photo by Shelley King of ESKAY Jr. Photography
A ceremony unveiling the United States Colored Troops Monument was held Saturday.
This is the inscription on the monument:
When President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, he planted the seed of a "New Birth of Freedom".
As the Civil War persisted and recruits were needed, the war department issued General Orders No. 143 on May 22, 1863, to allow African Americans to serve in the Union Army. Nearly 200,000 black men enlisted to protect their freedom and defy the inhumane practice of slavery.
The Army's Department of the Cumberland issued General Orders No. 296 on Dec. 25, 1863, establishing Chattanooga National Cemetery.
Among other roles, black troops were responsible for locating Union dead in the vicinity of the city and reburying them here.
More than 880 U.S. colored troops are buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery, a solemn landscape created in large measure through their labor and sacrifice.
Donated by the City of Chattanooga Neighboroots Program with the Unity Group of Chattanooga.
photo by Shelley King of ESKAY Jr. Photography