Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Visiting Owens Dawson


Researching the life and times of Q.M. Sgt. Owens Dawson of the Twenty-fifth U.S. Colored Infantry has provided me an opportunity to get to know a man who died fifty-nine years before my birth. I've imagined him waiting on tables in a Philadelphia restaurant before the war, marching to the sound of drum and fife on the drill ground at Camp William Penn, mourning the untimely death of his first wife, traveling to Washington, D.C., to begin a new life, and, in his dotage, chatting up aged veterans at a Grand Army of the Republic reunion.

Today, I visited his grave site at Arlington National Cemetery, located a few miles from my home. I enjoyed a quiet moment to reflect on a life of joy and sorrow, in service of country, for the betterment of our nation.

Little could he have imagined that 105 years after his death that I would be standing at his grave site, snapping pictures of a cool marble slab that marks the spot where his earthly remains lie undisturbed, a silent stone witness to the memory of a man.

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

"The Men Always Felt This a Grievance"

If there was ever any question that African American soldiers could and would fight, no one bothered to tell Frederick Lyman Hitchcock, an officer in the 132nd Pennsylvania Infantry who suffered two wounds at Fredericksburg and went on to be colonel and commander of the Twenty-fifth U.S. Colored Infantry. After the war he had this to say about the character of the men in the Twenty-fifth:
"I desire to bear testimony to the esprit du corps, and general efficiency of the organization as a regiment, to the competency and general good character of its officers, to the soldierly bearing, fidelity to duty, and patriotism of its men. Having seen active service in the Army of the Potomac, prior to my connection with the Twenty-fifth, I can speak with some degree of assurance. After a proper time had been devoted to its drill, I never for a moment doubted what would be its conduct under fire. It would have done its full duty beyond question. An opportunity to prove this the Government never afforded, and the men always felt this a grievance."

From Bates' History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, Vol. V, pp. 1026-1027.
I admire Hitchcock's confidence in his men, and his clear dissatisfaction for never having been sent to see the elephant with his command.

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