Black History Month in a Year Series: The Sacrifices of Local Black Civil War Veterans
Black History Month in a Year Series
The Sacrifices of Local Black Civil War Veterans
A considerable amount of the success of America’s second revolution, the Civil War, can be attributed to United States Colored Troops (USCT). Free African American men from Wayne County were an essential part of the monumental effort to end slavery. Black men were not allowed to fight for the Union until 1863 and then, only in segregated units led by all White senior officers like John Bullis of Macedon. It took fiery orators, many from our region of Western New York like Frederick Douglas and Rev. Samuel Ward, to exhort the federal government to allow free men of color to fight. Pressed by recruitment shortages and battlefield losses, President Lincoln finally delivered the Emancipation Proclamation. Joined by formerly enslaved men who had been liberated by Union forces, local African American men answered the call when their chance came. Joined by fugitive slave liberator and Union spy, Hariett Tubman, of nearby Auburn, several African American men displayed their heroism, and several sacrificed their lives. Examples include Charles Henry Cooper, a sergeant, who was joined by Thomas Lloyd and William Dorsey all from the Maxwell Settlement near Sodus Pt., James A. Potter of the 1st USCT enlisted in 1863 and died of pneumonia in April 1865leaving a wife and 5 or 6 children. In the end sixteen men from the tiny community referred to as the Maxwell Settlement served in the USCT, four from the Cortright family alone. The Gregor family, perhaps, suffered the most. By the time of their enlistment, they lived and worked in farms throughout Wayne County and paid the ultimate sacrifice with Bradley and Elijay both succumbing to wounds sustained at the Battle of Olustee, Florida and Abraham who died shortly after returning to home from an illness contracted during active duty.