36th U.S.C.T. Infantry Regiment

Overflow of Recruits

The 2nd North Carolina Colored Volunteers (NCCV) was created with the extra men enlisted for the 1st NCCV. Half of the regiment originally followed the 1st NCCV in its early campaigns as part of Edward Wild’s African Brigade. These newly formed North Carolina companies launched raids into the North Carolina interior. Other companies were formed from Freedmen in the Norfolk area of Virginia. The 2nd NCCV transformed into the 36th U.S.C.T. The regiment deployed to Norfolk, Virginia and was strengthened by new companies. Once collected under its new colonel, Alonzo G. Draper, the regiment deployed to Point Lookout, Maryland. There, they guarded the massive Union hospital and prisoner of war camp.

From Maryland to Petersburg

Draper and his command launched several raids across Chesapeake Bay and into the various river valleys while there. Most of these raids were to capture food sources and liberate enslaved people. In the summer of 1864, the 36th came down to the Petersburg area to reinforce the siege operations.

The eastern armies of the Union, the Army of the James and the Army of the Potomac, were the last Union armies to add African American units among their troops. In June 1864, the 36th and other U.S.C.T. units came together to form the Third Division of the 18th Army Corps. Draper, now a brigade commander of three regiments, fought in the assaults on Chaffin’s Farm and New Market Heights in the fall near Richmond, VA. Here, his men assaulted the Confederate works, and in the ensuing bloody battles, the 36th lost many men.

Soldiers in Action

Two men in the assaults, Private James B. Gardiner and Corporal Miles James, earned Congressional Medals of Honor for their bravery. Gardiner killed a Confederate officer at bayonet point while running ahead of his company. James remained on the field loading and firing his musket even though his arm was mutilated. Others who behaved bravely were promoted. Roanoke Island native and Freedmen’s Colony colonist Richard Etheridge rose from private to commissary sergeant. Etheridge displayed the fine talents of organization and discipline here. He continued to use those skills when he became the station commander of the Pea Island Life Saving Station in the 1880s. Pea Island Life Saving Station was the only all Black lifesaving station in the service and is now a museum.

The 36th U.S.C.T. spent the next five months in the trenches in front of the Confederate capital. On the day Richmond fell, the 36th had advanced to the outskirts of the city, later garrisoning it. At the end of May, the XXVth (Twenty-Fifth) Corps, which included the 36th, left Richmond and sailed to Texas. They stayed there till October 1866 to oversee French military action in Mexico. They mustered out on October 28, 1866.