Note:  This is the last installment of a three-part blog post on the Virginia roots of U.S.C.T. soldiers in Missouri regiments.

Part III:  The War’s Aftermath

Note:  This is part two of a three part blog post on the Virginia roots of U.S.C.T. soldiers in Missouri regiments.

Part II:  Military Service

Note:  What follows is a three part story, which we will present in consecutive blog posts, that permits us to see the history of central Virginia in a new way:  with a focus on the journeys of African American men, born in the shadow of Jefferson’s Monticello, who fought for the Union army in the Civil War.  These men represent the Virginia roots of thousands of U.S.C.T. soldiers, men who were dispersed by the system of slavery and then converged, during the war, in black regiments, and fought to save the Union and to end slavery.

This blog post is one of several that we will publish in 2017 on our Black Virginians in Blue digital project. The project explores the lives of African American men from Albemarle County, Virginia, who served in the USCT. Jonathan White’s piece on James T. S. Taylor was our first blog entry on the subject.

Confined at the headquarters of the 2nd U.S. Colored Infantry on November 15, 1864, Commissary Sergeant James T. S. Taylor put pen to paper to write President Abraham Lincoln a letter asking for release.  “In Jestification to my self I cannot help from Appealing to you for some assistance under existing Circumstances,” wrote Taylor.  “I should have Refrained from Acquainting your Distinguished honor and high Abilities with this affair, but as I enlisted in the u.s.