I'm very excited to learn about this new resource. As I've been working on my new book about the early abolitionist experiment in South Carolina, I've been looking for comparisons with other supporters of emancipation. These letters may prove invaluable. Dispatches from Officers in Civil War African-American Unit Now Available at TSLA
(Published: August 30, 2011) Glory, an Academy Award-winning movie released in 1989,
documented the lives of African-American troops who served in the U.S.
Colored Infantry during the Civil War. Now, for the first time, the
Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) has a collection of letters
from officers who led one of those units.
Archivists from TSLA and the Tennessee State Museum are in the midst of a project, called Looking Back: The Civil War in Tennessee,
in which they plan to visit every county in the state in search of
Civil War era documents and artifacts. During the county visits, local
citizens bring in items that the archivists electronically scan or
digitally photograph. This ongoing statewide project, in honor of Tennessee’s Civil War
Sesquicentennial, allows for the digitization of historic family
documents and artifacts for public access and educational use While working on that project, the TSLA staff received digital copies
of a previously unknown collection of Civil War correspondence penned by
officers in the 16 United States Colored Infantry. The collection, “Brother Charles: Letters Home to Michigan,” Civil War Correspondence of the Wadsworth Brothers, 1861-1865, features a rare collection of writings authored by two members of the 16 U. S. Colored Infantry, which was encamped in Clarksville from 1863-1865.
The letters were written between the fall of 1861 and December 1865 by
two white Oberlin College students who left their studies to enlist in
the Union Army. The bulk of the letters came from Elihu H. Wadsworth, an earnest and
religious young man in his twenties who decided to take part in the
revolutionary experiment that was the Bureau of Colored Troops. Unique
for a variety of reasons, including their connection to Middle and East
Tennessee, Captain Wadsworth’s letters express in their language and
sentiment the devoutly Christian belief system characteristic of many
white emancipationists. The collection is significant for relating in
eloquent terms a fiercely religious stance that inspired Wadsworth and
others like him to educate and prepare formerly enslaved
African-Americans for citizenship and enfranchisement.
In late 1863, Wadsworth left his clerical work in the headquarters of
the Inspector General’s Office in Nashville to be mustered into Company
B, 16 United States Colored Infantry as a First
Lieutenant. He was later promoted to Captain. From December 1864 to
January 1865, he was Quartermaster of the First Colored Brigade and
recounted the heavy losses by African-American troops at the Battle of
Nashville and other events.
Younger brother Orry, a First Lieutenant who was more ambiguous about
military service, wrote a smaller number of letters, often expressing
his fascination with the strength of Union sentiment in East Tennessee.
I In recognition of his service in the United States Colored Infantry,
Captain Elihu H. Wadsworth’s name was enshrined on plaque #B-33 in the
African-American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D. C. A regimental
history of the “16 USCT” can be found at Tennesseans in the Civil War Project
“I am pleased that we have been able to add the correspondence of the
Wadsworth brothers to TSLA’s vast collection of Civil War material,”
Secretary of State Tre Hargett said. “At TSLA, collection of documents
related to the war began roughly around the time the war ended – and
continues to this day. Letters like these help us better understand the
individual stories that bring the history of the Civil War into clearer
focus.” |
