KWL Marketing November 17, 2010 Hampton University Receives Landmark U.S. Colored Troops Archives It was announced today that noted historian and author Bennie J. McRae Jr. has donated his archives on the African American military experience to Hampton University, located in Virginia. The centerpiece of McRae's collection is the history of the Union Army's United States Colored Troops that served in the Civil War. The scope of this extensive collection features on-line histories of the men and women who served or supported the Union military. Dr. William Harvey, President of Hampton University remarked, "The Bennie McRae Jr. Collection is a landmark contribution to the memory of the of the United States Colored Troops. No longer will their strategic importance to the Union Army's victory be a footnote in the history of the Civil War." The Bennie McRae Jr. archives will be accessible to historians, researchers and the general public. McRae's donation to Hampton University is believed to be one of the world's largest repository concerning the history of the US Colored Troops in the Civil War. Bennie McRae Jr's body of work spans twenty years of research. His sterling body of work is taken from the Official Records of the Union and Confederate armies, Civil War archives, field studies, and donations from noted historians like William Gladstone. The collection chronicles the active service of black soldiers, and sailors beginning in 1862 and the fascinating histories of the female and male black contrabands whose service as spies, guides, scouts, nurses and cooks in the Union Army. McRae corrects the mistaken belief that the majority of the African American military originated in the North. Instead, his research attests that the majority of the US Colored Troops came from the secession and border-states of the South. The largest numbers were from Louisiana. Our Civil War memory often slants to the battlefields and Union and Confederate generals in Upper and Middle South. McRae's archives present a more thorough and balanced history of the black military in all regions of the Civil War. They testify to the bravery of the legendary First Kansas Colored in Indian Territory, the first black unit to engage the Confederates (Bates County, Missouri); the Third United States Colored Cavalry assault on the Black River Bridge, Mississippi, described as "one of the most daring and heroic of the war"; and the First South Carolina Volunteers engaged in expeditions with the 48th New York Infantry in1862; and the First Louisiana Native Guards, the first regiment mustered into the Union Army. The collection draws on both Union and Confederate reports of the US Colored Troops and their strategic importance in the Union victory at the Battle of Nashville, the Siege of Vicksburg, the Battle of Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend. It reports on Virginia's 25th US Army Corps, Army of the James, the only Corps in the history of the Army made up entirely of Black infantry regiments Comprised of 30 US Colored Troop regiments, it is noted for its bravery in the Union victories at Petersburg, Richmond and Appomattox. McRae stated, "I am delighted and overjoyed to have this collection accepted by the prestigious Hampton University. My archives will be preserved and made available to students, researchers and the general public." Historian and author, Bennie J. McRae Jr. was born in Louisville, Alabama now lives in Trotwood, Ohio. A veteran of the United States Air Force, he served for four years in the Korean War. McRae is an internationally recognized scholar on the US Colored Troops and historian on the black American Military experience. He was a consultant to Australian Television's broadcast, "Black Soldier Blues" documenting the African-American military in Australia and the South Pacific. He is the co-author of "Nineteenth Century Freedom Fighters" centered on the 33rd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry in South Carolina, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Tyler Trowbridge. McRae is the founder of Lest We Forget, an online resource documenting America's centuries-old black military experience. Bennie J. McRae Jr. is a member of the American Legion, lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a proud associate member of the Sons of Unions Veterans of the Civil War. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.