Jonathan Williams was born in Campbell County, Kentucky, located at the northern edge of that slave state, nestled along the southern shore of the Ohio River, directly south of Cincinnati and southern Ohio, on the border of slavery and freedom. As with many people in the nineteenth century, however, some of his background - in this case, his exact year of birth - remains elusive, as various ages and dates appear on different records.
Post-Civil War paperwork for the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, for instance, alleges that he was 80 years old when he entered the facility in 1893, and a form in his pension file shows he was “over eighty” years old on the days of an April 1890 examination, reasonably close to that first document.
Two other forms in that pension file, however, show different ages, one recording him as 37 years old in 1864, and the other listing him as 39 in that same year, though those two are fairly similar to each other, showing that the 1825-1827 period was when he was born.
Yet a different document claimed he was 36 years old in 1862, and an 1897 newspaper story reported him to be 89, again switching between 1826 or 1808 as his approximate birth year, both reasonably close to what other sources claimed.
In 1850, he had moved from Kentucky just across the Ohio River to the free state of Ohio, where he lived in Monroe in Clermont County, with his mother Hannah. He was a laborer, and the census recorded him as 24 years old, again suggesting a birth date of around 1826.
He held the same job title in 1860, when he lived in New Richmond, still in Clermont County. He still lived with Hannah and was supposedly just 30 years old at this time, although his mother had aged a full 10 years, from 60 to 70, in that decade.
Overall, it seems likely that he was born sometime around 1826 but that is far from definite.
It is, however, certain, that he was a free man as the Civil War arrived, although it remains possible that he had been born into slavery in Kentucky and had somehow gained his liberty, allowing him to move to Ohio.
Once the war came, he was determined to aid the Federal government. He first served in the navy, initially on the USS Indianola, which was constructed in Cincinnati and served as Jonathan's receiving ship for a few days while shipbuilders rushed to ready it for full service. He then moved to the USS Linden for a one-year term from about December 27, 1862, to December 20, 1863, as a second-class fireman, helping care for the fires that created the steam power that ran the ship.
A naval rendezvous record from his enlistment in late 1862 lists him as 36 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with cooper for his profession.
The Linden was a 177-ton wooden side wheel steamboat constructed in Pennsylvania in 1860 as a peacetime commercial vessel[1] before the U.S. Navy purchased it in Cincinnati in 1862.
During its service in the long attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Linden was “ordered to cooperate with General (Ulysses S.) Grant in cutting a canal between the Red and Black Rivers through Tensas Bayou.”[2]
That attempt failed and the ship “continued to support operations” against Vicksburg, though it was not among the ships that ran past the city in April, a bold move which allowed Grant to place his army in position for the final fighting against that Confederate stronghold.
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| USS Linden, from https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/uss-linden-19229/ |
In May, the Linden “silenced a masked battery at Island No. 82; then covered troops who landed and destroyed buildings in the area.”
Vicksburg finally fell to the Union on July 4, and the Linden later “performed valuable but unspectacular service on reconnaissance and convoy missions on the Mississippi and its tributaries” before Jonathan’s term expired in December of 1863.[3]
After his year in the navy, Jonathan still wished to fight for the nation that had for so long shown so little interest in helping people like him.
On August 8, 1864, he enlisted in company K of the 27th United States Colored Infantry (USCI) regiment at Camp Delaware, Ohio, where the regiment organized. One document in his compiled military records claim he was 37 years old, stood 5 feet 10.75 inches tall, and had brown eyes. His hair was black, as was his complexion. He still listed his job as a cooper. Remaining consistent with the variance of the information in his story, another form listed him as 39 years old.
His records credited his enlistment to Clermont County, Ohio, helping that area meet its quota of men needed for the war, and adding evidence that he was the Jonathan Williams listed in that county on the census records of 1850 and 1860.
The 27th USCI was the second African American regiment formed in Ohio, as the state “was slow to organize black regiments,”[4] even after laws had changed to allow these men to serve in the Union military.
In August of that year, “hundreds of newly recruited men were sent to the 27th from Ohio.”[5] Jonathan was among them, and in September he worked as his company’s cook, a vital role in any army, even if it was not what men dreamt of when enlisting.
The unit did its assigned duty through early fall, then fought in the Battle of Boydton Plank Road, also known as the First Battle of Hatcher's Run, on October 27 and 28, during the Federal siege of Petersburg, Virginia.
Its next assignment was in the Union’s campaign against Fort Fisher and Wilmington, North Carolina, from December of 1864 through February of 1865. The Federal forces captured the fort on January 15, another nail in the Confederacy’s coffin, as the fort “guarded the last remaining open port for the Confederacy at Wilmington.”[6]
The town fell on February 21, and “the 27th was among the regiments that marched into the city the next day.” These soldiers were incredibly happy and “sang John Brown’s Body as now-liberated slaves greeted them with food and tobacco.”[7] Such a moment must have been quite a remarkable, even unforgettable, experience for both the liberated and liberators.
