Edythe Ann Quinn - Freedom Journey Black Civil War Soldiers and the Hills Community, Westchester County, New York

As an in-depth case study of the African American volunteers from The Hills community who served in the Civil War, Edythe Ann Quinns Freedom Journey is a well-researched book that explores a much needed ethnic aspect of that war. For those interested in genealogy and local history, Freedom Journey offers unique insights into the social and cultural history of The Hills community, first settled in the 1790s. Additionally, the work contains a roster of the volunteers and thirteen historical sidebars that relate to the African American wartime experience.

Anthony F. Gero, author of Black Soldiers of New York State: A Proud Legacy

Edythe Ann Quinn has taken a little-known community, The Hills in Westchester County, and using a comprehensively well-resourced and researched methodology, has written not only an enjoyable and engagingly attractive family history (individual and collective) of black New Yorkers from slavery to freedom, but as well the sacrifices that the communitys young men gave. It is the voices of those sable warriors that are heard through the personal letters, woven into the overall engaging literary style of the author.

A. J. Williams-Myers, author of Long Hammering: Essays on the Forging of an African American Presence in the Hudson River Valley to the Early Twentieth Century

Freedom Journey

Black Civil War Soldiers and The Hills Community, Westchester County, New York

EDYTHE ANN QUINN

Cover image (top) of the Twenty-ninth Connecticut Regiment, Infantry Colored Volunteers seen here drilling at Beaufort, SC in 1864. Sixteen Hills men served in this regiment. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Cover image (bottom) is a letter excerpt from Sergeant Simeon Anderson Tierce to his wife, Sarah Jane Tierce. Simeon and thirteen other Hills men served in the Fourteenth Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Colored (11th USCT). Courtesy of the National Archives.

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2015 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY

www.sunypress.edu

Production, Diane Ganeles

Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Quinn, Edythe Ann, 1942.

Freedom journey : Black Civil War soldiers and The Hills community, Westchester County, New York / Edythe Ann Quinn.

pages cm (Excelsior editions)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4384-5538-9 (paperback : alkaline paper)

ISBN 978-1-4384-5539-6 (ebook)

1. African American soldiersNew York (State)Westchester CountyHistory19th century. 2. African American soldiersNew York (State)Westchester CountyBiography. 3. United States. Colored TroopsBiography. 4. Westchester County (N.Y.)Biography. 5. United StatesArmed ForcesMilitary lifeHistory19th century. 6. New York (State)HistoryCivil War, 18611865Participation, African American. 7. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 18611865Participation, African American. 8. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 18611865Regimental histories. 9. African AmericansNew York (State)Westchester CountyHistory19th century. 10. Westchester County (N.Y.)History, Military19th century. I. Title.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I dedicate this book to The Hills men who served in the Civil War and to The Hills community that supported them.

May their memory be for a blessing.

Preface

Freedom Journey is the Civil War history of three regiments of the United States Colored Troops (USCT), of recruits becoming seasoned soldiers, of battlefield drama, and of death from Confederate fire and, more often, disease. Foremost, it is an odyssey narrative of thirty-six, northern black men from the African American community, The Hills, in Westchester County, New York, on their quest to engage in the great mission to end slavery and restore the Union. As with any odyssey, these warriors experienced great changes in fortune from forces beyond their control, such as military assignments that placed some at the center of Civil War history at the fall of Richmond, and relegated others to the backwaters of the war, occupying Mississippi River forts. Of the thirty-six men, thirteen served together in Company E, being a community among comrades of the Fourteenth Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (Eleventh Regiment, USCT); another Hills man served in Company F of that regiment. Sixteen men from The Hills served in the Twenty-ninth Connecticut Infantry (Colored), and although engaged in the same campaigns they were scattered in several companies. Five men served in four companies of the Twentieth Infantry Regiment USCT under common conditions, and one man served in the Navy. Their experiences, the gist of news sent home in letters and in war stories told and retold by the veterans, became their community history even as it was being made.

The overriding sense of community is the starting point of their odyssey, a theme that continues as the action unfolds on various fronts, and serves as the culminating point for many of the returning veterans. Thus, the major characteristic that distinguishes Freedom Journey from other histories of the USCT is its contributions as a social history of both the soldiers and their northern, black community, The Hills.what was foremost for them a holy war of liberation. For those at home, in community with each other, theirs became a spiritual odyssey with faith in God, and prayers and letters being their strength against the forces of fear and loneliness. Thus, this combination of military odyssey and community narrative, of quest and home, distinguishes Freedom Journey from grand narratives of the USCT and from the few regimental history of the USCT.

The documentation for those engaged in the military history is substantial but only glimpses of The Hills communitys responses exist. One of the trademarks of social history is respect for the agency of ordinary folks, the women and men of the common narrative, in all their dimensions including their emotions. Thus, I have carefully included my interpretations of human nature for what I believe would be the natural reactions of family members and friends to news both good and bad from the field, be that the frontline of combat or the fortifications in Union occupied territory. However, I employ such phrases as perhaps, probably, and most likely, and although these phrases encumber the text, I have found no viable solution and I thank my readers for their forbearance. And by raising questions, I challenge readers to consider what the individuals or communitys response would be in a given situation. Believing no history is ever objective, I have woven a narrative from the historical record and scholarly analysis and from my subjective interpretations. My hope is that readers of this Excelsior Edition will perceive both the grand history of the African American experience in the Civil War and the human story of thirty-six men and a community who contributed so much to the national cause.