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In the Aftermath of 'Glory': African American Soldiers & Sailors from Annapolis Maryland, 1863-1918


William F. Murphy, canon, and two additional menSPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Black Civil War Soldiers Collection) Thought to be a photograph of William F. Murphy (on right), founder and publisher of the Baltimore Afro-American. MSA SC 2432-1-1.

Purpose: To examine what happens to African American soldiers & sailors who survive the Civil War by tracing their careers through public and private records. The packet includes maps, contemporary accounts, census records, court records, and Federal Pension files. The packet relates the soldiers to the efforts to expand and then restrict the suffrage (the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and subsequent attempts to incorporate grandfather clauses into state law), and ends with the voting rights cases of 1915 before the U.S. Supreme Court, one of which involved a Civil War sailor from Annapolis who died in 1918.

  1. 1878. Map of the City of Annapolis by G. M. Hopkins. From Edward C. Papenfuse and Joseph M. Coale III. The Hammond-Harwood House Atlas of Historical Maps of Maryland. 1608-1908. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982, p. 94. Annotated excerpt shows location of White’s Row, tenement housing built just after the Civil War where a number of Civil War veterans lived, [MSA L21304]. MSA SC 2221-8-1.
  2. Elihu S. Riley. The Ancient City: A History of Annapolis, in Maryland. Annapolis: Record Printing Office, 1887, pp. 311-313, [MSA L21013]. MSA SC 2221-8-2.
  3. Baltimore Daily Gazette, February 24, 1864, MSA SC 2419-1. MSA SC 2221-8-3.
  4. U. S. CENSUS BUREAU (Census Record, MD) 1890 Union Veterans and Widows, Anne Arundel County, MSA SC 3096 M28. MSA SC 2221-8-4.
  5. Muster roll of the 30th Regiment USCT, Company ‘D’ from L. Allison Wilmer, J. H. Jarrett, and Geo. W. F. Vernon. History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-5. Baltimore: Guggenheimer, Weil & Co., 1899, pp. 233, 242-244, with a short history of the 30th USCT from Frederick H. Dyer. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. New York: T. Yoseloff, 1959 [1912], p. 1728. MSA SC 2221-8-5.
  6. ADJUTANT GENERAL (Civil War Muster Rolls and Service Records) 1865. 30th Regiment, Company ‘D’, MSA S 936-55. MSA SC 2221-8-6. Note: some annotations do not appear on this copy because they were written in purple ink which does not scan well.
  7. COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY (Bounty Rolls). 1864-1880, Volunteers, MSA S 629-2-240b. MSA SC 2221-8-7.
  8. Frederick H. Dyer. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, New York: T. Yoseloff, 1959 [1912], p. 11. Ira Berlin, ed. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation 1861-1867, Series II: The Black Military Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, p. 12 [MSA L25297]; pp. 582-83. Surgeon A.T. Augusta to Major General L. Wallace, January 20, 1865, A-63 1865, Letters Received, ser. 2343, Middle Dept. & 8th Army Corps, National Archives & Records Admin- istration RG 393 Pt. 1 [C-4147]. Courtesy of the University of Maryland Freedmen & Southern Society Project, Dr. Leslie Rowland, editor. MSA SC 2221-8-8.
  9. GOVERNOR (Miscellaneous Papers) 1869-1870, Transmittal and text of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, MSA S 1274-123-17-1;4;3. MSA SC 2221-8-9.
  10. ANNAPOLIS ELECTION JUDGES (Poll Book), 1871, Ward 1, MSA M 32-50-3;4. ANNAPOLIS ELECTION JUDGES (Poll Book),1885, Ward 3, MSA M 32-8-11;18. MSA SC 2221-8-10.
  11. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU (Census Record, MD) 1880, Population, AA, MSA S 1184-16. MSA SC 2221-8-11.
  12. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Mrs. Horace Leitch Collection) ca. 1870 tintypes (2) of possible black soldiers and a notice of non-payment of G.A.R. dues found together behind a mantle in a house in Annapolis, Maryland, MSA SC 2197-1-2;3;1. MSA SC 2221-8-12.
  13. 1885 Sanborn Insurance Map of a portion of Annapolis, Maryland, MSA SC 2097 M 2598-2a. MSA SC 2221-8-13.
  14. 1890-1917. Pension records relating to George C. Miller, Edward, alias George H. Tasker, Horace Lucas, and John B. Anderson. Pension Files and RG 24, National Archives and Records Administration. MSA SC 2221-8-14.
  15. ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Marriage Licenses) 1864, MSA C 114-1-52 and 1877, MSA C 114-2-27. MSA SC 2221-8-15.
  16. ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Equity Papers) 1890-1891, John B. Anderson v. Annie Anderson. No. 1401, MSA T 71-24. MSA SC 2221-8-16.
  17. Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Encampment of the Department of Maryland, Grand Army of the Republic, Baltimore: Shane Printing Co., 1901. MSA SC 2221-8-17.
  18. 1908 Sanborn Insurance Map of Annapolis encompassing White’s Row (unidentified) on St. John’s Street, MSA SC 1427-448. MSA SC 2221-8-18.
  19. Marion E. Warren and Mame Warren. Annapolis Portrait, 1859-1910: The Train’s Done Been and Gone, Annapolis: M.E. Warren, 1976, pp. 78-79, [MSA L11096]. MSA SC 2221-8-19.
  20. ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Equity Papers) 1870, MSA C 70-134-2-1;2;3. MSA SC 2221-8-20.
  21. Abstract and a portion of the opinion in Anderson v. Myers, 1910, from the Federal Reporter, St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1911, pp. 223-225. MSA SC 2221-8-21.
  22. Evening Capital (Annapolis), June 22, 1915, MSA SC 3547 M 119. MSA SC 2221-8-22.
  23. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS. (Death Record) 1918, MSA S 1179-2187-5895. MSA SC 2221-8-23.
  24. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU (Census Record, MD), 1850, AA, MSA SM 61 M 7202. MSA SC 2221-8-24.
  25. Washington Post, Sunday, 18 February, 1990. MSA SC 2221-8-25.
  26. Photographs from SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Agnes Kane Callum Collection) MSA SC 3010, (Merrick Collection) MSA SC 1477, and (Black Maryland Civil War Soldiers Collection) MSA SC 2432. MSA SC 2221-8-26.
  • Reading:
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      Berlin, Ira, et al., eds. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, Series II: The Black Military Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

