Kendrick Allen, Buffalo Soldier

A note penned on the back of the carte de visite of Kendrick Allen, written by his commanding officer, praises him as an excellent soldier — a fine compliment to an eighteen-year-old sergeant new to soldiering in the 108th U.S. Colored Infantry. Allen served in the regiment from 1864 until 1866.

Five years later he returned to the military, this time in the regular army as a corporal in the Twenty-fourth U.S. Infantry, one of the Buffalo Soldier regiments. He later transferred to the Ninth Cavalry and retired as a sergeant in 1897.

This the first Buffalo Soldier I've documented. If you have any information about Sgt. Allen, please contact me.

Forthcoming History of the Fifth Illinois Cavalry

In the course of researching the life and military service of Capt. Benjamin B. Hopkins of the Fifth Illinois Cavalry (pictured here), my request for information posted on the Civil War Message Board Portal received a response from Rhonda Kohl. She sent me a great letter referencing Hopkins, copied from the Illinois State Archives. In return for her kindness, I sent her a high-resolution scan of Hopkins' carte de visite for use in her forthcoming regimental history, The Prairie Boys Go to War: The Fifth Illinois cavalry, 1861-1865.

Rhonda's book promises to be an excellent addition to the library of Civil War regimental histories, and I look forward with great anticipation to its publication.

If you have information about the Fifth, please contact Rhonda at 5Illinois@gmail.com

Andersonville Prisoners Added to Official List

It is official: The names of James W. Landon and John S. Lemmon have been added to the List of Andersonville Prisoners, I learned in a letter from a park guide at the Andersonville National Historic Site and a follow-up email from Lead Park Ranger Kim Humber. They join their comrade, Landon W. Silcott, with whom they were captured in 1864. Silcott's name was the only one of the three listed. For those of you who have been following the story, noted in my August 30 and September 20 posts, as well as a topic on Flickr's Veteran's of the American Civil War group, the case is closed — 144 years after their release.