Civil War 'Colored Troops' honored in Monongahela
After she graduated from college in 1970, Dr. Marie Brown Wagner was helping her grandmother, Amy Brown, clean her McKeesport home and found a belt buckle from a Union Army uniform.
The buckle had a dent where it deflected a bullet that otherwise might have killed her great-grandfather, William Catlin, in a Civil War battle.
That's the day Wagner learned that her great-grandfather had served with the U.S. Colored Troops – units of black soldiers formed during the Civil War.
By war's end, 175 U.S. Colored Troops regiments represented one-tenth of the Union Army's manpower.
“This was a cool relative of mine. I didn't even know we helped in our own freedom,” Wagner said of the war that led to the abolishment of slavery in the United States.
Wagner said she has a Bible that Catlin rescued from a burning church in Georgia during the war.
“I think it's important our family knows,” said Wagner, a Monongahela High School graduate.
On Wednesday at the Noble J. Dick Aquatorium, the Ladies Grand Army of the Republic, Starkweather Circle 173, will conduct its annual memorial service.
The theme will be “Marching for Patriotism. It will focus on city residents who served during Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's “March to the Sea” campaign, which involved the U.S. Colored Troops.
The Catlin and the Simmons families of Monongahela will be honored.
A reception at Monongahela Valley Hospital in Carroll Township will follow.
The local Starkweather Circle 173 chapter was chartered in 1911, with its earliest meetings held with Civil War veterans as honorary members.
In 1891, the Rev. J.E. Diettrich conceived the idea of scattering flowers and wreaths upon water to memorialize naval personnel killed in sea battles. That tradition has been observed by the Valley organization since 1912.
George Simmons, great-grandson of Jacob Simmons, lives on Marne Avenue in the house Simeon Simmons once called home. Simeon Simmons is Jacob Simmons' son.
Jacob Simmons was an army musician, but also carried a rifle – which George Simmons owns.
Catlin was wounded in action at Devaux's Neck, S.C., in December 1864 near the end of Sherman's campaign.
Wagner said it is vital to preserve the legacies of her great-grandfather and other men of color.
“African-Americans never really knew how involved their ancestors were in the fighting during the Civil War,” Wagner said.
“It's important for other people to know this happened and we were involved.”
Chris Buckley is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-684-2642 or cbuckley@tribweb.com.