       C. J. M. Record of the Services of the Seventh Regiment, U. S. Colored Troops. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971 [1878].

       Callcott, Margaret. The Negro in Maryland Politics, 1870-1912. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1969.

       Chester, Thomas Morris. Thomas Morris Chester, Black Civil War Correspondent: His Dispatches from the Virginia Front. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

       Cornish, Dudley Taylor. The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1987 [1956].

       Gladstone, William A. United States Colored Troops, 1863-1867. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1990.

       Gladstone, William A. Men of Color. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1992.

       McPherson, James M. The Negro’s Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted During the War for the Union. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965.

       Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War. New York: Da Capo Press, 1988 [1953].

       Redkey, Edwin S., ed. A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861-1865. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

       Taylor, Susie King. A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, late 1st South Carolina Volunteers. New York: M.Wiener Publishers, 1988.

       Westwood, Howard C. Black Troops, White Commanders, and Freedmen during the Civil War. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992.

       Williams, George W. A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1888.

       

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    Designed and developed by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse and Dr. M. Mercer Neale and was prepared with the assistance of R. J. Rockefeller, Lynne MacAdam, Leigh Bond, Matt Brown, Laura Lisy, and other members of the Archives staff. MSA SC 2221-08. Publication no. 1727. ©1993 Maryland State Archives.

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