Civil War  |  Historic Site

First North Carolina Colored Volunteer Troops

North Carolina

508 Hancock Street
New Bern, NC 28560
United States

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This heritage site is a part of the American Battlefield Trust's Road to Freedom: North Tour Guide app, which showcases sites integral to the Black experience during the Civil War era. Download the FREE app now.

35th USCT Reunion in Plymouth, N.C. (ca. 1902)
35th USCT Reunion in Plymouth, N.C. (ca. 1902) NCDNCR/ New Bern Historical Society

Most of the men who joined the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers (1st NCCV) formed in New Bern between May and June 1863 had escaped enslavement in northeastern North Carolina. With courage and determination, they fought for freedom and against Confederate troops. 

A campaign to recruit additional Black troops from the freedmen who fled to Union lines in coastal North Carolina was strongly supported by John Albion Andrew, the white abolitionist and Massachusetts governor who had previously helped organize the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment. As Union occupation and emancipation swelled the Black refugee population in and around New Bern to over 8,500, many being men, several prepared to enlist. Although discouraged by New Bern’s Union occupiers, the formerly enslaved William Henry Singleton had been drilling other Black men for months.   

Yet recruitment stalled over concerns about Union dedication to Black freedom, the dangers of military service and competition from higher-paying civilian service as laborers and teamsters.  Abraham Galloway, who escaped enslavement in coastal North Carolina in 1857, became a passionate abolitionist in the North. Returning to the South as a Union spy, Galloway emerged as a fierce advocate for Black equality. He negotiated with Union officials to commit to recruiting Black soldiers by securing promises of equal pay for the Black soldiers in Massachusetts, support for their refugee families, educational opportunities for their children, and better treatment of Black prisoners held by the Confederacy. 

With these commitments in place, Gen. Edward A. Wild received special authority to select officers for the 1st NCCV, including African Americans. Among them was second in command, Lt. Col. William Reed, an immigrant with European military education and experience, who became the highest ranking African American in the Union army. He endured a brief arrest for interfering with the inappropriate assignment of a Black soldier to cook for white soldiers and clashed with white officers who undermined the authority of the regiment’s Black Assistant Surgeon, Maj. John DeGrasse.   

Lt. Col. Reed died from wounds received leading the newly renamed 35th U.S. Colored Troops in a brave and costly rear-guard action at the Battle of Olustee in February 1864.  Sgt. William Henry Singleton, who was also wounded in the battle, survived and later documented his remarkable journey from slavery to freedom. 

A detachment of the 1st NCCV participated with “Wild’s African Brigade” in a December 1863 raid around Elizabeth City.  The remainder of the regiment’s service took place outside North Carolina.  But all that lay ahead of the 1st NCCV soldiers who smartly stepped off this New Bern Academy green on July 24, 1863, with their regimental flag presented by the “Colored Ladies Relief Association of New Bern” leading the way on the road to freedom.  

Know Before You Go

The New Bern Academy Museum, with free admission and limited hours, offers exhibits exploring New Bern during the Civil War.