Illinois Civil War 150th Anniversary

| | | | |

Calendar of Events

Dec. 1861	Nov. 1861	Oct. 1861	Sept. 1861	Aug. 1861	Jul. 1861	Jun. 1861	May 1861	Apr. 1861	Mar. 1861	Feb. 1861
Dec. 1862	Nov. 1862	Oct. 1862	Sept. 1862	Aug. 1862	Jul. 1862	Jun. 1862	May 1862	Apr. 1862	Mar. 1862	Feb. 1862	Jan. 1862
May 1863	Apr. 1863	Mar. 1863	Feb. 1863	Jan. 1863

Some early black troops from Illinois

On May 25, 1863, a group of fifteen to twenty African American men gathered at a railroad platform in Springfield to begin a journey east to Massachusetts. There they would be mustered into the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the Union's earliest black military units. The men were some of the first of many black troops from Illinois that would fight in our Civil War.