Civil
War
Black Sailors
Aboard the
USS Hunchback
Extracts
from Hunchbacks Muster Roll Dated
July
1, 1864
James
River, Virginia
(Civil War
Sailors)
Hunchback, an armed ferryboat belonging to the Union navy,
left the sounds of North Carolina in the latter part of 1863 and began repairing
in Baltimore, Maryland. In the
spring of 1864, Hunchback left Baltimore for Virginia, where the U.S.
Navy and the U.S. Army were preparing a massive, coordinated drive up the James
River to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital.
The sailors on the Hunchback would spend much time on the James,
for the capture of Richmond would take almost a year.
A number of African-American sailors form part of the Hunchbacks
crew gazing from a familiar Matthew Brady photograph taken on Virginias James
River (1864-65).
On the following list of Civil War
sailors taken from the Hunchbacks muster roll for July 1, 1864, all
are described as Negro except William Weaver (having been
transferred on May 21, 1864, to the gunboat Commodore Morris) and James
McCastor, a brown-haired, grey-eyed, dark-complexioned man noted as a
mullato [mulatto] in the column for Remarks.
Subsequent Hunchback rolls do not describe McCastor either as a
Negro or a mulatto. The quarterly required muster rolls include a sailors
physical description; rating; date, place, and term of enlistment; vessel or
place from which received; and place of birth.
(Note the number of Hunchback sailors born in the port city of Baltimore,
from which, nearly twenty-three years before the Civil War began, Frederick
Douglass escaped, posing as a free black sailor.)
Brown,
William, age
26, Negro, 56, Philadelphia, Pa.
Chalk,
Mordecai, age 25, Negro, 55-1/2, Baltimore, Md.
Cole,
Charles H., age 26, Negro, 57, Baltimore, Md.
Colter,
Thomas, age 26, Negro, 57, Baltimore, Md.
Cornish,
John, age 23, Negro, 57-1/4, Baltimore, Md.
Fleming,
Joseph, 21, Negro, 55, Norfolk, Va.
Francis,
Daniel, age 21, Negro, 53-1/2, Baltimore, Md.
Garrison,
Nathaniel, age 22, Negro, 56, Frederick, Md.
Gibson,
Perry, age 21, Negro, 56, Baltimore, Md.
Grose,
John H. age 23, Negro, 57, Baltimore, Md.
Grose,
Joseph H., age 20, Negro, 57, Baltimore, Md.
Holland,
Joseph, age 24, Negro, 53-3/4, Virginia
Howard,
Samuel, age 21, Negro, 53-1/2, Baltimore, Md.
Huges,
William J., age 21, Negro, 54, Baltimore, Md.
Jones,
Thomas H., age 21, Negro, 53, Baltimore, Md.
Lane,
William, age 30, Negro, 57, Philadelphia, Pa.
Livingston,
Radford, age 22, Negro, 55, New York, N.Y.
Lloyd,
James E., age 21, Negro, 5, Baltimore, Md.
McCastor,
James, age 19, eyes, grey; hair, brown; complexion, dark.
Remarks:
mullatto [sic], Boston, Mass.
McKenzie,
James, age 25, Negro, 55, Norfolk, Va.
[Mathews
Co., Va., on Commodore Morriss muster roll dated March 31, 1964]
Maise,
George H., age 20, Negro, 61, Baltimore, Md.
Morris,
James, age 21, Negro, 56, Baltimore, Md.
Nixon,
William, age 24, Negro, 58, Philadelphia, Pa.
Rice,
Alexander, age 25, Negro, 55-1/2, Philadelphia, Pa.
Scott,
James W., age 22, Negro, 54, Baltimore, Md.
Stiles,
Henry M., age 21, Negro, 56, Savannah, Ga.
Strickland,
Zackariah, age 22, Negro, 510, Baltimore, Md.
Weaver,
William, age 22, mullatto [sic], 510, Hertford, N.C.
[Transferred
May 21, 1864, to the Commodore Morris]
Wye,
Charles, age 27, Negro, 410, Baltimore, Md.
Note: John
Hill, ordinary seaman born in Canada, is described as an Indian on the
roll dated July 1, 1864. In October 1864 and January 1865, Hill is described as
an ordinary seaman with black eyes, hair, and complexion.
Fleming,
Joseph, age 21, 55, Norfolk, Va.
Holland,
Joseph, age 24, 53-3/4, Virginia
McKenzie,
James, age 25, 55, Norfolk, Va.
[Mathews
Co., Va., on Commodore Morriss muster roll dated March 31, 1865]
Note: Moses Carey, 40 (York Co.), and James Root, 22 (Carolina Co.), enlisted on July 1, 1864. Hunchback got them from the James River, but they do not appear on the July roll.
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