Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

United States Army 27th Colored Infantry Regiment Muster and Payroll, 1864, Accession #11402-a, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Library purchased this document from Alexander Autographs, Inc., Cos Cob, Connecticut, May 4, 1998.

Biographical/Historical Information

This item is a manuscript document of a Civil War African-American unit, "Muster Roll of Captain [Alfred] W. Pinney's, Company H, of the Twenty-Seventh Regiment of U. S. Colored Troop Infantry, United State Army, Colonel [Albert] M. Blackman, from the day of Enlistment, 1864, when last mustered, to the Thirtieth day of June 1864"/Payroll of the Company, from the Date of Enrollment, when last paid, to the Thirtieth day of June, 1864." Measuring 54 x 79 centimeters, it was prepared at Camp Casey, Virginia, June 30, 1864, by Captain [Alfred] W. Pinney. Its lists eighty-five officers, noncommissioned officers and privates (individually numbered). A modified listing of the officers and enlisted men of Company H are appended to this guide. (For the muster and payroll of Company G of this regiment, see accession number 11402.)

Company H was formally organized on June 4, 1864; its members enlisted between February and May 1864 at Camp Delaware and Columbus, Ohio. This document contains ca. twenty-seven column headings including names, dates and places of enlistment, and pay dates; the "Remarks" column shows the soldiers were paid based on their dates of enlistment and some received traveling pay. The payroll columns show the privates' pay as averaging $13.16 for two months; they either signed their names or made their marks ("x") beside them. Payments (issued August 21, 1864 and totaling $1,745.52 for the entire company), were witnessed by Second Lieutenant James W. Shuffleton or First Lieutenant Archibald J. Sampson (later a brevet captain, March 13, 1865).

According to this muster roll Captain Pinney (who died on August 8, 1864 of wounds received at Petersburg, Virginia) and Lieutenants Sampson and Shuffleton were mustered into military service (commissioned) April 1, 1864, Columbus, Ohio, "by President Abraham Lincoln." Civilian and military officials enrolled several of the privates as substitutes or draftees; under columns "Where [enrolled]" and "By Whom [mustered into service] these are indicated with ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 11th, etc.) accompanied by the abbreviation "D. O." These entries represent congressional districts in Ohio; conscription in the Northern states, as administered by the provost marshal general's bureau, was organized by congressional districts. [Eugene C. Murdock, One Million Men: The Civil War Draft in the North (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1971), 97-98, 200, 203.]

The bottom verso notes the results of a report by Inspection and Mustering Officer James K. Casey concerning the company ("Discipline, Instruction, Military, Appearance, Arms, Accoutrements, and Clothing" are rated as being in "Good Condition"). Two personal servants (African-Americans) employed by officers are identified as William Christian (Lieutenant Sampson) and Charly Bray (Lieutenant Shuffleton). Also of interest is "A List of Rolls, Returns, and Reports From Company Commanders of Volunteer Forces" which identifies the types of forms required of military units and when and to whom they should be submitted, recapitulations of absent and present members, and the number of military tactics manuals possessed by the regiment.

The 27th USCT was organized as a three-year regiment at Camp Delaware, Ohio, January 16, 1864, and ordered to Annapolis, Maryland. It was attached to the 1st Brigade, 4th Division, 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac, to September 1864, the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 9th Corps, and the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 25th Corps (the Union army's only all-black corps), December 1864. The regiment was attached to the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 25th Corps, to January 1865, the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 25th Corps, to March 1865, the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 10th Corps, Department of North Carolina, to July 1865, and the Department of North Carolina to September 1865.

The regiment participated in several campaigns in Virginia and North Carolina: from the Rapidan to the James River, Virginia, May-June 1864; guarding wagon trains of the Army of the Potomac during the Wilderness campaign; the Petersburg campaign (including the battle of the Crater, July 30, 1864), June-December 1864. It fought at Weldon Railroad (August 1864), Poplar Grove Church (September and October 1864), and Bodyton Plank Road, Hatcher's Run (October 1864). It fought at Bermuda Hundred (Virginia) front until December 1864; from there it participated in the Fort Fisher (North Carolina) campaign (December 1864- January 1865), and subsequent actions (Sugar Loaf Hill, Federal Point, Fort Anderson, the capture of Wilmington, and Northeast Ferry), January-February 1865.

