Sonny Blackman, Company D

The applicant claimed that her father joined the 1st U.S.C.C. in Vicksburg, Mississippi in June 1863 but that’s impossible. The regiment wasn’t organized until December 1863 at Fortress Monroe. There isn’t a Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR) for this soldier in this regiment.*

Minor — 946,456 / —–, Lizzie Blackman

Declaration for Pension of Children under Sixteen Years of Age, Lizzie Blackman, 22 July 1910
residence, Kings Point, Warren County, Mississippi; post-office address, General Delivery Vicksburg, Warren County, Mississippi, c/o Henry Abraham  … “Sonny Blackman [enlisted at Vicksburg in June 1863] as a Private in Comp D, Cold Cav 1st Reg was killed at Champion Hill in service, 1865 … That the mother of said child was married under the name of Lottie Hill … that [her husband] died 1867 …

“Also personally appeared Chas. Grimes, residing at Vicksburg, Miss and residing at Vicksburg, and Newell [?] H. Cook, residing at Vicksburg …”

Letter from Lizzie Blackman, Vicksburg, Mississippi to Department of Interior, Bureau of Pensions, 7 September 1915
“Dear Gentlemen, I received of Mr. Wm. Fletcher & Co., arranged a letter stating that said Blackman of Co. D, 1st U.S.C. Cav could not be found and my witnesses say that were right and they know these witnesses was in the service with him and he was wounded at Champion Hill in actual battle and was sent to Vicksburg Mississippi Marine Hospital and did die from said effects. Please look him up for me. Lizzie Blackman. Very truly yours. I am getting old dear gentlemen please let me hear from you at an early date.”

[This letter was written in pencil and it’s quite faded. Almost every word is misspelled; I corrected them for readability — Leslie]

*Compiled military service records of volunteer Union soldiers who served with the United States Colored Troops [microform]: 1st through 5th United States Colored Cavalry, 5th Massachusetts Cavalry (Colored), 6th United States Colored Cavalry (1997). Reel 0001 – 1st United States Colored Cavalry: Ackess, Alexander – Bom, John H. (online at http://www.archive.org/details/compiledmili0001akesunit).