1ST U.S. COLORED HEAVY ARTILLERY
★ ★ ★
“ Ready to Take the Field”
Gen. Davis Tillson raised the 1,700-man 1st U.S.
Colored Heavy Artillery in Tennessee and North
Carolina in 1864. The unit encamped nearby
while garrisoned in Asheville in 1865. Assigned
to Tillson ’s 2nd brigade, the men participated in
operations in Tennessee and Alabama and joined
Gen. George Stoneman in Virginia and North
Carolina in 1865. Stoneman reported that the
unit had 1, 100 men “ready to take the field.”
Recruiting broadside. “Come and Join Us Brothel's" - Courtesy Rare Book,
Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University
Heavy artillery units typically manned large pieces in fixed positions but
later in the war served smaller cannons, such as Napoleons, in the field.
Courtesy Library of Congress
On April 27, 1865, Tillson wrote, “The ... First
U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery . . . were moved toward
Asheville, N.C. ... arriving there on | April | 30th.”
To many white Southerners, the appear¬
ance of African American soldiers symbolized
defeat. Local resident Forster A. Sondley wrote,
“Negro sentinels were placed at the approaches
to the town in order that no insult might be
spared to a devoted people.” Sarah Bailey Cain
recalled, “We passed through an immense crowd
of ... privates and insolent Negroes in U.S. uni¬
forms. One of the Negroes called out to my father
‘How do you like this, old man?’”
Gen. Davis Tillson
Courtesy Library
of Congress
Tillson accepted
the surrender of Confederate
Col. William M. Bradford
and his troops at Asheville
on May 6. The 1st U.S. Col¬
ored Heavy Artillery stayed
in the area until May 18,
then served in Tennessee
until mustered out on
March 31, 1866. After the
war, Tillson oversaw the Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (the Freed-
men’s Bureau) in Tennessee and Georgia.
Foui' soldiers of the 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery were executed
nearby on May 6, 1865. The next day. Col. Chauncey G. Hawley
reported that the men "who committed the rape, except one
witness, four in number, were shot yesterday, before the whole regi¬
ment." Gen. Davis Tillson wrote that they “stole out of camp on the
march to Asheville and committed a brutal rape on the person of a
young white woman, after nearly killing her uncle and aunt, two
very old people, who tried to prevent the outrage. I am much grati¬
fied that they have been found and shot." The execution and burial
of Pvts. Alfred Catlett, Alexander Colwell, Washington Jackson, and
Charles Turner of Co. E took place at the present-day junction of
Broadway with Mt. Clare Avenue and Chestnut Street (Five Points).
About 1900. workers on Mt. Clare Avenue uncovered their graves.
They were reburied nearby, but the location is not known.
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