USCT Statue

Giles County residents are uncovering history showing the bravery and dedication of African Americans. Discovering stories about the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and highlighting Civil War events allow history enthusiasts – and the entire community – to learn about incredible acts of courage of Black soldiers and their families. USCT’s record reveals that soldiers risked their lives – many losing their lives – to ensure their descendants have a bright, free future.

To celebrate USCT’s achievements and to offer a remembrance of their sacrifice, a statue will memorialize their historic significance and contributions to freedom. The monument will be located at Cave Springs Memorial Plaza on U.S. Hwy 31 N. (N. 1st St.) in Pulaski, Tennessee. 

The Pulaski City Council established a committee to create a “more equitable and complete representation of Giles County's history in our public spaces,” said committee member Kelly Hamlin.

“The committee is named the Community Advisory Council on Inclusive Recognition and Acknowledgement (CACIRA),” Hamlin said. “All of the CACIRA members are volunteers who applied to be included on the council. I am one of those members, and I'm also a member of the USCT subcommittee tasked with the creation of a USCT commemoration.”

Janice Tucker also serves on the USCT subcommittee. Through this project, she has learned about events involving African American individuals that have earned admiration. These historic events draw the attention of inquiring minds and give pride to USCT’s descendants. 

“The committee’s desire is to install the monument in 2023, around Juneteenth,” Tucker said.

Tucker is looking forward to inspiring others to feel the emotions of pride and appreciation she has developed for USCT since she started researching the topic. 

“I started learning about USCT two or three years ago,” Tucker said. “For the Black community, it will be something to look up to, to see that our history is more than slavery, more than our ancestors being slaves. We are more than the history we have seen so far – much more than that. With this project, we want to educate our young men and young women – especially in the Black community – that their ancestors also fought in the Civil War to set an example, to get their freedom, to develop their culture and to do something for their descendants. I never knew about the USCT. I never knew about it…”

Tucker now knows that “my great-great-grandfather might have fought in the war and that gave me a lot more pride. I’m hoping this project will give other people that same pride.”

Many USCT soldiers were buried in Giles County.

“It was amazing to find out that we had ancestors that fought in the Civil War to help obtain our freedom,” Tucker said. “We actually have some buried here, in a local cemetery (Maplewood Cemetery). And my maiden name is attached to someone who fought in the Civil War.”

Installing the monument will be just the first step of highlighting the courage of USCT. Next stages will involve launching educational projects, offering informative materials, and creating a process to make learning about African American history more accessible.

“We are trying to put together the pieces to clear our vision of what happened,” Tucker said. “We will never know what happened in entirety, but we will get a better picture.”

Many remarkable events bring pride to the Black community, and it’s important to unveil and highlight these historical moments.

It’s essential to highlight the USCT experience as part of the Civil War in Tennessee, said Hamlin.

“Imagine a world where slavery is the only reality you've ever known, and then in a matter of just a few years that status quo is turned upside down,” Hamlin said. “The USCT in Giles County are special because these men joined and served in the areas where they had recently been enslaved. Through their military service these African American men literally walked away from slavery, taking their futures into their own hands and choosing a life where they would not only be free people, but they would also be given salaries, guns, and uniforms to fight on the side of the United States, an occupying army.”

Many of the USCT soldiers were occupying forces in the communities where they had been enslaved. As soldiers, they traveled the same roads and rivers where, just a few months prior to these movements and activities, they had been “only at the permission of someone who owned them like livestock,” said Hamlin. 

“Research is showing that local USCT soldiers brought particularly valuable intelligence to the United States Army effort in Middle Tennessee because of their familiarity with the geography, the communities, and the leading families,” Hamlin said. “The African American experience during the Civil War is an interesting, exciting, brave and complicated story.”

Hamlin is looking forward to recognizing USCT with a statue at Cave Springs Memorial Plaza on U.S. Hwy 31 N. (N. 1st St.) in Pulaski.

“We are excited about this location because it will welcome visitors to Pulaski coming from Nashville and Columbia, it is in a historically African American neighborhood, and it memorializes these Black troops near the area of their encampment on Pulaski's Fort Hill,” Hamlin said.

The statue will be created by artist Pamela Sue Keller, who is a Pulaski resident.