Blackwell, Daniel

National cemetery unknown burial headstone.

NPS

Quick Facts

Significance:

Private - 17th United States Colored Infantry, Company B

Place of Birth:

Alabama

Date of Birth:

ca. 1843

Place of Death:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Date of Death:

February 22, 1864

Place of Burial:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Cemetery Name:

Stones River National Cemetery

On November 30, 1863, 20 year old Daniel Blackwell enlisted as a private in Company B of the 17th United States Colored Infantry. His experience shows us how easy it is for errors to change the course of someone's story. 

When Daniel enlisted he was 5 feet 4 inches tall and his recorded occupation was farrier. He had likely escaped enslavement seeking freedom with U.S. Army like most of his comrades in the 17th USCI. Daniel's service lasted less than three months although his military service records run through 1866. Many of those records report that Private Blackwell had deserted while in Murfreesboro on April 24, 1864. Turns out they were wrong.

A handwritten note on the back of one of those reports states, "Died Feb 22/64 at Contraband Hospital Murfreesboro, Tenn." The charge of desertion was removed from Daniel's record restoring his record of honorable if short service in the cause of freedom. His Casualty Sheet lists the cause of death as diarrhea. He rests in one of the nearly 2,500 unknown graves in Stones River National Cemetery.