a day ago
Pennsylvania museum ensuring thousands of Black Civil War soldiers' legacies not forgotten
As the nation prepares to celebrate Juneteenth, the legacy of thousands of Black Civil War soldiers who once trained in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, will never be forgotten, thanks to the Camp William Penn Museum.
Nestled away inside a small, unassuming garage in Cheltenham are powerful mementos and artifacts from a little-known piece of history from the Civil War.
"Eight feet tall, this is an original recruiting broadside asking for Black people to come forward," Jim Paradis, a board member at the Camp William Penn Museum, said. "We're just a block away from the site of Camp William Penn, which was the first and largest federal training camp for Black soldiers in the Civil War."
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Referred to as the U.S. Colored Troops, as many as 200,000 were sent to fight in the Civil War. After the Emancipation Proclamation, 10,000 soldiers trained a stone's throw away from the museum that honors their legacy.
"The number of Black soldiers who fought for the Union Army. They turned the tide of the war," Paradis said. "So, would that have an impact on the outcome of the war? Yeah. Why that's not a central point for what turned the tide of the war, I don't understand how that gets missed."
Corporal Robert Fuller Houston is one of a dozen Black reenactors who have been shedding light on the story of Camp William Penn and the history of Black soldiers in the Civil War for 35 years. For him, it's personal.
"I'm the first cousin, three generations removed to William Carney," Houston said. "He was the first Black Medal of Honor winner."
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One thousand Black Civil War soldiers are laid to rest at the Philadelphia National Cemetery in Elkins Park, just a few miles from Camp William Penn.
Edward McLaughlin is an author who has been chronicling their stories for years.
"This is a memorial that had to be," McLaughlin said. "No one recognizes this, no one brought this. I had to bring this to public awareness. It was this and another piece of history that several hundred soldiers died in that camp. Unrealized history. No monument, no Memorial Day services."
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This Juneteenth, the little-known history of Camp William Penn looms large. The legacy of Black Civil War soldiers should never be forgotten.
"Four regiments that were trained here at Camp William Penn were sent to Texas when the war came to an end," Paradis said. "So, they were actually there at the time General Granger read the famous proclamation."
"People should remember in terms of Juneteenth, it is an African American holiday, not an African holiday, but an African American holiday," Houston said. "It has to do with what people of African descent have done in this country, the accomplishments they've achieved since emancipation."
