GDG- Black Officers in the Civil War

[128thpa at comcast.net]

David:  

Looking at "Black Civil War Correspondent" - Thomas Morris Chester's dispatches from the Virginia Front (which I didn't have here yesterday - I am currently teaching the CW to my 8th graders and some of my books are at school.), R.J.M. Blackett who edited the book states that when Lee marched north in 1863, there was a  great deal of panic in Harrisburg. Many blacks offered their services to Governor Curtin.  "By month's end [June], city recruits had been formed into two companies, . . . one was captained by Chester.  Neither company was pressed into service. "  

Perhaps this is what you were thinking of?

Paula

> 
> My graduate school days are receding into a distant memory, but I had 
> thought I had read that Chester was an officer during the Civil War - 
> possibly a recruiting officer. But I can't find confirmation of that on 
> any of his bio sites (I know he was a recruiter), so it probably didn't 
> happen. I too have wondered how he found time to be a war 
> correspondent, a recruiter, and an officer all that same time. 
> 
>