Ebony Heroes: The United States Colored Troops from Kentucky during the War Between the States

Sergeant Major Thomas Boswell, a soldier assigned to the 116th US Colored Infantry Regiment (USCI) asserted, “We are Kentucky boys, and there is no regiment in the field that ever fought better. We can boast of being the heroes of eight hard-fought battles, and this we deem a sufficient recommendation for our discharge…” 1 The fog of history has stilled the voices of the intrepid men, the colored Kentuckians, who populated the ranks of the federal army who served during the 1861-1865 War Between the States as the United States Colored Troops. The federal government, rather than the Kentucky Commonwealth, enlisted approximately 23,000 colored recruits to serve but military officials omitted the “colored” regiments from the Union Regiments of Kentucky and referred to them as the USCT. The purpose of this narrative is to revive those voices from long, long ago into authentic depictions of their significant contributions through remarkable enduring stories to the Kentucky tradition of pioneers who created the starting point for westward expansion. This dissertation will argue how the colored Kentuckians, as members of the USCT, became the original civil rights activists who made influential and extensive contributions to the enfranchisement and the attainment of civil rights and basic liberties for the “colored” (Black, African American) “race” in the United States. Moreover, they influenced legislators to reframe the US Constitution making it more inclusive for colored people and other minorities. The USCT’s groundwork provided the genesis of Black History in America.