My Life as a Black Civil War Living Historian—part five

part five in a series

When Kevin and I joined the 54^th Mass. Co. B, the 3^rd USCT, and the 37^th USCT in the 150^th Anniversary of DC Emancipation Day on April 16, 2012, it was another very hot day!  We parked about half of a mile from the start of the parade and about a mile and a quarter from the end of it. After that parade, we went to lunch and had some ice cold drinks at a local restaurant. It was a good time for comradery and cooling off! You have to get used to that but remember the actual soldiers did that in their day. Today, we can go to our air conditioned homes in our air conditioned cars, the real soldiers had no air conditioners!

I will mention some of the events that I have participated in and attach the accompanying pictures. 

This picture is from our first major event, the 2011 Battle of Spotsylvania Court House reenactment:

The 23^rd USCT uniform contingent consisted of me and our two white officers, Captain John Cummings, left, and Lieutenant Jimmy Price. There are several Confederate cavalry members behind us, as John was able to “persuade” them to represent captured soldiers from Thomas Rosser’s cavalry. I talked to many people about the 23^rd USCT on this day.

This next picture is taken at Bethel Baptist Church of Culpeper, VA, during Black History month in 2012:

At the church programs, I give a short talk about the history of the 23^rd, then turn the service over to Rev. Hashmel Turner, our Chaplain and Color Sgt., who preaches the sermon. In this picture, we are saluting the veterans from the congregation. Those veterans were from several wars, from World War II through Iraq.

On March 31^st 2012, we were the honor guard for General U. S. Grant, at the grand opening of the Museum of the Confederacy–Appomattox, in the procession and for the signing of the surrender.

We were joined by members of the 54^th Mass. Co. B for this program. I am going back to the museum on August 14^th of this year to give a talk on the United States Colored Troops.

Here, we join the 54^th Mass. Co. B and the Sons of the Union Veterans (SUV) to dedicate a brand new USCT statue in Lexington Park, MD on June 16, 2012:

It was a big celebration topped off by the SUV ceremonial dedication with a 3 volley gun salute by the reenactors/living historians. You may also notice a white-bearded gentleman in the black suit and top hat, he is our abolitionist senator and recruiter for the 23^rd USCT, James Anderson. So when we go to an event, we try to cover all of the bases with our unit and James has been to almost every event.

Our next photo was made to look as if it were taken in the 1860’s:

We were at the 2012 Battle of the Crater Reenactment, where we actually portrayed a portion of the battle. We nor the Confederates were firing at each other, but some people thought so. There were so few “soldiers” that it merely seemed like a firing demonstration–with the exception that you were loading and firing like you would in a battle. This was the first time I actually fired my musket as if I were fighting in a battle. It was exciting to me, however.

The final picture is a picture that appeared on television and was sent to us minutes after we finished marching in President Obama’s second Inaugural Parade in January of this year.

Several members of the 23^rd joined the 54^th Mass. Co. B, along with the 3^rd USCT, to add to the numbers of the 54^th Massachusetts Co. B. We were actually the second company of the 54^th to march in the parade; Co. A from Boston marched earlier. However, when we passed the President’s box, we saluted the president.  To our surprise, the president and many in the box stood and saluted us in return.

Next: two moments that gave me the most pride and the event that gave me the most excitement