A few days later, these men came to the aid of more fellow Union soldiers by assisting “newly freed Union prisoners. The entire regiment turned out to prepare food for the former POWs who were in shockingly emaciated conditions.” This was another duty that created sights and feelings very difficult for readers today to comprehend fully.
“Now part of (General William T.) Sherman’s forces,” the 27th experienced another challenge similar troops faced – not all Union army officers were enthused with the enlistment of African Americans. “Sherman saw black troops under his command more as laborers than as combatants.”
After Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant, Sherman’s forces, including the 27th, pursued Joseph Johnston’s Confederates, a chase that ended successfully when Johnston surrendered at Bennett’s House, North Carolina on April 26.
This surrender brought the unit’s fighting days to an end, but these men remained in the region, among the Union troops occupying North Carolina.
Despite the news of Johnston’s surrender, not everything was as desired. In June, the unit’s Lieutenant Colonel noted that “many of his men had not been paid since August 1864.”
Additionally, these soldiers were unhappy “that while much of the army was being demobilized, they were still serving.” Some white regiments, including the 23rd Kentucky Infantry, which included many Campbell Countians from the same area where Jonathan was born, faced the same disappointment. The 23rd did not muster out until December 27, 1865, in Texas.
In March or April of 1865, the army deducted money from Jonathan's paycheck for a canteen that he had lost or could no longer use. This happened to many soldiers when pieces of their gear were lost or destroyed as sometimes happened in camps or campaigns. Such was the nature of war.
In July, Jonathan found himself doing a task that no soldier likely envisioned before the war - he was part of the regiment’s cattle guard. The unit’s cooks held important roles in preparing meals but guarding the food supply so that the cooks had food to cook was also necessary.
Jonathan mustered out of the army on September 7, 1865, at New Bern, North Carolina. He had received $33 1/3 of his $100 bounty and was still owed $66 2/3, as military paperwork listed it. He also owed the army $30.42 for clothing he had drawn since December 31, 1864, so his final net payment would have been just over $36.00.
After the entire regiment mustered out on September 21, the soldiers finally headed to their families and homes. This could have been a time of complete happiness with a job well done, but not everything was so perfect.
“When the men returned to Ohio, they initially went to Camp Chase where they were paid off” and attended a ceremony at the state house, where “a preacher spoke warning the men that many whites wanted to expel the black population from Ohio. He told them they might have to use their rifles later to defend their communities.”
Thus, as this regiment reached the end of its existence, this was the type of thanks these warriors received.
After returning home to Cincinnati, where he had moved at some point, (it was not far from his previous home in Clermont County), Jonathan received a military pension due to rheumatism and senility, though he also complained of other physical maladies from his time in the service. He had been away from duty with the 27th from April 25 to May 6, 1865, as the unit was in Virginia, due to diarrhea caused by exposure while in the line of duty, but he recovered his health and then returned to duty, with no other recurrence of the disease.
In the navy, had contracted malaria while his ship was in the White River in Arkansas. He also suffered from conditions with his kidneys and eyes, as well as dropsy, the buildup of fluids in the body, resulting in swelling in his body, probably but not necessarily in his legs.
His postwar movements are harder to track, but he did enter the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio, on July 29, 1893. He now was described as 80 years old, single, with laborer as his occupation. He was a tall man, standing exactly 6 feet tall, (somehow supposedly a bit taller than when he enlisted in the navy three decades earlier) and had a dark complexion, dark eyes, and, to no surprise, gray hair. He was a Protestant in his religious views and could not read or write.
Jonathan died at the home on June 10, 1897, due to pneumonia and senility, and was buried nearby in Dayton National Cemetery. His obituary in the next day’s Dayton Herald referred to him as a “well-known naval veteran” and claimed he was 89 years old. He was receiving a pension of $12 per month at the time.
Jonathan Williams was a patriot who had fought for freedom in two branches of the military, defending a government that had allowed the enslavement of millions of people of his race. He risked his life and freedom against a ruthless foe who was more than willing to continue that peculiar institution and that would have been happy to return him to it. His story should assume its well-earned place in his nation’s memory and history, a true freedom fighter for so many fellow countrymen.
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| Photo from findagrave memorial 1327887 |
1http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86093.htm
2https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/l/linden-i.html
3Ibid
4https://thereconstructionera.com/27th-usct-a-black-regiment-from-ohio/
5Ibid
6https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/fort-fisher,
7https://thereconstructionera.com/27th-usct-a-black-regiment-from-ohio/ All quotes and details on the 27th USCI from this paragraph to the end of the story are from this same source.
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