The Heritage Journal
Genealogy, Revolutionary War patriots, the United States Colored Troops, preservation, and family history — a digital museum publication that grows with each story we recover.
11 articles in the library
Latest · 📜 Civil War
October 4, 2026 · 5 min read
During the Civil War, thousands of enslaved men, women, and children did not simply wait for freedom to reach them. They went looking for it — and the records they left behind can still help descendants trace that journey.
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⭐ Revolutionary War
September 21, 2026 · 6 min read
Samuel Ashbow Jr., a Mohegan man from Connecticut, enlisted in May 1775 and was killed at Breed's Hill that June — recorded by the National Park Service as the first Native American killed in the Revolutionary War. His story opens a wider history of Indigenous service, and of the choices Native nations faced in a war fought across their homelands.
📜 Civil War
September 15, 2026 · 10 min read
Were there really Black Confederate soldiers? The historical record reveals a much more complicated story of soldiers, servants, enslaved laborers, military records, and the difference between presence and allegiance.
🪖 Black Military History
September 9, 2026 · 7 min read
Before dawn on May 13, 1862, an enslaved harbor pilot took command of a Confederate steamer, carried his family and crew past Fort Sumter, and delivered the vessel to the Union blockade. Robert Smalls did not wait for freedom to be granted — he planned and executed his own.
📜 Civil War
August 31, 2026 · 6 min read
Dr. Alexander T. Augusta: From Civil War Surgeon to Medical Pioneer. Commissioned as a Union Army surgeon with the United States Colored Troops, Augusta went on to become the first African American professor of medicine in the United States — proof that African American military history does not end when military service ends.
🕊️ Women in African American Military History
August 23, 2026 · 5 min read
During the Civil War, Susie King Taylor served beside Black Union soldiers as a nurse, laundress, and teacher. Decades later, she ensured that their experiences—and her own—would not disappear from history.
📅 This Day in African American History
August 12, 2026 · 5 min read
On August 12, 1863, the 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment (African Descent) was organized in St. Louis, Missouri, for service in the Union Army. Less than a year later, it would become the 56th United States Colored Infantry — a story of renamed regiments, preserved records, and the descendants who still search for them.
🎖️ Patriot Profiles
July 27, 2026 · 3 min read
Enslaved in Stratford, Connecticut, Nero Hawley enlisted in the Continental Army in 1777 in place of Daniel Hawley, fought at Whitemarsh alongside General Washington and endured Valley Forge, was honorably discharged in 1781, and was granted his freedom in 1782 — later opening a brick factory and purchasing freedom for his wife and daughters.
⭐ Revolutionary War
July 17, 2026 · 4 min read
For many descendants, the search for an African American Revolutionary War patriot begins with one question: "Where do I look?" These are the archives, files, and family papers where their stories still wait to be found.
📅 This Day in African American History
July 13, 2026 · 2-minute read
On July 13, 1863, one of the deadliest civil disturbances in American history erupted in New York City after the introduction of the Civil War draft. While opposition to conscription sparked the unrest, the violence quickly became targeted attacks against African Americans.
🌿 Genealogy & Preservation
July 4, 2026 · 5 min read
Long before family stories were written down, they lived in fragile paper — muster rolls, pension files, and handwritten letters. These archival records are how we recover the names that history nearly forgot.
History becomes legacy when we preserve it together.
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