News from the South - Kentucky News Feed
Samuel Crawford fought for freedom
Samuel Crawford fought for freedom
by Berry Craig, Kentucky Lantern
February 24, 2025
Samuel Crawford, one of approximately 24,000 Black Kentuckians who fought for their freedom and helped save the Union, is buried in virtual anonymity in Mayfield’s Oak Crest Cemetery.
The Civil War veteran rests for eternity under a ramrod-straight military tombstone at the foot of a towering oak tree. “CO. I 4 U.S. CLD. HV. ARTY.” is chiseled on the white marble slab in the historically African American burial ground. The abbreviations mean that Crawford was in Company I of the Fourth United States Colored Heavy Artillery.
The Fourth Artillery was recruited in Columbus, a strategic Mississippi River port on the western edge of the Jackson Purchase, Kentucky’s westernmost region.
In 1861, the Confederates turned the Hickman County town into a cannon-bristling bastion they dubbed the “Gibraltar of the West.” But by early the next year, Hickman County was under Union occupation and remained there until the war’s end in 1865. Columbus became a haven for escaped slaves and the state’s second-largest African American recruit training center. Only Camp Nelson in Jessamine County was larger. (Some of the Columbus earthworks, trenches and a large anchor and part of a heavy chain the rebels used to block the river are preserved in Columbus-Belmont State Park.)
About 179,000 Black volunteers, most of them slaves, served in the Union forces, prompting President Abraham Lincoln to declare in 1865, “without the military help of the black freedmen, the war against the south could not have been won.”
Even so, for decades after the Civil War, almost all white historians ignored or downplayed the key role Black soldiers played in Union victory. Modern historians have done much to correct the omissions and distortions.
Yet some Confederate apologists continue to claim falsely that thousands of Black men fought in rebel gray, though Confederate government officials hotly denied any such thing. “Not only would no slaves be enlisted; no one who was not certifiably white, whether slave or free, would be permitted to become a Confederate soldier,” wrote historian Bruce Levine in the Washington Post.
(In March, 1865, a month before Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, the Confederate government, desperate to stave off defeat, authorized Black enlistment. The plan triggered strong opposition and few Black enlistees signed up. Levine wrote that, revealingly, neither rebel President Jefferson Davis or anybody else who touted the plan “ever pointed proudly to the record of any of the Black units (or even individuals) who purveyors of the modern myth claim were already in the field.”)
Promoters of the “Black Confederate Myth” wanted “to demonstrate that if free and enslaved Black men fought in Confederate ranks, the war could not have been fought to abolish slavery,” wrote Kevin M. Levin in “Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.”
“Stories of armed black men marching and fighting would make it easier for the descendants of Confederate soldiers and those who celebrate Confederate heritage to embrace their Lost Cause unapologetically without running the risk of being viewed as racially insensitive or worse,” Levin writes.
The U.S. military was segregated in the Civil War. White officers commanded Black units, which were officially United States Colored Troops, USCT for short.
Kentucky was a border state that spurned secession. But making soldiers of slaves enraged almost all white Kentuckians, including most of the strongest Unionists. The Louisville Journal, the state’s premier Union newspaper, argued that Blacks and whites “cannot exist in the same country unless the black race is in slavery.”
In short, most Unionist Kentuckians were pro-slavery and pro-Union. (The state’s Confederate minority claimed only secession could save slavery.)
Reflecting the sentiment of pro-Union Kentuckians, Frankfort refused to allow “Kentucky” attached to the name of any Black unit raised in the state.
Black troops incensed Confederate soldiers who were fighting to establish an independent Southern nation rooted in slavery and white supremacy. The Confederates considered Black soldiers in the Union army rebellious slaves.
“Throughout the war, USCT regiments faced a danger that their white peers did not: re-enslavement or execution,” says the Museum of the U.S. Army’s website. “Official Confederate policy refused to recognize African Americans as lawful combatants. Any captured African American Soldiers or their white officers were subject to harsh treatment or execution.”
There were massacres of Black troops. In April, 1864, “Confederate soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest executed wounded and captured USCT men after the battle of Fort Pillow, in Henning, Tennessee,” the website says.
Black soldiers also faced hostile civilians statewide, but especially in the Purchase, the state’s only Confederate-majority region.
Though the Columbus soldiers were trained as artillerymen, they were mainly used as infantry, patrolling, fighting gorillas and rebel raiders and guarding outlying roads, bridges and rail lines. At Columbus, they helped white troops guard the post, unload steamboats and load rail cars. White officers praised their conduct under fire.
