New Virginia historic site honors the brave service of Black soldiers who fought for the Union, including three who were executed nearby

The monument is the focal point of the site (photos Hugh Kenny, PEC)

A monument dedicated over the weekend in a rural Northern Virginia community honors three unknown soldiers of the U.S. Colored Troops who were executed in May 1864 after their capture.

The new Maddensville Historic Site in Culpeper County’s Lignum community features the granite obelisk and three Civil War Trails markers describing the significance of Madden’s Tavern, operated by a free black man, Willis Madden; a Baptist church started by Madden; and the service of 17 USCT members from Culpeper who fought for the 4th Division, 9th Corps Army of the Potomac, which marched through the area.

Keynote speaker John Hennessy, retired chief historian of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, spoke of the immense courage of those in the USCT. They faced discrimination within the U.S. Army and were not recognized as soldiers by the Confederacy, which threatened to execute or return them to slavery.

“It is impossible to overstate how profound the sight must have been as men of the United States Colored Troops marched into Culpeper County on May 5, 1864,” Hennessy said. “It was certainly profound to those men in uniform: some of them had been enslaved here; probably two-thirds of them had been enslaved somewhere. Now they fought for freedom, sensing that the freedom of others -- of all -- would transform the nation.”

While many USCT troops saw combat across the South, those in this campaign likely were guarding supply wagons or performing other duties during the Battle of the Wilderness.

The three soldiers were killed a few hundred yards from the historic site on May 8, 1864. A diary entry by a Confederate trooper is devoid of any emotion.

“We captured three Negro soldiers, the first we had seen," wrote Pvt. Byrd C. Willis of Company B, 9^th Virginia Cavalry. "They were taken out on the road side and shot and their bodies left there."

Willis at the time was a 17-year-old Florida native who had attended Virginia Military Institute and enlisted just a month before. He was wounded at Spotsylvania Court House in June 1864. Willis survived the war.

The new historic site was the work of the Freedom Foundation of Virginia, supported by the Piedmont Environmental Council and Civil War Trails.

In a press release, the groups said about 200 people attended Saturday’s event, some of them descendants of USCT soldiers.

Howard Lambert, head of the Freedom Foundation, has described Culpeper County as a ground zero for the story of the USCT, with some returning to the county -- their place of enslavement -- to fight for the Federal cause.

“They could have stayed free and enjoyed all the privileges thereof, but these men decided to join the Union army and come back as proud soldiers in blue to fight to free people who were still in bondage, knowing that if they were captured, they would be given no quarter, but would be lined up and shot, which is obviously what happened here near Madden’s Tavern,” Lambert said, according to the press release.

Reenactors on Nov. 6 near Ebenezer Baptist Church (Hugh Kenny, PEC)

The Picket reached out to Lambert for comment. He told the Washington Post that reading the line from Willis' diary was chilling. "It was like a common occurrence. No ceremony, just, 'Oh, we lined 'em up and shot 'em,' " he told the Post.

More than 180,000 men served in the USCT, about 10% of all Federal soldiers. More than 40,000 died, according to Hennessy.

He wrote that some members of the USCT, in their first campaign, were stragglers and fell into Rebel hands in May 1864.

“These types of dangers were ever-present for the USCT,” Hennessey said. “That fact magnifies their achievement.  In the coming months, the USCT would see battle. They would suffer indignities at the hands of their brother soldiers and atrocities at the hands of their enemies.”

One of three Civil War Trails markers at the site (Hugh Kenny, PEC)

But, he said, they increasingly gained respect within the Union army.

“The ultimate success of the USCT was no antidote to deeply rooted racism, but it certainly marked a major step forward. The service of the USCT was essential to establishing African Americans as countrymen in the eyes of many who had long refused to see them as fellow Americans.”