Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Tags Union troops

Tag: Union troops

The first Memorial Day was Black

As we pause to remember the nation’s war dead, it’s worth remembering that Memorial Day was first celebrated by Black Union troops and free Black Americans in Charleston, South Carolina at the end of the Civil War. The free Black population of Charleston, primarily consisting of former slaves, engaged in a series of celebrations to proclaim the meaning of the war as they saw it.

Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid

One hundred and fifty years ago, on June 2, 1863, Union forces led by Harriet Tubman and Col. James Montgomery engaged in a daring and wildly successful raid up the Combahee River in South Carolina. The Combahee River Raid crippled local Confederate infrastructure, liberated 756 enslaved blacks, and earned Tubman well-deserved accolades as the first woman in U.S. history to plan and lead a military raid.