New tour at Fort Harrison to include the first Black soldiers who voted on the grounds
HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A new tour is available at Fort Harrison which includes the story of the first Black soldiers who got to vote on the grounds -- a story that has lived in the dark for over 150 years, until now. The Richmond National Battlefield Park unveiled the tour on Saturday, Nov. 2. “We did not know this story until this year," said park ranger and historian Michael Gorman. Ranger Gorman was re-reading "Black Civil War Correspondent" by Thomas Morris Chester, the only Black reporter who worked for the Philadelphia Press, a major newspaper in the north. Chester reported that in 1864, 194 Black soldiers voted in the presidential race between democratic candidate George McClellan and republican candidate Abraham Lincoln. Park Ranger Avery Lentz portrayed Chester at the unveiling, playing him in a Q&A portion of the event. “And he’s really one of the only eyewitnesses of this event taking place," Lentz said. "The biggest challenge actually was the voice because obviously you don’t know what he sounds like.” Ranger Gorman had read Chester’s book before, but didn't realize the significance of this report until six months ago. “Only later as you put more pieces into the puzzle, you can start to see the shape of things," Gorman said. It seems like all the rangers at Fort Harrison began pitching in and piecing the story together. It really begins in Ohio in 1831 when the Supreme Court ruled skin ‘color alone is insufficient,’ so any person who was more white than Black was legally white, and that’s how they determined who could vote. “This tour is gonna raise all the questions: race, identity, who gets to define that, how is it defined, who gets to serve, who gets to vote," Gorman said. Flash forward 30 years, the Civil War was raging on, and because Ohio saw these men as white, they were also able to serve. They joined the Union side against the Confederates, fighting to abolish slavery, and ended up at Fort Harrison just outside of Richmond. On Nov. 8, 1864, those soldiers from Ohio cast 194 votes for Abraham Lincoln, and none for George McClellan. Lincoln beat McClellan and served his second term as president. “The fact that it took place right outside of Richmond, the Confederate capitol, the real importance to me is that we tell that full story," Gorman said. "We’re living in the world that they made possible, and I always think about that when I’m voting.” From now on, Fort Harrison will include this story in its tours about the battles that took place on the grounds.
VENN
HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A new tour is available at Fort Harrison which includes the story of the first Black soldiers who got to vote on the grounds -- a story that has lived in the dark for over 150 years, until now.
The Richmond National Battlefield Park unveiled the tour on Saturday, Nov. 2.
“We did not know this story until this year," said park ranger and historian Michael Gorman.
Ranger Gorman was re-reading "Black Civil War Correspondent" by Thomas Morris Chester, the only Black reporter who worked for the Philadelphia Press, a major newspaper in the north.
Chester reported that in 1864, 194 Black soldiers voted in the presidential race between democratic candidate George McClellan and republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.
Park Ranger Avery Lentz portrayed Chester at the unveiling, playing him in a Q&A portion of the event.
“And he’s really one of the only eyewitnesses of this event taking place," Lentz said. "The biggest challenge actually was the voice because obviously you don’t know what he sounds like.”
Ranger Gorman had read Chester’s book before, but didn't realize the significance of this report until six months ago.
“Only later as you put more pieces into the puzzle, you can start to see the shape of things," Gorman said.
It seems like all the rangers at Fort Harrison began pitching in and piecing the story together.
It really begins in Ohio in 1831 when the Supreme Court ruled skin ‘color alone is insufficient,’ so any person who was more white than Black was legally white, and that’s how they determined who could vote.
“This tour is gonna raise all the questions: race, identity, who gets to define that, how is it defined, who gets to serve, who gets to vote," Gorman said.
Flash forward 30 years, the Civil War was raging on, and because Ohio saw these men as white, they were also able to serve. They joined the Union side against the Confederates, fighting to abolish slavery, and ended up at Fort Harrison just outside of Richmond.
On Nov. 8, 1864, those soldiers from Ohio cast 194 votes for Abraham Lincoln, and none for George McClellan.
Lincoln beat McClellan and served his second term as president.
“The fact that it took place right outside of Richmond, the Confederate capitol, the real importance to me is that we tell that full story," Gorman said. "We’re living in the world that they made possible, and I always think about that when I’m voting.”
From now on, Fort Harrison will include this story in its tours about the battles that took place on the grounds.
