RICHARD H. MONROE
Monroe represents a unique portion of African-American soldiers in the Civil War. He was born December 25, 1844 in Nashville County, Tennessee to Henry and Millie Monroe. Monroe claims he was free man from birth, but the research of historian Reginald Pitts indicates that Monroe actually was born a slave and escaped to the North via the Underground Railroad. As a resident of Gettysburg, Monroe enlisted in Company B of the 32nd U.S. Colored Troops on February 17, 1864. He trained at Camp William Penn and spent most of his time with the military in South Carolina. After Monroe was discharge on August 22, 1865, he returned to Gettysburg. On February 18, 1866, Monroe and Eliza Annie Jones married. They had ten children, but only six lived into adulthood. By the time of his death on April 1, 1919, he was married for a second time and left behind his wife, Clara, and their five children.
Myers, Betty Dorsey, Segregation in Death: Gettysburg’s Lincoln Cemetery (Gettysburg, PA: Lincoln Cemetery Project Association, 2001) 69-70.
“Richard Henry Monroe,” Gettysburg Star and Sentinel, April 12, 1919.
Myers, Betty Dorsey, Segregation in Death: Gettysburg’s Lincoln Cemetery (Gettysburg, PA: Lincoln Cemetery Project Association, 2001) 69-70.
“Richard Henry Monroe,” Gettysburg Star and Sentinel, April 12, 1919.