NOTE from DearMYRTLE: The following was just received from our friends at Fold3.com (formerly Footnote.com). This open access is welcome news. Please address all inquiries to support@ancestry.comsupport@ancestry.com, the parent company.
Fold3 is proud to announce Free access to our Black History Collection
in honor of Black History Month. This collection includes many
enlightening historical records documenting African American
achievements since the earliest days of our nation, and will be
available the entire month of February.
As soon as black soldiers were recruited to serve the Union in 1863, records were generated to document their service including Compiled Service Records for the U.S. Colored Troops and, ultimately, pension files. The pension file index cards, like this one for Joel Bedenbaugh,
include a soldier's rank, company, and regiment within the U.S.C.
Infantry, his pension numbers, and sometimes a death date, 24 August
1913, in this case. Private Bedenbaugh's 16-page service record also
includes his enlistment record from when he joined up in Dayton, Ohio, in 1864.
Southern Claims Commission
files are petitions by southerners who lost property to Union troops
during the Civil War, including many blacks, like William and Louisa
Ferguson. Though freeborn, Louisa was not only the wife of a slave, but
also the daughter of George Washington's carpenter, also a slave. Their claim for compensation
of $150 for the loss of a horse was denied, but Louisa's tales of Union
and Confederate troops in the vicinity includes her encounters with the
rebels and her service to the Union hospital nearby. A transcription of
her file is here.
Explore
these and thousands of other records documenting the history of African
Americans in the U.S., from before the Civil War to the War in Vietnam.
Join us as we recognize Black History Month and provide free* access to
the Black History Collection on Fold3.
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