New research is shedding light on a 40-acre military camp for Black soldiers that fanned out from the southeast corner of Columbia Pike and S. Courthouse Road during the Civil War.
Camp Casey served as a key recruiting and training ground for the military regiments that would become known as the U.S. Colored Troops. Some of the soldiers had been enslaved, while others were either born free or emancipated.
All put on the uniform of their country and fought throughout the Civil War up to its final battles, researcher Michael Schaffner said at a Sunday presentation at the Arlington History Museum.
“I thought I knew a lot about the Civil War growing up here,” Schaffner said.
But Camp Casey, he said, was not a story he had come upon before beginning several years of research combing through military and government records to paint a picture of the training facility.
The camp was a military base where perhaps as many as 6,000 men spent their first days in the Union Army. Like many local military encampments, however, it disappeared almost as soon as the conflict ended in 1865.
Until very recently, even the location of the camp had been shrouded in mystery. Schaffner credits Jessica Kaplan, who heads the historical society’s Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington effort, with helping to pin it down.
The land, a mid-sized tract compared to others in the community, had been owned by Richard Williams, sheriff of Alexandria County in the 1850s.
After Union troops occupied Northern Virginia in 1861, the Army commandeered it, eventually creating a barracks for 1,000 men along with officers’ quarters, stables, medical facilities, offices and a large parade ground.
The camp was named for Maj. Gen. Silas Casey (1807-82), a West Point graduate — 39th out of 41 in the Class of 1826 — who rose to become an expert on infantry tactics. He also was in charge of efforts to recruit Black men to serve in the Union Army early in the war.
African Americans, including those freed from enslavement, had headed to the D.C. region for relative safety and the chance to find work. Casey “grabbed the opportunity” to recruit Black volunteers, Schaffner said.
Casey also helped lead the effort to allow Black soldiers to become officers in the U.S. Colored Troops.
Given societal norms, it was hard enough for many Northerners to accept Black enlisted personnel. “God forbid a white soldier should have to salute a Black man,” Schaffner said of the situation, but Casey persevered in the effort.
Portions of more than 30 different regiments of U.S. Colored Troops were populated by those processed and trained at Camp Casey. Some participated in the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Those trained at Camp Casey may have helped bring the war to its conclusion, as seven U.S. Colored Troop regiments were on hand at the Battle of Appomattox in springtime 1865, helping to prevent Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and his army from escaping south.
Lee surrendered to U.S. Army Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, a key step toward ending hostilities.
Before the war, Black freedmen often earned a living as barbers or waiters, sometimes as laborers. In pre-war life, Schaffner said, some of them probably served Southern congressmen and other future Confederates at local establishments.
“To have the opportunity to put on a uniform and shoot at them must have been refreshing,” he said.
Beyond researching the subject, Schaffner is a reenactor in Company B, 54th Massachusetts (the “Glory” regiment). His brisk, interactive talk was distilled from a longer presentation given to the historical society’s membership last October.
To date, there is no formal county recognition of Camp Casey. But that could change.
The county government is aware of the site’s provenance and has been talking about developing a historical marker in the vicinity.
The hunt for more information about Camp Casey goes on in an effort to flesh out the historical record. “You’d think there would be photos, but I haven’t found them,” Schaffner said.
One Camp Casey soldier was Nimrod Burke (1836-1914), who is honored with a tapestry covering one of the windows of the main level of the museum.
Born free in Prince William County, Burke (sometimes spelled “Burk”) moved with his family to Ohio at age 18 and worked as a farmer and handyman. When war broke out, Burke enlisted in the 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and later the 23rd U.S. Colored Infantry.
“I was a soldier and fought for my country,” he is quoted as saying.
Burke was posted locally for at least several months. He ended the war stationed in Texas and, after being mustered out at the rank of sergeant in late 1865, returned to Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Schaffner’s presentation was one in a new series of 30-minute talks being given at the newly renovated museum on select Sundays.
“Keep coming back to this space,” former society president David Pearson said to attendees at the presentation.
The next in the series will discuss the history of the Family Tea House restaurant, believed to be the first in Arlington to serve Chinese cuisine. It will take place on Sunday, July 27 at 2 p.m.
