These forgotten soldiers might have been the first Black troops to wear Union blue in combat
February 18
An engraving of 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Decent at the Emancipation Day Ceremony at Camp Saxton, South Carolina, Jan. 1, 1863. (Library of Congress)
A retired Army colonel and his former West Point roommate believe they have discovered a nearly forgotten — and possibly first — Black unit in the Civil War and are spearheading efforts to see the history-making soldiers honored nearly 160 years later.
The career soldiers-turned-amateur-historians, retired Col. Chris Allen and retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe, say the members of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent could be the first Black soldiers to wear Union uniforms, perhaps a year before the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which was profiled in the acclaimed 1989 film “Glory.”