Washingtonville Cemetery

Did you know there is a national African-American Civil War Memorial? The memorial was developed by the African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation and Museum. It holds a 9-foot bronze statue, The Spirit of Freedom, by Ed Hamilton of Louisville, Kentucky, commissioned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 1993 and completed in 1997. The memorial includes a walking area with curved panel short walls inscribed with the names of the men who served in the... war. The African American Civil War Museum is located directly across from the memorial at 1925 Vermont Avenue in Washington D.C. The museum opened in January 1999 in a building two blocks west of the memorial in the historic U Street Corridor, a neighborhood traditionally the heart of African-American entertainment and theater in Washington. The museum enables visitors, researchers, and descendants of the United States Colored Troops to better understand their stories. It displays photographs, newspaper articles, and replicas of period clothing, and uniforms and weaponry of the Civil War. The African American Civil War Memorial Registry at the museum documents the family trees of more than 2,000 descendants of those men who served with the USCT. Other descendants may register. Visitors can easily search the database to find ancestors and relatives registered in the Descendants Registry.

Today, we're sharing two headstones who we believe are brothers from Maryland. Privates Samuel Smith (1820-1896) & John H Smith (1822-1908) served in the 26th USCT. Both men served in the Battle of Honey Hill alongside Morris Woodhull, who we highlighted the other day. John also served alongside Morris Woodhull at the Battle for John's Island. These two men are buried nearly side by side, across the road & facing the black "Civil War section" near the creek on the backside of the cemetery.

While this site hasn't been updated in a while, the USCT Chronicle blog still has loads of wonderful articles, photos, and other media related to the black troops and details their experiences in the service during the Civil War. Our cemetery has 14 men who served in the USCT so this was a great resource for us to research. http://usctchronicle.blogspot.com/

Morris Woodhull was a private in Company I, 26th Regiment US Colored Infantry and fought in the Battle of Honey Hill and a relatively unknown Battle of John's Island in South Carolina. In the town clerks records of enlistment (a summary basically), it say he was born in Hamptonburgh to Leonard Odell and Nancy Greensleeve. Odell is a variation of Woodhull and this notation would prove to be a tantalizing lead into slavery in Orange County. In 1795, Colonel Jesse Woodhull (who... helped start the Orange County militia during the American Revolution), died and in the inventory of his estate, there is a list of slaves given to his family members - one of them being a boy, age 4, named Leonard who was given to Captain Richard Woodhull. This would make Leonard born into slavery about 1791. We are unsure of when Leonard was freed but Capt. Richard Woodhull passed away in 1806 and his wife in 1809 so perhaps shortly thereafter her death. In the 1850 census, we can find a Leonard Odell, born in 1790, living in Hamptonburgh. Since many former slaves kept their master's surnames, it's more than likely that this Leonard is the father of Private Morris Woodhull. As you may note from the photo, Morris' headstone is broken and will be one of the headstones we will be replacing soon. At some point, his stone had been tossed under a tree and his actual burial location lost, but we will install his new stone next to his fellow USCT soldiers as seems fitting.

This hour-long video is not only an introduction to what African American resources are at the New England Historic Genealogical Society but also gives some wonderful & helpful basics before starting African American research.