May 22, 1863, 144 years ago the various Union army military units consisting of thousands of runaway self-emancipated enslaved and non-enslaved persons of African descent who deliberately enrolled as Union Army Freedom Fighting soldiers were by an act of Congress reorganized into a segregated Army Branch called The Bureau of United State Colored Troops.

Roughly, 18,000 enslaved and non-enslaved people of African descent from Mississippi and 20,000 plus from Louisiana deliberately enrolled in the Union Army and Navy of the Mississippi Valley and Gulf Civil War Campaign.

These thousands of enslaved and non-enslaved persons along with thousands from the other Confederate States, United States, Canada, Nova Scotia, the Caribbean and Africa turned the Civil War into a war about slavery.

These great generations of enslaved and non-enslaved African descendants decisively helped the militarily defeat the Confederate military separatists, freed thousands of fellow men, women and children, put an end to chattel slavery in states in rebellion against the United States and preserved the Union of the United States.

They gained what was called a “double victory.”

Up and down the Mississippi River local U.S. Colored Troops and Navy men played a major military role in helping the United States win the crucial Civil War campaign for control of the River of which the capture of Vicksburg was the key and the straw that broke the back of the Confederacy.

In remembrance of these freedom fighting heroes who are buried and all but forgotten in our local cemeteries.

In remembrance of the “Black” Civil War Union Army/Navy Foreparents and Ancestors of local African descendant communities who no longer remember that those Civil War Ancestors originated the march across the Mississippi River joined by those waiting in Natchez and marched on to the National Cemetery to honor their comrades on “Decoration Day or 30 of May.”

In remembrance of all the USCT/Navy Freedom Fighters along the Mississippi River, who’s Union Army fighting actions against their enslavers and Confederacy proved to unbelieving Northerners and Union Army “whites” that indeed they could fight, would fight and did fight for freedom.

Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society Inc’s Fort McPherson Sons and Daughters of USCT/Navy dedicate the exhibition now on display at the Natchez Mississippi Welcome Center for “Tourism Week” to remain displayed through May 31.

The display is entitled: In Search of Civil War’s Black Freedom Fighters’ History and Legacies on the Mississippi A Tourism Self Primer Part of “The Greatest Slave Rebellion in the History of the United States.”

Fort McPherson Sons and Daughters of USCT/Navy will lay a not forgotten offering of a live flower wreath on the grave of a Sixth Colored Heavy Artillery soldiers Company C buried in Natchez National Cemetery on the “30th of May. Company C of the Colored Heavy Artillery was given the flag reproduced by the Natchez National Park by the “Colored Citizens of Natchez” during the Civil War.

The 30th of May was officially called “Decoration Day” by the United States Grand Army of the Republic organization in 1868 as the Day to go to the cemetery in remembrance of their Civil War comrades.

I Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley personally dedicate my role in Vicksburg National Military Park development and installation of a permanent exhibition to the U. S. Colored Troops’ defeat of a Confederate Army at Milliken’s Bend Louisiana on June 7, 1863.

Ribbon cutting ceremonies unveiling this important presentation and interpretation of the role of US Colored Troops in the Vicksburg Campaign are at 9 a.m. May 26.

Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley is a Natchez resident.