1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Colored)
The 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Colored) was a Union Army regiment during the American Civil War, formed by General Rufus Saxton. It was composed of escaped slaves from South Carolina and Florida. The 1st SC Volunteer Infantry black regiment was formed in 1862 and became the 33rd United States Colored Troops Regiment in February of 1864. It has the distinction of being the first black regiment to fight in the Civil War at the Skirmish at Spaulding's on the Sapelo River GA. It was one of the first black regiments in the Union Army.
“We, their officers, did not go there to teach lessons, but to receive them. There were more than a hundred men in the ranks who had voluntarily met more dangers in their escape from slavery than any of my young captains had incurred in all their lives.” — Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Port Royal Island - 1. Camp Saxton (Smith's plantation)
"Emancipation Day in South Carolina" - Soldiers Prince Rivers and Corporal Robert Sutton of the 1st South Carolina (Colored) are presented with the Stars and Stripes at the former John Joyner Smith plantation renamed Camp Saxton
Rufus Saxton was a Union Army brigadier general during the American Civil War who received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions defending Harpers Ferry during Confederate General Jackson's Valley Campaign. After the war he served as the Freedmen's Bureau's first assistant commissioner.
Medal of Honor recipient
Grave at Arlington National Cemetery
Image: Medal of honor old
