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ALEXANDRIA(See Inset)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

McDowellDelaney

Freedman’sVillage

Gabriel’sRebellion

Fort Pocahontas

First BaptistChurch

Jefferson School

Seven PatriotHeroes

The Cuffeytown Thirteen

USCT’s at Dutch Gap

Historic Pointof Rocks Park

ElizabethHobbs

Keckley

Burke’sStation

GallowayMethodistChurch

Dahlgren’s Cavalry Raid

Gabriel’sRebellion

Young’sSpring

First Baptist Church

Manakin

HAMPTON(See Inset)

WILLIAMSBURG

YORKTOWN

Big Bethel

New MarketHeights

NewtownCemetery

HARRISONBURG

FortHarrison

NBP

Baylor’s Farm

Martin Buchanan, USCT

Oatlands

Fighting forFreedom

PURCELLVILLE

James A.Fields House

Two USCTHeros

Henry BoxBrown

John Mercer Langston Birthplace

LOUISA

Old CityCemetery

Camp Davis

Patrick Robert “Parker” Sydnor

SGT MilesJames

ASHLAND

ORANGE

CULPEPER

CHARLOTTESVILLE

WAYNESBORO

GilmoreFarm

Corling’sCorner

PocahontasIsland

People’s Memorial Cemetery

PETERSBURG

High Bridge

FARMVILLE

JamesRobinson

House

SPERRYVILLE

SisterCaroline

DangerfieldNewby

WASHINGTON

Kitty Payne

Twilight ofSlavery

RICHMOND(See Inset)

Buckhorn(Ridley's)QuarterDred Scott and

the Blow Family

Nat Turner’sInsurrection

YorktownNational Cemetery

MoncureConway

Anthony Burns

23rd USCT at the Alrich Farm

WINCHESTER

Loyal Quaker andBrave Slave

FREDERICKSBURG

LYNCHBURG

HolleyGraded School

WARRENTON

Loudoun CountyEmancipation

Association Grounds

WoodlawnMethodist ChurchMANASSAS

Port Republic Road Historic District

The FieldsFamily

Communityof Grove

James F.Lipscomb

West PointCemetery

Shenandoah ValleyCivil War Museum

Luray ValleyMuseum

GraffitiHouse

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP

PVT. James Daniel Gardner

LoudounMuseum

LOUDOUN

Manassas NBP

Afro-American Historical Associationof Fauquier County

Petersburg NB

Pamplin Historical Park and National Museum of the Civil War Soldier

AquiaLanding

Park

This map was produced in partnership with

Civil War Trails, Inc.

James A. Fields

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Third BaptistChurch

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Emancipation Oak

MaryPeake

Hampton History Museum

Fort Monroe

CasemateMuseum

African American refugees crossing the

Rappahannock River near Remington, Virginia.

Courtesy Library of Congress

See Southwest Virginia on

Reverse

ALEXANDRIA

E BROAD ST.

GRACE ST.

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American CivilWar Museum

BELVIDERE ST.

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Enters Richmond

First AfricanBaptist Church

Friends Asylum for Colored Orphans

Freedman’s Bureau - Freedman’s Bank

EbenezerBaptistChurch

Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia

2ND

ST.

3RD

ST.

Adams-Van Lew House

Execution of Gabriel

RichmondSlave Trail

Henry Box Brown

RICHMOND

HAMPTON

“Make way for Liberty” printed in 1863

Mary Peake

Civil War Trails Site

Historical Highway Marker

Information or Welcome Center

Park

Monument

Related Institution

AMERICAN BAT TLEFIELD TRUST

ROAD TO

FREEDOMTHE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

IN CIVIL WAR-ERA VIRGINIA

Richmond Slave Market, 1853, from With Thackeray in America (1893)

Virginia’s historical highway marker program began in 1927 and has

erected more than 2,500 markers across the commonwealth.

Fighting for Freedom “The Fire of Liberty in Their Hearts”

Freedom’s Fortress

Explore Their Stories Preservation

Enslaved people fought for freedom by self-emancipating long before the Civil War began. Assisted by effective escape routes,

safe houses, and conductors on what became known as the Underground Railroad, they made their way north. Those who remained behind did what they could to resist, whether through actively rebelling or more passively evading tasks. After the war started, many escaped to Union lines longing to fight for freedom. Authorities created contraband camps, including Freedman’s Village in Arlington County, to shelter families. Before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, African Americans could not enlist as soldiers. The camps became recruiting grounds when United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiments were authorized in 1863. About 180,000 African American men—roughly one-tenth of the U.S. Army—served by 1865, with about 20,000 in the U.S. Navy.

