William Johnson was born enslaved, died a Civil War veteran. A Jacksonville consortium will revitalize a campus cemetery and restore his headstone amid larger effort to honor area USCT soldiers

New headstone, exterior of cemetery and old marker before it was stolen (Jacksonville University)'
Sketch of Black soldiers in Florida (State Library and Archives of Florida)

Perhaps they rest under a live oak or Sabal palm in an overgrown and forgotten plot, tucked away in what is now forest. A few may be beneath unmarked graves along a busy thoroughfare.

Regardless of the setting, a nonprofit in Jacksonville, Fla., is attempting to track down the graves of African-American soldiers – many of them formerly enslaved -- who served in a United States Colored Troops regiment during the Civil War.

The idea is to place government-approved headstones marking their service to country and, when possible, to rehabilitate abandoned USCT gravesites, “bringing these soldiers and their descendants the redemption they have so deserved.”

That initiative got some attention recently after Jacksonville University and the nonprofit, Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC) Jacksonville, announced plans to improve a fenced cemetery on campus that holds the remains of Cpl. William Johnson, Company F, 33^rd USCT.  A new VA-approved headstone, expected to be erected by Veterans Day, will replace one stolen after a university staffer rediscovered the neglected cemetery in the late 1980s.

In a larger effort, LISC Jacksonville, in partnership with the Digital Humanities Institute at the University of North Florida, will use pension and other records to apply for grave markers for other USCT members in the area. (At right, soldiers believed to the be in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, later the 33rd USCT)

“After the Civil War, Black veterans and their families fought a completely different battle; however, this one was a true logomachy, a war of words,” says the introduction to a UNF page about the pensioners. “From pleading with Army officials that they were who they said they were to widows who wouldn’t quit, these pension records tell the stories of resilience in the face of institutionalized discrimination and racism.”

Jacksonville University emeritus professor of history Craig Buettinger notified LISC about the unmarked Johnson grave in 2022 when the organization launched its Operation Final Hours initiative. The aim is to help Duval County families receive and install headstones from the Department of Veteran Affairs for an unmarked burial site. About 25 families have been helped thus far, LISC says.

Kristopher Smith, community development program officer at LISC Jacksonville, told the Civil War Picket in an email there could be other African-American soldiers buried in the former Chaseville Cemetery, which predates Jacksonville University. Buettinger said “fragments suggest another USCT veteran.”

Smith (left) said in the coming weeks, LISC will try to track down the locations of other members of  Johnson’s Company F of the 33^rd USCT.

“I won't have a total number until after we complete our preliminary review in mid-June,” Smith said.

James Beasley, director of the UNF institute, told the Picket he is honored to help preserve the memory of the USCT pensioners and help students “engage in research that impacts the community. Students were able to take the skills that we teach in our classes and have it affect social change.”

From enslavement to serving the United States

Buettinger said Cpl. Johnson's “life is also mostly hidden from us, especially before his enlistment.”  

The soldier was likely born enslaved in Duval County and was believed to be a field hand. He traveled to the Union lines at Fernandina, enlisting at Fort Clinch with one of the first Black regiments to be raised after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. (Confederate and Union forces battled over Jacksonville throughout the war.)

The 1st South Carolina before it became the 33rd USCT (Library of Congress)

Johnson was believed to be about 21 when he and two friends enlisted with the 1^st South Carolina Colored Infantry in January 1863.

The 33^rd USCT was later formed from the 1^st South Carolina, according to the National Park Service. It served in South Carolina and took part in several expeditions. The regiment was in occupied Charleston at war’s end and was stationed there several months.

Pension records (below) show Johnson was shot in the hand and chest by a bushwhacker in October 1865, leaving him partially disabled. He was discharged the following year.

William Johnson's pension request details wounding (click to enlarge)

Johnson later lived in the Arlington neighborhood of Jacksonville and attended a church that was once located on Jacksonville University land. He married Fanny Jackson, who survived him by more than a decade after his 1892 passing. He was believed to be 51 when he died, Buettinger says.

“Because of his wounds, he could only do light gardening and he said he could only earn half of what an able-bodied worker earned,” said the professor.

Johnson has no living survivors. The exact location of his grave in the cemetery is not known.

Now is the time to replace a stone headstone

Established in 1934, Jacksonville University has five colleges, 11 schools and four institutes. Its 235-acre riverfront campus is “minutes from downtown and from beautiful area beaches.”

Dr. Craig Buettinger provides details about cemetery (Jacksonville University)

The last known burial at what was called Chaseville Cemetery was in about 1932. The burial ground served two African-American churches in Chaseville, a largely Black community on the northern end of Arlington. It’s possible Black Jacksonville police officers are interred there as well.

By 1962, the cemetery had fallen into neglect. There are no records, so officials don’t know how many graves are on the site and few, if any, remain marked.

“When it was rediscovered by JU staff member Jim Golden in 1989, only Johnson’s marble veteran’s headstone remained. Golden, himself a veteran, cleared up the grounds and held a ceremony for Johnson. Regrettably, that military headstone was later stolen,” Buettinger wrote in a summary about Johnson and the cemetery.

Buettinger and Ray Oldakowski, professor of geography, led the university effort to replace the headstone.

Artifacts recovered from the cemetery parcel (Jacksonville University)

The wooded site is on the edge of the campus, east of the Jacksonville University warehouse, near the Green Street gate, along University Boulevard. The cemetery is maintained by Jacksonville University.

Smith, with LISC Jacksonville, said it is too early to place cost estimates on the cemetery revitalization and the organization is working on funding sources.

The Haskell Company, which does design, engineering and construction work, is providing pro bono help to LISC and Jacksonville University through design and scoping documents. A company spokesman told the Picket it’s possible Haskell will eventually become involved in contracted work.

“Haskell will continue its pro bono work leading up to Nov 2024 when we anticipate having funding commitments and (a) final design in place for the cemetery,” said Smith. (At left, the current rendering for the overhaul of the campus cemetery, courtesy Jacksonville University)

JU President Tim Cost says the school is committed to honoring veterans. “It’s not only important to us, but especially to the Arlington community, to honor those who occupied this beautiful piece of land before us.”

Beasley, of UNF, said, “It’s been extremely inspiring to see how looking for information and conducting research has led to the physical manifestation of the headstone being created. No matter how small what you’re doing in the classroom is, it might have a large effect in the community,” Beasley added.

Buettinger believes the community and university have an opportunity to honor those buried on the campus.

“We must make sure that this cemetery is not again forgotten,” he said.