The 1st Black Man to Wear the Union Uniform in the Civil War Wasn't Even Allowed to Enlist
This undated photo bore the caption "Nick Biddle of Pottsville, Pa. the first man wounded in the Great American Rebellion, Baltimore, 1861."
When President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to fight the rebellious Confederate States in 1861, it took little more than a week for the "First Defenders" to arrive in Washington.
Many of those volunteers arrived in the capital by train from Pennsylvania -- where infantry and artillerymen were raised from places like Allentown, Reading and Lewistown -- and made their way to the defense of their nation.