Thomas Morris Chester-- Part 4: After the War

After the war, Chester moved to England where he earned a law degree.  When he returned to the United States, he became an activist in Reconstruction Louisiana politics, where he became the first black in the state to practice law.

While he would accomplish much over his life before is death of a heart attack in 1892 at the age of 58, his legacy endures as the only black Civil War correspondent for a major newspaper who provided a perspective that was reflective of both  the black troop experience and the crucial final year of the war.

Chester effectively captured the frustration  of black veterans who believed their contributions to Union victory went largely  unnoticed," wrote Gary  Gallagher, a history professor at the University of Virginia who has written several books on the war.

Some years after the war, Morris wrote about the Battle of New Market Heights outside of Richmond, where a brigade of lack troops fought bravely against Confederate forces:  "It is a source of complain, and very justly too, that the colored troops and their officers have not received their meed of praise from the chroniclers  of events in the army, for their splendid advance and gallant bearing."

(Meed means a deserved share or reward.  I hadn't heard the word before.)

Ultimately,  14 black soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor for their valor in the battle.

--Old Secesh