{"id":479,"date":"2013-03-02T07:07:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T07:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?p=479"},"modified":"2016-10-23T06:03:14","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T06:03:14","slug":"ghosts-of-the-unions-black-soldiers-rise-from-loudoun-countys-past-washington-post-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/ghosts-of-the-unions-black-soldiers-rise-from-loudoun-countys-past-washington-post-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosts of the Union\u2019s Black Soldiers Rise From Loudoun County\u2019s Past – Washington Post (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Michael E. Ruane<\/a>,<\/span><\/div>\n
The Washington Post,<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n
March 2, 2013.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Kevin Dulany Grigsby, author of \u201cFrom Loudoun to Glory: The Role of African Americans from Loudoun County in the Civil War\u201d poses for a portrait at Rock Hill Cemetery on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 in Loudoun County, Va. (Matt McClain\/For The Washington Post).<\/em><\/div>\n

T<\/strong>he ghost of Dennis W. Weaver, of the 1st U.S. Colored Infantry, had to reach from his Loudoun County grave to get history\u2019s attention.<\/h2>\n

First, it latched on to Vernon Peterson<\/a>, the 81-year-old caretaker at the venerable Rock Hill Cemetery. Peterson was walking past Weaver\u2019s tombstone one day when something stopped him cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was as if it grabbed me by the leg,\u201d he said. The name, carved in the shape of an arch. The mysterious letters underneath. \u201cIt got to me so much I had to try to find out what it meant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson researched Weaver\u2019s story and told it to local historian Kevin D. Grigsby. And now the old soldier from Company D and hundreds of other black men from Loudoun who fought for freedom in the Civil War<\/a>are getting their due.<\/p>\n

Grigsby has resurrected their names and some of their stories in a book, \u201cFrom Loudoun to Glory<\/a>,\u201d about the forgotten role of African Americans <\/a>from the county during the war and its aftermath.<\/p>\n

In the land of the legendary <\/a>\u201cGray Ghost\u201d \u2014 Confederate raider Col. John S. Mosby \u2014 Grigsby tells of the county\u2019s intrepid black men who flocked, often from the slave cabin, to the defense of the Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there was a Confederate heritage\u201d in Loudoun, Grigsby, who lives in Leesburg, said in an interview. \u201cBut there\u2019s also this story that\u2019s behind the scenes of African American soldiers. People need to know the whole story.\u201d<\/p>\n

From rural graveyards, interviews and archives like Loudoun\u2019s old \u201cRegister of Free Negroes,\u201d Grigsby, 40, found the stories of men such as Weaver.<\/p>\n

He was one of many ex-slaves and free blacks who in 1863 made their way to Roosevelt Island, then Mason\u2019s Island, to sign up with the 1st Colored Infantry.<\/p>\n

Weaver was about 19 that summer and was joined by other Loudoun natives or residents who signed on with the 1st \u2014 Julius Caesar, who became a sharpshooter and was wounded in battle, Abraham Mill, Claiborne Jackson and Gabriel C. Fields.<\/p>\n

Another black Loudoun soldier was Washington Alexander, a slave who had been sold to a master in the Deep South. Newly freed, he signed up with the 49th U.S. Colored Infantry in either Louisiana or Mississippi in 1863.<\/p>\n

He was reported missing in action in 1863 after the bitter Battle of Milliken\u2019s Bend in Louisiana, where Southern soldiers yelled that they would take no black prisoners.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThis is a regiment that was formed straight off the plantation,\u201d Grigsby said. \u201cNot a lot of time for training. By all accounts they should have been slaughtered, but somehow they ended up winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Lacey, another county native, served in the 11th U.S. Colored Infantry. He was involved in the Fort Pillow Massacre on April 12, 1864, where black soldiers were said to have been executed by rebels who seized the fort, Grigsby wrote.<\/p>\n

Lacey was wounded and taken prisoner but later escaped. He managed to rejoin the remnants of his regiment, but he died of his wounds on June 22, 1864.<\/p>\n

William Gilbert, of Waterford in Loudoun County, served in the 32nd U.S. Colored Infantry. He was killed in the lopsided Union defeat at Honey Hill, S.C., on Nov.\u00a030, 1864.<\/p>\n

Archibald Wright, Richard Addison, Peter Johnson and probably Wilson Gant, all of the 6th U.S. Colored Infantry, were killed in action at the Battle of New Market Heights\/Chaffin\u2019s Farm on Sept. 29 and 30, 1864. The 6th was one of 14 black regiments that fought there.<\/p>\n

The fighting southeast of Richmond was especially bloody, and 14 African Americans received the Medal of Honor for their actions in the battle.<\/p>\n

A few county natives made it back to Loudoun after the war and, like Weaver, made a mark on the local African American community. Of the 250 or so black Loudoun soldiers Grigsby found, fewer than 20 returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say they lived an anonymous life,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they just kind of settled back in. There weren\u2019t parades or statues or monuments; they came back as victors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even imagine what it was like for an African American .\u2009.\u2009. to have had that moment,\u201d Grigsby said. \u201cIn some cases, you went from a slave to a liberator .\u2009.\u2009. to a protector and then, within so many years, you begin to see that freedom slowly peeled back and you have the rise of Jim Crow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s no wonder that it took all these years later to kind of start discovering, wow, we had a lot of Civil War vets who were African American here,\u201d he added. \u201cYou have to remember you are in Virginia, and that story kind of got overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weaver helped found and fund the cemetery where he is buried \u2014 a crucial task for blacks in the post-slavery South, where they couldn\u2019t be buried with whites, Grigsby wrote in his book.<\/p>\n

Weaver \u201cunderstood that having a cemetery was an important part of establishing an identity for the black communities in southwestern Loudoun County,\u201d Grigsby wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cA school, cemetery, and church were three things soon established after ex-slaves founded communities of their own .\u2009.\u2009. following the end of the Civil War,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Other black Loudoun veterans are buried in such cemeteries.<\/p>\n

James Gaskins of the 39th U.S. Colored Infantry, William Taylor of the 1st U.S. Colored Infantry and Joseph Waters of the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry rest in Leesburg\u2019s Mount Zion Cemetery.<\/p>\n

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Grigsby and Peterson stood in the windblown cemetery where Weaver is buried. As the sun set, a tattered American flag flew overhead and tall evergreens swayed in the gusts.<\/p>\n

For years, Peterson said, he had ignored Weaver\u2019s modest tombstone etched with the cryptic \u201c CO.D 1 U.S.C.I.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI never paid any attention to it,\u201d said Peterson, who said he has been the caretaker for 57 years. \u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t understand. I could read his name, but I couldn\u2019t understand the other part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That began to change the day in the cemetery when Weaver\u2019s spirit seemed to grab him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost had to be something like that,\u201d Grigsby said.<\/p>\n

Weaver and his wife had no children. \u201cSo there was no one left to take care of their graves, no one to tell their story,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if it wasn\u2019t for Vernon, their story would have been forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/ghosts-of-the-unions-black-soldiers-rise-from-loudoun-countys-past\/2013\/03\/02\/2273e41e-7f7c-11e2-8074-b26a871b165a_story.html<\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/kevin-grigsby\/from-loudoun-to-glory\/hardcover\/product-20981814.html<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael E. Ruane, The Washington Post, March 2, 2013. Kevin Dulany Grigsby, author of \u201cFrom Loudoun to Glory: The Role of African Americans from Loudoun County in the Civil…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}