Private John Briggs
Pvt. John Briggs
Pvt John Briggs, a 45-year-old free laborer, enlisted in the 1st Illinois Colored Infantry in Chicago, March 3, 1864. This regiment was combined with the 29th USCT Infantry Company F on March 28, 1864. Briggs was to serve for three years. Military records described him as 5 feet, 7.5 inches tall, with black hair, and eyes. However, another record described his hair as gray. On duty in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Briggs contracted severe rheumatism, according to pension file statements. A commanding officer recommended discharge because of Briggs’ apparent age, but this did not happen, and Pvt Briggs remained with the USCT, assigned to guard duty at L’Ouverture Hospital before being discharged in Washington DC 15 months later.
The 29th United States Colored Infantry from Illinois served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was officially accepted for service in April 1864 and sent to fight in the Eastern Theater of the War. Assigned to an infantry division where all the rank and file were African-American, the unit guarded the army wagon train and dug trenches for a few weeks. The regiment fought its first major action at the Battle of the Crater in July, where it suffered heavy casualties. It fought in other actions during the Siege of Petersburg and participated in the final Appomattox Campaign in April 1865.
Free persons of color, John Briggs and Charity Hudley were married October 27, 1853, in Jacksonville, Illinois, where they resided with her five children from a previous marriage. On mustering out of the Army, Private Briggs returned to his home and family in Sycamore, Illinois. He was listed in the Census in 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 and 1900. The 1860 Census listed Briggs as 60 years of age which suggests that he was much older than 45 when he enlisted. The 1880 Census listed Briggs’ occupation as sawing wood and his wife, Charity Hudley Salter Briggs, born in Kentucky, a housekeeper and able to read and write.
The couple spent time from 1883-1896 providing claims to the U.S. Pension Bureau about John’s ailments contracted during the war and attempting to earn a post war pension. John’s pension was denied at first as not war-related injuries, even though depositions provided by numerous friends, war colleagues, doctors and lawyers testified that his service experience contributed to his disabilities. The pension was granted.
Unresolved is the question “Just how old was John Briggs when he enlisted?” There is documentation that he could have been born in 1787 since his death certificate identified him as one hundred years old. If that is the case, Briggs could have been 77 years old when he enlisted in the Union Army. In his pension file, he was described as “a right pert old man.” Did he lie about his age in order to be able to serve in the USCT? Though already a free man himself, he fought for the freedom of Black persons in the south, civil rights for all Black people, and for the preservation of the United States.
John died February 12, 1887, in Dekalb County, Illinois. The US Government provided a headstone at Elmwood Cemetery in Sycamore, IL.
Charity Briggs received a widow’s pension of $8 a month until her death November 19, 1912, at her son John Salter’s home at age 94. She was the only colored member of the First Baptist church of Sycamore. She is buried in the same cemetery with husband John and son John Salter (1847-1915). The TRUE REPUBLICAN newspaper described her as former slave.
Contributors: Macie Alford, Sarah Plummer, Sheridan Brown and Cathie Cummins