Detail: Gerry Taylor, Received of Aaron Beard, His Certificate of Discharge from the "K" 25th Regiment National Colored Troops, December 6, 1865. Ralph Johnson Papers. Aaron Beard's regiment served in the defense of New Orleans and participated in raids on the Confederate-held Florida coasts. Beard died in 1876 and is buried in Princeton Cemetery.
Additional Detail(s)
Type: Exhibition case
Name: African-American Soldiers
Detail: At a meeting in Jersey City to honor the Emancipation Proclamation, black religious leader Henry Highland Garnet encouraged African Americans to enlist in the military. Although New Jersey did not give its name to any black regiments, it can be estimated that a few thousand African Americans from New Jersey served with the U.S. Colored Troops, in regiments from other states, or in the navy. Recruiters soon discovered that a black soldier fulfilled a quota as well as a white one. Traces of African-American soldiers can be found in Rutgers’ Civil War manuscript collections.
CollectionStruggle Without End: New Jersey and the Civil War
Organization NameRutgers University. Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives
Organization NameRutgers University. Libraries. Special Collections
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