Once they enlisted, USCTs found that they had to overcome whites’ doubts about their

With freedom for all when the war ended, African Americans finally could satisfy their desire for formal education. Even

before the war, African American teachers such as Mary Peake had secretly educated enslaved people. With the Federal occupation of Fort Monroe in 1861, Peake taught openly, first under a tree now called the Emancipation Oak, and later in a building at present-day Hampton University, which U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Samuel Chapman Armstrong founded as Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute on April 1, 1868. Dozens of white teachers, such as Pennsylvania Mennonite Jacob E. Yoder, who taught at a Freedmen’s Bureau school in Lynchburg, saw their students’ hunger for learning driven by “the fire of liberty in their hearts.”

African American political leaders emerged during Reconstruction. John Mercer Langston, born free in Louisa County in 1829, became a U.S. Congressman and the first president of today’s Virginia State University. Booker T. Washington, born enslaved in 1856 in Franklin County, educated at Hampton University and founder of Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute, advocated for education and training in trades. Attorney James A. Fields, born into slavery in Hanover County in 1844,

Join T ActionThe American Battlefield Trust has spent more than 30 years at the forefront of the fight to protect some of the most important landscapes in this nation’s history and to help educate the public about the formative events of the country’s first century.

Chief among our accomplishments is the saving of more than 52,000 acres in 24 states. This land stretches chronologically from the Lexington Green to Appomattox Court House, and geographically from Minnesota to New Mexico. All told, since 1999 we have raised more than $350 million toward battlefield preservation from public and private sources. Individual achievements reflect the three aspects of our mission articulated in the American Battlefield Trust motto: Preserve. Educate. Inspire.

Administered by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the Virginia Battlefield Preservation Fund provides matching grants to protect threatened battlefield land from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and American Civil War.

Since its inception in 2006, this funding has helped to preserve nearly 9,000 acres of battlefield land across the Commonwealth, including significant acreage at the New Market Heights and Second Deep Bottom battlefields where USCT forces played critical roles.

Learn more at: dhr.virginia.gov/about-dhr/grants-incentives

Martin Buchanan, born free to a free mother and enslaved father, enlisted in the 2nd U.S. Colored Troops at age 19. Courtesy Ryan Pettit (artist)

Ten soldiers in their wagons near Hopewell, Virginia. Courtesy Library of Congress

Announcement of the 15th Amendment in the Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, March 31, 1870. – Library of Congress

127th Ohio Infantry, which became part of 5th U.S. Colored Troops Courtesy Ohio Historical Society

During the night of May 23, 1861, a small rowboat landed at Fort Monroe in Hampton, and three enslaved men

stepped out—Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend. They had been constructing Confederate fortifications at Sewell’s Point when they commandeered the boat and rowed to the fort to escape their bondage. Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler had just taken command of the fort the day before. He questioned the three men and learned that they were enslaved by Col. Charles K. Mallory, 115th Virginia Militia. On May 24, Confederate Maj. John B. Cary rode to the picket line under a flag of truce and met with Butler. Cary told Butler that Mallory wanted his property returned, as was required under the United States Constitution and the Fugitive Slave Act. Butler pointed out that Virginia had

seceded from the Union the day before and was therefore a foreign power not entitled to the benefits of the laws and Constitution. Cary responded that the U.S. Army was in Virginia to assert that it had not in fact left the Union, and therefore the slaves should be returned. Butler replied that because the men were employed in building fortifications to wage war, they were subject to seizure as “contraband of war” just as though they were weapons or other tools of a foreign power. Butler therefore refused to return them.

Within three days, dozens of self-liberated men, women, and children were pouring into Fort Monroe. Butler put the men to work, and gave all the “contrabands,” as they were called, food and shelter. He also wrote his superiors for guidance and approval, which came slowly but soon became official policy. Vast numbers of enslaved men and women fled to Union lines, where they lived in camps or “contraband villages.” Many were employed as cooks and teamsters. Many slaveholders moved enslaved

people deeper into Confederate territory, away from Union-controlled areas, to thwart them. By early in 1865, however, Confederate authorities estimated that between 61 and 70 percent of Virginia’s mature males had fled. Butler’s “contraband” policy, therefore, further encouraged self-emancipation and became a step on the road to President Abraham Lincoln’s eventual Emancipation Proclamation.

