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OVERVIEW:
Organized at Philadelphia, Pa., January 3 to February 12, 1864. Sailed for New Orleans, La., on Steamer "Suwahnee" March 15, 1864 (Right Wing). Vessel sprung a leak off Hatteras and put into harbor at Beaufort, N. C. Duty there in the defences, under Gen. Wessells, till April, then proceeded to New Orleans, arriving May 1. Left Wing in camp at Carrollton. Attached to Defences of New Orleans, La., Dept. of the Gulf, May to July, 1864. District of Pensacola, Fla., Dept. of the Gulf, to October, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, U.S. Colored Troops, Dept. Gulf, October, 1864. 1st Brigade, District of West Florida, to January, 1865. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, U. S. Colored Troops, District of West Florida, to February, 1865. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, U.S. Colored Troops, District of West Florida, to April, 1865. Unattached, District of West Florida, to July, 1865. Dept. of Florida, to December, 1865.
SERVICE:
Duty in the Defences of New Orleans, La., till July, 1864. Garrison at Post of Barrancas, Fla. (6 Cos.), and at Fort Pickens, Pensacola Harbor (4 Cos.), till December 1865. Mustered out December 6, 1865.
Only one Williamson Countian has been identified as having served in Company G of the 25th US Colored Infantry. Sgt. William Hill was born around 1828 in Williamson County. He enlisted at the age of 36 in Waterford, Pennsylvania. He was working as a fireman and appears to have been literate. He was mustered into the regiment as a corporal and soon after promoted to sergeant. Sgt. Hill survived to muster out of the regiment, but nothing more is known about his life after the War.
William Hill's Company Descriptive Card
"As a regiment we cannot be excelled, as men, we have only our equals, but as citizens, our motto is, veni, vidi, vici. We came as soldiers, as men we saw and acted upon, and as the noble handiwork of God, we have conquered one-half of the prejudice that has been for the last half-century crushing our race into the dust. And now . . . it affords us, I say us, for I share in common with my poor benighted race, a happy time in thinking that through the instrumentality of an all-wise Providence we are considered, by all that are lovers of the Union and Freedom, freemen."
—Private Jacob S. Johnson, Company H, 25th USCT, January 22, 1865 [source: NPS]
Regimental flag of the 25th US Colored Infantry. Library of Congress.
According to the History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, "The flag which the regiment carried, was painted by a colored man in Philadelphia. It represented a Fredman in the foreground, the shackles of his bondage having just fallen from his ankles, in the act of stepping forward eagerly to receive the musket and uniform of his country's defenders which the Goddess of Liberty is presenting to him. After the return of the regiment to Philadelphia, and at the close of its last parade through the streets of that city , this flag was presented by Colonel Hitchcock, to the Union League Association of Philadelphia, George H. Boker, Esqr., the poet, receiving it on behalf of the League... "
Photograph album of 25th Regiment USCT soldiers owned by William A. Prickitt. Note: These men served with Sgt. William Hill from Williamson County, Tennessee.
Public Domain.
An exhibit featuring these images visited Fort Negley in Nashville in 2019.
Resources:
History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, contains descriptions of the service on full list of names of the men serving in the 25th US Colored Infantry [Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5 (Harrisburg: B. Singerly, 1871), 5: 1026-1046.)]
Photograph album of 25th Regiment USCT soldiers owned by William A. Prickitt
Prickitt family album of officers of the 25th United States Colored Troops
Muster Roll of 13 Soldiers in Company G, 25th Regiment of United States Colored Infantry, April 12, 1865; The Henry Ford
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