The Fourth Artillery mustered out of federal service in 1866.
Crawford’s headstone doesn’t reveal his lifespan. His birth date is evidently unknown, but he was almost certainly born in bondage. Crawford died on Jan. 3, 1895, during the segregationist Jim Crow era when race discrimination was the law in the South and border states like Kentucky and was underpinned by violence or the threat of violence.
In Jim Crow times, separate-and-unequal status for Black Americans didn’t end when life did. Oak Rest is downhill from then white-only Maplewood Cemetery, where the main entrance gateway is a 1924 memorial to local Confederate soldiers.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.
The post Samuel Crawford fought for freedom appeared first on kentuckylantern.com
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed
Evening Forecast 7/5/2025
SUMMARY: Tonight’s weather is calm and clear with no rain expected, though humidity remains high and muggy air continues. Overnight lows will be in the 60s to around 70 degrees. Sunday starts sunny with highs in the lower 90s, but afternoon and evening could bring isolated pop-up showers and storms—though not everyone will see rain. Scattered showers and storms will remain a possibility through Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons and evenings, influenced by a cold front moving in from the north and west. Overall, the week will feature warm, steamy conditions with intermittent storms but no major washouts expected.
Evening Forecast 7/5/2025
Subscribe to FOX 56 News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FOX56News/?sub_confirmation=1
See more Crime Stoppers stories: https://FOX56News.com/news/crime-stoppers/
Stay informed about central Kentucky news, weather, and sports! Follow FOX 56 on our website and social channels:
https://www.FOX56News.com
https://www.youtube.com/c/FOX56News
https://www.facebook.com/FOX56News
https://twitter.com/FOX56News
https://www.instagram.com/FOX56News
https://www.linkedin.com/company/FOX56News
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed
Chance for a few showers returns Sunday & Monday
SUMMARY: Louisville is experiencing a hot July 4th weekend with temperatures in the mid-90s and sticky humidity. A few stray showers are possible Sunday afternoon, but most areas will stay dry. The better chance for scattered showers and storms returns Monday, with heavy rain, downpours, and some gusty winds likely, though no severe weather is expected. Rain chances linger through the workweek, with isolated afternoon storms Tuesday and Wednesday, and another increased chance Thursday. Temperatures will drop slightly to upper 80s and low 90s. Tropical Storm Chantal is off the Carolina coast, expected to make landfall with rain staying mostly offshore.
WLKY, meteorologist Eric Zernich’s Saturday evening forecast
Subscribe to WLKY on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1e5KyMO
Get more Louisville news: http://www.wlky.com
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/wlkynews
Follow us: http://twitter.com/WLKY
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wlky/
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed
Hot temperatures continue for holiday weekend
SUMMARY: Hot temperatures persist through the holiday weekend, with highs ranging from 92 to 95 degrees and increasing humidity making it feel close to 100 degrees. Pools are expected to stay busy as dry conditions continue with minimal rain chances Sunday. A cold front arrives Monday, bringing scattered showers and thunderstorms, which will taper off by Tuesday, though isolated storms may linger midweek. Tropical Depression Three is developing near the South Carolina coast, potentially becoming Tropical Storm Chantelle by Saturday. Louisville saw a unique Viking cruise ship visit, diverted due to high Mississippi River levels. Despite the heat, dry weather favors 4th of July fireworks celebrations.
WLKY meteorologist Eric Zernich’s Friday evening forecast
Subscribe to WLKY on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1e5KyMO
Get more Louisville news: http://www.wlky.com
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/wlkynews
Follow us: http://twitter.com/WLKY
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wlky/
-
Mississippi Today6 days ago
Feds unfreeze $137 million in Mississippi education money
-
News from the South - Arkansas News Feed6 days ago
Beyoncé handles car tilting in air during Houston show
-
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed6 days ago
Kentucky State Police takes to the skies in National Cruiser Contest
-
News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed6 days ago
Man caught stealing $3K worth of fireworks from stand
-
News from the South - Louisiana News Feed5 days ago
Attorneys who run public defender offices replaced amid contract turmoil
-
News from the South - Arkansas News Feed7 days ago
Local Party Leaders Response to Trump's Bill
-
Our Mississippi Home6 days ago
Five Independence Day Traditions in Mississippi
-
News from the South - North Carolina News Feed6 days ago
Hundreds charged in health care fraud crackdown, including some in Triangle