Fort Monroe, which guarded the entrance to Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay, was completed in 1834. It stands on Old Point Comfort, where in 1619 the first enslaved people in colonial Virginia disembarked. Beginning in 1861, the fort earned its nickname, Freedom’s Fortress, as a haven for self-emancipated people. Today, Fort Monroe National Monument, as a decommissioned U.S. Army post, is also a National Historic Landmark and open to the public.

Fort Monroe, ca. 2007 Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

USCT recruiting broadside Courtesy Duke University Library

discipline and courage. Relegated to guarding wagon trains and depots, the men and their white officers demanded to see action. The bravery of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry in the attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863, helped turn the tide. USCT regiments participated in many battles thereafter, especially around Petersburg and Richmond in 1864. They defended Fort Pocahontas, in Charles City County east of Richmond, from attack on May 24. They were badly mauled in the Battle of Crater in Petersburg on July 30, in present-day Petersburg National Battlefield. On September 29, USCT regiments led the successful attack on New Market Heights in the defensive line southeast of Richmond. Again, they suffered heavy casualties, but fourteen soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor. USCT regiments were among the first units to enter Richmond on the morning of April 3, 1865. About 5,000 USCTs fought at Appomattox Court House before Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9.

graduated from Hampton University and served in the Virginia House of Delegates. Carter G. Woodson, born to former slaves in Buckingham County in 1875, pioneered today’s Black History Month and founded the present-day Journal of African American History.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional Amendments abolished slavery, conferred citizenship, and guaranteed African Americans the vote. Quickly, however, former Confederates suppressed political participation through intimidation and new laws, forcing many into sharecropping or tenancy to maintain white farmers’ control. The “Lost Cause” ideology denied the centrality of slavery to secession and war, encouraged the erection of commemorative statues, and inspired Jim Crow segregation laws, crushing dreams of civil and social equality. The Ku Klux Klan, white citizens’ councils, and lynching supported those aims. Not until the Civil Rights Era of the mid-twentieth century were many of the worst effects of segregation struck down.

United States Colored Troops led the way on September 29, 1864, when Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler’s Army of the James attacked Confederate fortifications southeast of Richmond. A Confederate artillery position

north of New Market Road, atop New Market Heights, dominated the approach to Fort Harrison, a stronghold located to the west in the main Confederate defensive line. In front of the heights, the USCTs confronted trenches along the road, with two lines of abatis (felled trees with their intertwined branches facing south, as effective as barbed wire became in later wars) as well as a swamp. The USCTs had to fight their way through these defenses, climb the Heights, and capture the artillery to help protect other troops attacking Fort Harrison.

The USCTs started their attack just after dawn, hampered by a thick ground fog. Struggling through the swamp and abatis, many in the leading regiments were cut down as the fog lifted. When their white officers were killed or wounded, USCT sergeants took command of companies, and the men retreated, reformed, and tried again. By the time they reached the Heights, most of the Confederates had fled, and the USCTs secured it with little opposition. The next day, Confederate counterattacks failed, and the Federals held their positions. Fourteen USCT soldiers, and two white officers, were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor.

Sgt. Christian Fleetwood, as well as Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton and Pvt. Charles Veale, all in the 4th USCT, received Medals of Honor for rallying their comrades with the national colors. Sgt. Powhatan Beaty, shown here wearing the Medal of Honor he received on April 6, 1865, had enlisted on June 7, 1863, and became first sergeant in Co. G, 5th USCT. At New Market Heights, when the officers were killed and the company decimated at the abatis, he took command of the

USCT soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor after New Market Heights

Pvt. William H. Barnes, 38th USCT

Sgt. Powhatan Beaty, 5th USCT

Sgt. James H. Bronson, 5th USCT

Sgt. Christian A. Fleetwood, 4th USCT

Pvt. James Gardiner, 38th USCT

Sgt. James H. Harris, 38th USCT

Sgt. Thomas R. Hawkins, 6th USCT

Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton, 4th USCT

Sgt. Milton M. Holland, 5th USCT

Corp. Miles James, 36th USCT

Sgt. Alexander Kelly, 6th USCT

Sgt. Robert A. Pinn, 5th USCT

Sgt. Edward Ratcliff, 38th USCT

Pvt. Charles Veal, 4th USCT.

