat. The USCT also expanded the existing fortifications, greatly strengthening many of the positions of engineer Captain Orlando Poe's original plan."[6]

From February 1864 until February 1865 the 1st Regiment was attached to the Army of the Ohio (2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 23rd Corps) under Gen. Schofield, and then in March 1865 transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, under Gen. Thomas. (The surrender at Appomattox Courthouse was signed April 9, 1865, initiating the conclusion of the American Civil War.) From March 1865 to March 1866, the 1st Regiment USCHA was part of the 1st Brigade, 4th Division, District of East Tennessee, Army of the Cumberland.[3][9]

Actions

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Incidents

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Three members of the regiment were tried on rape charges, convicted and executed.[10]

Notable enlisted men

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  • Sgt. Moses Smith, later Knoxville policeman and city alderman, "U.S. local officer" of U.S. Custom House in Knoxville[11]
  • Edward Taylor, who served in Co. M 1 U.S.C.H.A., is buried in the family graveyard of the whites who once owned him; former Confederate Major General George Duffield Taylor, a cousin of Robert Love Taylor and Alf Taylor,[12] testified at a pension hearing on his behalf[13]
  • Joseph George, retired sergeant, murdered 1896 in Marysville, Tennessee, leaving a widow and nine children[14]
  • Henry Smith, first sergeant of Company G, married Florence Johnson, a formerly enslaved housemaid and cook for U.S. President Andrew Johnson[15]

Post-bellum

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Between 14 and 30 veterans of the 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery are buried at the historic Odd Fellows Cemetery in Knoxville.[16][17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Federal Camp at Johnsonville, Tenn. during American Civil War - LOC's Public Domain Archive Public Domain Image". loc.getarchive.net. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  2. ^ Miller, Francis Trevelyan; Lanier, Robert S. (Robert Sampson) (1911). The photographic history of the Civil War : thousands of scenes photographed 1861-65, with text by many special authorities. New York Public Library. New York : Review of Reviews Co.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "1st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  4. ^ Williams, George Washington (1888). A history of the negro troops in the war of the rebellion, 1861-1865. New York: Harper & brothers. p. 129. Archived from the original on 2023-05-06. Retrieved 2023-06-24 – via HathiTrust.
  5. ^ "Peculiarly Upright Man". Chattanooga Daily Times. 1891-05-10. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  6. ^ a b "First regiment of Colored Troops Heavy Artillery formed in Knoxville in 1864". www.knoxnews.com. Archived from the original on 2015-12-30. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  7. ^ "Marker: 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery:"Ready to take the field!"". digital.ncdcr.gov. Archived from the original on 2023-03-31. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  8. ^ Cunningham, Roger D. (Spring 2003). "Black Artillerymen from the Civil War through World War I" (PDF). Army History. U.S. Army Center of Military History: 5–19. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-06. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  9. ^ Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A compendium of the war of the rebellion. Des Moines, Ia.: The Dyer publishing company. p. 247. Archived from the original on 2022-12-24. Retrieved 2023-06-24 – via HathiTrust.
  10. ^ Johnson, Edward C.; Johnson, Gail R.; Williams, Melissa Johnson (1997). All Were Not Heroes: A Study of the List of U.S. Soldiers Executed by U.S. Military Authorities During the Late War. E.C. Johnson. ISBN 978-1-886094-74-1.
  11. ^ "Sgt. Moses Smith, Knoxville, First United States Colored Artillery". The Knoxville News-Sentinel. 2011-02-16. p. 23. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  12. ^ "Chattanooga Daily Times 30 Jun 1909, page 3". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  13. ^ "Headstone in Carter honors Slave who served in Union army". Johnson City Press. 2005-09-12. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  14. ^ "1896 Murder". The Maryville Times. 1896-12-12. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  15. ^ Henry Smith in U.S., National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 - Johnson City, Tennessee - First Letter of Surname: Register of Members, 1903-1932, Entries 1-1499 - page 145 - via Ancestry.com
  16. ^ "Service & Sacrifice: Rediscovering 'The Protectors of Knoxville'". WBIR-TV. May 11, 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  17. ^ "Blog: City Blog". www.knoxvilletn.gov. Archived from the original on 2021-11-16. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
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