Freedom through Fighting - William Griffin, 7th USCI

Service in the United States army during the American Civil War was one way enslaved men broke their chains of bondage. Finally allowed to officially enlist in the Federal army when President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect, thousands of enslaved African American men made their way to recruiting stations in areas occupied by the Union army.

In slaveholding yet loyal Border States, like Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri, owners could sometimes file claims and receive compensation for the emancipation of their enslaved property who enlisted in the Union army. Such a deed of manumission exists in the collections of Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier.

On September 28, 1864, William Griffin of Worcester County, Maryland, filed a “deed of manumission and release of service” in Baltimore for his former slave, Charles E. Griffin, who enlisted on November 1, 1863, in Company K of the 7^th United States Colored Infantry (USCI).

Charles E. Griffin’s service records indicate that he was 23 years old when he enlisted in Berlin, Maryland. Described as 5’ 5 3/4” tall, with a mulatto complexion, Griffin officially mustered into service at Camp Stanton in Charles City, Maryland, on November 12, 1863, enlisting for three years. Upon his muster into service Griffin received a promotion to sergeant.

The 7^th USCI was initially detailed to Florida, in the Department of the South, as part of the X Corps. Afterwards transferred to South Carolina, and finally Virginia, the 7th served on the Bermuda Hundred, then in the earthworks just outside of Richmond, as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces tried to capture Petersburg and Richmond. The 7^th USCI battled bravely during the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm on September 29, 1864, showing tremendous fortitude in attacks on well defended Fort Gilmer. Amazingly, Charles E. Griffin survived the desperate fighting at Fort Gilmer. During October 1864, the 7^th helped man earthen Fort Burnham (formerly Fort Harrison), which the Federals had captured from the Confederates on September 29.

It was during an exchange of artillery on October 10, 1864, that Sgt. Griffin received a mortal wound in the abdomen by a piece of exploding shell. Taken to a nearby field hospital, he died the following day. Described in his service records as “a brave man, cool in action, and a good soldier,” Griffin rests today in Section D, Grave 237 at the Fort Harrison National Cemetery.

Although sadly Charles E. Griffin did not live to see it, his surviving African American comrades of the XXV Corps were among the first troops to enter Richmond on April 3, 1865, effectively putting yet another nail in the coffin of slavery.