Landsman Boyce Prince
Landsman Boyce Prince
Boyce Prince is the only known Black landsman born in Franklin County, Virginia, to serve during the Civil War. Prince was born around 1840 and enlisted in the United States Navy on October 21, 1863, in Cairo, Illinois. At the time of his enlistment, he was 23 years old and was described as 6 feet tall with a Black complexion. His occupation was listed as laborer and farmer.
Unlike the Army, the Navy Department did not establish a formal system of racial segregation during the Civil War; however, some of Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles’s (1861-1869) guidelines, such as ranks, made it apparent. Prince’s rank was listed as both 1st Class Boy and Landsmen, ranks generally assigned to Black men.
Eighty-two percent of the 17,000 Sailors who were rated as “Boy” or “Landsmen” were Black. Racial prejudice created strong barriers to Black men being commissioned as officers during the Civil War. The overwhelming majority of Black men ranked as petty officers were cooks and stewards. White Navy officers often favored Black cooks and servants, holding beliefs that persons of African descent were naturally subservient.
Prince was first assigned to the New National Ship in Cairo, Illinois. The New National Ship was a large wheel steamer seized by Union Navy gunboats at Memphis, Tennessee, on June 6, 1862, after they had destroyed the Confederate River Defense Fleet. The New National was then used to transport troops in a joint expedition to St. Charles, Arkansas, where they landed on June 17, 1863, and stormed Southern earthworks and won control of the White River.
At the time Prince mustered on the New National, December 1863, the ship was being used as a mail and supply boat for the Mississippi Squadron. He was then assigned to the USS New Era, a wooden stern wheel steamer used as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockaid of Confederate waterways. Prince first mustered on the New Era on April 1, 1864, and served on the Mississippi at Fort Pillow just days before USCT soldiers were slaughtered there during the Massacre of Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864.
At the Massacre of Fort Pillow, more than 300 USCT troops were killed while attempting to surrender. Confederate cavalry leader Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former slave trader and one of the first leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, launched the slaughter of USCT. Though most of the Union garrison surrendered and, had they been white, would have been taken as prisoners of war, Confederates refused to treat Black
troops as traditional prisoners of war. USCT served at great risk of enslavement or execution should they be captured.
During his time on New Era, Prince became sick with Rheumatism Chronica “while in the performance of duty” at age 24 and was transferred to the U. S. Navy Hospital Boat Red Rover on May 28, 1864. Military hospital ships did not exist in the United States until the Civil War. Depending on their size, they could have a full staff of surgeons, physicians, stewards and nurses for patient care. The Red Rover was the most well-known Union hospital and was a captured Confederate ship.
Contributors: Glenna Moore, Jacob Robinson, and Sarah Plummer