People, Locations, Episodes

John F. Webber, Soldier, and Abolitionist born

*John Webber’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1786. He was a white-American soldier and abolitionist. John Ferdinand Webber was born in Vermont, the son of John Webber and Hannah Morrill.  As a soldier in the War of 1812, he served as a private in Capt. S. Dickinson’s company. He was in the thirty-first […]

Pedro Camejo, Soldier born

*Pedro Camejo was born on this date in 1790. Also known as Negro Primero (“The First Black”), he was an Afro Venezuelan soldier and abolitionist. Pedro Camejo was born a slave of a Spanish royalist, Vincente Alonzo, in San Juan de Payara. He gained his freedom in 1816 after enlisting in the military to fight in […]

Lorenzo Barcala, Military Commander born

*Lorenzo Barcala was born on this date in 1793. He was an Afro Argentine military commander who participated in the Argentine civil wars on the side of the Unitarian Party. He was one of the few Black soldiers to reach the rank of colonel in that country. The son of slaves from Mendoza, Argentina, he […]

Lawrence Taliaferro, Soldier and Slave Owner born

*Lawrence Taliaferro was born on this date in 1794. He was a white-American Army officer, Indian agent, and enslaver. Lawrence Taliaferro was born at Whitehall Plantation in King George County, Virginia, to James Garnett Taliaferro and his wife Wilhelmina (Wishart) Taliaferro. During the War of 1812, he enlisted at age 18 as a volunteer in […]

Charles Trowbridge, Military Officer born

*Charles Trowbridge was born on this date in 1835. He was a White American soldier, abolitionist, and politician.

Charles Tyler Trowbridge was from Morristown, New Jersey in an area known as Trowbridge Mountain. He was third of seven children born to Elijah Freeman Trowbridge and Temperance Ludlow Muchmore. His family moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1854. In 1857 he married Emeline Haviland Jackson at Freehold, New Jersey. They had one child, Ida Emeline Trowbridge who died in 1858.

Hendrick Arnold, Military Scout, born

This date, 1804, is celebrated as the birth date of Hendrick Arnold, a Black military scout, guide, and spy during the Texas Revolution. Hendrick Arnold emigrated from Mississippi or Kentucky to Texas with his parents, Daniel Arnold, a white man, and Rachel, who was black, in the winter of 1826. The family settled in Stephen […]

Louis Goldsborough, Admiral born

*Louis Goldsborough was born on this date in 1805. He was a white-American rear admiral in the United States Navy noted for his contributions to nautical scientific research.   Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough was born in Washington, D.C., the son of a chief clerk at the United States Department of the Navy. He was appointed midshipman in the United […]

Robert E. Lee, Confederate General born

*Robert E. Lee was born on this date in 1807. He was a white American soldier known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865.

Cow Tom, Interpreter born

*Cow Tom’s birth, in 1810, is celebrated on this date. He was a Black Creek Native American interpreter.  He was born a slave in Alabama to the Muskogee leader Yargee of the Upper Creeks. As a young man, Tom was known to tend to the cattle of Chief Yargee; thus, the name Cow Tom was […]

John Fremont, Politician, and Abolitionist born

*John Fremont was born on this date in 1813. He was a White American soldier, politician and abolitionist.

From Savannah, Georgia, educated at Charleston College, he taught mathematics before joining the Army Topographical Engineers Corps in 1838. Among other field services, in 1842 Fremont mapped most of the Oregon Trail and climbed the second highest peak in the Wind River Mountains, afterwards known as Fremont Peak. Fremont made many expeditions; in 1845 he explored the Great Basin and the Pacific coast.

Nathaniel Banks, Officer, and Politician born

*Nathaniel Banks was born on this date in 1816. He was a white-American politician and a military officer.   Nathaniel Prentice Banks was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, and was the first child of Nathaniel P. Banks, Sr., and Rebecca Greenwood Banks. His father worked in the textile mill of the Boston Manufacturing Company, eventually becoming […]

Benjamin F. Butler, Military Officer born

*Benjamin Franklin Butler was born on this date in 1818.  He was a white-American major general, politician, lawyer, and businessman.   Born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Butler is best known as a political major of the Union Army during the American Civil War and for his leadership role in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was a colorful and often controversial figure on the […]

William T. Sherman, American Civil War Officer born

*William T. Sherman, a white American soldier, businessman, educator, and author, was born on this date in 1820. William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, near the banks of the Hocking River. His father, Charles Robert Sherman, a lawyer who sat on the Ohio Supreme Court, died of typhoid fever in 1829. He left […]

Martin Becker, Naval Sailor, and Printer born

On this date we celebrate the birth of Martin F. Becker in 1820. He was a Black sailor, printer, administrator, and barber.

Thomas Higginson, Abolitionist born.

*On this date, in 1823, Thomas Higginson was born. He was a white-American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier.   Thomas Wentworth Higginson was born in Cambridge, MA. He entered Harvard College at age thirteen and was elected Phi Beta Kappa at sixteen. He graduated in 1841 and was a schoolmaster for two years. In 1842, he became engaged to Mary Elizabeth Channing. […]