“Beyond the Call of Duty”

Black Civil War Medal of Honor Recipients

by John R. Gourdin

Since the time of the American Revolution, African Americans have volunteered to serve their country in time of war, and have always performed beyond the call of duty. The Civil War was no exception.

During the Civil War seventeen African-American soldiers earned the Congressional Medal of Honor - the nation's highest award for bravery and courage in combat. Their magnificent contributions and accomplishments have remained virtually untold and unnoticed for nearly 140 years - until now.

On October 10th and 11th, 2003, the United States Colored Troops Institute, under the steadfast leadership of Harry Bradshaw Matthews, will hold its third Regional Conference, at the Hilton Hotel in Columbia, Maryland.

The objective of this conference is to recognize and honor those brave Afro-Warriors who fought and died to liberate more than four million men, women and children from the institution of slavery.

The two-day event will kick-off on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. Wylene Burch, Executive Director of the Howard County Center for African American Culture, will conduct a recognition ceremony and facilitate presentations by descendants of Civil War soldiers, and greetings from politicians and civic and business leaders from the Central Maryland area.

On Saturday morning, Sylvia Cooke-Martin, Executive Director of the Friends of Ellicott City Colored School-Restored and Agnes Kane-Callum, lecturer and author of two books on black Civil War soldiers from Maryland, will dedicate a plaque at the colored school in honor of Sergeant Decatur Dorsey - Medal of Honor recipient from Howard County - and distribute citations of the other sixteen African-American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients.

“The Price of Freedom”

by John Nelson

Courtesy of Black Camisards, Inc

During lunchtime on Saturday, conferees will have an opportunity to meet Civil War reenactors from the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, Buffalo Soldiers from the 9th Calvary, and ladies adorned in 19th Century attire. They will also be enlightened, by Angela Walton-Raji, on the participation and contribution of the Indian Home Guard Regiment - lecturer and author of Black Indian Genealogy Research: African American Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes.

After lunch, John Gourdin, conference chairman, president of the Central Maryland Historical and Genealogical Society, and author of two books on black Civil War soldiers, will set the stage and facilitate presentations by Dr. Walter Hill, Mr. C.R. Gibbs, and Dr. Frank Smith.

Dr. Hill, Civil War researcher, lecturer, professor of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, and Senior Archivist on Afro-American History at the National Archives, will introduce the audience to many of the events and causes that led to the opening salvo of the Civil War.

Mr. Gibbs, nationally known author and lecturer will cover the Civil War and Reconstruction. His new book, Black, Copper, and Bright: The District of Columbia's Black Civil War Regiment, is the first book ever published on the First Regiment, United States Colored Troops, organized in the District of Columbia in 1863.

And, Dr. Smith, Founder and Executive Director of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, Washington, DC, will discuss the steps taken to recognize and honor our Afro-Ancestors through memorials, museums, conferences, and symposiums.

Conference sponsors are the Central Maryland Historical and Genealogical Society, Friends of the Ellicott City Colored School - Restored, Howard County Center for African American Culture, and the United States Colored Troops Institute for Local History and Family Research.

Following the Saturday afternoon program, conferees will have an opportunity to meet the authors for book purchases and autographs.

For additional information about the Civil War conference in Columbia - the third of the USCTI's three-year National Symposium - please send an Email to JGourdin@comcast.net or call John Gourdin at (410) 499-2816.

"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."

Frederick Douglass