George Carter: Born Enslaved in Virginia, Union Soldier, Buried at St. Paul's

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George Carter was one of about 185,000 African Americans who served in the Union army in the Civil War, and one of several such veterans buried in the historic cemetery at St. Paul's Church National Historic Site — men with a particular stake in a war fought for the Union and for emancipation.

From slavery to freedom

Carter was born into slavery in northern Virginia in 1842. Early in the war he used its upheaval to escape to Union lines at Fort Monroe, Virginia. In 1862 he married Rosa Quales, who had also fled slavery when the war began; they had four children.

The 10th U.S. Colored Troops

Enlisting Black soldiers — though they had every reason to fight the Confederacy — was fiercely controversial in the North, and the Union began accepting African American recruits only in 1863. That October Carter travelled to Hartford, Connecticut, and joined the 10th Regiment, United States Colored Troops (USCT), an infantry regiment. Many early USCT regiments, drawing men from across the country, were raised in New England, where racial attitudes were somewhat more tolerant.

May–June 1864: the regiment fought in the campaign against Richmond and helped capture Fort Powhatan on May 5.
Summer 1864: it served on the front lines against the Confederate stronghold of Petersburg.
April 2–3, 1865: it was among the Union units that entered Richmond after the Confederate capital fell.

Mount Vernon

After the war the Carters came north for a better life, first to Babylon, Long Island, then around 1880 to Mount Vernon, New York, where they lived for more than 20 years in a house on South Eighth Avenue. Carter worked for several years as head gardener on a large Eastchester estate owned by George C. Clapp, who is also buried at St. Paul's. He died at home on December 13, 1902, aged 60, survived by his children, and was buried in a part of the St. Paul's grounds used as a Mount Vernon city cemetery. The local Daily Argus wrote that "he always bore a good reputation and was generally respected."

A light gray veteran's gravestone set in the grass

Private George Carter's gravestone, 10th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, at St. Paul's. NPS.

His marble veteran's headstone was supplied by the federal government as part of the nation's obligation to its soldiers. At first these markers were only for men killed in battle and buried in national cemeteries, but an 1879 act of Congress extended them to all veterans — which brought the marble veterans' stone into private cemeteries such as St. Paul's.