Private John Triplett

Pvt. John Triplett

John Triplett was born c.1816 in Franklin County, Virginia, and enlisted with the USCT on Dec. 23, 1863, in Chambersburg, in the free state of Pennsylvania. Military records described him as 47 years old, 5’8” tall, with black complexion, black eyes, and black, curly hair. His occupation was recorded as laborer, and he enlisted for three years. At the time of his enlistment, he could not read, and his signature was expressed by a mark.

Before the Civil War, John Triplett was a free man, identified in the 1850 Census of free inhabitants of Harrisonburg in Rockingham County, Virginia. According to the Rockingham County Tourism website, in 1850 the downtown Harrisonburg area contained a vibrant, property owning African American community. If on the run to escape enslavement in Franklin County, a route one might take would be through the Appalachian Mountains, traversing Rockingham County along the way. The 1850 Census recorded a Free Black family led by John Triplett, approximately 30 years old, his wife Mildred, 22, and four very young Triplett children. Another woman, Diana Cook, age 23 and with an infant daughter, was also in the household.

Mildred Triplett shows up without John in the 1860 Census of Free Inhabitants of Harrisonburg. She is listed as 36 years old with two sons, Edward, 8, and James, 3. Also living with them is a 20-year-old woman, Catherine Colly. No records of Mildred and the children could be found after 1860.

Tragedy for Black families in Virginia, especially in the years leading up to the Civil War, was common. Free Black men were looked upon with suspicion, often anger and hatred. Generally, they were expected to leave the Commonwealth. Apparently, John was separated from his family and ended up in Pennsylvania.

Pvt. Triplett served with the 22nd United States Colored Infantry, which was organized on Jan. 29, 1864, at Camp William Penn. Many in the regiment, more than six hundred of the men, were born free in New Jersey. Pvt Triplett served with 234 other men in Company G. The 22nd USCT Infantry had its own battle flag which included the Latin phrase Sic Temper Tyrannis or “thus always to tyrants” sometimes interpreted as “death to tyrants.”

John Triplett participated in the action leading up to the Battle of Petersburg in June 1864 and was wounded. He received a shell wound while in a “bomb proof” on June 28, 1864. A bomb proof was a type of temporary shelter used in the Civil War. Triplett was shot in the wrist and was listed as absent/sick in June 1864. Pvt. Triplett apparently stayed with his regiment during the next year and therefore may have marched with the 22nd USCT in the funeral procession for President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. Pvt Triplett was honorably discharged with a Certificate of Disability on July 3, 1865, in Ft. Monroe, Virginia. The disability certificate states a physician found him incapable of performing the duties of a soldier because of adhesion of flexor muscles and loss of power and motion in the left forearm, the result of a gunshot wounds received in action June 28, 1864.

Upon discharge, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, John Triplett immediately applied for disability pension. Two physicians provided statements for his application, one in September 1865 and the other in February 1866. The first stated that while the hand in its present condition was of very little use, with proper treatment it could recover. Months later, the second physician concedes that Triplett is one-half disabled from the wound impairing the motion of the joint and the usefulness of the hand. A pension of $4 per month is granted, but John had to ask his lawyer to request from the Pension Commissioner that his military discharge documents be returned to him as well as the Pension Certificate—in case he needed proof of his service to the Union in the future. Nowhere in this correspondence retrieved from National Archives was there mention of John Triplett’s family.

In 1870, Triplett, identified as 53, a laborer, appeared to be living in a large boarding house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The house had a white family and thirty-five, mostly men, black and white living in the same place. Most of the men living there were laborers, but two were barbers, one a cabinet maker, one a shoemaker, one a plumber, one was a file cutter, one a machinist, one a teacher, and one a clerk.

By 1880, Triplett may have returned to Virginia because a man of the same name and in his 60s was listed in the Census for Culpepper, Virginia. The birthplace was a match, and the address was not far from his previous home near Harrisonburg. At this time, he was married to Elizabeth, 45, with ten children. At least four older children were likely to have been Elizabeth’s by a previous relationship, and these children were assisting John on his farm and blacksmith shop.

Triplett passed away in December of 1887 with one last child on the way, born in 1888. A birth certificate for James Issac Triplett stated that his father, John, was a blacksmith and his mother’s maiden name was Pollard. Elizabeth later appeared to use a nickname, Bettie. Searches for Bettie Triplett identified her living with her adult children in a home on Brandy Road that she owned free and clear in Stevensburg, Culpepper County, Virginia, in1920 (although her presumed birthyear varied almost a decade). In 1920 she was listed as 73 and living with William, Joseph, James, Sanford, Eugene (who is widowed), and his six-year-old daughter, her namesake, Elizabeth P. Triplett.

Contributors: Rebecca Steele, Sarah Plummer, Cathie Cummins and Toni Smith