USCT Soldier Before the Orphan Asylum

After the Confederate evacuation in February 1865, the first Federal troops to enter were the 127th New York and the 21st United States Colored Troops, under the command of Brig. Gen. Alexander Schimmelfennig. On February 28, Schimmelfennig issued Gen. Order No. 8, calling on Charlestonians to take the Oath of Allegiance. In his history, Charleston! Charleston!, Walter J. Fraser writes that thousands of former slaves, deserting the lowcountry plantations, streamed into Charleston to celebrate their new freedom, to find families, and to enlist. The official Daily Courier reported that “the recruiting officers in Charleston are head over heel in business. The colored men are flooding to the Flag.” One observer in mid-April 1865 declared that black men were volunteering for Union army service “at the rate of about one hundred a day.” Standing in front of the orphanage could be one of these new recruits.

This is the caption as printed in 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War. It has not yet been through this site’s research and fact-checking pass.