Topics Related to U.S. Colored Troops

Buffalo Soldier & officer. In 1890 awarded Medal of Honor. His long career exemplified struggles of black soldiers of the era. House stood here.

Civil War cavalryman. Among highest ranking North Carolinians in the United States Colored Troops. Legislator, 1868-70. Grave 1/2 mile west.

Black soldiers & white officers in Union army, 1863-1865. About 500 involved in Wilmington campaign buried here.

Fought, Feb. 20-21, 1865, between U.S. Colored Troops and Confederates. Last engagement before the fall of Wilmington. Earthworks 300 yds. N.E.

State’s first regiment of black Union soldiers rallied here on July 24, 1863. In 1864, designated 35th U.S. Colored Troops.

Only U.S. Lifesaving Station manned by black crew. Led by Richard Etheridge, 1880-1900. Operated near here.

First major campaign in N.C. conducted by the U.S. Colored Troops, Dec. 1863. Freed thousands of enslaved in the area.

On August 26, 1942, the first African American troops in the United States Marine Corps arrrived at Montford Point at Camp Lejeune.Before President Harry Truman’s 1948 executive order that ended segregation in the armed forces, blacks who served did so in segregated units, like the one at Montford Point. In the era of strict segregation, interaction between white and black Marines during training was practically nonexistent.

On January 1, 1864, Parker Robbins of Bertie County, a free person of color of mixed African and Native American descent, enlisted in the 2nd United States Colored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Monroe, Va. Federal military authorities in eastern North Carolina began actively recruiting and enlisting African Americans for the United States Colored Troops in 1863, eventually establishing one artillery and three infantry regiments. Those wishing to join a mounted unit had to travel to Virginia to join. Robbins and his younger brother both did just that.

From January 15 to February 22, 1865, Union army and naval forces engaged in the successful effort to capture Fort Fisher and take Wilmington, the South’s last significant blockade running port. Several regiments of United States Colored Troops (USCT) took part, and fought with conspicuous gallantry.