Charles Adams. Henry Adams. Henry C. Adams. John Adams. John Q. Adams. Moses Adams.
Jackson State University students and staff read the names of at least 1,300 men who served in the 53rd regiment of the United States Colored Infantry for Veterans Day, which was recognized Tuesday. These soldiers, many formerly enslaved, fought for the Union Army in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi during the Civil War.
Shamira Muhammad
JSU honors Civil War veterans
“These are men who were literally fighting for their freedom and fighting for the freedom of their families and friends and their courage should not be underestimated,” said JSU Professor of History and Director of the Margaret Walker Center, Robert Luckett.
He said roughly 18,000 Black men from Mississippi served in the U.S. Colored Troops.
Including Edmund Watson, James Watson, Perry Watson, Squire Watson, Thomas Watson, Augustus Weaver, Spencer Webb, John Webb, Lewis Webb and James Wells.
“Mississippi had the fourth most U. S. Colored Troops of any state in the nation,” Luckett said. “That's a little less than 10% of the U.S. Colored troops who served in the American Civil War.”
“I think it's important to pay your tributes to all the soldiers that passed that fought for our country and it's very important to pay tribute to all of the Colored Troops as well,” said Georgia native Kyan Parker, a junior ROTC student and a member of the Mississippi National Guard.
Parker plans to follow in the footsteps of his own father, a senior military officer.
“He actually inspired me to take the officer route,” he said. “I want to be like him because he's all about integrity, he is all about respect, and I feel like that's what it means to be a black citizen in the military.”
Graduate student Joseph Latham says learning about the sacrifices each soldier may have made was moving.
“Him giving up his life, whether he made it back home or not, him still serving where he probably didn't want to or probably didn't have to, him still doing that, that's still very important,” he said.
Freshman Journee Forston was surprised she hadn’t known about the legacy of these soldiers.
“I feel like I should know more, especially being from Mississippi,” she said. “It just gives me something to be grateful for.”
Jemeria Hughes, a sophomore from Tennessee, said she recognizes that though the Black Civil War soldiers may no longer be living, she hopes their descendants will appreciate the ceremony.
“I want their families to know that their veteran relatives are seen,” she said. “I took the opportunity to thank them for what they had done for the future generations by reading their names out.”
The final resting place of several of these Civil War soldiers is in the Mt. Olive Cemetery next to JSU's campus. This ceremony was done in collaboration with the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, DC.
