35th U.S.C.T Infantry Regiment

Early Beginnings

North Carolina’s first African American regiment laid the groundwork for others to follow. Clandestine explorations by abolitionist agents of Massachusetts Governor John Andrew revealed a large pool of potential military volunteers in eastern North Carolina. He worked with a local black organizer, Abraham Galloway, to begin recruiting soldiers. Galloway demanded that military care for the soldiers' families while the men served at the front. They quickly filled the ranks of the new regiment. While they enlisted on Roanoke Island, the soldiers came from communities along the Albemarle Sound or Southside Virginia. The army created two additional regiments from the same area, the 2nd NCCV and the 3rd NCCV.

The regiment’s colonel was James C. Beecher, half-brother of Uncle Tom’s Cabin writer, Harriet Beecher Stowe. He served as a chaplain in a New York regiment early in the war, but his abolitionist desire convinced Beecher to take a higher command. Governor Andrew nominated Beecher as commander of the 1st North Carolina Colored Infantry regiment in June 1863. Beecher soon collected a dedicated group of like-minded officers to begin training his new regiment. The Union Army barred African Americans from command positions. Beecher soon broke the accepted rules against African American officers, though. He appointed Reverend John Mars, a formerly enslaved outspoken opponent of the fugitive slave law. Black physician John V. DeGrasse became the regimental assistant surgeon. He would be one of only eight commissioned African American surgeons and the only one to serve in the field. Beecher’s second in command, William Nikolaus Reed, was also a special case. Reed was biracial, born in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, owned by Denmark at the time. He joined the Danish army and later immigrated to the U.S. in 1853. Reed eventually rose to lieutenant colonel, the highest-ranking Black officer in the Union Army.

Down to Florida

Ordered to eastern Florida in the winter of 1864, the regiment, the 1st NCCV, was renumbered as the 35th USCT (United States Colored Troops). They became a reserve for the Union army’s advance in Northern Florida. Here they served with the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, made famous in the 1989 movie Glory. The 35th’s first battle was at Olustee in February. As the main body of the Union army retreated off the field, the 35th USCT and 54th Mass advanced to cover them. Both units acted with the bravery of veterans and allowed the routed Union army to retreat unimpeded. When a train carrying wounded soldiers broke down, these two regiments pulled it by ropes to safety in Jacksonville.

For the remainder of the war, the two regiments remained together, serving in the swamps of South Carolina, finally mustering out in June 1866. Of the almost 1,000 men enlisted in the 35th, 205 men died in service, with 53 killed, including Colonel Reed, and 152 by disease.