220 29

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24122

ABINGDON Landon Boyd

Booker T. WashingtonNational Monument

Lovely MountBaptist Church

BEDFORDROANOKE

RADFORD

DanvilleMuseum

LEXINGTON

Members of the American Battlefield Trust’s Youth Leadership Team create preservation, education, or visitation projects in their local communities. Participants in American Battlefield

Trust Annual Park Day Courtesy American Battlefield Trust

Group of “Freedmen” by canal in Richmond, Virginia (left) Courtesy Library of Congress

AMERICAN BAT TLEFIELD TRUST

Powhatan Beaty Courtesy Library of

Congress

“The First Vote” – Courtesy Library of Congress

ROAD TO

FREEDOMTHE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

IN CIVIL WAR-ERA VIRGINIA

Visit these museums, sites, and institutions to learn more.

Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County aahafauquier.org

American Civil War Museum acwm.org

Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Park nps.gov/apco

Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia blackhistorymuseum.org

Booker T Washington National Monument nps.gov/bowa

Casemate Museum fortmonroe.org/visit/casemate-museum

Danville Museum danvillemuseum.org

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park nps.gov/frsp

Graffiti House brandystationfoundation.com

Hampton History Museum hampton.gov/119/Hampton-History-Museum

Loudoun Museum loudounmuseum.org

Luray Valley Museum luraycaverns.com/attractions/luray-valley-museum

Lyceum alexandriava.gov/Lyceum

Manassas National Battlefield Park nps.gov/mana

Pamplin Historical Park and National Museum of the Civil War Soldier pamplinpark.org

Petersburg National Battlefield nps.gov/pete

Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum civilwarmuseum.org

This map brochure brought to you by

Battlefields.org/RoadToFreedom

Valor at New Market Heights

remaining fifteen soldiers and led them forward. Beaty was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1837. By 1849, he was living in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a wood-turner and part-time actor. He returned to Cincinnati after the war and resumed acting, performing in 1884 at Ford’s Theatre to an audience that included Frederick Douglass. Beaty died on December 6, 1916.

Today, portions of the New Market Heights battlefield are protected by the National Park Service, Henrico County, and the American Battlefield Trust.

LtGen Ronald Coleman, the second African American to achieve the three-star rank in the US Marine Corps, at the New Market Heights Battlefield. Courtesy Jamie Betts Photo

Breaking the Chains

Long before the war that ended slavery, enslaved people were at war with the system that confined them. They employed various

tactics in daily battles for freedom within the confines of bondage. Far from being passive, they resisted by avoiding work, occasionally rebelling outright, and self-liberating. They used various tactics with some success, to evade work, befuddle enslavers, and otherwise gain small freedoms. Major rebellions in Virginia included Gabriel’s Conspiracy in 1800 just outside Richmond, and Nat Turner’s Insurrection in Southampton County in 1831. These events increased slaveholders’ fears, however, and hard, restrictive laws were enacted. The Franklin and Armfield Slave Jail in Alexandria and the Lumpkin’s Slave Jail (“Devil’s Half Acre”) and African Burial Ground sites in Richmond help commemorate the ordeal of enslavement.

Many enslaved people successfully liberated themselves using a variety of means. In 1849, Henry Brown, who worked in his owner’s Richmond

tobacco factory, “mailed” himself by train to Philadelphia in a wooden crate with air holes and “This Side Up” painted on the outside. He was known thereafter as Henry Box Brown. While he escaped on a literal railroad, thousands of others in Virginia and elsewhere slipped away on the “virtual” Underground Railroad, a network of friends and safehouses that guided them north through places like Pocahontas Island, a free black village in Petersburg. Some, like Brown and Maryland native Frederick Douglass, took up the pen and published to the world the truths of slavery: illiteracy; hunger; the separation of spouses and children; rapes; whippings; and limited access to churches. Their witness helped fuel the white abolitionist movement. Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin) was a white novelist who thinly fictionalized slavery’s human toll in a book that reached millions.

Enslaved people fought to break their chains, then, through various forms of resistance, escape, and the written word. When the Civil War came, they were eager to fight in uniform for their right to freedom.

Enslaved family in front of quarters, William F. Gaines farm, Hanover Co., Va. – Courtesy Library of Congress

Our Road to Freedom app, an extension of this brochure, is free on the App Store

and Google Play — or in any web browser. Battlefields.org/RoadToFreedom

As you explore the African American experience during the Civil War in Virginia,

share your discoveries on social media with #RoadToFreedom.