The First USCT Regiment of Washington, D.C. distinguished itself in combat in
Virginia and North Carolina, participating in some of the Civil War’s most famous
battles,including: Chaffin’s Farm, Fair Oaks, and Fort Fisher.

The First Regiment, United States Colored Troops was organized and trained in the District of Columbia in the spring and summer of 1863 and was the first such organization of its kind formally mustered into the federal service. The regiment was also the first of its kind to be organized in the Middle Atlantic States. Led by white officers, the regiment drew men of African descent not only from the District but also from Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, New England, Canada, and the Caribbeans.

The regimental chaplain was the famed Rev. Henry McNeal Turner who pastored Israel Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at the foot of Capitol Hill during the 1860's.

The regiment's most famous battle was at Wilson's Wharf or Fort Pocahontas as it was also called, was an earthen fort built and manned by hundreds of United States Colored Troops under the direct command of Brigadier General Edward Augustus Wild. On May 24, 1864, action resulted in a victory for the USCTs against an attack led by Major General Fitzhugh Lee, Robert E. Lee's nephew. At the battle of Wilson’s Wharf, the regiment participated in the only battle in Virginia, possibly the only one in the entire Civil War in which nearly all the Union troops were African American.

On May 24, 1864, around 12:00 noon, about 2,500 Confederate cavalry of Major General Fitzhugh Lee initiated action on Wilson's Wharf, Manned by a force of about 1,400 USCT troops, The attack began with a mounted charge on Federal pickets, and then a dismounted attack on the fort. To attack the fort it was necessary to cross through a clearing. Attempts at the center failed and lines of skirmishers were deployed to attack from the eastern side of the fort. Lee sent a surrender demand which Wild quickly declined. The Federal troops, reinforced by two gunboats in the James River, returned fire and repulsed all attacks until the battle ended at six o'clock that evening. Reports of casualties are conflicting, but can be estimated at 20 for the Union and 100 for the Confederates, including dead, wounded, and captured. The battle proved once and for all that black troops would fight on their own without extensive support from white soldiers.

Charles Henry Brown was born into slavery in the 1840's, in St. Mary's County, Maryland. He was one of the original members of the First Regiment of the United States Colored Troops. Learn more about Charles Henry Brown with our interactive quiz.


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