It participated in the Carolinas campaign (March-April 1865) including Kinston and Goldsboro and Cox's Bridge (March 1865) and was among the Union regiments that captured and occupied Raleigh, North Carolina (April 1865). Present at the surrender of Army of the Tennessee (Confederate) at Bennett's House, North Carolina, on April 26, 1865, the regiment remained on duty in the Department of North Carolina until mustered out on September 21, 1865. For select published sources on this regiment, see U. S. Adjutant-General's Office, Official Army Register of the Volunteer Force of the United States Army for the years 1861, '62, '63, '64, '65 (Washington: Adjutant-General's Office, 1867; reprint, Gaithersburg, Maryland: Ron R. Van Sickle Military Books, 1987), 8:198; Francis M. Weld, Diaries and Letters of Francis Minot Weld . . . with a Sketch of His Life, a Brief History and Genealogy of the Family of Weld, by Sarah Swan Weld Blake (Boston: Privately Printed, 1925), 151-152, 154-155, 162-166, 178; [Weld was a regimental surgeon]; Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959), 3:1725; Joseph T. Glatthaar, Forged In Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers (New York: The Free Press, 1990), 115, 196, 228; Thomas Truxtun Moebs, Black Soldiers, Black Sailors, Black Ink: Research Guide on African-Americans in U.S. Military History, 1526-1900 (Chesapeake Bay and Paris [Va.]: Moebs Publishing Company, 1994), 1169-1170, and Ervin L. Jordan Jr., Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1995), 271.

Scope and Content Information

The muster and payroll of the United States Army 27th Colored Infantry Regiment was kept by Capt. A.W. Pinney at Camp Casey, Va., and lists 85 officers and men. It contains columns for name, dates and places of enlistment, pay dates, and remarks.

The document also contains the results of a report by an Inspection and Mustering Officer, and lists the personal servants of white officers.

Arrangement

Roster arranged alphabetically by name.

Roster, Company H, 27th United States Colored Troops Camp Casey, Virginia, June 30, 1864

Name / Rank / Date Enrolled / Place of Enrollment

Alfred W. Pinney / Captain / April 1, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Archibald J. Sampson / 1st Lieutenant / April 1, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
James W. Shuffleton / 2nd Lieutenant / April 1, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio

Sergeants

James W. Bray / Sergeant / May 14, 1864 / Bellefontaine, Ohio
James H. Qualls / Sergeant / May 4, 1864 / Berlin, Ohio
William W. McGill / Sergeant / May 2, 1864 / Camp Delaware, Ohio
James Browell / Sergeant / April 9, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Dock Hatchet / Sergeant / April 19, 1864 / Camp Delaware

Corporals

Charles Taylor / Corporal / April 6, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Frederick Gaskins / Corporal / April 4, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Daniel Mischal / Corporal / May 28, 1864 / Scioto, Ohio
William Curtis / Corporal / April 14, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
William J. Thompson / Corporal / May 4, 1864 / Berlin, Ohio
Charles W. A. Henderson Corporal / March 29, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
John Gillespie / Corporal / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware
Alfred Harris / Corporal / May 12, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio

Privates

Alexander, William / Private / May 12, 1864 / 1st [Congressional District of Ohio]
Alexander, Henry / Private / May 30, 1864 / 18th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Adams, Stephen / Private / April 9, 1864 / Gallipolis
Bruce, James / Private / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware
Bascone(?), Henry / Private / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware
Bincus, William H. / Private / May 4, 1864 / Smithfield
Brunston, Samuel / Private / March 31, 1864 / Smithfield
Byas, William / Private / May 16, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Bell, Thomas / Private / May 12, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Blanchard, Charles / Private / May 16, 1864 / 16th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Bryan, Loderick / Private / May 27, 1864 / 16th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Brown, William / Private / May 16, 1864 / 2nd [Congressional District of Ohio]
Black, James / Private / May 13, 1864 / 11th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Brooks, Randall / Private / March 29, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Crable, John / Private / March 29, 1864 / 2nd [Congressional District of Ohio]
Casberry, Richard / Private / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware
Carter, Major / Private / April 24, 1864 / Leesburgh
Chambers, Reuben / Private / March 29, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Denis, Anderson / Private / May 18, 1864 / 1st [Congressional District of Ohio]
Dickey, Edmund / Private / April 9, 1864 / Greenfield, Ohio
Ellison, Isaiah / Private / May 28, 1864 / 9th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Fleruen(?), Edmond F. / Private / May 28, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Fisher, Isaac / Private / February 29, 1864 / Greenfield, Ohio
Fields, Grandison / Private / April 20, 1864 / Camp Delaware
Goode, George H. / Private / March 29, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Gautz, George / Private / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware
Griffee, James / Private / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware
Graves, David / Private / May 28, 1864 / Scioto, Ohio
Hathway, Dock / Private / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware
Hiwarden, Abraham / Private / April 11, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Hughes, George W. / Private / May 28, 1864 / Scioto, Ohio
Harrison, Jordon / Private / May 18, 1864 / 8th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Hill, Mathew / Private / May 18, 1864 / 12th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Johnson, John / Private / May 11, 1864 / 8th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Johnson, James / Private / May 27, 1864 / 2nd [Congressional District of Ohio]
Johnson, Alexander / Private / May 7, 1864 / Berlin, Ohio
Jamenson(?), Albert / Private / May 17, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Lucas, William / Private / May 17, 1864 / 16th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Legander(?), Elleck / Private / April 2, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Miller, Philip / Private / May 12, 1864 / 12th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Murry, Jacob / Private / March 30, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
McRice, Eugene / Private / February 26, 1864 / Not Listed
Moore, Hamilton / Private / May 17, 1864 / Bellefontaine, Ohio
Markam, John / Private / April 2, 1864 / Delaware, Ohio
Nelson, Moses / Private / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware, Ohio
Philips, John W. / Private / May 21, 1864 / 9th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Payne, Jesse A. / Private / May 12, 1864 / 12th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Payne, Thomas / Private / May 12, 1864 / 12th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Payne, Americus / Private / May 14, 1864 / 11th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Ross, James H. / Private / April 14, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Roberts, John / Private / April 20, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Reed, Samuel / Private / May 13, 1864 / Camp Delaware, Ohio
Rodgers, Robert / Private / March 28, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Sampson, William H. / Private / May 24, 1864 / 10th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Steptoe, William H. / Private / May 12, 1864 / 12th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Scott, James E. / Private / May 28, 1864 / Scioto, Ohio
Strange, Reuben / Private / May 2, 1864 / Columbus, Ohio
Smith, Alvin / Private / April 27, 1864 / Byrd, Ohio
Simpson, Thomas / Private / April 6, 1864 / Cleveland, Ohio
Stokes, Wesley / Private / April 21, 1864 / Cincinnati, Ohio
Taylor, Green / Private / May 25, 1864 / 9th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Wyatt, Robert / Private / May 14, 1864 / 1st [Congressional District of Ohio]
Wright, James / Private / May 14, 1864 / 11th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Webster, Henry / Private / May 13, 1864 / 7th [Congressional District of Ohio]
Wilson, Moses / Private / May 30, 1864 / 1st [Congressional District of Ohio]
Williams, George / Private / May 27, 1864 / 1st [Congressional District of Ohio]
Wilson, Lewis J. / Private / May 13, 1864 / Camp Delaware, Ohio
Washington, George / Private / April 22, 1864 / Camp Delaware, Ohio
Wooley, Henry / Private / April 21, 1864 / Cincinnati, Ohio