While researching Letters from War: 1861, a single line in a Coal Region newspaper stopped me cold. A sergeant had written home describing the murder of a Black man by Union soldiers. This is the investigation into what really happened on June 1, 1861 and the lynching of a man named Frank Jones.
On November 14, 1865, Black Civil War veterans marched through Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in their own “Grand Review” after being largely absent from the official event in Washington, DC earlier that year. These soldiers, who played a crucial role in securing Union victory, were honored by local leaders and called for the right to vote. Read the full story.
In July 1865, the Pottsville Miners' Journal published a letter from a vehement support of Black voting rights.
John Cole was mortally wounded on July 30, 1864 in the fight initiated by his fellow residents of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.