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Charles Hemings Trotter
Home Up James Hemings Monroe Trotter, born abt 1842 Charles Hemings Trotter

Mary Lee Brady, Ph.D.

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Charles Hemings Trotter was apparently one of the 170,000 young men in the 17 to 40 year old age group who joined one of the approximately 150 U.S. Army Colored Troop Regiments planned and established between July 1862 when first announced by President Lincoln to his cabinet, ... and war's end beyond Appomattox in April 1865 and into June 1865 when rebels in Texas were finally subdued.  Empowered Whites had planned, programmed and executed for at least ten generations (1620-1860) the godless rationale of Black inferiority to serve interests of White superiors, ... but in doing so the light of Christ shone through darkness enough to generate a generation of gifted and talented ten percent to believe joining Union Army was goodness for themselves and others.

Explain it any other way and the fact remains that never did so many (including ancestors of Clarence Thomas) owe so much to so few most never knew or believed in even unto this day.  Thomas still believes he is free as a result of the 13th constitutional amendment, not events that made it possible.  He is one of our favorite examples about the nature of empowerment given to African-Americans unable to comprehend the totality of it to help others. 

Young men had the power to enlist or run away to Canada where it was cold but safe; or stay enslaved on a slave plantation and live without being a free man or woman. Still others joined enemies of human liberty. Columnist Roland Barksdale Hall, a young writer, in his book entitled "Healing Is The Children's Bread" offers other writers, especially novelists, ... insight into the mindset of ancestors such as those of Clarence Thomas who were of age to join Union forces seeking to set them free or give their loyalty and even lives to people knowingly to keep them slaves. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no doubt in our mind that if the body and spirit of Clarence Thomas had by some fluke of the imagination, been placed on the Supreme Court after 1865-1866, ... he would have sided with decidedly cold hearted Roman logic of Justice Antonin Scalia that 13th and 14th amendments to U.S. Constitution granting African-Americans citizenship were illegal because majority of  former rebel states had not been readmitted for Union to ratify it.  Yes, many judges and men of property said so at the time but lacked the power to stop us from being classified as full citizens!  And, before the war was ended the same dark voices had proclaimed that President Abraham Lincoln did not have constitutional power to free the slaves without a constitutional amendment approved by all states including those who held them in bondage via their states constitutions. 

A lot of young men who enlisted in the victorious Union forces did so using the surname of "Trotter" and many died during and after the war when ex-confederate veterans sought to kill and/or drive Black patriots out of the former rebel states. 

No.
Soldier Name
Side
Function
Regiment Name
1Trotter, AleixUnionInfantry74th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
2Trotter, AlexUnionInfantry91st Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
3Trotter, AllenUnionInfantry116th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
4Trotter,AndersonUnionInfantry11th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry (New Organization)
5Trotter, AnthonyUnionInfantry52nd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
6Trotter,BenjaminUnionInfantry61st Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
7Trotter, BerryUnionInfantry61st Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
8Trotter, CharlesUnionInfantry11th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry (Old Organization)
9Trotter, ClayUnionInfantry123rd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
10Trotter, DanielUnionCavalry6th Regiment, United States Colored Cavalry
11Trotter, David C.UnionInfantry66th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
12Trotter, DixieUnionInfantry55th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
13Trotter, DudleyUnionInfantry11th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry (New Organization)
14Trotter, EdwardUnionInfantry59th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
15Trotter, EdwardUnionInfantry59th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
16Trotter, GeorgeUnionInfantry6th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
17Trotter, GeorgeUnionInfantry122nd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
18Trotter, HarrisonUnionInfantry56th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
19Trotter, HenryUnionInfantry40th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
20Trotter, HenryUnionInfantry54th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
21Trotter, HenryUnionInfantry82nd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
22Trotter, HilliardUnionInfantry13th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
23Trotter, HoraceUnionInfantry114th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
24Trotter, IsaacUnionInfantry124th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
25Trotter, JamesUnionInfantry79th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry -- New Organization (1st Regiment, Kansas Colored Infantry)
26Trotter,JeremiahUnionInfantry116th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
27Trotter, JohnUnionArtillery10th Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery
28Trotter, JohnUnionArtillery10th Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery
29Trotter, JohnUnionArtillery12th Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery
30Trotter, JohnUnionInfantry52nd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
31Trotter, JohnUnionInfantry55th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
32Trotter, JohnUnionInfantry71st Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
33Trotter, JohnUnionInfantry77th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
34Trotter, JohnUnionInfantry122nd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
35Trotter, JosephUnionInfantry61st Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
36Trotter, LewisUnionInfantry57th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
37Trotter, LouisUnionInfantry13th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
38Trotter, MilesUnionInfantry3rd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry (Tennessee)
39Trotter, MilesUnionInfantry11th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry (New Organization)
40Trotter, NelsonUnionInfantry55th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
41Trotter,RichardUnionInfantry57th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
42Trotter, RichardUnionInfantry64th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
43Trotter, RichardUnionInfantry69th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
44Trotter, RobertUnionInfantry17th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
45Trotter, RobertUnionInfantry46th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
46Trotter, RobertUnionInfantry55th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
47Trotter, RobertUnionInfantry57th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
48Trotter, SquareUnionInfantry78th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
49Trotter, SquareUnionInfantry98th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
50Trotter, ThomasUnionInfantry28th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
51Trotter, ThomasUnionInfantry57th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
52Trotter, WesleyUnionInfantry95th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
53Trotter, WesternUnionInfantry119th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
54Trotter, WilliamUnionArtillery2nd Regiment, United States Colored Light Artillery
55Trotter, WilliamUnionInfantry40th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

It is not known whether Charles Trotter was one of the 40,000 killed in the fighting or ever saw his siblings, cousins, uncles again.  The possibility exists that he may have been among the Colored Troop Regiments stationed in the occupied former rebel states until 1876 when removed by President Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 19th President of the United States.  Hayes election as President was deadlocked in the House of Representatives and had promised to end reconstruction and remove the Union troops from the beaten south in exchange for election support by White Democrats recently readmitted to Congress from the former rebel states. 

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