First Civil War Training Camp for Black Soldiers
Camp William Penn Near Philadelphia Trained 10,000 Union Soldiers
Nov 5, 2009
Camp William Penn trained 10,940 black soldiers and nearly 400 of their officers for the Civil War according to the book Philadelphia in the Civil War by Frank H. Taylor
Recruits from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland trained at this first Union camp for black recruits. Since the North Penn Railroad was about half a mile away, most of the men arrived by rail. Today the section in Montgomery County's Cheltenham Township where the camp once stood is called La Mott.
The Establishment of Camp William Penn
On July 17, 1862 Congress had approved the Militia Act of 1862, which gave the federal government the authority to recruit blacks for the war effort. Lincoln was slow to act on this legislation. Nonetheless, those who wanted to preserve the Union began unofficial recruitment efforts for black men before the central government gave the green light for universal recruitment. For example, in Philadelphia on May 23, 1863 blacks and whites held separate meetings on black recruitment. Whites met at one location and then on the same day they met with concerned blacks at the Institute for Colored Youth, an excellent school for black students.
On May 22, 1863 Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton announced the formation of the Bureau of Colored Troops to aid recruitment. And in June Stanton formally announced both the creation of Camp William Penn and the granting of the request of the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Troops to manage the camp and help raise troops for it. The committee was a group of about 75 men.
The committee would also run a training school for white officer candidates and a separate one for the 21 black men from Maryland who were also officer candidates. Additionally, the committee was also responsible for feeding, housing and transporting the men until they reached Camp William Penn.
Leadership and Drills at Camp William Penn
The camp's first location was at Washington Lane and Church Road on private land. The site was soon abandoned because it did not have enough level ground for the growing number of recruits to drill on. The new grounds were also on private land at the defining intersection of Cheltenham and Penrose Avenues. Many Quakers lived nearby
Lieutenant Colonel Louis Wagner, previously an officer in the 88th Pennsylvania volunteers who had been wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run, was named commander. Camp William Penn opened on June 26, 1863 with 80 men. On September 22, Stanton proclaimed that Camp William Penn would train black soldiers not only from from Pennsylvania but from Delaware and New Jersey too. Black enlisted troops got $10 month while white soldiers got $13. This injustice in pay for enlisted men got some remedy on July 14, 1864 when equal pay went into effect retroactive to January 1, 1864.
Each company drilled for two hours in the morning and in the afternoon, regiments performed their exercises, according to Jeffry D. West. West noted in a 1979 article that exercises included "marching in columns, deploying for battle, wheeling left and right, charging in front or on the flanks and firing in volleys."
The Buildings at Camp William Penn
For several months, the soldiers and the officers at Camp William Penn lived in temporary housing, but by December permanent housing was in place. Facilities at Camp William Penn included an ice house, shooting gallery, bathing house, daguerreotype gallery, blacksmith shop, laundry, wash tub, kitchen, dining room, hospital, prison, guard house, sutler, garden and fountain, carpenter, stables and feed station for the animals.
A total of 11 regiments and "one independent company" trained at Camp William Penn. The 3d Regiment, the first to leave camp, departed on August 13, 1863 for Charleston, South Carolina. The war officially ended on April 9, 1865. On May 2 the 25th Regiment was the last to leave Camp William Penn. No structure from this large and historic camp survives.
Sources:
- Aptheker, Herbert. The Negro in the Civil War. New York: International Publishers. 1938.
- Smith, Eric Ledell. ed. "The Civil War Letters of Quartermaster Sergeant John C. Brock, 43rd Regiment, United States Colored Troops. in Making and Remaking Pennsylvania's Civil War. eds. William Blair and William Pencak. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press. 2001.
- West, Jeffry D. "Camp William Penn and the Black Soldier." Pennsylvania History. October 1979.
- Morrison, David Jenkins. A Guide Book to Historic La Mott: The Activities at Camp William Penn, the Life of Lucretia Mott, a History of the Village of La Mott. Philadelphia: Cheltenham Township Historical Commission. 1974.
- Taylor, Frank H. Philadelphia in the Civil War 1861 – 1865. Philadelphia: City of Philadelphia. 1913.
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