The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
― Thomas Gray
On the eve of Barack Obama's first inauguration, Rep. John Lewis recounted "Bloody Sunday" for NPR's Terry Gross.
While the event was political in nature, its roots were the church, and listening to a replay of Lewis' interview this week prompted me to stop by a tiny "colored" graveyard just a mile from my home.
Bucktoe Cemetery feels hermetic on a sultry July afternoon, more like a piece of backwoods Mississippi than eastern Pennsylvania. It's the resting place for, among a hundred other souls, nine members of the US Colored Troops, veterans of the Civil War. The graveyard once nestled the largest church in the township, but Klansmen burned it down in 1900. Today, only a partial foundation remains.
Blacks represented only 1% of the North's population in 1860; but 10% of the Northern army during the Civil War. Congress at first was reluctant to allow Blacks to serve, but in 1862 deemed their service was an "indispensable military necessity." Lincoln agreed.
Once assembled and drilled, regiments of the US Colored Troops were ferried to the Deep South, to fight Confederates on their home turf (Edward Zwick's magnificent film "Glory" recounts the first such regiment's history). US Colored Troops also served combat duty in Virginia, fighting under U.S. Grant against Robert E. Lee.
Nearly 200,000 Black troops served in the Civil War; and more than 37,000 died.
