The United States in the mid-1800s boiled with conflict and promise. The bloody Civil War raged. A ruminating President sat in the White House.

William Gould Raymond (“W.G.”) was as complicated as the times. His life a mosaic of faith, addiction, health setbacks, his sprawling family, service as a Union Army officer, and then as a Lincoln-appointed hospital chaplain.

W.G.’s place in history, though, stands as the initial commanding officer responsible for raising what would become the 1st United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) of the District of Columbia.

This initiative was directly authorized by President Abraham Lincoln, with the goal of establishing the first federal regiments of African American Union soldiers. The troops and companies W.G. and others recruited waged perhaps the most successful battle by African American soldiers in the Civil War.

A political turf struggle erased W.G. Raymond’s spirited troop-recruiting campaign from official military records, distorting history to this day. History that includes the account of the courageous first Black recruits prior to the establishment of the Bureau of Colored Troops.

Much of this telling of W.G. Raymond’s story is based on his meticulous autobiography Life Sketches and Faith Work. Other pieces are provided by Civil War scholars, particularly those dedicated to the story of African American participation in the Civil War, in the Union Army, through the U.S.C.T.