Event date: Sunday, April 13, 2003
BLACK CIVIL WAR INFANTRY TO MARCH ON PETER MOTT HOUSE
Event Features U.S. Colored Troop Reenactors
CAMDEN, NJ -- A regiment of black Civil War Union soldiers will encamp around the Peter Mott House in Lawnside on April 13 in a living history commemoration marking the
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A period illustration depicts a unit of black Union soldiers battling Confederates at Milikens Bend in Louisiana.
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anniversary of the start of the war that freed America's slaves.
Organized by the Camden County Historical Society in cooperation with the Lawnside Historical Society, the event will feature members of 22nd US Colored Troops Infantry Regiment, under the direction of Sgt. Rashid Khan. The encampment will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. that day.
300,000 black soldiers
"This is about acquainting people with the fact there were 300,000+ black troops that fought in the Civil War," explained Sgt. Khan. "There were 168 regiments of African-American troops, including a Naval unit and a Marine Corps unit. But these are little-known facts. If you exclude the contributions of African-Americans, then the history of the Civil War is not true. And without that, the history of America is not true."
Organized in Philadelphia in January 1864, the 22nd saw action in Petersburg and Richmond. They participated in President Lincoln's funeral rites before being dispatched to Maryland and the lower Potomac in pursuit of John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators. They completed their service in Texas, along the Rio Grande, before returning to Philadelphia and being mustered out in October of 1865.
Underground railroad
A former "station" on the underground railroad, the Peter Mott House was opened as a historic museum in October of 2001 by the Lawnside Historical Society. In the two decades before the outbreak of the Civil War, Mott, a free black farmer who built the house, helped escaped slaves move through southern New Jersey toward freedom.
Peter Mott -- as reenacted by Clinton Higgs -- will welcome the 22nd U.S.C.T. and visitors to the museum's house and grounds.
The joint CCHS-Mott House Civil War event is sponsored by both the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Historical Commission.
Buses from Camden
Chartered bus transportation from the Camden County Historical Society to the Peter Mott House will be available at $5.00 per person, with all proceeds going to the Lawnside Historical Society for upkeep of the Mott House. Bus reservations are required. Please call the Society at 856-964-3333 no later than Friday, April 4, to reserve your seat.
The Camden County Historical Society is located at Park Boulevard and Euclid Avenue, just behind Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, in residential Parkside. Maps and directions, can be found at www.cchsnj.com. The Mott House is located on Kings Court in Lawnside, just beyond the corner of Moore and Gloucester Avenues.
Additional information about the Mott House can be found at PeterMottHouse.com.
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Event Date: April 13, 2003
Time: 2 to 5 p.m.
Contact: Sandy Levins, Director of Programming, Camden Co. Historical Society
Phone: (856) 964-3333
E-mail: Info@cchsnj.com
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