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At least two area residents were members of the Army’s Buffalo Soldiers—the first black professional soldiers in a peacetime army.
Matthew McKinley Garnett of Fredericksburg (pictured above) and Benjamin Brown, who was born in Spotsylvania County, patrolled the Western frontier and guarded the Mexican border in the 1880s and ’90s. They were members of six all-black infantry and cavalry units created by Congress in 1866.
Garnett was known by his good character. He was honorably discharged in 1881, after five years.
Brown was severely wounded in 1889 in Arizona, when he fought robbers who tried to raid the paymaster’s armed convoy.
He continued to fight, even after being shot in the abdomen, and he didn’t give up until he’d been wounded in both arms. He earned the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Brown is believed to be the only Spotsylvania native to receive the nation’s highest military honor.
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Sources: "A Different Story" by Ruth Coder Fitzgerald; HistoryPoint.org of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library; The Free Lance-Star archives; State of Michigan Web site; African Within; The Kennedy Center; We Were Always Free By T.O. Madden Jr.; The Richmond Times-Dispatch; Life Magazine; Westmoreland County, Virginia.
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by clicking on the names below. |
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• Gabriel Prosser, inspired by the Bible |
• John J. Wright devoted leader, reader |
• Urbane Bass, city doctor |
• Sadie Combs, first teacher at Snell
• Philip Wyatt,
• Palmer Hayden,
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• Venus Jones, First black graduate of MWC |
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petitioning for change |
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