Existing comment:
On May 15, United States Colored Troops (called USCT) fought for the first time in Northern Virginia -- a skirmish near a crossroads north of Spotsylvania Court House. Included in the regiment engaged (the 23d USCT) were about 20 former slaves from Spotsylvania County.
As the war progressed that spring and summer, the role of the USCTs would become more prominent -- and more bloody.
Charles Sprow (sometimes spelled Sprout), a slave of the Lacy family at Ellwood, escaped slavery and joined a US Cavalry regiment. He died in 1926 and is buried today in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery, one of only eight African American buried there. |