This Black regiment fought at Fort Fisher and protected Washington, D.C. A new sign at a fort in Arlington will remember the 107th UCT's campaign for equality

107th USCT troops at Fort Corcoran in Northern Virginia (Library of Congress)
and John McNair of Arlington parks and Drew Gruber of Civil War Trails with sign at Fort Ethan Allen

National Park Service ranger Steve T. Phan likes to refer to the 68 enclosed fortifications that defended Washington, D.C., during the Civil War as “Freedom’s Forts.”

Thousands of enslaved people attempted to self-emancipate at U.S.  Army lines around the capital and the forts and Union soldiers were often their first contact.

“African-Americans labored in army camps and at the forts, and perhaps fitting, were later stationed in the defenses as USCT soldiers,” Phan told the Picket. “The soldiers not only helped secure the capital, they participated in the destruction of slavery and the restoration of the Union.”

Phan, chief of interpretation at Camp Nelson National Monument in Kentucky, served from 2017-2021 with the NPS’ unit telling the story of the Civil War Defenses of Washington. His expertise was called upon for a new marker remembering the service of a USCT regiment at Fort Ethan Allen, now a park in Arlington, Va.

Arlington’s parks and recreation team and community leaders on Thursday morning – a day after Juneteenth -- will unveil a Civil War Trails sign at the park remembering the 107th U.S. Colored Troops, one of at least three African-American regiments that helped man the 68 forts.

The regiment, which was organized in Louisville, Ky., in spring 1864, took part in fighting in North Carolina, including the assault on Fort Fisher. It later sent two companies (C and H), about 200 men, to Fort Ethan Allen, one of the strongest and heavily armed of the DC sites, in October 1865, while other troops were stationed nearby

They drilled and manned Fort Ethan Allen’s ramparts in case trouble ever began. While the war had been over in the region for several months, Phan said the Army kept about 20 forts open into 1866. “A lot of the USCT had to fulfill their three years of service,” having enlisted in 1863 and 1864. (At left, Sgt. Maj. Charles Singer of Company A, 10th USCT, NPS photo)

“Congress did not want to pay for the maintenance and garrisoning. The chief engineer made the point, ‘Remember where we were at in 1861, when there was no defense of the capital, and we had to rush to build these forts,’” says Phan.

The forts were such a powerful deterrent against the Confederacy that just a few saw action, and only for a couple days in July 1864. Rebel units nearing the capital put the city into panic, but their foray ended when they were rebuffed at Fort Stevens in Maryland.

Fort Ethan Allen, near Key Bridge, was not among the outposts that opened artillery fire on Confederates approaching Fort Stevens.

Earthwork remnants in nearby 19-acre Fort C.F. Smith Park are considered the best preserved of the 22 Arlington-area forts. While most traces are gone, the ruins of the lunette fort include a bomb proof, the fort well, the north magazine and 11 of the 22 gun emplacements.

The forts on the Arlington Line, plus Ethan Allen, were built to complement each other. “One fort doesn’t need to protect everything. It can rely on other forts,” said John McNair, historian for Fort C.F. Smith Park. McNair led the two-effort to put the new marker at Fort Ethan Allen Park.

Fort Ethan Allen (top left) and other Civil War forts near the Potomac (Library of Congress)

That’s why most of the guns in the lunette at C.F. Smith are trained to the northwest, to cover the gap between it and Ethan Allen, instead of to the south, where Confederates attackers would likely emerge. Fort Strong took care of that sector, McNair told the Picket in 2018.

By autumn 1865, the defeated Confederate army was gone. But that did not mean the 107^th USCT companies at Fort Ethan Allen relaxed.

They protected government property and ordnance that was to be sold to pay off the war debt.

Many white Virginians, ardent secessionists and pro-slavery citizens in Maryland were likely hostile to the troops, said Phan (right).

For the soldiers in the 107^th – along with the 4^th USCT and 28^th USCT – deployment in and around Washington must have been especially poignant.

“The majority of these men are enslaved and they are going to end their war service in the view of the Capitol. That is pretty incredible,” said Phan.

Black troops were fighting for the rights of citizenship after many had freed themselves by leaving the South. “They want to be able to move, to purchase property, to marry who they want. They want to vote.”

Seven months before war’s end, Sgt. Maj. Charles Singer of the 107^th wrote a letter published in The Christian Monitor about his motivation. Singer was born free, a rarity among USCT soldiers.

Pvt. Creed Miller, a former slave, fought with Company E of the 107th UST.
He died of disease in 1866 (National Museum of African American History and Culture)

“I wish for nothing but to breathe … the air of liberty…. I have no ambition, unless it to be to break the chain and exclaim: ‘Freedom to all!” Singer wrote. “I never will be satisfied so long as the meanest slave in the South has a link of chain clinging to his leg.”

Phan emphasized that freedom doesn’t ensure equality.

About 23,000 Black troops enlisted in Kentucky and those who returned to the state after the Civil War endured stiff discrimination and the codification of Jim Crow laws. Kentucky, a Southern border state during the conflict, did not officially ratify the 13^th Amendment – which abolished slavery – until 1876.

Remaining earthworks at Fort Ethan Allen Park (Farragutful, Wikipedia)

USCT veterans formed communities across the state while others joined the Army and became the first Buffalo Soldiers, serving for another 20 years.

“It is a practical way to take care of themselves and their families,” said Phan.

Others moved to Ohio or other Midwestern states. About 5,000 Kentuckians went to Kansas, many joining the Black colony in Nicodemus in the 1870s.

In a news release about the sign, Rita McClenny, president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corporation, said the park offers travelers an opportunity to stand in the footsteps of warriors.

Plan for Fort Ethan Allen in Virginia, near Key Bridge (Library of Congress)

"These men did not sit idly by as the war progressed and this new sign commemorates those who fearlessly fought for emancipation and equality,” she said.

NPS ranger Bryan Cheeseboro, an expert on the African-American troops in the war and a speaker at the event, has said USCT troops were stationed at Fort Runyon. At least 20 members of the 45th USCT are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, he said.

The Picket has reached out to Arlington County’s John McNair for comment.

The Civil War Trails sign unveiling will take place at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Fort Ethan Allen Park, 3829 N. Stafford St., Arlington, Va. Call 703-228-1865 for more information on the unveiling.